Bootleg Zone: Somari (NES)

Some ROM Hacks try to be serious. You know, like the game was supposed to be the way it was hacked. But what people trying to achieve this fail to realise is, that it never ever works out like that, and just turns out to be a pile of cack. The whole point of ROM Hacking, I think, is to have a bit of fun and to experiment. It's interesting. So it's refreshing to see Somari pop it's ugly, but oh so entertaining head from the pile of ROM Hacks we have today. Despite it being old, it is in fact one of the best Hacks, and here's why...

If this Hack was supposed to be serious, it would never be as good as it is. In fact, playing through it is as tedious as the fortnight-long tiddlywinks championships. What this hack is good at though, is making you laugh. No-one has ever dared combine the speed of Sonic with the plumpness of Mario, and only now do we get news of Sega and Ninty working together on a game that brings their two mascots in the same title for the first time. ^__^

But playing it is futile, you're gonna die anyway, the crabmeats shoot at you when they see you, natch, but they constantly fire, and with Somari's jump being too short, you die right at the start. Piece of cake then.

Somari can do all of Sonic's traits, such as going at 'tremendous' speed (must have been on the curry, there's no other explanation) Spin attacking, Somari can even Spin Dash. If you can survive enough to get to the boss, you even battle Eggman, and a rotting one at that.

As tough as this game is, you're gonna want to play this regularly, even if you've blown up Sonic 1 of all it's secrets, (seeings as this is more or less a direct port of) know why? Because of the hilarious way you try to live but can't. It's some kind of weird demented humour that you can enjoy, if you're strange enough, like me Not a playable title, by all means, but still a great hack for that comedy factor.