Is Sonic 1 on mobile harder than the original?

[PKGaming]

So I heard such great things about the mobile versions of Sonic 1 and 2 so I decided to purchase them. I was especially influenced since Christian Whitehead did these two games and he'll be doing Sonic Mania as well. I've played through Sonic 1 a few times. Maybe not as much as most Sonic fans, but enough that I knew what I was doing. But, I noticed I was having a harder time in certain areas than I used to. I especially noticed this in Scrap Brain Zone Act 3. I can usually get through that stage in one go, but I was dying constantly. So I tried playing the 3DS version of Sonic 1 to see if maybe it's just me, but I breezed through it no problem. Then I went back to mobile and again, I was having issues. Then I did one final check with the original Genesis version and it played exactly like the 3DS version. I dunno what happened, but I think the mobile version is harder. Here are a few things I noticed. Sonic moves particularly slower underwater both on ground and jumping. He's also a bit more slippery too, causing me to slip off edges into spikes quite often when that wasn't an issue before. Worst of all, and the most noticeable, the bubble patches take longer to spawn big bubbles. In the original, I didn't have to be that careful and could skip a bubble patch and be fine when I found the next one. But on mobile, I had to stop at every one. Often times when I traveled from one bubble patch to the next, I'd miss it and drown by just a second because I wasted time killing just one enemy. So I'd have to haul butt after the next bubble patch or I'd drown, and even then I'd barely make it. That never mattered in the original. Also, as far as controls go, I can't blame the mobile touch screen because I was using an OTG cable to play on an Xbox 360 controller.

Has anyone else noticed this? Why was this changed? 

[King Scoopa Koopa]

I don't remember noticing anything being appreciably harder. Are you having any trouble with the touch controls? You can adjust the size and placement of the Dpad and buttons, I've found that helps my performance.

[PKGaming]

That wasn't the issue. I was playing with a 360 controller through an OTG cable.

[ChikoLad]

Now that you mention it, I do remember Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 giving me more trouble than usual in the Taxman version, compared to other versions (the most recent non-Taxman version I've played is the port included within Sonic Generations on PS3, where I had no issues with the level). It's been a while since I've played through any version of Sonic 1 though, so I can't remember what the problem might have been.

[Badnik Mechanic]

By any chance did you guys finding trouble originally play the PAL versions?

[ChikoLad]

8 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

By any chance did you guys finding trouble originally play the PAL versions?

If you mean the original Genesis cartridge, I've never played that past Marble Zone because I was like, 2 or 3 years old when I played that.

Any other version of Sonic 1 I've played, I don't recall having specific trouble with that level after my first playthrough.

[PKGaming]

3 hours ago, Mayor D said:

By any chance did you guys finding trouble originally play the PAL versions?

I've actually never played the PAL version. Just US and maybe Japan. On 3DS, there's an option of switching between International and Japan, but I couldn't tell the difference. 

[JezMM]

It seems strange to me that Taxman and the gang wouldn't faithfully reproduce the variables for things like bubble spawns and such.  I can't say I recall finding it weirdly harder myself but it has been a long time since I played.

15 hours ago, PKGaming said:

I've actually never played the PAL version. Just US and maybe Japan. On 3DS, there's an option of switching between International and Japan, but I couldn't tell the difference. 

If I recall they're pretty subtle differences you might not encounter in normal gameplay, such as the infamous double-tap kill when you fall on spikes being "fixed" (I've seen people claim that this was intended behaviour and not a glitch and they just fixed it to make the game a little more forgiving so yeah).  Some other small graphical changes in the backgrounds, and 1up rewards for certain score thresholds were changed.

 

I assume the reason Hogfather mentioned the PAL version is because it ran a bit slower than the NTSC versions due to the way games were converted from 60hz to 50hz back then (most noticable is the background music is affected by this).  Playing the game at the correct speed for those who grew up with and frequently played the PAL version into adulthood is usually a bit jarring - if you were in that camp that could explain why the game feels "off".  The last time the PAL version of the old Sonic games was released (I think) was in the PAL versions of Sonic Mega Collection, if the player chose to display in 50hz, the games would play as they did on 50hz TVs back in the day.  All digital releases play the game at correct speed.

[PKGaming]

Someone should give it a shot if you have the time. Try playing Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 on mobile and the original back to back and you might see what I mean.

I noticed other changes too. The Special Stages rotating at a smoother frame rate actually make them harder than before (At least for me). When Eggman appears on screen during a boss fight, you can't immediately damage him until he's ready like you used too. And during Labyrinth Zone's boss fight, the water rises much slower which, unlike everything else I mentioned, made that fight much easier. The water never caught up to me while before it always did.