Sonic 1 (and 2) Mobile Updated to Include 'Optional Ads' Before Death

[DaBigJ]

This isn't important enough to be in the news section (plus it's technically old news) so I'll place this here.

On March 27th, an update was released for the mobile ports of Sonic 1 and 2 to include an option to watch an ad to avoid getting a game over. In addition, starting up a new save gives the player only 1 life (for some reason) and a new variable was added.

Needless to say, this update is rather....questionable. It almost feels like they're trying to make the remasters fit in more with modern day mobile gaming, which is a shame.

[Dreadknux]

I did wonder if they had changed the apps in some way because I noticed the icons had updated yesterday…

I just played some Sonic 1 on iOS and it’s not as bad as this example on Android. You do get that ‘Ad to Continue’ screen upon Game Over but you still start with three lives at least. Given that mobile gaming in general is an absolute nightmare with monetisation etc, I can at least let that slide.

But I wonder why there’s only one life to start on Android. Mistake, maybe? Or perhaps there’s some user behaviour/market insights that SEGA is accounting for here. It’s incredibly aggressive though.