I missed this one over the weekend. I always like to keep up to date on the latest fan games, hacks and happenings of the Sonic fan community. Here is another big project coming from the forums of Sonic Retro by a community member by the name of Hez. This game has had an astonishing 12 year development cycle!

Aside from possessing the Duke Nukem Forever curse this one has one of the most beautiful engines I've seen and it almost perfectly replicates the classic 16-bit Sonic sidescrollers from the early 1990s. The game kind of gives me a CD/3&K vibe from the few levels I've played of it so far its nice that your given the freedom to play as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles (the only playable characters that really matter to retro fans). Be warned though, its a bit of a toughy and a few over at Sonic Retro have complained about this already. There's an ongoing argument over at Retro whether its merely difficult or a case of bad level design. Personally I think its tough in a good way and since fan games are largely directed towards the hardcore fans in the first place then it should be created with a bit of challenge for its intended audience of veterans.

Anyways here's the link for the full version.

Sonic Classic (Full Game) | With Music


There also exists some mirrors in the release thread
I'm also going to try and host a mirror on DCEmu here as well once the first revision of the final game comes out in a week or so.