Retro Review: Tails Sky Patrol

Spinoffs of characters from various video games can work: Yoshi has starred in such excellent games as Yoshi's Island and Tetris Attack. Banjo the bear and Conker the squirrel debuted in Diddy Kong Racing before starring in their own game series. One could even argue that Mario was spun off from Donkey Kong into a long running series of games from practically every genre under the sun. Alas, even spin offs can falter from time to time. Case in point: Sonic's friend, Tails the two-tailed fox, who was featured in the excellent Tails Adventure, but who also starred in the mediocre (at best) game called Tails Sky Patrol. This Game Gear game was released in 1995, and was available only in Japan until 2003, when it was included as an unlockable game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut. As far as I am concerned, it could very well have stayed in Japan, because this is one of the worst Sonic-related games that I have ever played.

The heroic two-tailed fox is on vacation from his adventures with Sonic, and has discovered an island in peril. The wicked Wendy Witchcart, a witch who rides on a cart instead of a broom, is threatening to change the island's inhabitants into crystal. Now it is up to Tails to stop Wendy and her minions with the aid of a ring that he can use to defeat enemies and latch onto things. Another minimal story, but let's face it: a lot of the earlier Sonic games did not have really deep stories. In many cases, they did not need strong stories, as the game play would more than make up for them. However, a weak story comes with weak features in the game play department this time around.

In each stage, Tails will have to use his power ring to help him bypass obstacles and defeat enemies. He flies automatically to the right, meaning that every stage scrolls in that direction. Along the way, Tails can grasp onto poles to swing in another direction, mine carts to go for a ride, balloons to float higher in the sky, and weights to slow himself down. By hitting bells, our furry friend can resume from those points should he lose a life. Also, he can grab candy to refill his flight meter (which gradually decreases as you fly), diamonds for extra points, and 1-ups for extra lives. At the end of most stages, Tails will have to fight a boss either by throwing his ring at them or picking them up and tossing them to cause more damage. Once the boss has been defeated, the stage is cleared.

Getting to these bosses, however, is often easier said than done. If Tails runs into an enemy, he will begin to plummet to the ground. If this happens, you will need to rapidly press the buttons before he crashes, or else he will lose a life. However, if you crash into something like a wall or your flight meter runs out, you will automatically lose a life. This can become rather annoying, especially at times when the checkpoints are few and far between. Often, you will need trial and error to bypass these obstacles, and by that time, you may be just about out of lives. There are unlimited continues that you may use should you run out of lives. However, when you use a continue, you begin at the start of the level, which can be a little annoying.

Even without such a high difficulty, this game has plenty of flaws. To start with, it is very short. There are only five stages (a tutorial level plus four normal levels), and once you have mastered the game, you could feasibly complete it in less than half an hour. As such, the game feels more like a demo than a true game. If you play the game in Sonic Gems Collection and you wish to unlock everything in the museum, you will need to play the game for a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes (not all at once, thankfully), meaning that the game will become quite boring in a hurry. The ending is nothing to write home about, either: basically, it is just Tails flying through the night sky as the credits roll. If there had been more stages and the difficulty was a bit on the easier side, the game could have been somewhat better. Instead, it is easily the lesser of Tails' two Game Gear adventures, which is unfortunate.

The graphics are pretty decent looking, giving the game a nice cartoon-like feel. The music, on the other hand, is hit or miss. Some tunes, such as the cavern and castle music, are pretty cool, while others such as the airship music is boring and dull. Then there are the boss tunes, which loop way too often and often do not fit the battle themes. The rabbit's theme is particularly ill-served, sounding more like something out of a My Little Pony cartoon and less like a fight tune. I get the sense that this game was aimed more at kids with the child-like graphics and music, but with the frustrating and dull features mentioned before, even they might give up on the game rather quickly.

Tails Sky Patrol could have been a decent spin off, maybe even as great as Tails Adventure, but it was not to be. The difficulty may turn some people off, the game is too short, and it gets quite boring with repeated play throughs. Perhaps it is little wonder that the game was initially available only in Japan: with its lackluster features, it likely would not have gone over too well even if it had been released worldwide sooner. Sonic spin offs can work: the aforementioned Tails Adventure and even Shadow the Hedgehog have their strengths. Sadly, this spin off did not work well at all. Hopefully, if Sega chooses to make another spin off, it will be more of a masterpiece and less of a lackluster title like Tails Sky Patrol.