Somari

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Somari

System(s): Famicom

Developer: Hummer Team Co.

Genre: Action

Release	Date	RRP	Code	Rating
TW	1994	?	?
RU	1994^[1]	?	?

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Somari or Somari the Adventurer is an unlicensed port of Sega's flagship Sega Mega Drive video game Sonic the Hedgehog for the Nintendo Famicom. It was released by Hummer Team in 1994.

Somari is notorious not for featuring Sonic the Hedgehog as its starring character, but Nintendo's mascot Mario, who in this game shares Sonic's abilities.

Gameplay

Somari is an attempt to bring the original Sonic the Hedgehog to the 8-bit Famicom. Mario (or "Somari") can run and jump like Sonic, spinning into enemies, collecting rings and running around loops, with the spin dash technique included from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for good measure. The game attempts to mimic the Mega Drive game as closely as possible, though its special stages are based on those found in the 8-bit version of the game, presumably due to hardware limitations.

There is no ending sequence should the player manage to complete the game - just a single screen showing Dr. Eggman juggling Chaos Emeralds and some text claiming he will return.

As a very early attempt at getting Sonic to run on simpler hardware, Somari is riddled with issues, from poor collision detection and unresponsive controls to game-breaking glitches. Like many unlicensed titles of its kind, the game is very difficult to play, but is infamous, particularly after being rediscovered on the internet, for its low quality presentation and obvious novelty value.

History

Origins

The true history of Somari is not known, being first spotted by news outlets during the mid-1990s. Cover art seems to suggest a release date of 1994, though whether Somari was the first incarnation of the game is yet to be established.

As with most unlicensed Famicom titles, Somari can be traced back to mainland Asia, being initially spread across Taiwan, Hong Kong and presumably parts of China. It spread north into Russia and East into South America, though saw very limited distribution in more developed markets due to stricter copyright laws.

In addition to being released as a stand-alone product, Somari was included in many unlicensed Famicom multi-carts, a practise that continues with ever greater numbers of games to this day.

Legacy

Many years later, a hack which improves various aspects of the game was released to attempt to turn Somari into something more playable.

Variants

Somari has been released multiple times, often modified, under different titles:

Sonic the Hedgehog/Sonic (3D Blast) 5

A version of Somari that changes most of the graphics "back" to Sonic the Hedgehog. The player starts off in Spring Yard Zone rather than in Green Hill Zone, though users have created an IPS file to restore the original level order^[2].

The game often refers to itself as Sonic 5 (音速小子5) on packaging.

Screenshots

Sonic the Hedgehog title screen
Sonic the Hedgehog, Spring Yard Zone

Physical scans

Sonic & Knuckles 5 is identical to Sonic 3D Blast 5 but with a downgraded Sonic & Knuckles title screen.
Sonic 3D Blast 6 is essentially the same as the above three, but with a different title screen and the starting level is Marble Zone.
Family Kid is another hack in which the Somari sprite is replaced with an original character called Family Kid. The starting level is green hill zone, just like in Somari.
Doraemon is almost a complete graphical overhaul of Somari replacing Sonic with the Japanese character Doraemon. It was made by "Waixing Computer Science & Technology Co, Ltd.". It introduces brand new levels and music though gameplay is identical.
The Hummer is from Super New Year Cart 15 in 1 by Hummer Team. It was later insert to a 60 in 1 plug and play from Hummer Team.

There is a hack of Sonic the Hedgehog titled

Sonic 1 Somari, this has not much relation to Somari itself and the name was mainly picked because the hack features Sonic in Mario levels. Sort of the reverse of what Somari is.