Let's Play SONIC (A Sonic.exe remaster)

Let's play SONIC

Written by Gatlingpea12

Original Author: JC-the-Hyena

So, I'm a fan of the video game series, "Sonic the Hedgehog", a game about a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who runs really fast. I do own a good chunk of Sonic games, but I wouldn't call myself a fanboy. I also had a YouTube Channel, which I did let's plays on. I didn't have too many subscribers, and I wasn't the funniest youtuber either. The reason I mention these two attributes about me, is because a few days ago, right after I edited my latest let's play, I remembered that I had to check the mail.
When I opened my mailbox up, there were the usual newspapers and junk mail, but then there was also a 700 megabyte storage cd, with nothing written on the top of it. I looked at it a bit and said, "Well, it must be another request for a let's play. Well, CD's have kind of died by now, but okay." I loaded the disk into my disk drive, and found one single program: an executable named "SONIC."

I ran the executable, and the title screen of Sonic the hedgehog 1 for the Sega Genesis appeared with its jingle. "I really don't see why I couldn't just download an emulator, and get the Sonic 1 rom." Suddenly, for one frame, the screen looked questionable. Then it cut to the Sonic 3 save select screen, but the clouds were all dark red and some wind-ish theme was playing.
 "This looks like a scary game....Okay, time to start recording!" I quit the executable using the task manager. I got my recording software and hardware all set up, then I gave my good old intro: "Hey what's up guys? Uh, I'm playing some kind of scary game I guess, I don't know. But it's called SONIC in all caps for some odd reason. This let's play will be totally blind so let's see what we got here." I then started up the game again. I waited through the title screen and got to the save select screen. But it was actually a character select screen. "Alright, so I gotta pick someone. There's Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman. Oh, wait, I guess I can only pick Tails right now."

I pressed Enter, then the game paused for a second, before the Kefka laugh played. "You know,  I've heard that laugh somewhere..." I said as the creen went black for a bit, then the stage title showed up, saying "Hill act 1." "Hill act 1, huh? Like, Green Hill zone?" Indeed, the flat terrain looked a lot like Green hill zone. A weird tune played, which sounded a bit threatening. I walked right for a while before seeing some dead squirrels,  rabbits, and penguins alike. The graphic mutilation looked extremely accurate to the game. "Oh eww! Dead animals! I guess Eggman decided to kill the animals directly instead of stuffing them in robots."

Suddenly, I saw Sonic there, with the his eyes closed. "Oh hey, there's Sonic," I said. Tails pointed at Sonic, as if saying the same thing. Tails slowly walked towards him, with white noise letting louder and louder. "OW! Oh my god!" Then, for a split second, Sonic opened his eyes. His fur color turned into more of a gray-ish blue, and his iris's were red. Then the screen went to black, and the white noise stopped. "Phew, glad that's over." It stayed that way, until text faded in, saying, "Hello, do you want to play with me?" Then, a demonic Sonic the hedgehog, presumably the same one as in Hill act 1, read that text aloud. As the demonic Sonic read the text, I was getting slight chills, as this was building up some suspense. It was slow, dark, and very clear.

The next stage title showed up. "Hide and seek." "Sure, I just hope I get to be the hider!" I exclaimed, both enthusiastically (for the audience) and nervously. Some creepy ambient music was playing in the background, and I was in a flat terrain, looking similar to Angel Island act 2 from Sonic 3. I walked to the right for a bit when suddenly, The Sonic from before popped up ALL OVER the screen, with his arms and legs spread out, and a smug look. Next thing I know, I'm running from that same Sonic, who is flying towards me. The drowning music from Sonic 1 and 2 played as he reached ever closer to me. "Oh god, memories of labyrinth zone..." Right as I said that, Sonic touched Tails, but Sonic disappeared and Tails was just standing there, crying. "That's no good." I said, referencing The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a TV show based on THE REAL Sonic the hedgehog.

Just then, the evil Sonic reappeared in front of Tails, getting ready to pounce, while Tails looked at Sonic with a lack of amusement. "Tails does not approve, haha," I said. Sonic then said, "I will eat...your...heart!" Then Sonic clawed tails, with game accurate blood gushing out of Tails. Right after that, the screen went black, and a EAR-PIERCING bit-crushed scream played. "OW!! My ears hurt so bad!" Right then, I turned down the volume, but I did it so fast, that the entirety of the next text segment before I turned it back up about a quarter of the way. Text appeared, saying "You're too slow, wanna try again?" This made me so mad, because it brought back memories of when me and my friend would play Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He would always pick Sonic, and I'd pick Meta knight. "Oh.... my, GOD!" I exclamed aloud.

This time, I picked Knuckles because Tails was dead. "Alright, go Knuckles! Let's do this!" The screen froze again, and the Kefka laugh played again. Then, the stage title came up. "You can't run." The environment was, yet again, flat, but this time it was like Scrap brain zone, with those same dark red clouds from the character select screen "Can I run?" The music playing was the Giygas fight theme from Earthbound. "Oh hey, I know this music!" I said aloud. I ran to the right, then static came up a few times. "Is something wrong with my monitor?!" I yelled. Then static came up one more time, and the floor was covered in Mortal Kombat blood splatters. "Oh my god..." Then, Sonic showed up in front of Knuckles. Statc went for a while more. "Will you cut it out with the static? GOD!" Then large text showed up saying "FOUnd yOu". The demonic Sonic read that aloud. "Oh, we're still playing Hide and Seek?!" I exclamed. Then, annoying screeches played, and it went back to the stage.

I ran towards Sonic, who was right in front of me. "Get over here!" I said. He then teleported back behind me. I turned around and tried to get him again, but then he teleported AGAIN. I repeated this process untill Knuckles got tired, and started crying. "God dangit, he's gonna get killed now!" I yelled. Then Sonic said "You will die in my hands..." He then clawed Knuckles, with, again, game accurate blood gushing out of Knuckles, and The screen went black again, this time with a more maculine scream. "Oh no..." Then text popped up, saying, "So many souls to play with, so little time, wouldn't you agree?" The demonic Sonic read that aloud too. I then said, "What, are you the devil?"

Then, it was only Dr. Eggman left. "Alright, let's do this Eggman!" I pressed Enter one last time, and the Kefka laugh played once more. "I will admit, this is getting a bit repetitive. But I'm getting a bit scared here." The weird theme from hill act 1 was remixed, and it sounded a bit somber, as opposed to before. The stage title theme was "..." "It's like he doesn't even care that he's about to MURDER Dr. Robotnik, something that would NEVER be in a childrens game!" I shouted. But then Eggman appeared in a long hallway. I walked forward a bit, then saw a staircase going downwards. I went down that staircase for a good long while. "Is this the staircase to hell?" I said. I finally made it to the bottom, and the pallet changed color. "Huh. Impressive." I walked for a bit again, and saw another staircase. "You know, the Sonic fanbase HAS been weird lately, but they've never been THIS bad!" I shouted out loud.

 I went down the staircase again, and when I got to the bottom, the pallet changed again, this time to a darker color. At the same time, the Kefka laugh played again. "Oh I remember now. It's that laugh form Final Fantasy 3. What was his name..." I walked for a bit again, before Sonic appeared in front of Eggman. Then static appeared again for a WHILE. "Did it crash?" Then, a face appeared. It was the Sonic that had been killing Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman. A close-up of his face. He looked MAD. "Oh god!" I said as I fell off my chair. The image stayed for a while, then static played, and then the face turned red, with a demonic Kefka laugh, and the words "I AM GOD" Appeared on top of the screen. "I don't think so...Oh Jesus..." LOUD static then played for a bit more. Luckily, I had the volume turned down. Then the screen went blank again.

 Then, text appeared, saying "Ready for round 2, Nathan?" "It can use the name I put in when I set up this computer? This is so scary..." Then a game over screen appeared, with a huge ring with angel wings, the evil sonic, and tails in panic. The Sonic CD USA game over theme played in reverse. "Okay, so I guess that was Sonic. In, all caps. Well, thanks for watching!" And just like that, I edited the video, and uploaded it to YouTube. One thing I should point out, the questionable title screen from earlier got a chance to be fully viewed while editing. The water turned red, Sonic turned into the evil Sonic, the sky was dark, and the copyright Sega 1991 was changed to Sega 666. "Oh, I was expecting something a bit more scary," I thought.
 The next day, I checked my video, and I got a BUNCH of requests to do some kind of secret ending for the game. See, I had to do all these cryptic things where in each stage, I had to go forward a bit, and then go back. I set up my recording software, and played the game again, this time, getting each and every secret.

 I walked with tails until I saw the dead animals. I then went back, and the screen went static. Then, I was transported to a world that looked a it like lava reef zone, and the screen was overlapped with transparent static. I walked right, and then went to the Sonic with his eyes closed. I touched him, and then the static appeared again. Text appeared, saying "The fires await", which the demonic sonic DIDN'T read aloud. The normal stage appeared once more, and I walked back again, When I found a gray ring. When I collected it, the demonic Sonic said "DIE...." "Who should die? Me?" I said. I then noticed that my ring count, which was previously 0, was now -1. I did the rest of Tails' part, and then I went on to Knuckles' part.

 I walked straight back, and noticed a pit. I jumped down that pit, and the game glitched out. "Woah, that was....unexpected!" I giggled a bit, both in fear and in amusement. Then there was text, saying "Don't like playing by the rules?" I then went to a land that looked like an LSD trip times 2. The stage title was "FFFFFF." "Woah, am I high?" I said, talking from knuckles point of view. Text scrolled as I walked by, saying "You're fun to play with, Nathan....But this is my world....Won't be long now.....Soon, Nathan will join us.....Nathan, are you listening?" I began to get a little bit concerned. "Mmmhmmm." I said, growing evermore paranoid. Then, HUGE red text scrolls, saying "YOUR SOUL, WILL BE OURS!" right before static cuts the LSD world off. "I think, I've seen that saying in a lot of movies I've seen as a kid." Then the regular stage came back, and I went back to get my gray ring. Again, when I collected it, it said "DIE...." "I think he's referring to me..." My ring count became -2. I did the rest of Knuckle's section, then moved on to Eggman.

"I have to do this, for you guys." I said, tired from having to get spooked a second time. I walked with Eggman until I reached the tip top of the first staircase. Then I ran back, and static played AGAIN. "Oh okay, so what happens?" I was then transported to some green world. I walked to the right for a bit, and then the green world turned black and red, while the demonic Sonic said "I will rip your flesh from your body..." "Oh my god! That's disturbing!" I walked to the right for a bit longer, and then text appeared, saying "Why do you keep fighting, Nathan? My game has only begun..." "Yeah, well, I don't like your game, Sonic! It's... kinda creepy!" I exclamed. I ran to the end of the world, and then got transported back to the normal stage. Behind me was the gray ring. I collected it, and, one last time, Sonic said "DIE...." My ring count was now -3. "Okay, I think I have all the keys to the secret ending!" I said. I did the rest of Eggman's stage, went through the I AM GOD face again, and then got to the game over screen. "Did I do something wrong?" I asked. But then the game over screen cut to a disturbing message, with Sonic BARELY visible in the background:

"There is a way to release ourselves. A spell to obtain our souls once more. But we must speak it - but when we speak, no sound. We are all deaf. So failure is inevitable. And I regret ever entering my eternal bet with the devil inside of me. Immortality vs. soul snatcher. Gary Crook vs. Jake Shanley. Ambition is overrated."

This was dark, and I got a bit scared. "Okay... uh, that's creepy. Who the heck is Gary Crook and Jake Shanely, anyway?" Then it cut to a static stage where I was Sonic. The REAL Sonic. "Oh yes! I knew that wasn't actually Sonic!" I walked around a bit, then a skull face faded in and zoomed in, before fading out. "Oh, god!" I shouted. More faces did the same process. "Guys, I'm getting goosebumps right now." I said. Text appeared, saying "You've had a chance to comply, now you've gone too far." I pushed forward. More text, and it said "Can you hear them? They're trying to tell you something." Still pushing forward, I said "What???" Text said "Playing with them was such fun....almost as much as you, Nathan." "Who's them???" I said. Just then, the background changed to a red optical illusion. "Woah..." I said. Text then said "There was Gary....and Jake.... and Kyle.....and Alice.....and so many many more....." "Well, at least I know who you're referring to now." I said. The text then said "It's time your soul joined theirs, Nathan...." Just then, a bloody evil Sonic face faded in and zoomed in on its teeth. I jumped at this. "NOOO!" I said, jumping out of my chair. Then the image cut to the whole image zoomed out. But it was all red, and you could barely make out the outline. Then there was Japanese text. "Oh lord....I think that was the end. So guys, that was Sonic, I hope you enjoyed my reactions, and I will see you later!"

After this, I got paranoid each night for 6 weeks straight, got nightmares about that...thing, and lost a lot of sleep. Eventually, I went to see a therapist. He said "Don't ever look at something and assume it's that something. It may be way different than you anticipate." I kind of got over it, but I still have a hint of that paranoia. Whenever I hear about the game, I remember how scared I was. I still like the Sonic games, as this was simply a fan game looking for thrills. But it gave me quite a scare, and I'm still recovering from it. Just... what do I name it? It is an executable, and it is a Sonic game...let's refer to it as "Sonic.exe."