Move over Sonic! Boxguy is in town.

Boxguy Adventure 2 on the Sega Master System is a delightful little platformer made from the heart of PoyoPoyo1985. The game is a Sonic The Hedgehog 8-bit ROM hack and a welcomed one at that.

Okay well the title character is unique and original and fits well in Sonic's shoes. Boxguy has all of Sonic's basic move sets, the jump, the roll and the speed and is very well animated not only in-game but on the title screen and in the ending credit sequence, a lot of care and attention has been put into the sprites and it shows.

Boxguy Adventure 2 also features different colour palettes for all of the zones, they've all had a make over and the art used in the ''Jungle'' zone looks especially beautiful. The Special Stages are still here as well as the Chaos Emeralds.

The level layouts and maps have been altered in every single act so forget about the paths you've always known from the original game because this has some serious alterations to get used to.

A break down of each zone:

Juice Hill Zone:

This is Boxguy's version of Green Hill, it has a sunset sky with lots of bottomless pits to jump over. There are plenty of rings to collect here making the journey exciting and the underground cavern has more waterways to walk through. It should be noted that the Game Gear's arrow signs have been ported over and used to good use here.

Night Time Zone:

This is Bridge Zone at night time with some new funky level layouts. The bridges you land on can get confusing at times as some crumble and some don't with no way to really know which one's are solid or not but the good news is that act 2 is no longer an auto-scroller so you can move at your own pace.

Jungle Zone:

Boxguy enters a raspberry filled jungle full of fruit in the background. Act 1 is quite challenging as the level is nearly twice as long as the original with plenty of platforming to do. Act 2 is no longer a ''no backtrack'' go zone meaning you can back track as much as you want and won't die from touching the bottom of the screen, just be careful as a fall from the very top can drop you all the way to the beginning.

Labyrinth Zone:

This is where the game really starts to test your skills and patience. The level and object placements here are fantastic! And act 1 has nearly 200 rings to collect if you look hard enough. Those annoying ''ground floor'' tile bugs have finally gone and the air bubble placements are scattered around more evenly. It will get frustrating at first but after a few play sessions you start to learn where everything is and can better zip through the zone at ease.

Scrap Brain Zone:

In my opinion this one's probably the hardest to get through, the graphics are nice and the sky is now dark blue instead of red and orange. There are way too many bottomless pits placed here all leading to death. The conveyor belts are slippery and can run you right into those electric light bulb things that zap you if you're not careful. Act 2 is similar in nature to the original but with a lot more bottomless pits. Act 3 again is similar but has some dickish light bulb placements to make you lose all your rings and the paths are a tad bit more confusing. The good thing is that it is possible to get 100 rings in act 2.

Sky Base Zone:

Surprisingly this one is not that hard at all. The electric beams in act 1 are well placed and the platforming is really good. Act 2 has a slightly different layout where the 1up is better placed in a different location easy to get to. Act 3 is identical to the original.

Final Word:

If you're looking for a decent Sonic 1 SMS ROM hack then this might be for you. It's got a different character as the protagonist, the graphics and colour palettes have all been changed and the level layouts and maps have all been edited to give you a different experience. All Sonic sprites have been removed and changed to Boxguy including on the title screen and the ending credit screen. Some dickish layouts still remain but the game never feels overly punishing and or annoying, the difficulty is welcoming and keeps you engaged to push on to the finish line.

There are still a few bugs but nothing that blocks your path or stops you reaching the exit in each level. I believe it's safe to call it finished as it is though but any further polishing is welcomed.

Well done PoyoPoyo1985 you deserve a pat on the back! 5 out of 5 stars.