Cooljerk, on 11 June 2014 - 07:43 PM, said:
Little bits and pieces of the Master System version make it seem incomplete to me. Like in Aqua Lake Zone act 2 - in the GG version, it begins with you above water, and then the water level rises quick. This actually still happens in the master system version, but the palette is always that of being under water, so you don't notice. the only things that tip you off that you're above water is that you can't drown in the opening part of the act, and you move uninhibited. That the zone is the only placement of the speed shoes also makes me think it wasn't quite complete.
The water/speed shoes monitor is an interesting thing, and I can explain why they removed the monitor in the Game Gear version. As you mentioned, in the Master System version, you can run and jump freely at regular speed where you start off. However, the water never actually rises in this version and always stays at the same vertical level. What makes this evident is that Sonic runs faster whenever you're way up high, and you also can't drown no matter how long you stay there.
It works something like this:
Notice how the Speed Shoes monitor is
above the water. Besides adding a shiny trail of sparks behind Sonic and changing the music, it actually doesn't do anything! It's supposed to cover up the fact that, for whatever reason, the top of the level is above the water. Most people would get the monitor when the chance presented itself, so for the short segment after you find it, you'll think that you're running faster because of it. It's actually because you've jumped out of the water. A good way to see this is by getting the monitor and falling back down. You'll be as sluggish as usual.
So why isn't the Speed Shoes monitor in the Game Gear version? That's right: because the entire level
does get submerged in water there (and very visibly so). Picking up the monitor there wouldn't have changed your speed because they never bothered programming it properly. It was easier to just get rid of it altogether. I'm not suggesting the Speed Shoes monitor was intentionally created to cover up the whole water thing, but I do think it was incomplete near release, so they decided to give it some use where it made the most sense.
I don't know the exact reason why they didn't do something similar for the beginning and the ending of the level, but I guess it was just more jarring to see Sonic picking up and losing speed randomly somewhere in the middle. The game was clearly rushed, so this kind of stuff isn't too surprising.
I'm more surprised they didn't just make the Master System level underwater from top to bottom, but perhaps they planned to make the water visible like in the Game Gear version at first. I don't think it was intended to rise, though: it was this that made the shortcut near the end of the level impossible to take in the Game Gear version, due to Sonic's hindered movement (I'm talking specifically about the intangible wall before the tube that leads to the Emerald, which allows you to bypass the long vertical ascent with all the lobsters and spears).
Speaking of Aqua Lake oddities, the boss hilariously hits himself the first time he tries to attack you, provided you just stand there and watch. This was fixed for the Game Gear version.
00
) and I make decent use of the save-state feature, but other than that there's no real reason to double-dip until necessary. I miss the Game Gear's d-pad and buttons when playing some of them nowadays. 
