Gotta go fast!

After Sonic Adventure has served as my personal gateway into the series and Sonic Adventure 2 gave me an even better experience, I can proudly call myself a fan of the series now. A fan who only played 3D Sonic. That being said, Sonic Origins opened up a whole new dimension to me: 2D Sonic!

Here's a quick rundown of the zones: Green Hill was surprisingly the least engaging zone for me, but I can appreciate it for how iconic it is and being a good introduction with a timeless theme. I didn't have an issue with Marble Zone's methodical approach for the most part, although some of the random pop-up spikes felt a little cheap. Spring Yard is fine, but gets repetitive after a while. Now, Labyrinth Zone seems to be pretty universally hated, but I didn't find myself having much of an issue with it and thought it was rather refreshing after going through Spring Yard, the underwater sections were cool. Star Light Zone had cool catapults and Scrap Brain was... rather hard compared to the rest of the game - but that makes sense, it's the last level for a reason! The final fight itself though was a bit underwhelming and the ending was cheap.

But in the end, I enjoyed my time with the Blue Blur's debut game, even if most of the level design goes against the whole "gotta go fast" motif, which apparently is a dealbreaker for many. And while 2D Sonic is fun, I'd be lying if I told you I didn't miss the homing attack from Adventure at first.

It's wild that the icon of speed was tied to the posterchild for poor 50Hz optimisation, and yet, in 1991, Europe still loved him. Wherever you bought your copy of Sonic 1, the ROM was the same, and European Mega Drives were not built to play that shit. Regardless, PAL Sonic 1 has a daydreamy quality that I remain attached to. It makes the surrealness stand out more. The weird geometry and scrolling Special Stage birds that turn to fish. The slower pace means there's more opportunity for your attention towards drift to the backgrounds, and why are there prison bars all over Marble Zone's underground? The technical showcase aspect of it all was lost on me as a 5 year-old, but paired with all the old hippies who were animating sequences on the episodes of Sesame Street I'd watch daily, I was skipping past taking interest in the wonders of the world around me, and jumping headfirst into a fascination with the psychedelic. Don't cry for us, America. To you, it was just a bit of fun, but for us, Mobius was a dream. No wonder so much of the world's poetry comes from Europe. It's a real bummer that when Sonic transitioned to 3D, Sega's big question was "what if he lived in a city with people and a public transit system?"

Sonic 1 is a gorgeous game, and Naoto Oshima has a real skill for character design. Games had attempted to be this vibrant and dense with colour before, but when they were, they were likely the most rancid Amiga games ever made. Before Sonic, the Mega Drive was selling itself on the cutting-edge visuals of Castle of Illusion, which looks about a generation behind this. Everything was defined by the dimensions of the sprite tiles. Sonic's world is full of slopes, twisting tunnels and crumbling rock, and it all had a direct effect on your movement. Sure, Mario 3 let you slide on your arse, but in Sonic, every angle of geometry had an impact. It had taken a couple of years to convince weary customers that the jump to 16-bit actually meant anything, but after Sonic, there was no doubt.

I think a big factor that puts off older players who didn't grow up with Sonic is that it's neither strict enough to demand skilful play, nor easy enough to not constantly bump into dead ends and enemies. That ring system is a double-edged sword. Unlike the more respected Shinobis and Dynamite Headdys, you can get through it, but first-timers are just going to have a really sloppy run. For young players, who could never complete a game before, it was a godsend. We learned every curve of land and every terrible spikepit off by heart, and when we play it now, we're all incredible at the game. We're not confounded by springs that send you shooting into traps, or the giant Scrap Brain sawblades. When we play, it's with that intended sense of attitude. I think my later affinity for skateboarding games can be traced back to Sonic, with its momentum-based movement and giant halfpipes. There wasn't really anything that played like that in the early 3D days until THPS came along.

Sonic 1 instantly became the boring one when it started to get sequels, but I think it retains the strongest sense of atmosphere. It's the artsiest game in the series, with its far-out influences and only the sparsest interest in worldbuilding. It really doesn't hold much resemblance to the hideous multimedia juggernaut that the franchise has become. Sonic's a breezy little game that you can get through in around an hour, and it remains a lovely experience. Just make sure to leave yourself 12.5% longer if you're playing on a European machine.

Very enjoyable and a welcome step down in difficulty from its rival games at the time.

Colours really stand out and it’s very nice to look at. The iconic Sonic soundtrack is brilliant.

I’m going to have to compare it to Super Mario Bros 3 though. Sonic was created to rival Mario after all. Very short due to there not being much challenge and there isn’t much extra content.

Sonic the Hedgehog (the game, not necessarily the character) feels like a lost relic from the past.

Sonic games are known for their blistering speed but Sonic 1 only allows players to experience high-speed gameplay in bitesize chunks, sandwiched between slower zones that require more precision platforming and patience. It's an approach later Sonic games would stray away from.

I've played the likes of Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone enough to have a soft spot for them but I can empathise with younger fans who might visit this first instalment and wonder what all the initial hype was about (this game was, after all, highly acclaimed on release).

Even if we admit that the Sonic formula needed a little refining, this is still a brilliant starting point. Sonic controls so smoothly, the kooky graphics paint a world that's fun to explore and the soundtrack is one of the Mega Drive's best. There's so much to appreciate here if you don't get hung up on the game's slower moments.

É incrível como isso teve uma sequência, esse jogo é um amontoado de ideias bostas, game design terrivel que vai totalmente contra o que o jogo quer que tu faça, po a mecânica principal é momentum né? Que tal por um game design que te pune se tu n ficar parando e pensando noq e pra onde ir???? E é toda santa hora zonas e zonas longas que não fazem sentido nenhum, que te punem por correr ou por ir pelo instinto, em especial a marble e labyrinth zones que tem fácil piores levels designs q eu já vi numa franquia renomada. As músicas ajudam a transformar esse jogo numa experiência torturosa, pois são repetitivas, irritantes e toda vez q tu morre elas começam de novo, virando uma espécie de alucinação auditiva maluca e infernal. Yuji Naka devia ter sido preso em 91

The first 2D Sonic game I beat (I used save states). I played this on the "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" on PS3 just in case it isn't a faithful experience to the original.

It seems like the kind of game I would've probably loved as a kid when new games were few and far between, so I played the same game for months. I played for a casual game to beat, rather than a game where I really wanted to learn the levels to find optimal routes, so that probably lessened my experience a bit. The big levels are cool conceptually because you can explore and have different experiences each time you play, but I prefer more linear levels. Sonic did not feel good to control, he felt slow and clunky. He's surprisingly very vulnerable because he only has hit boxes when he jumps, so that means when he's running, falling, or jumping on a spring he's vulnerable. I wasn't a fan of the enemy designs, I don't think they did a good job at illustrating if and where you are able to damage them. I struggled going through what seemed like scripted sequences like running through loops and jumping off of slides. There were times where I ran faster while I wasn't touching the controller, which was odd to me. Collecting the Chaos Emeralds felt like a slap in the face. The bonus levels are so hard, I still don't understand how the rotating works. In the end, your reward for collecting all of the emeralds is an ending that is extremely similar to the normal ending. For a character that is known for his speed, Sonic doesn't have a lot of options to build up speed in this game.

Even though I didn't like the game, I'm still glad I finished it. I am still looking forward to the later games because I think they will at least address some of the issues I had with this one.

Edit: I forgot to mention that there were odd performance issues where the game was chugging at points. And I usually don't mind underwater levels, but they're atrocious in this game. I think it's because you can't stay underwater indefinitely like you can in Mario. It didn't help that the big air bubbles seem to spawn at random intervals even while you're waiting at their spawn points. Also, these levels were not very memorable. I literally thought I must have failed at one point because the level I was playing was so similar to the level I had just beaten.

Edit 2: The invincibility frames are way too short. Way too easy to get hit with a 1-2 and lose. This issue is even worse when you consider how hard it is to recover your rings.

não tenho familiaridade com os jogos do sonic, então terminar isso sem save state foi algo desafiador. já zerei o jogo há alguns anos atrás com save state, e agora zerei sem. na primeira vez que joguei, foi apenas mais um joguinho que terminei em um dia e que teria zero apego no futuro. isso mudou completamente na segunda vez. desta vez, desenvolvi um carinho pelo jogo, pela diversão e pelo prazer de fazer tudo certinho, além do momento em que joguei, que não poderia ter sido melhor e das pessoas q conheci por conta dele. a maior parte da nota vai para minha experiência individual, pelo oq esse jogo representa pra mim. se fosse dar uma nota para o jogo em si, seria 6/10. é um jogo com vários defeitos, principalmente no level design, mas é um bom jogo e um clássico. dito isso, odeio a labirinth zone. odeio o ato 3 da scrap brain zone. elas não deveriam existir.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a difficult game, yet seriously engaging to play. The soundtrack and visuals are great.

However, I’m at odds with the promise of Sonic, the game is promoted as one you play with incredible speed which is true for Green Hill Zone and Star Light Zone, but then Marble and Labyrinth are very slow and meticulous platforming.

The ring system is cool, but I feel punished for making an ambitious attempt of collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds. It feels attainable, but I’d prefer to move on to Sonic 2 and Mania.