Sonic the Hedgehog has been a series that I've loved ever since I was a kid. Thanks to Sonic Adventure and Sonic Unleashed, I was exposed to a series that, while not always consistent, has captured my heart thanks to fun gameplay, great characters and interesting stories.

In spite of having played many Sonic games multiple times, the original Sonic the Hedgehog on the Mega Drive has been one of my least played ones. Not to say that others have been replayed much, I'd say Sonic Adventure is probably the one that I've replayed the most, but I don't tend to come back to the Classic games much.

But recently, out of the blue, I decided to play the first game. No special reason, just felt like it.

Before I get into the meat of it, what is Sonic the Hedgehog?
Well, he's a lot of things, but let's keep it simple.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a fast-paced platforming series that sees Sonic and his friends going around mutliple zones to stop Dr. Eggman's plans for world-domination.

And the first game is pretty much that. Eggman is being a shit-head and trapping Sonic's little animal friends inside of robots called Badniks, so Sonic goes on a quest through South Island to stop him.
Pretty cookie-cutter, all things considered. The USA manual and the "Sonic Bible" mentioned some other stuff like the planet Mobius, and Sonic's parents, but those aren't really canon, as far as I'm aware.

Ever since Sonic Adventure, the Sonic series has mainly followed the original Japanese stories, with some American elements being mentioned here and there, like how Dr. Eggman's full name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik, with Eggman being more of a name he took so that Sonic's insults wouldn't hurt him anymore.

Sonic canon can be funny sometimes.

But what do you do in this game? Simple, you go fast and eat ass.
Ok, maybe without the ass part.

You play as Sonic and you jump and roll through 6 zones, all of them having 3 acts, with the 3rd act being home to a boss against Eggman, who's always using a different machine to stop you.
Unlike a game like Super Mario Bros., you only use one button, as Sonic's speed builds up automatically. And this kinda brings into one of the things that makes Sonic stand out.
You see, after you build up some speed, you can press down on the D-Pad to make Sonic roll. If he's on an incline, then his speed will build up more and more, making him reach stupendous speeds!
This can be pretty fun, but this doesn't always happen.
The reason? The stages themselves are kind of a rollercoaster in design.

It feels like the developers were a bit cautious about making the game all about speed. Maybe the player could beat these levels quickly and the game would be over in half-an-hour or less. And that is true, since some of the faster-paced levels, like Green Hill and Starlight, can be beaten pretty quickly.
So, there's other levels that aren't as fast-paced. The second zone of the game, Marble Zone, takes place underground and there is much lava to be found. The overall level design of the zone doesn't really involve inclines and slopes as much as the others, and sometimes you'll be waiting on top of blocks in order to proceed.
Of course, if you're good enough, you can make some of these parts quicker, but that doesn't happen all of the time.

The epitome of this is everybody's favourite zone, Labyrinth Zone. I really like the aesthetic of this zone, taking place in ancient underground ruins, but Sonic will be walking on water through most of it, and unlike Mario, he's pretty slow underwater. I don't even take much issue with the fact that you'll need to swallow bubbles to keep yourself from drowing, it's just the level's pace that makes the overall pacing of the game uneven.
And they knew you wouldn't like it, because Act 3 of the Scrap Brain Zone is pretty much a Labyrinth Zone Act 4. Boi.

Outside of that, I did end up liking zones like Spring Yard Zone and Scrap Brain Zone for their mix of slower and faster parts, which helped the pacing feel a bit more consistent.

The bosses themselves are ok. Many of them aren't particularly hard, but I do recommend bringing some rings with you.
Which brings me into one of the Sonic's series main mechanics... the Ring system!

You see, unlike something Super Mario Bros., where you need power-ups to be able to take in more hits, with Sonic, as long as hold on to one ring, you're good! When you get hit, all of your Rings will scatter, so hopefully, you'll be obtain some back.

Buuuuutttt... if you're trying to go for 100% completion, you do need to perserve at least 50 rings until the end of a stage (with the exception of the Act 3s). The reason why that is is because if you reach the end of a stage with at least 50 rings, a giant ring will appear for you to jump into.
This special ring will take you to a Special Stage!

Special Stages in Sonic 1 are a bit of an acid-trip to look at, but they have a pretty interesting aesthetic. Sonic can only jump in these, as the stage itself is always spinning around. It's up to you to navigate these courses until the end, while avoiding the Goals, as they end the levels early, to get the Chaos Emerald.
If you get all six Emeralds, you'll get a better ending.

In my most recent playthrough of this game, I actually was able to get all of the Chaos Emeralds! But the ending isn't much different from the normal one, so you can see 100% completion as more of an extra challenge.

That challenge can be quite hard though, as maintaining 50 rings can be pretty difficult, especially in stages like Labyrinth Zone, where you'll get hit pretty often. And there's only so many chances you get at obtaining the Emeralds, since there's only one giant ring in Acts 1 and 2.

This game isn't very long, you can beat in around an hour if you know what you're doing, so having some replay-value helps, although I think this couldn've been better handled.

In regards to the presentation, for a Mega Drive game that came out in 1991, it looks pretty nice! Sprites are well animated, backgrounds are nicely detailed, and the colors pop really well! Definitely helped the system stand out compared to the NES.
Additionally, the soundtrack is pretty good! Composed my Masato Nakamura of the Dreams Come True band, there's a lot of pop-inspired songs and they all fit each of the zones pretty well!
The Green Hill Zone music in particular, is one of the most famous tracks in the franchise. A pretty catchy tune, indeed.

Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog is a pretty decent start to the Blue Blur's journey. There are a few issues I have with the game, that the sequels would improve on, but Sonic 1 is still fun to play, I'd say.

Brabo pra caraca pra época, por mais que tenha uns defeitos e partes bem injustas. Eu não sei como alguém conseguiu zerar isso na época que não tinha nenhum save state nem nada assim, porque fazer o final bom nisso é uma desgraça sem save state, pegar as esmeraldas é uma luta da porra. OST naquele pique né, um dos melhores aspectos da franquia desde o começo dela, e as boss fights do Robotnik são bem daoras, eu não sabia o que esperar de cada uma delas, sempre se diferenciam umas das outras mesmo que em coisas até mais banaizinhas. O que eu achei tenso é que você não pode correr por aí na velocidade da luz sem consequências, pela sua velocidade você acaba ficando muito vulnerável a ser atacado do nada, já que não vai ter tempo de resposta o suficiente pra conseguir desviar do que estiver na sua frente. Isso pode ser arrumado jogando mais vezes, o que eu acho brabo porque você treina os seus reflexos no processo e consegue sentir o gostinho de desviar de tudo numa velocidade absurda, o que é muito daora pra mim. Ah e nesse primeiro não tem super sonic, só por mod, então se quiser pegar as esmeraldas pra isso, vai ficar querendo... que nem eu quando terminei de pegar elas e descobri que não tinha... cu

After my little stint with the adventure games I thought I'd keep the sonic train rolling and seeing how the Sonic Origins collection is currently on sale I thought why not go through the classics. I haven't played them in years and I sure as hell haven't logged them so let's do it.

Yes this is the Origins version but I played on classic mode so it's close enough lol.


All I can say is it's still definitely Sonic 1. You gotta admire it for what it is and everything or started and it's honestly still a pretty fun time for most of it. But it is also like an hour long, maybe a bit longer if you're going for all the emeralds.

I never find myself yearning to come back to this unless I'm playing through all the classics. It's much more going back to experience the past and where it all started out of curiosity than it is something I would pick to play when I'm bored.

Green Hill of course is a classic and hasn't been oversaturated yet.

Marble Zone is pretty forgettable tbh and maybe my least favourite zone.

Although Labyrinth Zone activates my inner fight or flight response, the vibes in the stage or on point though. I know this is like 40 years too late by Hedgehogs can swim Yuji Naka you dumbass.

Starlight Zone is a great time all around with peak vibes.

And Scrap Brain is fun until act 3 when it just becomes a Labyrinth reskin.


The boss fights are all still piss easy, including death egg robot although I'm just enjoying them now while I can before they start adding bullshit to them.

O jogo é médio. A arte é incrível, a trilha sonora é uma coisa fantástica, os níveis são espetaculares (apesar de repetitivos dentro de uma mesma zona).

A inércia do Sonic às vezes é sofrível demais. Se você não for suficientemente hardcore (e eu certamente não sou!), o jogo pode ficar desestimulante bem cedo. O lance de ter o "TRY AGAIN" no final (se você não pega todas as esmeraldas) também não me agrada. Mas enfim, é um clássico. Os jogos posteriores melhoram esses pontos... Pelo menos quero acreditar nisso!

The first Sonic the Hedgehog game is much simpler in terms of graphics and presentation than I remembered it to be, because of later titles false memories. Visuals are simple and straightforward, especially in places like Marble Zone which have the look of a decent but budget Amiga/AtariST euro platformer.

This game yet doesn't have many of the special moves or features the series is famous for, but it is still pretty neat and solid to play a platformer game, if a bit janky in places.

While this game already kind of shows the limits of Genesis hardware (later titles will compensate it much better, by art and features and clever programming) it was a decent hardware showcase to compete against back then still relevant 8-bit systems.

Eu realmente queria muito começar a franquia de jogos Sonic, e apesar de ja ter jogado muito na infância, não me lembrava de absolutamente nada, apenas da primeira fase e de até sentia uma certa lembrança das ultimas fases. Porém o jogo para mim não estava em minha memória, no fim terminei ele bem rapidinho, e claro irei fazer uma review porém mais direcionada mas irei descartar alguns critérios, como história.

Jogabilidade[4.5/5]: Acho que o Sonic é muito ensaboado, porém tirando isso, a jogabilidade é bem responsiva, sendo perfeita quando o Sonic está rapido, e meia bomba quando lento. Acho muito revolucionário para a epoca essa velocidade responsiva do Sonic. Com certeza um jogo que marcou sua geração.

Dificuldade[3.5/5]: Eu não curto muito jogos que te obrigam a ficar repetindo as fases inúmeras vezes para se acostumar. O fato de Sonic não ter save e nem mesmo uma password, me fez passar um tempo desnecessário jogando esse jogo. Como joguei pelo 3DS, na sua versão 3D, tive que apelar infelizmente pelo save state. No fim, isso suavizou as coisas, porém o fato de você voltar para o começo depois de perder todas as vidas é bem tiltante. E o jogo não é um plataforma fácil, na verdade ele é bem difícil, sendo algumas vezes apelativos com traps que você cai e acaba morrendo de vez, mesmo com argolas. Acho que era algo muito comum na epóca essa ideia de aumentar a duração do jogo artificialmente, mas envelheceu mal esse tipo de dificuldade artificial.

Direção de arte[4/5]: Acho as primeiras fases muito lindas, inimigos diversos e que até fazem sentido com o ambiente. As três primeiras fases desse jogo de fato são muito marcantes pelo visual, acho que a quarta também não fica muito para trás, porém as ultimas duas fases acho que deixa bastante a desejar por serem muito simples e acho que visualmente feias. Mas isso não diminui o jogo não, para a epóca ele de fato era muito bonito.

História[--/5]: Não é contado uma história, e você meio que só é inserido nesse mundo, algo até que comum na epóca em que foi lançado, portanto nem vou comentar nesta categoria.

Trilha sonora[5/5]: Sem sombra de dúvidas o ponto mais forte desse jogo. Todas OSTs desse jogo sem excessões são bem marcantes e fica na cabeça até mesmo depois de terminar o jogo. Em destaque é claro da OST da Green Zone e da perfeita OST de Marble Zone.

Gameplay[5/5]: Apesar de ter dito que o Sonic é meio ensaboado, eu diria que não existe tantos pontos de plataforma que exigem de precisão, porém de certa forma acho que a única fase que incomoda nesse ponto é a Marble Zone, porém tirando ela acho que de resto a jogabilidade balanceada de velocidade e precisão nos pulos e plataformas, deixa esse jogo muito divertido de se jogar. Simplesmente ficar espamando o spin do sonic é viciante e sair pulando metade da fase em alta velocidade é gratificante, algo só proporcionado por esse jogo evidentemente. Além de claro, o ponto alto da exploração das fases que não são lineares, depois que você morre e repete as fases, acaba até encontrando caminhos totalmente diferentes, recebe recompensas diferentes e dependendo até sofre menos para passar por esses caminhos. Acho isso interessante e da uma aliviada na repetição, porém ainda não suaviza 100% o problema do save para mim no jogo.

Conclusão[4,4/5]: Eu me diverti muito nessa 2h30 que tive nesse jogo. Um classíco que faltava e muito na minha lista. Um jogo que joguei muito na infância porém, pouco me lembrava, relembrar alguns trechos foi nostálgico e sofrer novamente na marble zone me trouxe de novo para os velhos tempos onde passava horas tentando completar esse jogo, que na verdade nunca consegui, até hoje. Enfim, um grande clássico que recomendo até para quem não é fã de jogos plataforma, ele difere tanto no genêro que acho que pode ser agradável para alguns e ódiavel para outros, e isso é completamente compreensível, um jogo que revolucionou a jogabilidade da epóca, espero que o padrão alto de qualidade continue nos próximos jogos.

Quando eu era uma pobre e inocente criança, lembro de não gostar muito de nenhum dos grandes clássicos da época. Mario, Sonic, Crash, nenhum era muuito a minha praia, o que mudou depois de algum tempo quando comecei a jogar Crash Mind Over the Mutant.
Lembro também de ser um hater de Mario, até começar minha jornada ano passado e tendo muitos deles em meus favoritos nos dias de hoje.
Acho que minha primeira memória com Sonic foi em algum console pirata meu de quando era criança, não lembro se era uma rom emulada em um ps2 ou qualquer coisa do gênero (sério), joguei a primeira fase de sonic 1, eu imagino, e odiei o jogo, isso ainda não mudou.

Eu disse tudo isso por não ter nada pra falar desse jogo e não querer deixar a review em branco, puta que pariu que jogo ruim. O único motivo de eu colocar como um 3/10 são os gráficos que realmente são bem charmosos

The first Sonic game is important in laying the groundwork for the series. It was a fun game but has many problems in my opinions.

What's the most important aspect of a Sonic game? Well based on the marketing talk it's supposed to about going fast. And you can sure travel pretty fast in this game given the right circumstances. However, if you go into this game thinking that you will be blasting through the stages 24/7, be prepared to deal with all the slow platforming sessions you have to push through.

Sonic controls great in his debut game. He can travel extremely fast yet doesn't feel too clunky or too slippery (the series will have a lot of trouble trying to find this middle ground later on). A great fun of this game is about conserving momentum: well timed jumps could mean that you could continue blasting through the stages at high speed like the game was advertised. If you think that's too much for you and just want to do slow platforming, you are perfectly welcomed to do that as well. In fact the platforming segments are pretty fun in my opinion.

The game's level design is pretty much a mix bag. Green Hill is designed extremely well as a first stage and would instantly hook anyone who just booted up the game. Some of my other favorite levels are spring yard zone and starlight zone as these parts do promote more high momentum as opposed to platforming. I don't really like the slow pacing of these platforming segments but I can put up with it. There was one cardinal sin though.

Labyrinth zone. This is single-handedly the worst part of the game. You only have limited amount of oxygen available underwater before that ominous music plays and you fucking die. Therefore you have to constantly stop at these oxygen bubble station to refill your oxygen, which is a major pace breaker. The controls under water is also extremely floaty and frustrating. Worst thing of all, at the end there's another fucking underwater zone. The devs are trolling me and I am not laughing. I really dislike Labyrinth zone and really do think the game would be better without it.

Another flaw of this game is the convoluted special zone. You just jump around hoping that you will somehow get to the emerald in the center. Let me break it out to you: this is not fun at all.

However, the game overall still provides a very solid experience. The controls, probably the most important factor of a platforming game, are awesome and that's what makes the game feel good for me. It is also a very important piece of history reflecting the console war of that era. I understand the game is not for everyone but please do at least try it once, for history's sake.

Note: This is a review of the version in Sonic Origins Plus.

Like most '90s SEGA kids I played the HELL out of this game on the Genesis. Despite that, it was too difficult for me, and I never managed to beat it. Luckily, Sonic Origins Plus afforded me a way to play through the game in possibly the best way possible: Anniversary Mode.

No lives to worry about, gorgeous widescreen visuals AND I get to play the whole thing as Amy? Hell yeah.

Of course, even modern conveniences can't really shave down the rough spots in this game. There are sections (Labyrinth Zone Act 3) that tilt too far into frustrating to be enjoyable. Still the music and charm carried me through to the end, even when some stretches of the game had me thinking about quitting.

There is nothing wrong with the gameplay, but the quality of the levels is all over the place. You have Green Hill Zone, which is a great first level. Then there is Marble Zone, which is miserable as it is so tedious to just wait and wait for things to move. Spring Yard Zone is okay, then there is Labyrinth Zone, which is even worse than Marble Zone as you constantly have to wait for air bubbles while doing slow platforming in slow motion. Star Light Zone is amazing as it is a nice break from Labyrinth Zone, and Scrap Brain Zone is just okay for the first two acts, then Act 3 is just Labyrinth Zone Act 4. Luckily, you can skip most of Scrap Brain Act 3. Yeah, the quality just alternates between good and bad. The best way to play this game is to just play through Green Hill Zone then stop. Don't put yourself through Marble Zone.