In retrospect, a strikingly different tone from what the series would go for. It does always take me a minute to adjust to the lack of Spin Dash when I revisit, but I don't think that's all there is to it. Sonic 1 feels more interested in separating its spectacle from its puzzle segments, likely because the team was breaking new ground with the game's spectacle, and they didn't know/have the confidence in making the whole game like that. A consequence of that is that a lot of the series-defining speed feels like the exception to what Sonic's going for than the rule. A buddy of mine holds that Sonic as a series punishes speed in the first couple games; I don't know that I agree with that completely, but I definitely think speed is a different priority here.

Like, so, Green Hill. Not "Hold Right to Win" or anything, but there are so many stretches where it's easy to get a good run going that the player's able to just explore the world at high speed, doing loop-de-loops, sliding through underground tunnels, and getting a ton of horizontal distance on a high jump. Yeah, there's that one bit in Act 2 where you can easily run off into a spike bed and die, but that's the exception rather than the rule - most of Green Hill is about building and playing with momentum. Then the game draws a hard contrast with its next three zones. Marble is all about claustrophobic platforming, pushing blocks, and lava. Spring Yard is... kinda suffering, honestly... but it feels like a technical demonstration of spring and jump mechanics. Labyrinth is playing against water puzzles and that timer of doom, platforming in open areas but with additional restrictions.

Thinking about this, there's a lot of experimentation with what is meant by speed and how the game best wants to explore that. Marble is fast because you're running from something. Spring Yard is fast because you're being flung about. Labyrinth makes the player want to go fast to escape the water portions. Later games would better find ways to integrate these speed-related ideas into the type of experience the player gets out of Green Hill's open freedom and would be much better for it in my opinion. But for the first game in the series, a completely new title trying to find itself? I'm willing to understand the lack in confidence with what the game could do and desire to present things more familiar to gamers of '91.

I do think the unfortunate consequence is that Sonic 1, for me, is a game that stops me in my tracks after a while. That's why, even though I had access to all the Genesis Sonics at the same time thanks to the GameCube Mega Collection, it took me a full 15 years to finally beat Sonic 1. Green Hill is always a great time, and Marble is solid enough, but Spring Yard and Labyrinth have always traditionally killed my interest in a playthrough. That, and the Special Stages. They're not bad, but getting the True Ending in any Sonic where you can't easily revisit Special Stages is a hard sell for me. But for this playthrough, I got good at the video game, took a mulligan on the Special Stages, and soldiered on through.

And honestly? Scrap Brain and especially Star Light are a great time. Very much worth pushing myself to get through. Star Light's a nice breather after Labyrinth and feels like a great little spectacle level - not as wide open as Green Hill or anything, but with lots of opportunities to explore mechanics and zip around. Scrap Brain is a fun final area, getting right into the heard of Robotnik's evil lair and appropriately challenging - and then Act 3 is a fun twist that, honestly, I kinda wish retro Sonic played with a bit more. Some good stuff in the game's last third there.

It'd take a bit for Sonic to find a template that appeals to me, specifically. But I don't think this is bad - just different.

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 1 has a strange level order and confused design dropping it's main selling point of speed based platforming for precision based platforming almost immediately after Green Hill Zone and not really revisiting it outside of maybe Starlight Zone, and the difficulty whips between easier stages like Green Hill and Spring Yard and harder stages like Marble and Labyrinth. Despite it's odd pacing it's still a great platformer, and while the controls and momentum aren't as polished as later games it still stands out above most of it's peers from the time that aren't about middle-age plumbers.

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.

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