After a far longer period of time than I had been meaning to carry things on for, I have finally played one of the games about the funny blue Hedgehog that isn't Mania, and in the end, this isn't very good despite the potential that it clearly had. The stark difference in core design philosophy featured in this game compared to a lot of the other 2D platformers of the time is a pretty interesting one that pervades each element of the game and makes an experience that for the time feels remarkably fresh and interesting at a base level. The way that Sonic controls, being a bit heavier with a stronger emphasis on speed and momentum is reflected not just with the raw game feel providing the player with far looser obstacles which they approach when compared to the far more refined and methodical feel of something like Mario, but even in terms of what is expected of the player. At its best, the physics system that the player interacts with throughout feels very multifaceted in how it affects the game, not only being used to craft moments that rely on fast reflexes due to how quickly you can blitz through certain areas if you know what you're doing, but it can also be used both as a way to provide further verticality and mild puzzle solving to stages, bolstering its sense of exploration.
Another way in which Sonic 1 was able to separate itself from its contemporaries is the way that it further reinforced that the game was looking at a far less precise platforming style through its ring system. While I've seen this often criticised as a flawed system that essentially allows the player to indefinitely survive as long as they're holding a single ring, with anything higher than that feeling far less impactful than it should, I feel like it fits the game series perfectly with what it's trying to achieve. By structuring the player's HP system in such a way, it not only mitigates some of the frustrating aspects that can arise with going so quickly that you get hit with something you barely had time to react to, but it actually further encourages this slightly reckless way to play the game, since they know that if played right there'll be very little tangible penalty beyond having just lost their momentum. Almost everything about the core of this game serves to strengthen and establish a lot of its design pillars in a clever, cohesive and understated way, forming a strong identity for the franchise to have built itself upon, so it's unfortunate that despite all this, the game itself just isn't great.
Basically everything about Sonic The Hedgehog falls apart once you take the level design into account, and this is really unfortunate. The pacing of the game is pretty stilted in how it's executed, switching between stages that fully want to utilise the movement system presented to the player, and then grinding to a painful halt and transforming into a mediocre mid paced platformer that doesn't quite understand the tools the player has to work with. Green Hill zone is the obvious high point of the game and serves as an opening stage absolutely perfectly, not just incorporating all the core ideas that go into a good Sonic stage, but doing it while having just the right amount of difficulty to get the player perfectly settled into the experience. The stages each have a variety of branching paths and a profound sense of openness, you can run around madly without ever feeling like you're taking the wrong direction, but upon looking a bit closer you can more clearly see the variety of challenges presented to the player and how they all seamlessly connect. The ability to go blindingly fast is essentially designed as a reward rather than the way the player is always expected to tackle the situation, with these faster section often being placed after some vaguely more precise, slow elements of the area. This is able to present a more well-rounded look into the dynamic of the game as a whole without ever feeling cumbersome, with these slower sections both feeling natural, and still usually feeling as if you can get into a sort of rhythm with them to maintain a lot of your pace. Secrets are scattered all across as well to reward exploration across these sprawling stages, along with being able to utilise the physics system in a more complex way without it feeling unfair to the casual player.
For as fantastic as this is, green hill is unfortunately the only of the 6 stages I think is truly amazing, each having their own problems associated with them that tank the experience to a degree. Star Light is the least egregious of the remaining stages, once again attempting a stronger focus on providing the player opportunities to increase their speed, along with being a very open collection of levels that encourage that sense of exploration again. What ends up making it a far less engaging stage is that these speedy sections are closer to scripted setpieces as opposed to the more natural sense of increasing the pace, giving the level a sense of being very concrete in "this part wants you to be fast" and "this part needs you to grind to a halt", which is further exacerbated by the invincible bomb enemies that litter the stages. It's still fun in a lot of places, but certainly has enough questionable moments stopping it from being outright great. Spring yard feels similar but with a few key differences that simultaneously make it far more interesting while also not being as fun. More than any other zone, this area focuses so strongly on utilising the potential of the momentum you can gain for some insane tricks you can do, but it doesn't end up being quite enough to offset the one-two punch of questionable enemy placement with the most noticeable case of repeated obstacles in the game, making the zone as a whole feel rather repetitive and homogenous comparatively, once again being fine, but not even that good to me either.
It's the pacebreaker stages that really put the nails in the coffin of the game for me though, and while I think that the idea of using these slower stages as a way to "allow players to catch their breath after the previous zone's speed" is certainly an interesting idea, it just ends up being awful. I feel like the idea in the first place is a rather flawed one that fundamentally misunderstands the dynamic of this game regardless, especially with each of the faster stages having a very clear balance between fast paced platforming and more methodical exploration that never is purely about the idea of "going fast" but even with that aside, the way that marble, labyrinth and scrap brain zone each are handled is just awful in general. Going a bit slower is one thing in a game like this, but the absolute crawl and the obscene amount of doing nothing that goes on in marble zone immediately kills any sense of excitement that the player might have had after leaving the legendary green hill. The more linear approach taken here further weakens the experience by feeling as if it completely removes such a fundamental element of level design with its lack of exploration, and the way in which the levels progress feel entirely aimless and slapdash in its placement of obstacles, leading to long, aimless levels of boredom and frustration. Labyrinth zone feels very similar, except it replaces some of the waiting with awful underwater parts that make you feel as if you're controlling Sonic through a giant pool of molasses. There's also a lot of nonsense that gets thrown at the player that basically requires pre-existing knowledge of what's coming next to be able to effectively avoid danger, and while some elements of trial and error aren't really inherently bad, with the awful save system in this either making you start the game from the very beginning if you lose all your lives, or use a continue if you actually were able to make it through one of the nauseating special stages, every piece of poor placement is made 10 times worse.
It's honestly pretty amazing how much this game got right nonetheless, not only with its core dynamics and systems being pretty effectively established, but you've also got some simple yet creative boss fights, a cool aesthetic, and some of the greatest video game music out there, it's really almost a classic. That said it's also a showcase about how a single bad element can bring down the experience massively, as traversing most of the levels here is either mediocre or outright awful, and you end up getting left with a game that peaks in the first level and never comes close to regaining its quality afterwards. I love a lot about what this does, and the potential for the game is undoubtedly insane, which is why I think this ended up taking off despite its flaws, but at the end of the day, this really sucks to play too often for me to have said I particularly enjoyed most of my time with Sonic the Hedgehog regardless, even if it makes me more interested in getting around to its sequels.
Another way in which Sonic 1 was able to separate itself from its contemporaries is the way that it further reinforced that the game was looking at a far less precise platforming style through its ring system. While I've seen this often criticised as a flawed system that essentially allows the player to indefinitely survive as long as they're holding a single ring, with anything higher than that feeling far less impactful than it should, I feel like it fits the game series perfectly with what it's trying to achieve. By structuring the player's HP system in such a way, it not only mitigates some of the frustrating aspects that can arise with going so quickly that you get hit with something you barely had time to react to, but it actually further encourages this slightly reckless way to play the game, since they know that if played right there'll be very little tangible penalty beyond having just lost their momentum. Almost everything about the core of this game serves to strengthen and establish a lot of its design pillars in a clever, cohesive and understated way, forming a strong identity for the franchise to have built itself upon, so it's unfortunate that despite all this, the game itself just isn't great.
Basically everything about Sonic The Hedgehog falls apart once you take the level design into account, and this is really unfortunate. The pacing of the game is pretty stilted in how it's executed, switching between stages that fully want to utilise the movement system presented to the player, and then grinding to a painful halt and transforming into a mediocre mid paced platformer that doesn't quite understand the tools the player has to work with. Green Hill zone is the obvious high point of the game and serves as an opening stage absolutely perfectly, not just incorporating all the core ideas that go into a good Sonic stage, but doing it while having just the right amount of difficulty to get the player perfectly settled into the experience. The stages each have a variety of branching paths and a profound sense of openness, you can run around madly without ever feeling like you're taking the wrong direction, but upon looking a bit closer you can more clearly see the variety of challenges presented to the player and how they all seamlessly connect. The ability to go blindingly fast is essentially designed as a reward rather than the way the player is always expected to tackle the situation, with these faster section often being placed after some vaguely more precise, slow elements of the area. This is able to present a more well-rounded look into the dynamic of the game as a whole without ever feeling cumbersome, with these slower sections both feeling natural, and still usually feeling as if you can get into a sort of rhythm with them to maintain a lot of your pace. Secrets are scattered all across as well to reward exploration across these sprawling stages, along with being able to utilise the physics system in a more complex way without it feeling unfair to the casual player.
For as fantastic as this is, green hill is unfortunately the only of the 6 stages I think is truly amazing, each having their own problems associated with them that tank the experience to a degree. Star Light is the least egregious of the remaining stages, once again attempting a stronger focus on providing the player opportunities to increase their speed, along with being a very open collection of levels that encourage that sense of exploration again. What ends up making it a far less engaging stage is that these speedy sections are closer to scripted setpieces as opposed to the more natural sense of increasing the pace, giving the level a sense of being very concrete in "this part wants you to be fast" and "this part needs you to grind to a halt", which is further exacerbated by the invincible bomb enemies that litter the stages. It's still fun in a lot of places, but certainly has enough questionable moments stopping it from being outright great. Spring yard feels similar but with a few key differences that simultaneously make it far more interesting while also not being as fun. More than any other zone, this area focuses so strongly on utilising the potential of the momentum you can gain for some insane tricks you can do, but it doesn't end up being quite enough to offset the one-two punch of questionable enemy placement with the most noticeable case of repeated obstacles in the game, making the zone as a whole feel rather repetitive and homogenous comparatively, once again being fine, but not even that good to me either.
It's the pacebreaker stages that really put the nails in the coffin of the game for me though, and while I think that the idea of using these slower stages as a way to "allow players to catch their breath after the previous zone's speed" is certainly an interesting idea, it just ends up being awful. I feel like the idea in the first place is a rather flawed one that fundamentally misunderstands the dynamic of this game regardless, especially with each of the faster stages having a very clear balance between fast paced platforming and more methodical exploration that never is purely about the idea of "going fast" but even with that aside, the way that marble, labyrinth and scrap brain zone each are handled is just awful in general. Going a bit slower is one thing in a game like this, but the absolute crawl and the obscene amount of doing nothing that goes on in marble zone immediately kills any sense of excitement that the player might have had after leaving the legendary green hill. The more linear approach taken here further weakens the experience by feeling as if it completely removes such a fundamental element of level design with its lack of exploration, and the way in which the levels progress feel entirely aimless and slapdash in its placement of obstacles, leading to long, aimless levels of boredom and frustration. Labyrinth zone feels very similar, except it replaces some of the waiting with awful underwater parts that make you feel as if you're controlling Sonic through a giant pool of molasses. There's also a lot of nonsense that gets thrown at the player that basically requires pre-existing knowledge of what's coming next to be able to effectively avoid danger, and while some elements of trial and error aren't really inherently bad, with the awful save system in this either making you start the game from the very beginning if you lose all your lives, or use a continue if you actually were able to make it through one of the nauseating special stages, every piece of poor placement is made 10 times worse.
It's honestly pretty amazing how much this game got right nonetheless, not only with its core dynamics and systems being pretty effectively established, but you've also got some simple yet creative boss fights, a cool aesthetic, and some of the greatest video game music out there, it's really almost a classic. That said it's also a showcase about how a single bad element can bring down the experience massively, as traversing most of the levels here is either mediocre or outright awful, and you end up getting left with a game that peaks in the first level and never comes close to regaining its quality afterwards. I love a lot about what this does, and the potential for the game is undoubtedly insane, which is why I think this ended up taking off despite its flaws, but at the end of the day, this really sucks to play too often for me to have said I particularly enjoyed most of my time with Sonic the Hedgehog regardless, even if it makes me more interested in getting around to its sequels.