RinoDino
Sonic the Hedgehog 1991
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
1h 13m
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
June 2, 2024
Platforms Played
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.
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.