Sonic 1 is honestly a rather bizarre experience. When you've played the critically acclaimed sequels like Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Mania multiple times over, it's hard to go back to the first game with an open mindset because it just lacks so much of the detail that those games would get.

As the first entry in the Sonic series I think it does its job, but at points I find it severely lacking. They try to get you into a comfortable groove with the first three acts of the game in Green Hill Zone, but then immediately thrust you into Marble Zone which is more of a slog than any Mario level could ever dread to be. A whole bunch of waiting and slow moving, and not in the risk/reward sense that the later games would have. Where in those games, speed is a reward for experience, here there is no reward at all as the level design simply doesn't compensate for that.

The worst of it has to be the biggest offender of this game, Labyrinth Zone. A meandering water level filled with multiple instant kill spikes and requiring air bubbles to progress. As a man who has played through Hydrocity Zone, I cannot fathom why they couldn't have done something similar to that. I know it's a future level, but I don't really care. They marketed Sonic as this speed demon, but the levels don't show us that at all.

The process of getting the Chaos Emeralds is meh. For clarification I used Save States specifically for Special Stages, Labyrinth Zone Act 3, and Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 (which is just Labyrinth Zone Act 4), and in regards to the special stages I didn't really need them. I don't think the special stages are good, and in all honesty there's no real reward for getting the Chaos Emeralds other than more flowers in Green Hill Zone during the credits. I like these more than Blue Sphere but that's mostly due to childhood anger than anything else.

At the end of it all though, I'm glad this game exists, it birthed one of my favorite franchises and I'm gonna be thankful for that. I don't see myself playing it again for a long time though.

You ever had a game that made you hate your friends on a very deep level? That's this game. Me and my friends made this game the center of our group's hierarchy and it fucked with all of us. Some guy sent one of my friends gore just because he didn't like that Cloud got into the game. This game just fucked with people's heads, Smash 4 is just a cursed demonic entity that lives to ruin everything it touches. At least the 3DS version is slightly more innovative than its more satanic console counterpart.

I love this game. It is my favorite Smash game. I was hyped for this game for years, and when I finally got it I was not disappointed. Sure, it's not as competitive as Melee, but if you couldn't tell from any of my other entries, I don't really give a flying fuck about competitive shit. This game was just pure, unrestrained fun. Something that I could pop in and play with my friends whenever they'd come over. It may not have been the Smash game everyone wanted, but in my opinion it is the Smash game with the most soul, and the Smash game that made my life feel full... if just for a few years.

The PC Port of the game is pretty meh, but I liked Tails, Knuckles, and Gamma's gameplay, and tolerated Amy's. Sonic and Big on the otherhand are borderline unplayable for two different reasons. Also I 100% the game, and by the way the Chao Garden is the worst part of the game. I don't care how controversial that take is, the Chaos should never have been tied to 100% completion and I had to use cheats in order to get the last two medals which were tied to them because I was not going to waste real time days of my life to raise these stupid fucking Tomagachis.