"More action! More speed!" is often how the first installment in the Sonic franchise was advertised back when it was released during 1991, but does this statement actually ring true for this entry? Well, at least during Green Hill Zone it does.
The first zone was quite fun. Sonic is a bit floaty and doesn't control very tightly, but obtaining high speeds throughout the level and discovering different paths that led to monitors with rings and extra lives was cool and had me interested in seeing what the rest of zones would be like. Much to my dismay, most of the zones afterwards were designed around slow and careful platforming that placed emphasis on trial and error with sections that weren't very fun to traverse with Sonic's controls. Labryinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone were both exercises in frustration and all I wanted was for the game to be over by those points. The 3 act structure of each zone also made each of them feel a bit bloated, especially the zones on the slower side like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone (which is ironic for a game that was advertised for its speed), and I feel like these could have been trimmed down into just 2 acts per zone. I have a lot of respect for this game as it was the starting point of a franchise that had a large cultural impact, but it doesn't really hold up that well in terms of level design. While I wasn't too keen on this entry, I'm curious to see if the later 2D Sonic games will improve upon the foundations laid here.
The first zone was quite fun. Sonic is a bit floaty and doesn't control very tightly, but obtaining high speeds throughout the level and discovering different paths that led to monitors with rings and extra lives was cool and had me interested in seeing what the rest of zones would be like. Much to my dismay, most of the zones afterwards were designed around slow and careful platforming that placed emphasis on trial and error with sections that weren't very fun to traverse with Sonic's controls. Labryinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone were both exercises in frustration and all I wanted was for the game to be over by those points. The 3 act structure of each zone also made each of them feel a bit bloated, especially the zones on the slower side like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone (which is ironic for a game that was advertised for its speed), and I feel like these could have been trimmed down into just 2 acts per zone. I have a lot of respect for this game as it was the starting point of a franchise that had a large cultural impact, but it doesn't really hold up that well in terms of level design. While I wasn't too keen on this entry, I'm curious to see if the later 2D Sonic games will improve upon the foundations laid here.