(This is the 43rd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
I took a few-month-long break from this challenge, only to return to arguably one of the most well-known video games of all time: Sonic the Hedgehog, which released on June 23rd, 1991 for the Sega Genesis. As someone who's childhood was dominated by Mario and Nintendo rather than Sonic and Sega, this was the first time I actually tried not only the original Sonic game, but any Sonic game period.
Expecting a fast paced variation to the multitude of same-y platformers that the video game industry printed out in and around 1991, I was not disappointed. For the most part.
More on the game in detail below.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 4/10
This is another one of those games that doesn't really have any in-game storytelling apart from the boss encounters. You have to stop evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who snatches innocent animals and turns them into evil robots.
You, of course, are Sonic the Hedgehog. I'll give the manual of this game the honors to describe him to you: "It's Sonic, the real cool hedgehog with the spiked haircut and power sneakers that give him super speed." That's a cute description. Obviously, Sega finally found their answer to Nintendo's Mario with Sonic after trying with Alex Kidd from 1986 up until Sonic replaced him. Dr. Robotnik himself turned into an iconic video game antagonist as well, though after his first appearance here, I'd think it's either because he was just the villain millions of children were chasing back in the day, or because he has a more prominent role in future entries. Either way, Sega created one of the most iconic characters in video games here, and for that they deserve all the praise they got through the years.
Every other character you know and love from the series isn't present here yet.
GAMEPLAY | 13/20
This is a 2D platformer the likes you've seen before. At least for the most part. You have to jump attack enemies to make them pop or avoid them altogether. You have to watch for spikes at the bottom of the screen, lest you want to see your demise. You need to take out bosses after the end of each area. You have to do this for multiple areas until you defeat the final boss. And you start with 3 lives to accomplish this.
The catch: You gain in speed as you gain in momentum. This means, the longer you can run forward uninterrupted, the faster you become. I don't know why I am explaining this, you all know Sonic. ... Running fast allows you to reach otherwise unreachable heights and areas to boost your score, find secrets and generally avoid the pitfalls that avoid you at the bottom of the screen.
Those pitfalls? Those aforementioned spikes for example. There are platforms you can jump on mixed in with spikes, and if you fall into them, you take a hit.
["Health" in this game explained: Taking a hit is not fatal as long as you carry 1 coin or more with you. If you get hit, you lose that coin. You can try to pick it back up before it disappears. If you run around with no coins, any hit is fatal, unless you have picked up a power-up item that acts like a shield. This is similar to Mario in that he'll instantly die if you are small Mario, but get infinite health as long as you can find mushrooms after every time you take a hit.]
With the spikes, the problem is, it doesn't matter whether you carry coins, because you don't gain i-frames if you take a hit from them. So you end up taking the hit, which throws you vertically into the air and back down on top of the spikes, which then kills you. That was pretty annoying, though they are easy to avoid once you start remembering the level map.
There are also snakes which you can only hit if you jump on top of their head, but it's easy to miss to at first and jump on top of its tail, which will damage you. Early on, there is also spike bridge which keeps spinning, and I still haven't figured out when to jump on top of it without avoiding the spikes.
I haven't gotten too deep into the game to see what about half of the levels look like, but as you can see, it's a typical design of figuring things out as you keep playing. The Arcade design with these types of games hasn't really aged well because instead of spending a couple hours and beating the game, devs put these mechanics in place to keep you playing for dozens of hours before you win, as otherwise you'd notice that the game in actuality is quite short. One full playthrough takes less than an hour, if you can actually win. And unlike a game like Super Mario World, where I would collect 30+ 1Up's without any issue, the extra lives are much more hidden, and presumable scarce, here.
There are some parts where you have to hop on platforms as they slowly appear, or where you have to avoid spikes at the bottom as previously mentioned, and those sectioned kind of felt out of place in a game that has speed as its main theme.
When you reach full speed though, and everything loops quite well, the gameplay becomes satisfying. But to reach that kind of fluidity will take you a while, at least in this specific game.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10
No voice acting. I have mixed feelings about the sound design, as I thought that some effects sounded pretty good, but some pretty bad. The sound of the ground beneath me collapsing just sounds unnecessarily aggressive, the sound that keeps playing when you have the shield power-up equipped just shouldn't exist (I would describe it as such: "hatufff") and the 18 sounds that play at the same time whilst you are in the secret 'floating maze' area sounded unnerving. I think Sega could improve a lot in this area in future iterations, though I'm obviously complaining on a high level here. The soundtrack, at least for the first half of levels which I was able to play, sounded pretty good. The Green Hill Zone music I was already familiar with through, among other things, it being sampled into rap songs. In general, I thought the soundtrack was nice to listen to.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10
The graphics here look pretty good for its time. Some zones are rather basic looking in presentation, some way too busy, but overall, the game is definitely above average visually. If you have played a future entry, this might be a bit harder to look, I can't say, but if you're a newcomer to the series, this game definitely fits right in with just about any game in this era. Though to me, this game is many steps behind Super Mario World in graphical presentation nonetheless thanks to Super Mario World's variety in presentation and much cleaner and unique animations. Though back then, this wasn't the predominant opinion, and you might feel differently today as well.
ATMOSPHERE | 6/10
There isn't really much here to put into a cohesive unit that emanates an immersive "Sonic-like atmosphere", and I feel like that's something that will work itself out in the upcoming releases.
The mix of sounds with everything that happens on the screen through the music and sound effects feels excessive and unconnected at times and the zones don't really tell me much about where Sonic is and what this world feels like. The soundtrack, while nice to listen to on its own, sounds like it lacks a little bit of punch to the speedster that Sonic is. Look, I know rambling about this is way too serious and ridiculous, and I agree, but that's what this section is for. I doubt many share these thoughts, but that's what I thought about whilst playing the game. Hello to you, if you actually are reading this. :-)
CONTENT | 6/10
This is a short game, if you actually manage to beat it. It takes less than one hour for a normal full playthrough. Of course, it'll take you 10+ hours to actually beat it because of all the trial and error. Besides blazing through the levels, there are some hidden secret areas that will grant you some power up items, extra lives and a boost to your total score, plus those Secret Zones where you can collect "Chaos Emeralds". The Chaos Emeralds in the original version are there to give you the good ending, if you collect them all. In some other entries, and in a 2013 remaster entry of this title, acquiring them all enables Super Sonic, an OP golden version of Sonic.
In terms of the zone differences, the game does continue to mix things up the further you progress, though not in a major way. There are also no deviations from the core gameplay here by introducing other mechanics, which makes sense, as this is the first Sonic game. For example in Super Mario World, you have levels where you can acquire Yoshi, which changes gameplay up a bit, or you have special boss and ghost zones which play differently, among other things.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 7/10
The levels in this game are put into 6 different zones plus a final zone, with each zone differing in style. Levels are for the most part designed to enhance Sonic's strength, speed, by for example giving him spirals to run through and gain momentum. At the same time, some levels include parts that force the player to take it slower, unless the player is already extremely skilled and knowledgeable about the game to rarely run into any obstacles. Either way, there are some parts where you simply need to wait for platforms to carry you somewhere or to come down to your level so you can jump on top of them.
Overall, the level design is unique thanks to the speed factor, but otherwise doesn't really stray far from the average platformer formula. That is to be expected though, as this is the first Sonic game made.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 9/10
This game gets a big bonus for giving us the debut of Sonic and introducing speed as such a prevalent feature in its design, something you didn't really see anywhere else on this level. Is it very unique apart from those things? Definitely not, but I don't think it needs to be, at least until Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releases in November 1992.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
How replayable would this game be after you beat it once? Not a lot. You are unlikely to collect all Chaos Emeralds your first time through and will likely receive the bad ending, so the main motivations to play this again would be to beat your previous score and obtain the good ending.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times, apart from the very few areas where I experienced slowdown, though that was a given for pretty much all Sega Genesis games at the time, and in the number of times it happened here, not a big deal at all.
OVERALL | 65/100
You want to know if Sonic the Hedgehog is worth playing today? I'd say so. Unlike Super Mario World, which was this game's main competitor at the time, I can't say Sonic the Hedgehog aged quite as well. That's tough to do however, as I would say that Super Mario World is probably the best platformer of the early 90s. Sonic the Hedgehog remains the debut game for Sonic however, and this piece of video gaming history is definitely worth experiencing, and once you get comfortable with the game, gaining more and more speed with Sonic will feel more and more satisfying. Future entries will of course present you with much cleaner experiences however.
WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
Steve Harris for EGM, Issue 24 (July '91): "Definitely, without a doubt, positively the most incredible action game ever created for the Genesis!"
Boogie Man for Game Pro, Issue 23 (June '91): "Sonic the Hedgehog's multi-scrolling graphics are a knockout"
I took a few-month-long break from this challenge, only to return to arguably one of the most well-known video games of all time: Sonic the Hedgehog, which released on June 23rd, 1991 for the Sega Genesis. As someone who's childhood was dominated by Mario and Nintendo rather than Sonic and Sega, this was the first time I actually tried not only the original Sonic game, but any Sonic game period.
Expecting a fast paced variation to the multitude of same-y platformers that the video game industry printed out in and around 1991, I was not disappointed. For the most part.
More on the game in detail below.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 4/10
This is another one of those games that doesn't really have any in-game storytelling apart from the boss encounters. You have to stop evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who snatches innocent animals and turns them into evil robots.
You, of course, are Sonic the Hedgehog. I'll give the manual of this game the honors to describe him to you: "It's Sonic, the real cool hedgehog with the spiked haircut and power sneakers that give him super speed." That's a cute description. Obviously, Sega finally found their answer to Nintendo's Mario with Sonic after trying with Alex Kidd from 1986 up until Sonic replaced him. Dr. Robotnik himself turned into an iconic video game antagonist as well, though after his first appearance here, I'd think it's either because he was just the villain millions of children were chasing back in the day, or because he has a more prominent role in future entries. Either way, Sega created one of the most iconic characters in video games here, and for that they deserve all the praise they got through the years.
Every other character you know and love from the series isn't present here yet.
GAMEPLAY | 13/20
This is a 2D platformer the likes you've seen before. At least for the most part. You have to jump attack enemies to make them pop or avoid them altogether. You have to watch for spikes at the bottom of the screen, lest you want to see your demise. You need to take out bosses after the end of each area. You have to do this for multiple areas until you defeat the final boss. And you start with 3 lives to accomplish this.
The catch: You gain in speed as you gain in momentum. This means, the longer you can run forward uninterrupted, the faster you become. I don't know why I am explaining this, you all know Sonic. ... Running fast allows you to reach otherwise unreachable heights and areas to boost your score, find secrets and generally avoid the pitfalls that avoid you at the bottom of the screen.
Those pitfalls? Those aforementioned spikes for example. There are platforms you can jump on mixed in with spikes, and if you fall into them, you take a hit.
["Health" in this game explained: Taking a hit is not fatal as long as you carry 1 coin or more with you. If you get hit, you lose that coin. You can try to pick it back up before it disappears. If you run around with no coins, any hit is fatal, unless you have picked up a power-up item that acts like a shield. This is similar to Mario in that he'll instantly die if you are small Mario, but get infinite health as long as you can find mushrooms after every time you take a hit.]
With the spikes, the problem is, it doesn't matter whether you carry coins, because you don't gain i-frames if you take a hit from them. So you end up taking the hit, which throws you vertically into the air and back down on top of the spikes, which then kills you. That was pretty annoying, though they are easy to avoid once you start remembering the level map.
There are also snakes which you can only hit if you jump on top of their head, but it's easy to miss to at first and jump on top of its tail, which will damage you. Early on, there is also spike bridge which keeps spinning, and I still haven't figured out when to jump on top of it without avoiding the spikes.
I haven't gotten too deep into the game to see what about half of the levels look like, but as you can see, it's a typical design of figuring things out as you keep playing. The Arcade design with these types of games hasn't really aged well because instead of spending a couple hours and beating the game, devs put these mechanics in place to keep you playing for dozens of hours before you win, as otherwise you'd notice that the game in actuality is quite short. One full playthrough takes less than an hour, if you can actually win. And unlike a game like Super Mario World, where I would collect 30+ 1Up's without any issue, the extra lives are much more hidden, and presumable scarce, here.
There are some parts where you have to hop on platforms as they slowly appear, or where you have to avoid spikes at the bottom as previously mentioned, and those sectioned kind of felt out of place in a game that has speed as its main theme.
When you reach full speed though, and everything loops quite well, the gameplay becomes satisfying. But to reach that kind of fluidity will take you a while, at least in this specific game.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10
No voice acting. I have mixed feelings about the sound design, as I thought that some effects sounded pretty good, but some pretty bad. The sound of the ground beneath me collapsing just sounds unnecessarily aggressive, the sound that keeps playing when you have the shield power-up equipped just shouldn't exist (I would describe it as such: "hatufff") and the 18 sounds that play at the same time whilst you are in the secret 'floating maze' area sounded unnerving. I think Sega could improve a lot in this area in future iterations, though I'm obviously complaining on a high level here. The soundtrack, at least for the first half of levels which I was able to play, sounded pretty good. The Green Hill Zone music I was already familiar with through, among other things, it being sampled into rap songs. In general, I thought the soundtrack was nice to listen to.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10
The graphics here look pretty good for its time. Some zones are rather basic looking in presentation, some way too busy, but overall, the game is definitely above average visually. If you have played a future entry, this might be a bit harder to look, I can't say, but if you're a newcomer to the series, this game definitely fits right in with just about any game in this era. Though to me, this game is many steps behind Super Mario World in graphical presentation nonetheless thanks to Super Mario World's variety in presentation and much cleaner and unique animations. Though back then, this wasn't the predominant opinion, and you might feel differently today as well.
ATMOSPHERE | 6/10
There isn't really much here to put into a cohesive unit that emanates an immersive "Sonic-like atmosphere", and I feel like that's something that will work itself out in the upcoming releases.
The mix of sounds with everything that happens on the screen through the music and sound effects feels excessive and unconnected at times and the zones don't really tell me much about where Sonic is and what this world feels like. The soundtrack, while nice to listen to on its own, sounds like it lacks a little bit of punch to the speedster that Sonic is. Look, I know rambling about this is way too serious and ridiculous, and I agree, but that's what this section is for. I doubt many share these thoughts, but that's what I thought about whilst playing the game. Hello to you, if you actually are reading this. :-)
CONTENT | 6/10
This is a short game, if you actually manage to beat it. It takes less than one hour for a normal full playthrough. Of course, it'll take you 10+ hours to actually beat it because of all the trial and error. Besides blazing through the levels, there are some hidden secret areas that will grant you some power up items, extra lives and a boost to your total score, plus those Secret Zones where you can collect "Chaos Emeralds". The Chaos Emeralds in the original version are there to give you the good ending, if you collect them all. In some other entries, and in a 2013 remaster entry of this title, acquiring them all enables Super Sonic, an OP golden version of Sonic.
In terms of the zone differences, the game does continue to mix things up the further you progress, though not in a major way. There are also no deviations from the core gameplay here by introducing other mechanics, which makes sense, as this is the first Sonic game. For example in Super Mario World, you have levels where you can acquire Yoshi, which changes gameplay up a bit, or you have special boss and ghost zones which play differently, among other things.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 7/10
The levels in this game are put into 6 different zones plus a final zone, with each zone differing in style. Levels are for the most part designed to enhance Sonic's strength, speed, by for example giving him spirals to run through and gain momentum. At the same time, some levels include parts that force the player to take it slower, unless the player is already extremely skilled and knowledgeable about the game to rarely run into any obstacles. Either way, there are some parts where you simply need to wait for platforms to carry you somewhere or to come down to your level so you can jump on top of them.
Overall, the level design is unique thanks to the speed factor, but otherwise doesn't really stray far from the average platformer formula. That is to be expected though, as this is the first Sonic game made.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 9/10
This game gets a big bonus for giving us the debut of Sonic and introducing speed as such a prevalent feature in its design, something you didn't really see anywhere else on this level. Is it very unique apart from those things? Definitely not, but I don't think it needs to be, at least until Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releases in November 1992.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
How replayable would this game be after you beat it once? Not a lot. You are unlikely to collect all Chaos Emeralds your first time through and will likely receive the bad ending, so the main motivations to play this again would be to beat your previous score and obtain the good ending.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times, apart from the very few areas where I experienced slowdown, though that was a given for pretty much all Sega Genesis games at the time, and in the number of times it happened here, not a big deal at all.
OVERALL | 65/100
You want to know if Sonic the Hedgehog is worth playing today? I'd say so. Unlike Super Mario World, which was this game's main competitor at the time, I can't say Sonic the Hedgehog aged quite as well. That's tough to do however, as I would say that Super Mario World is probably the best platformer of the early 90s. Sonic the Hedgehog remains the debut game for Sonic however, and this piece of video gaming history is definitely worth experiencing, and once you get comfortable with the game, gaining more and more speed with Sonic will feel more and more satisfying. Future entries will of course present you with much cleaner experiences however.
WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
Steve Harris for EGM, Issue 24 (July '91): "Definitely, without a doubt, positively the most incredible action game ever created for the Genesis!"
Boogie Man for Game Pro, Issue 23 (June '91): "Sonic the Hedgehog's multi-scrolling graphics are a knockout"