Retrospective: Sonic the Hedgehog

Lord of the rings.

Of late, Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the shining princes of my listless, shambling, over-sugared childhood, has started to remind me of the American Tea Party movement. This isn't because Sonic wants to cut federal spending, or because he thinks Barack Obama's an illegal alien sent to the US to kick-start the really exciting parts of the book of Revelations. It's because he's becoming a polarising idea: something that increasing numbers of people either love or hate.

While Mario's soared into space and bounced around the universe, Sonic's been on a different kind of adventure. He's passed beyond the realm of simple critical appreciation. He's become a creature of belief.

Actually, it wasn't really that different back in 1991. Unless one of your parents was an astronaut or a key figure in organised crime - I swear I knew a kid on our block who claimed he had one of each, and an aunt who was on drinking terms with Meat Loaf - nobody could afford more than a single console, so as soon as Sonic arrived on the scene, he became a key rallying figure for Megadrive owners. Besides a capacity to run dead fast without ever getting that tired, he was tailor-made to pit Nintendo and SEGA fans against each other.

As Nintendo and SEGA fans were my school's version of the Sharks and the Jets, with only a faintly diminished propensity for stabby dance-offs, he became a dangerous associate in the wrong part of the playground. (Luckily, SEGA magazines at the time provided followers with plenty of pithy ammunition for nasty encounters, in the form of anti-Nintendo jokes. Typical example: How do you spot a Nintendo owner at a barn dance? He's the one dressed as a shed. Ha!)

What gets lost in the schoolyard, of course, is that Sonic the Hedgehog was often an excellent game. The spiky mascot looked just brilliant decked out in company blue, the sing-song cry of SEY-GAH! over the opening logo sounded peculiarly as if it had been recorded by the three surviving Beatles, and the graphics had a unique SEGA glossiness to them that looked great for console owners living in such proximity to the 1980s.

1

The Master System version wasn't bad either.

Mario's worlds always had an implied handmade quality, even before Yoshi's Island made their craftiness explicit, but Sonic's levels looked like they were sliced out of coloured glass by robot-wielded lasers. Plus they were called "zones", which gave them a kind of futuristic Crystal Maze/Running Man chic.

I first encountered SEGA's new mascot in the pages of a friend's Mean Machines in one of my school's portakabin classrooms. It was the kind of place the British army might have used to store cannon balls during the Crimean War: cold, drafty, and miserable. It takes a lot to get you excited about anything when you're in a Portakabin, but Sonic managed it - he managed it even though I was fiercely aligned with the Nintendo kids, too.

The magazine spoke of parallax scrolling and frames-per-second - we all nodded sagely, and hoped no-one else would ask us to explain what these things were - but it was the screenshots that had us gripped. Sharp, angular backdrops, rich blues and greens, and a hero who spent most of the time as a rakish, trainer-shod blur.

It was even better to behold in motion. A lot's been made of just how big a role Mario had to play in the creation of Sonic. A lot's been made of the fact that Mario used two buttons, so Sonic would only use one, that Mario tended to dawdle, so Sonic would tap his foot impatiently if you left him waiting too long.

In truth, though, the games feel completely different anyway. Years after completing Sonic the Hedgehog, when I read hippyish urban monologist Reyner Banham suggest that LA's freeway system spoke "the language of movement, not monument", I thought, "Ooh, a bit like Spring Yard Zone," and then lavishly failed my entire cultural geography unit. Banham might have been onto something, though, because Sonic's levels are a bit like freeways: a bold line threading past distant horizons. (That lecturer always did hate me, anyway.)

The best levels are actually multiple lines - a trick that Mario wouldn't be able to ape for quite a while. The Green Hill Zone, for example, has numerous paths through each of its acts.

All lead from left to right, but the most entertaining of them take in different sights along the way, one spinning you over the top of a waterfall, another dropping you down behind it before shoving you right through a chunk of rock.

You're left, during early playthroughs at least, with a feeling that you're always missing something, but you're also left with a feeling that there's so much more to be discovered: that you should try the same stages again, making alternate high-speed choices, and heading to the right of the screen in a slightly different manner.

Speaking of differences, I replayed the first Sonic recently and was struck by how much the design mixes things up. Green Hill might be Sonic just as I always remember him - without the handy push-down starter boost that was only introduced later, mind - but subsequent zones offer a range of different challenges.

The Marble Zone swaps out pure speed for mazy undergrounds with blocks to push and switches to trigger, while the Labyrinth Zone opts for a little cartoon terror as, submerged, you race between one bubble of air and the next. Drowning: it's horrible.

Spring Yard, meanwhile, presents an early parody of everything Sonic would eventually become in the eyes of those who hate him: the pace of the game was wound right to the top, and control often got lost entirely, trailing behind Vegas glitz and a muddle of pinball bumpers.

Regardless of the design's flights and fancies, though, Sonic the Hedgehog offers plenty of iconic moments. There's that first, breathtaking loop-the-loop, that gloriously apt slowdown when Sonic loses his rings, and those endless boss fights against sweaty uncle Robotnik in his robustly non-aerodynamic craft.

2

It's nice to free fluffy animals from the smoking corpses of mecha-iguanas.

My personal favourite, though, and the moment which really sums up the Sonic ethos for me, is whenever he picks up enough speed to carry him well off the right side of the screen. You panic, of course, because of spikes, because of pits, because of the crazy moment of blindness that's just erupted in the middle of a precision platformer.

But you feel that thrill, too: that thrill of a character so fast, so finely built for his specific adventure, that not even his own game can really hold him.

Then there's those walls you find you can ram through with a rumbling noise that appears to be coming from the very centre of the planet, brilliant chip-tunes - even if they did suggest that, somewhere, a Turkish game show contestant had just won a convertible Mazda - and the lovely, fretful business of freeing Chaos Emeralds from their spinning, shimmering, boiled-sweet Special Stages.

I may have returned to Mario as my main video game pal fairly quickly after playing through Sonic the Hedgehog, but not because Sonic couldn't show me a good time.

It was, amongst other things, because he was harder to draw, which matters if you're 11 and have schoolbooks to illustrate. I could rough out a decent Mario any day of the week, but Sonic tended to come out wrong, like an impish Fred Flintstone or - much, much worse - a cyberpunk Al Jolson in his horrible, wildly offensive make-up.

Sonic kind of blew it after a while for some of us, anyway. He struggled with 3D - although I didn't mind Adventures and Colours is actually a little bit brilliant - and even before that, his wretched, idiotic, toxic family had already started to expand.

Tails I can just about put up with, but Amy Rose, Big the Cat, and Knuckles belong buried deep in the mines of Deviantart.

Despite all that, Sonic remains the perfect example of SEGA's slick, sophisticated, early 1990s charms. He's a creature of his time, definitely, and a man of a certain moment. He's also the star of a handful of wonderful platformers, though, and an enduring icon of one of gaming's most creative rivalries.

Comments (54) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • inutaihanyou #1 1 year ago

    The tea party is a front group for corporate interests, intent on securing their hold on the US political system even more than it was already entangled. Don't compare it to my childhood nostalgia who has been down in his luck in recent years :/
    Edited by inutaihanyou at 01/05/11 @ 07:33
  • Gambit1977 #2 1 year ago

    Is Christian an American then? Or have we now changed the words estate/road/campsite for 'block'?
  • TiredRiver #3 1 year ago

    Funny thing to replay older games...most don't hold up.
    I do miss Jungle Strike and FIFA International Soccer.
    Had Cool Spot too ! AND Road Rash, Lemmings and NHL 93 !
    THE GREAT LANDSTALKER.
    Awe. And of course Sonic.
    People said Nintendo was a No-Friend-O so we had SEGA.
    Loved all of them. Happy memories. In fact it was the memories created then that keeps me coming back even today, but it is more Soul - less today.
    Funny thing.........the funniest thing of all is that I replaced the MD with a 500 GBP Saturn that was a dead duck and then swapped for a PS with Resident Evil...which was also great.........but in 97 it all changed with Mario on the 64. It changed everything. Sonic was poor in comparison. It was limited. It did nt have that sense of fun. But at the time it was gold.

    (Nice opinion piece)
    Edited by TiredRiver at 01/05/11 @ 07:50
  • TheNinkyNonk #4 1 year ago

    Bored of the rings
  • Jonny5Alive7 #5 1 year ago

    Finally a retrospective of a game I've actually played. This makes me want to back and go through it again, its an absolute classic. I think Sonic 2 could possibly be better, two player coop was really fun.
  • handsonhips101 #6 1 year ago

    Toot! Toot! Sonic warrior!

    I can complete this game with my eyes closed. I must have owned it on every format I've possessed since 1991 in some form bar ps1 and n64. Even a shitty java version for my old phone.

    Well worth getting on xbla/psn for the achievements/trophies.

    This game is why I chose a megadrive over a snes.
  • nickthegun #7 1 year ago

    I had forgotten how good looking the master system actually was.
  • YohnTheViking #8 1 year ago

    I remember back in the day we had this "rule"; Loose a life, the other person gets to play till they loose a life.

    No on ever wanted to play any of the Sonic games with me. Because by the time I lost the first life, we'd be in the 3rd or 4th zone. Oh yeah, I was a Sega kid.
  • KDR_11k #9 1 year ago

    I don't think we had much console fighting when I grew up, outside of the standard issue Game Boy and C64 very few actually had consoles, the Mega Drive was something I only knew from store demo units.
  • CaptainQuint #10 1 year ago

    Sonic was good in it's day, but it was never, EVER as good as Mario.

    Super Mario World > Sonic 2

    ;)
  • DDevil #11 1 year ago

    The game that launched 10,000 clones on the Amiga :-D
  • TexMurphy01 #12 1 year ago

    Sharks and Jets? I don't understand. Am I still here at Eurogamer?
  • drhickman1983 #13 1 year ago

    I love the Megadrive Sonic the Hedghog games. I owned Sonic 1-3 and Knuckles on the Megadrive. I own the Sonic Mega Collection on the PS2 And Pc. And I bought the Ultimate Megadrive Collection for my 360, though I'll admit the last purchase was mostly for Streets of Rage and Ecco the Dolphin. But Sonic was definitely a bonus (though to be fair, the versions of Sonic on the Ultimate Collection are a bit shit. No Sonic and Knuckles plugthrough versions of 1, 2 or 3? Rubbish!)

    I also have to say I disagree with Dolan's dislike of Knuckles. The ability to play as Knuckles in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and having Sonic, Tails and Knuckles often taking vastly different routes through levels, was pretty inspired. S3&K was the peak of the series in my opinion, though Sonic 1 was a "purer" experience.

    As for Mario vs Sonic, very different games. If I'm being honest, and speaking as 8 /16 bit Sega fanboy, Mario was probably a better game. But Sonic delivered a greater spectacle. It's quite possible to like both.

    I could go on about Sonic for ages, though I wouldn't really say much. but yeah, it was awesome at the time, and stands up well today imo.
  • gelf #14 1 year ago

    I don't care if I'm seen as deluded I still prefer Sonic to Mario if you ignore the 3D games(though I liked Adventure). And Tails and Knuckles where fine until they where able to talk.

    Never liked the master system version though, it was pale imitation of what mega drive sonic really was.
    Edited by gelf at 01/05/11 @ 10:41
  • Eraysor #15 1 year ago

    One of the best games ever made. It's pretty much entirely responsible for my love of videogames today. I miss Sega consoles :(

    Mario games are just slow and dull in comparison!

    Also pleased to see Christian failed his "cultural geography" unit. I feel your pain. It's the dumbest subject ever!
    Edited by Eraysor at 01/05/11 @ 10:54
  • KujiGhost #16 1 year ago

    Man, reading game magazines in temporary portakabin classrooms! Those were the days! Are you sure we didn't go to the same school?!
  • AgentCool #17 1 year ago

    Sonic 1 and 2 are all-time classics but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is, without question, the finest 2D platformer ever made. Nothing on any platform really comes close in terms of level design, replayability and general brilliance. Even playing it today, 17 years later, it feels fresh.
  • mr2ange #18 1 year ago

    Agree with many comments, this was the game that got me truly hooked.

    I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life when I got this game. - Which I might add.. I bought myself at 12 years old with a year of paper round money, my parents told me that games were a waste of time and money and that it will never get you anywhere.

    Boy am I happy I won that argument!
  • kupocake #19 1 year ago

    "Of late, Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the shining princes of my listless, shambling, over-sugared childhood, has started to remind me of the American Tea Party movement. [...] It's because he's becoming a polarising idea: something that increasing numbers of people either love or hate."

    I enjoyed the retrospective, but that's the single worst analogy I've ever heard. If it's true, the tea party's effect on people is analogous to Marmite. Name dropping that organisation like that has all the satirical weight of an episode of Mock the Week.

    So err... please don't do it again.
  • Zerobob #20 1 year ago

    "Drowning: it's horrible"

    Haha, the Labyrinth Zone used to panic me without fail!

    "But you feel that thrill, too: that thrill of a character so fast, so finely built for his specific adventure, that not even his own game can really hold him. "

    Best point of the article. If a truly great Sonic game is ever going to be made again this needs to be the main mission statement and philosophy behind it.

    Ditch a 3D perspective completely as you can't control Sonic at speed in 3D. Then add in many different and interesting routes through the levels, even more speed and blur effects achievable with today's hardware, sonic booms when you go over 330m/s (+ a bonus?), catchy speed metal backing tracks, and of course more crazy Robotnik bosses...I think a lot of the driving factor in Sonic is striving to see the next boss.
    Edited by Zerobob at 01/05/11 @ 12:20
  • drhickman1983 #21 1 year ago

    @zerobob

    You ideas on how to make Sonic more visceral are all pretty cool, but can't say I agree with "catchy speed metal backing tracks". I'm actually a massive fan of metal, but I'm not sure it has a place in Sonic games. The music in 1-3 was pretty awesome. Ice Cap Zone! Scrap Brain Zone (which sounds like Vangelis's End Theme for Blade Runner)! The final boss music in Sonic 2! (The end sequence music in Sonic 2 with the black and white stills reminded me of Pink Floyd)... I'd take that music over what would end up being some knock off versions of Judas Priest any day.
  • DarthMartious #22 1 year ago

    Knuckles belong buried deep in the mines of Deviantart.

    What? Knuckles was cool!
  • kirankara #23 1 year ago

    Can't say I enjoyed a single sonic the hedgehog game, Mario was and is a superior game in every respect.
  • RobTheBuilder #24 1 year ago

    Being nine when the first game came out it is hard to describe just how on another planet this game seemed compared to anything available at the time. This is a full 10 months before the SNES came out in Europe. We were still playing Alex Kidd and Amiga games that whilst good, looked and felt nothing like it.

    @DDevil -- In fact the first thing I ever saw of Sonic was a brief article in CU Amiga magazine that said an Amiga version was being developed by US Gold. The Amiga clones weren't bad, but I wished for ages that the conversion would show up...

    Even that first subtle appearance as the air freshener in Rad Mobile said everything about the game that was to follow.

    I can't even imagine what a game would have to look like now to feel as fresh and new as Sonic felt back then. The closest I can think of is: Imagine that the first time you saw Super Mario Galaxy it was running in 1080p, in 3D, with ten times the graphical detail of the average 360 game... that might get close.

    Spot on about flying off the screen though, the shock that sets in when you realise it for the first time is one of the top 10 gaming moments ever for me.
    Edited by RobTheBuilder at 01/05/11 @ 13:05
  • DrStrangelove #25 1 year ago

    Back then, I couldn't really decide if Mario or Sonic was better, but Sonic was definitely cooler than the fat plumber. I mean, just look at his large focused eyes and his huge aero-spikes. Also, Sonic 2 and 3 awed us with those fancy "3D" chaos emerald stages. I also think the zones were really huge, I remember having trouble finishing the Vegas stages of Sonic 3 in the 10-minute time limit even after beating the game several times.

    The ability for simultaneous multiplayer was great too, we always preferred playing at the same time instead of rotating. However, if you were playing Tails, the sheer speed of the game made it difficult to stay on the Sonic-centred screen, and you were definitely playing second role, you were hardly equal. I guess we had most multiplayer fun with SMB3, where you could entrap the other player into an oldschool MB battle to end his turn and be playing yourself again. That ruined game progress pretty much, but the heated rivalry was a hilarious end in itself (and is a nice analogy to a great lot of political behaviour).

    Also, I always hated Sonic's underwater stages. They were more nuisance than fun for us, mostly because they were so awkwardly slow.

    In hindsight, I would say Sonic was very good, but Mario was even a bit better. Going back to those games today, I have more fun with SMB3 or SMW than with Sonic 2 or 3 (which might have to do with being unimpressed today by Sonic's coolness and then fancy graphics). Still a worthy contender to Mario, which is quite an accolade.

    But then came N64 and Saturn, and everything changed. In 3D, Mario became even better, something that can hardly be said about Sonic. I actually expected that 3D would benefit the lightning-fast Sonic even more, but it didn't. The legacy of Sonic will forever be tied to the 16-bit side-scrolling era.
  • StriderRex #26 1 year ago

    Loved reading this, I've lost track of how many times I've bought the various Sonic games on different platforms, the ones on XBLA to me are the best, namely because you can do the S3&K lock on (and the S2 one as well), these games will always be timeless, the graphics, the gameplay, the incredibly catchy music, this was Sega at their peak, just pure bliss.

    On a slight side note, I went onto Youtube to find good Sonic music to listen to as I read this article (I'm sure I'm not the only person who did it either!) and came across a guy who used to work at Sega and has done orchestral versions of the old 2D Sonic games, some of the tracks are fantastic (Ice Cap Zone on Sonic 3 and Casino Night Zone on Sonic 2 are highlights) heres the link: [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOeLgqc-T30&feature=related
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOeLgqc-T...[/link]
    Enjoy!!
  • Chibi-Kibou #27 1 year ago

    Oh come on, Amy isn't so bad - or at least, she wasn't.

    I still don't quite know what to make of her post-Adventure reimagining, but I really kind of liked her in Sonic CD as a character design - ESPECIALLY given what happened when the Fleetway comic took her character design and ran with it. 'Best bit of character development in a videogame spin-off ever, I think.

    They started out with the girly version, and slowly and very believably built her up over time, from girl, clingy, 'I'm Sonic's girlfriend' Amy to a bowgun wielding, brawling, Sonic tormenting, Tails mentoring badass. In fact... just for fun:

    [link url=http://bp2.blogger.com/_84--XCXrG7Y/Ru_gwMbFxlI/AAAAAAAAA7A/oPhj6NgkMm8/s1600-h/interview_large_1.jpg
    ]http://bp2.blogger.com/_84--XCXrG7Y/Ru_g...[/link]

    See?
    Edited by Chibi-Kibou at 01/05/11 @ 17:15
  • TruSmiles #28 1 year ago

    If you're a Sonic fan, you might want to visit this years Summer of Sonic convention in London: www.summerofsonic.com ^_^
    Edited by TruSmiles at 01/05/11 @ 13:33
  • HyperTails #29 1 year ago

    I remember back in the early 90's when I was at primary school, I used to love Sonic. The fact he could run so fast, the colors, the great levels. Then Tails was introduced, and I thought he was a great character (hence my name). And Knuckles! Ah, Knuckles... the guy me and my friends were hyped for as he could 'glide and climb walls'.

    But then Sega royally screwed up with the Saturn and, like everyone else, got a PlayStation. I only returned to Sonic when Sega went 3rd party, and its sad seeing how far he's fallen. Sonic will always be, to me at least, one of those games that never gets old.

    Thought Sonic 4 was brilliant too, despite some dodgy physics.
  • coolbritannia #30 1 year ago

    All sonic games half price or less on XBLA I believe, I just bought a shitload of them.
  • BBIAJ #31 1 year ago

    Any one curious as to what Sonic's REALLY been up to, should check out Sonic For Hire:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLV7CP95D...

    There are currently 11 episodes, with a new one weekly, on Sunday or Monday I think.

    EDIT: Possibly NSFW, due to swearage!
    Edited by BBIAJ at 01/05/11 @ 14:53
  • fizzyfish #32 1 year ago

    The thing that I remember most fondly about the original Sonic the Hedgehog is how remarkable it felt to be able to smash through parts of the scenery. The fact that the effect looked rather poor and artificial in the era of Sonic 1 and 2 - the unfortunate obstacle being reduced to an unexpectedly-neat cascade of uniform squares - made it even more magical in my eyes. You weren't pummelling through a rockface: you were breaking through a computer construct; breaching the laws of the videogame itself and cheating your way behind the scenes in a moment of digital empowerment. In Sonic 1, the fact that it wasn't handed to you on a plate (those pre-Spin Dash days demanding a good run-up and well-timed down-tap on the D-pad) made it all the more rewarding.
  • Stomp224 #33 1 year ago

    This game, hands down ruined my life when I received it (plus mega drive) on my 8th birthday. I was bullied as the only Sega fan in my school, and was mocked at university when it was discovered the soundtrack was my most-listened ipod playlist.

    19 years later, I still play it. Im still a fan of the series and have suffered though the Sonic Cycle numerous times, only to have Sega prove that they dont know what made this game so great.

    Oh yeah, Marble Zone - BEST MUSIC EVAR. Really hope to see that in Generations. Probably butchered beyond recognition, but still.



  • BBIAJ #34 1 year ago

    @TruSmiles:

    Cheers for that link!

    Never heard of SoS before, so I've applied for 2 tickets.
  • Ashcroft #35 1 year ago

    Everything from Sonic 1 to & Knuckles was brilliant. 2 was the best.
  • smelly #36 1 year ago

    I liked this story - right up until when it says "colours is brilliant"..

    NO ITS BLOODY NOT!

    What use is a platformer where the main character has to finish his current run cycle before he's allowed to jump? It makes timing jumps next to impossible as sonic jumps (up to) a few frames after you press the bloody button.

    I could forgive tomb riader for it years ago.. but this is 2011!
  • Ryze #37 1 year ago

  • Bobby_P #38 1 year ago

    Christian Donlan you do write the loveliest retrospectives.
  • Marijn #39 1 year ago

    Great, great article Christian. Funny, nostalgic and accurate. Between this and Leigh Alexander's FFVII letters, I haven't felt so connected to my childhood in a long time.
  • Marijn #40 1 year ago

    @20: I kinda agree, but I think the analogy makes a LITTLE sense: in my primary school, the Nintendo-Sega issue was as polarising as anything the current American political landscape can offer.
  • TheTrueSpin #41 1 year ago

    Ha, this reminded me of a top 10 most annoying video game characters list. At number 8 they had "Any character introduced into the Sonic franchise after Sonic 3".

    Quote from article:

    Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik, Metal Sonic and Amy… you’re in. The rest of you can piss off. As we all know, Sega went a bit mental in the late 90’s, particularly in relation to the Sonic franchise. No doubt fearing that the iconic blue hedgehog was losing his relevance, Sega decided the most logical strategy was to dramatically expand Sonic’s entourage of fuzzy woodland friends. Enter Cream the Rabbit, Rouge The Bat, Shadow The Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat, Charmy Bee… seriously, the list is endless. We could probably do a top 100 using the Sonic franchise alone! What made the whole situation even more annoying was that Sega had the audacity to introduce these new “characters” as if we already knew them, like they were long lost friends returning home. As the Sonic franchise unsurprisingly spiralled downwards, Sega’s only response was to introduce even more ill-conceived characters: Bean the Dynamite, Tikal the Echidna, Barack the Polar Bear… We’re not even making these names up!
    Edited by TheTrueSpin at 01/05/11 @ 21:46
  • HEAVYface #42 1 year ago

    yep the original game is beautiful, i don't mean for an old game - it still looks really nice.

    however always got a bit frustrated when environment took away sonics USP....pushing blocks and hitting switches felt old hat after green hill zones loop-de-looping

    but yeah, my most played on the MD along with strider, ghouls n ghosts, revenge of shinobi, gynoug and thunder force 4. great times.

  • Doctor_What #43 1 year ago

    It also had some of the best music I heard on the Megadrive.
  • Mattattattatt #44 1 year ago

    I have the Mega Drive collection for PSP, and out of the first party games on there the original Sonic is definitely the one that's aged best. The graphics are good, it's fast, it's responsive, the music's great... I don't feel that the sequels ever really matched it gameplay-wise – Sonic 2 was too easy and Sonic 3 was good but didn't have the freshness. In 1991, Sonic was awesome.

    Maybe Sega's greatest moment? I can think of some good games from them since but nothing quite as iconic and lasting.
  • gelf #45 1 year ago

    Yeah some games I loved from that generation have aged really badly but I can still enjoy playing through the Sonic games when I fire them up again.
  • Veracity #46 1 year ago

    That has to be the first reference to "Crystal Maze chic" in anything, ever. I salute this development, even if it's probably also the last.
  • Mono_X #47 1 year ago

    IIRC Sonic was never designed to be a direct rival to Mario. Whilst both were 2d platformers, their game are quite different.

    Sonic is fast whilst Mario is slow and precise.
    Sonic is primarily blue whilst Mario primarily red.
    Sonic is a animal whilst Mario is a human, etc.

    And Sonic was designed to be a mascot from the ground up - whilst Mario sort of evolved into Nintendo's mascot.
    Edited by Mono_X at 02/05/11 @ 08:10
  • Chibi-Kibou #48 1 year ago

    Why would anyone put negatives on me nattering about a character preference and linking a cool picture..? o.O

    .. Actually that aside I just realised, the writer makes a tiny mistake in condemning Amy, too, at least by the reasoning he states. First appearing in Sonic CD, Amy actually predates Tails - at the very least in drawing board terms.
  • Farzlepot #49 1 year ago

    What the heck was with portacabins in schools in the 80s/90s anyway? Seems as though they all had them!
  • dahsif #50 1 year ago

    Reads like an 8/10.

    Oh wait..
  • metalangel #51 1 year ago

    @Farzlepot: My mother submitted an angry petition to the principal and school trustees after I ended up spending half of grade school in them. There were only two (portables) but I just had bad luck, I guess.

    As for Sonic, he was great and the old games still are. When you get really confident to play around through the trap-laden Marble Zone, it becomes so satisfying.
    Edited by metalangel at 03/05/11 @ 10:47
  • sega #52 1 year ago

    The best thing about Sonic is he's perfectly designed for his own game environment - it's kind of a chicken and egg scenario really. Did they design the levels based on the character or the character based on level design? I think the interesting thing about Sonic is he's the only character that can navigate his worlds - well, basically you need to be able to spin in a ball and move at very fast speeds (Tails/Knuckles). The fact he uses his spines as an attack too, navigates around pinball and rollercoaster themed levels is really ingenious.

    You can't compare Sonic to Mario simply because they're so different - both are worthy of the title of greatest game characters of all time but for different reasons. It's Sonics design that really stands out, though - both in terms of look and gameplay. It's the reason why every single "animal with attitude" character that followed him has failed since they've all completely missed the point. He's designed with the game in mind and it's a shame modern Sonic titles don't reflect this as much - he's still one of the best designed characters of all time, he just needs the same careful thought put into his games as with the first titles. When a character like Sonic is designed that is actually good enough to rival Mario then it's pointless to try and imitate other platformers when you have your own great forumlae - Sonic tries to hard to make the next Mario 64 when it should really by trying to make the next Sonic evolution instead.
  • azazel_fallenangel #53 1 year ago

    Nothing wrong with Tails and Knuckles...
    rest can go swivel though....
  • B1G_D #54 1 year ago

    That count down music to drowning during the Labyrinth zone.
    Pressure my friends, REAL pressure!