A Black Falcon
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But for the zero people reading this who don't know the game, Sonic is a platformer. Sonic runs and jumps, and rolls in a ball when you jump or hit Down while running. Hitting enemies in normal form hurts you, but hitting them in ball form hurts them. It's a simple but great system, though this first game doesn't have the spin-in-place move that would later become a series staple. Your goal is to go to the right until you reach the end of each stage. Each world has three stages, and the last has a boss in it. Levels are huge, have multiple routes, and are better-designed than most in the genre. The phyics system is great. You slow down as you run up hills, jump off a slope at the opposite angle, and such. This was a rarely-seen thing at the time, and Sonic's physics are very solid and well-programmed. It is one of the cores of the experience. The levels are extremely well-designed as well, and the game has a great balance between exploration and challenge. Levels are designed around the physics, and are absolutely full of challenging jumps to optional areas, alternate paths easier than the main one, and more. There are also TVs with powerups in them, usually rings but sometimes invincibility or a shield. In these open-levels platformers blind jumps are a common issue, and they are an issue here, but the game has few instant-death pits. They are rare enough that usually when you jump into space you have confidence that you'll land on ground... but once in a rare while, you won't, that was a pit. They are not always marked, so this is one issue with the game, until you learn where the few pits are. Most of the time, though, your main obstacles will be spikes, spike-balls, and moving enemies. If Sonic touches any of these, he drops all of the rings he was holding, but if something hits you when you have no rings you die. Up to 20 rings will appear around you after yout get hit, and you need to try to collect at least one before they vanish. It's a good mechanic, and the levels are designed to encourage memorization, but also to reward exploration. Some newer, post-Genesis Sonic gmaes go way too far into the trap-heavy school of level design, an this adds to the challenge, but not the fun. The Genesis games are better-balanced: there are traps, but you don't need to constantly stop in fear of enemies. You do need to be careful, but not inordinately so. Oh, and there are checkpoint posts, for when you die but it isn't a game over. On game over you restart the level, so long as you have continues left of course.
There is one issue people have with the levels in this game, though, and that's that later Sonic games emphasize speed much more than this game. Sonic is fast, but only the first world is entirely built around speed. After that the second world is a slow-paced underground stage, and then after that the game has a mixture of faster and slower elements. The water levels are the slowest, and some of the hardest, stages, as Sonic can drown if you go too long without getting an air bubble. I like good water levels in games, but Sonic's can be frustrating. The water-world's boss climb is one of the hardest parts of the game. Still, though, I like most of the slower parts of this game. The second world's great fun, even if you're not going full-speed most of the time! Maybe it was just including more conventional level-design elements out of uncertainty about how much people would like the speed the game starts with, but I like the results a lot. Each world looks different, and plays differently as well. All are fun. Yes, blasting through the first stage is great, but making your way through the lava pits in world 2 is also great! The one level-design element I will criticize is that you get no rings in the final boss fight, which makes it MUCH harder than it should be. Sadly, both of its sequels on the Genesis, and many of the Game Gear games, copy this particularly annoying design trait. You should not have to fight hard bosses without rings in Sonic, but most of the classic ones force this on you. It'll cause many game overs right at the end of the game.
Your second goal in the game is to get all of the Chaos Emerald collectables, which are in bonus stages. In this game, you get into bonus stages by reaching the end of the first or second stage in each world except for the last one with at least 50 rings, then jumping into the giant ring that appears, you will go into the bonus stage. Bonus stages are a rotating top-view maze, and you need to try to get to the center and get the Chaos Emerald in the middle, without running into an exit. In addition, if you get 50 rings in a bonus stage you get a continue. You start with no continues, so getting them in bonus stages is essential! There are ten opportunities to get into bonus stages in this game, and six chaos emeralds, so if you want to get them all and the special good ending screen, you need to do well. I've never quite managed to get all the emeralds in one run in a Genesis sonic game, but it is a fun challenge. The bonus stages in this game aren't the best in the series, but they are good, and a nice break from the main game. After the first world having to have 50 rings to get in is a real challenge and takes memorization, so it's satisfying once you finally get into a bonus stage in later levels!
Overall Sonic the Hedgehog is a fantastic game. Innovative when it released and still fresh and fun today, the first Sonic game is a fantastic experience. The game has fantastic graphics, a really good, iconic soundtrack, extremely well-polished gameplay, great levels to explore, lots of replay value, fun bonus stages, difficulty that is just about right, and more! The game doesn't have saving, and it is a lot shorter than Super Mario World and there are many fewer levels as well, but what it does have has all been done really well. The game doesn't have Mario's precision, as the speed and physics system makes things trickier, but what it does have is almost as great. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the all-time great platformers. Its sequels are even better, but the first one is fantastic as well. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Segas Genesis games. Sonic 1 has lots of ports on newer systems.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 2 & Knuckles - 1-2 player simultaneous, supports lock-on with Sonic & Knuckles (to play as Knuckles in this game). Basically Sonic the Hedgehog but better, faster, better-looking, and better-sounding, Sonic 2 is a fantastic sequel. It takes everything great about the original Sonic, removes the slower-paced stuff that many didn't like, and improves on everything else while also adding a second character and co-op multiplayer. The result is that Sonic 2 is another one of the great platformers. The engine, physics, graphical style, music, and everything else are all just as before, but better. This is a faster-paced game than the first one, as Sega listened to the critics and didn't include any slow areas like the second world of Sonic 1. It also has two playable characters, as Sonic's friend Tails is added. Tails the fox flies in, and flight is his signature move, but in this game you can't actually fly while playing, oddly. Also, in single player you play as Sonic only while Tails follows you around. Only a second player can play as Tails, but they can take control at any time, which is nice; it's not a separate mode. Tails has infinite lives, but has to stay on the same screen as Sonic, so play centers around Sonic. Still, it's a fun option and it's good they included it. While quite difficult, Sonic 2 is slightly easier than the first game. While Sonic 1 took me many years to finally complete, I finished Sonic 2 not too long after getting it back in 2006 or so. You still do have limited continues and no saving, unfortunately, and the game is probably longer than the first, but most of the game isn't quite as hard as it was before. The difficulty here is balanced well. One other change is that worlds only have two levels now, so there are more, shorter worlds than the first game. Future Sonic games would keep this games' two-levels style over the three-levels-each style of the original.
Beyond the addition of Tails, there are two major changes in Sonic 2 versus the first game. First, the Spin Dash has been added, and it's a move that ever since has been one of Sonic's most important. By hitting Jump while holding Down, you will spin in place, and then zoom off as soon as you let go. You can still spin by running and then hitting down, but this is more useful and makes level traversal easier and more fun. And second, the Chaos Emeralds are now found in new minigames which you access a new way. Instead of getting to the end of a stage with 50 rings, now you just have to reach a checkpoint post with 50 rings. Then a portal will open above the post, and if you jump up into it you go into the bonus stage. This means that now you can go into multiple bonus stages in a single level, though each post can only be used once, checkpoint posts are limited and now are often hidden on side paths, and your rings are reset to zero after leaving a bonus stage so it isn't too easy. The bonus game itself is an into-the-screen running tube. Sonic and Tails run down a tube, collecting rings and avoiding spike balls. You need to get the required number of rings by each of several points along the tube. The first bonus stage is easy, but they quickly get hard after that. While these "3d" tubes were quite impressive back in 1992, in retrospect I probably like them the least compared to Sonic 1 or 3&K's bonus levels. They're probably harder than either other kind of bonus stage, too. Still, they are fun, and it's nice that Sega mixed things up by changing the bonus stages each time. One final lesser change is continues. This time, you get a continue by getting enough bonus points in levels, instead of based on coins in bonus stages. I'm not sure if this makes getting continues easier or harder, it's sort of mixed.
Otherwise, though, Sonic 2 is more of the same. The graphics are very similar, just better. The music is familiar, but with new compositions which are just as great as the originals. The levels are like those in the first game, but bigger. Again the final boss is really tough and you have no rings for the fight, irritatingly. The new bonus stages are also frustrating, but they do look really cool and play okay once you memorize them. Tails is a decent addition, even if he's not nearly as cool-looking as Sonic. You can't play as Tails in single player, unfortunately, bue he's basically a Sonic clone; he does fly into the screen after dying, but otherwise plays just like Sonic. You can even play as Knuckles in this game if you connect it to a Sonic & Knuckles cart! That's really cool. Playing as Knuckles in Sonic 2 is really fun, I like it a lot. At one point Sonic 2 with Knuckles was maybe my favorite Sonic game, in fact, though S3&K really is the best one. Knuckles has a lower jump height, but can glide and climb up walls. He also doesn't lose rings after bonus stages, which is fantastic and makes the game easier. He's great. There is also a splitscreen versus mode, for two-player competitive play. I've never found it all that exciting compared to the main game, but it's nice they added it I guess. The main game is great. Levels are large, multi-pathed, and incredibly fun to explore. Different paths can play very differently and lead to different areas and secrets, and this game encourages exploration more than the first game since not only coins and lives, but also checkpoints with their bonus-warp gates, are scattered around. This game is hard but fun, and will keep you coming back until you beat it. Sonic 2 is a fantastic classic which deserves its place as one of the all-time-great platformers. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Segas Genesis games.
Sonic Spinball - 1 player. Because Sonic 3 wouldn't be finished until 1994, Sega had its American studio Sega Technical Institute make a Sonic game for the 1993 holiday season. Instead of making a platformer like their previous work Kid Chameleon, this pinball game was the result. This game is a pinball game with a platformer-styled design to it. Sonic is mostly a pinball, but your goal is to get three Chaos Emeralds in each table so that you can move on to the next one, instead of playing for score on a preset table. Here you actually have a time limit, and the tables are gimmicky and are designed around unlocking areas to progress towards the emeralds, instead of more conventional pinball table design. Kirby's Pinball Land for Game Boy, one of the great console pinball games of the generation, also has levels and progression, but it balances things better -- those tables can be beaten, but also are great pinball tables even outside of that. Here, you just don't get that feeling, unfortunately. The physics are also extremely bouncy, so Sonic will go flying all over, without much control. Hitting what you want can be difficult. The controls are also bad -- you use A and B for the flippers, and C for both flippers. Other, better console pinball games of the era use Left on the d-pad for the left flipper and the rightmost button for the right one. That is a far better control scheme than this. You really want a thumb on each flipper, and holding the controller so one thumb is on A and the other on B isn't too comfortable. The game does look pretty nice, though. This clearly isn't a Sonic Team game, and you can tell that it's a Western game, but the graphics are good and each environment is detailed and nice-looking. The music is solid as well, though it's not main-series Sonic caliber stuff.
The game has one other major flaw, though, and it's crippling: this game is incredibly difficult. Sonic Spinball gives you three lives and zero continues. Once you've died three times, it's all the way back to the beginning of the game you go. And after the first table, the which has ball-saver platforms, there is nothing to save a ball if it drains, you just lose a life every time. I did manage to beat the first table while playing the game for this summary, but quickly got game over on the second because of this. In a progression-based game that is this hard, with random deaths inevitable thanks to the physics and genre, having no continues or saving is too cruel. Overall Sonic Spinball is an okay, average game, but it could have been better. The game can be fun to play if you can stay alive, but it has a bunch of issues which hold it back. Pinball and Sonic fans might want to try it, but this definitely isn't a must-play game. Some years after getting this game and finding it way too hard, I got the Game Gear version. The graphics there aren't nearly as good, but the game is much easier and, for me, more fun. I've beaten that game and did like it. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Segas Genesis games.
There is one issue people have with the levels in this game, though, and that's that later Sonic games emphasize speed much more than this game. Sonic is fast, but only the first world is entirely built around speed. After that the second world is a slow-paced underground stage, and then after that the game has a mixture of faster and slower elements. The water levels are the slowest, and some of the hardest, stages, as Sonic can drown if you go too long without getting an air bubble. I like good water levels in games, but Sonic's can be frustrating. The water-world's boss climb is one of the hardest parts of the game. Still, though, I like most of the slower parts of this game. The second world's great fun, even if you're not going full-speed most of the time! Maybe it was just including more conventional level-design elements out of uncertainty about how much people would like the speed the game starts with, but I like the results a lot. Each world looks different, and plays differently as well. All are fun. Yes, blasting through the first stage is great, but making your way through the lava pits in world 2 is also great! The one level-design element I will criticize is that you get no rings in the final boss fight, which makes it MUCH harder than it should be. Sadly, both of its sequels on the Genesis, and many of the Game Gear games, copy this particularly annoying design trait. You should not have to fight hard bosses without rings in Sonic, but most of the classic ones force this on you. It'll cause many game overs right at the end of the game.
Your second goal in the game is to get all of the Chaos Emerald collectables, which are in bonus stages. In this game, you get into bonus stages by reaching the end of the first or second stage in each world except for the last one with at least 50 rings, then jumping into the giant ring that appears, you will go into the bonus stage. Bonus stages are a rotating top-view maze, and you need to try to get to the center and get the Chaos Emerald in the middle, without running into an exit. In addition, if you get 50 rings in a bonus stage you get a continue. You start with no continues, so getting them in bonus stages is essential! There are ten opportunities to get into bonus stages in this game, and six chaos emeralds, so if you want to get them all and the special good ending screen, you need to do well. I've never quite managed to get all the emeralds in one run in a Genesis sonic game, but it is a fun challenge. The bonus stages in this game aren't the best in the series, but they are good, and a nice break from the main game. After the first world having to have 50 rings to get in is a real challenge and takes memorization, so it's satisfying once you finally get into a bonus stage in later levels!
Overall Sonic the Hedgehog is a fantastic game. Innovative when it released and still fresh and fun today, the first Sonic game is a fantastic experience. The game has fantastic graphics, a really good, iconic soundtrack, extremely well-polished gameplay, great levels to explore, lots of replay value, fun bonus stages, difficulty that is just about right, and more! The game doesn't have saving, and it is a lot shorter than Super Mario World and there are many fewer levels as well, but what it does have has all been done really well. The game doesn't have Mario's precision, as the speed and physics system makes things trickier, but what it does have is almost as great. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the all-time great platformers. Its sequels are even better, but the first one is fantastic as well. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Segas Genesis games. Sonic 1 has lots of ports on newer systems.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 2 & Knuckles - 1-2 player simultaneous, supports lock-on with Sonic & Knuckles (to play as Knuckles in this game). Basically Sonic the Hedgehog but better, faster, better-looking, and better-sounding, Sonic 2 is a fantastic sequel. It takes everything great about the original Sonic, removes the slower-paced stuff that many didn't like, and improves on everything else while also adding a second character and co-op multiplayer. The result is that Sonic 2 is another one of the great platformers. The engine, physics, graphical style, music, and everything else are all just as before, but better. This is a faster-paced game than the first one, as Sega listened to the critics and didn't include any slow areas like the second world of Sonic 1. It also has two playable characters, as Sonic's friend Tails is added. Tails the fox flies in, and flight is his signature move, but in this game you can't actually fly while playing, oddly. Also, in single player you play as Sonic only while Tails follows you around. Only a second player can play as Tails, but they can take control at any time, which is nice; it's not a separate mode. Tails has infinite lives, but has to stay on the same screen as Sonic, so play centers around Sonic. Still, it's a fun option and it's good they included it. While quite difficult, Sonic 2 is slightly easier than the first game. While Sonic 1 took me many years to finally complete, I finished Sonic 2 not too long after getting it back in 2006 or so. You still do have limited continues and no saving, unfortunately, and the game is probably longer than the first, but most of the game isn't quite as hard as it was before. The difficulty here is balanced well. One other change is that worlds only have two levels now, so there are more, shorter worlds than the first game. Future Sonic games would keep this games' two-levels style over the three-levels-each style of the original.
Beyond the addition of Tails, there are two major changes in Sonic 2 versus the first game. First, the Spin Dash has been added, and it's a move that ever since has been one of Sonic's most important. By hitting Jump while holding Down, you will spin in place, and then zoom off as soon as you let go. You can still spin by running and then hitting down, but this is more useful and makes level traversal easier and more fun. And second, the Chaos Emeralds are now found in new minigames which you access a new way. Instead of getting to the end of a stage with 50 rings, now you just have to reach a checkpoint post with 50 rings. Then a portal will open above the post, and if you jump up into it you go into the bonus stage. This means that now you can go into multiple bonus stages in a single level, though each post can only be used once, checkpoint posts are limited and now are often hidden on side paths, and your rings are reset to zero after leaving a bonus stage so it isn't too easy. The bonus game itself is an into-the-screen running tube. Sonic and Tails run down a tube, collecting rings and avoiding spike balls. You need to get the required number of rings by each of several points along the tube. The first bonus stage is easy, but they quickly get hard after that. While these "3d" tubes were quite impressive back in 1992, in retrospect I probably like them the least compared to Sonic 1 or 3&K's bonus levels. They're probably harder than either other kind of bonus stage, too. Still, they are fun, and it's nice that Sega mixed things up by changing the bonus stages each time. One final lesser change is continues. This time, you get a continue by getting enough bonus points in levels, instead of based on coins in bonus stages. I'm not sure if this makes getting continues easier or harder, it's sort of mixed.
Otherwise, though, Sonic 2 is more of the same. The graphics are very similar, just better. The music is familiar, but with new compositions which are just as great as the originals. The levels are like those in the first game, but bigger. Again the final boss is really tough and you have no rings for the fight, irritatingly. The new bonus stages are also frustrating, but they do look really cool and play okay once you memorize them. Tails is a decent addition, even if he's not nearly as cool-looking as Sonic. You can't play as Tails in single player, unfortunately, bue he's basically a Sonic clone; he does fly into the screen after dying, but otherwise plays just like Sonic. You can even play as Knuckles in this game if you connect it to a Sonic & Knuckles cart! That's really cool. Playing as Knuckles in Sonic 2 is really fun, I like it a lot. At one point Sonic 2 with Knuckles was maybe my favorite Sonic game, in fact, though S3&K really is the best one. Knuckles has a lower jump height, but can glide and climb up walls. He also doesn't lose rings after bonus stages, which is fantastic and makes the game easier. He's great. There is also a splitscreen versus mode, for two-player competitive play. I've never found it all that exciting compared to the main game, but it's nice they added it I guess. The main game is great. Levels are large, multi-pathed, and incredibly fun to explore. Different paths can play very differently and lead to different areas and secrets, and this game encourages exploration more than the first game since not only coins and lives, but also checkpoints with their bonus-warp gates, are scattered around. This game is hard but fun, and will keep you coming back until you beat it. Sonic 2 is a fantastic classic which deserves its place as one of the all-time-great platformers. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Segas Genesis games.
Sonic Spinball - 1 player. Because Sonic 3 wouldn't be finished until 1994, Sega had its American studio Sega Technical Institute make a Sonic game for the 1993 holiday season. Instead of making a platformer like their previous work Kid Chameleon, this pinball game was the result. This game is a pinball game with a platformer-styled design to it. Sonic is mostly a pinball, but your goal is to get three Chaos Emeralds in each table so that you can move on to the next one, instead of playing for score on a preset table. Here you actually have a time limit, and the tables are gimmicky and are designed around unlocking areas to progress towards the emeralds, instead of more conventional pinball table design. Kirby's Pinball Land for Game Boy, one of the great console pinball games of the generation, also has levels and progression, but it balances things better -- those tables can be beaten, but also are great pinball tables even outside of that. Here, you just don't get that feeling, unfortunately. The physics are also extremely bouncy, so Sonic will go flying all over, without much control. Hitting what you want can be difficult. The controls are also bad -- you use A and B for the flippers, and C for both flippers. Other, better console pinball games of the era use Left on the d-pad for the left flipper and the rightmost button for the right one. That is a far better control scheme than this. You really want a thumb on each flipper, and holding the controller so one thumb is on A and the other on B isn't too comfortable. The game does look pretty nice, though. This clearly isn't a Sonic Team game, and you can tell that it's a Western game, but the graphics are good and each environment is detailed and nice-looking. The music is solid as well, though it's not main-series Sonic caliber stuff.
The game has one other major flaw, though, and it's crippling: this game is incredibly difficult. Sonic Spinball gives you three lives and zero continues. Once you've died three times, it's all the way back to the beginning of the game you go. And after the first table, the which has ball-saver platforms, there is nothing to save a ball if it drains, you just lose a life every time. I did manage to beat the first table while playing the game for this summary, but quickly got game over on the second because of this. In a progression-based game that is this hard, with random deaths inevitable thanks to the physics and genre, having no continues or saving is too cruel. Overall Sonic Spinball is an okay, average game, but it could have been better. The game can be fun to play if you can stay alive, but it has a bunch of issues which hold it back. Pinball and Sonic fans might want to try it, but this definitely isn't a must-play game. Some years after getting this game and finding it way too hard, I got the Game Gear version. The graphics there aren't nearly as good, but the game is much easier and, for me, more fun. I've beaten that game and did like it. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Segas Genesis games.
If you manage to get through without dying Viewpoint is a bit on the short side and the game does pad its length by repeating all the old bosses in the fifth level, but with everything going on here, with the detailed prerendered backgrounds, animations, numerous enemies, additional complexity from the isometric perspective, and more, that is entirely understandable.