Sonic The Hedgehog

[GaryPotter]

Oh boy these cutscenes are gloriously awful. Nevermind the cheesy voices and stupid dialogue, the animations are so goofy. They all look like puppets controlled by strings. There's this one scene where Sonic throws Eggman's note to Knuckles and I nearly burst out laughing.

[Foggle]

Someone needs to play all the main 3D games starting from Adventure to Generations and document their experiences.

But playing Sonic 06?? Ouch.

I'd do it, but I outright refuse to pay money for 06, Black Knight, or Secret Rings.

[Rynnec]

Someone needs to play all the main 3D games starting from Adventure to Generations and document their experiences.

But playing Sonic 06?? Ouch.

I'd do it, but I outright refuse to pay money for 06, Black Knight, or Secret Rings.

Black Knight and Secret Rings aren't mainline 3D games though. I'd say your good, but the fact is that between wasting money on 06 or the Storybook games, the latter is the lesser of the two evils.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, Secret Rings and Black Knight are side games. These are the main games:

Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic The Hedgehog CD
Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 / Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Heroes
Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Colors
Sonic Generations

But doing the 2D games wouldn't really make any sense.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, we certainly can't have Foggle playing through the classic Sonic games in this series play-through. Those are actually GOOD games, and of course we know that we can't allow Foggle to have that much genuine fun playing through any of these games.

In fact I'd say he should skip the SA games as well. While they may be flawed games, they do have enough fun moments and aren't as cheaply designed as many of the later 3D games, so in that regard they wouldn't be nearly frustrating enough to drive Foggle up the wall. I say that we should make Foggle start with Sonic Heroes and move on from there.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Heck, I might do it myself if I can find a copy of Sonic 06 for the 360 around here for cheap. For some reason I can only seem to find the PS3 version or the game costs way too much. It's the only main Sonic game I don't own aside from the Wii version of Unleashed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'll write my brief review of Sonic 1 by Zone, then move onto Sonic 2 at some other point, and then Sonic 3 and then Knuckles (I'll count them separately since I'm reviewing them by Zone rather than as a full game).

So lets start with Sonic 1:

Green Hill Zone- Its so standard to any Sonic fan now that you don't really stop to think about it, but to me this zone shows that it clearly had a lot of time and thought put into its development. Its a very, very basic zone that by no means requires the full arsenal of Sonic's skills to complete (though you can use them to get to better paths), but it is the perfect beginner level for a Sonic game, and really that's what the whole point of this level was. Yeah, its honestly kind of bland in terms of both level design and music RELATIVE great Sonic level that were later to come, both in this game and future ones, but it was also arguably the most important level in any Sonic game, ever. It essentially taught players how to play a Sonic game, and that's a big deal since Sonic is extremely unique, and not really much like any other platformer that I can think of. I mean, sure, you do run and jump and do all that fun stuff, but the way you utilize Sonic's skills to do it makes the whole game what it is. Its easy to just look at Sonic's speed and call it nothing more than a gimmick, but that's just plane untrue as this level clearly shows that speed is also a necessity in playing these games, whether its to get through loop or 2 or to make it through great distances as quickly as possible. That said, being that its a level for beginners, its not quite as much fun to replay as other levels in the series. It does have lots of alternate paths and is pretty big, but its also....extremely easy and completely shallow. The boss fight is also pretty lame and uninspired. Still, making a beginner's level to a Sonic game is probably a lot harder of a job than it seems, and this was the perfect way to get players started out with how to properly control the Blue Hedgehog.

Marble Zone- Alright, after everything Green Hill Zone did to teach you about how to use Sonic's speed and how to play the game in general, the game totally throws you off by giving you this level....which is the exact opposite of Green Hill Zone. It doesn't play to any of the strengths of Sonic's speed and for all intensive purposes, its just a regular platforming level, as in something you could easily imagine yourself seeing in a generic NES platformer. Its not badly designed or anything like that, and its not a cheap or frustrating level (on the contrary, its quite easy to anyone who has played their fair share of platformers before), but its just simply put not a Sonic level. I guess my problem with it, more than anything else, is that I think its boring. The music is OK, I guess, but it also has a very slow and kind of uninspired theme to it, so its hard for me to get into the stage. Also, since it moves slower than other stages in the game, it feels like it takes too long to complete. One of my problems with Sonic 1 was that each zone had 3 acts to it, which IMO made them end up feeling too long by the time I got to the 3rd act of each zone, and this was especially the case with this level because of how slow it moves. So, really, more than anything else, I just feel that this stage drags on for far too long, and once again the boss fight isn't anything to write home about, either. In fact, the boss fights in this game in general were always kind of lame, to me. It wasn't until Sonic 2 and later Sonic games that they started getting at least a little bit more creative with them, but to be fair the boss fights were never the draw of Sonic games in the first place.

I'll review the rest of the zones later on, but one thing I'll mention about the game in general is that after playing the sequels, I kind of have to say that the lack of the spin-dash in this game really bothers me. Now its like a necessary staple of any 2D Sonic game, but its hard to believe that the 1st game never had it. i really think its an extremely useful feature that really added a lot of the game, but to be fair Sonic can still do a spin maneuver while he's running, so that's better than not being able to spin at all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, Marble Zone doesn't really do anything amazing, but I do think it's the best possible second level for the game after Green Hill introduces so many new things. Any other level probably would have been too much to digest. But it should have at least had more branching paths. It still beats the possibility that Labyrinth Zone was going to be the second zone. Imagine how damaging to the series that might have been.

But you can't really argue with how great and important Green Hill was. Heck, they've used the same basic zone with a different title in how many Sonic games now?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Green Hill alone may have in fact played a large part in contributing to the popularity of this series. In terms of first impressions, I can't imagine a better choice than that, since if they used one of the later Sonic levels it would be way too much for a beginner to deal with. Also, if Labyrinth Zone did indeed become the 2nd Zone in the 1st Sonic game, it may have killed the series from ever become as popular as it was, right from the start. I can say myself that when I was a kid, I may have given up on it myself before ever getting to see the rest of the game, and that'd certainly be a shame. But, don't worry, I'll cover everything that's wrong with Labyrinth Zone when I get down to reviewing it a little while later.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sonic 4 Episode 2 has been unveiled






So it looks like we've got an Aquatic Ruin type zone, a Christmas Island zone (where Sonic was born?), a giant rollercoaster, and a desert base level. So far graphically and art style wise this looks way better than the first part.

[gunswordfist]

*starts crying* I'll keep an eye on this now.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Upon further inspection these are loafers, the Christmas level and the Rollercoaster level are the same zone! Christmas Coaster Zone?

Can't wait to see some gameplay!

[Rynnec]

Those screens look gorgeous. Gonna keep my eye on this one.

[gunswordfist]

Upon further inspection these are loafers, the Christmas level and the Rollercoaster level are the same zone! Christmas Coaster Zone?

Can't wait to see some gameplay!

Oh whoa!  I bet that level would look beautiful in motion.

[talonmalon333]

I think it's this image that gets me going. Simply beautiful.



Clearly it's a result of them not having to downgrade it for the Wii, which is kind of cool. But I really hope it comes out for the Wii U.

I think that as a whole, Episode I felt like it was lazily handled as a whole. Even for the Wii, the graphics were pretty mediocre, and we all know about the issue with the physics... With Episode II, it seems like they're more concerned with making something fresh while staying true to the style of the classics, rather than merely try to emulate them in vain like Episode I did.