Sonic the Hedgehog

The Good
In Sonic The Hedgehog you play as the now famous Sonic the blue hedgehog and must save your animal friends who are being turned into evil robots for the mad scientist Dr. Ivo Robotnik and was Sega’s major and successful competition for Mario and helped boost sales for the Sega Genesis and also contributed to it’s overthrowing of the Super Nintendo and also evolved the modern platformer now mascots always are portrayed with a attitude and usually the gameplay mimics this game’s speaking of which.

Gameplay in this game has Sonic running through the level destroying robots at top speed and jumping on platforms and avoiding various obstacles like spike beds and lava in order to keep sonic alive you have to keep collecting rings and if you reach the end of the level with 50 or more rings you enter a special stage where you go through a maze to find the chaos emerald if you get all six in the sequels 7 when you beat the game you get a better ending with adds replay which otherwise a game like this doesn’t have there are three acts per stage at the end of the third act you face robotnik and have to defeat him.

The graphics are very impressive some of the best visuals for ‘91 for console games anyway cause at this point arcade looked much better and computer games anyway with the bright visuals and well designed characters and lush backgrounds.

The Bad
There are some problems this game has some stupid hard levels like labyrinth zone and scrap brain zone and why is the final boss the easiest boss in the game? Getting all the emeralds can be quite a chore considering how it hardly changes the ending its more so you can say you’ve done it and no spin dash makes some obstacles difficult to get past but its more forgivable since it’s the first one.

The Bottom Line
All in all this game is a fun one with some fantastic music particularly Starlight Zone and if you played the other ones first it will be hard to get used to the lack of spin dash but an instant classic.

The Good
Back in the days when the Sega Master System was still popular, two platform games that were worth playing were Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Wonder Boy. The former was a pack-in title that starred a monkey boy named Alex who must save the city of Radactian and defeat Janken. Alex was Sega's mascot all through the mid to late Eighties, but as the early Nineties came, Sega was getting ready to drop their official mascot and replace him with someone with a bit more attitude, in time for the release of their new machine, the Genesis. The company renamed their AM8 development studios to Sonic Team, whose purpose was to design the mascot and handle the numerous Sonic titles that followed.

The first time I got a glimpse at Sonic the Hedgehog was at a Kmart store, in which the character sped through the first three zones (courtesy of his red shoes) and the special stage that showed off the capabilities of the new machine. Mostly everyone in my school class wanted a Genesis because of that damn hedgehog, but not me. I was happy with the PC I just brought that year.

The story takes place on South Island, where Dr. Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik in North America) kidnaps the entire animal population and uses them to fuel robots, and marking the zones as his territory. Doing what other video game protagonists must do, Sonic must race through the six zones while turning the animals back to their normal selves by jumping on their heads. Move the joystick down while moving and you'll also “spin attack” any approaching enemies. There are also power-ups that can help you speed through each act or become invisible for a certain time.

Rings scattered around each of the acts play an important part in the game. Not only do they serve as protection against most enemies, but they also gives you a good chance of earning extra lives and possibly a chance at reaching the bonus stage. This bonus stage is a rotating maze that showed everyone what the Genesis was capable of, and the main goal is to gather the six chaos emeralds in each maze needed to unlock the good ending, while avoiding crashing into red goal signs. The backdrop, which consists of a bird morphing into a fish, is pretty neat.

At the end of each act, you'll come face to face with Eggman, who uses a variety of vehicles that come with their own unique weapons. I like that the game is consistent when it comes to these boss battles. To defeat him, you hit somewhere on the vehicle, the same way you jump on enemies to turn them back.

Each zone has an unique layout with some stunning backdrops. The first zone, for instance, has rolling hills and “loop-de-loops”. The second contains marble structures and lava pools/waterfalls, while in the Labyrinth Zone, Sonic spends most of his time underwater. Although the developers encourage you to speed though each zone, I prefer to take it easy as not to collide with enemies or traps, and still manage to conquer each zone in under ten minutes.

The soundtrack for Sonic the Hedgehog is brilliantly composed and is unique to each zone. The music for Scrap Brain Zone is reminiscent of Vangelis' theme music for “Blade Runner”, complete with drums at the end of each verse. I like hearing the warning tone in the Labyrinth Zone when Sonic needs to go up for air.

The Bad
Getting fifty rings to get access to the bonus stage becomes irrelevant as you enter the sixth zone, where it is then a matter of finding the right exit out of the acts. Also, the developers encourage you to speed through each act, but try to do it for a long time and you will likely bump into an enemy or trap.

The Bottom Line
After serving as the official mascot for Sega for quite a while, it was time for Alex Kidd to hand the reigns over to Sonic the Hedgehog, whose cool attitude and shiny red shoes helped him get inside people's households the world over. Sonic has great graphics, an excellent soundtrack, as well as mechanics that weren't introduced in a game before this one. It certainly sold well enough to warrant a sequel.

The Good
Sonic the Hedgehog was the game that really launched the Mega Drive & was one of the first games that I brought with my own cash. It took me a while to save up for but it was more than worth it.

Playing the game Hero, Sonic, a blue hedgehog who can run extremely fast you have to run & jump across several levels, split into 3 'acts' to defeat Dr Robotnik, who represents in a different form every time the final guardian of each level.

He has enslaved the cute little animals of Sonics home planet Mobieus via the power held in the Chaos Emeralds, which he has unceremoniously stolen. The premise of the game to defeat him and collect them in order to replace them.

The main selling power of this game was the pace at which it was played. With the emphasis on speed it allows for a greater arcade experience. This is what a gamer truly wants, at any age. A fun game with pacy, well detailed action.

The difficulty could be said to be to easy, but I think that is just about perfect. It means that any gamer can enjoy it as they will be able to progress without feeling robbed.

All that accompanied by excellent in game music, top graphics & pleasant sprite animation this game was a joy to play.

The Bad
There were some minor graphical glitches which can be irksome.

The Bottom Line
The game that re-ignited the platform genre. A must play.