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LTTP: Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis Origins

R

RK128

Member
*This is NOT about the GBA port, which was horrible X(. This is about the Genesis original. Sorry for the confusion everyone*

Hello :D.

I posted threads on Sonic Heroes and Sonic R, so logically, next up should be Sonic 1, the game that started it all.

s1-bginfo-detailsimg5full.jpg


I played through this years ago and loved it, but I want to go back to this, as I want to play through a lot of games in the series this year to celebrate the anniversary.

So, lets all scream......SSSEEEEGGGAAA!

*Cough*

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The core gameplay is what we all know and love; a blue hedgehog that runs fast named Sonic runs through colorful zones to stop a round man name Dr. Robotnick from trapping innocent creatures inside robots. You go through six zones with three acts before facing him one final time to save the day!

Sounds simple and that is Sonic's charm; the game is simple to control with only one button to jump and the D-Pad to run and roll. But the games mechanics are interesting; Sonic is all about maintaining your speed and playing with the level to get the best path.

For example, you can roll down a hill and build up crazy amounts of speed, then launch high in the air and collect a ton of rings. Or, you can just run down the hill and get some of the rings. Or even just jump before you hit the incline, and progress down the lower path.

Level design like this allows the game to feel fresh and interesting, allowing you to try to get the best times for repeated replays.

Anyway, the first zone is Green Hill Zone and we all know it:
s1-ghz-summaryimg.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPRG1Fpp00U&index=18&list=PL6akIKaXBeU3ZcOnOYpRBl94Q-brvs_cs

Iconic music beating in the background as you run through a great opening level. Mechanics are introduced naturally across the three acts and you fight against Robotinik using a ball-and-chain weapon. Very easy fight but still, a nice opening to this classic.

The rest of the levels are interesting as they push more Mario-like platforming instead of the speed-focused nature that Green Hill give the impression of.

Marble Zone is enjoyable for its great theme and enjoyable platforming, leading into the great Spring Yard Zone which brings back the high-speed fun from Green Hill while also introducing pinball mechanics that a sequel plays around with in the future.

Didn't get to the last three zones yet with my playthrough and will comment on them once I beat the game.

Love Sonic 1 and its an enjoyable 2D platformer :).
 
melted my brain first time i played it.

funny enough i never ended up owning it, even though it's available on everything all these years later. i should fix that
 
For a second, thanks to Anth0ny's Shadow the Hedgehog LTTP thread I thought you mean Sonic GENESIS for GBA.

I was afraid for a moment, but then came to my sense :P

...

Funny enough, this wasn't my first Sonic game. Sonic 2 was. Fun game, definitely the rough 2D Sonic experience but had some good ideas here and there. Sonic didn't really get his stride until Sonic 2 and so on. It was super jarring to play this after the sequel and say "Where is my spindash? Why did the spikes kill me instantly? Where' Tails?"

Good times...good times.
 
I love all the early Sonic games, but in hindsight it was really weird to center a 2D platformer on speed. Did people complain about Mario being too slow or something?

That's why I always preferred Knuckles once he was introduced. It made slowing down and exploring the levels a part of the game.
 
120v said:
melted my brain first time i played it.
Click to expand...

Same here man. I got it with a Genesis for my birthday one year. I didn't even know what a Genesis was! I don't think that could happen today. Anyways I remember there were a bunch of neighborhood kids there too for the party (I guess people call those things "friends") and we were all blown away by Sanic because all we knew were NES games (although one of them did have a Master System).
I guess it wasn't mind-blowingy as when I first saw the Kilrathi talk in Wing Commander 2, but that was a damn good surprise gift. Good times...
 
For a few brief years of my childhood, Sonic the Hedgehog was my LIFE. Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, plus the first two cartoons and the Archie Comics...

I will say I recently replayed the early Sonic games and...I don't quite love them so much now. Still fine games, but they just don't click with me anymore.

Younger me always disliked Sonic 1 because I preferred playing as Tails.
 
Strangelove77 said:
I love all the early Sonic games, but in hindsight it was really weird to center a 2D platformer on speed. Did people complain about Mario being too slow or something?

That's why I always preferred Knuckles once he was introduced. It made slowing down and exploring the levels a part of the game.
Click to expand...

mascot platformers were a dime a dozen in the early 90s. whether intentional or not it was a brilliant way to shake up the formula.

still a very impressive looking game for 1991 though regardless
 
Strangelove77 said:
I love all the early Sonic games, but in hindsight it was really weird to center a 2D platformer on speed. Did people complain about Mario being too slow or something?
Click to expand...

I think that Yuji Naka basically did! There was some quote from him in a late issue of Nintendo Power about how he loved playing Super Mario Bros. 1 but really disliked how long it felt to replay everything once you were good at it, and that's a big part of where Sonic 1 came from.

Strangelove77 said:
That's why I always preferred Knuckles once he was introduced. It made slowing down and exploring the levels a part of the game.
Click to expand...

That, or you could just glide right over the entire level some of the time, P-Wing-style.

For my part, I was entranced by it when it was new, and seriously impressed by the "SE-GA!" voice sample at the time (which famously took up something like 25% of the cartridge space). At the same time, that it was so linear and lacked a map screen when I'd been playing Mario 3 for a year felt a bit behind the times in spite of all of the strides in platformer physics that the game offered.

In introducing the game to the U.S., Sega did a mall tour sponsored by Nickelodeon where you could watch and play Sonic 1 and Mario World (I don't believe that either were released in the U.S. yet) side-by-side, with the intention of making the Mario series look slow and outmoded, but at the time, it just made me more excited for Mario World ("this looks and sounds even better than the Mario World cartoon!"). I wound up really liking Sonic 1 though, but without a doubt, it's been eclipsed by Sonic 2 and (my beloved) Sonic 3/Knuckles, even Sonic CD. Mostly, I still just want to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles all the time.

FWIW, Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis didn't seem nearly as bad to me on an actual GBA as it did in an emulator, though it was still bad
 
Great game.

It suffers a bit from the difficulty curve being all over the place, but that was because things got shuffled around at the last minute so I let that slide a little.

But we need to have some special stage screenshots in here.

maxresdefault.jpg


Sonic%201%20-%20The%20Special%20Stages%20(demo)-2.png
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I love how trippy the backgrounds look. You can see the design influence that carries over into Sonic CD.
 
If you all notice, the thread name is changed, so now people won't get confused between this and the GBA port :D.

Might as well talk about the GBA port for a bit though. It was a badly rushed effort Sonic Team (not Dimps, Sonic Team) to port Sonic 1 to the GBA. So, this meant a lot of bad things :(.

The music sounds off, the slowdown is horrid, the controls feel sluggish, and special stages are really strange physics wise, and the game has a lot more glitches and cheap moments compared to the original thanks to the screen crunch.

Very bad port and I don't recommend anyone that version of Sonic. The best versions are on the Saturn via Sonic Jam (where you have the spin-dash), Sonic 1 3D Classic for the 3DS (with Spin Dash and added 3D support) and the iOS/Android version of Sonic 1 which has a lot of stuff (Tails and Knuckles as unlockable characters, spin-dash, ect).
 
I prefer Sonic 2 more.
However Green Hill is a very nicely crafted set of stages/acts:
The first act is easy and has a few rings you can pick up by jumping, you pass by the bridge hat has robo piranhas too.

In act 2, the first set of rings you find are on the ground particularly on the bridge that enemy piranhas could hit you from.
To the average child his would've immediately turned them off from getting those rings.

Then in Act 3 you start without any ings nearby for a good 10-15 seconds! But hidden in one of the palm tries is an invincibility power up, which you can use to proress through the early section without dying.
 
Tizoc said:
I prefer Sonic 2 more.
However Green Hill is a very nicely crafted set of stages/acts:
The first act is easy and has a few rings you can pick up by jumping, you pass by the bridge hat has robo piranhas too.

In act 2, the first set of rings you find are on the ground particularly on the bridge that enemy piranhas could hit you from.
To the average child his would've immediately turned them off from getting those rings.

Then in Act 3 you start without any ings nearby for a good 10-15 seconds! But hidden in one of the palm tries is an invincibility power up, which you can use to proress through the early section without dying.
Click to expand...

Green Hill is a really well thought out set of acts, I will agree Tizoc :). Will talk about Sonic 2 a lot more latter but I always preferred that to the original. But I beat the original years ago, where I replay Sonic 2 once every year. So, who knows, I might have different thoughts on both Sonic 1 and 2 this year :D.
 
Loved the game when it came out on the megadrive, loved it on Sonic Jam with the spindash addition, and loved both the recent remakes - Taxman's and M2's.

2, CD, 3 & K were all better though.

Was it spring yard that had that rolly robot guy who could follow you? Great enemy. Also, Star Light Zone is one of the greatest BGM's ever.

Masato Nakamura FTW
 
DiipuSurotu said:
This cover art is so '90s. I love it.
Click to expand...

Love how EU/JP Classic Sonic looks :'). So iconic, like Mickey Mouse or Mario. Like the American Classic Sonic too, but there is this charm to the Classic era that Sonic Team captured so well with the early Sonic's.

I keep saying that word, 'Charm', when talking about Classic Sonic-like art styles and visuals.....but there really is a timeless 90's charm to it all.
 
Might be my most played game of all time. Played recently in 3DS in that amazing M2's 3D port. It's still an incredible game, really fun, visually great and the music is superb. Star Light zone is the best level of the game but all the rest are memorable.

I think Sonic 1 is better than 2. Yep, i said it
 
It's a shame those mobile remakes are trapped on phones, they'd be amazing on consoles and handhelds. At least we have M2 to save us.
 
Legendary game. I love Labyrinth Zone.

Back then, the game was really impressive. It was the starting point of a whole new generation of much more advanced games on the Genesis.
 
Playing the PAL version made the music sound weird, like it was too slow. It wasn't until much later that I realized the whole game was actually slowed down because of the lower framerate of the PAL format, and because the timing of everything in the game was tied to the frames.

This was luckily corrected in the sequels, but the first game felt a bit odd because of that issue.

Still a good game even in the PAL version.
 
I can't really bring myself to replay this game. Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone are just so bad. Also, I'm just too used to the spin dash lol.

Which is a shame, because I really enjoy all the other zones in this game. Starlight Zone is still one of my favorites of the 2D games.
 
First Sonic on Megadrive is pure Sega blue skies bliss, emotion and feels.

I know Sonic Cd and S3&Knuckles are some kind of gigantic masterpieces.
But this one is my favorite. Soundtrack is full of magic and level design IMHO is out of this world.

I am madly in love with this game.
 
IronicSonic said:
Might be my most played game of all time. Played recently in 3DS in that amazing M2's 3D port. It's still an incredible game, really fun, visually great and the music is superb. Star Light zone is the best level of the game but all the rest are memorable.

I think Sonic 1 is better than 2. Yep, i said it
Click to expand...

Pretty much my thoughts. Not my most played ever but a great game nonetheless, and my favourite of 1 and 2. Love the music.
 
I just played this for the first time recently. I have to say, I wasn't the biggest fan of how stages seemed to copy and paste certain areas, and I quit the game at Scrap Brain because I just wasn't having fun. I loved the sequels though

Poltergust said:
I can't really bring myself to replay this game. Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone are just so bad. Also, I'm just too used to the spin dash lol.

Which is a shame, because I really enjoy all the other zones in this game. Starlight Zone is still one of my favorites of the 2D games.
Click to expand...
I played the Taxman iOS ports and it gives you the option to use the spin dash in Sonic 1. I would have gone crazy without it having more experience with Sonic 2 beforehand.
 
Sonic 1 feels like a game where you should be able to pick your stage, Mega Man-style. The layouts are a bit trickier, and the game has a habit of surprising you with tricks and secrets that are harder to find when you're always charging through from Green Hill on. Heck, there's a platform in one of the zones that will take you to an alternate location, but only if you have a specific number of rings. Nothing else like that in the game, but it's there.

Edit: Come to think of it, I think there was a tunnel that redirected you based on number of rings too, but I can't say which game that was.


Sonic 2 and on were a little more straightforward, which honestly, I appreciate.
 
Decided to continue my playthrough with the 3DS version of Sonic 1 and wow is it an amazing port :D!

The spin-dash option is great, the emulation is really impressive and I like how the game controls with the 2DS D-Pad. Got up to Marble Zone Act 3 with Three Chaos Emeralds, so progressing nicely :).
 
RK128 said:
Love how EU/JP Classic Sonic looks :'). So iconic, like Mickey Mouse or Mario. Like the American Classic Sonic too, but there is this charm to the Classic era that Sonic Team captured so well with the early Sonic's.

I keep saying that word, 'Charm', when talking about Classic Sonic-like art styles and visuals.....but there really is a timeless 90's charm to it all.
Click to expand...

The Canadian box art was identical to the European box, but with the Mega Drive logo's swapped for the Genesis ones.

98383-sonic-the-hedgehog-genesis-front-cover.jpg
Click to expand...


I never really liked the look of Sonic in the US box. He was always drawn very wonky and off model, and I never really liked the harsh air brushing.
 
cireza said:
Master System version was amazing. Played it so much. I think that I even prefer it to the Genesis game. I also love Sonic 2 on Master System.
Click to expand...
Yes. I also like Master System Sonic 1 more than the Mega Drive original. I love how the chaos emeralds are just hidden in the main levels instead of a bonus stage. This makes exploration more rewarding. I also like the soundtrack a bit more.

I didn't like MS Sonic 2 that much though.
 
MrCunningham said:
The Canadian box art was identical to the European box, but with the Mega Drive logo's swapped for the Genesis ones.




I never really liked the look of Sonic in the US box. He was always drawn very wonky and off model, and I never really liked the harsh air brushing.
Click to expand...

It was this weird, completely out of nowhere trend exclusive to US marketing at the time

nes_megaman4_cib_palu9nrdp.jpg
 
cireza said:
Master System version was amazing. Played it so much. I think that I even prefer it to the Genesis game. I also love Sonic 2 on Master System.
Click to expand...

Same, except for the Sonic 2 on Master System. I find it crappy as fuck. ;P
 
I'll never forget staring at this running on a Mega Drive through the window of an electronics shop the Christmas Eve before I got it. Blew me away playing it for the first time. 2 is the best MD Sonic for me, but it's hard to beat the nostalgia and impact of the original.
 
Strangelove77 said:
I love all the early Sonic games, but in hindsight it was really weird to center a 2D platformer on speed. Did people complain about Mario being too slow or something?

That's why I always preferred Knuckles once he was introduced. It made slowing down and exploring the levels a part of the game.
Click to expand...

I loved the Mario games to death as a kid (and now). In the SNES/Genesis days, I can remember wanting to play something equally well designed but with more speed and challenge. Sonic was always kind of a different thing, though. Speed usually served a more aesthetic purpose while actual platforming segments moved at a normal pace. Still loved Sonic 3 to death, though.

Incidentally, I felt like Super Meat Boy was that game I always hoped for as a kid.
 
cireza said:
Master System version was amazing. Played it so much. I think that I even prefer it to the Genesis game. I also love Sonic 2 on Master System.
Click to expand...

I just discovered the Master System version through building a RetroPie RaspberryPi 2 emulation box. It is amazing! Honestly, I never knew that Sonic was released on that platform up until about a week ago. I fired up the ROM and was pleasantly surprised. It's really good and really nice looking.
 
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