(Originally published to Glitchwave on 3/23/2022)
[Image from igdb.com]
Sonic the Hedgehog
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Genre(s): 2D Platformer
Platforms: Genesis
Release Date: June 23, 1991
Sonic certainly wouldn't have garnered his reputation if Sega had never done anything right with him. I'm more convinced that the appeal of Sonic the Hedgehog was based on presentation than anything else. One point that the cavalier commercial kept stating is that the Genesis system had something that Nintendo didn't have called "blast processing." While the phrase seemed like a radical buzzword meant to sucker in unknowing children, the ambiguous term had some technical legitimacy in detailing the unique components of the Sega Genesis. The console was much more capable of faster processing performance than the Nintendo consoles, which meant that its games could run at unprecedented speeds, and the competitors would literally have trouble keeping up. Because of this, Sonic is a character built for speed. Along with graphics, quicker performance was once a vital point of progress in the earlier days of gaming, and Sega's blue mascot was a pivotal leap of headway in this regard. Sega crafted Sonic to make every other video game character eat his proverbial dust and use the "blast processing" to do so. One might wonder if this is a shallow strut that would only impress the uninitiated children so used to 8-bit characters who moved as rigidly as robots. In some ways, the glamor of what Sonic initially offered has lost its luster in time, but the speed imperative that defined Sonic in his early days remains effective. A factor of Sonic's general snarky attitude is his impatience. He'll tap his foot and give the player an irritated look if they idly sit back and let Sonic stand in one place for only a few seconds. The title screen introduces Sonic as he wags his finger at the player before a demo reel of the game suddenly upstarts, assuming that the player has dropped the controller. When the player presses the start button, they are catapulted into the first level like they've found themselves on the autobahn. The speed element of Sonic the Hedgehog always makes his games feel like the equivalent of a rollercoaster and exudes the sense of the adrenaline rush that comes with it. It's a component of Sonic that is unique to the series, and it's impressive that a game as early as the dawn of the 16-bit era could display this lightning-fast pace effectively.
One might wonder how Sonic can propel himself through the level at calamitous speeds and not have to worry about dying. The rings are one of Sonic's most notable idiosyncrasies, and it's still a health system unique to the series. The rings act as a life currency, and collecting 100 rings will grant the player an extra life like the coins in Super Mario Bros. What makes these rings different is their special property that protects Sonic. When Sonic gets hit, rings that he has collected burst from him with a sharp clanging sound and his total number plummets to zero. The player will get an opportunity to collect some of the rings as collateral to stave off getting a game over. With this system, it doesn't matter how many rings Sonic has as long as he has at least one on his person. The system is perfect for a game like Sonic the Hedgehog because his precarious nature will naturally cause him to make more mistakes than the average 2D platformer character. The rings provide a sense of leniency and are a perfect method of providing a fair disciplinary curve to Sonic's high-octane gameplay without breaking the pacing.
The level in the first Sonic the Hedgehog title that highlights Sonic's speedy capabilities is Green Hill Zone: the very first level of the game. This mountainous, quasi-tropical setting filled with rocky crags, varied vegetation, and water that twinkles in the background makes for quite possibly the most gorgeous level in a video game at the time. All the listed elements make Green Hill Zone look like a 16-bit Garden of Eden, but with rollercoaster loops as part of the terra firma. More importantly, its design is perfect for highlighting the strengths of Sonic's fast gameplay. As the player is propelled into this land with the press of the start button, the player is naturally inclined to move forward with no context, just like World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Unlike the opening level of Mario's first game, the player needn't be too cautious about running into the first enemy they see and dying immediately. Sonic's speed initiative allows him to be more free-flowing than the typical 2D platformer character, and the non-linear design of Green Hill Zone accommodates this tremendously. Sonic must get to a single exit point on the map, but there are many paths he can take to get there. For example, Green Hill Zone offers the player a choice between a lower and higher land level with different hazards. The player is also not confined to one of these paths and can alternate between many of them to eventually reach the goal. Experimenting with the various paths can even reward the player in some instances, like uncovering speed shoes, shields, and extra lives. It feels so gratifying to bounce off the series of enemies while maintaining a swift momentum. Getting to the end of the level gives the player the joyful rush of finishing a marathon. Green Hill Zone is a perfect first level, and I'd argue it deserves a more iconic status than the first level of Super Mario Bros. It accomplishes so much as an introduction to Sonic and his world to an impressive degree.
The unfortunate thing about perfection is that everything else pales in comparison, which is certainly the case for the rest of the levels in Sonic the Hedgehog. I get the impression that the developers designed Green Hill Zone as a tutorial level, an easy sample of what to expect from Sonic, and the general feel of the game before letting the player loose into more hostile territory. Usually, increasing the difficulty of the levels as the game progresses is a natural course of action. Unfortunately, Sega's idea of increasing the difficulty in Sonic the Hedgehog contradicts everything that made Green Hill Zone spectacular. Marble Zone, the level that directly follows Green Hill Zone, is one of the most egregious examples of difficulty curve whiplash in gaming. It's a ruins-themed area loaded with giant moving columns, spike chandelier booby traps, and flowing lava. These obstacles transform Sonic from being the fastest video game character alive to the most skittish because acting tentative is the only way to avoid death at this level. Not to mention, each hazard will have the player waiting for a lengthy period seeking an opportunity to bypass them safely. Sonic taps his foot impatiently at me while he's floating glacially on a square block in the lava or waiting for a moving pillar to go upward, and I empathize with his anxiety. I just wish he would focus his frustration on the developers instead of on me. Marble Zone is a tedious level with too many hazards to effectively exude the same sense of fast-paced gameplay seen in Green Hill Zone. Some of the platforming sections in this level are tight enough, but they would better fit any 2D platformer character other than Sonic.
The problem is that Marble Zone isn't the black sheep of the first Sonic game with an unfortunate placement after the first level. None of the following levels keep the same momentum as the game's first zone. Spring Yard Zone and Star Light Zone are designed less stringent than Marble Zone, but both levels make Sonic stop for sections involving giant moving platforms that can crush Sonic and bomb enemies that must be avoided that make Sonic come to a screeching halt. However, for all of its poor design choices regarding Sonic the Hedgehog, Marble Zone isn't even the worst offender. Labyrinth Zone is a claustrophobic nightmare. The developers thought it would be fun to have "the world's fastest video game character" slog through water for most of the level, all while avoiding spike hazards galore. By slogging through water, I don't mean swimming. Sonic's standard pace of movement is made sluggish by traversing long periods of underwater sections. Unlike Mario, the developers do not suspend the player's sense of reality by having Sonic breathe underwater. Sonic will drown if he is under the water for too long, accompanied by the most harrowing music track possible. Set this music as an alarm to wake you up in the morning, and you'll throw your alarm clock/phone across the room to shut it up. To bypass the agitating drowning track, Sonic must wait patiently for a sizable air bubble to pop out of the ground and will have to make every bubble pit stop to be safe. It makes the obstacles presented in Marble Zone look exhilarating by comparison. Labyrinth Zone would be abysmal in any 2D platformer, but the fact that its sluggish pacing is present in a Sonic game makes it all the more insulting. Once the player overcomes this travesty, the developers give the player one last kick in the balls by making the final act of Scrap Brain Zone essentially more Labyrinth Zone, but if the water was colored like cough syrup. I'd rather instead be abusing cough syrup than play anything like Labyrinth Zone.
These problematic, heinous levels after Green Hill Zone must also be completed in no more than three lives. Sonic the Hedgehog is not a long game, so the developers have decided to give the game an arcade style of difficulty to pad out the experience. This method of difficulty is one of my gaming pet peeves that should've gone the wayside once playing video game consoles at home became the norm. Nevertheless, it persisted in the early 2D eras, and the first Sonic game is one of the most unfair examples of this practice. Because Sonic moves at precarious speeds, the player will likely not anticipate the obstacles on their first go-around, making for a game that exudes a "trial and error" method of difficulty. The rings are an acceptable way to get around this, but they do not account for instant death casualties like falling and being sandwiched between two objects. Every death counts in Sonic the Hedgehog, and losing all of them makes the player start from the first act of Green Hill Zone. This arcade-style of game overs is already preposterously unfair to the player in any game, but this is especially so in Sonic 1 because the game encourages the player to run at speeds at which they won't foresee what's coming them. The game doesn't even give the player any clemency with extra lives. Collecting 100 rings will net the player an extra life, but good luck trying to preserve them. Life boxes are sparse enough that the player shouldn't expect to rely on finding them to stock up on lives. The only other option is to do the special stages, but they can only be unlocked by having a certain number of rings by the end of a level. That and their finicky design makes for yet another layer of difficulty in getting extra lives. The only silver lining about repeatedly restarting the game is that Green Hill Zone is the first level.
The boss fights in Sonic the Hedgehog are technically just as repetitive as fighting Bowser in Super Mario Bros. The main villain Sonic must defeat after every level is Dr. Robotnik, a mad scientist whose goal is to transform the cute and cuddly denizens of the land of Mobius into hostile robot servants who act as enemies in the game. He appears with a new flying contraption at the end of every act, with some having a wrecking ball at the end, a lava spurter that engulfs the ground with fire, a needle that picks up debris, etc. Sonic must hit him a certain number of times to defeat him and pop a capsule filled with intact animals in a capsule after the fight. Each encounter requires a different strategy to contend with and the final fight is a tense duel that tests the player's reflexes. While each boss is technically the same, Robotnik's varied ideas to defeat Sonic with his hovercraft are more refreshing than most boss encounters in the Mario games.
Sega presented both their 16-bit console and their mascot with brash swagger. They exalted their status as the new reigning gaming champions right out of the gate, and some people were thoroughly convinced. Based on Sonic's first title on the Sega Genesis, I feel Sega's overconfidence blew up in their faces. Sonic the Hedgehog has many stellar attributes to brag about in many regards. The console's "blast processing" gave leeway to design a video game with an unparalleled speed that blew every 8-bit game on the NES out of the water from a technical standpoint. Sonic was exciting, and there was nothing quite like him at the time. Unfortunately, the only aspect of Sega's braggadocious demeanor that can be supported by the content of Sonic the Hedgehog is Green Hill Zone: the superior level that fully realizes the potential of Sonic and makes the game fun. Every other level gives off the impression that Sonic's initial prerogative of exhilarating speed was lost in the development cycle to an appalling degree. The company cannot seriously support their confidence with one measly level, leaving me unconvinced of Sonic's quality in his early days.
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