Sonic Mania Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 2/12/2023)

[Image from glitchwave.com]

Sonic Mania

Developer: Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, PagodaWest Games

Publisher: Sega

Genre(s): 2D Platformer

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Release Date: August 15, 2017

I often imagine a scene in which a team of penguin-suited executives at Sega pace around a corporate office room, racking their brains on how to reinvigorate Sonic the Hedgehog’s status in the public eye. When the sun rises to signal the dawn of a new day, the exhausted executives decide in their haggard, caffeinated state to stick with the maligned 3D format, adding a new gimmick to the next game to discern it from the previous blunder that spurred this stress-inducing meeting in the first place. After playing a fair selection of games from Nintendo’s former industry rival, I’ve concluded that Sega’s failure can be attributed to an insistence on flaunting a shallow, superfluous style that negates a substance that allowed Nintendo’s titles to remain relevant past their initial buzz. I criticize Nintendo vociferously for their stringent 3D mandate during the N64 era, but Sega has become a worse offender in prolonging this charade. Sega never seems to realize that their insistence on rendering Sonic in the third dimension has further contributed to the mockery of their once beloved blue mascot, and this is coming from someone who would take a bullet to defend both Sonic Adventure titles. It’s simply a bad business decision to ignore that Sonic’s zealous fans all clamor for the classic 2D era that launched Sonic into superstardom, especially since 2D gaming has resurfaced in popularity for the modern gaming zeitgeist. Their dimensional hybrid anniversary title Sonic Generations, merely pussyfooted around the prospect of returning to Sonic’s roots, for 3D Sonic was still given more precedence over his older, quainter 2D counterpart instead of distributing an equal share of both eras. At this point, if Sega weren’t going to bless the deferred Sonic fans with another classic Sonic game, the solution was to make one themselves. Sonic Mania is the result of fans finally satiating their classic Sonic cravings, feeding themselves a lovely home-cooked meal after learning their mom’s old recipe instead of having food delivered.

To call Sonic Mania a long-awaited sequel to the classic Sonic titles is a bit of a misnomer. Instead of being a sequel in the traditional sense of the word, Sonic Mania is a remastered compilation of handpicked levels from the classic Sonic trilogy on the Genesis (plus Sonic CD, imprinting a mark the one Sega CD outlier has even deeper in the golden age of Sonic) with a fresh batch of original levels and composing them into a sequential narrative format that mirrors a concise Sonic title. Once the drooling mob of Sonic fans hears this, their panting anticipation may quickly shift to crestfallen disappointment. Sure, Sonic Mania is a loyal return to form, but to the extent where the game seems like a recycled mishmash of levels we’ve already played ad nauseam? What is Sega trying to pull here? Did they steal modded Sonic levels from the internet and hope their fans wouldn’t be the wiser of their acts of plagiarism? No, they didn’t. In fact, the Sonic origami that makes up Mania’s foundation is one of the most appealing aspects of the game. Christian Whitehead, the lead developer of Sonic Mania, is also notable for developing the mobile ports of the classic Sonic games, implementing the frills of gaming progress, such as save features and multiple characters for a modern audience. Whitehead’s initiative wasn’t only to expose a younger audience to the Sonic games that the older generations praise to the high heavens but to illustrate how simple it is to improve on these rusty relics just by adding the mechanisms these games were deprived of for a smoother experience. Once you research the main developer’s background and see his resume, you understand the mission of Sonic Mania. Perhaps instead of succeeding in the classic Sonic games, Mr. Whitehead is tasked to remedy the shortcomings of the entire era of classic Sonic as a condensed package, the ultimate refurbishing to convince the Sonic skeptics such as myself of his greatness. None of the golden era entries, despite the clear evolution with every subsequent game, ever fully won me over and made me renounce every Nintendo system I’ve ever owned. With the perk of decades worth of progress, maybe Sonic Mania will be the one to do the trick.

Rendering Sonic on the 2D axis once again, as seen in Sonic Generations, made for a satisfactory emulation of his bygone gameplay, but the graphics in 2D Sonic’s levels still shared the same polygonal textures as the Sonic modeled for the 3D environment. 2D Sonic’s graphics verged on the boundaries of the uncanny valley, so Sega’s attempt to recreate those 2D sensibilities never resonated with the classic Sonic fan. Everyone knows that classic Sonic was a pixelated mesh of blue and flesh-colored sprites, and Sonic Mania would be remiss if they adulterated the blue blur’s character design. Sonic looks precisely as he did long ago, and he’s adopted his brow-furrowing determined expression as opposed to the smarmy one from Sonic 3. When he spins dashes, Sonic still revs up and creates friction with his steady inertia, and when he reaches speeds that would make a velocity gun explode, his legs still oscillate wildly like he’s the Road Runner. The key difference in Sonia Mania is the heightened graphical sheen in the pixel art. Sonic, his friends, the levels, and the onscreen layouts, such as the ring and life counters, look so crisp that they make the player feel inclined to make that interjectional “aah” sound of refreshment. Another minute point of visual refinement is making Sonic more expressive. On top of his typical resting face and his shocked death animation we all know, Sonic’s range of gesticulation makes him seem as well animated as a cartoon character. Sonic looks up with more curiosity, he signals the need for speed by mimicking a gesture like he’s going to dart off in his idle animation, and the cutscene where Sonic shakes off a drop of chemical ooze seems like someone motion-captured their dog. The familiar pixelated aesthetic matched with this unfamiliar extent of motion reminds me of the various flash cartoons from Newgrounds, albeit with a much higher budget and without using the animation to make Sonic do and say dirty things.

It’s not only Sonic that looks more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but his friends as well. One of the tenants of renovation Whitehead consistently utilized in porting the classic Sonic games is retroactively adding Tails and Knuckles as playable characters, even if they didn’t exist when those games were published. Instead of hastily causing a severe rift in the Sonic timeline with blatant anachronisms, the impetus behind including Sonic’s oldest buddies in the fray for every port was to diversify the gameplay to achieve a different outcome. Like always, Tails can helicopter himself upwards with his twin back appendages, and Knuckles can glide and climb up walls along with other steep inclines. Tails can also regress back to his role as Sonic’s sycophantic sidekick that constantly drags behind him and mops up the bosses with invincible ease. Whether or not Sonic Mania features co-op and if they’ve granted the second player more of the spotlight with Tails has not been tested yet. On an individual basis, Sonic Mania designs each playable character’s campaign around their respective attributes instead of how the ports implemented them into levels designed for Sonic. Tails can still fly, but his rate of ascension has been reduced exponentially so as not to break the game for the more meager Sonic players to exploit. Knuckles' campaign exhibits slight differences in illustrating the story from his unique perspective, similar to how it was conveyed in Sonic & Knuckles. Alongside Sonic’s best buddies is a litany of forgotten figures from classic Sonic whose presence serves as tokens of fan service. During the boss encounters at the end of the second act of Mirage Saloon, Sonic faces off against a posse of characters that we haven’t seen since Sonic the Fighters in 1996. Sonic Mania’s DLC includes the ability to play as Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, two characters from a ‘90s Sonic arcade game so obscure that only the most seasoned of Sonic nerds will recognize them. One might argue that including too many characters compromises the simplicity of classic Sonic, for adding too many friends to the guest list in Sonic’s later years became a bloated clusterfuck. I assert that if the characters predate the Dreamcast, their presence in a Sonic game that recalls his prime is welcome. This wouldn’t be the case if a fishing section with Big the Cat or Shadow showed up with a 16-bit scowl. As for Amy, who debuted in Sonic CD, her absence here as the green-bloused, bow-wearing classic form escapes me.

More important than anything else that has been overhauled in Sonic Mania are the returning levels. The batch that Whitehead & company have rebrewed for the game is an eclectic mix from the classic Sonic lineup, ranging from fan favorites like Green Hill and Chemical Plant to befuddling picks like Oil Ocean and Lava Reef. All of the classic games are represented here with a fair balance of equality, except for only Green Hill acting as the sole representative from Sonic’s debut. I’d argue that the levels from that game were in the direst need of reevaluating, but perhaps they’re too misshapen to even humor an operation. Hydrocity Zone from Sonic 3 returns to represent Labyrinth Zone in spirit, a revitalized version of the original attempt to make a functioning underwater level after Labyrinth butchered it from Sonic’s start. The polished graphics make each level look splendid, but the developers decided to offer more than the same levels with better visual fidelity. The classic Sonic levels possess the same visuals, platforming tropes, and enemies as they always have, but their layouts have been reconstructed from the ground floor. Cheap deaths from the unyielding days of austere game design are eradicated entirely. That is unless you factor in the strict hitboxes whenever Sonic gets squished between two surfaces, which is still something to be cautious of. While playing the returning levels and reflecting on their original iterations, all of them feel consistently smoother and fitting for a game revolving around the element of speed. Their collective presence in one game has coalesced them all into the most agreeable design philosophy seen across classic Sonic, no matter which game they originated from. Not only that, but the added level gimmicks like the buoyant chemicals in Chemical Plant and the plant platforms in Stardust Speedway fit into the preexisting levels splendidly, as if they were afterthoughts that Sega wished they would have reverted back and added since they were released.

New levels in Sonic Mania are the minority, with a mere four, for rekindling the older levels naturally took higher precedence in a game that harkens back to Sonic’s heyday. If Sonic Mania ever has a direct sequel, I want the developers to fill it to the brim with their own creations because the few here are excellent. Each of the four is beaming with style and deeply encompasses Sonic’s design philosophy. Studiopolis may have been crafted in the 21st century, but its flashy, paparazzi pizzazz screams Sega Genesis. Press Garden is my favorite of the newcomers for its gorgeous, zen forest background setting that looks like a pixelated Jidaigeki film. The oddly named Mirage Saloon is themed after the desert plains of the wild west and all of the culture associated with it. Steam trains, ale barrels, ragtime piano keys, and a pistol that shoots Sonic across the map after it rotates like a duel all make up the foreground of this arid canyon of cacti. Mirage Saloon’s first act even features Tails soaring through the sky on his red biplane with Sonic seated on the helm. Instead of having the player contend with a reimagining of one of the original game’s final levels, the developers inflict their own creation, Titanic Monarch, on the player as the game’s climactic climb. Normally, I’d lambaste this level for its extensive length, precision-based platforming, and obtuse, borderline surreal design in the second act. However, all of this being unique to the game’s final level is a perfect peak for the game’s difficulty curve. If I didn’t know better, I probably couldn’t distinguish the new levels from the old ones because the new ones exude the same amount of care and polish as the returnees, impressively so for their first outings.

Bosses have never been Sonic’s strong suit, and not even the most ardent Sonic fans will argue against this point. Robotnik attempts to destroy Sonic with a roulette of untested gimmicks that all literally blow up in his face. Sonic Mania’s bosses are no different on the Robotnik spectrum, except for that neat little nod to Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine at the end of Chemical Plant. What interests me more than the bouts with the flying egg are the level-ending encounters with his robotic minions, for they are richer in variety. A cutscene in Green Hill Zone displays Sonic witnessing a meeting between Robotnik and his motley crew of colored robots, and each of these stocky androids serves as the mini-bosses in the first act of a level before Robotnik’s umpteenth attempt in the second act. One features Sonic running on a blue track at Mach speed, blowing back blue rockets at him while avoiding the red ones. Another is a samurai duel in the frosty woods of Press Garden and the magician robot veils himself as the aforementioned characters from Sonic’s past. The game also includes many creative boss fights that are not explicitly goons of Robotnik, such as the trash compactor and spring spider in Flying Battery and the leaping sandworm in Mirage Saloon. Some bosses are cheeky callbacks to classic Sonic bosses, such as the return of Metal Sonic and the Robotnik drill car and wrecking ball scaled down as toys for Chibi Sonic. My only complaint is that with the game’s more lenient ring collecting after being hit, the player can easily tank the damage the bosses dish out.

That being said, I’m not complaining that the game is too easy. I’ve suffered through so much unfairness in classic Sonic to do an ungrateful 180. A save feature is present and limitless continues, signifying that the Sega genie has granted all of my wishes for a less taxing, excruciating Sonic experience. The player doesn’t even need to partake in the special stages to earn extra lives and use Super Sonic as their inexhaustible juggernaut aid, or at least not in the traditional sense. The developers have evidently borrowed a bit from modern gaming tropes, as collecting all seven chaos emeralds will unlock the game’s final boss, the Egg Reverie. This revelatory completionist task incentivizes the player better than any classic Sonic game has, and even more surprisingly, the special stages are a joyous time. Finding the large golden rings in the levels will transport Sonic to a special stage that uses the UFO-catching template from Sonic CD and shifts it to a race. Sonic amplifies his speed with the blue orbs on the track and extends the time with rings. Not only are they fun, but they are the easiest to accomplish. I was prideful enough when the blue sphere stages netted me one Chaos Emerald in Sonic 3. This time, I am overjoyed to tell you that I collected all seven Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Mania. It’s an accomplishment I’ll print out and put next to my college degree.

By Jove, I think they’ve done it. I am in love with a classic Sonic game after the series has left me skeptical of its legacy. Am I now going to declare my newfound love for Sonic by sketching childish fanart of him and my own original hedgehog character, as well as sculpting plastic medallions of his visage? No, but now I can still appreciate and admire the depth and fluidity of classic Sonic’s level design more than I ever did. I now understand what the slightly older crowd, mostly my cousin, loved about classic Sonic, and those same people facilitated their love for it with this bundled tribute to the blue blur. With some love and polish, Sonic Mania has recreated what fans see behind their rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, validating their views and changing mine in the process.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 12/27/2022)

[Image from glitchwave.com]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

Genre(s): 2D Platformer

Platforms: Genesis/Mega Drive

Release Date: October 18, 1994

*Disclaimer: I don’t normally review compilations, but Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is the definitive version of the third mainline Sonic game. It is a bundle of Sonic 3 and its companion game/extension Sonic and Knuckles, released a few months after the former. All of the games, including the compilation, were released the same year on the same system, both titles are based on the same level design and story, and the main Sonic 3 game doesn’t feel finished without the Sonic & Knuckles addition. I believe Sega originally intended for the two games, but the game would’ve been too large at Sonic 3’s initial release. Because of all of this, I will sleep soundly tonight, knowing that I’ve covered the quintessential way to experience the third mainline Sonic title.

As I’ve stated countless times, the third entry to any series is the one that signals a sign that it's time to wrap things up. Three sequential games in a series seem like a minuscule number, but looking back at the first game after the third game’s release feels like seeing a middle-aged man’s photos from childhood and being astounded at how he’s grown. The second game is the adolescent wedge in between the two other cycles of life that marks the true process of growth, which is why it is usually the exemplary entry in a trilogy of games. The developers have enough leeway to learn about the franchises strengths and weaknesses in its infancy to cultivate it into its full potential upon the first sequel, garnering more critical praise and commercial success as a result. The third entry is made to reap the remaining crumbs of the previous title before its popularity peaks and ties the trilogy of games in a nice little bow. Any fourth entry would have to innovate immensely on all fronts, or else the series would become unnecessarily stagnant. Sega’s mascot franchise Sonic the Hedgehog wasn’t ready for an experimental phase, for the series hadn’t produced anything good with its basic formula to warrant a future title that takes too many risks with Sonic’s foundation. Relax, Sonic fans: I’m only half kidding. Sonic 2 was undoubtedly a vast improvement over the first game, but I’m holding Sonic to high standards after all the shit-talking they spewed about Nintendo to bolster their presence in the gaming world. To quote Omar Little from The Wire: if you come at the king, you better not miss, and Sonic 2 was still missing the polish and accessibility that made Mario the undisputed champion of the gaming medium. One silver lining about the second Sonic title slightly faltering was that the third game had the potential to break the trilogy cycle and triumph as the pinnacle of classic Sonic. To quote a more well-known idiom: the third time’s a charm, and perhaps this was the case for Sonic the Hedgehog.

Before I cover anything pertaining to Sonic 3’s gameplay, I have to immediately address something that almost solidified my case for Sonic 3 being the ultimate classic Sonic title. After introducing the game with the title screen of a more polygonal Sonic wagging his finger at the player, something extraordinary impedes the player from launching right into the action. Do my eyes deceive me, or has Sega promptly implemented a tangible save feature in a Sonic game? Hallelujah! My prayers have been answered! Sonic CD technically saves the player’s progress with the continue option in the menu, but Sonic 3 displays all of the blank data files for the player to prove that they are committed to accommodating the player. Sonic 3’s continue system is similar to Sonic CD's in that losing every life will result in having to continue the game from the first act of the zone the player was extinguished on, with Sonic 3 overtly depicting the zone in question in the save file. Not having this feature was the biggest detriment to Sonic, as forcing the player to restart from the beginning in a game with so many unfair blind spots they’d have to memorize to avoid was cruel. Since Sonic 3 is the classic Sonic title that absolves the player of their failures with more leniency, it automatically stands taller than all the others, right? In theory, yes, but there is a certain inconspicuous caveat. The save feature is the first notable mark of Sonic 3’s wild ambition to expand upon every facet of Sonic’s formula, and the overall execution of their ideas varies.

I suppose Sonic 3 has a more involved story than the previous two games, even if it still involves Sonic stopping Robotnik from mechanizing Mobius along with its entire ecosystem of animals. The story bears the traditional heroic Sonic arc, but the differences lie in how it is presented. Sonic 3 opens with a cutscene of Sonic casually hovering around as his glowing demigod Super Sonic form, skimming the surface water of an unspecified ocean with Tails trailing behind in his red bi-plane. Somehow, with all of the immense invulnerability granted to Super Sonic, his confident stroll is halted abruptly when something strikes him from below, and the seven Chaos Emeralds spill out of Sonic as he reverts back to his standard form. The violent obstruction is Knuckles the Echidna: Sonic’s respected rival/ally in his most primitive form as a secondary villain. He claimed in a future Sonic title that, unlike Sonic, he doesn’t chuckle; he’d rather flex his muscles. We see here that this lyric is a bold-faced lie, as he sinisterly sniggers constantly to convey his villainous role. Robotnik is still the focal point that Sonic must conquer, so Knuckles acts more as a cheeky narrative wildcard, causing Sonic grief at every point possible. Knuckles will often come around a corner to laugh smugly and halt Sonic’s progress by hitting a switch that causes Sonic and Tails to plummet into the level’s depths and other means of inconveniencing our heroic duo. As much as Knuckles seems like a pointless nuisance, it turns out the crux of Sonic 3’s narrative arc revolves around integrating him into the typical Sonic story. This reveal might not be shocking nowadays, with Knuckles being a beloved character with several credits across the franchise, but the reveal that Knuckles is an upstanding fellow who was tricked by Robotnik to get at his coveted Master Emerald is a fairly admirable effort to expand upon the Sonic vs. Robotnik arc we’ve become used to seeing.

Sonic 2 flirted with the idea of offering the player more characters to control rather than just Sonic. In the previous game, Tails was simply a slower Sonic with a brighter color. He filled a special cooperative second-player role, but I’d use the word “player” tentatively because the second player constantly struggled to keep up with Sonic zooming around each zone like a fly buzzing around a room. The second player’s control of Tails’ biplane in Sky Zone didn’t even need any sort of piloting skill to keep Sonic from tumbling out of the stratosphere to his death. Sonic 3 sees the same dynamic between Sonic and his golden boy wonder, guaranteeing that the little brother will still be put to work whenever Robotnik exhibits one of his new dangerous toys at the end of every zone. In a single-player setting, however, allowing Tails to fly totally separates him from the speedy blue hedgehog he follows around like a retriever. By holding down the jump button, Tails will soar off the ground and continue to fly upward until he hits a wall or comes into contact with a hazardous obstacle. Because Tails’ new unique ability does not tether him to the same earthly confines as Sonic, playing as him is a makeshift easy mode. Conversely, playing as Knuckles is more difficult than either Sonic or Tails because he lacks Sonic’s speed and his gliding move does not allow him to ascend over normal boundaries as easily as Tails. Knuckles can climb up walls and break through specific rocky barriers, and these special attributes are enough to traverse through any of the levels. Some may argue that playing as other characters whose abilities aren’t focused on speed distracts from the core of the gameplay. I’d say that the speed initiative for Sonic is questionable and that the true appeal of Sonic is the layered level design with parallel paths all leading to the same goal. With multiple characters that have to approach the layout differently, a veneer of depth is added to how the player can execute their desired trajectory through the game’s level.

There are still plenty of new surprises for the blue blur despite Sonic 3’s implications that adding new characters means that Sega worries that we have grown tired of him. Other than his slightly revamped posture and a more personable smirk on his face when he’s in an idle position, Sonic 3’s contribution to furthering the evolution of Sonic’s gameplay is the addition of elemental shields. These spherical globs that encapsulate Sonic like a hamster ball and grant him one extra hit without his rings spilling out have always been situated alongside ring canisters. Now, three different types of shields literally protect Sonic from the elements with other special properties as well. The fire shield propels Sonic further in a fiery blast, functioning as a long jump or attack. The electric shield magnetizes the rings in Sonic’s vicinity to come toward him, allowing him to execute an extra upward leap. Lastly, the bubble shield bounces Sonic downward as a pile-driving move. The inside also acts as a portable oxygen tank that lets Sonic traverse underwater without needing to stop and breathe the air bubbles that rise from the sea floor. Boy, would this have been handy in Labyrinth Zone. Then again, that’s why evolution across a franchise of games is imperative to its longevity. Overall, the elemental shields do not innovate to the extent of the inclusion of the spin dash in Sonic 2. Still, perhaps that’s not a fair comparison considering the advent of the spin dash was like the equivalent of finding the cure for polio. They are an adequate addition that does not overflow Sonic’s gameplay to the point of blowing it out of proportion.

Speaking of proportions, Sonic 3 needed to consult a design dietician to work out the portion control for each level. The unfortunate reason why the developers implemented a save system is due to the inflated length of each level. A timer that counts up like a stopwatch is present in the previous two Sonic titles, but I bet some of you didn’t know that the maximum time given to the player is a solid ten minutes. If the player fails to complete the level in time, Sonic will die as if he’s been hit, and the player will be forced to restart the level. The player didn’t have to worry in the previous two games because they would have naturally completed the level by then in ample time. So many levels in Sonic 3 will force the player to run past the five-minute mark, even for experienced players that have memorized the layout. Besides most levels bloating the typical Sonic level design to mammoth-sized dimensions, Sonic 3 is guilty of implementing many obstacles that feel like puzzle sections. We all know that solving a puzzle in a video game, or in general, takes time and brain power to solve efficiently, which is counterintuitive to Sonic’s swift gameplay. After doing some sick snowboarding tricks down a frigid mountain, Ice Cap will have Sonic falling even deeper down a continuously nauseating loop until the player finds a crag to surf on, which will destroy the obstructed path. The second act of Sandopolis has something similar with a series of gutters that gush sand, but the resolution to cease continually sliding downward like a Sisyphean curse is so indirect that it's borderline illusory. Carnival Night, a level that resembles Casino Night if the player took acid and put on an Insane Clown Posse album, implements these spinning barrels whose growing momentum requires the player to treat the controls like a swing. How the player is supposed to figure this out is beyond me, as many have commented that this section was why they quit the game permanently during classic Sonic’s heyday.

Even when the player isn’t forced to rack their brains while the clock is ticking, every single level is filled with multiple pace breakers. Sonic 3 cements Sonic CD even further as a canon classic Sonic title because Sega decided that level gimmicks were the optimal evolutionary trait for Sonic’s levels. The aforementioned Casino Night dings the player with constant pinball orbs, Mushroom Hill has pulleys in which Sonic must pull upward and downward continuously to ascend the stage, and the light beams in Death Egg take far too long to connect Sonic to the right path to be amused by their flashiness. Fatal blindspots that crush Sonic are too numerous to assign to a specific level. Hydrocity Zone tells me that Sega did not learn from their mistake of Labyrinth Zone, for Sonic spends the majority of this level slogging through the water as much as he did in the previous level. Levels feel more constrained as multiple paths seem less abundant, forcing the player to endure the tedium of constantly making Sonic stumble. The only reason none of this is as jarring as it was in the first game is due to all of the other evolved aspects of Sonic’s gameplay, like the spin dash and the continue system.

Another way Sonic 3 necessary augments each level’s run time is by incorporating a boss for every single act. Robotnik would be the sole foe at the end of each zone with a new invention to stamp out Sonic in the previous games, which is still the case. However, a myriad of Robotnik’s robotic creations challenges Sonic to a bout in each first act before Robotnik’s encounter in the zone’s following act. All of these bosses are as easy as they were in the previous two games, and some of them, like the Bowling Spin and the Gapsule are creatively designed. Tails even prove to be useful in the fight against Eggman at the end of Marble Garden Zone by carrying and retrieving Sonic as he jumps on Robotnik mid-flight. The problem with so many boss encounters is that their inclusion at the end of all of these lengthy levels grates on every player’s patience and makes them sweat looking at the time. Bosses like the Stone Guardian and Robotnik at the end of Carnival Night are tedious waiting games, and the latter of the two mentioned caused the first instance when I ran past ten minutes and was penalized.

Fortunately, Sonic 3 extends its suspicious newfound tendency to aid the player with the breeziest method of collecting the Chaos Emeralds and unleashing Super Sonic. Unlike the previous game, special stages must be found by exploring a level and uncovering their locations. The special stages in question for this entry involve Sonic moving on what looks like a chess board with restrictive controls. Sonic must collect every blue ball on the board, and collecting any red ones will expel him from the level. This minigame is comparatively so manageable and not based on sheer luck that I, for the first time ever, collected a Chaos Emerald in Sonic. Hey, I can be proud of my individual achievement, as meager as it might be. For more experienced players, Sonic 3’s special stages allow them to eventually blow through the game in Sonic’s Super Saiyan form at any given opportunity. Sure, they’ll have to wait for Hydrocity to do this, unlike the first level in Sonic 2, but the ease of the special stages is comparatively relieving. Unfortunately, they’ll still have to beat Robotnik fair and square with no rings with the final boss in his parody-sanctioned Death Egg fortress.

Surprisingly, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and Knuckles) makes me appreciate Sonic 2 more and has me reconsidering the trilogy dynamic from which I thought the classic Sonic games diverted. Sonic 2’s imperfections, such as not supplying a save feature and implementing Tails as a clunkier clone of Sonic, have been remedied but at the cost of the fine-tuned gameplay and level design in Sonic 2 that almost made me cherish Sonic. It turns out that Sonic 3 (and Knuckles) falls into the trappings of a third entry so hard that it’s an obvious example of one. Everything in Sonic 3 swells every aspect of Sonic with the constant impediments and endurance test levels, and I should’ve expected it from the get-go. Reverting back to the beginning of the game upon failing in Sonic 2 was excruciating, but I’d take it any day over how Sonic 3 decided to direct the game around their new implementations. Isn’t that ironic?

Sonic CD Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 12/10/2022)

[Image from igdb.com]

Sonic CD

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

Genre(s): 2D Platformer

Platforms: Sega CD (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Release Date: September 23, 1993

As dreadfully executed and embarrassingly cheesy as the Sega CD add-on was, Sega couldn’t resist developing an entry for their gilded blue mascot on the Genesis/Mega Drive’s extension. How on earth would Sonic fare on a system whose games were practically nothing but grainy FMV cutscenes with gameplay so minimal it was like watching a B-movie on a calculator? Would this game consist of a guy dressed up in a Sonic costume doing parkour in some city alleyway? Would this guy beat a maniacally cackling bald man with a porno mustache intended to represent Robotnik, and would there be shitty explosion effects? It sounds like an endearing Youtube video from 2007, with even shoddier visual and audio quality if you can believe it. However, perhaps this is a narrow summation of the Sega CD's capabilities. The extension didn’t need to be bombarded with “games” sporting video cutscenes that would age as well as milk being bathed in the desert sun, but that’s simply what Sega thought would be the future of gaming (they were wrong) with the foresight they had in the early 90s. Physical media in the digital format was still in its infancy when the Sega CD was released, far before CD-based games were the norm. We obviously have decades of insight now to know that digital technology in gaming didn’t have to be devoted to offering tacky cinematics that looks like straight-to-video PSAs they’d show in school and attempt to pass it off as a video game. The CD ROM was an unmistakable mark of gaming progression, with capabilities that superseded the cartridges we were used to. Sega’s precocious choices with this kind of technology could give Sonic the edge to finally conquer his competition at Nintendo, who were still playing it safe with cartridges. Sonic CD was the most ambitious game during the blue hedgehog’s prime, but I’m not certain that the additional technological flair really made a stark difference.

Even though Sonic CD does not fall under the same garish trappings seen in most other games on the Sega CD, Sega still used the quasi-cinematic technology the peripheral provided to some extent. Sonic CD begins with an opening cutscene that details some exposition that formally introduces Sonic’s journey, as opposed to springing the player into action mere seconds after seeing the title screen. Sonic is seen sprinting through a rocky field, and the urgency of the scene is unclear because it’s not as if Sonic has the ability to walk casually at a relaxed pace on his off time. Once Sonic stops to look at the sky, the missing context is given with the looming shadow of Robotnik’s newest creation. Apparently, Robotnik has taken full advantage of the annual presence of a “little planet” that appears over Morbius’s stratosphere. The mad doctor has colonized the celestial body and turned it into a concrete jungle with him and his critter-powered robots as its new residents. Robotnik’s massive influence over Morbius’s orbit strikes Sonic as a bad omen, so he plans to deal with the source of Robotnik’s presence directly by running up the chain, tethering his creation to the ground. Meanwhile, a pink girl hedgehog (Amy Rose in her earliest form) is being held captive by Metal Sonic on the industrial globe. Sonic CD’s opening cinematic is breathtaking, showcasing a blend of anime art stylings that keep up with Sonic’s turbulent speed. I’m now convinced that Sega intentionally inhibited the budget for every other game released on the Sega CD to make damn sure that their precious Sonic outshined them all. The opening of Sonic CD silences all of the Sega CD’s critics by proving the hardware's capabilities. Concerning the graphics of the actual game, Sonic CD looks like a slightly tuned-up version of the visuals from the games on the base Genesis console. The subtle difference on display here gives the visuals a fleshy tint that makes the overall aesthetic look sharper. Backgrounds and foregrounds here are so strikingly detailed that it’s borderline excessive, a testament to the fact that Sega used the Sega CD’s hardware to deliver that bombastic Sonic presentation.

Sonic CD is still a tried and true Sonic title, regardless of the cinematic properties associated with the Sega CD add-on. All of the enhancements Sonic 2 introduced, like the spin dash, have been solidified, translating Sonic’s evolution to a technically superior piece of hardware. As for what Sonic CD brings to expand on that evolution in terms of gameplay, the developers fully realized the Sega CD’s flashier potential and decided to revel in it. Coinciding with the more striking visuals, Sonic’s gameplay has never been so glitzy and filled with kinetic pomp. Palmtree Panic Zone, the opening zone of Sonic CD, separates itself from every previous first Sonic level that touts that tropical valley setting with a few new frills. The roller coaster ramps seen across most Sonic levels have been heightened to the scope of skyscrapers, with a visual twist of the camera focusing behind Sonic while he’s trailing up the towering foundations to highlight their length in the most three-dimensional spectacle the series has seen up to this point. On the same level, Sonic is thrust through the interior crust of the land, and his speedy ejection point is outlined like when a cartoon character bursts through a wall. Collision Chaos Zone has more springs and pinball bumpers than the casino-themed Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2, and the chibi Sonic that sprouts up from the exposure to the shrink ray in Metallic Madness Zone is adorable. These unseen touches are nice, but not all of them are so benign. Wacky Workbench’s design theme involves Sonic having to keep to the bottom of the level and avoid being sprung up to the upper portion, where he’ll meet nothing but dead ends. The problem is that the floating platforms near the bottom levitate from side to side, and landing on them from above takes some luck-based guesswork. The machinations of Stardust Speedway are so enclosed to a certain trajectory that I got Sonic stuck. Metallic Madness is so labyrinthian in design that I got lost trying to make my way to the goal. I repeat: I got lost in a Sonic level. Overall, the added perks of Sonic CD, whether they be amusing or nauseating, amount to nothing but gimmicks.

All of Sonic CD’s level gimmicks take a backseat to its primary new feature: the time warp mechanic. Each level is littered with signposts that either say past or future on them and running at a continuously swift momentum with a blue light tailing behind will transport Sonic to the period stated on the last signpost Sonic came in contact with. Past levels have a much more organic look to them, like Green Hill Zone, while future levels look a grimier Chemical Plant Zone. If the player destroys the Robotnik robot generator found in the past, warping to the future will see a brighter, more optimistic outlook for the level. This gameplay mechanic underlines a pertinent theme that Sonic CD conveys. Seeing the beautiful topological nature of the little planet compared to the present day of Robotnik’s adulteration is a clear distinction that spells out a clear ecological message. Sonic has always been relatively eco-friendly, what with being the savior of Mobius’s fauna being kept in giant capsules. In Sonic CD, there is something more overt with the flowers that pop up after a robot is destroyed like Sonic is expunging Robotnik’s industrial influence with one machine being destroyed at a time. As a game mechanic, warping time is a tad undercooked. The differences in each level’s time mostly correlate to aesthetic changes, as any changes in level layout are only slight. Shifting between periods also seems to be executed by luck, considering the constant obstacles in Sonic’s path guarantee that instances, where he can build up enough speed to time travel, are scarce.

The only instance where the gimmicks aid Sonic CD is with the Robotnik encounters. A commonality between the first and second Sonic games is that fighting Robotnik at the end of every third act was not challenging. All of the schemes Robotnik devised to halt Sonic from ruining his diabolical plans were amusing at best but proved ineffective. In Sonic CD, Robotnik’s attempts are just as ill-fated and poorly conceived, but at least I can give Robotnik an A for effort. Robotnik’s encounters are some of the most creative short boss impediments so far in the series. After chasing Robotnik through the narrow halls of the third act of Tidal Tempest, destroying Robotnik’s hover pod with one spin dash is a matter of depleting his shield, a series of rotating bubbles. Sonic’s only devices in surviving underwater are also Robotnik's, and something is satisfying about Sonic literally sucking away at Robotnik’s defenses. The end of Quartz Quadrant sees Robotnik in an impenetrable piston, but unlike the final bout of the first game, where Sonic must spin on it a dozen times, he must erode it with the friction caused by the stage’s conveyor belt. Robotnik’s fight at the end of Metallic Madness is a multi-staged duel where the player has to memorize the formations his robotic mech shifts into, almost like a formidable boss battle. Key word: almost.

Robotnik only receives points for inventiveness, but luckily, Sonic CD offers a worthy contender. Just last game released only a year prior to Sonic CD, Metal Sonic was in its prototype stage as an ugly tin can that served as a slight barrier before fighting Robotnik for the final time in Sonic 2. In Sonic CD, Metal Sonic has been refurbished with a glowing blue sheen to convey a much stronger resemblance to Sonic, making him a worthy rival instead of a crude imitation. Metal Sonic showcases this equal footing to Sonic in the last act of Stardust Speedway, where a race between flesh and blood Sonic and his metallic counterpart takes place as the level’s boss. The race against Metal Sonic is the most challenging single portion of a Sonic game thus far. Metal Sonic’s innate speed isn’t as fast as Sonic’s, but that energized boost he performs puts him on an equal standing. Spikes are littered all over the course to impede Sonic, and failing to cross the finish line before Metal Sonic will result in Robotnik blasting Sonic with an unavoidable laser that kills Sonic regardless of how many rings he has. Metal Sonic practically takes center stage as the game’s antagonist for this tense moment.

I’d hate the trial-and-error difficulty that factors into the race against Metal Sonic, but Sonic CD is strangely accommodating. Considering my consistent grievance with the previous two Sonic games, one would think that Sonic CD was my clear favorite thus far. Why do I say this? Because the radical technology of the Sega CD has gifted a Sonic title with the ability to continue after dying. Yes, after all of the ribbing I’ve done regarding Sega’s pension for lacking merciful penalties in their games on the Genesis, the system’s “advanced” peripheral finally gives the player some reasonable leeway in regard to failure. I’m fairly relieved at this, but I’m not jumping for joy because the reason for offering continues is not due to Sega going soft on players. The previous Sonic games played with the idea of unlocking a “true” ending, achieved if the player completes all of the special stages and unlocks Super Sonic by grabbing each special stage’s Chaos Emerald. Sonic CD also has special stages where Chaos Emeralds are the reward, and spin jumping on six UFOs is much easier than collecting rings speeding through a halfpipe or being subjected to the rotations of an ephemeral device. Unlike the two previous games, completing the special stages in Sonic CD does not contribute to unlocking the game’s “true ending.” Hell, Super Sonic isn’t even available in Sonic CD. Instead, the player must destroy all of Robotnik’s generators found across each level's past sections. Doing this will unlock the true ending because it will ultimately prevent Robotnik’s industrialization of this floating, organic land mass before it ever happens. Even if the player doesn’t destroy every single generator, the “bad ending” is still sufficient in my book. Sonic saves Amy, and Robotnik’s ties with his new project are severed as it becomes too unstable. Sonic blows his pod to smithereens as he attempts to fly away. The ending screen still shows the planet shackled to the earth, with the text stating “try again” at the bottom, implying that the player failed. I say let the planet sit in the sky as a perpetual eyesore because the qualifications for restoring it to its biotic self are excruciating. Nothing compliments a game revolving around speed like a meticulous scavenger hunt, right? Searching every nook and cranny of the stage is completely counterintuitive to Sonic’s gameplay. The developers implemented continues so the player wouldn’t feel the stress of constraints on their shoulders while finding these, but they never asked themselves if the idea was sound in the first place. Is this really what it takes for Sega to stop treating their games like arcade machines?

The “revolutionary” Sega CD was intended to give Sonic the extra boost missing in his titles on the regular ol’ Genesis console. The only aspect Sonic CD added that proved refreshing was implementing continues, an aspect sorely needed in a Sonic title. Other than that, all the kooky additions tacked on to Sonic CD amount to nothing but snazzy window dressing. They do not add or necessarily detract from the classic Sonic experience, but adding all of these gimmicks when the Sonic series was still developing its stride was not the correct direction for the series. I can’t be all too enthralled about the continue feature as is because its utility is intended for something tedious and laughably inappropriate for Sonic. I should've known this was Sega’s idea of evolution because the company has a history of administering superficial game changes and calling it progress. Sonic CD is a competent title that feels unique and best played by ignoring all of the fetch quest bullshit Sega wants you to adhere to. The most unfortunate matter is that with the advances the game had over all the other Sonic games, its full potential was ultimately squandered.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 11/28/2022)

[Image from igdb.com]

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Developer: Sega (Sonic Team)

Publisher: Sega

Genre(s): 2D Platformer

Platforms: Genesis/Mega Drive

Release Date: November 21, 1992

The first Sonic the Hedgehog did not succeed in swaying me. Sega thought that their audacity to spurn the undisputed video game champ of Nintendo was totally justified because they claimed Sonic’s unequivocal awesomeness would render the likes of Mario null and void. All we had to do as gamers were take a chance on its competition and help usher in Sega’s gaming empire. While Sonic and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive provided a worthy alternative to Nintendo’s systems, the company did not eclipse Nintendo’s presence and dethroned them from their seat as the king of the gaming medium. Given that Sonic was the juggernaut that Sega paraded in this battle they created, it’s a wonder how they ever fathomed a chance of winning. Admittedly, Sonic had charisma, appeal, and a performative prowess that outmatched anyone from Nintendo’s mascot lineup. However, the “blast-processing” mumbo-jumbo Sega touted was nothing but a cheap gimmick (what a surprise). As lame as it sounds, Mario has persisted because his platforming is practical and suitable for his world. Sonic’s blisteringly fast momentum did not bode well with the constant obstacles that constantly halted his trajectory. In fact, the first Sonic title presented so many walls, enemies, and awkward platforming sections in Sonic’s way that it seemed as if speed was discouraged. Fortunately, gaming is littered with sequels that strive to mend the blemishes of the previous title. Considering Sonic’s popularity, the release of one was inevitable. One year after Sonic’s debut, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the sequel that could potentially convert skeptics like me by overhauling all of Sonic’s flaws and finally impact Nintendo’s reign over the industry.

One can only tweak Sonic so much before going overboard. He’s a simple character with a restrained array of abilities. The blue hedgehog’s prime asset is his speed which can get bogged down from overcomplicating it with the frills of upgrades. Sonic would have faltered even more if Sega granted Sonic as many power-ups as Nintendo did for Mario in Super Mario Bros. 3. Any enhancement to Sonic would have to expand and or accommodate his sprightly nature. Given that Sonic already zooms across the map like a bat out of hell making him faster would’ve rendered him unplayable. The developers wisely decided to augment a component of Sonic’s speed that wasn’t his maximum potential. Climbing inclined ledges in the first game tended to be awkward due to insufficient innate momentum to scale up the next platform. The game assumes that the player should be blazing through the level but fails to consider all the assorted enemies and numerous collisions with the walls that upset the movement rate. Sega’s solution to this common dilemma was the spin dash, a manual method of gaining momentum for getting over those stubbornly steep ledges or simply for a quick boost. Crouching and holding down the jump button will cause Sonic to rev up enough kinetic energy by spinning in place, and releasing him will cause Sonic to dash while curled up in a ball with enough speed to overcome several platforming hurdles. Sonic can also utilize this move for the assorted roller coaster loops and plow over most ground-floor enemies. The spin dash is a stroke of genius that compliments Sonic’s swift and alert gameplay while also greatly compensating for the abrupt cessations at the core of Sonic’s faulty design. In the grand scheme of Sonic ingenuity, the introduction of the spin dash is akin to inventing the wheel: a requisite for any Sonic game whose inclusion in Sonic 2 consigns the first game to the prehistoric dark ages.

If the player didn’t immediately launch themselves into the game by pressing the start button, they might have noticed that Sonic is sharing the space of the open-faced emblem in the game’s menu. His golden, furry compadre smiling at the player and gesturing his fist is Miles Prower, who is thankfully better recognized by his nickname “Tails” because his full name is a god-awful pun. Long before Sega gave Sonic enough friends to fill a penthouse orgy, this plucky fox with a genetic mutation was his first and only aid in saving the woodland critters of Mobius from becoming Robotnik’s mechanized slaves. As subsequent entries in the Sonic franchise were released, Tails' role as the mechanical wizkid and his quest for self-confidence is extrapolated, but not so much here. All we see pertaining to this in his debut here is him escorting Sonic through the sky via a biplane. However, one aspect of Tails seen here that remains consistent throughout the series is his supporting second banana status to Sonic. Like Luigi before, Tails is the “little brother” character for the second player, intending to have significantly less impact and precedence. Tails even take the secondary role a step beyond Luigi as the game simultaneously sets Sonic and Tails on the field. The second player will hardly get the sensation that they are playing as Tails because the camera will solely focus on Sonic, leaving Tails in the dust as Sonic zips around at the speed of light. Tails also cannot die, ultimately making the second player ideal for dealing with the Robotnik encounters while Sonic sits back and fondles his chili dog. Talk about being insignificant! Player 1 also can play Tails as a solo venture, but who would want to play as a character that is slower than Sonic without any special attributes? Adding Tails to the experience was a slight sampler of the bloated character roster that Sega always planned for Sonic.

The first game’s core problem was not the lack of the spin dash or a buddy that follows Sonic around like a dog. Sonic’s debut title misfired due to the questionable designs across most game levels. Lethargic platforming sections and trudging slowly through the water were completely counterintuitive to Sonic’s ideal purpose of sprinting through levels. Green Hill Zone, the starting level of the first Sonic game, was the only area that granted Sonic reasonable legroom to strut his stuff. Unfortunately, the game peaked at Green Hill Zone as every following level inhibited Sonic seemingly every step of the way. Emerald Hill Zone, Sonic 2’s first level, treats the player to the same quality standard as Green Hill did, but there is something peculiar about it. It doesn’t take a staunch Sonic enthusiast to notice that Emerald Hill Zone looks exactly like Green Hill Zone, almost down to the name. Emerald Hill possesses the same tropical foliage, mountainous towers of earth, a sparkling body of water in the background, etc. A few minor differences include a color pallet swap for the wasp bots, monkeys flinging coconuts from the tops of trees, and corkscrew sections that share the space with the inverted roller coaster loops. Starting the game with a remixed Green Hill Zone is refreshing and all, but it might signify that not only is the game repeating itself, but Sonic is already out of ideas.

When I stated that I’d be happy with the first Sonic game if it only included Green Hill Zone, I was being hyperbolic. Repeating Green Hill Zone to the extent of a full game would be like a box of cereal with nothing but marshmallows: the nuance is completely gone. Upon further consideration, perhaps Sonic 2 upholds the idea of only offering Green Hill Zone. No, I don’t mean almost the same level repeated ad nauseam like Emerald Hill, but levels that recreate the design and essence of Green Hill Zone using it as a template. My worries about Sonic 2 repeating its predecessor's mistakes were relieved with Chemical Zone, the level that follows Emerald Hill. Despite Chemical Zone displaying a more sterile, urban setting, the fabric of Green Hill Zone is interwoven in Chemical Zone’s industrial intricacies. Double-helixed ramps zigzag through several connecting routes as complex as the DNA structures they are modeled after. Pneumatic energy pushes Sonic through a series of tubes whose channels are so roundabout that it's liable to make the player feel dizzy. Downward ramps are so steep that it’s a wonder that Sonic’s inclined acceleration doesn’t make him catch fire. When Sonic reaches the bottom of these slopes, he jets off so vigorously that the camera struggles to catch up, hitting the wall on the right side of the screen as a result. One moment in the second act that breaks this whirlwind pacing is when Sonic must climb a series of moving blocks to avoid drowning in the rising pink water.(?) Somehow, platforming sections involving ascension don’t feel as jarring as those found in the first game, most likely because they still require movement. Chemical Plant Zone is an electrifying playground that exemplifies the pinnacle of Sonic’s level design. If not for Green Hill Zone serving as the precedent an entire game earlier, I’d declare Chemical Plant as the ultimate classic Sonic level.

While Chemical Plant is the stand-out level in Sonic 2, the game does not suffer from a massive decline in quality after experiencing the best that the game has to offer. While not as intense and multifaceted as Chemical Plant, each subsequent level still uses Green Hill Zone as inspiration. Just the name of Aquatic Ruin Zone may be enough to send shivers down the spines of anyone traumatized by the painful underwater slog that was Labyrinth Zone. However, Aquatic Ruin might be a testament that the developers learned their lesson and adapted accordingly. Aquatic Ruin is modeled with two distinct layers, one being the rocky ruins over the water and one being submerged in the drink. Accidently dipping into the water while speeding through the dry route is a soft penalty, but traversing the underwater path is as viable a means to navigate the level. Sonic’s speed is only slightly reduced as opposed to wading through water at a snail’s pace, and bubbling spots for Sonic to breathe are seen more frequently. Eventually, the two paths will intersect by the end of the level, a fantastic conclusion to the zone and another example of the layered design from Green Hill Zone in full effect. Casino Night Zone is a fully realized version of Spring Yard Zone, a flashy nocturnal setting beaming with the pizzazz of city nightlife. This zone marks the beginning of Sonic levels themed around casinos, with pinball bumpers and slot machines galore as part of the level design. Hill Top is a craggy, volcanic crater that further expands on the ascension sections seen in Chemical Plant. Mystic Cave is the most labyrinthine level that still offers multiple paths. Oil Ocean presents a series of cannons whose implementation in the level is similar to the pipes in Chemical Zone. The only level that shits the bed is Metropolis Zone, the final fully-fledged level with multiple acts. This level’s unfair enemy placements and the sections involving the bolts where Sonic has to rev up them on the nut recall some of the worst aspects from levels seen in the first game. Sega evidently didn’t grasp how to execute a Sonic game’s difficulty curve smoothly as Metropolis Zone and the finale level Wing Fortress digress back to Sonic 1’s flaws in the name of amping up the challenge near the end of the game.

I still find fault with the fact that Sega insists on crafting Sonic games with a punishing arcade difficulty in mind. Yet again, the player only has a piddly three lives to complete the game, and losing all of them blows the player right back to the very bottom. Even though this still irritates me, I suppose I can’t fault the developers too much for at least making survival easier for the player. While boxes containing extra lives still aren’t placed generously, the player now has the opportunity to stack lives without having to collect 100 rings. If the player manages to finish a stage with an estimated ballpark of at least 50 rings, an icon of Sonic will appear. Doing this in succession will net the player an extra life. Having around the same amount of rings when reaching any checkpoint also transports the player to this game’s special zone in a haze of red light. Special zones in Sonic serve as opportunities to net one of seven prized Chaos Emeralds, and since checkpoints are fairly commonplace, the player could potentially acquire all seven of them after the second zone to use Super Sonic. As lenient as that sounds, the half-pipe sections in the special stages are no cakewalk, but at least acquiring rings and avoiding bombs is feasible, unlike the rotating game of chance presented in the first game.

I’m not sure the additional perks in Sonic 2 could prepare the player for the final bout against Robotnik. Just like the first game, the mustachioed mechanical madman will appear at the end of each level’s final act as a boss. He hovers around in the same pod but still has some crazy new ideas to conquer Sonic. Ultimately, every new trick Robotnik has up his sleeves results in the same easy roulette of boss encounters from the first game. That is until Sonic reaches the zenith of his Death Egg battleship for the final duel. Before Robotnik must face his blue adversary for the last time, he decides to release an ugly, hostile robotic model of Sonic, known colloquially as Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic has had many appearances in later Sonic titles with more coloring and a sharper-looking sheen, but his clunky bronze form shows his humble origins like Marvel’s Iron Man. He also doesn’t pose much of a challenge, but the same cannot be said for the Death Egg Robot that Robotnik scurries into once Sonic has defeated his mechanized mirror. Robotnik’s mech is unpredictable and punishing, and the player must flirt with the stingiest of high hitboxes to do any real damage to it. Super Sonic would’ve been nifty and apropos for this climactic confrontation, but the developers thought it wise to deprive the player of any rings. Not only will the player die upon getting hit even once, but they will also be forced to fight Metal Sonic again. The process of fighting both of these bots will most likely drain the player’s lives, causing the player to go back to square one even at the final bout. If you can claim that you’ve never lost all of your lives to the Death Egg Robot and were crestfallen at the result at any point while playing this game, you’re a liar.

I love it when developers can take some time to honestly reflect on the faults of their games and use what they’ve learned to craft a smoother experience for the next title. One would not expect this type of introspection with Sonic the Hedgehog as Sega used their new mascot to bite their thumbs at Nintendo like rude little miscreants. Upon seeing the final product of Sonic’s debut, Sega realized that all the boasting they did made them look like total jackasses as they didn’t have a leg to stand on. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is an exemplary sequel that finally proves Sonic’s capabilities by expanding on the first game’s one exceptional attribute: Green Hill Zone. Using the multilayered design and lenient range of obstacles of Green Hill Zone, Sega formulated a bevy of levels that arguably surpass Green Hill Zone in complementing Sonic’s lighting-fast velocity. I still think that some aspects of this game are rather harsh, but the overall product wouldn’t make me feel duped if I hypothetically cheated on Nintendo with Sega by purchasing a Genesis console back in the day.

Sonic the Hedgehog Review

 (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

I'd comment that this game was the humble beginning for Sonic the Hedgehog, but there was never anything humble about Sonic, even from the start. Sega formulated Sonic as an ostentatious rival mascot to the then reigning console champion of Nintendo. His objective was to unceremoniously cockslap Mario into submission and kick dirt in the faces of him and all of his pals at Nintendo, most likely flipping them the bird and making a raspberry sound as he ran off. The 1990s was the era of attitude, with mischievous scamp Bart Simpson and dirty, punk-influenced grunge bands becoming generation-defining icons and revolting against all of the squeaky-clean conservative values that defined the previous decade. Sonic the Hedgehog was gaming's answer to the trend of "sticking it to the man," and kids everywhere gravitated towards the rebellious allure of the blue blur. Sega's "Genesis does what Nintendon't" slogan that labeled the SNES as a baby toy is still one of the most vicious marketing campaigns ever seen in gaming, and Sonic the Hedgehog was the killer app that backed this bold statement. Three decades later, we all know who won in the end, even with Sega's arrogant posturing. The Sega Genesis did not stand victorious over Nintendo's SNES, nor did any of their other consoles across their tenure in the console wars. Eventually, they were ousted by newcomers Sony and Microsoft and left their once bombastic hedgehog to coexist with their former rivals as a third-party series. While Sega has not been in the running of video game console supremacy for quite some time now, Sonic has still managed to retain his status as one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. Maybe it's because the Sonic boom happened a few years before I was born, and I didn't experience the hype firsthand, but I always felt Sonic never held a candle to the quality of Super Mario, even in his early days on the Sega Genesis. Out of Sonic's early titles, his eponymous first outing in 1991 is the game that makes me the most skeptical of Sonic's acclaim.

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.