- Hey y'all. Scott here. Sonic the Hedgehog on the second Genesis. One of the most iconic video games of all time no doubt. But many have considered
it to have aged poorly. Now, in terms of my opinion of it, just a warning, I grew up with the game. So I'm (thunder sounds) biased. Before there were septum piercings playing Sonic the Hedgehog was the only way to lash
out at your parents. You have to take their word for it that he's a hedgehog. Like if you saw this in crawling
towards you on the street, I doubt the first thing you shout is, "someone get this hedgehog away from me". His attitude riddled fast paced nature was the perfect combatant to Nintendo's Mario. That's actually the entirety of the reason behind Sonic's conception. SEGA wasn't lighting the world on fire with their master system and their then mascot, Alex kid. They needed something bolder, something newer. A company-wide character
design contest was held to find the perfect new face for SEGA. A few designs were thrown
around such as a rabbit and a Teddy Roosevelt
looking guy who eventually became the series antagonist. It was finally settled on a hedgehog designed by Naoto Ohshima. Due to the gameplay concept of the main character rolling into a ball to gain speed from programmer Yuji Naka. The hedgehog design was chosen with many other design aspects coming from other inspirations. Shoes from Michael Jackson and Santa Claus and attitude like Bill Clinton's. His color coming from the SEGA logo. This character was shaping up to become the mascot SEGA always dreamed of. The original name was Mr. Needle Mouse. But then they thought, wow, we actually want to sell this game, and decided upon Sonic. A few ideas were scrapped before release, such as a real life human
girlfriend for Sonic and having him be a part of a rock band. Also the design of Sonic himself was altered a bit to be more appealing to American audiences. Just look at the Japanese
and American designs. They're similar, but have a
few differences here and there. After releasing on June 23rd, 1991 SEGA decided to get even more aggressive as they knew what they had was definitely more than
enough to combat Nintendo. The Genesis received a price drop and got Sonic the Hedgehog bundled in. And that's when everything
really started to heat up. Sonic was already doing well before being bundled with the system. But afterwards, it was almost impossible to own a Genesis without Sonic. The speed and attitude of the game fit right in with the nineties and Sonic the Hedgehog became one of the most iconic video games and characters of all time. This was the first game
that I ever truly owned. My cousin gave me his hand-me-down second Genesis model two
with a copy of Sonic. Here's the model one, which is the only one I have nowadays. And plus, I think the
design is way cooler. High definition graphics. Yeah, keep telling yourself that. And now a bit of history between me and the entirety of the Sonic franchise. I really liked Sonic one but I can never get past Marble zone. I still played the game a lot, but never got far. I ended up getting two more Genesis games, Ms. Pac-Man and Sonic 2. Same thing with Sonic one. Couldn't get past Chemical Plant. I know sex with me has
definitely decreased in value after that little tidbit. Once I got a Game Cube, I got the Sonic Mega Collection, which I loved. I adore little bonus features and extras and Mega Collection had loads of these. In addition to the two
games I played a lot and others like Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles, Spin Ball Mean Bean Machine and even 3D Blasts. I hardly have a lot of
nostalgia for 3D Blasts and I have trouble sleeping to
this very day because of it. And that was it in terms of Sonic for me. Never played 3D games during this era. Haven't played Adventure, or at least enough of it. I played like five minutes of it and didn't really like it. I haven't played Adventure 2. I haven't played Heroes. I haven't played HA. I saw loads of trailers
for Sonic Unleashed before it came out and I
thought it looked amazing. I got it for Christmas 2008. And, it was okay. I don't think it deserves
all the hate it gets but I think it was just okay. I thought Sonic Colors was all right too. I just haven't played a ton of it and thought there were too
many 2D sections for my liking. I like 2D Sonic, but modern Sonic and 2D isn't the most fun to control. I like modern Sonic way more in 3D. But man, Generations was great. Not just based on nostalgia, not just because it
brings back old levels, but because the game is fun. Classic Sonic's fun. Modern Sonic's fun. It's not perfect, but I thought it was a really good game. I haven't played Lost World or HA Mania just came out and oh my oh me, it's a good game. I recently beat Sonic CD and I must say it's the epitome of a mixed bag for me. At its best, it's the best. At it's worst, it's the worst. Eloquently put it. So yeah, you can consider me a fan of the Sonic games
unanimously considered good. Which at that point makes me more of a fan of just good games in general. Well, today let's take
a look back at the very first Sonic the Hedgehog and no, we're not playing the excellent Christian
Whitehead poured on mobile which is outstanding
and they should totally let them remaster Sonic 3 and Knuckles and also bring the port to consols and PC. We're not playing the version on GBA, which has numerous frame rate problems, screen crunch, and slow down. Ew. Now we're playing the Genesis original black box and all. Jesus. (swishing sounds) Lucky shot. I hate re-releases like this, this Player's Choice Greatest Hits, Bottom Hits. They can all piss
themselves in the (beep). But just an eyesore. Why does Players Choice have to be yellow? Why? Actually we were playing the version on Sonic's ultimate Genesis collection. Sorry for the cock tease. Let's finally dive into this. Sonic the Hedgehog for SEGA Genesis. Sonic one is split up into six zones with three acts each in one final zone which is basically just
a final boss battle. The third act in his own is generally the most difficult and lengthy. While also including a boss fight with Dr. Robotnik slash Eggman slash I refuse to know anymore. Who has taken all the Woodland creatures and turned them into robots, which you obviously refuse to have any of. Now Sonic controls well. Pretty standard for a platform. And to be honest, which is good, everything feels fine. You can only damage
enemies in your ball form, which is most prominent while jumping, and Sonic of course can go much faster than your average mascot which is the main selling
point of the game. Why else would they name him Sonic Instead of Smokey the Hedgehog is because the sucker can go fast If the level allows for it. There are springs and loop to loops set up all over the place to help you gain momentum. And gaining speed in Sonic is a nice reward after
some tricky platforming. Which is what Sonic primarily comprises of platforming. When you get down to it, Sonic is a pretty standard platform with a few level design choices to help you go fast in certain instances. There isn't much in terms of power ups in the game. You have a shield and invincibility which do their job. Rings are your life bar. If you get hit with rings, you lose them all and have to nab them back to stay afloat. Get hit without rings, and get that darn morgue ready. The overall idea of Sonics game design. I like, I like the ring system. I like using speed as a
reward after platforming. However the game doesn't really do as much with the design as I'd want it to. It really feels lopsided sometimes. Like some zones, there's barely any speed at all which makes certain acts drag. Alas, this issue was definitely addressed in later Sonic games. But overall Sonic one feels much more like an everyday standard platformer than a Sonic game. At least in comparison
to the later entries. The game of course starts
off with Green Hills zone, one of the most famous
levels in all of gaming. And let me tell you, this is everything a fun Sonic level should be. There's loads of areas to gain speed but just holding right isn't going to net you a win. You have to still do tons of platforming to succeed and being skilled enough
at the level allows you to either beat it in record time, get to areas with hitting
goodies with ease, or even both. The colors are so vibrant. The music is outstanding. Now this is a Sonic. The rest of the game reeks. Or at least the next zone. Marble zone is the reason why Metal Boss will reign Supreme by 2040. And I'll let you in on some insider information. That isn't good. I could do this big analytical take on why this level blows. But I don't have to. It's just bad. I don't think anybody likes this level. It's awful. Now, I don't believe all Sonic levels need to be fast all the time. On contraire. If Sonic was always fast, that would make the speed section so much less satisfying. But this, is just boring. This level is way too drawn out. The same things over and over again. Waiting on this blog, going across the lava slowly, waiting for the spike chandelier
platform to come down. It's just not fun. Marble zone is not fun. I'd probably give it some slack if there were some sections to go fast. But no, it's just boring, long and tedious. Spring Yard zone is up next and it's a competent Sonic level with loads of Springs to gain momentum and roll all over the place. Labyrinth zone is up next and welcome back negativity, it's been too long. This is just boring. The zone didn't really feel
like much of a labyrinth. Like the only part I remember being remotely maze like was in act three where a sequence was continually repeated until you went down the right path. And even then, there were only a few
paths you could take. So no biggie. The zone really isn't
known for being a maze. No, no, no. It's a water level. And man, I hate the underwater
sections in Sonic one. Major slowdown happens when you get hit by an enemy and it's just annoying. And yeah, underwater section's blow in most games, but at least in other games you can swim by continually pressing jump. In Sonic, it's just a much slower version of the game where you die in like four seconds if you don't get to air. Starlight zone is next. And it's a solid way to wash out the aftertaste of Labyrinth zone. It's a relatively subdued level. It's actually a bit relaxing, a bit basic for a zone, but solid enough. Scrap Brain zone is the final full zone in the game. And it definitely feels like it. Listen, I don't have much to say about this one because
it's all on act three. This is labyrinth zones revenge. Remember when I said the original zone didn't feel like much of a maze? Don't worry, it was warming up for this sucker. This act blows. The majority of it's under water. And there are just not enough air bubbles to keep you alive. The only way I could beat this act is the shortcut at the very
beginning of the stage. Slipping underneath the platform brings you to a much, much quicker route. And then Final zone. After being awarded most zone name, the zone carries forth one of the easiest final bosses from this generation of games. The boss fights in this
game are always relatively pretty easy and underwhelming. Except Starlight zones boss. I thought that one was really clever and fun. It uses the seesaw mechanic used earlier in the zone. And I, I just liked this one a lot. If you collect 50 rings and keep them till the end of either acts one or two in each zone, you can hop into the big ring at the end for a chance
to nab a chaos emerald in the special stages. Starting in Sonic two, if you get seven chaos emeralds he gained the ability to transform into Super Sonic. A solid reward. But in Sonic one, getting the only six chaos emeralds get you the best possible ending which is barely any
different from the bad one. It's weird because the back of the box clearly states it's Super Sonic. I'm not a fan of these special stages. It never really feels
like I'm in full control. The stage rotates all around and you can only fully jump and move around on solid terrain. I can easily get the first chaos Emerald but on this play through, I gave up after the second attempt. (upbeat music) No, thank you. You know how I said the rest of the game reeks after Green Hills zone? Let's evaluate that statement. Those 16 syllables make it seem as if I'm dogging all over Starlight zone and Spring Yard zone. No, those are okay stages. I don't think as highly of them because everything after
Green Hill looks drab. Like the first level hit you hard with color and saturation. And the rest of the game goes for this darker color palette and not as many detailed environments. And I don't know, I think a lot more color and variety and zone themes would have helped out tremendously. Specifically zone themes. Like, what is this? But the soundtrack I don't
have to linger on this. It's amazing. It's one of the defining and best soundtracks of
the 16 bit generation. It's fantastic. This game is hard. but a good handful of times, it's just unfair. How was I supposed to know this was a bottomless pit? How was I supposed to
know this platform was immediately going to fly away this fast? How did I die? He didn't even touch me. A lot of Sonic's gameplay is based on trial and error. Which I think is kind of a lazy design choice. Instead of designing something in a way to alert
players of what's to come if they want to do
something a little racy. En, just let them die. they'll figure it out that way. That would be okay in some regards if the game had a save feature. At the very least had a password system. But you're supposed to
beat Sonic all in one go if you want to be pure about it. You can enter a level select code at the title screen book. Come on. That's not how you beat the game. I think the game could
have really benefited from a password feature. Games with saves were still
in their infancy back then. So I can kind of understand the lack of a battery save option, but come on, a password would have been lovely. And that's the entirety of Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA Genesis. When you get down to it, the game is short. Now it does take around two hours or so on the first play through. However I have to say, with only six full zones and three levels each and one final boss fight. Sonic feels a bit light for a 16 bit game. Of course the SNES hadn't come out yet. So this game was more so competing with 8 bit platformers. And when you take that into consideration, yeah this game blew the majority of those
things out of the water comparing them side by side. But I think it definitely comes up short in comparison to a lot
of Nintendo's offerings on the SNES or even any S at the time. And of course, later Sonic games. Like Sonic 2 improves on everything this game did. I feel like Sonic owes a good amount of his success to Green Hill zone. I know people are getting
sick of this level nowadays but it is literally, the perfect Sonic level. Good amounts of speed, good amounts of platforming, just the right length. It does everything it's supposed to. If Green Hills zone wasn't
in the original Sonic game or wasn't the first level, I don't think he'd be
as popular as he was. Sonic One is a decent romp that's fun to pop in from time to time but it is nowhere near as fun or designed as well as later
entries on the Genesis. It's really difficult to
pinpoint my whole hearted opinion on the game. It isn't a bad game, but it definitely needs some time to think about what it's done. How about this? A great blueprint for the franchise. Not that great of a game though. if you want to start somewhere, I'd recommend Sonic 2. This game has way too
many parts that are simply frustrating, boring, or not fun in comparison to later games. However, I still have a
fondness for this game. Nowadays, Sonic is known for look how (bleep) stupid he looks. But Sonic one deserves to be recognized as a landmark title in gaming history. The role of it's only six zones, easy boss fights, unfair challenges, enemy placement, and design, stupid dumb, and stupid special stages. I think I actually hate this game. Yeah, this game actually reeks. (swooshing sounds) SEGA. Son of a Bitch. I'm so lucky. (upbeat music)
