Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis - Scott The Woz Compilation

hey y'all Scott here Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega 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 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 thing 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 Kidd 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 Oshima 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 an 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 23 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 90s 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 Sega Genesis model 2 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 I keep telling yourself that and now a bit of history between me and the entirety of the Sonic franchise I really like Sonic 1 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 Miss Pac-Man and Sonic 2. same thing with Sonic 1 couldn't get past chemical plant I know sex with me has definitely decreased in value after that little tidbit once I get a GameCube 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 spinball mean bean machine and even 3D Blast 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 the 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 alright 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 my 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 spawn 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 its worst it's the worst eloquently put it so yeah you could 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 port on mobile which is outstanding and they should totally let him remaster Sonic 3 and Knuckles and also bring the port to consoles 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 foreign lucky shot hey re-releases like this this Player's Choice Greatest Hits Platinum hits they can all piss themselves in the deck they're just an eyesore why does Player's Choice have to be yellow why actually we're playing the version on Sonic's ultimate Genesis collection sorry for the cocktails let's finally dive into this Sonic the Hedgehog four Sega Genesis Sonic 1 is split up into six zones with 3x each in one final Zone which is basically just a final boss battle the third act in the zone is generally the most difficult and lengthy wall so including a buzz 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 platformer 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 this sucker can go fast if the level allows for it there are Springs and loop the 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 more gruddy the overall idea of Sonic's 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 1 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 Hill 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 rest of the game reeks or at least the next Zone Marvel zone is the reason why menopause 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 oh contraire if Sonic was always fast I would make the speed section so much less satisfying but this is just boring this level is way too drawn out the same thing's over and over again waiting on this block 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 3 where a sequence was continually repeated until he 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 amazed no no it's a water level and man I hate the underwater section than Sonic 1. major slowdown happens when you get hit by an enemy and it's just annoying and yeah underwater sections 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 4 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 Zone because it's all on act 3. this is Labyrinth Zone's 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 underwater 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 Zone's boss I thought that one was really clever and fun it used the Seesaw mechanic used earlier in the zone and I I just like this one a lot if you collect 50 rings and keep them till the end of either X1 or 2 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 2 if you get 7 Chaos Emeralds you gain the ability to transform into supersonic a solid reward but in Sonic 1 getting the only 6 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 supersonic I'm not a fan of these special sages 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 playthrough I gave up after the second attempt [Music] no thank you you know how I said the rest of the game reeks after Green Hill Zone let's evaluate that statement those 16 syllables make it seem as if I'm dogging all over Starlight Zone in springyard 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 detail 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 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 Gonna Fly Away this fast how did I die he didn't even touch me a lot of Sonic's gameplay is based around 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 and just let him die they'll figure it out that way that would be okay in some regards if the game had a save feature or 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 but come on that's not how he 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 playthrough 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 NES 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 Hill 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 1 is a decent romp that's fun to pop in from time to time but it is nowhere near as fawner designed as well as later entries on the Genesis it's really difficult to pinpoint my wholehearted 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 lighter games however I still have a fondness for this game nowadays Sonic is known for look how [ __ ] stupid he looks but Sonic 1 deserves to be recognized as a landmark title in gaming history the role of its only six zones easy boss fights unfair challenges enemy placement and design stupid dumb and stupid special sages I think I actually hate this game yeah this game actually reeks [Music] son of a [ __ ] I'm so lucky hey y'all Scott here say do you remember when I took a look at the first Sonic the Hedgehog game and realized that it's filled with design flaws and problems yeah the fans love me for saying that onto Sonic 2. Sonic the Hedgehog won the worst first entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog series out there Mario look back at this one the more I dislike it it's not terrible but its flaws become more and more apparent with time zones go on for far too long level design can be unfair cheap and boring at times and the pacing of the game is just all over the place half of the zones are just a slog to go through and the other half that I think are at the very least decent my foot isn't really thumping to replay them Sonic 1 is at its best in the first stage like if I ever want to go through the game again I'll play through Green Hill Zone yep that's the end of that thought but who am I kidding I'll still keep rebuying this game over and over again I have a soft spot for this one it was the first game I ever owned I've already droned on and on about this but I gotta Sega Genesis and a copy of Sonic 1 as a hand-me-down from one of my cousins a few months later my parents and I were driving home and we stopped by this old record store that also stole retro games let me pick out two new games for my Genesis so I chose Miss Pac-Man and Sonic 2. while also considering picking up Pac-Man 2 the new adventures but I'm still alive so you know that didn't happen I have just as much Nostalgia for Sonic 2 as I did with one and a very similar play history as well I could never get past the second Zone in the game now with the second Zone in Sonic 1 marble Zone I think that's completely understandable for a six-year-old to have trouble getting past that level chemical Planet Sonic 2 yeah I have no excuse for that one I've continued to dabble in Sonic 2 over the years owning it on a good handful of collections since I've taken a look back at the first game I think it's only fair to do the deed with the sequel too before we get into the game itself let's start off with the history of it Sonic the Hedgehog was a massive success and did everything Sega intended it to do giving Sega an iconic mascot establishing a killer app for the Genesis creating a character that could rival Nintendo's Mario Sonic did all of this so obviously what better game to follow up Sonic the Hedgehog with than a sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic 2 was thrown into development around November of 1991 and was headed by an American branch of Sega the Sega Technical Institute Sonic's original Creator Yuji Naka was fed up with Sega of Japan quit and was then later convinced by Mark Cerny who nowadays is known for his work at Sony to work at STI so you know I could quit Sega to work for Sega various other Japanese Sega employees moved to America to help develop the game which led to some communication difficulties due to you know different languages while Sonic 2 had a year development time until it released a treasure Trove of levels were cut from the final game so I'm never leaving the concept stage some programmed into the game yet never completed the most famous of the bunch has to be hidden Zone which could be accessed through cheat devices albeit in a state where you wouldn't trust it in a dark alley other cut stages include wood Zone dust Hill Zone and genocide City zone no wonder Sega said Nintendo's for [ __ ] the game launched on November 24th 1992 a day Sega called Sonic Tuesday this was actually a fairly substantial deal in retrospect simply due to the fact that Sega went for a global release of the game with it releasing the same day in North America and Europe even though Sega of Japan decided to release the game a couple days early on the 21st regardless it was still a big deal at the time but the release was also Monumental due to the fact that the game released on a Tuesday this inspired other Publishers to do the same which is why most video games since have released on a contender for the top seven days of the week list I'm working on now on to my thoughts and I will say this Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is my favorite sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog the intro is eerily similar to the first game the same Sega startup sound except now appearing after two consecutive slow downs that was great has the same music as the first game the same winged metal the same logo but now with a new background less ass and somebody new to Haze the new face in town is Miles Prower or a sensible people call him Tails having two tails that allow him to fly he tags alongside you in the game but doesn't add a whole lot other than damn it to be fair he can kill some enemies grab some rings and his addition makes the overall Journey feel more fun like you're doing it all with a pal in fact you can actually play with a pal as Tails can be controlled by a second player albeit with less functionality than Sonic and infinite lives there's also a full competitive two-player split screen mode for a few select levels which now it could have been worse however tails and multiplayer are just the beginning of what Sonic 2 introduces Sonic 2 still plays almost identically to the first game though you play as this and try to make your way there collecting Rings which still act as your health bar fundamentally defeating enemies by hitting them in your Ball State and having the same power-ups this is definitely a Sonic as a hedgehog can get but now things are way faster like Sonic 1 was faster than your average platformer at the time Sonic 2 says this guy right and just obliterates it like Sonic gives a hearty [ __ ] this screen because sometimes it can't even keep up with him it's insane now the increased speed is probably due to a new move you can perform the spin dash Crouch down exclaimed death to thumbs and haha an instant burst of speed this is such an awesome addition it definitely helps with Sonic's level design as many slopes you have to Traverse require you to be at a relatively high speed so instead of walking all the way over here start running and maintaining top speed to get higher you can just in Sonic 1 if you add 50 plus rings by the end of act 1 or 2 of a Zone you had a chance to hop into a big ring for a shot at a special stage if you can survive a migraine you can survive this and win one of six Chaos Emeralds which if you collect all of them you got a nice pat on the back in the form of flowers in the ending oh come on Sonic 2 has a bit of a different format to its special stages if you have 50 rings by the time you cross a checkpoint stars appear and you know what that means now this is something to write home about I have so many memories of these special stages I mean come on they're 3D that's cool nowadays I dread playing these things but hey compared to the other games at the time and the special stages in Sonic 1 these things were impressive they were something to put on the fridge now of course disregarding the 3D aspect of these stages that made them the Talk of the Town these blow they require so much memorization the fake 3D makes the perspective difficult to judge at times and [ __ ] tails at least now you can get multiple Chaos Emeralds per stage with the multitude of checkpoints scattered about so you can collect all of them fairly early on there are now seven emeralds to get and nabbing them all Nets you a one-way ticket to ultimate power supersonic basically almost pure invincibility as long as you still got rings and that's what Sonic to introduced to the franchise but do these things overall make the experience better does Sonic 2 completely trance the original in every way yeah it improves on everything from one I legitimately don't know of anything that one does better than two the first stage Emerald Hill Zone is Green Hill Zone again but somebody had a wild night with a 152 box of Crayola's the sheer amount of color in this zone is amazing everything just pops and it's just so nice to look at a beautiful amount of speed platforming alternate paths it's fantastic fun zones now only feature 2x rather than three which is a godsend each Act is more fleshed out and ending it at two keeps the zones from becoming stale they end at just the right moment the next level chemical plant spits in the face of everything Sonic 1 second level ever aspired to be this one keeps on keeping on it doesn't take away your speed yet it's obviously more difficult than the first stage ladies and gentlemen here we are at the section Scott couldn't get through as a kid I never got to the boss back in the day but now when I do happy no floor day everybody aquatic ruin zone is the third area and is naturally water-based a skilled player can go through the entire stage without even touching the water well that's one way to realize my worth got the water in this stage is Dreadful just like in Sonic 1 you are so slow also anybody else find The Parallax scrolling in the stage to just be weird like this just doesn't look right casino night zone is the big debut of Sonic's favorite pastime debt it's a really fun level but nowhere near my favorite though I feel it's a bit overrated even it's just so much of the Zone feels the same to me we get a pinball section these Springs the slot machine repeat a few times until the ACT is over casino night is still great fun just not one of my favorites Hilltop brings things back down to a more traditional feeling level nothing crazy interesting to be honest following that is Mystic cave Zone home to a pit that is just spikes that you can't escape from this is on somebody's resume oil ocean ah my cup of tea I don't know there's just something unappealing about this to me I'm not a fan of plain Jane desert levels and oil ocean invokes the feeling of them without being you know a desert level it's hard to describe Metropolis Zone also known as this isn't even the last Zone it's the last traditional Zone I guess but it goes on for three acts each longer than the last this day just filled to the brim with garbage for example this bad and [ __ ] these wall sea stars are the worst they shoot out projectiles if you get too close to them and when you're going up these gear lift things they always love to shoot them off or sometimes Not Just for kicks and with that here's a Scott question Sonic 2's game design moment so you have to run on these gears to make them go up the first time we're greeted to them a thing as spikes are at the very top the next time we have to deal with them there are no spikes why is it more dangerous the first time I know a thing or two about game design I've watched four videos on YouTube about it so I know it's best to introduce something in a safer area and then rev things up later down the line with things like this Sky Chase's own seizes on Tails plane and we have full control over it but not have full control over it at the same time like we can move the plane wherever we want however we have to move Sonic around on the plane to control it so there's like a second or two where if you want to move to the right of the screen Sonic has to walk over to the far right of the plane it's just no fun to control to be honest Wing Fortress Zone takes place immediately after Sky Chase and we start end how was I supposed to know this wasn't just a cutscene and I actually had to jump off this isn't the time to be pulling this kind of garbage we're at the very end of the game the stage makes me wake up in a cold sweat while I'm playing somehow every step you take in this stage feels like it'll be your last like we have to jump onto These Bars and jump off and am I the only one who thought there is no way I can make that jump from this also what the hell all right we go into space the Death Egg zone is all we have left and there are no rings on this stage I think this decision is why Sega Technical Institute doesn't make games anymore and probably just caters grad parties now we have to deal with this silver robotic Sonic which isn't super easy but definitely doable but then on to the Death Egg Robot this final boss is nerve-wracking not only did we have to survive the first phase but we still have no rings whether you've successfully hit the robot or it hits you just seems a little random sometimes like the hit detection just seems wonky here alright alright we saved the day blam credits that's Sonic too and I know I ragged on it a bit there near the Yen but don't take that as I dislike this game my main problem gameplay wise is that it does retain a fair amount of garbage from Sonic 1 you know the traps that you can't really see coming some trial and error that kind of stuff it's nowhere near as bad as one but it still has a good chunk of it from time to time like this final boss is just a little too Sonic 1e for its own good however I'd say the pros easily outweigh the cons the level design can be so much fun it's leagues faster it looks so much better the music oh oh the music the soundtrack is phenomenal every track is fantastic the box art was always a favorite of mine I don't know if it's actually objectively good or bad but I still love it regardless the game may have some issues but the overall experience in my opinion is great Sonic 2 is truly where the series started it fixed loads of Sonic 1's problems introduced a handful of series Staples and is just a fun game overall which is all you really need I own this game on so many different platforms much like the first game I own that sucker on a freaky iPod Nano nowadays honestly it doesn't really matter what version of the game you play except I will say the mobile phone version of Sonic 2 is by far the most definitive it's in widescreen you can play as knuckles they even made the lost stage hidden Palace Zone playable that's amazing it's just a shame it's only on phones so I guess it was all a favor and pop this version of Sonic 2 on consoles and PC please and thank you yeah Sonic 2 is really for video games released on a Tuesday something just as Monumental as that was how about I'll go the rest of my life without verbs from here on out I will never use a verb damn it hey y'all Scott here let's role play I'll Be Sonic CD and since I'm the only other person here I'll also play the role of Skye [ __ ] you Sonic the Hedgehog on CDs I've heard worse business proposals Sonic CD a game made exclusively for the Sega CD add-on for the Sega Genesis yeah this is back when CDs were the hot ticket item in the game industry if your game wasn't on a CD you were a [ __ ] loser compared to standard cartridges CDs were cheaper to manufacture and could store loads more information they could play high quality audio and not quality video it was obvious why companies were trying to shift over to the medium however it really wasn't until the PlayStation that CDs began to be widely accepted as the primary format for video games going forward the Sega CD was a really weird ashtray in video game console it's fair to call it its own console it required a separate power adapter and had its own library of games separate from the Genesis but you needed that stinking Genesis for it to work so officially it's an add-on and contrary to popular belief it didn't completely flop it didn't do great but it didn't do poorly 2.24 million units were sold I mean considering it cost 300 and was just an add-on I think that's okay of course it could have done better and it's like a booming success can be somewhat attributed to the lack of killer software for the thing there's sure over 200 games were released for it but so many were just interactive movies interactive movies where they would just re-released Genesis games now if we take a look at the best-selling Sega CD games Sonic CD is at the top with a staggering 1.5 million units sold that's over 60 percent of the Sega CDs out there to me that shows that Sega should have put more effort into making exclusive unique games for the Sega City instead of putting out Echo the dolphin in Slam City don't worry I already emailed Sega this game right here was constantly touted as one of the greatest Sonic games ever made if not the best one of all time and then it became more readily available and that notion someone went away Sonic CD was always that mysterious Classic Sonic game not many got to experience the Hidden Gem of the series the one that may have been forgotten or excluded from Classic Sonic discussions while I love just as much of an impact on the series as other titles it's often set aside from the rest is it just because not many have played it or are there some underlying issues I don't like Sonic Studio that much while Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was being developed in North America Sonic CD was being worked on by the original Sonic team in Japan Sonic's creators Yuji Naka and naoto Oshima were split apart with Naka working on Sonic 2 with various members of the original Sonic team in North America and Oshima staying in Japan working on a Sonic title for Sega CD with the remaining Sonic team members originally a Sega CD version of Sonic 2 was being worked on But as time went on the development team wanted to create their own Sonic title for the machine CD Sonic the Hedgehog you should change that Sonic CD ended up being the Star title of the Sega CD taking full advantage of the hardware with graphics and sound that couldn't be done on a standard Sega Genesis it released in late 1993. a few months before Sonic 3 came out being released for an add-on only 2 million people owned and right before another Sonic game with a slightly more exciting title yeah that's a recipe for a game that just sort of came out Sonic CD was always considered the Hidden Gem of the Sonic series and it's obvious why it was only available on the Sega CD originally and then the PC in 1996. that was it for the longest time until 2005 with Sonic Gems Collection on the GameCube and on the PS2 as well only in Europe and Japan a lot of people were wondering why Sonic CD wasn't included in a previous compilation Sonic Mega Collection all the Original Classic Sonic games for the Genesis were there but no Sonic CD just the opening and ending cinematics of the game were included as bonus features CD was originally planned to be playable in Mega Collection but Sega realized they could use the game as a way to sell a collection nobody cared about yeah Sonic Gems Collection I always instinctively picked the game up like this Regal is the way you think about Sonic the fighters in Sonic are hey man you were buying this game for Sonic CD the cover art is Sonic CD related and only Sonic CD related it's the only game specifically mentioned on the front this was Sega re-releasing Sonic CD along with a few bonus games this was how many people were introduced to the game but then it became widely accessible in December of 2011 with the release of a remastered Sonic CD on Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 PC and mobile devices developed by Christian Whitehead this version was inexpensive on Modern platforms and the definitive version of the game I usually like to play the original versions of the Sonic games when I talk about them but the 2011 remaster is the way most people swing these days so I'll mainly be playing this one okay let's at least give the original and Gems Collection varieties a shot and just to clarify Gems Collection has the PC version of Sonic CD on it so Sonic the Hedgehog CD apparently that's its legal name but all its friends just call it Sonic CD for the first time we get an opening cinematic and a Sonic the Hedgehog game in its full-blown hand-drawn animation done by toei I remember watching this thing constantly on Sonic Mega Collection without even knowing what the hell a Sonic CD was it's incredibly well done and conveys everything Sonic's character was supposed to represent at the time determination a bit of Cockiness every frame of Animation is just so full of life and it's just bursting with personality if this intro had legs it would get Turbo laid it's just bizarre that they put so much effort into an amazing intro for it to just get butchered in the Sega CD release now with the PC version going forward it's shown in all of its Glory but the Sega CD intro is shortened and compressed as all hell this works when it comes to some scenes like when it zooms out from Sonicare it's actually a more fluid looking Zoom with the Sega CD compression in the full high quality version you can see it fade in and out but overall I just find it odd all this work was put into animation that just wouldn't look too great when it was initially released to the masses so the plot of Sonic CD Dr Robotnik has chained a planet to the ground that son of a [ __ ] that planet is called little planet and he's in the process of roboticizing everything about it on top of obtaining a bunch of time stones to alter time so we can take over the world or something it's a game called Sonic CD okay who cares there's Amy Rose here too a hedgehog who has the hots for Sonic but Sonic just doesn't have time for Romance though he does have time to savor from the evil clutches of Metal Sonic Dr robotnik's latest creation there's like three whole things going on in this plot holy [ __ ] this lot is perfectly fine for a classic Sonic title just when I say it out loud you end up having some questions why is he blue right off the bat it feels like Sonic CD is more of a follow-up to Sonic 1 than Sonic 2. the tattoo screen the Sprites the worlds it feels like a souped-up Sonic one to me like oh man it goes 3D here that's amazing so overall it's definitely a Sonic the Hedgehog game all right very much in line with previous games in terms of controls and gameplay just try to get to the end of the stage while exploring the levels for different Pathways or other Secrets however they just had to inject the game with something illegal Jesus Christ Sonic cedious stages are ginormous and are filled with colors maybe maybe a bit too many colors the art design of Sonic CD makes it feel like fun colors and shapes the video game and that's about it it's all fairly abstract compared to something like Sonic 2. the zones in that game felt like actual places in Sonic's World while Sonic CD zones feel more like theming an entire level to a specific color or something like look at all the zones palm tree Panic Collision chaos title Tempest quartz quadrant wacky workbench Stardust Speedway and metallic Madness half of those don't even sound like places they sound like tag lines for places now I'd be fine with abstract themed zones but all the colors all the Sprites and all the designs Clash together into a visual experience where I have no damn clue what I'm looking at half the time the choices of color and amount of detail make enemies and obstacles and other objects just blend into the background it's a family tradition for me I always accidentally run into because I'm going too fast in Sonic games but in CD even when I'm just walking around I'll get hit by an enemy just because I legitimately can't tell the difference between what's part of the background and foreground at the time or a Hidden Spring appears out of nowhere [ __ ] what now I know what you're saying Sky you're colorblind your kind isn't allowed to place Sonic City into that I say it's okay my kind doesn't want to play it anyways the backgrounds are so damn busy the patterns and color choices are so bold it's hard to make out what's going on sometimes now I'll admit the art design is pretty cool looking overall it feels like a nasty Sega CD related drug trip but I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for and for that I commend them but it just does not work for a fast-paced game like this in its current state they should have made the backgrounds less busy and more focused like they were in the previous two games or make the obstacles and enemies just stand out more but it's not just the art design I have a problem with the levels themselves just feel too big and maze-like it feels like there's no Rhyme or Reason to half the obstacles or enemy placements you know when you're playing Sonic 1 and you're like this stinks that's Sonic CD Sonic CD takes all its cues from Sonic 1. it's all the unfair weird level designs copy and pasted 200 times boom that's a CD level however CD does have this time traveling mechanic you'll find these signposts riddled throughout the levels some take you to the Past others take you to the future if you pass one of them you have to go as fast as you can to maintain your speed for a certain amount of time and then oh and beautiful I'm in green sky so yeah you can go to the Past version of a level and Destroy robotnik's robot generator if you do you can check out the good future of that level if you don't you can check out the bad future that's four separate versions of each level that's four times the levels I don't want to play being able to see what a Sonic level was like in the past or future but just blazing past a sign in that specific level is an amazing concept but why the hell did it have to be used for Sonic CD this goes along with my complaints about the art Direction half the time these levels just look like random patterns and shapes they don't feel like actual worlds so seeing what they looked like in the past that's not interesting metallic Madness oh my God it was purple look at Sonic 2 chemical plant zone would be incredibly interesting to see in the past or the future so would Hilltop Zone casino night Zone oil ocean zone these are actual places I can live and die without ever seeing what Collision chaos looked like in the past I'll give it to him that is a really great concept and while just beating Sonic CD in one go by just getting to the end of each level and nothing more takes like two hours traveling in time to see what the past bad future and good future of each stage looks and plays like definitely adds a lot of replay value there each playthrough can be way more different than each playthrough of Sonic 2. the problem is I don't care about these level designs in their current state show me what the prehistoric version of title Tempest looks like isn't interesting because the current version already isn't interesting it's like showing me what the future of this Jackson Pollock painting is gonna be not like I said the time want you need to go past a future or past sign to go to the past or future run like Hill maintain speed for a period of time and boom you're golden this is the worst these levels are crammed enough as is with as many obstacle Springs spikes and enemies as Neo to Oshima could possibly dream up and now they're asking me to run constantly for like five seconds at the same speed with no interruptions half the time something gets in my way the other half I swear I maintain the speed but the game says no you didn't and if you lose your speed you have to find another signpost to walk across now sometimes there are dedicated areas to travel in time like two Springs right next to each other that's an easy way to maintain speed but ninety percent of the time signposts are put in areas that are like here's a crater so it's needlessly annoying to time travel with level designs like this now this concept will work one million times better in any other Classic Sonic game I get that some people may find it fun to try and find areas to build up their speed but these levels are just too busy and really designed to be enjoyable to explore for me now you'd mainly want to travel in time to destroy these robot Transporters you have to find them in the past of each and every Zone to get the good ending of the game that's all you get for finding them all it kind of makes traveling to the Future somewhat useless like there's no point unless you really want to oh my God is that a bunch of garbage work to not even get anything for these levels don't feel like anything they feel like a bunch of geometry to me I have no sense of direction in these stages when exploring and thus I don't want to explore to find these things just to get an ending video I can look up on YouTube in Sonic 2 for getting all the ks emeralds I got supersonic a worthy reward in Sonic CD you just get a different ending like with Sonic 1. now if you're looking to get the good ending in my opinion finding all the robot Transporters is tedious especially when you can just collect 50 or more ranks enter a special stage at the end of an act like with Sonic 1. I'll say it now Sonic CD is the worthy successor to Sonic 1. it's not a good one but it's worthy these damn special stages are actually pretty okay they're the greatest but they're fine you have to roam around this area destroy the UFOs get caught in the water you lose time when you get a Time Stone get all the time stones to look up the good ending on YouTube I'm not getting all the stones I normally go through all the zones and comment on each of them but I got nothing palm tree Panic it's another Green Hill type Stage Collision chaos I guess it's Casino themed title Tempest it's like Labyrinth Zone quartz quadrant sure wacky workbench please stop Stardust Speedway it's a fun and memorable race against Metal Sonic metallic Madness hey Sonic can get tiny there's not much point to this it's just a fun little gimmick kind of like the 3D part of palm tree Panic the boss fights in Sony CD are painfully easy but incredibly creative oh yeah this pinball boss fight is pretty much impossible to die in you just have to get it to the top of the stage in quartz quadrant you just have to run on this conveyor belt to run down robotnik's machine that's not difficult in the slightest but I can appreciate the idea the music and Sonic CD is interesting mainly due to the fact that Japan and Europe got a completely different soundtrack Compared to North America now many people will swear by the original Japanese soundtrack and while it is great the North American one isn't anything to pass up it's still some great stuff however I'm obligated to say the Japanese variety is it's still way better you can actually swap between the two soundtracks in the 2011 remaster alongside being able to play his Tails or use the more traditional spin dash speaking of which it feels like every great new idea Sonic CD had clashed with another one of its great new ideas and ruins it for example these super peel out you hold up and tap the jump bun to take off blistering speed pretty much like the spin dash introduced in Sonic 2. with that you hold down and tap the jump button the super peel out looks awesome look at that that's fun but the spin dash is still here and that kills enemies the super Pila is a bit faster but you're completely vulnerable the spin dash was added to Sonic CD probably because they felt they had to after Sonic 2 success it's a little more awkward in Sonic City but I'd rather use it compared to the plot because it actually kills enemies like I said in the remaster you can swap this out for the Sonic 2 style spin dash this really is the Swiss army knife of remasters God bless Christian Whitehead that's Sonic CD it's a game that annoys me to no end it's not because it's a particularly bad game it's okay it's just I love so many of its ideas it's one of the most ambitious Sonic games ever made but the execution of everything is just not well thought out at all traveling in time to see what the past and future version of the stages look like brilliant used as a mechanic with stages to feel like second like drug trips and knowledge actual worlds you really want to see the past version of this don't you let's emphasize exploration in these levels that just be like random colors and shapes half the time to travel back in time you have to go as fast as you can maintaining your speed for a few seconds makes sense it's Sonic after all okay we'll make you do that in stages that are cramped and filled with random Spike placements and springs and bumpers and enemies let's introduce the super pllo a fun New move of Sonics that's completely ruined by the fact they got cold feet and added the spin dash at the last second why would you use this great Collision detection don't even think about adding that Sonic CD feels like a Sonic Special stage turned into a full game it's all about exploration which requires you to go slow but its main gimmick is time travel which requires you to go fast it's not a bad bad game but it's not one of my favorites at all I always thought that it was considered one of the best Sonic games of all time just because of how Elusive and strange it was it was the great hitting Classic Sonic game but now since it's been available to most people you definitely see a lot more criticism I didn't find it to be much fun to track down all the robot Transporters which enabled the time's done so I mainly just blazed through the game going from the start to the finish of each level and that's pretty much it it's incredibly easy this way and it's really short but even then playing it like a standard Genesis Sonic title I still find the other Genesis Sonic titles to be way more fun which is why I'm going to do something to this game I should have done years ago yeah I'm probably not playing that again hey y'all Scott here you know one of the top 10 names for children this year happens to be Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Because when everybody wants to be unique nobody's unique stop naming your children unique names just name your kid [ __ ] Earl Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the perfect numbers teaching tool you only need to know the first three letters anyways one two CD three education's a scam this is an interesting one after Sonic CD we got three this never happened while CD is a Mainline Sonic game it's often pushed to the side when the classic Sonic era is represented in various media it's probably because it's the most obscure as it was released for a CD add-on that barely sold over 2 million units but I'm gonna say it's not represented as much because God's doing us all a favor let's hear it for not Sonic CD only a mere three months after Sonic CD's North American release Sonic the Hedgehog 3 released which released three months after Sonic's pinball that released you know how businesses work after Sonic spinball allegedly releases it all goes downhill this isn't commenting on the quality of Sonic 3 not at all but I feel at this time the Sonic franchise peaked on the Genesis in terms of popularity sure fans of Sonic just ooze themselves over Sonic 3 but talk to any average liver of the 1990s and if they played Sonic or even just remember Sonic at all I am pretty sure they'd only be talking about Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. this one wasn't nearly as iconic to 90s pop culture as the first two and now to Sonic fans I love when it does that this is easily one of the most beloved titles in the series I just think it came out right when we were experiencing Sonic overload when it came out three months after Dr robotnik's mean there were four Sonic titles in the span of three months sure there were I still believe Sonic spinball was a lucid dream I had once and nothing more and it gets harder and harder to believe that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was meant to be the magnum opus of the series at that point the Ultimate Sonic Adventure starting development after Sonic 2. really see Sonic 2 was developed by STI we learned about them when talking about Sonic 2 and sex ed that development branch of Sega based out of California was comprised of half Japanese and half American developers and while both contributed to Sonic 2 being as good as it was communication was a bit difficult when the next major Sonic game was proposed producer yujinaka said I'm gonna work with the Japanese developers but don't worry the American developers at STI were tasked with creating a game that doesn't exist initially Sonic 3 was planned to be a much different title from its predecessors maybe incorporating 3D Graphics or having an isometric view the problem was that would take time and Sonic 3 needed to come out a week ago a 2d platformer just like regular Sonic games it was but sticking with the tried and true formula wasn't stopping the developers from wanting to push boundaries this game was going to take place in a large connected world old each Zone led to the next seamlessly and there would be so many new zones power-ups characters abilities a more fleshed out story a kiss goodnight this was said to be one of the biggest Genesis games ever Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was released in North America on February 2nd 1994. it was Groundhog Day but Sega considered it Hedgehog day marketing was thick with this one music was released events took place I was beyond excited and I wasn't even born yet that's the power of Sonic 3. in terms of my history with the title while I owned Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 for my actual Sega Genesis I didn't own an actual copy of Sonic 3 or any other Sonic title because I was too busy owning Miss Pac-Man for Genesis this was my full childhood Genesis collection I must be fun at parties can't wait until the next Sonic game I take a look at Miss Pac-Man see it took until I owned a GameCube for me to count to three I got Sonic Mega Collection and that's how I discovered the rest of the Genesis Sonic lineage what the [ __ ] is that Sonic 3 was playable here and just like Sonic 1 and 2 before it I never got far in this one I really enjoyed playing it honest to God but an ongoing theme with 2D Sonic games I played as a kid was I could only get about two levels in before giving up I never got past marble Zone in Sonic 1 as a kid chemical plan Zone in Sonic 2. I don't even remember getting past Angel Island Zone in Sonic 3 at all it's the first level again I can talk about Miss Pac-Man if you want I don't know why I couldn't get past anything in this game but regardless I played that first level again and again and again I would play this in all the Sonic games that exist consistently even if I didn't make really any progress in them well I do own Sonic 3 for the actual Genesis now the Box are so much more detailed and colorful showing a lush Island setting but that isn't stopped I'm permusing the exact same post for Sonic again after using it in every piece of artwork in North America previously sure in Japan all the Sonic boxes followed the same formats but it's all unique art and Europe is just happy to be here new attitude new enemies it was a yearbook quote Contender I'll give them that I should finally beat this game there really are no excuses anymore I've beaten Devil's third my prerequisites out of the way if I can't be happy with myself then I sure as hell can beat Sonic 3. you ever spray painted tomato blue [Music] in the Sonic 3 title screen they may have scrapped the idea of Sonic 3 having 3D Graphics but at least they somewhat utilize that idea within the title screen he Winks so much it's just blinking at this point it's weird he almost looks like he's made out of clay with how his pupils cast a shadow and the official title is Sonic 3 Sonic the Hedgehog it's gonna be clarified let's Press Start and jump immediately into a game it wouldn't be me playing a Sonic game on the Genesis without an immediate jump into gameplay who am I this isn't right a Genesis Sonic game you can save your progress in have the past three years been a lie I don't know where I am but I have the sudden urge to not have sex we jump into a cut scene two mammals a plane and must be Sonic three so after Sonic 2 Dr robotnik's Death egg falls out of space onto Angel Island in an island that floats that's stupid because of the power of the Master Emerald never mind it's guarded by one Knuckles the Echidna a red thing I thought he was a girl as a kid he's pretty stupid so robotic tricks him into thinking Sonic's a bad guy so when they all go to check out Angel Island Zone Knuckles is always one step ahead of them he steals all of Sonic's Chaos Emeralds he collected from Sonic 2 sets up traps always makes things difficult so not only are we up against Robotnik we're up against friendship so now we're off to play an actual video game in Sonic 3 well it is building upon exactly what Sonic 2 was visually though it does look quite distinct I mean this is Sonic no doubt about it but they tweaked his in-game design a bit smaller people's bigger hands I don't know why but Sonic 3 Sonic always looked pissy to me like Sonic 1 2 and CD Sonic look more determined while running a Sonic 3 Sonic is saying you son of a [ __ ] we just added a decent amount of detail to everything especially the levels themselves I mean this is pretty atmospheric for a Genesis game this feels like an actual location it doesn't even matter it's pixelated you know what this place feels like by just looking at a screenshot this is such a lively looking game and illustrates my problem with Sonic CD see that game looked neat but I didn't know what I was looking at half the time Sonic genuine like these are actual places these are worlds with backstories and context I mean what's more interesting a level themed after a levitating Island surrounded by Shrubbery with vines and Suka caves and it catches on fire halfway through or funny Green World sure it may be impressive to take such a basic concept and turn it into a full-blown state but no matter what this is way more interesting and fulfilling to explore and these levels give you a reason to explore in past games you'd have all these different paths to take but was there really a reason to take them I would just take the path of whatever I fell on all right we're doing this now sure you could find rings and extra lives maybe a shield and some nooks and crannies in different areas they would reward you for going in certain places but things are all over the place throughout the level the shield just gave you one extra hit and an extra life is an extra life none of these rewards are cool none of them make you want to call your dad over dad you won't believe it yeah yeah [ __ ] Hedgehog these are little incentives to explore levels but they aren't fun you know Sonic 3 absolutely Nails exploration but we have three new power ups variations of The Shield but this time based off of the elements we have a fire Shield that protects us from fire and hitting the jump button twice propels us forward we have a bubble Shield that protects us from drowning and hitting the jump button twice bounces us immediately towards the ground and we have an electric Shield protects us from Electric attacks attracts rings and gives us a double jump these are a blast each one feels important if you find any one of them you want it not just because it gives you an extra hit point but because they're just flat out fun to use and they can be hidden pretty well they aren't all over the place which really makes exploring these levels more worthwhile and not only that the way they set up the special stages this time is ingenious similarly they're hidden threat levels if you find a fat ring I have news for you blue sphere is the name of the game collect all the blue spheres avoid the red ones you know this is a heavily fun and addictive special stage but it speeds up over time and it's really easy to mess up the checkered floor almost becomes an optical illusion after a while and the controls while great are just delayed enough to make it so one wrong move and you're out of there when these stages are fast they're really fast and can be a bit disorienting I will never recover but these are obviously the most balanced and fun special stages the main Series has had so far Sonic 1 functionally fine boring makes me fidget in my seat Sonic 2 way more interesting way too hard and unfair Sonic CD Sonic CD it's okay signing Three Special stages beautiful the way you access them is genius it encourages exploration and when you actually get into the meat of them they're super fun now to access Sonic 2 special stages you'd have to collect a certain number of rings and then when passing a checkpoint you'd hop into some Stars Sonic 3 still retains this whole checkpoint stick but instead of bringing it to special stages we get bonus stages now just fun little mini games that give us chances to win power-ups and extra lives on the sort which is way more fun as a neat little bonus for crossing a checkpoint and having a certain number of rings everything's coming together I'm gonna live this up while I can before we get to the coveted Sonic [ __ ] I am going to treasure this moment this is a Sonic game where everything's coming together the level design complements everything they were trying to do here but I know Sonic on Genesis all right there's always some garbage they threw in here that makes absolutely no sense so I'm gonna be extra diligent and try to find something they messed up this game this game well there is the insta Shield ability if you jump and then hit the jump button again a Sonic this little bubble appears quickly and offers a slight boost to your attack and defense range I mean I'm not gonna complain about it it's a nice little bonus but it adds is pretty minimal but Tails here is far more beneficial in this game and how he acted in Sonic 2. if a second player is controlling him in a typical game he can pick Sonic up and fly and if you only want to play his tails you can fly around and swim and in the competitive multiplayer mode you can play as knuckles this game is incredible and not pinnable because that doesn't exist This truly does seem like Sonic 2 but everything is refined everything is better new additions new abilities new attitude new enemies well let's jump into the levels here just like Sonic 2 each Zone has two acts but act one doesn't just fade out and then we hard cut into act two no when Act One ends Act 2 just begins right there where one left off and then when act two ends we get a cutscene showing context to how Sonic and Tails travel to the next Zone each Act has its own unique music pieces unlike in Sonic 1 and 2 where the music was the same across each Act in a Zone this is a huge step up not only making love levels feel like they're a part of a cohesive world but also giving each Act its own feel sure Angel Island Zone act 1 catches on fire at the end so act 2 is a burning hellscape but now since Act 2 has unique music compared to act 1 it not only is a burning hellscape it feels like a burning hellscape and that's important in Sonic 3 at the very least has something the rest of the games didn't have and that's Michael Jackson yeah yeah he works on portions of the soundtrack alongside multiple other people but he is uncredited he did leave the project at some point and of course the reason for him being uncredited could be for this or this for this yeah yeah that could be why well we start things off with Angel Island Zone such a fun stage finds guys Vines each Act ends with their own unique boss fight too oh my God this game just keeps improving we move on to hydrosity or Hydro City or heterocity water stage I love the theme of it taking place underground it's a cool feeling level with some neat ass gimmicks oh my God Sonic 3 has such cool random set pieces that you can play around with this is the kind of stuff you'd expect from a 2d game nowadays but this was from the Genesis this is incredible marble garden zone it's okay I didn't get slightly lost from time to time with this one it was a bit more frustrating than fun for me personally but then Carnival night Zone yay similar idea to Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2 except this time themed around at carnival the nice Gap Zone starts up and we're snowboarding and then launch based Zone happens kind of similar to Marble garden zone for me where it was a bit more frustrating than fun not hard by any means just both of those stages were the only ones where I said what I say every morning where am I and then launchbase Zone ends and then that's it in six zones they were all good but that was nothing the game just ends and the final boss doesn't even feel like a final boss it just feels like any other boss in the game now I really am not the kind of person to complain about game length too much if anything I prefer shorter games if Persona 5 was less than a sentence long I might take a look at it I don't really mind the length of Sonic 3 it honestly takes about as much time to clear on your first play through a Sonic 1 2 or CD the levels themselves are quite expansive and there's tons to do in them and secrets to discover you can beat the special stages collect the seven Chaos Emeralds and elect supersonic it's just the game ends out of nowhere the assortment of levels just feels odd like this shouldn't be a whole game it's like if Super Mario World Ended after the third Castle yeah that was really good but you go to all the trouble of fleshing out this world just to only do this much well that was Sonic 3 and that was a great albeit incredibly short experience now do I prefer it to Sonic 2 which was my favorite of the past Genesis Sonic games I don't know see Sonic 3 is just a much more well-rounded experience in terms of quality I can't really recall any major Sonic [ __ ] moments and that's a huge deal at its worst two stages were just okay Sonic 2 still has that patented Sonic [ __ ] with questionable design decisions and weirdly harsh criteria to get to certain parts but I think at its height it's really really good like chemical plants on casino night Zone I will always remember these stages they are iconic parts of Sonic's history and Sonic 3 just isn't as up there in my opinion all the levels are good at the very least but I think the best stages in Sonic 1 and 2 will always feel more important to me than the best Sonic 3 levels I know people are sick and tired of seeing chemical plant from Sonic 2 where Green Hill from Sonic 1 represented in so many modern Sonic games but they're there for a reason they're unbelievably iconic and while Sonic 3 has great stages I don't think that it's nearly as recognizable or memorable in that way it might be because Sonic 3 doesn't get re-released nearly as much as Sonic 1 and 2. and definitely because the soundtrack has some legal disputes there are just a lot of fingers in this budding so while it does get re-released from time to time most of the time if Sega has to put out old Sonic games in a collection of some sort they usually just do Sonic 1 and 2. those are the most iconic after all it's kind of like how Miss Pac-Man is re-released Namco definitely can re-release Miss Pac-Man if they won but that game has more contracts and licenses associated with it so if they have to release a Pac-Man thing they'd rather just re-release the Original Pac-Man I can go from Sonic to Miss Pac-Man on a dime Machado Genesis collection does ring True to this very day Sonic 3 sold well but one and two sold really well maybe because Sonic 3 just felt like half a game like it has less levels than Sonic 2 and it just ends out of nowhere it feels like this is Sonic 3 part 1. maybe because that's what it is yes as previously stated Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was envisioned as a massive project so much so they had to split into two parts to not only release Sonic 3 on time but also so then they wouldn't have to deal with unloading the entire game onto one cartridge so we have one more Genesis Sonic title to look at on top of Sonic 3D Blast and Dr robotics mean bean machine and Knuckles catex for the Sega 32x add-on but not Sonic spinball because I have a giveable [ __ ] about reality and this isn't it name one time Sonic spinball existed go ahead name one Sonic spinball Sonic spin ball Sonic spin ball I was a different man back then not here I have to make a decision my life depends on it what do I take well this one does have knuckles it's once again time to talk about Sonic what the Hedgehog oh thank God last time we checked in on him he just absolutely crushed his third fourth game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was a fantastic experience it just felt incomplete last stage is in Sonic CD Sonic 2 even Sonic 1 technically the level design power-ups the sheer polish it was on a completely new level but right when Sonic 3 felt like it was getting started the credits rolled but see it wasn't meant to be this way Sonic died drug 3 was planned as the biggest Sonic Adventure yet so big they had to cut the game in half to meet deadlines he just couldn't fit the full adventure on one card in time I mean come on Sega Genesis cartridges can't even hold me but they do hold me accountable thus Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is more so Sonic the Hedgehog 3 part 1 with part two releasing later that same year under the name Sonic and Knuckles and it's brilliant really if you were in the know you knew this was Sonic 3 part 2 but if you weren't this just seemed like it's on Sonic game and you could totally play it like that I feel bad for those who picked up Sonic 3 without this knowledge and felt like it was lacking though the level select code is so damn hard to pull off in this game you have to be faster than Sloan putting this in and it's obvious why they made it so difficult levels that weren't in the game appeared on the list implying Sonic 3 was meant to be far bigger in scope with levels cut from the initial release with three releasing in February of 94 senga waited until June of that year two nuts a new Sonic title for the fall with just the logo date and name Sonic and Knuckles they released on October 18th and featured something new something revolutionary something we all can't live without lock-on technology come on picture my life without this thing yes it was the answer to my conception Sonic and Knuckles comes on this power tool of a cartridge with another cartridge port on top it's like these double Ender Game cartridges for Atari these things always lead to amazing experiments look they're kissing but Sonic and Knuckles is special I mean they made a lock on technology logo just for this occasion now with a cartridge port on top you may be asking Scott what are you gonna do check it where am I this allows you to connect Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Presto you have Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as it was originally intended where Sonic 3 ended initially it now continues with the levels from Sonic and Knuckles alongside a trough of other features however we can also connect Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and with this we get Knuckles in Sonic 2. if you ever think humanity is a waste we did this it's literally just Sonic 2 but you blaze Knuckles now which honestly is just as cool now as it was back then it's commonly said but it's true Sonic and Knuckles was like downloadable content before downloadable content and they could have stopped with connecting to Sonic 3 that means our point of lock on technology was to give players the definitive full Sonic 3 experience but they'd throw us a bone with Knuckles and Sonic too and on top of that by connecting Sonic 1 or most other Sega Genesis games for that matter you can play an endless amount of blue sphere bonus stages from Sonic 3. or 134 million 217 728 blue sphere bonus stages to be exact that's still pretty fun I mean I like blue sphere but after that 30 000th time it's okay actually any random Sega Genesis game after pressing all the buttons on your controller will give you a random blue sphere stage Sonic 1 will give you the stages level by level but how would you know that if you have any game other than Sonic 3 or Sonic 2 on top it just says no way no way don't mock me with some of my favorite music in the entire Sonic franchise playing in the background just give me the damn spheres I think if they did more stuff like Knuckles being in Sonic 2 now that would have been wild and it was discussed for Sonic 1 though they decided against it considering Knuckles play style to just not fit that game well I would have still taken it competitor just blue sphere though I mean knuckle doesn't fit Sonic 2 that great either however there's still a certain magic to plug in games into this cartridge and seeing new junk it's something I'm surprised more games didn't do like come on you put all this work into a lock on Logo at least license it out to something like guns you know Sonic and Knuckles was a Sonic game I haven't known physically until just recently I think that's because since this is a later this game they used cardboard for the box so I always thought oh I see Sonic and Knuckles at this game store but I'll just wait until I find a copy in better condition that day never came so I bought this one on eBay and now I can finally feel a game that I've only merely just seen as a part of Sonic Mega Collection which is where I was introduced to the game as a kid and where I initially thought Knuckles was Sonic's girlfriend I mean this logo come on there are a couple similar to Sonic 3 I played a lot of Sonic and Knuckles on Sonic Mega Collection on the GameCube and when I say a lot I mean a lot of the first stage all I said was I thought Knuckles was a girl never said I wasn't bad at games too well it's been a wild ride for the past four years I've played through each of the classic Sonic games and now I've reached the final one the final one I'm finally ready to not get laid for the fifth time let's start off with vanilla Sonic and Knuckles regardless about incomplete the cartridge looks let's play Sonic and Knuckles [Music] I'll give the game this the title screen is much better than Sonic 3's every time that one started out I flinched so we get to choose between two characters I hope one of them's Jimmy Buffett no it's just Sonic and oh [ __ ] they got knuckles in this game I always thought this was a typo sir Angela these are the only options we have we gotta pick a character we want to play the entire game as because when we select it that's it we're in the game no cutscene or more shockingly no save file feature from Sonic 3. listen I get they needed to cut cause I mean it's expensive to put another hole on your body plus they're just expecting to plug Sonic 3 into the guard to get full saving functionality across the whole game however this was sold as its own game on top of being the second part to Sonic 3 just like a password feature or something would have been nice hopping into the game it's Sonic 3. now is in terms of presentation level design philosophy power-ups controls special stages Sonic and Knuckles is just the second half of Sonic 3 which is made incredibly obvious by the first stage this just doesn't really feel like a first level in a Sonic game it's too busy I mean it's a fun zone but it just doesn't other titles in the series this is obviously the halfway point in a game and this was where I got stuck as a kid you get to this lever type device and Sonic just hangs there and I thought oh I've done everything I can do in reality you're supposed to hit down multiple times to see saw up I was a sheltered child my parents didn't let me use this button until 14. of course we can also play as knuckles though we have to decide to play as the entire game has Sonic or the entire game is Knuckles at the start we can't change our mind later Sonic and Knuckles is harder than choosing a major well this is because Knuckles and Sonic's stories throughout the adventure are different they're similar and most of the levels are the same though you do have some differences based on the character you select mostly with some of the boss fights but both characters have their own abilities you pick Sonic because you're too insecure about deviating from the norm you pick Knuckles if you climb walls and fly do the knuckles give him that ability no apparently it's his dreadlocks okay good that's cleared up Knuckles moveset is a bit tricky to get down which doesn't give us a perfect balance to the playable Sonic characters Knuckles is hard mode Sonic is normal and Tails is easy so why can't I find him easy to use easier to lose it's Sonic and Knuckles on its own is just like Sonic 3. wait one second just like Sonic 3. Tails isn't even with Sonic in his levels at the very least I would have expected that without the save feature opening cut scene or tails Sonic and Knuckles brings us back to a simpler time the worst time of my life I know why it's like this Sonic and Knuckles has to act as both a part two and as a standalone game so you strip out these features and make them accessible when plugging Sonic 3 into the card but at the end of the day Sonic and Knuckles on its own feels like a tremendous step back from Sonic 3. I mean it feels just like Sonic 1 without even an opening cutscene speaking of the opening cut scene I'm surprised I haven't asked the only question I ever tend to ask during Sonic games what happening taking place right after Sonic 3 Sonic continues his quest to stop Robotnik on mushroom Hill but Knuckles was still tricked by Robotnik to think Sonic was a bad guy so he's still trying to stop him Sonic Christ get a [ __ ] lawyer there's a very much Sonic and Knuckles just Sonic 3 continued in every conceivable way outside of well Dale's in here I won't say the story wallet is a continuation it feels it feels a bit held back by being a standalone part two like Sonic 3 ended with Sonic defeating Robotnik so then Sonic and Knuckles continues the story by saying well Sonic defeated Robotnik but he got back up again to be fair that's every Sonic plot but with this being a direct continuation it kind of feels a bit like why knuckle story is a bit strange as many official Sonic sources imply it occurs at the same time as Sonics which doesn't make any sense if it did then you would see the parts were Knuckles and Sonic interact and Sonic's story but you don't hey here we get our cutscene knuckle story seems to be taking place after Sonic's story with Knuckles hanging out and then getting pissed off by a negrobo so he plays through a whole Sonic game just out of spite while the game starts off at mushroom Hill Zone a solid ROM but a questionable first level how would a beginner know the down button exists he gets stuck on loads of vegetation but that plus the amount of bouncy platforms give the stage such a lively feel almost like there's a rhythm to everything like I said the special stages are the same as Sonic 3's blue sphere but the bonus stages you enter by jumping into the checkpoint with a certain amount of rings are new foreign and nothing was gained there's actually two separate bonus stages in Sonic and Knuckles which combined with Sonic 3 is mean we have three different bonus stages they weren't getting when they said they wanted to make this the ultimate game next up is flying battery Zone a stage on a blimp thank you this level is filled with scrap metal and Technology from Robotnik and it's awesome and screamed to me how well a Sonic level inside of a blimp feels like a Sonic level inside of a blimp the music is amazing much like the rest of the Genesis Sonic lineage and flying battery Zone may be one of my favorite tracks it really makes the level feel so exciting yet dangerous sandoplas well they can all be sages in the First Act it's all right and the boss but at the end of it took a few tries to figure out like how do I kill this guy oh I just stand to the left and he'll just walk up and kill himself okay Act 2 is a piece of garbage it's like a sort of Labyrinth where everything looks the same and you [ __ ] up one jump and Bam I'm 20 miles down with no hopes getting out and on top of that there's ghosts well that just makes everything worse damn it I hate the stage it took me 45 minutes to get through and next up was lava Reef Zone yeah I mean it's better but it's similarly easy to get lost in it took me forever on my first try next up is hidden Palace Zone which primarily just serves the purpose of being a boss fighting cutscene Zone just one act and it's mainly just to give you a fight against Knuckles and for Knuckles to realize you're not a bad guy and Robotics been lying to him this whole time you know in this zone is a reference to the famous Cut Zone in Sonic 2 name the exact same thing it's cool to see a return as a part of Sonic and Knuckles but it's honestly more cutscene than Zone well immediately afterwards we're in Skye's Sanctuary Zone another one act deal this one pretty good all right we pissed the bed with sandopolis [ __ ] in a car with lava reef and my dinner with hidden Palace this one is challenging but really fun and then the final traditional stage Death Egg Zone back to 2x this dumbass anti-gravity section I was in the air for so long and I don't know what I did to stop it from happening and I'm taking that lack of knowledge to the grave no I said this before but as good as classic 2D Sonic Platformers can be they almost always had some level of [ __ ] to him I love Sonic too it has its moments but Sonic 3 was shockingly absent of that and now I know why because that was all in the second half of the game we'd defeat Robotnik in his metal middle fingers and that's Sonic and Knuckles partially because if you beat seven special stages and get all seven Chaos Emeralds and unlock Super Sonic you then get the true final boss this is cool and that's Sonic and Knuckles not really the true final boss here well fairly easy all things considered it gives the whole true Sonic 3 experience a bombastic finale it's one of the first major Final Bosses that's more flashy than difficult but I don't think that's all too bad I remember Final Bosses that make you feel like a badass just as much if not more so than the most difficult and tricky ones Sonic and Knuckles is another fantastic time though I think on its own it's a bit lackluster compared to Sonic 3. like I just don't care for a good chunk of the zones here at least compared to Sonic 3 they're not bad compared to Sonic twos and three's best zones they're just not as fun to me so I've decided the definitive list of the best classic Sonic games at the bottom Sonic season desist next up is Sonic 1. whenever I replay this one I pretty much exclusively just play Green Hill Zone and when I get to Marble Zone I just reset the console followed by Sonic and Knuckles it's a good game just not my favorite compared to the others then Sonic 3 and then Sonic 2. and I think Sonic 2 has higher highs than Sonic 3 which is just more so consistently good throughout the entire Adventure but then it ends right when it feels like it's getting started and the same goes for Sonic and Knuckles so Sonic 2 is my favorite if we're not counting the best Sonic game combining Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles we get Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles when the number three just isn't enough as stated this turns Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles into one connected and seamless experience and honestly this rocks it's unfortunate the game had to be split up like this as I feel like both titles on their own it feels somewhat lacking because of it but together it's no debate this is one of the best 2D Platformers of all time the amount of great ideas gorgeous spray work Amazing Music it feels right out of a modern platformer but to see Concepts so Advanced and well thought out in a game from 1994. it's mind-blowing both games together may take a bit longer but hey you have the save feature from Sonic 3 included you can play as knuckles from the very start and due to the combination of two games worth of levels you have more special stages to beat and beating more gives you super Tales Super Knuckles and Hypersonic sweet Christ this is the definitive 2D Sonic game at least when it came out and it's a shame this version of the game always gets neglected in re-releases Sonic Mega Collection it's there but you have to open Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles 20 times each to unlock it I mean just opening and closing immediately works I earned this and Sonic's ultimate Genesis collection on Xbox 360 and PS3 they have Sonic 3 they have Sonic and Knuckles but you can't combine the two that's something I think any collection or re-release of these games should have and many do but that just feels like a massive oversight playing both games separately highlights how inadequate they each feel as their own game and they're still fantastic titles but it's just a fact they're both incomplete experiences but together they make squeal well I think this has been an incredible experience playing through these games that were still a big part of my childhood I may not have gotten far in these games as a kid but I would boot them up all the time and just run around in these stages just seeing those 3D models of Sonic on the title screens for three and Knuckles it was mind-blowing and I was playing these games on the GameCube I just found the evolution of these games from start to finish to be amazing and I think people don't give these games the credit they deserve especially Sonic 3 and Knuckles the amount of creativity and polish in these Sega Genesis games is honestly something I think more people need to appreciate but they chose Knuckles over Jimmy Buffett so I think they were kind of asking for it well I'm done with Sonic you know I put off years of colonoscopies just due to my business surrounding playing all these games but now I'm free so tell your family's Proctologist to clear their schedule [Music] 12 years from now hey y'all Scott here this is Sonic 3D Blast this is a hernia Spot the Difference do I even have to explain myself here who's ever looked at this and said delicious Sonic 3D Blast Sonic the Hedgehogs jump to 3D quickest scene this has always been a strange ones the Sonic the Hedgehog series was hot in the early 90s but started to wane a bit as the decade went on due to the Sega Genesis reaching the end of its life cycle and the following system the Sega Saturn not attaining that level of popularity alongside the fact that after Sonic and Knuckles in 1994 we didn't get a new Mainline sauna game until 1998 with Sonic Adventure on the second Dreamcast that's a long time to go without a new game so how do we keep Sonic relevant Sega asked we're on the news I have a complicated relationship with this game as I feel many people do see this isn't one of the crown jewels of the Sonic franchise it seems that everybody's in agreement this isn't a great game yeah I've never seen anybody actively hate it not like it sure but hey that's like picking on a dog with no legs I know this game isn't great but I still kind of like it it's like dating a bad boy you never marry it but maybe just this once Sonic 3D Blast came to fruition after Sonic Team toyed with the concept of a 3D styled Sonic title while developing Sonic 3 but what they were envisioning would have required certain chips to be included in the Sonic 3 game cartridge which would have made a Sonic game more expensive than the child who wanted it was worth so that idea was scrapped for Sonic 3. and that's how Sonic 3 became a good game but the idea of a 3D Sonic on the Sega Genesis just wouldn't go away that's called an intrusive thought no it's Sonic 3D Blast yup however the next generation of console gaming was Upon Us allowing for 3D games to be a standard not a novelty the Sega Saturn had officially released which is why this was the perfect time to make a 3D Sonic on the Genesis no wait now it is yeah even though the Sega Saturn had been on the market since 1994 Sega was still interested in supporting the Genesis with Sonic content even when the Saturn had nothing of the sort Sonic Team wanted to Branch out from the franchise for a bit with games like Knights into dreams and I guess Sega as a whole was alright with putting Sonic on the back burner for a little bit maybe help give some of their other games some time to shine I mean come on name 80 Second Genesis games that aren't Sonic but you can't but that didn't mean Sonic development wasn't going on just wasn't a huge priority for Sega at the time and full of Sega Game Gear releases second Master System titles Knuckles chaotix on the Sega 32x the series was far from dead but throughout 1995 and 96 it was being used to support smaller factors of sega's business rather than their major new console maybe they thought the Saturn didn't need the help it was getting new games regardless we should focus on giving Game Gear players a reason to get out of bed today I don't know I mean I get it Sonic Labyrinth probably costs less than half a bug to produce but if the cost of your new system that needed to be successful not having a killer rapper even just a single damn game from a series everybody recognized it obviously didn't work out for them so [ __ ] it let's make a 3D Sonic for the Second Genesis so why is 3D Sonic on this system why wake up in the morning I don't know no was it Sanyo was developing a Sonic game for the Sega Saturn it was meant to be a response to 3D gaming and nothing more Sonic extreme was being created by Sega Technical Institute in North America as the Sega Saturn's big holiday title for 1996 but just by watching the promotional videos you can tell the project was directionless it felt like this was being cobbled together to show that Sonic and Sega by proxy can stand Toe to Toe with the other guys in their fancy big penis 3D Platformers so of course Sega showed up to the baking competition with this what the hell was this game it didn't look say it was more so just confused confusing like what are these levels what are you doing in them how do you progress why is there a fisheye lens this game just looked like a 2d game you can move towards and away from the camera in and not anything nearly as impressive as Super Mario 64. I'll even Crash Bandicoot and a 2d game you can move towards and away from the camera in is exactly what that game is regardless extreme was poised to be the mainline Sonic series jumped to 3D deal with it life [ __ ] stinks but now without a taste of 3D for Genesis owners as Sega crafted a completely separate 3D Sonic experience for that console Sonic 3D Blast these two are supposed to come out at the same time much like how a game like Assassin's Creed Unity released for PS4 and Xbox One the same day as Assassin's Creed Rogue for PS3 and Xbox 360. it is not that I'm the first to think of that analogy I was the first brave enough to say it it's all about offering customers who haven't upgraded consoles yet an affordable option of their own and Sonic 3D Blast on the Sega Genesis seemed to be exactly that poverty 3D Sonic and with it being the last Sonic game on the system how one of the last games on the system in general you can view this as a bit more of a celebrational release like hey let's do one last Sonic game on this guy and make it 3D to show just how far we've come this was said to be an incredible and momentous holiday season for Sonic until the meth wore off yeah all those things are said about Sonic extreme those weren't just my opinions those record to the reason why that game got canceled this thing was not working out though thankfully Sonic 3D Blast function so this became Sonic's Grand leap to 3D because in addition to a Sega Genesis version Sega released a Sega Saturn version that holiday in place of Sonic extreme which made them look even more pathetic you're releasing a 3D game two months after Super Mario 64 and it's this even calling it 3D Blast it's so cocky when you know what this is they could have called Mario 64 Mario 3D Blast but they didn't because a more generic title was coming later Sonic 3D Blast wasn't primarily developed by sega's Sonic Team or any of the other in-house developers rather it was created by Travelers Tales who are these guys well they developed pugsy point that those have to be my last words but you probably know them best now for the work on the Lego game so they originally developed a far greater variety of titles and many of which were licensed movie games such as Toy Story in fact it was their work on that game in particular to Garner sega's attention seeing how well they were able to craft 3d like visuals on the Genesis so give him Sonic and hey why not make a second Standard Version as well just to be safe because you know Sonic extreme might get canceled just as much as I might be dead in a Sonic 3D Blast on the Sega Genesis had a relatively quick development time only taking roughly eight months to complete with the Sega Saturn version being whipped together even faster in just seven weeks what once was just meant to be a supplementary title became the core holiday release and thus Sonic 3D Blast received a middling response at least on the Sega Saturn side of things the Genesis version was actually praised at the time this was impressive for the hardware this Hardware not this one which that just goes to show this game was doomed to age poorly I mean if people thought this was outdated on the Sega Saturn just think what I thought playing this on GameCube yes myself alongside countless others first experience 3D Blast via the Sonic Mega Collection this title definitely stood out amongst the crowd and I loved it for that I mean you have Sonic one two three and Knuckles that's all fine and good but variety is the spice of life and Sonic 3D Blast was a cool offshoot titled to switch to now and then and much like the actual Mainline Sonic games I never got far hell in this one I don't even think I beat the first level well that's all going to change today see my soul still has unfinished business here on Earth that's why I'm still here so I assume my destiny is to finish Sonic 3D Blast and figure out it's worth then and only then will I finally go to hell or next best option I'll be resurrected so let's do it let's fulfill one of my two lifelong goals like I have a choice well my first experience with 3D Blast was via the Sonic Mega Collection compilations have pretty much been my only way of experiencing this game actually holding the game box and cartridge is a surreal experience man sure playing it on GameCube I understood how impressive this was as a Genesis game but that just goes to show how much playing on the original hard work can enhance the experience when you're playing the an actual cartridge on an old school TV and you see this foreign [Music] with birds of course the second most shocking element here was the fact we have a CGI opening cutscene on a Sega Genesis cartridge I don't care how many frames it is I don't care what the resolution is this was one of the coolest things in any Sonic game I saw back in the day and I played this on the GameCube I'm the actual Sega Genesis this is still mind-blowing even the title screen here looks impressive for the hardware now hopping into the main menu we have three options starting the game tweaking the button layout and a sound test no continue option or save feature like in Sonic 3. you'd assume by 1996 this would be a standard much like how I assume Sonic 3D Blast is gonna be good well on to the game and unlike other Classic Sonic titles we get this little story blurb at the beginning are you ready to meet the flickies yeah mysterious Birds who live in another dimension and can travel anywhere through large rings large rings wow realism I guess Dr Robotnik learns about the flickies I will change the flickies into robots and have them search for the chaos emeralds for me using the infinite power of the emeralds I can conquer the world because of Birds Sonic visits flicky Island to see his friends but the only thing he finds are robots there's a tree right behind him Robotnik made my friends like this I must save them robotning Must Be Stopped Sonic starts to defeat the enemies in order to rescue the flickies who are trapped inside the story of my [ __ ] life go Sonic you can warp through the big rings with the help of the flakies I don't mind chase after Robotnik and defeat his plans yeah kick his plans ass and here it is Sonic 3D Blast [Music] he looks miserable this is 3D I can get the same feeling looking at my hand thing about this game needs to doing stress next to it like seriously 3D the graphics are pre-rendered now when I that word when I was younger sure I'd go along with the mob but I didn't know why we were pillaging The Village well imagine creating a 3D model or something though Sega Genesis can't display that but you know what it can a picture of that 3D model so yeah these are all 2D spreads based on images of 3D rendering so deep down that family tree you could consider Sonic 3D Blast to be 3B but it's played from a top-down perspective or to be more exact isometric meaning it's at an angle and that is like the cheapest way to pretend your game is 3D oh Sonic used to only be able to go left and right well now we can go up and down yeah it was Adventure on Atari 3D oh it wasn't 3D it stunk the game's Super Mario RPG came out months before this and that pretty much did everything 3D Blast is doing right now without having to brag about it in its title this is nothing new and nothing to tout in the 3D that honestly makes this game so much clunkier than any other Classic Sonic experience well he was so damn slippery here it's like I'm on Ice the whole damn game I guess skinning around is supposed to convey Sonic Speed because without it like this is the fastest thing alive yeah maybe in a post-apocalyptic World ran by slugs just remove speed from our minds for a bit here done let's just critique this as a functional video game you gotta be kidding me precise jumping is a myth here I think not 3D 3D can make it so confusing to know where you are in relation to the environment and even if you do know the game can tell you to [ __ ] off anything it's something you can get used to but that's not a compliment that's the bare minimum a video game should be it sounds like one though so go ahead I don't care substandard Sonic the Hedgehog games at the time couldn't be simpler just get to the end of the stage Sonic 3D Blast is similarly very straightforward though as a kid I never knew what the hell I was doing here I just knew surely it must be important well since we have to save Birds trapped inside robots we have to defeat each and every enemy in a stage to collect said Birds holy [ __ ] we gotta bring the flickies we collect to this giant ring that's what you do collect Birds bring them to the ring repeat but don't rinse this is the gameplay Loop it functions it's just damn boring and I feel like a lot of that's because of how the game looks but also the fact that the gameplay is just damn boring every stage has these checkerboard floors with really unappealing colors that honestly hurt the eyes more than anything it's kind of disorienting but to look at and also to know where you are in this world when the game's about finding all the the enemies and I can barely even tell where I am in the level because 90 of the screen is floor that's a problem plus when you get hit with some flickies on you they get scattered around and you have to get them back but with how the graphics look it's like trying to find a bird in a haystack it's really hard I don't even know where a haystack is and without slippery this is zooming past the ground not knowing where you were and not knowing where you're going Sonic 3D Blast just gives me a headache conspiracy theory number one Tylenol funded this however it's something you get used to as time goes on and the overall layout and level design here Works nothing's really all too fun per se nothing really sticks out but it's not bad it's just there this gameplay feels like it was designed around the 3D gimmick rather than because they had a core concept for a good game yeah you kill like 10 enemies and bring Birds to a ring this isn't a game it's a list of to-do's Sonic 3D Blast is about as deep as getting out of bed in the morning it's so damn simple but God damn is it hard to follow through with it just the same damn thing over and over and over again and it's not even really that challenging it's just well it's just Sonic 3D Blast this game's in a weird place okay because there's nothing really that interesting going on here it doesn't do anything inherently well it's just an experience that happens it's by all accounts a worthless video game he's kind of cute though and 3D Blast is an anomaly it's not fun but it's not very good either though what makes it appealing regardless of these detractors is the charm uniqueness and overall General playability there's something pathetically endearing about a game trying to pass off as a 3D experience in the 90s and the fact that it isn't actually 3D makes the game so much more playable today than other titles they designed this as a game that looked Cutting Edge but was a standard 16-bit Second Genesis game at its heart rather than a game that truly was cutting edge being crammed onto the Sega Genesis when it didn't belong compare this to many of the other earlier 3D games at the time well this isn't anything to write home about in comparison to the others I guarantee it's one of the most playable today it runs smooth all you can do is run around jump and perform a spin dash it's very simple which can make it kind of boring and monotonous but hey it makes that age far better than many of the early 3D games on PlayStation well yeah the visuals are obviously dated I don't know they sort of have their own weird little style to them it's it's kind of charming this game is sort of garbage and obsolete yet very competent and playable with a lot of character which makes it so incredibly lovable to me dude your brother just [ __ ] shot me oh my God one is he gonna learn conspiracy theory number two this game isn't too bad whenever I see it in the latest Sega Genesis collections I always pop it on for a little bit to run around the first level it's kind of enjoyable to jump about and gawk at the Primitive 3D environment here no I never really cared to go much further than that the gameplay Loop is saving flickies is incredibly uninteresting and tedious especially considering you have to jump on enemies to save them and the game already has issues with perspective this concept would have worked far better than a 2d game 3D Blast definitely knows this because one of the power-ups available is the gold shield giving Sonic the ability to perform the Sonic Blast attack better known in future games as the homing attack and the ability famously introduced in Sonic Adventure allowing you to home in on enemies after jumping due to how difficult it was the line up jumps in 3D I [ __ ] wonder where they [ __ ] got that [ __ ] idea conspiracy theory number three [ __ ] this game the Homing is great to have here but a little odd it's locked behind a power up because what the Sonic 3D Blast gained from this a dysfunctional relationship other than that the power-ups available here are limited to invincibility the speed shoes the standard shield and the fire Shield which doesn't even have the cool properties it added in Sonic 3 and Knuckles no this just gives us fire resistance what's cooler than Sonic Sonic not giving a [ __ ] you can find Knuckles and Tails in each level and giving them 50 Rings will bring us to the special stage [Music] God these just never look inviting to me they're always so drab with an incredibly disorienting background if you focus on it but the stages themselves I mean it's a bridge if this is a special stage I don't want to know what the [ __ ] this is these are incredibly easy some of the easiest special stages in all of Sonic history which hey I'll take that compared to the alternative what the hell Sonic 2 special stages but we can just keep getting rings in the stage and bring them back to these guys to grind the levels at and get all seven Chaos Emeralds crazy early on which all these do is unlock the true final boss see after these unlocked Supersonic and Sonic 2 3 and Knuckles all in three and Knuckles we got damn Hypersonic the fact our reward for getting all the chaos emeralds is this I can tell what you're trying to do I'm not giving you the sympathy vote for this but just let me tell you this game feels like it's trying to pull that at every second like oh man this is the enemy that stole your bird beat you stencils to your wife Aid zones in total with most containing three acts I'd go through them all but there's just not enough noteworthy here each of them has something distinct to them yes but it's never really enough to make any stick out the closest in my opinion are these spinner things in Rusty ruins on the diamond dust zone is a nice level volcano Valley zone is lava themed Green Grove is the first Zone and damn well looks the part well these are all unique enough I guess with the repetitive gameplay camera angle and limited level gimmicks they end up just feeling like the same damn things finishing the game I got no sense of satisfaction it wasn't like I beat the game I withstood it that's not to say 3D Blast is bad overall just mediocre it's Charming for sure it just feels more interested in hooking people in with the marketing gimmick of being a 3D game on the Sega Genesis holy sh that's possible [Music] nope this game is the big fat 5 out of 10. it's not bad but God damn why would you play it well the game's programmer John Burton took it upon himself decades later to give you a reason to play it releasing a mod for the game on PC titled Sonic 3D Blast director's cut in 2017. this is one of those official unofficial releases where it wasn't released by Sega but it was released by one of the developers so hey more credibility than my directors could I don't know burn took this opportunity to tweak the game and add a few options to make the experience overall less frustrating and more fleshed out that included a save feature using passwords level editor supersonic a better camera system better control and a handful more changes that do make the game better yes but these are all fairly minor issues that don't affect the overall gameplay loop it's still uninteresting it's just less flawed than before though I still commend Burton for going through with this I think all the changes he made I mean he did everything he could have done to 3D Blast without completely overhauling the XP experience any bra might have with director's cut has to do with the fact it's still Sonic 3D Blast but it's great to have a better version of the game available alongside a better version Sonic 3D Blast on Sega Saturn oh yeah they finally did it they put the game made for the wad of gum on the Cadillac say do you think they could put pong on my PlayStation 5. it's pretty obvious why this didn't excite many people I mean you weren't fooling anybody with this it's almost as if Sega is soon putting Sonic and 3D in the title would have been enough for the game to compete with the likes of Super Mario 64. and when the title is bragging about itself and this is what you get yeah it's understandable why reviews of the Saturn version weren't glowing though this has always been the best way to play 3D Blast it's so much smoother with far more defined and refined visuals the environments don't look like a Magic Eye picture rather look like actual environments these look like more than just video game levels the music is all CD quality brilliant tracks that are different from the Genesis ones though and that's not to say the Genesis version is bad but far from it I genuinely think the best thing to come from both of these games is the soundtrack it's wonderful at the same quality as any of the other Classic Sonic titles on the Genesis but the Saturn version is really something special considering we didn't have a ton of classic Sonic material during this time especially on the Saturn so this music gives us a glimpse as to how more Mainline Sonic games would have sounded post-genesis but pre-dream cast and it's really unique the special stages are brand new and now fully 3D if you want to see the difference between pre-rendered and just flat out rendered yeah these are just 3D souped up takes on the special Stage Formula from Sonic 2. these are done so well absolutely fantastic special stages here and not too hard not too easy it controls great with enough variables being thrown in from time to time perfect this version has different opening and ending cut scenes which are technically far better than the Genesis version but just aren't as impressive because like oh that's like a Saturn playing a video file oh I've been talking about Sonic 3D Blast for 20 minutes like yeah it was designed to do that interestingly though it just goes right into the game no story cut scenes like in the Genesis version there's also still no save feature which I don't care if the game's three hours long on the Sega Saturn that's unacceptable and Jesus Christ the load times are abysmal in this one they're definitely pros and cons between the two releases though overall I'd say the Saturn version is the best of the bunch though the Genesis one is more fun to look back icon let's be honest this game as a whole isn't necessary to play these days so well yeah the Saturn version is superior if you're playing the game in the first place you might as well just play it on Genesis this game has always been more of a novelty like oh look at it try on Saturn this isn't impressive and the game plays the exact same albeit smoother and Visually clear but this was always initially designed as a game in fake 3D that would work well in the Genesis and the gameplay suffers from being pretty repetitive because of it you put this game on the Saturn and like yeah it's better but are you really playing Sonic 3 Blast for a good time or to look back at history and chuckle but certainly back to what I said earlier regardless of its detractors the charm uniqueness and playability make 3D blasts just such an easy game to pop into and experience what Sega wanted you to think was 3D it will always be an interesting time to look back on and it's a surprisingly tolerable one to experience these days and while 3D Blast is more so a spin-off some consider it to be Mainline and honestly with how big of an imprint it left on the Sonic series video games as a whole it's easy to see why the gameplay mechanics and even music were used in Sonic Adventure the isometric camera well clunky feels like it almost lent some inspiration to future 3D games like Mario 3D Landing Kirby and the Forgotten land may not be perfect but Sonic 3 blast is far more important than you may think oh my God I just discovered the trick to staying alive [Music]

Channel: Scott's Snippets

Views: 303,116

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Id: giFp1Vz6_B4

Length: 96min 57sec (5817 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2023