Reviewing The Classic Sonic Games

during the 80s Nintendo dominated the market when it came to video games but you've heard this story a million times already we all know how in 1988 the Sega Genesis was released and how they needed a new mascot because their old one Alex could kind of sucked so they had people at the company draw a bunch of designs to hopefully find a new mascot Naruto Ashima drew a few designs like a rabbit a Theodore Roosevelt inspired human character who ended up being the main villain of this game and the one they went with a hedgehog originally called Mr needle Mouse thank God they changed that they called them Sonic the Hedgehog because the characters were run through these levels much faster than any other platformer mascot ever has before they chose the color blue to match the Sega logo and give him shoes inspired by Michael Jackson apparently obviously there's more to the creation of Sonic than that I just went over it really quickly because so many people have made better videos about it and if you want to know more I definitely recommend watching some of those videos I find the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog fascinated today I'm going to be looking at the first four Mainline Sonic games and I'm just going to say this now these games are some of my favorite games of all time I'm just going to talk about why I love these games so much while also bringing up some flaws these games have Sonic the Hedgehog released in 1991 on the Sega Genesis and for a platformer back then this game had a lot of personality I mean that was the whole point of his character a cool 90s kid who didn't listen to rules that personality is also in the game the famous finger wag title screen and the idol animations are two examples but this game stands out for more than just the marketing and personality of the character the gameplay is also different from other Platformers at the time while most Platformers were pretty blocky Sonic's levels had Loops ramps and Hills Sonic also reacts to the terrain like you would expect Sonic gains more speed when running downhill and slows down going uphill with some knowledge of the stages as well as knowing how to use the momentum to your advantage you can start finding Secrets like hidden ring boxes invincibility boxes Shields and speed shoes you can also find shortcuts and ways to beat the levels faster one of my favorite examples is an act one of spring yard Zone if you find the secret speed shoes towards the beginning of the level then make it towards the spring you can skip a huge section of the level this game is full of shortcuts trying to find them all and memorize the best way through a level to beat my records is why I still replay this game in pretty much every Sonic game while I have fun replaying Sonic 1 I don't go back to this game as much as I do some of the later titles mainly because not all the levels are good Green Hill scrap brain and starlight are the only great levels in this game in my opinion spring yard is almost great but they use these slow moving blocks a little too much for my liking same with marble Zone while there are some of these sections that you can skip using Sonic's speed there are a lot of them where you have to stand and wait and do I have to mention Labyrinth zone Sonic and underwater don't mix unless there's a fun gimmick or there's a way to avoid the Water by being a skilled player the First Act of Labyrinth Zone does actually kind of do that there's a shortcut that Skips a huge chunk of the underwater section Green Hill scrap brain and starlight are great because they have a bunch of Secrets and they're fun to speedrun even act 3 of scrap brain which is just act 4 of Labyrinth zone is fun to play because if you take the shortcut at the beginning the level is over in about a minute but Act 2 and 3 of reverence Zone don't have any shortcuts to my knowledge so that mixed with the under water physics I think it's fair to say leverin zone is the worst level in Sonic 1. if you get to the end of a level with 50 or more Rings a giant ring will appear at the end of the stage if you jump into it you'll go to a special Stitch secret Zone these secret zones are mazes where you have to maneuver Sonic by bouncing him into these switches that changes the direction the stage is rotating or make it speed up your goal of these special stages is to find the chaos emerald and your reward for getting them is [Music] flowers at the end of the game overall Sonic 1 is a good game but it definitely feels like the first game Sonic 1 feels like they were testing what worked for Sonic and what didn't I still like Sonic 1 a lot from going back to a 2d game this usually isn't the one I go back to one year later Sonic 2 would be released on a day Sega would call Sonic Tuesday because it was released on a Tuesday after reading about this game's development I'm surprised about how good this game ended up being after Sonic 1 the original Sonic team would be split some of them staying in Japan and some working in America for the Sega Technical Institute the main programmer of Sonic 1 yujinaka would end up working in America and the original artist would stay in Japan both teams ended up making their own Sonic game the Sega Technical Institute made Sonic 2 and Sonic team in Japan would make Sonic CD which we'll get to later but there are more things that happen during development that makes this game being so good a miracle the team was made up of American and Japanese workers who both had different visions of what Sonic should be a lot of mechanics and level ideas were cut at one point time travel was planned for Sonic 2. I always wondered why Hilltop Zone looks so similar to Emerald Hill as a kid and I'm assuming it's probably because it was supposed to be Emerald Hill during an alternate time apparently Sonic 2 was supposed to be around double the length but due to time a lot of it was cut like wood Zone a desert Zone that would be reworked into Mirage Saloon in Sonic mania 20 plus years in the future hidden Palace Zone which is now playable thanks to the Christian Whitehead version of the game if you want to know more about Sonic 2's development there are some really good videos that go into more depth and talk about everything but I think I should probably talk about the actual van Sonic 2's level design is a huge improvement over the first game almost every level in Sonic 2 balances speed and platforming much better than the first game's levels Sonic 1 had a lot of moments where he had to slow down and do some simple platforming Sonic 2 has moments like this as well there are way more sections of these levels where you can just go fast or be able to skip those sections by using Sonic Speed to your advantage Sonic's new ability the spin dash also helps make this game faster hold down and match the jump button and Sonic Will Blast Off you can also spin dash and jump off an incline to gain some extra height in the 2D games this was mainly used to get some extra items or an alternate route for some people Sonic 2 focuses a little too much on the speed and I can understand that if your favorite part of a Sonic game is exploring the levels Sonic 2 probably isn't your favorite 2D game the levels are more straightforward and much faster now that doesn't mean this game is just hold right to win since if you can't react fast enough or aren't paying attention you'll probably run into a bunch of enemies I will admit sometimes some of the enemy placement can feel cheap aquatic ruin and Metropolis zone are a few examples of that but for the most part I think the level design is great aquatic ruin is one of the best water levels in a Sonic game it's designed in a way where skilled players can beat the level without even touching the water or how in Hilltop Zone you can take the lower path that has a bunch of lava or you can take the top path where you bounce mountain top for Mountaintop the only levels in Sonic 2 that I don't enjoy playing is Metropolis because it goes on for too long and Sky Chase Sky Chase is Fun the first time but on a repeat playthrough it's just boring earlier in the video I said that these levels are more straightforward and faster but you still are rewarded for exploring and collecting Rings because if you pass a checkpoint with 50 or more Rings you can do a special stage when all the special stages and collect the chaos emeralds and you get Super Sonic but I usually don't do that not because I don't like the special stages it's because I think getting supersonic ruins the ending Sonic 2 introduced Tales to the series tails is my favorite Sonic character and it's partially because of this ending Tales follows Sonic throughout the whole game not really doing anything other than dying off screen over and over again but after you defeat the final boss and the Death Egg starts to explode Tails sees Sonic falling from the sky and gets in the plane and saves him it's a simple ending but for a 1992 platformer I think is a good way to show the friendship between Sonic and Tails in an era where the only way to tell a story in a video game were text boxes or gameplay but if you get Super Sonic Sonic transforms in the supersonic midair meaning tails is just there for no reason during gameplay Super Sonic controls just like Sonic but now he's faster and Invincible once you collect 50 Rings you can turn Super Once you turn Super your wings will start to deplete if you run out of rings you turn back into normal while I don't usually go for the chaos emeralds anymore I have a lot of good memories of trying to unlock Super Sonic my friend and I spent the whole afternoon trying to beat all the special stages in the memory of finally beating the Death Egg and watching that ending it's one of my favorite memories ever playing a video game if you can't tell I love Sonic too it was the first video game I ever played and it's still a fun game all these years later so remember when I mentioned that the original Sonic team was split and some went to America to work on Sonic 2 and the others stayed in Japan to work on their own Sonic game in 1993 that game would be released but not on the psychogenesis this new Sonic game would be released on the Sega CD an add-on for the Genesis Sonic CD is the best-selling game on the Sega CD but compared to the other Genesis games is sold way less and it's probably because nobody bought the Sega CD while the Sega CD sold over 2 million units compared to how many units the Genesis sold that's not great there are a few reasons why I think the Sega CD didn't sell one there weren't that many games worth playing don't get me wrong there were a few good games but a lot of games were enhanced versions of already existing games and the second reason the prize the Sega CD was an add-on for the Genesis meaning if you wanted to play it you needed a Genesis from looking at old commercials from 1992 it seems that the Genesis was about 129.99 with a game included or 99.99 just for the console so considering that you have to own a Genesis to play the Sega CD how much do you think it was how about 299 dollars are you serious in 299 in 1992 equals to about 644 dollars in 2023 that's more than a PlayStation 5 is yeah I can't imagine why it failed but anyway Sonic CD Sonic CD takes place on a planet called little planet which only appears one month during the year little planet is home of the time Stones which Robotnik wants to help him take over the world or something like that so obviously Sonic has to stop him Sonic CD introduces two new characters to the series Amy Rose and Metal Sonic they don't really do much in this game Amy gets kidnapped by Metal Sonic so now Sonic has to save her and there's a race with metal Sonic towards the end of the game great set piece but not a great boss fight none of the bosses in this game are anything special so they don't do much in this game but I thought I should mention them because they're more important in future games Sonic CD's main focus is exploration if you don't explore these levels you're probably not going to like Sonic CD the goal of this game is to search around every level and find the robot teleporter that's hidden in each of them by destroying all them you create a good future and save little planet if you don't destroy all of them then you see the bad future version of the level to destroy the robot teleporter you have to go to the Past version of a level by passing a sign that says past then you just have to gain enough speed and then you'll be brought to the Past you can also go to the Future by passing a sign that says future finding areas to go fast so you can time travel can be very fun but a lot of the time the level design doesn't feel like it was designed to let you go fast because of all the springs and obstacles that get in your way but it can be rewarding to the story all the robot teleporters so sometimes when I replay this game I do go for all the robot teleporters most of the time I get the good ending the other way just like Sonic 1. if you get to the end of the stage with 50 or more Rings you can enter a special stage if you destroy all the UFOs you can get a Time Stone yeah you don't get chaos emeralds in this game I remember thinking that was pretty weird when I first played this game but getting all the time Stones means you made a good future in every level without needing to find the teleporters I prefer to play Sonic CD like this because like I said earlier my favorite thing to do in a Sonic game is to find the best route through a level and try to perfect it so to enjoy this game as much as I can I find a route where I can get 50 or more rings then do the special stage also the special stages are actually fun while in the remaster the only special stage I don't like is special stage six because while I have to play Sonic CD like this to enjoy it I know for some fans they enjoy exploring the levels of a Sonic game so for them CD is one of their favorites this just isn't a Sonic game for me but the one thing everyone can agree on the soundtracks are fantastic and yes I said soundtracks because there are two for some reason Sega made a whole other OST for the American release of Sonic CD I don't know why but the music we did get is pretty good A few of my favorites are Stardust Speedway present version and the special Stage Music and how do I not mention Sonic Boom the song that plays during the opening cut scene then there's the Japanese soundtrack which is one of my favorite Sonic osts ever I seriously can't pick favorites the whole soundtrack is great thankfully re-releases let you pick what soundtrack you want the ending of Sonic CD is kind of anti-climactic there's no final Zone like in the two previous games the game just ends once you beat the boss in metallic Madness but there is another animated cut scene at the end of the game Sonic CD is my least favorite Classic Sonic game I love the music and the visuals and CD gave us my favorite version of Sonic but exploration has never been my favorite part of this series and I think to get the most out of Sonic CD you have to explore while it is my least favorite I still go back to this game occasionally because there is something rewarding about getting the good ending and saving little planet in 1993 Sonic's popularity skyrocketed this was the year Sega started making spin-off games like Sonic spinball and Dr robotnik's mean bean machine there were also two cartoon series and the Archie Comics were also doing well so the next Mainline Sonic game was a huge deal Sega went all out with the marketing for this game they even got a promotional deal with McDonald's and because of that promotional deal Sonic 3 would only be six zones long you probably already know the story of Sonic 3 but if you don't Sonic 3 was supposed to be the biggest Sonic game up to this point more levels and more Focus would be put on the story but because Sega had that brand deal with McDonald's Sonic 3 was cut in half Sonic Team not wanting to keep a bunch of stuff on The Cutting Room floor like what happened with Sonic 2. kept working on the game after Sonic 3 was already on shelves then later that year Sonic and Knuckles released Sonic and Knuckles was the second half of Sonic 3. so if you wanted to experience the complete Sonic 3 you had to get both games the Sonic and Knuckles did something that I don't think any other game did lock-on technology if you connect both cartridges together you can play the full game from start to finish you can also connect with the song 2 to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2. it's like DLC before DLC was even possible I'm going to be talking about the full game Sonic 3 and Knuckles Sonic 3 takes place shortly after Sonic 2. after Sonic destroyed the Death Egg it crash land on the floating island Angel Island so Sonic and Tails go to Angel Island to make sure Robotnik can't repair the Death Egg Robotnik meets a red Echidna called Knuckles and tricks him by telling him that Sonic and Tails are the bad guys he also accidentally comes across the Master Emerald the emerald that keeps Angel Island floating and he wants to use it to power the Death Egg as soon as Sonic and Tails arrive on Angel Island Knuckles knocks the chaos emeralds out of Super Sonic then steals them so Sonic and Tails have to collect all the emeralds again stop Robotnik and make Knuckles realize he's been tricked Sonic 3 puts more focus on the story than the previous titles there are shortcut scenes between levels that show how you got from one level to the next in the previous games they never really explained how Sonic got from one level to the next it doesn't really matter that much but Sonic 3 having these cutscenes makes this game feel more connected Act 2 starts right where act 1 left off then after the boss in Act 2 there's a cut scene showing how Sonic and Tails get to the next level this game feels like a big adventure and for me that's because everything feels so connected it's also because Sonic 3 is the longest game we've talked about in this video going for 100 can make this game about double the length of the other games for some fans Sonic 3 and Knuckles is a little too long and yeah I can see why some people enjoy the pacing of Sonic 2 or CD more than three but in my opinion Sonic 3 is one of the greatest games I've ever played in my personal opinion I believe that Sonic 3 and Knuckles is the best game in the 2D series that blends speed and platforming into its level design the only level that doesn't do this is sandopolis act 2 because of all the slow-moving sand but every other level is fantastic a few of my favorites is ice cap flying batteries Sky sanctuary in Hydro City yes it's Hydro City again Sonic team made another great water level while I'm not sure you can beat the level without touching the water like you can in aquatic ruins you are definitely not forced to go slow like you had to in Labyrinth Zone but what about exploration that's an important part of Sonic's level design throughout the game there are these giant rings if you jump into them you can go to a special stage where you have a chance of obtaining a Chaos Emerald but unlike Sonic 1 or CD the giant ring doesn't appear at the end of the level if you have 50 Rings or more instead they appear no matter how many rings you have but you have to find them in the levels there are over 70 of these Rings hidden throughout the game so they give you plenty of chances to get all the emeralds if you find yourself struggling to find them I recommend you try playing as another character Sonic 3 has 3 playable characters Sonic Tails and Knuckles each character has their own unique abilities that makes doing playthroughs with each character unique and worth it Sonic is pretty much the same as he was in Sonic 2. except now he has a new ability the insta Shield when I was younger I thought this thing was worthless but now I can't imagine playing this game game without it the insta Shield extends Sonic's hitbox meaning you can hit enemies that are usually just Out Of Reach the insta Shield also makes sonic Invincible for a short amount of time so if you know where to use it you can go through some of the stage's obstacles like the falling lava and lava Reef or the spiky bed next on the Death Egg I was originally going to move on to the next character but I should probably talk about the new shields added in this game so Sonic is the only character who gets new abilities when he uses them Sonic 3 adds three new types of shields the fire Shield that gives Sonic forward Dash the bubble Shield that lets sonic bounce and prevents him from drowning in the Thunder Shield that gives them a double jump and it attracts rings to him the next playable character is Tails Tails was playable in Sonic 2 but he couldn't fly when the player controlled him I think the first game to let the player fly with Tails was Sonic chaos I could be wrong though anyway Sonic 3 lets players fly his Tails his flight makes playing has him in the easy mode of this game except for Marvel Gardens boss fight tails is also the character I recommend the players who want to explore the last playable character is Knuckles Knuckles can glide and climb walls because of this he has a bunch of areas in the levels that are exclusive to him and sometimes levels are completely different with him compared to Sonic and Tails his boss fights are also much harder than Sonics while I usually just play as Sonic when I want to replay this game I do sometimes play as knuckles because of the higher difficulty and different pathways through levels Knuckles also has his own story for his playthrough that takes place sometime after Sonic's story instead of fighting Robotnik Knuckles fights an egg roll bow for his boss fights if you can collect all the chaos and World Sonic and Knuckles can transform into their super Farms Tails doesn't have a super form at least for the first half of the game at the halfway point through Sonic's playthrough you will see a cut scene where Knuckles comes out of a hidden room inside of the Hidden room is a giant ring that teleports Sonic and Tails to the hidden Palace where you can choose a special stage to do if you do all seven of the new special stages the chaos emeralds turn into Super emeralds which lets Sonic turn into Hypersonic which gives him a screen nuke Dash that hurts my eyes and he's even faster he's also still Invincible poor Robotnik doesn't even have a chance against uh I didn't know you could die from that even all these years later I'm still learning new things about this game Tails needs the super emeralds to get a super form but his super form gives him an army of flickies that destroys anything near you and Knuckles can turn into hypernuckles now every time he lands on a wall it causes an earthquake that destroys every enemy on screen for the first time in the series the final zone of the game is locked behind the chaos emeralds the super emeralds are completely optional but come on why wouldn't you get the super emeralds Hypersonic is awesome the final zone is also only accessible with Sonic when not using debug mode nowadays I can beat this level without any issues but I remember when I first unlocked this level I died many times throughout the whole level you play as super or Hypersonic and just like the normal levels if you run out of rings you turn back into normal Sonic but here if it happens it's game over so you have to collect as many rings as possible and go as fast as possible so you can defeat Robotnik and return the Master Emerald back to Angel Island Sonic 3 and Knuckles is one of my favorite games of all time for the longest time it was my favorite game of all time but in recent years one other game has been able to take that title the Sonic 3 is still my favorite Sonic game it has some of the best level design in the series three playable characters that makes each playthrough feel unique it's just a fantastic game overall in this video I wanted to talk about the classic Sonic games not just because they're some of my favorite games ever but because these were the games that made me a Sonic fan eventually I want to make a video on every Mainline Sonic game so I thought a video explaining what I like about Sonic and how I became a fan was an important one to make the next video about Sonic will be about another one of my favorite games in the series

Channel: Spiral Show

Views: 14,421

Keywords: Sonic, Classic Sonic, Sonic Origins

Id: dKBroEkN00I

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023