Not Sonic's first appearance in a Sega game...
His image was in a previous game... +10 geek points to the first to name it! : D
Pocket-money saved, game ordered, wait for the postman and... nothing. A friend had the game already – rubbing salt into the wound – yet my journey of anticipation home from school each day still arrived at a big hole of spiky blue hedgehog nothingness. The original Sonic the Hedgehog was especially hyped throughout its long …
When you first saw Sonic 1 on the Gamegear or Megadrive you couldn't believe the speed it moved at. Mario looked pedestrian in comparison and the 8 and 16 bit home computers had to play catch up.
Sonic 2 on the Megadrive was perfection. It looks so simple but there are so many different routes and techniques to tackle each level that you'll always come back for more.
All downhill after that. The modern incarnations just don't cut it IMO.
Sonic 1 on Game Gear = SMEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRR!
As soon as you picked up any real speed you just couldn't see what was happening because the screen hardware wasn't up to it. Still, a damn fine game (one of the best on the GG), and pretty good handheld console for its day (despite the appalling battery life).
My wife had a Megadrive. Still has it, not that it gets spun up these days. Got a Megadrive emulator on the XBox, with all her old games on it. Keep meaning to get around to wiring a Megadrive controller up to it...
The best one is Sonic CD (Stood the test of time much better than Sonic 1 or 2). I have played it fairly recently on my Xperia Play and it is still good. (Better than any of the Sonic 4 episodes). There is more too it (Or maybe I have just played it less).
It is not as good and never has been as good as Super Mario World / Yoshi's Island though (Or Donkey Kong Country). I can still play Super Mario World and love it today (Even though I played it to death as a kid) I cannot say that about Sonic 1/2.
Sonic on the Gamegear or Mastersystem (Same version) was pretty rubbish too slow.
Sonic Dash on the DS is not too bad never really liked the 3d incantations though at all.
Yup Age of 11 running round like a demented person trying to find a air bubble when the clock was counting down lol.
Still play it now on phone from time to time under emulation and on my xbox 1 console.
Good Fun
Oh and dont forget Yellow Super Sonic when u had to play the tunes in certain order..
But always will remember the debug modes in sonic 1 think on title it was up c down c left c right a start. lol
Is it sad that as I was reading this comment, my head was playing the dunda dunda dunda dunda tune as you run out of air, followed by the bwoing naa na na na naa na na na na naa naaa. game ove rscreen?
Also as much as the water levels sucked like a mosquito, the casino zone more than made up for it.
Ugh, Super Sonic was a massive pain in the arse! All the gems, and then 100 rings transforms you, as I remember it, meaning that he was wont to show up in the later levels, usually when trying to navigate up the side of Robotniks plane (rocket, airship? I forget). His general inability to stop (he didn't touch the floor when he moved!), saw him regularly plunging off the side to his doom.
Stupid yellow prick.
No analogue sticks on the Megadrive, so he either ran of the edge, or he didn't.
What was the point of a invincible, super-speedy character, who could pretty much have just plowed through any of the early levels (just look at him, he should be the most awesome videogame character of all time!), if he only turns up once the precision jumps/disappearing platforms turn up?
All those years, and I'm still bitter...
"No analogue sticks on the Megadrive, so he either ran of the edge, or he didn't."
You could get the Spectravision joystick to work on a Megadrive somewhat (and the fact that Sonic only used one button bolsters compatibility). Although the last time I tried, the stick only made the game harder to play.
If you knew where to find all the hidden restart / save poles and knew how to get round all the special stages first time every time, it was entirely possible to have super sonic before the end of the first zone on Sonic 2. Then you could fly trough every level as super sonic without having the use any cheat codes.
You guys must have hated 'Hyper' Sonic then.
You you plugged Sonic 3 into Sonic & Knuckles and played the entire game from start to end as either Sonic or Knuckles, you get the opportunity to collect all the Chaos Emeralds twice.
Once you had done this, you end up with the ability to turn into Hyper Sonic, who had a rainbowy colour scheme and went even faster.
I recall Sonic being featured in plenty of places around the early 90's. On the cover of the then highly hip ID magazine, giving wink of course.
I also remember Sega's involvement in the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington, which was actually the Sega European Grand Prix. The pit girls were dressed up as Sonic, well, sort of, poor devils.
http://www.mediastorehouse.com/image/formula_one_world_championship_2129689.jpg
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/11/donington-93.jpg
Was the first game I played when I tore into my Megadrive...I was about 22 and its speed made me wonder, even back then, if I wasn't getting 'too old for this sort of thing'.
Dum, durdle, dum, dum, der... der, DUR DDDDDUUUUUUR.
Oh, Sonic 2 special stages how I used to hate and love you.
The sound of the "by the way, you are going to drown now" music still terrorises my soul. Especially relevant on just before you get to the right with Robotnik on Chemical Plant Zone.... where it fills up with pink ooze, and you have to navigate through possibly the most annoying sequence of moving platforms... and if you do make it, you can fall off the next one and have to do it all again.
Sonic CD is actually up there as an equal for Sonic 2 in my opinion, though Wacky Workbench makes me want to kill myself.
I think the main problem I had with Sonic 1 was the lack of battery backup. From what I remember you needed to play it all in one sitting as the state couldn't be saved on power-off.
Also going back to Sonic 1 on emulators and whatnot I keep trying to do the "dash attack" (stand still, hold down and press A/B/C to rev up before releasing down and spinning off) which added a lot to the gameplay.
I've never really liked sonic cd personally, even now after getting it on my phone, although this time its more down to the fact ive just played both sonic 4s and keep trying to do a homing attack...and loosing rings/life in the process. Speaking of homing attack, i STILL havent completed sonic heroes because of the bit in mystic mansion act 2 where to have to use homing attack to get across a void via pumpkin heads, works so well in 2d, sucks in 3d does homing attack.
My favourite sonic would have to be the combined sonic 3 & knuckles
"Here you were on the hunt for the elusive ‘chaos emeralds’ – seven in total – which you needed in order to complete the game fully, and beat Dr. Robotnik"
I must be missing something (maybe it's because my cart is the Japanese release), but the version I played only has six emeralds. The seventh emerald was introduced in the second title iirc.
Was it not "The Eggman" in the Japanese version, rather that Dr Robotnik?
Sonic also spawned at least two cartoon series on TV. Not quite the 360 degree marketing that Nintendo had with Pokemon, but still quite high market penetration.
I can still remember the nasal "I'm waaaaiting" from the cartoon series, which was akin to Sonic crossing his arms and tapping a foot if you didn't move in the games.
This was a really strange blend of Sonic and pinball, and yet it worked quite well.
When I got my oldest son a Dreamcast (picked it up at 00:00 on launch day), together with a copy of Sonic Adventure, I remember watching in dizzy, sickened awe at the speed of the traversal of the 3-D ramps and loops with the background swooping and rolling around. I found it unbelievable that it was able to render the backgrounds as fast as it did.
Whilst Sonic was undoubtedly a triumph, Sega had a stable of exceptional other titles that over the years included Alex Kidd, Ecco the Dolphin, Panzer Dragoon (particularly Saga), Knights into Dreams, and my personal favourite, Burning Rangers (the absolute heyday of the Saturn IMHO).
Does anyone remember the day Sonic 2 was launched? I remember having an awful day at school as time was going SO slow. All I wanted to do was rush home and start playing Sonic 2 that my mum was picking up on her way home for me!
The day seemed to go on forever and when it came to 3.45 I literally ran home as all I wanted to do was play the game.
Good times.