In 1991, Sonic The Hedgehog was conceived in response to Nintendo's successful Super Mario Bros. Although taking inspiration, Sega produced a game vastly different, instead of just making a shallow a copy.
The levels are big and bold with edgy polygons, giving it a distinct visual style. The levels contain various levels of elevation and require Sonic to travel vertically as well as horizontally. Despite people believing Sonic is all about speed, it is actually more about momentum and careful control; given that there are plenty of dangers and plenty of objects that prevent you from going fast.
Each of the six Zones are split into three acts, with the final act also culminating in a boss battle against Dr Robotnik. The game-play itself is straight-forward. You can move and jump. The jump doubles up as a spin attack which you can also activate to roll by pressing the D-pad down whilst sprinting. Sonic takes a couple of seconds to accelerate to top speed, meaning some sections will see you double-backing so you can take a run up to run up steep slopes, or to leap great distances.
Another trademark idea is how Sonic takes damage. As long as he has a single ring in his possession, he can take a hit without dying. Being hit causes Sonic to lose every ring he is carrying and you have a few seconds to recover a small selection of them. Although its a huge challenge, if you do manage to collect 100 of them, you are rewarded with an extra life. Finishing the level with 50 allows you to play the bonus round for a Chaos Emerald.
There are monitors to smash which can contain extra lives, extra rings, and power-ups like extra speed, invincibility etc. These tend to be slightly hidden, rather than being placed along the standard path, so you need to keep an eye out for them.
In the original game, you had to complete the game in one sitting and with a limited amount of lives. This meant you had to repeatedly replay the game in order to build up enough skill and learn the levels. It can be very frustrating to play at times due to parts of the level design eg spikes that appear out of nowhere, bumpers that will send you rolling back to where you came from. Modern versions of the game (like Sonic Mega Collection which I played), you can save at any point, which helps relieve some of the frustrating elements.
Sonic starts off nice and easy in Green Hill Zone. The only difficulty is if you stray off the main path for the secrets which then you find more spikes and trickier sections. After that, Marble Zone drastically ramps up the difficulty with moving platforms, fireballs, spikes traps littered everywhere and having to ride a small block across lava. Spring Yard has a fair amount of bumpers and other annoyances. Labyrinth has underwater sections which you must look out for air bubbles to top up on oxygen or else you will drown. Star Light Zone is more open with Sonic's trademark loops and slopes, then onto the final area; Scrap Brain Zone which had many tricky areas.
Even though this game is regarded highly, I found the game to be mainly frustrating on my first play-through. The first Zone sets the scene for a simple and fast platformer set in a nice colourful world, but then the second zone brings a stark contrast where it starts to become quite slow-paced, and the world is pretty dull. On my second play-through, I managed to gain some extra lives, numerous Chaos Emeralds and didn't have as many problems, highlighting the fact that the game really is about learning the game mechanics; the level design, enemies, and pacing.