"Do blue hedgehogs wear red sneakers?" - Sonic

I must admit, Sonic almost instantly became a childhood hero of mine after I initially sat down with Sonic 2 in 1993 and saw his two DiC produced cartoon shows that aired around the same time. Sonic has become one of the most iconic figures in the video game industry since; he's right up there next to Nintendo's legendary chubby plumber Mario. I haven't really paid much attention to Sonic since the SEGA Dreamcast's downfall, though; possibly because I'm too old to appreciate any new Sonic stuff. Anyway for this particular trip back in time I'm going to look at the original Sonic game that brought SEGA to the top of the charts as a major competitor in the video game market.

Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: SEGA

Gameplay: Sonic wasn't the first platformer, but Sonic Team did try to separate it from the flock by experimenting with new gameplay elements... most notably speed and level structure. As the title implies, Sonic was all about speed and one of the primary objectives is to reach the end of the first two acts of each zone before the timer hits ten minutes while popping enemy robots along the way. The other primary objective is to defeat Sonic's arch-nemesis Doctor Ivo Robotnik at the end of act 3 of every zone. Aside from that Sonic had a most interesting "health" system. Initially Sonic was like Mario in Super Mario Bros. in that he would die in one hit... this quickly changed however as the player picked up golden rings spread about the levels. Rings gave Sonic a better chance at survival, as even if he had only one if an enemy managed to hit him he would lose the ring(s) instead of instantly dying. Sonic could still die even with rings if he ran out of time, fell into one of those legendary "endless pits" or got crushed, though; and losing rings was the last thing that hardcore gamers wanted (more on that in Design).

Level Structure was another aspect of Sonic The Hedgehog that set it apart from other platformers like Mario. While Mario only allowed the player to proceed in one direction Sonic allowed the player to go back, up and down and there was often more than one way for the player to finish a level. Exploration while not necessary was encouraged.

Speed was the primary focus of Sonic, in case you didn't notice

Design: The gameplay is simple enough, but what was most interesting about Sonic is how Sonic Team tried to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers. Usually such an undertaking results in failure, but Sonic Team managed to pull this off. If you were a casual gamer you could just jet through every act of every zone getting rings and popping robots along the way and finish the game.

More hardcore gamers had an extra challenge. If the player managed to keep at least 50 rings by the end of either of the first two acts of any zone then they could jump into a giant ring and participate in a challenging special stage. The goal of the special stage was to fight against gravity and navigate a maze while trying to find the "Chaos Emerald" avoiding the red orbs that would cause you to leave the stage empty handed. Usually after you found the emerald you had to break through an obstacle barrier to actually get to it. There were about seven of these emeralds, and hardcore gamers had to get all of them if they wanted a perfect ending... and that was easier said than done.

This obese mad scientist tried to invent new ways to kill Sonic at the end of every zone

Nostalgia Factor: As I said before, Sonic was a childhood hero of mine so my positive opinion of this game reflects as such. This is especially evident by the fact that I'm not really into any new products concerning the character; I tried Sonic Heroes and Sonic and The Secret Rings and couldn't really get into either of them. This may be due to them being genuinely bad games, or a simple lack of interest on my part.

Critical Reception: I remember Sonic The Hedgehog being well received by a lot of critics, but it's really hard to find archived reviews from 1991.

How it holds up: I don't think 2D platformers ever truly died as they're still being produced today even if only for the Nintendo DS. Although Sonic has long since entered the realm of 3D his 2D titles are considered masterpieces. The original Sonic definitely has a place in your collection if you're a collector, and it's certainly worth playing if you still have a Sega Genesis lying around. If not the game has been re-released umpteen times; most recently in a Sega mega pack for the Xbox 360. Sonic The Hedgehog is simply a fun game even today due to its creative design and entertaining gameplay.

Pop that sucker!

Useless Trivia:
- Sonic spawned not one, not two, not three, but four animated shows. The first three, Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic Underground were produced by American cartoon company DiC Entertainment whom of which were also responsible for the Super Mario Super Show and The Legend of Zelda cartoons. The fourth animated series was a Japanese production called Sonic X.
- Doctor Robotnik's appearance was based off of American President Theodore Roosevelt.

External Links:

Sonic The Hedgehog on Moby Games