Back in 1990 It was pretty difficult to buy a video game. You didn't know if it was going to be the best game ever made or the ultimate rotten turd in the giant abominable s**t stack. (I am looking at you, E.T.) And all you had to see on what the game was like was a commercial barely explaining anything, a photo, a weak description, and a name. And games no matter how bad were VERY pricy. Don't believe me? $40 DOLLARS FOR DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE HOLY MOLY THAT IS HIGHWAY ROBBERY!
But whether or not you would want to LIVE in the 90's, you have to agree that games were pretty hard to enjoy. There was so many bad games and companies as you already know, (LJN....) And it was like a 50/50 chance you'd find a good game. Except one gaming mascot that you could always count on to give you many guaranteed hours of fun.......
Mario. The plumber who SAVED THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY! (Well, it was mostly Nintendo, they even made Mario) No matter what garbage you saw being sold for $400 dollars, (VIRTUAL BOY......) You could always count on the Mario Bros for fun every single time! (Well, except Hotel Mario. But who had a CD-I anyways?) Mario's game were the best in the world! Such classics like Super Mario Bros, Mario 2, Mario 3, Mario 64, Mario World, MARIO TENNIS, MARIO GOLF, MARIO PAINT, DR. MARIO, PAPER MARIO, IT WAS LIKE NO MATTER WHAT GAME YOU BOUGHT WITH HIS NAME ON IT, YOU HAD THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!
But then Sega, being the awesome company they were, (WERE,) They made the worlds first 16-bit system, BEHOLD, THE SEGA GENESIS! *Clap Clap Clap* You see a difference yet? Back then, games were about 2 things. Fun, and graphics. Back then people were like, "Hey dude have you seen the NINTENDO 64? 64 Bits dude! 64 BITS!" Nobody cares about bits or whatever nowadays because most games graphics look either great, or just like a lot of other games.
But back then, graphics was a huge part of a game. Did they look rushed, blurry, and hard to look at? (ACTION 52....) Or did they look colorful, nice, pretty, and settling on the eyes? (Fantasy Zone!) Either way, Sega knew that the NES, (Or the 1985 Official Nintendo Entertainment System, hehe,) Was starting to lose competition because of the 8-bit graphics, so they made the Sega Genesis to show off what they could do to revolutionize graphics as we know it.
Then they needed to have a mascot. For a while they had this character called Alex The Kidd, and while his games were alright, (Enchanted Castle though is one of my Top 20 Favorite Games Ever,) They weren't phenomenal. Then in 1990 they must have realized that people liked going fast in video games. Like how 90% of the Mario Bros Games people were holding down the B button to go faster! So Sega created Sonic The Hedgehog, which if I talked all about it's history, then this "Review" would be over 9,000 words long. (Hehe 9,000 hehe)
Gamers instantly loved Sonic The Hedgehog for his, well, EVERYTHING! The blue blur was on top of the world and was even compared to Super Mario at the time! Kids were like, "THERESTHIS GUY NAMD SANIC WOW CHECK IM OUT HES LIKE MORIO!" And more people wanted to play it because kids thought there was going to be a new mascot who could always make games that make you want to wet yourself! (You know, except me. Cause I don't do that......o____O)
But was the game REALLY as good as the kids say? Is it possible we have a case of an overrated video game? Or does it really belong in the *Turns on megaphone* GREAT OFFICIAL GOLDEN VIDEO GAME STAR HAVEN HALL OF FAME AND FORTUNE!? (Try saying that 3 times fast! >:D) Well let's finally stop gushing and talk about the game that started it all, the game that the 90's worshiped and sacrificed they're souls to get a few minutes of holy game-play from the greatest genesis title of all time, (Maybe not THAT good,) Sonic. The. Hedgehog.
So you turn on your Sega Genesis thinking, "This better not suck or I AM GOING TO STRANGLE SOMEBODY" As you hear the classic line, "Sega!" (Which ACTUALLY took up more space than an entire zone! Not kidding, look it up. They did this cause they had too much space.)
Then you hear some flashy noises, you look at the screen in awe, you see a beautiful background, a ring in the middle, AND THEN, THE JOURNEY OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG BEGINS! *Alright enough over dramatic lines :(*
Since this isn't a walk-through, I won't be saying things like, "So go on this platform and advance to the right to get a hidden shield!" Or anything like that, so yeah.
The game begins as you start in the Green Hill Zone. Instantly you are greeted with beautiful graphics, wonderfully catchy and memorable music, smooth working controls, no glitches, (Unless you try to find them then that kind of defeats the purpose now doesn't it?) And a bunch of platforms, loop-De-loops, busting up badniks, And fighting a pretty easy boss fight at the end of every stage. There really isn't a story but as far as I can tell, this is what I think the story is. Actually, screw that it's in the manual. (LOL If you bought the game without it.)
"Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the mad scientist, is snatching innocent animals
and turning them into evil robots! Only one tough dude can put an end to
the demented scientist's fiendish scheme. It's Sonic, the real cool hedgehog with the spiked haircut and power sneakers that give him super speed."
"Help Sonic fight hordes of metal maniacs and do the loop with the Super Sonic Spin Attack.
Speed down twisting tunnels and swing over dangerous booby traps. Leap
across lava pits and dodge burning rocks. Then splash through the
chilling waters in an underground cavern. And if you're lucky, you can
warp to the secret zone where you spin around in a floating maze! Your
greatest challenge lurks in a secret lab where you come face to face
with Dr. Robotnik himself!"?
"Spin through space, loop 'til you're dizzy, save the animals and become the super hero. Be Sonic! Be atomic!"
(Copy And Paste I Love You.....And this isn't cheating, it's just the manual.)
Quite the story there! It may seem a bit basic and stupid, but it's clever, funny, hasn't been used before, AND IT DOESN'T SAY......
"Rescue the Princess *Insert name here* From the evil *Insert Baddie Name Here* And save the village from havoc!"
Because lord knows that is WAY too cliche. That's one reason I like sonic, because Like "The Great Clement" Said, Sonic doesn't rescue princesses, he doesn't want love or anything, he is too cool for that! One of the reasons I HATE Sonic 06, Sonic is rescuing a princess.......UGH SEGA.......WHAT WERE YOU SMOKING!??! But we aren't AT that game yet........
So first off, the game-play. Sonic plays kind of like Mario basically. He can run, (Only much faster,) He can jump, if you hold down on the down button while moving you can use it to curl into a ball and hurt badniks. And when you do it on a curve, you can spin really fast and get a lot of speed!
So when you hit a badnik, you save an animal inside of it! Doesn't do anything but you get points for doing it. So if you just want to get that good old high score......(Which people have stopped caring about since Mario came out)
When you collect a golden ring, (And they are EVERYWHERE,) You become invincible and can't be killed by anything except drowning, being crushed, or falling into a bottomless pit. If you hit a hazard with no rings, you lose a life. If you hit a hazard with even just ONE ring, you don't die, but lose that ring, but you can get it back.
There is classic powers like the shield, invincibility, speed boost, extra life, you have heard this all before, so yeah.
If you collect 50 rings, and get to the flag at the end of the level, (Touch the flag to beat the level,) You will see a giant golden ring. Go in here and you will be inside a rotating maze. Your goal is to find a chaos emerald. If you touch an R....Circle let's call them, the maze rotates the other way. If you run into a flashing red and blue...Circle then you lose your chance to get the emerald, but can still get the emerald the next time you jump into the Giant golden ring.
If you manage to collect all 7 chaos emeralds, (I actually think it's 6 in the first game now that I think about it.....) You get a special ending. And a congratulations. Beat the game without them and you get a Image of Dr. Robotnik holding all the ones you missed and it says, "Try again!"
If you beat all the badniks in the game, collect every ring in every stage and bonus stage, go through all 6 zones in under 30 minutes, never lose a life, spend only 20 seconds in each bonus stage, beat Robotnik in 5 seconds, and I'M JUST KIDDING RELAX!
Now onto the music. The soundtrack in this game, and you will hear me say this a lot in Sonic games, is downright LEGENDARY. Every single song in this game would make it in my top 40 video game music! It is colorful and peaceful in Green Hill, Catchy and upbeat in the Marble Zone, Fantastic and magical in the Spring Yard Zone, neat and awesome in the Labyrinth zone, Quiet and relaxing in the Star Light Zone, and adventurous and epic in the Scrap Brain Zone. The boss music is very pressure raising and feels like you are taking on a boss, and the bonus stages are blindingly (Literally, the bonus stages hurt my eyes!) fantastic! The final boss theme is also very tension raising. Overall, the music is some of the best music I have heard on an early 16-bit console.
The sound effects are funny and are alive with emotions! It feels GOOD to murder a badnik and listen to the explosions of Dr. Robotniks Ships when you beat him, you hear a beep kind of chime when you get a ring, you hear a funny BOING sound when you get a shield, and when you get a bubble to breathe air in the water level, he makes a hilarious king of hiccup sound!
Now onto charm. And this game is DROWNING in it. *No pun intended* When Sonic is near the edge of something, he acts like he is about to fall of, if you remain idle, he taps his foot and gives you a funny look, I like the way his legs look when he's running, (They form a circle, it's cool!) When Sonic beats a stage he gives you a smile, when you die sonic gives you that funny WTF face and when you beat Robotnik, you can see his mustache all black! This game has just as much charm as Donkey Kong Country, IF NOT MORE!
The graphics in this game are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I love the look of Green Hill, (I love it more then Emerald Hill from the second game because of the Night theme) Marble zone looks like if you put a stone palace in a forest, spring yard looks like a casino, (Love it more then Casino Night from Sonic 2,) Labyrinth zone is what it is, a labyrinth! Star light is very pretty and relaxing on the eyes, and scrap brain is nothing but SPIKES HAZARDS FIRE SAW BLADES BADNIKS WATER KILL MURDER BLOOD DEATH NAPALM FLAMES HAHAHAHAHAHAH!
So yeah, graphics are GREAT!
At last we have level design. This game, it excels at that. Everything is placed there almost perfectly and really compliments Sonic's speed and keeps the pace going, and while there is a few cheap moments in the game, (Bricks+Spring Yard= DEATH) The game for the most part has great level design and badnik placement.
Overall, this game isn't good. It isn't great at all. It sucks at being awesome. Sega is not very smart when it comes to making a BAD game, because this game is LEGENDARY. REVOLUTIONARY. ABSOLUTELY A MASTERPIECE. I was going to give this game a 9.5, but SCREW THAT! I can't give it a ten because of THAT OBNOXIOUSLY RETARDED LABYRINTH ZONE BOSS and some other minor nitpicks, but I really
love this game. People were right, this game rivals even Mario. There was a time when Sega were game making masters, and while they still KIND OF are, (Colors, Generations on consoles, Unleashed?) They definitely have had some bad days. (Sonic 06.....Secret rings, Black Knight, Genesis GBA Port, Shadow,) If Sega can ever make a masterpiece like this again, I would cry. Generations is AMAZING, but they screwed up the 3DS port, the one I GOT. Colors is really great and all, but THE RED RINGS.......
In a final conclusion, Sonic The Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis is one of the best games I have ever played. EVER. While some games like Xenoblade Chronicles and Mario World might not make my top 10 games, SONIC GETS A GUARANTEED SPOT IN THE TOP 5. They did everything so well and great for it's time and every problem is a PATHETIC NITPICK, and that's why my final rating for this game, is 50 giant golden rings out of 10.
(Want an actual rating? 9.9/10. PLAY. NOW. OR. DIE. > : D)
(You can also see this review on my vizzed profile of the same name.)
