Sonic the Hedgehog
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Sonic the Hedgehog in my opinion with out a shadow of a
doubt was the game that saved Sega from an early demise.
This game in many people's opinion had it all graphics,
music fun game play and it was on every one who even owned a
Genesis wish list in 1991. When screen shots, and pictures
of this game came available many disappointed Genesis fans
seen New Hope in their machine. Then finally it came out, a
very impressive game, large characters beautiful colors, and
great music. My first impression when I laid eyes on this
gem of a game was astounding I marveled at the funny
character named Sonic, at his super fast speed, at his mass
appeal and potential this character had. This game was just
tons of fun to play and everyone though that to be true,
many people who have witnessed this dynasty at its
beginning, and certainly not at its height. Were amazed and
astound by it, and eagerly waited for more titles like this
one here to come from Sega. No one on the face of this Earth
who played the original Sonic when it originally came out
could deny the fact, and amazing effect that this game had
over people. This game surly brought hope to each and every
Sega fan out they're, and many including yours truly went
out to buy this game as soon as it was released.
Story 10/10
What a wonderful story added to this game, and it was
already had appeal even with no story at all. On Sonic's
home planet, he was like a king of all the other animals, he
may have been a little rude and arrogant but everyone loved
sonic. There was no denying that, and people looked up to
his youthful wisdom and his love every creature. One day and
evil Doctor, Dr. Robotnik had a plan to rule that world as
his own. He turned all of Sonic's furry friends into Robots,
which were called Badniks. Dr. Robotnik was also out for the
Chaos Emeralds with them that he would heighten his chances
of world domination. Sonic then soon realized that all his
furry little friends were missing, and he didn't find out
why. He started to see small robots and he then knew that
his evil arch Nemesis Robotnik was about. Sonic's sole job
was to free each of his furry friends and put a stop to
Robotnik, before it was too late. This got Sonic mad seeing
as the fact that him Robotnik were long time enemies and
finally had enough power to put his diabolical scheme into
action at full force. Even though this is your usual Hero
saves planet from bad guy I still liked it, it had a
different element to it to make it even more appealing to
youngsters and this was the type of story that started a legend.
Graphics 10/10
The graphics in this game were beautiful and until its
sequel there wasn't a game out there could even come close
to rivaling them. Sonic was a fairly large character and all
the enemies were fairly large as well. The landscape and
scenery was outstanding and it was truly eye popping for any
one who even looked at this. At the time that this came out
graphics like these were labeled as unreal, and many felt
that graphics like this on your home system could not have
been possible. They were though and this was well
represented in this game, and the atmosphere of everything
was just plain gorgeous. The bosses who were Robotnik were
outstanding and highly detailed. If you look closely at
Sonic's face you will see the detail in it and how his eyes
blink and his arms sway from side to side. Every background
in this game was highly detailed with much go on in them.
The speed of Sonic was incredible and he moved at a very
fast and alarming pace with out any slow down what so ever
in this game. Even though it was side scrolling through out
the game it gave you a feel that you weren't since most of
the stages had a small side way place or you had to go all
over the stage it seemed very different at the time. I truly
enjoyed evening watching this game never mind just playing
it was great, and this is one of those games that were fun to watch.
Sound 10/10
A Sega Genesis first, some outs standing music. This game
music was sensational, and it really out did any thing that
ever came out before and some what time afterwards. Even as
the unforgettable main theme played everyone knew if this
music were that good, the rest of the game would have to be
as well. It happened to be true, with great sounding music
on plenty of the stages in the game, especially Star Night
Zone. I'm greatly appreciative of the Sound Test in this
game and some of the great music you could listen to. The
music was also loud and crisp and sounded as authentic as a
SNES game. The sound effects were actually memorable too,
like when you lose all your rings and other great music. The
sound of jumping on enemies and when you go through a tunnel
at fast speeds. The sound of Sonic's hair was cutting the
grass as he went along. Other great music that played in the
game was when you had to fight Robotnik at the end of each
zone, and that music played through out the series. When you
got a star power up the Sonic theme song would play. The
Sonic theme song was just as good as the Mario one heard on
the first stage of the original and this had to be on of the
memorable pieces in video game history. When you sit down
and think about how good this music went along with the mega
fast game play and perfect graphics, you would be really
astound by this game in general.
Game Play 10/10
This game was for one player only, which was a sad thing
though, but ultimately fixed in its many sequels that it has
had. You had 6 "Zones" to play each one had 3 stages on
them, plus their was a special stage if you had 50 rings at
the end of each stage. All together your looking at 18
different stages of fun, sonic got power ups though limited
they all had their effects. The coolest would have to be
Sprint Sneakers, which enabled Sonic to run at speed not
even fathom on a side scroller. Then there was the temporary
invincibility, which was coupled with the great theme song.
You also had a more permanent shield, which protected you
from losing your rings. The rings that you gathered enabled
you to survive longer, if you had 50 you would get to the
special stage, a hundred granted you an extra life. Your
main way of an attack was to jump on enemies much like Mario
did in his games. This was the way to free your animal
friends. At some points in that the game you had to solve
mini puzzles they usually weren't hard at all and they did
take some times to figure out once in a while. At the end of
each zone is where you had to face one of Robotnik's many
suits, as I like to call them. He will hit you with a
different barrage every time all though most of it has a
pattern, which takes some, time to figure out.
My only real and very small problem with this game was that
it did not provide enough challenge for the gamer once you
beat it, and that there was nothing else to do once you beat
it. That was it the game was finish, although it was fun for
a while to go back and play a few times, but it really
didn't last. A game like this was fun for the first few play
through then it just faltered, and it was hard to find any
thing left redeeming to play it. Another I disliked was the
fact of the special stage. The special stage really wasn't
all that fun and even though I am glad it got a lot better
in the other Sonic the Hedgehog games. In this one, you are
in like a maze, with crystals all over the place, you have
to bounce of stuff, and destroy the crystals to get through
to the chaos Emeralds, it was fun for like the first one you
play through. After that the game just gets boring and
useless to play the special stages. If you get all the Chaos
Emeralds it proves nothing you don't get a better or
different ending, or the game doesn't get any better. You
get the same tired one, even when you get them, thankfully
this was also corrected in later versions of this game. The
difficulty was intermediate, and there wasn't any saves or
password features.
Overall 10/10
This was a fun game marred by only a few things. Namely no
two player mode which the original Super Mario Brothers had,
this in my opinion killed the game even more and made it
less enjoyable. With two players this game would have been a
blast just like its sequels were. Then the fact that it
really doesn't have any replay value considering their
nothing to do after you beat it. Even so you should have had
some secrets in the game, or a secret zone to play through
in this you get nothing really. The fun factor however is
very high, wit hall the fast and furious fun that this game
obtains, you fingers will blister before you actually put
the controller down, this game is just too much fun when you
first get it. You will however get stuck at certain points
of the game because it does get kind of rough playing
through all of it, it could have been easier but it really
wasn't. I also feel as this game was geared towards kids
while most kids probably wouldn't have been able to beat
this at the time it came out because quite frankly the game
was hard for me back then. It took me quite a while to get
through some of those particularly rough zones in the game,
and some of the acts. I also feel as though Sonic should
have had more moves than he did, all he could really do was
jump and roll good thing he gets a second type of attack in
the next game. That roll really doesn't work unless you are
running fast. I like the idea about getting rings, as sort
of like energy, because that is sort of like eating
mushrooms in Mario. Since it does provide something before
you die since you don't have an energy bar, as long as you
at least have one ring you are safe from all badniks. Well I
think the best features of this game were the fact that Sega
finally utilized the one thing this system had over all the
others and that was its speed. This at the time was the
fastest running game on the market, and that made the game
better well consider to the rest of the market it isn't as
fast as other games were. Well even though these are very
small nit picking problems, it still really doesn't hurt the
game at all. This is one of the classics for the genesis in
fact this is probably one of the best games out there you
could of gotten. If some how you don't have this one already
I advise you get it, it is still well worth it even to this day.
OR
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