I have a confession to make.
I love Sonic the Hedgehog.
My first experience with Sonic was Sonic Classic Collection on the DS in 2010. I have fond memories of not being able to get past Angel Island Zone, Mushroom Hill Zone, Marble Zone - but none of Sonic 2. Huh.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint the best parts of this series. I have intense nostalgia for Sonic Adventure DX, but groan every time I see Mystic Ruins. I adore Sonic Mania but Titanic Monarch is..
..not.. fun..?
So, in order to find what I loved about Sonic, I have decided to go back and look at all of the Sonic games - or, a select few, at least. And where better to start than the original Sonic the Hedgehog?
History
You’ve heard it all before. Nintendo had a monopoly over the video game market with Mario in the 80’s, and Sega wanted a piece of that gaming pie. Not long after the release of Super Mario Bros. 3, Sega held an in-house contest for a new mascot, for Alex Kidd wasn’t doing so great. As we all know, Sonic won this contest and other character designs were recycled for Dr Robotnik and Mighty the Armadillo.
And so, Sonic was released to the world on June 23rd 1991, leading to a three decade-spanning franchise. As we approach the 30th anniversary, I decided to go back and replay all of the 2D games. Sonic 1, 2, 3, Knuckles, CD and Mania. I have studied every level to try and figure out what makes them.. fun.
What did I figure out? That I love Sonic the Hedgehog. But.. not the first game. Let’s take a look at it.
Retrospective
Sonic is hard to describe. Is it a platformer? Kinda, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a platformer that reaches Sonic’s speed. How do you describe the game? I mean, you open in Green Hill Zone.
This standard grass level isn’t quite like one you’d find in, say, Super Mario Bros. The entire level is covered in checkboards. There are enemies, but they are robotic, lifeless versions of forest critters that shoot lasers at Sonic. There are no power-up boxes, no life tanks, no question blocks. Just item monitors, grass, and deadly metal critters.
Oh, and the music. Hardly a soothing lullaby, the music is fast-pitched, with a tempo not dissimilar to that of racing games of the time. Very quick and upbeat.
Something that should be mentioned is how often this zone has reappeared. After Sonic 1, it was in the 8-bit Sonic 1, Sonic Drift, Blast, Jam, Adventure 2, Battle, Jump, Smash Brawl, Jump 2, Chronicles, Generations, Jump Fever, Smash 4, Mario & Sonic 2014, Dash, Runners Adventure, Mania, Forces, Speed Battle, Smash Ultimate.
You see my point? People are starting to get sick of Green Hill, but it is important to view Green Hill Zone in a light that ignores the foresight of its later overuse. Ignoring it allows us to review this zone in a more positive manner, because let’s be honest: Green Hill Zone is peak Sonic 1.
Green Hill Zone is the peak of the game, a peak that the game would get very close to reaching again, but it's never quite enough. I think that’s a testament to how good of a first level Green Hill is. Green Hill is an amazing zone to run through, and that comes down to two things.
1. Physics
2. Level Design
Sonic has physics. This is obvious. It’s also obvious that momentum is an incredibly important part of Sonic’s control. Everyone has said this, and I really shouldn’t have to reiterate this again. Alas, I will.
Sonic’s momentum is paired with a unique collection of stage pieces that blend together to create a smooth, speedy experience. Green Hill, and subsequent levels in the series, are jam packed full of loops, springs, slopes, trampolines, bumpers and more. These, combined with Sonic’s control, can create a chaotic mess for those who aren’t experienced, but for those who take the time to master Sonic, it is amazing.
On top of that, stages in Sonic are filled to the brim with secrets, and this is best exemplified by Green Hill itself. You can run straight to the end, taking the linear path, or you can explore the stage for extra lives, shields, speed shoes, and invincibility sparkles. Granted, you still have to go fast - you die if you take more than 10 minutes to beat any act of any level - but you should have no problem exploring lots and still finding your way to the goal, and that comes down to the clever level design. Rings are strewn out in a way that looks random, but in reality, they guide you to areas you should be heading.
Even if you want to take the linear path, there are multiple ways to do so. In Green Hill Act 1, there are two distinct paths; generally referred to as the upper and lower paths. The lower path is generally easier to stick to, enemies can’t knock you off it.. mostly.. but that comes at a cost. The upper path has far more item monitors for you to find and smash, and also provides a clearer, often quicker route to the goal.
Even if you fall from the top path, you can use small platforms to climb up in certain areas, or even cleverly combine Sonic’s speed, a speed shoes power up and a slope to jump to tremendous heights, because if he is fast enough, jumping off of a slope can launch Sonic towards your destination.
The game knows this, too. There is a particular part where an item monitor sits upon a loop, and without getting speed shoes from earlier in the level and run-jumping off a nearby slope, you cannot get to it. You wouldn’t know about it if you hadn’t already explored the lower path.
Another important collectable is rings. Not only do they keep Sonic alive, acting as a sort-of shield, but collecting 50 of them in Act 1 or 2 of any zone - except Scrap Brain Zone for some reason - grants the player the ability to try to net themselves a Chaos Emerald.
Green Hill Zone is, to me, one of the most fun levels to replay in any video game ever, up there with Bob-Omb Battlefield, World 1-1 and Chemical Plant Zone. Green Hill Zone is the perfect start to Sonic the Hedgehog.
It’s got to be all uphill from here, right? Well, no.
According to the former head of Sonic Team, Yuji Naka, Marble Zone was intended to “give players a chance to breathe” between the speedy stages. I understand the sentiment, to give players downtime between high-action stages, but that is exactly where Marble Zone fails.
Marble Zone is slow, correct. However, this does not make it relaxing. Far from it. Green Hill Zone was also designed with “chances to breathe” in mind. There are still slow, platforming-orientated areas in Green Hill, between the loops and springs. The problem with Marble Zone is that the slow-down is forced, for the entire level.
Marble Zone isn’t fully linear, no. There are still secrets hidden behind fake walls, but there aren't the two distinct paths, and there isn’t speed. No loops, no springs, just.. blocks. Block puzzles, vanishing blocks, lava-raft blocks. There are significant periods of time taken up by waiting periods - so, nothing.
There are spikes that rise and fall, but you will never arrive on time. You have to wait for them to rise, wait for them to fall. There is no way to get past it quickly. You have to wait. Even the secrets that are here are either behind walls that one wouldn’t think to check, or.. well, that’s it. I’ve only ever found two secrets in Marble Zone. The secret routes last two seconds and only contain an extra life or a few rings.
The quickest way to get through Marble Zone is to purposefully take damage, quickly collect a ring to use as a shield, take damage, repeat. All the way through the lava. If players have to take damage to go fast in a Sonic level, it is not a good Sonic level. Granted, first-time players are highly unlikely to take such a risk, but someone who has played before and doesn’t want to wait is likely to do this. Of course, those who want to get to the special stages before the next zone also wouldn’t do this, but this just brings about the question.. why isn’t there a separate path?
There are tiny parts of Marble Zone, taking place outside, that are speedy. Why couldn’t there be a separate path that is like this for the entire level, instead of taking up maybe 15% of each act, while the rest is a boring wait over lava pits, or obnoxious lava columns, or spike platforms, or blocks that Sonic has to effectively drill through? It just doesn’t make any sense.
There is, however, a light at the end of this tunnel.
Spring Yard is everything the outside parts of Marble Zone dreamed of being. This zone is filled with bumpers, springs and a new set piece: half-pipes. Yes, like the ones people skate on. There are several areas that are filled with half-pipes and bumpers, and they are a blast to play with.
This zone is probably the closest the game gets to feeling like Green Hill again. There are numerous ways to run through the level, plenty of secrets hidden around, and now you get to outrun the slow blocks! It’s very satisfying to roll through the half-pipes and shoot upwards, maybe even over a wall.
There are small waiting sections, involving rising and lowering blocks, but even these are avoidable if the player is careful. There is this rolling badnik that suddenly appears after Sonic goes down a long slope, but luckily there is a spring ready to spin Sonic into the badnik, destroying it. Unfortunately if Sonic isn’t spinning, the bot will almost instantly hit him, either taking away the player’s life, or their chance to grab a Chaos Emerald.
Well, actually.. I have a few more problems. Spring Yard comes close to being Green Hill levels of awesome, but still falls short. There are strange badnik placements that seem designed to get you even though you couldn’t see them beforehand, the aforementioned rising and lowering blocks. Most players wouldn’t be able to skip them, and therefore have to wait - or possibly be crushed.
While I still love Spring Yard Zone, the problem is that it takes elements from Green Hill and Marble Zone, which brings the whole zone down. Maybe the next stage is better..?
Oh.
Where do I begin with this zone? Have you ever talked to anyone who actually likes Labyrinth Zone? I sure haven’t. This level is what you get if you take Marble Zone, remove the smaller fast sections, and put it underwater.
Not only that, but being the fourth out of six zones, they had to ramp up the difficulty here. This leads to unfair badnik placements, strange spinning spikes that hide in walls, fire-breathing decorations and spikes you couldn’t have possibly seen. Sonic can’t swim, is incredibly slow, and will down if you don’t find a water bubble within 30 seconds.
This means that you have to slowly trudge through the water, dodge way too many obstacles and traps, and search for bubbles for the entire stage. The most amount of time Sonic will spend out of water is about 30 seconds.
This stage is like Marble Zone, in that the extra paths are gone - apart from one in Act 3 - and the entire stage is linear. No secrets, no exploration, more waiting. Yay. It doesn’t help that many of the traps here are spikes, which completely ignore Sonic’s invincibility frames. If you’re hit, and fall onto spikes, you die.
I hate Labyrinth Zone more than anything else in this game.
Probably the most forgettable zone in the game, this zone is similar to Spring Yard.. but worse. There are lots of bottomless pits and obnoxious invincible bombs thrown in that makes most players entirely disregard this zone. It doesn’t even come close to Green Hill, or even Spring Yard.
Granted, it is the third most fun stage in the game - but is that saying much when the others are Marble, Labyrinth and...
oh no.
Scrap Brain is a step-up from Labyrinth, to say the least. No water, no dumb spikes, but lots of other strange choices. Bottomless pits, disappearing platforms, sudden electrical attacks in tight corridors.
Because it's the last zone, it has to be hard. Unfortunately that isn’t executed well here. Not at all. There are sudden pit traps, moving saws, the disappearing platforms, sudden enemies, flamethrowers, etc.
On top of that, Act 3 is just a grayscale version of Labyrinth Zone. Of course, it's the final act in the game, so it's obnoxiously difficult. Bottomless pits, extremely long water sections, sudden traps, bubbles that take longer to appear, and more super-slow water physics. Yay.
If you lose all of your lives in this zone, and have no continues, it's not like you go back to the start of the zone, no, you have to replay the entire game. The game ends with Final Zone, which is.. fine. Even with no rings the boss is pretty easy, but honestly Scrap Brain Act 3 may as well have been the boss, with how painful it is.
To access a special stage, the player must reach the goal of Act 1 or Act 2 of any zone, except Scrap Brain, with 50 rings and jump into the giant ring that appears. In the special stages the player can find Chaos Emeralds, and collecting 50 rings inside a special stage gets them a continue.
I'll be honest here. The special stages in Sonic 1 aren’t great. In fact, I’d even call them bad. The special stages spin at all times, there are bumpers to bounce Sonic around, special bumpers that rotate the stage in the opposite direction, or even speed up the spinning. Even better is that there are many chances to be kicked out of the stage by ‘goal’ bumpers.
One of the later stages literally has bumpers placed so that if the player doesn’t move within one second, they will be bumped into a goal bumper, kicking them out of the stage. Considering the player is only given ten chances to get the six emeralds and any continues they desire, this just seems heavily flawed.
Besides, good luck keeping 50 rings in any stage that isn’t Green Hill or maybe Spring Yard. You can try not to take damage throughout, say, Marble or Labyrinth, but.. you’ll certainly have a hard time.
I’ll be honest, whenever I play Sonic 1, I almost always stop playing after Green Hill, or occasionally Spring Yard if I feel like getting through Marble Zone. The game has many issues, some of them unavoidable. For example, poor framerate in parts, no saves, and the 4:3 aspect ratio hiding enemies until it's too late.
The level design and unity in Sonic 1 certainly isn’t perfect - not even close. There are always little problems that build up and ruin the overall experience of almost every stage. A lot of these issues were fixed, however, in possibly the best port of Sonic 1 ever created..
The 2013 mobile port.
This port fixes many bugs, including the spikes one, adds a save system, a time attack option, makes the game run in 16:9 - widescreen - and even adds Tails and Knuckles as unlockable characters. Even the spin dash from Sonic 2 is here.
The only problem with this port is that it's only on mobile. It isn’t on PC, it isn’t on consoles, just phones? For some reason, SEGA are happier with re-releases like Sonic 1 3D on the 3DS and SEGA AGES Sonic 1 on the Switch. This baffles me, but if you can, I’d highly recommend getting BlueStacks for the PC.
BlueStacks is an android emulator for PC, and is what I used to play the mobile version of Sonic 1 in preparation for this retrospective. Having played three versions of the game; the mobile version, SEGA AGES version and Sonic Classic Collection (DS) version, all of which having different additions - or in Classic Collection’s case, no additions - I can say that the mobile port is by far the best version of Sonic 1.
The save system is by far the best new addition in the mobile port. No more required continues, no more having to collect the emeralds on every playthrough. No more framerate issues, no more running straight into enemies.. well, less of that last one, at least.
The level design hasn’t changed much, but cool secrets have been added that only Tails and/or Knuckles can reach. Those two can also make both Marble and Labyrinth Zone a much less painful experience. They even added Super Sonic into the game.
It’s clear that, with this port, Sonic 1 isn’t a bad game. Far from it. If it can be heavily improved by just a few changes, then that is a testament to how good this game actually is. Sure, Labyrinth and Scrap Brain are still painful - but not as painful with this port.
There we have it. Sonic 1 isn’t a perfect game, but it's clear that it had amazing potential. There are a few confusing design choices, and a few confusing port choices, but Sonic Team would go on to fully refine Sonic in the following games in the classic quadrilogy.
Next time, I will be taking a look at Sonic 2 - one of my favourite games of all time - trust me, I will have a lot to say. That will be coming some time next month, so look out for that.
Comentários