Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) review.

Eclipsmon Now it's time for a review of Sonic the Hedgehog, suggested by Boris Rule. No not the one of 2006, I'm talking about that one classic game, that allowed Sega to become Nintendo's first real rival. Today, we gonna see if I think this game is still good nowadays. However, I have something to say before we begin. I will not review the original Sonic the Hedgehog. I will actually review... the remake on GBA! No just kidding, the IOS remake. You see, I did not play the original, however, thanks to IOS, and the IPOD of my sister (I should buy myself an IPAD or IPOD one day), I was able to play this classic game. And from what I've heard, the IOS remake is the same thing, but better, with multiple characters that you can unlock, a spindash, a better camera, and more importantly, unlimited continues, and save files that works like in Sonic 3 and K. Plus, it's free when you play with ads, and is still really cheap when you play without them, so Sonic the Hedgehog IOS is clearly the best version of Sonic the Hedgehog, so I think it's fair to review that game rather than the original. Don't worry, I will do something about the original. That being said what do I think of this game? Let's find out!

Let's start with the story. An evil scientist called Dr. Robotnik, decided to turn all the animals of South Island into robots. Therefore, Sonic, an hedgehog that can go to really high speed, decided to stop him. Dr. Robotnik also wants to find the 6 chaos emeralds to take over the world. So what are my thoughts of the story. Well, it is simple, but effective. I have to give the game credits for being able to explain the story without any words. For example, when destroying a robot, you can see an animal jumping off the robot, which is cool detail to say the least. Personally, I prefer having the story explained in an openning cutscene, to let us with the context we need to understand the story when events happens, like in Super Metroid, but they did a good job, and I honestly prefer this plot over Super Mario Bros.

For the graphics, it looks fairly good. I mean for the hardware it was made for, there is nothing wrong with it, and it still looks decent today. That being said, I would have like if it was a bit more colorful, which is something that the sequels fixed.

As for the music, composed by Masato Nakamura, it's pretty good. It's one of those soundtrack that became classic because the game itself is classic. Personally, it's not as good as other people say, but it's far from bad. My favorite song is definitely Marble Zone, which has great ambiance, and is so inspirationnal, and the rest of the soundtrack is good too.

Now it's time to talk about the gameplay. If you saw my list of 10 cases of good game design, you know that I find the physic system to be genius. That first slope of green hill zone blown the mind of many 1990's players, and I say that even though I wasn't born before the 2000s. Basically, this game incite you to go fast to pass some platforming challenges, and just to make cool stuff.

To understand how good the physics are in this game, we need to look at the level design. Let's take the first zone in the game, Green Hill. There are many high paths that you can only take if you are fast enough, which is how this game implement that genius physic system. Star Light is also a very good zone, with the way it implements seesaw into platforming, and other ways to use the physics. Sadly, the game goes down in quality when it's time to talk about the other zones. Let's talk about Spring Yard first. This zone does use springs, and physics in a good way, but there are parts where you are force to wait until block moves away, and other moments where platforming is too tights. You see, Sonic's controls are good for running, but in platforming, if the platforms are too small, it becomes a problem, since unlike Mario there is no run button to have the option to go slowly for platforming challenges. Then there is Scrap Brain, the final zone of the game. 50% of the time it's a fairly good zone, and the other 50% of the time, it's really unfair, especially if you have the camera of the original game. As for Labyrinth Zone, I don't think it's as bad as other people say actually. That's because I prefer being slow down by water, than being force to wait until platforms goes away. Yes it's slow, but at least I can keep moving. I also like the puzzles, and the platforming. That being said, what does it do in a Sonic game? And also it's very difficult, especially in the last act, and I almost gave up at this point in the game. Then there is *sigh* Marble Zone. So, Marble Zone is my least favorite zone in all of classic Sonic. It's simply the incarnation of all things I hate about Sonic 1. Ridiculously small platforms, incredibly slow, even for a level that is not in a Sonic game, crushers that kill you in one hit. Doing this zone was a nightmare when I first did it.

As you can see, the worst zones in the game are pretty slow for Sonic standards. Why are they slow though? Well, I think it's because this game is the first game in the series, and therefore they didn't master how to do Sonic levels yet. Therefore, we have slow zones that are more traditionnal, and would be great in Mario, but not as much in Sonic. So yeah, this game really has "first game syndrome".

Then there are the special stages. If you want to see the good ending of this game, you need to find all the chaos emeralds, which is something all classic Sonic games will continue to do. Until Sonic 3 and K from what I've seen though, classic Sonic really had a problem with special stages. And this game has probably my vote for the worst special stages in Classic Sonic. And no, it's not just because it's the only game besides CD to not make you unlock Super Sonic. First, if you reached Spring Yard act 2 and didn't get any of the chaos emerald, you can't get all the chaos emerald before the end of the game. Sure thanks to the save file of the remake, you can get all the chaos emerald you want after you beated the game, but still. As for the way to unlock special stages, you need to collect 50 rings, and reach the end of the level. Don't get hit, and lose all your rings though! And also jump in the giant ring that appears at the end of the level before Sonic goes away like a dumb**s! As for the special stages themselve, they are not only super weird, and not really in a funny way, but also they are almost luck based. So, overall don't try to do the special stages, unless you really want to unlock Knuckles as a playable character. And again, you don't unlock that in the original.

And that's it for my review of Sonic the Hedgehog. What's my verdict? Before to tell what I think of the IOS remake, I want to give a score for the original what I think I would give it if I layed it. Well, I would personally give it a 5/10. Like in Megaman 9 where the game was still too hard even though I played it with the save states of the legacy collection, I can't imagine how Sonic 1, would be in a game where some of the zones were already frustrating to play with unlimited continue, but now it would be in a game where making a Game Over means doing the whole game all over again! And even for the time, this Game Over system was already outdated. I mean we got Super Mario Bros 3, and the Megaman games before that! Not to mention other things that are missing like a good camera for example. Sure it still has cool things, but this game is just okay. As for the remake, it's much better, but not without its flaws, so I would give it an 8/10. Most of the flaws are gone, but the level-design is still questionnable at times. So I like this game, but not that much.

Next time, we'll do the suggestion of Darthvadern: the New Super Mario Bros games. This review will be quite special, and I think some of you probably already know why. Don't hesitate to give me other suggestions of movies or games if you want.

Comments

Great review, dude. I also think that the first game is classic. In my opinion, stages and music look timeless. ;)
(Psst, my username didn't contain space between "Boris" and "Rule", just pointing out) - BorisRule

I know, I was just too lazy to look if there was a space or not. - Eclipsmon

10/10 review
keep rocking man - TreadMeWithTheFloods