I enjoy revisiting the classics, especially the ones that I never played as a kid. While I view the games I grew up with through rose-colored glasses, I’m able to better evaluate games objectively if I’ve had no prior experience with them. In some cases, I play something like Golden Axe and wonder what people see in it. Other times I’ll discover gems like Suikoden and suddenly find myself joining the revival movement on Facebook, as if I’ve always been a fan.
Because I grew up with Nintendo systems, and for whatever reason none of my friends had a Sega Genesis, I never was able to give Sonic a fair shot in the ’90s. I refrained from trying a Sonic game because of I know of the newer games’ notorious reputation thanks to the Internet, but sometime when I was 20 I had decided to give it a shot. For me, I don’t think Sonic the Hedgehog fits in either of the categories I described in the last sentence of the introduction, but it certainly defied my expectations.
In an ideal world, I would have played it on the Genesis as originally intended; however, for the sake of convenience, I was more than happy to emulate it on the Wii. Still, having grown up with a Super Nintendo, it took me a while to get used to the Genesis game’s quirks. The soundtrack, for instance, is solid gold, but the sound chip that produced it sounded off to me. Forum debates never offered any concrete answers, although both sides offered excellent examples. Whether or not one system has a better sound chip than the other, I’m a victim of the Mere-exposure effect, so I’m biased towards the SNES because it does a good job of emulating synth-driven rock songs, and I’m not a big fan of the buzzing effects in a lot of Genesis songs. However, for what it’s worth, Sonic the Hedgehog ’s melodies are stuck in my head as if I had always known them, and they demonstrate what the Genesis’ sound chip is capable of.
Everything else about Sonic the Hedgehog ’s presentation appealed to me, however, despite the game being over two decades old. My immediate comparison for graphical power is Donkey Kong Country . DKC seemed to hint towards gaming’s 3D future, and Sonic the Hedgehog gives off a somewhat similar vibe. Character sprites appear to be more rounded than SNES sprites, giving them more of a sheen. I remember enjoying the background of the Green Hill Zone, the colorful jungle gym of a level. With all the loop de loops, springs, and other obstacles, I almost felt like I was part of a Rube Goldberg design, albeit at a much faster, exhilarating pace and with room for deviation.
And yes, as evidenced by the first level, Sonic is fast–very fast. I’m not sure I paused even once during the Green Hill Zone, but that quickly changed when I reached the second world. Suddenly, I found myself no longer blazing past obstacles; rather, I found myself approaching platforms as cautiously as any Super Mario Bros. game. That’s fine, as I wouldn’t want a game in which I could literally breeze through it, but the controls felt a bit awkward to me. It makes sense for Sonic to begin slowly and increase his speed until he’s the unstoppable fastest thing alive, but in tight corridors in which I had to carefully jump across platforms and avoid falling into the lava, I felt awkward having to tap the right and left directional buttons carefully.
The controls made me question the game’s reputation for being all about speed, but thankfully an excellent retrospective by ScrewAttack helped clear things up. In this video about Sonic the Hedgehog , Stuttering Craig explained “Sonic is not all about speed…Sonic is just about good platforming.” And that makes sense. The speed is more of a reward, and is also a distinguishing feature for the franchise. Needless to say, I could never get past the second zone, although I really did try. I would later go on to try Sonic CD , which I can see why it has the reputation for being one of the best games in the franchise – so much so that I even beat the game (iOS version, unfortunately), and thought it felt much faster than the original.
Ultimately, I’ll never have a nostalgic connection with Sonic the Hedgehog beyond reminiscing on ’90s fanboy wars. That said, I respect the game and ultimately think it’s fun. I mean, who doesn’t like virtual loop-de-loops?