Sonic the Hedgehog
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This article is about 1991 Sega Genesis game. You may be looking for 2006 reboot with the same name, the similarly named arcade game, or its 8-bit counterpart. |
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Sonic the Hedgehog is the first game in the long-running series by Sega. The game was originally released for the Sega Genesis in North America and Europe on June 23, 1991, with a Japanese Mega Drive release following a month later on 26 July.
Advertising its fast gameplay based on Sonic's extraordinary speed, the concept of a high-speed platform game was unique for its time and solidified the style of gameplay the series would be best known for. Due to the Mega Drive's Motorola 68000 processor, the power of the console would allow for faster gameplay, dubbed by some as blast processing, and impressive 16-bit graphics, making it much more powerful than Sega's preceding Master System. It was the premier outing for the character of Sonic the Hedgehog and the group behind his creation, Sonic Team. Though the game only received marginal success in its home country, almost overnight Sonic became a sensation in the west, solidifying Sega's place in Europe and turning the company into a household name in the United States.
Why It's The Fastest Thing Alive
- The game started SEGA's most successful mascot of all time after Alex Kidd was discontinued and spawned a lot of other great Sonic games in existence. The franchise managed to be so successful that it even spawned a crossover with Mario along with Sonic managing to be a character in Super Smash Bros. In fact, due to the console wars of the early to mid-1990s, Sonic was at one point considered the rival of Nintendo's Super Mario.
- This game introduced Sonic and Dr. Eggman, the former being the hero and the latter being the villain, each one working very well for the other. Despite having not much depth in this game as the series progressed we got to know both of their personalities.
- Great soundtrack composed by Masato Nakamura, best known as the bass guitarist of the pop band Dreams Come True.
- The gameplay is unique compared to other platformers at the time. Sonic continuously builds up momentum and speed as he keeps running uninterrupted, meaning if the player is good they can keep Sonic running at very fast speeds without stopping, making it very useful in speed runs and even in general.
- Simple controls. All you need is to move and jump, and it nails the one-action button control scheme.
- Good level design with many branching paths. The higher paths reward players for keeping up the high speed while the lower, more obstacle-filled paths punish players for not speeding up.
- The zones are very unique, each one of them having its theme and Badniks.
- Green Hill Zone is the most memorable zone in the game due to the iconic music, colorful aspects, and nice level design. It has appeared in many future Sonic games. (more details in Trivia)
- While the only boss in the game is Dr. Eggman, the boss fights themselves are pretty clever, often inspired by the zones mechanics and different strategies, compared to his bouncy Italian rival where the bosses with Bowser feel repetitive.
- There are two endings in the game, one being bad and one being good:
- Bad Ending: If the player does not collect all of the 6 Chaos Emeralds, Sonic will just run around Green Hill normally. After the credits, Dr. Eggman will taunt you by juggling the chaos emeralds that you didn’t collect.
- Good Ending: If the player collects all of the 6 Chaos Emeralds, Sonic will be able to give flora back to Green Hill Zone, and in the end screen, Dr. Eggman will repeatedly stomp on the word 'End' in a fit of rage.
- The Special Stages have a unique concept where you have to avoid the goal spheres while dealing with bouncy bumpers, UP and DOWN bumpers (which control the rotation speed of the stage), and R spheres (which change the stage rotation direction when they are touched), until you reach the room with the Chaos Emerald, encased in colored diamonds which the player must hit them until they disappear and then you can collect one of them.
- To access them, you have to collect 50 rings in Acts 1 & 2 of each zone (barring Scrap Brain Zone), and at the goalposts you have to jump into giant rings. There are 6 special stages which means you don't have to collect an Emerald in every zone.
- The Taxman/Stealth remake from 2013 has additional content such as:
- The ability to play as Tails and Knuckles (after beating the game) and the spin dash for Sonic.
- Expanded Debug Mode which includes elements from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles like the Elemental Shields and Super Sonic.
- A new Time Attack mode and the save feature have been added.
- Thanks to Google Play Games some achievements can make the game more challenging.
- In 2022, the Taxman/Stealth remake was re-released as part of the Sonic Origins compilations for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Bad Qualities
- No save features for the older versions. You basically have to speed-run the game if you want to beat the final boss. This can be a problem if you are playing this game on the Sega Nomad (a portable Genesis) whose battery life only lasts about three to four hours. This was corrected in the later ports.
- The GBA version is infamous for its extremely poor optimization because it was made in only one month to coincide with Sonic's 15th anniversary.
- Speaking of which, the infamous PAL/SECAM release of the game runs at 16.67% slower than the NTSC release due to refresh rates, which conflicts with the fast-paced nature of the game. This affects not only the gameplay but the music as well, which is slower in the PAL release. Fortunately, the music (but not the gameplay) was optimized in PAL releases of the later games.
- Because Sonic's control and physics are built around constant flowing movement, sections that require slower, precise platforming become sluggish and slippery (a perfect example being Scrap Brain Zone).
- Labyrinth Zone (sometimes considered the worst zone in the game) is full of underwater sections, cheap enemy placement, and crammed obstacles that prevent speeding up.
- The special stages while fun, can be frustrating because of the bumpers and precise jumping.
- While the Final Zone is decent, you have to play perfectly to defeat Eggman since you are given no rings.
Trivia
- Sonic first appeared in Rad Mobile as an air freshener, five months before this game was released.
- The Japanese release added additional storyline details, as the existing plot was virtually a basic outline. The purpose of the Chaos Emeralds is greatly expanded upon, which is elaborated in later games. It is explained that Dr. Eggman was specifically searching for them on the island due to their incredible energy according to legend. The manual also states that there has already been some unknown animosity between Sonic and Eggman in the past (which, on the other hand, is not backed up in later games). It also lists the setting as South Island, which is established in later games as well - in the English manual, the setting was originally unnamed.
- There are two versions of the game; the original release (Revision 0) and Revision 1. Revision 1 is common in Japan, but contrary to popular belief it was released worldwide in smaller quantities. This update makes some very minor changes to the game's programming, as well as adds some visual effects such as scrolling clouds in Green Hill Zone or water ripples in Labyrinth Zone. It also corrects the Zone order on the level selection. This version of the game is used in most subsequent releases. In addition, the scrolling clouds return in most appearances of Green Hill Zone.
- Rui Sousa holds the high score for Sonic the Hedgehog: 1,559,180. He achieved this on 21 March 2015.
- There was a sound test that was originally supposed to be in this game but was scrapped. But one character in this sound test appeared in future games (Vector the Crocodile) while the others appear in Archie Comics as part of Mina Mongoose's band.
- A variant of this game's Special Stage also appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I.
- There were only six Chaos Emeralds in this game. A seventh emerald was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The Taxman remake adds a seventh emerald, making Super Forms possible.
- In each version of the game's box art, Sonic is making the same pose, albeit drawn by different artists (Greg Martin in the US and Canada, Naoto Ohshima in Japan, Australia, and Europe).
- Out of the classic Sonic games, this is the only game whose final boss doesn't take place in space.
- Masato Nakamura said in an interview that when he was composing the music for this game, he thought of the game as a film to compose the music as he only received the concept art of the game.
- This is one of the games to be represented in Sonic Generations. Green Hill reappears as the first stage of the Classic Era in both the home and portable versions.
- Speaking of Green Hill, it is one of the most frequently seen zones in the Sonic series (Sonic Generations aside), appearing as a bonus stage for getting 180 emblems in Sonic Adventure 2, as well as appearing in Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces.
- This game's title screen music would later be remixed and used as the theme for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Generations.
- According to the developers, the game was intended to have more zones with two acts each but they didn't have the time to create the graphics necessary for any new zones. They got their wish in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, as in each game the zones have 2 acts.
- Also, the opening and ending of this game's ending theme were remixed and used for the opening and ending theme for Sonic Generations.
- Strangely, the PlayStation Network port of the game was rated E10+ by the ESRB. However, that has been changed to an E rating in 2013.
- In the G4 special Top 100 Video Games of All Time, the game was ranked at #50.
- The game was meant to move at an even faster pace, but that idea was cut from the final version, as programmer Yuji Naka got motion sickness from it.
- The game was listed in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. In addition, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Adventure were also listed.
- This is one of the few Sonic games that when it crashes, has something debug-related happen. In this game's case, sometimes when a crash happens, an error code comes on the screen.
- Before Sonic came into existence, Sega wanted to create a new mascot to rival Mario. Initially, Alex Kidd was intended to be the official mascot yet he was deemed too similar to Mario. Some choices included a chicken, a porcupine, a wolf, a bulldog, and even a human man. Since the game revolved around speed, Sega wanted fast creatures. One of the designs consisted of a rabbit that could grasp objects with its ears. The rabbit eventually evolved into Ristar.
- Sonic's design in the game was inspired by an imaginary mixture of Mickey Mouse's head and Felix the Cat's body.
- Sonic's tentative name was Mr. Hedgehog (often literally translated as Mr. Needlemouse) but was renamed to Sonic as he represented speed.
- Some ideas wanted to flesh out Sonic's character including being a member of a rock band, having cat-like fangs, or giving him a human girlfriend named Madonna. None of these concepts survived past the cutting room floor.
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