One busy month and cross country move later and I am back, writing to you from oceanside Massachusetts. Today I’m sharing something I wrote in 2020, but never published. Don’t worry, I am working on something new for May’s post. For now, sit back, relax, and enjoy a short retrospective on Sonic the Hedgehog.
1991 the year before my birth, the USSR is dissolved, Jim Henson dies, and Sonic the Hedgehog hits stores in the U.S. Some time in the later in the 90s (I’m fuzzy on the year), I’m introduced to Sonic for the first time through Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Now that I’m in 2020 reflecting on my fond memories of less COVID-19 filled times, one thing that doesn’t feel right is the fact I never played the original Sonic the Hedgehog. I wanted to see where Sonic started.
I put my mind back into the space of 1991, trying to pretend that the flashiest, hottest games I’ve seen up to this point have been coming from Nintendo, mainly Mario games. Immediately Sonic is a blast of color and sound. Compared to the relative sober color palette and design of Super Mario Bros, Sonic is rainbow ride to super speed. Music is much punchier as well, with a “dance like no one is watching” attitude.
After getting over the initial impression of wonderful color and sound I hit right on that D-pad. Sonic built speed slowly, but once he got going he was FAST. If, when sprinting, I pressed the down button sonic tucked himself into a ball and with the sound of a jet engine spun up to become a blue blur, smashing anything in his path.
One thing that did take me aback having played Sonic 3 first, no spin dash. In Sonic 3 any time I’d loose moment I could press down and (button) rapidly, causing the titular blue hedgehog to tuck into a ball and build up a charge. When releasing the down button Sonic would blast off. This feature is missing from Sonic the Hedgehog, and for the first few levels I was struggling. I remember blasting through some of the zones in Sonic 3 at breakneck speed, but is that true memory or just nostalgia mixed with the current sensibility for what Sonic is support to be?
In Sonic the Hedgehog the pacing in a level is much more stop-and-go than what I remember from playing the third game in the series. It isn’t a breakneck sprint from the left to the right of the screen carefully trying to avoid enemies like some kind of high-speed hurdle. Instead Sonic the Hedgehog has a bit more of a relaxed pace, with some massive bursts of speed in between. That isn’t a criticism, as a slower pace means I have time to look around, find that hidden extra life, grab a shield, find some ring monitor, or even better, another (faster) path to completion. When Sonic isn’t moving a million miles an hour I realized how much depth there is to every level.
Each level in Sonic the Hedgehog seems to be built around a series of layered paths, one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. From my experience, the top route is the fastest, but the most difficult to traverse, the bottom route is the slower and safer offer, and the middle is the middle, a balance of speed and difficulty. What I love about this design is that without having any difficulty settings the game builds in a kind easy, intermediate, and route. Plus, there’s the thrill that you may start off at the top path, make one slip up, and end up in the middle or the bottom. Or you could fall to the bottom, then work you way up to the higher path. In a lot of ways the level design feels more free, more challenging, and containing more opportunity for surprise than some of the newer Sonic games which tend to feel on rails.
I blasted through Sonic the Hedgehog in 2 days, and I am by no means a professional, or even the most skilled amateur game player. Granted, that was with some modern niceties like save states, and a rewind feature in the emulator I was using (which I only remembered to use once, then promptly forgot about through the rest of my playthrough). If you’re just trying to get from the beginning to the end of Sonic the game isn’t all that hard. I’d even say it is easier than beating Super Mario Brothers. Where Sonic adds the challenge is gathering all the Chaos Emeralds. Now, this is something I’m familiar with from Sonic 3. Hidden in bonus levels are Chaos Emeralds, and collecting all of them nets “true” ending. Maybe one day I’ll go back for all of them, but for now I’m happy to say I got to the end of Sonic the Hedgehog, and I had a lot of fun, like I said before I can see why there was a bit of Sonic mania in the early 90s.
I may be late to the party but I’m a fan of the little blue hedgehog Sega designed as their Mario killer. The king certainly hasn’t been dethroned, but Sonic has something different, and special to offer. The quality of this first game is incredible, it’s presentation is colorful and excited without being obnoxious, and it offers a surprising amount of variety in challenge and play style. It doesn’t always hold up; you can’t save between levels, there’s a live system, and I’ve yet to find an emulator that won’t cause some occasional lag which can be deadly, but these are small things when taking the game as a whole. Even in 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog is still bursting with energy, excitement, and determination.