Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

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

 * 1) The game started off SEGA's most successful mascot of all time after Alex Kidd was discontinued and spawned a lot of other great Sonic games in existence. In fact, 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, Sonic was at one point the rival of Mario in the 90s due to the console wars.
 * 2) This game introduced Sonic and Dr.Eggman/Ivo Robotnik, the former being the hero and the latter being the villain, each one working very well for each other.Despite having not much depth in this game as the series progressed we got to know both of their personalities.
 * 3) Great soundtrack composed by Masato Nakamura, best known as a former member of the J-pop band Dreams Come True.
 * 4) The gameplay is quite 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 speedruns and even in general.
 * 5) Simple controls. All you need is to move and jump, and it nails the one-action button control scheme, unlike mh:crappygames:Balan Wonderworld, where the power-up costumes often take away your ability to jump.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) While flawed the zones are very unique,each one of them having their own theme and badniks combined with the good level design and multiple pathways.
 * 8) *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)
 * 9) While the only boss in the game is Dr. Eggman/Robotnik, the boss fights themselves are pretty clever, often inspired by the zones mechanics and different strategies, unlike his jump-savvy italian rival where the bosses with Bowser feel repetitive.
 * 10) There are two endings in the game, one being bad and one being good:
 * 11) *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/Robotnik will taunt you by juggling the chaos emeralds.
 * 12) *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/Robotnik will repeatedly stomp on the word 'End' in a fit of rage.
 * 13) The Special Stages have an unique concept where you have to avoid the GOAL spheres while dealing with bumpers and rotation spheres(they change the stage rotation direction when they are touched and some of them the speed) until you reach the room with the Chaos Emerald encased in colored diamonds which the player must touch them until they disappear and then you can collect one of them.
 * 14) *In order to access them,you have to collect 50 rings in Act 1 & 2 of each zone (except Scrap Brain Zone) and at the goal posts you have to jump into giant rings.There are 6 special stages which means you don't have to do that in every zone.
 * 15) The iOS and Android ports from 2013 have additional content such as:
 * 16) *The ability to play as Tails and Knuckles,(albeit you have to unlock them in order to play with them) and the spin dash for Sonic.
 * 17) *Slightly improved soundtrack (Marble Zone being a good example).
 * 18) *Expanded Debug Mode which includes elements from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles like the Elemental Shields and Super Sonic.
 * 19) *A new Time Attack mode and the save feature have been added.
 * 20) *Thanks to Google Play Games there are achievements which can make the game more challenging.
 * 21) In 2022, it will be re-released as part of the Sonic Origins compilations for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. It will also be available for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) 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 Genesis Nomad whose battery life only lasts about three-four hours. This was corrected in the later ports.
 * 2) The GBA version is infamous for it's extremely poor optimization, because it was made in only one month.
 * 3) Speaking of which, the infamous PAL release of the game runs at the speed lower by 17.5% than the NTSC ones for whatever reason, which conflicts with the fast-paced nature of the game. This affects not only the gameplay, but the music as well, which sounds slower in the PAL release. Fortunately, the music was optimised in PAL releases of the later games.
 * 4) Because Sonic's control and physics are built around constant flowing movement, sections that require slower, precise platforming becomes sluggish and slippery (a perfect example being Scrap Brain Zone).
 * 5) * 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.
 * 6) *The special stages while fun, they can be frustrating because of the bumpers and precise jumping.
 * 7) *While the Final Zone is decent, you have to play perfectly to defeat Robotnik since you will have 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. Robotnik 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 Robotnik 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. This revision 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 select. 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) while the others appear in the 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.Thankfully the game's 2013 re-release adds a seventh emerald, making Super Forms possible.
 * In each version of the game's box art, Sonic is making the same pose.
 * Out of the main series classic Sonic games (aside from Sonic Mania), this is the only game whose final boss doesn't take place in space.
 * Masato Nakamura did say in an interview that when he was composing the music for this game, he thought the game as a film to compose the music.
 * 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 mh:crappygames:Sonic Forces.
 * This game's theme 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.Thankfully in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles 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 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, it has something debug-related happen. In this game's case, sometimes when a crash happens, an error code comes on the screen.
 * The title icon for this game, and several corresponding games, resembles the logo for the restaurant chain Steak 'n Shake.
 * Before Sonic came to existence, Sega wanted to create a new mascot to rival Mario. Sure, Alex Kidd was intended to be the official mascot yet he was deemed too similar to Mario. Some choices include a chicken, a porcupine, a wolf, a bulldog and even a human. Since the game revolves around speed, Sega wanted fast creatures like kangaroos or squirrels. One of the designs consisted of a bunny who can use grasp objects with its ears yet it felt too complex for the Genesis hardware.
 * Sonic's design in the game was inspired by an imaginary mixture of Mickey's head and Felix the Cat's body.
 * Sonic was originally going to be named Mr. Hedgehog but was renamed to Sonic as it represented speed.
 * There were ideas that 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. They were scrapped because Sonic was meant to be simpler than that.

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