Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega Genesis, Sonic Team, 1991

I don't remember what came first--the advertisement, or the experience. I'm pretty sure it was the commercial.

Sonic looked so awesome, so fast it was unbelievable. At the same time, I chafed at the derogatory comments toward Mario...I mean, I like Mario. Who doesn't like Mario? In 1991, the jumping plumber still rode high on Super Mario Bros. 3, released just a year before. However, my cousins who always got the newest thing, including the Sega Master System in the late 80's, got a Genesis and Sonic. Their house not only had all the coolest stuff, but was far less restricted than my home--I was already going there to watch Baywatch everyday, anyway. Why not try out Sonic while I was there?

What's the worst that could happen?

In just 30 seconds of play time, the game blew my mind. Sonic WAS so fast. So fast he could run upside-down. Way faster than Mario, even if the experience wasn't quite as well-refined. It was an entirely new experience! But 27(!) years later, does the experience still hold true?

Spoiler: The answer is the same as the one to, "does Sonic like to act out Lionel Richie songs?"

Honestly, it feels the same.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2D platforming game, where the player runs the blue critter through loops and jumps him over spikes and pits. Sonic can also roll into a more resilient ball form if the players presses down on the control pad. Like Mario, Sonic collects 100 of a particular item to get an extra life. Unlike Mario, this item, in Sonic 's case, golden rings, acts effectively as a life preserver. Get hit and the rings all bounce away from sonic like loose change, but if Sonic can grab more, he is once again safe from death when he is hit again. Run out of rings and get hit, or fall into a pit, and Sonic's life is over.
The game's sense of speed is still excellent, with Sonic blazing through levels. The sense of discovery, and the way the game's designers laid out multiple paths through each level makes for an insanely replayable game. The insane difficultly level, trademark of early Genesis games, also increases replayability, as it will take many, many playthroughs for most gamers to make it to the end.

Get ready to become intimately familiar with this screen. Not...in a dirty way...unless that's your thing, I guess.

It must be said, when there's a lot going on, the Genesis can't quite handle it, and the framerate slows down to a stutter for moments. This is one of many ways the first Sonic is also a little rougher around the edges than its descendents (the Sonic's 2, 3, and 4). Another way is the gameplay, itself. There are times it feels like the developers are punishing the player for going fast--an unseen spike will suddenly shoot from the ground, or a hidden enemy will dart in from behind and take out Sonic--Sonic the Hedgehog features cheap hits galore. There are also times the controls and level-designs clash just a little bit--for instance, Sonic might lose momentum on a hill, and can only get over it with great difficulty and maximum player effort.

Obviously, Dr. Robotnik programmed those parts of the game...or as we liked to call him in 1991, "Dr. Robuttnik." The 90's were so edgy.

The game's graphics are bright and iconic, with memorable level backgrounds and villain design. Sonic can jump on the game's bad guys to destroy them (as long as he is rolled up in a ball), and every time he does, he frees a forest animal from its mechanical innards.
The game's plot, which I remember being explained in an issue of Disney Adventures, is that Sonic and a scientist, Dr. Robotnik, were best buddies, until a failed experiment made Sonic blue and fast, and Robotnik evil. The wicked Doctor then enslaves the game's animals into the aforementioned dastardly robots, and it's up to Sonic to set the little creatures free.
While the game's plot is only implied within, its music is explicitly awesome. The Sega Genesis' soundchip may not have been as powerful as the one of its arch-nemesis, the Super Nintendo, but it created some unique, bass-heavy, metallic tones, and Sonic the Hedgehog utilizes it for a fast-paced, funky 16-bit earbath. Earbath sounds gross. I screwed that description up. Let's just say, the soundtrack is bouncy in the best way, and catchy enough that I am humming along replaying it so many years later. It's a crime that Masato Nakamura doesn't have a few dozen more video game soundtracks to his name.

I still remember this particular image from the commercial more than anything else from the game...which is ironic, as I often didn't make it this far in 1991, and was never able to acquire this extra life.

Sonic the Hedgehog is exactly as I remember it. Very fun, very difficult, and a bit frustrating. The graphics, while more simple than future installments, are visually pleasing, and the music is excellent. I must admit, this game does provoke some negative feelings for me, simply because it reminds me of a time in life, namely early junior high, when I had the realization that I wanted agency, but had none. In more human terms, I was ready to watch R-rated movies and drive a car, but I wasn't old enough to do those things. That carried over a bit into video games, as I started to feel like they could be more forgiving, while still occupying a lot of the player's time. Perhaps due to the put-in-another-quarter influence of arcades, or maybe just because games had to be ridiculously hard so that players couldn't beat their ten short levels in 20 minutes, games from the 80's and early 90's were so frustratingly difficult, and often for reasons that felt cheap. Play for an hour, make it to the final boss, die, start all over. A lot of times, it felt like a wasted hour. With better technology, games no longer had to be that way, and the first Sonic game comes on the cusp of this, meaning it could be just a bit better, and just a bit longer, while also being just a bit less difficult. That task would be accomplished by future games in the series.
Or in this one, you can just press up, down, left, right, then hold "A" and press start at the main menu...but you didn't hear that from me.

Graphics: 8.0/10.0
Sound: 8.0/10.0
Gameplay: 8.5/10.0
Lasting Value: 8.5/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 8.5/10.0