Heyo people of Vizzed I decided today I would give a review to a game I don't actually like :o Yes that's right SONIColmstead doesn't like Sonic The Hedgehog or well at least the original game! I didn't grow up with Sonic The Hedgehog 1 at all my first Sonic game was actually Sonic Unleashed or well the Sonic Unleashed PS3 demo but the first one I actually owned was Sonic Unleashed on PS2 and I remember thinking the 2D bits of the day time stages was easily the worst part. So light speed forward several years and I decided I should give the classics a chance so I originally played Sonic 1 through Sonic Mega Collection Plus on the PS2 and I didn't like it at all. I think over time my opinion of the game has gotten slightly better so let's get into the steam version of this game!

Graphics and Sound -

The graphics in this game are very colorful and nicely shows off the blast processing that the Sega Genesis is all too famous for. When it comes to music I would be lying if I tried to say Green Hill Zone is a bad song just like anyone else saying the stage isn't overused would be lying! To stay on the topic of music however, the themes all represent the zones they belong to quite well which I find impressive getting the music right on the first go but Sega made the right choice getting Masato Nakamura from Dreams Come True to make the soundtrack and it paid off well.

Story -

Eggman has been capturing poor animals like the flickies and been enslaving the animals to fuel his robots! Or something I never did really care for the simple stories with no cutscenes but future games do improve on this.


Gameplay and Level Design -

The gameplay in this game is extremely simple Sonic's moveset had a basic spin attack and he can roll into a ball to gain momentum going down hills and loop de loops. That's right no spindash this time around which is rather unfortunate because you don't have any way to pick up speed in a pinch. That said I am well aware that I'm being a bit of a revisionist (I think that's the word for it) complaining about there being no spindash when the spindash had yet to be invented. No Sonic 1 review would be complete if I left out rings that Sonic collects as a form of health as long as Sonic still has 1 ring he won't die to an enemy attack! Something worth noting is people often incorrectly refer to rings as coins but as you play the game you can clearly see there's a hole in the middle. The level design is my main fault with this game and the reason I'll never see the love of this game as a classic. I mean it starts out really well I think most of the level design is actually great in Green Hill Zone but the momentum and flow of the game is halted completely the moment the blue blur steps foot into Marble Zone. Once you reach Marble Zone Sega decides that you've had enough speed and fun and instead you now have to deal with slow moving blocks over lava and traps all over the place. Thankfully it does get a bit better once you reach Spring Yard where the game can almost seem fun again but beat that zone and what's next? Labyrinth Zone the most dreaded zone for any Sonic 1 player where you constantly are struggling to get to the next air bubble and trying not to get hit by spears that come out of the wall that you couldn't see coming! Keep in mind that this is a old game where lives are finite so die too many times and it's back to Green Hill Zone with you! So after you somehow survive Labyrinth Zone the next zone you face is Star Light Zone where the game picks up in fun again? I'm not sure what's with the zigzag in game quality but despite not being able to actually kill the enemies in this zone it's way more fun than Labyrinth Zone. I honestly don't think Scrap Brain Zone is that big of a dip in how fun the level design is until the 3rd act where the game just says "hey you liked Labyrinth Zone right?" So after you deal with the evil developer's last trick of bringing back the worst zone you reach the Final Zone where you have your final showdown with everyone's favorite egg shaped Dr.

Boss Design -

I don't really have much to say on the boss designs but they work for a first game none of them are too memorable but that's okay.

Special Stages -

Something I have neglected to mention up till this point is the 6 special stages hiding the 6 Chaos Emeralds which don't really do anything all that important in this game, to be honest so just think of them as nice little bonuses if you wanna go all the way! That said the Special stages themselves are really trippy with the screen spinning but if you keep at them you'll surely get through them.

Final Thoughts -

I still don't think Sonic The Hedgehog is a great or even good video game I think it's level design is too unfocused and all over the place to call it anything but okay.

I think sonic I was a decent game and a great way for Segat to introduce its main character to the video game industry. However, I do agree with some of things you have stated. The music is good. The bosses some of them are kind of meh at best.I agree the Green Hill zones have been overused.

The main issue I had when I played this game when it first came out was the controls. The controls seemed stiff to me. It was so easy to fall into a pit or the water.

On the other hand, I would expect a few problems with the first game of any series. Sega fixed these problems in later games.

Excellent review