This review will be more of a simple take on a classic franchise and its beginning. Not going to lie when I was first introduced to this game it was through a plug and play device with the first and second games, a spin off pinball game and a knock off puyo puyo game. I enjoyed the games and introduced me into the world of the blue hedgehog. I haven’t played the original genesis version until ten years later (2017) and gosh it was beautiful. This is Sonic The Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis review.

Story: 8

An evil genius, Dr. Robotnik wants to capture all the chaos emeralds to use its powers for his nefarious purposes while taking animals as hostages or robot minions. It’s up to a spunky blue hedgehog named Sonic to save the animals inhabiting the island and ruin Dr. Robotnik’s plans to use the chaos emeralds.

The story is pretty straightforward and simple to say the least. Nothing too spectacular but motivating to get through the game knowing that it’s up to you to stop the Doctor. Nothing else, a solid 8

Graphics: 9

For a Sega genesis game in 1991 it looked so beautiful and the graphics are really good. The speed and fluidity of the game is amazing and it does show the power of the Sega genesis. The details of the game are amazing when it came out of 1991 and started off the battle between Sega and Genesis in the console wars. Sega does what Nintendon’t.

Sound: 8

The music is pretty good. From the upbeat music of Green Hill zone to the more slow tempo music of marble zone. Starry night in starlight zone and the boss music really helps the game a lot with its attitude and gameplay. One of my favorite song in the game is actually Labyrinth zone and have that as a ringtone actually. That shows how great the music is for me despite the limitations Sega genesis has with its audio and fm. A solid 8

Depth: 7

The game somewhat lacks depth to be fair. I mean yes it has you collecting emeralds to stop robotnik from using the powers, but it’s not much of a necessity since you don’t get a reward for obtaining all the emeralds other than a different end scene… kinda lame. The stages are different yes, each with its own quirks but most are just drawn out long like marble zone or labyrinth zone… the farther you go into the stages, you will realize how much this game lacks.. did I mention that lack of enemies is a negative? Well a 7 is fair.


Addictive: 8

The game is pretty good itself and has some replay ability. It’s more so on its trial and error that helps the longevity of the game and see how fast you can clear the zones to where speed run can be a factor to beat the game. Obtaining the emeralds can help with the replay value if you miss a few but stated earlier, it’s not much of a necessity. An 8 to be generous.

Difficulty: 7

The game isn’t difficult to a point. First few zones it’s easy but what I mentioned earlier, the stages tend to get drawn out a bit. The stages aren’t hard at defeating enemies, especially the later zones when there seems to be a lack of enemies at times and you’re just avoiding obstacles and traps. The hardest part of the game is really getting all the chaos emeralds with the special stages but again, there’s barely a reward getting them on the first sonic game. What’s the point? You can easily ditch all that. Removing the emeralds I would say labyrinth zone is the hardest not because of the enemies or obstacles… it’s because of the water and how long it takes. If you don’t drown, you can easily lose time if you don’t know where to go. Other than those nitpicking interests, game is fairly easy.

Overall this is a great introduction for the series but the developers really had to add more content to the game since it goes from going fast to slowing down to avoid traps and “where’s the enemies” I love the game, I do it’s pretty good to play at time but what they lack on the game they fixed on later sequels which are huge improvements for obvious reasons. For this my review rating is

My rating: 8/10

Review: 8/10

This was the game that started it all for the Sonic Franchise. I remember this game came with the Sega Genesis I got back in the day. I enjoyed this game as it was something new besides Mario and my favorite Mega Man.

The music and the stages are good in this game. I found this game to be very difficult. I died so many times in this game. Then again, I have never been good at Sonic games.