Danny
06-02-2015, 12:33 PM
http://habbox.com/assets/images//2015/01/19/3e7013b9de0a0ef019c6d8350ee13f30.png
So having finished the first generation of Pokemon, I thought I would take a break from Pokemon,
and move on to the first game I can ever remember playing, Sonic The Hedgehog!
http://199.101.98.242/media/shots/39154-Sonic_the_Hedgehog_%28USA,_Europe%29-1.jpg
So as I said, this was probably the first game I actually played and it would pave the way for me into becoming an avid gamer. I will be honest, I wasn't even aware of Mario before I played Sonic. It held my interest, I loved the themes and the level layouts. Sonic ultimately became my hero when I was probably like 4 or 5 years old. So, without further ado, let's begin.
In 1990, Sega wasn't as big as it was in it's heyday and was continuiously over-shadowed by the rival company Nintendo who had their extremely successful mascot in Mario. Nintendo dominated the games industry, although Sega did have many successful arcade games, such as Altered Beast and Golden Axe, along with the Sega mascot of the time, Alex Kidd, it would not be enough to challenge Nintendo it terms of sales.
So Sega ordered it's in house team, AM8, to create a game featuring a new mascot to rival Nintendo's Mario. The team set to work. Yuji Naka who was the head of this team (eventually named Sonic Team) came up with a prototype of a platforming game, with a fast moving character rolling in a ball through tubes. Since the character had to be fast moving, all slow animals were immediately eliminated. They then came up with one idea of a rabbit with prehensile ears but this was too complex for programming back in the 1990's. (Oh, how far gaming has come!)
They also narrowed it down to animals that could roll into a ball, which was the idea the team had for an attacking move but this wasn't aggressive enough, so they narrowed it down even further to armadillos and hedgehogs. In he end, the hedgehog was the successful candidate for the mascot, but the designs of the armadillo would pave the way for an additional character for a later game, Mighty The Armadillo, who featured, to date, in just two games. Previously to this, the mascot idea was a Theodore Roosevelt knock off, who would actually later become the evil Dr Ivo Robotnik!
But back to Sonic. Sonic was originally a lighter blue colour, but then changed to dark blue so as to stand out from the background. He was given the ability to spin whilst jumping, so attacking and jumping would be just one button. Originally, His shoes were inspired by Michael Jackson and Santa Clause, hence the shape and colour. His design finally chosen, the next step would be to name the mascot. Originally Sonic was known as... Mr Needlemouse? Not quite sure that would of been a catchy name and neither did the team, so instead he was named, Sonic The Hedgehog!
So, getting into the game now. Sonic is a traditional 2D platformer with 6 different levels each with 3 acts, which including the final stage of the game is a total of 19 acts to complete. As mentioned, what makes this game different to other games in it's era was the speed aspect of Sonic so you could blast through the game. But ofcourse, there would be obstacles preventing you from doing this in the form of Badniks, robots built by the evil Robotnik who captured animals ranging from birds to rabbits inside. Unless Sonic collected rings, he was vulnerable as one hit by a projectile from one of these bots or a mistimed jump could cost Sonic a life. Rings are important, they give you protection from death and there are many scattered around each level. Collecting 100 rings granted Sonic an extra life. As well as Badniks, there was also spikes sticking out of the ground or ceiling which would result the same way as being hit by a Badnik. Just a quick note, once hit Sonic had a limited invincibility frame when hit by a Badnik so it gave a few moments of protection, but say you landed on some spikes and fell back into more spikes, that was an instant death, due to some bug as far as I remember. Sometimes there will be sections in the game with bottomless parts, so fall down there and you can be sure you're going to die and there is the possibility to be squashed. One of Sonic's greatest enemies is water! One of the developers somehow came up with the mistaken idea that hedgehogs couldn't swim, so in trying to keep in with realism, Sonic would drown under water after a period of time, with a dreaded 5 second theme starting up which a lot of people would start to panic to.
To help Sonic out, there was also monitors scattered around each level, a 1-up with Sonic's head which gave you an extra life, a ring monitor that gave you 10 rings, a speed shoe monitor that gave you extra speed for a limited period of time, a bubble monitor that protects you for one attack, apart from bottomless pits or being squashed and an invincibility shield which I used to call stars because that's kinda what it looks like.
The zones themselves are pretty decent, my favourite being the first, Green Hill Zone. I love the theme to this zone, it's very upbeat and I guess you could say I hold a lot of nostalgia. The game play in this level is to get you used to the speed of the game, using physics in this zone you could blast through this zone pretty quickly, i've known the first act to be done in like 24 seconds, not sure if it's less but it is possible! The colour theme in the zone is awesome aswell. There's alot of loops that you can spin through quickly if you use the physics correctly, there was no Spin Dash in this game so you had to build up speed then roll (press down) whilst going downhill which would build up momentum. At the end of Act Three there is a boss battle with Robotnik, this time he has brown wrecking ball attatched to his hovercraft, avoid the wrecking ball and hit Robotnik's hovercraft 8 times to advance to the next act.
Then you get to Marble Arch Zone, which having just played Green Hill and learning the speed of the game, instantly kills that speed. This zone is designed to slow you down and understand that even though Sonic's gimmick is speed, this is still a platforming game and you can't always rely on your strengths. It can get pretty dull as the gimmick of this level is lava, which you will need to avoid touching. Also there are alot of falling obstacles in this zone, which is the real reason this zone is so slow. The music is not too bad in this zone but it's one of my least favourites in all.
Act Three, Robotnik is back, this time with a lava shooter at the bottom of his hovercraft, that drops down lava onto one of the two platforms that again you will need to avoid, but also have to hit Robotnik 8 times once more.
Spring Yard Zone is a bit of a mix between the first two zones in terms of speed, some parts allow you to move through pretty fast, then there will be parts which will be slow. The colour theme of this one has a lot of purple, and obvious due to the name of the zone, there are a lot of springs which I haven't yet mentioned. Springs can prove to be an advantage and disadvantage, it gives you extra speed and height depending on direction, but the springs can also send you off into the wrong direction or even into spikes or Badniks so ensure you're aware of what's around you when using them. Music in Spring Yard is probably my second favourite in the game.
Act Three and here comes Robotnik, this time with a spike underneath his hovercraft. He will attempt to get you with the spike, so the block you stand on he will drop down on, when you avoid this you have you chance to hit him, but be careful where you are jumping because the last block you were stood on will be destroyed by the spike and will expose a bottomless pit.
Ah, Labyrinth Zone, apparently, according to some one of the most annoying levels in Sonic history. I never found it that bad, but this is the zone we find out that Sonic can't swim and can also drown. The music in this is really cheery so is my third favourite in the game. Throughout the level you will mainly be under water, but there will be air bubbles placed around the level, my advice is, if you see the pockets of bubbles, wait until a big bubble appears and take in some air, ensuring you won't drown. The water also slows you down which makes this one of the slowest levels in the game, but try to enjoy it, it's not that bad really!
Starlight Zone, here we will regain the speed that we first encountered in Green Hill Zone. Many believe this is what the entire game should of been, but I understand Sega didn't want to overuse the gimmick of speed. The music is fairly decent here, but this is the least memorable level for me.
Scrap Brain Zone, seems to me to be filled with an awful lot of Badniks. Pretty much hate this level really and the music is really all that for me either. At the end of this zone you immediately get taken to the Final Zone. You will find that you have no rings in this level so you are going to need to be careful. You can be squashed by one of the four machines Robotnik has built. You need to hit Robotnik 8 times again. Also, purple projectiles are fired out at once, avoid them at all costs.
One thing I haven't mentioned as of yet, at the end of each act without a boss, if you have 50 rings by the time you get to the end, you can jump into a giant ring which takes you to a special stage. This can be a major headache as the background is a bit odd with birds and fish alternating, something that is often described as the developers being on some kind of acid trip. The aim of the special stage is to AVOID the red circle things that says goal on them. No this is not your goal, don't go to them! The map rotates which makes this awkward aswell as there being obstacles that deflects you away from them. Eventually when you find yourself a safe route to go, you will come across a chaos emerald which you need to collect 6 of in this game. You don't get anything from doing this other than the good ending but it's fun to get them anyways. If you collect a certain amount of rings in this game you will receive a continue.
Continues are there to help you carry on with the game if you lose all the lives that you had in the play through because back in those days there was no save feature. Each continue you have, gives you an extra three lives to carry on with the game.
As said before, this was the very first game I can remember playing and it was always one that I enjoyed playing, I could play it over and over and not get sick of it when I was younger. This game pretty much kick stirred the gamer inside me. I love re-visiting this game every now and then but for some reason in games like this, I am never as good as I once was back in the day. Although now, I not longer get panicked when the drowning theme kicks in.
The success of this game surpassed even Sega's expectations. It succeeded commercially and critically. They found themselves with an awesome mascot that even to this day in an era with no Sega console, it continues to make it's way into kids hearts, with the help of various digital releases of the original Sonic game. Plus new games are released most years but to the people who followed Sonic from day one, no other game in the series compares to the ones released on the Sega consoles. There was so much Sonic merchandise made in various different countries including the ever popular soft toys and still can more often than not be seen on kids pajamas.
So having looked at the first Sonic game and it's success, I will undoubtably continue on to the second Sonic game in the near future.
Thanks for reading!
So having finished the first generation of Pokemon, I thought I would take a break from Pokemon,
and move on to the first game I can ever remember playing, Sonic The Hedgehog!
http://199.101.98.242/media/shots/39154-Sonic_the_Hedgehog_%28USA,_Europe%29-1.jpg
So as I said, this was probably the first game I actually played and it would pave the way for me into becoming an avid gamer. I will be honest, I wasn't even aware of Mario before I played Sonic. It held my interest, I loved the themes and the level layouts. Sonic ultimately became my hero when I was probably like 4 or 5 years old. So, without further ado, let's begin.
In 1990, Sega wasn't as big as it was in it's heyday and was continuiously over-shadowed by the rival company Nintendo who had their extremely successful mascot in Mario. Nintendo dominated the games industry, although Sega did have many successful arcade games, such as Altered Beast and Golden Axe, along with the Sega mascot of the time, Alex Kidd, it would not be enough to challenge Nintendo it terms of sales.
So Sega ordered it's in house team, AM8, to create a game featuring a new mascot to rival Nintendo's Mario. The team set to work. Yuji Naka who was the head of this team (eventually named Sonic Team) came up with a prototype of a platforming game, with a fast moving character rolling in a ball through tubes. Since the character had to be fast moving, all slow animals were immediately eliminated. They then came up with one idea of a rabbit with prehensile ears but this was too complex for programming back in the 1990's. (Oh, how far gaming has come!)
They also narrowed it down to animals that could roll into a ball, which was the idea the team had for an attacking move but this wasn't aggressive enough, so they narrowed it down even further to armadillos and hedgehogs. In he end, the hedgehog was the successful candidate for the mascot, but the designs of the armadillo would pave the way for an additional character for a later game, Mighty The Armadillo, who featured, to date, in just two games. Previously to this, the mascot idea was a Theodore Roosevelt knock off, who would actually later become the evil Dr Ivo Robotnik!
But back to Sonic. Sonic was originally a lighter blue colour, but then changed to dark blue so as to stand out from the background. He was given the ability to spin whilst jumping, so attacking and jumping would be just one button. Originally, His shoes were inspired by Michael Jackson and Santa Clause, hence the shape and colour. His design finally chosen, the next step would be to name the mascot. Originally Sonic was known as... Mr Needlemouse? Not quite sure that would of been a catchy name and neither did the team, so instead he was named, Sonic The Hedgehog!
So, getting into the game now. Sonic is a traditional 2D platformer with 6 different levels each with 3 acts, which including the final stage of the game is a total of 19 acts to complete. As mentioned, what makes this game different to other games in it's era was the speed aspect of Sonic so you could blast through the game. But ofcourse, there would be obstacles preventing you from doing this in the form of Badniks, robots built by the evil Robotnik who captured animals ranging from birds to rabbits inside. Unless Sonic collected rings, he was vulnerable as one hit by a projectile from one of these bots or a mistimed jump could cost Sonic a life. Rings are important, they give you protection from death and there are many scattered around each level. Collecting 100 rings granted Sonic an extra life. As well as Badniks, there was also spikes sticking out of the ground or ceiling which would result the same way as being hit by a Badnik. Just a quick note, once hit Sonic had a limited invincibility frame when hit by a Badnik so it gave a few moments of protection, but say you landed on some spikes and fell back into more spikes, that was an instant death, due to some bug as far as I remember. Sometimes there will be sections in the game with bottomless parts, so fall down there and you can be sure you're going to die and there is the possibility to be squashed. One of Sonic's greatest enemies is water! One of the developers somehow came up with the mistaken idea that hedgehogs couldn't swim, so in trying to keep in with realism, Sonic would drown under water after a period of time, with a dreaded 5 second theme starting up which a lot of people would start to panic to.
To help Sonic out, there was also monitors scattered around each level, a 1-up with Sonic's head which gave you an extra life, a ring monitor that gave you 10 rings, a speed shoe monitor that gave you extra speed for a limited period of time, a bubble monitor that protects you for one attack, apart from bottomless pits or being squashed and an invincibility shield which I used to call stars because that's kinda what it looks like.
The zones themselves are pretty decent, my favourite being the first, Green Hill Zone. I love the theme to this zone, it's very upbeat and I guess you could say I hold a lot of nostalgia. The game play in this level is to get you used to the speed of the game, using physics in this zone you could blast through this zone pretty quickly, i've known the first act to be done in like 24 seconds, not sure if it's less but it is possible! The colour theme in the zone is awesome aswell. There's alot of loops that you can spin through quickly if you use the physics correctly, there was no Spin Dash in this game so you had to build up speed then roll (press down) whilst going downhill which would build up momentum. At the end of Act Three there is a boss battle with Robotnik, this time he has brown wrecking ball attatched to his hovercraft, avoid the wrecking ball and hit Robotnik's hovercraft 8 times to advance to the next act.
Then you get to Marble Arch Zone, which having just played Green Hill and learning the speed of the game, instantly kills that speed. This zone is designed to slow you down and understand that even though Sonic's gimmick is speed, this is still a platforming game and you can't always rely on your strengths. It can get pretty dull as the gimmick of this level is lava, which you will need to avoid touching. Also there are alot of falling obstacles in this zone, which is the real reason this zone is so slow. The music is not too bad in this zone but it's one of my least favourites in all.
Act Three, Robotnik is back, this time with a lava shooter at the bottom of his hovercraft, that drops down lava onto one of the two platforms that again you will need to avoid, but also have to hit Robotnik 8 times once more.
Spring Yard Zone is a bit of a mix between the first two zones in terms of speed, some parts allow you to move through pretty fast, then there will be parts which will be slow. The colour theme of this one has a lot of purple, and obvious due to the name of the zone, there are a lot of springs which I haven't yet mentioned. Springs can prove to be an advantage and disadvantage, it gives you extra speed and height depending on direction, but the springs can also send you off into the wrong direction or even into spikes or Badniks so ensure you're aware of what's around you when using them. Music in Spring Yard is probably my second favourite in the game.
Act Three and here comes Robotnik, this time with a spike underneath his hovercraft. He will attempt to get you with the spike, so the block you stand on he will drop down on, when you avoid this you have you chance to hit him, but be careful where you are jumping because the last block you were stood on will be destroyed by the spike and will expose a bottomless pit.
Ah, Labyrinth Zone, apparently, according to some one of the most annoying levels in Sonic history. I never found it that bad, but this is the zone we find out that Sonic can't swim and can also drown. The music in this is really cheery so is my third favourite in the game. Throughout the level you will mainly be under water, but there will be air bubbles placed around the level, my advice is, if you see the pockets of bubbles, wait until a big bubble appears and take in some air, ensuring you won't drown. The water also slows you down which makes this one of the slowest levels in the game, but try to enjoy it, it's not that bad really!
Starlight Zone, here we will regain the speed that we first encountered in Green Hill Zone. Many believe this is what the entire game should of been, but I understand Sega didn't want to overuse the gimmick of speed. The music is fairly decent here, but this is the least memorable level for me.
Scrap Brain Zone, seems to me to be filled with an awful lot of Badniks. Pretty much hate this level really and the music is really all that for me either. At the end of this zone you immediately get taken to the Final Zone. You will find that you have no rings in this level so you are going to need to be careful. You can be squashed by one of the four machines Robotnik has built. You need to hit Robotnik 8 times again. Also, purple projectiles are fired out at once, avoid them at all costs.
One thing I haven't mentioned as of yet, at the end of each act without a boss, if you have 50 rings by the time you get to the end, you can jump into a giant ring which takes you to a special stage. This can be a major headache as the background is a bit odd with birds and fish alternating, something that is often described as the developers being on some kind of acid trip. The aim of the special stage is to AVOID the red circle things that says goal on them. No this is not your goal, don't go to them! The map rotates which makes this awkward aswell as there being obstacles that deflects you away from them. Eventually when you find yourself a safe route to go, you will come across a chaos emerald which you need to collect 6 of in this game. You don't get anything from doing this other than the good ending but it's fun to get them anyways. If you collect a certain amount of rings in this game you will receive a continue.
Continues are there to help you carry on with the game if you lose all the lives that you had in the play through because back in those days there was no save feature. Each continue you have, gives you an extra three lives to carry on with the game.
As said before, this was the very first game I can remember playing and it was always one that I enjoyed playing, I could play it over and over and not get sick of it when I was younger. This game pretty much kick stirred the gamer inside me. I love re-visiting this game every now and then but for some reason in games like this, I am never as good as I once was back in the day. Although now, I not longer get panicked when the drowning theme kicks in.
The success of this game surpassed even Sega's expectations. It succeeded commercially and critically. They found themselves with an awesome mascot that even to this day in an era with no Sega console, it continues to make it's way into kids hearts, with the help of various digital releases of the original Sonic game. Plus new games are released most years but to the people who followed Sonic from day one, no other game in the series compares to the ones released on the Sega consoles. There was so much Sonic merchandise made in various different countries including the ever popular soft toys and still can more often than not be seen on kids pajamas.
So having looked at the first Sonic game and it's success, I will undoubtably continue on to the second Sonic game in the near future.
Thanks for reading!