Sonic Memories: Part I

[doggiedynasty]

[ SONIC MEMORIES ]

Ta-Da! My instruction booklets of Sonic 1 and Tales Adventures. Real ones!

Tales Adventures was for Gamegear. Little guy knew how to build stuff. ;)

Time for some music!

Okay, my good memories of Sonic the Hedgehog. I'll take my time and span my thoughts through different entries.

Let's start at the beginning with the first game, Sonic the Hedgehog or simply Sonic 1 for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive.

I put in the cartridge, turned on the console, then BOOM! Sonic appeared on the screen in pretty 16-bit color waving his finger. When you press start, "GREEN HILL ZONE! 1" slides across the screen and then you were off, running for a couple of seconds, jumping to catch rings, and across the fish-infested bridge. Back then, I don't think there was such a fast-paced game.

The Sonic 1 game came with my Genesis when it was first purchased. I can't remember what pulled me in, I must've watched footage of the game in a store. All I know is that after I started playing the first game, both Sonic the Hedeghog and Sega would become icons within my "game life" for years.

Sonic 1 has very simplistic gameplay. You had the start button, D-pad, and three jump buttons. All you had to do was move, pause, and jump. A strength of Sonic 1 was the flow of the speed on a 2-D stage, the game giving you this loose freedom of running so quickly across loops and inclines and the camera following you perfectly. Something was great about that. Another strength IS THE MUSIC of the game, and I don't think music from the Sonic games has waned. Sure, I'm not that big of a rock or pop fan for the comtemporay music of today's Sonic games but some are still entertaining.

Hardest Level was probably Labyrinth Zone, ugh. Or maybe Scrap Brain Zone, which is the last level. Labyrinth had a terrible boss too. I know when I last played Sonic 1 (couple years ago?), these stages gave me the most trouble.

In my opinion, the bad things about Sonic 1:

~ This goes for Sonic series in whole: Drowning and the DROWNING music. Also, water makes you sluggish.
~ Special stages for Chaos Emeralds. You're in a rotating confinement that changes speed. It can give you nausea and it's tough to navigate.
~ Labyrinth Zone's boss
~ Collecting 50 rings in later levels (to get to special stage).
~ Spike pits.
~ Prone to falling in Starlight Zone and Scrap Brain zone

I think I only beat Sonic 1 two or three times with all of the Chaos Emerals.

I'm also very lenient when fighting the last boss.