I was 11 in 91. My older sister showed me Sonic 1 playing on her new 'Mega Drive' and the moment I saw it, my life changed. Seeing the blue dude moving so fast with alll that parralax and colour, I was hooked on video games for life after that.
Yep and that experience is hard to explain. I remember seeing him do a loop and my 9 year old brain broke, heck hearing the clear “SEGA” at the beginning made me want the game lol.
Sonic 1 (along with 2 and 3) is what kept Nintendo from being a monopoly, and showed that they CAN be challeged in their own game, opening the doors for other competitors that might not have had the courage otherwise.
It's always baffled me how home computers dominated gaming in the UK during the 8-bit era. Granted, most NES games are as approachable as a rabid grizzly bear, I couldn't imagine prefering to play something like Dizzy instead of Super Mario Bros or even Alex Kidd.
@@GoldenGrenadier In the UK, the NES launched with almost no killer apps. We did get "Super Mario Bros.", but almost every other game likely already existed on computers for much cheaper. It wasn't until the machine was bundled with the rubbish Ninja Turtles game in 1990 that it started selling well. It didn't last long, though, due to the game being quickly ported to many computers, with the ZX Spectrum version particularly being an improvement and a massive seller. Essentially, gaming in late '80s Britain looked like this: Micros = VHS Sega = Betamax Nintendo = Video 2000
Anyone who says Sonic 1 isn’t good hasn’t got a clue what they’re talking about. The whole ‘You’re not going fast so it’s bad’ argument is silly. When you’re on the slower stages it’s some of the best platforming ever made with very precise controls and intuitive gameplay. Even Labyrinth gets a bad rap. It’s slower but it’s really not that bad and it encourages you to make dashes between bubbles which really aren’t that far apart. I often get the feeling that people who criticise Sonic have only played a few minutes of the game and then jump on the bandwagon in order to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
Marble Zone can be slow and sluggish the first couple of rounds, but after a while and as you get better and experiment a bit and test your skills, you can easily brush through the slow bits and fly through the Zone quite fast. Same with Labyrinth.
I never really understood people's beef with labyrinth zone. The air bubbles are spaced out pretty well so that you come across one well before your air timer starts to go off. The zone is kind of like the very first boss in that it punishes greed. if you try to outrun the wrecking ball for too long by jumping to the other side between robotnik and the ball, you'll eventually get hit because the ball gains on you every swing. If you try to run past air pockets to save time, then you'll probably drown right before you get to the surface.
This. I definitely still understand why people hate it- it's the slowest zone by far with the perfect storm of blocky, linear level design, underwater physics, and lag, and the traps can be honestly mean, but the main complaint about drowning never really made sense to me (same with the ghosts in Sandopolis Act 2 in S&K, as long as you don't dawdle and make sure to actually pull the levers you'll never even take damage from them). idk though, maybe I'm just overestimating the average player's skill level. In any case I'd sooner play Labyrinth than Scrap Brain, at least Labyrinth doesn't have the on-and-off speed that makes it too easy to run right into traps or bottomless pits that aren't always telegraphed well.
I would rather separate historical importance and quality tough altough the quality can contribute to historical importance, despite requiring not much of it due to the historical context so sonic 1 is important but has issues
@@ssg-eggunner Sonic the Hedgehog is a great plateformer, not as easy as Sonic 2. So not this much accessible but yeah as far as quality is concerned, it's a great game.
The idea that the original game is bad is BEYOND dumb. Anybody on the planet can literally go and play it RIGHT now and enjoy it a lot cause it is a fun game. Proof? I played the entire trilogy for the first time in 2015 and I had one hell of a blast. In fact I played adventure 1 and 2 before touching the genesis games and guess what I still had fun.
in scrap brain zone 3 you actually skip like 90% of the level right at the start if you get under the moving platform, there is only a small bit of the level to navigate through (dont drop into the water till you cant go any further) and it takes you to the last bit of that level.
True, but first time players aren’t going to know that, and will likely go through the main stage. Which suffers from the same bad design decisions as labyrinth zone.
I know that I'm old and all that, but it still surprises me when people who make great, weighty content about stuff from my childhood, casually mention they weren't even alive at the time. I love how simple entertainment products like the first few sonic games still hold so much iconic value. I still enjoy gaming today, preferably on high end PC hardware, but nothing comes close to incredibly well designed games that'll easily fit on a floppy disk. It's crazy how far we've come and in the meantime, games from 30 something years ago still manage to hold up today.
I covered it a bit in my own Sonic level, but a big part of the reason people think of Sonic 1 as "a bad game" is because they're using a standard for Sonic games that literally didn't exist at the time Sonic 1 was made. Yes, Marble and Labyrinth are slow...... and so was basically all platforming at the time, as was Mario at the time. You can't call slow platforming inherently bad unless you say its also bad when other games do it. Its a special rule we made just for Sonic that you're not allowed to have slow platforming levels. If you forget for a second about Sonic as a series and really a genre of its own, and you just walk down the aisle of a 1990 video game store, Sonic 1's platforming is miles ahead of most of the competition.
Hell, I LIKE that it's willing to be slow. It's actually willing to stick Sonic in a place he doesn't want to be. Faster doesn't equal better and slower doesn't equal worse. I'm not even sure where people get the idea that it's supposed to be about going fast all the time. It's just a fun platformer with fun physics.
People associate sonic the game with sonic the personality. They remember Jaleel White saying “Gotta go fast” in the cartoon and associate the fact that he’s supposed to be the fastest thing in that universe with the idea that the game is supposed to be fast. He CAN go fast, but in a real world he wouldn’t always be able to.
I'm gonna be straight up with you here. Even by NES Mario standards, those levels are bad. Labyrinth feels like you're moving through mud, and Marble zone relies far too much on stopping, going, and waiting. They are far slower than basically every single level in mario 1 even when you get good at them. Making you wait for platforms to move or making you push a block is not level design.
@@RobBlu-d6u " Even by NES Mario standards, those levels are bad. " That you cite NES Mario design as though it is lesser than later Mario design tells me we aren't going to see eye to eye. Suffice to say, I don't consider "It is slow" to be any kind of a criticism at all. At least, not by itself. You can not like it, just as someone might not like a movie because it is 4 hours long, but that doesn't make long movies or slow levels "bad".
@@busydadbacklogSee that's your problem. Slow 100% equals bad when what you're doing isn't engaging. Standing still and waiting for a platform is not fun, same with slowly trusting through water in Labrinth zone, not only is it a complete whiplash of a zone since it takes everything you know about the other Sonic zones and completely throws them into the trash, but also has so many bullshit hazards that insta kill you and it sucks balls. I don't want to do shit platforming under water when speeding through loops is 100 times funner. Also your statement about a movie being 4 hours long not meaning it's bad isn't the point and shows that you don't understand the argument. If the movie is 4 hours long and is entertaining then ok. That's fine, if it's a trudge to get through then that's when those 4 hours start to suck.
I do think you should have given Scrap Brain Zone more credit. That level may not be as speedy as Starlight, but you can still make short work of it by using the physics. SBZ is fairly unique because a lot of the hazards do test Sonic's ability to not just accelerate, but also to slow down. There are many segments where it's beneficial to let go of the D-pad or start counter steering your jumps so you don't get hit by the buzz saws on the conveyer belts, or dodging the fire hazard that turn on and off after you figured out the rhythm. You can keep going forward pretty consistently if you are willing to let go the gas now and again. It's still heavily reliant on the Sonic physics despite not having as many downwards slopes.
@@spontman To be fair though, Act 3 has a top path shortcut that makes it last only like 30 seconds, so at least if you're decent and know what you're doing you don't really have to experience the pain of Labyrinth Act 4, so it's not AS bad as it could have been.
@@spontmanact 3 isn't that bad. It'd actually more challenging then the normal labyrinth, and I rly liked it for that. Also, labyrinth is am actual good level imo. I appreciated that it can be actual hard
People frequently play this and not understand why Sonic was made. Yuji Naka liked Mario, but when he got a game over and had to replay previous levels there was little he could do to speed through them faster with his additional knowledge and skill with the game. That's the concept of Sonic. When you replay levels and become more familiar with them then not only will you be able to get through them, but there's room for the player to experiment in ways to get through stages faster making repeating levels more enjoyable.
You said that the final boss does not follow the other bosses design philosophy, then why didnt you mention the labyrinth zone boss? THAT ONE IS OBNOXIOUS
You say that the Sega Genesis was quickly aging by 1991, and that's funny, because many developers found ways to eek out a shitload of graphical prowess by the mid-90s. One of the best examples I can think of in that regard is Batman and Robin
Spring Yard Zone was really fun, but having to play through Marble Zone just to get to it kept me from wanting to play the game often. Thank goodness for the level select code!
Sonic one is good but I absolutely love Sonic 2. I was so good at it I could get all the chaos emeralds in just a couple stages and play through the game with super Sonic. This feat would blow all my friends away and solidify me as a master gamer in their eyes.
I wonder if mariotehplumber is watching this with the only complaint being that someone called it “imperfect” considering how factually perfect he treats it as, but I think that this is a very fair review of a game that started such a mixed bag of a video game franchise with a bang and only got better in 2013 by fixing the flaws of the original on mobile devices, kinda like Sonic 2.
Really enjoyed this one & looking forward to seeing you cover the rest of the series. Also glad to see you've dropped the segment where you discuss your 3 core principles of Sonic level design which you had in the 3D reviews, the video flows better without it.
Thanks, and yeah not only do I think the 3 staples ultimately hurt the pacing, I also think I was able to better establish my standards for Sonic in this video. I've come to realize it's not an arbitrary checklist that made the classic games great.
I like it as a platformer, but it really comes across as a game unsure of itself. You can tell behind the scenes, too, with ideas like having slower levels to even out the pacing, as I paraphrase from Naka. They were afraid the speed would be overwhelming for new players, and it shows in the final product. It’s a pretty good game, but I wouldn’t call it great. Its innovation in the genre helped it a lot
12:35 as annoying as Scrap Brain Act 3 “Labyrinth Act 4” is, it is another part of the storytelling thing you were talking about earlier. It is supposed to represent that Robotnik doesn't care about the ruins, so he pollutes them.
Sonic 1 is a good game imo. While not as good as the other classic games like CD, 2, Mania, Superstars, and especially 3&K I would still say the game holds up to his day, despite the pacing issues here and there and the first game syndrome plaguing the game, it’s a game I can pick up play and enjoy it, I think I’ve played and beaten this game more than the other games kinda like Crash 1 for me. Great review can’t wait to see your thoughts on other 2d Sonic games.
I remember seeing sonic for the first time in a sears store I believe, they had a demo genesis with a multi game player. Sonic looked head and shoulders above graphically to mario 1 through 3 on the nes. I almost felt like I was betraying mario and nintendo because I liked it so much. I get a jolt of that first time feeling laying eyes on the game as a kid just talking about it. Very special time in my childhood. Thanks Sega and nintendo for that matter ❤
This game is an masterpiece Despite the Pacing issues and them special stages are the worst part of the game but will forever be Iconic just like the entire game itself! and even i believe this game introduced Drowning while under water in one of the forever Scariest moments in video gaming forever!
Labyrinth doesn't require you to wait at all. I actually think it's a great zone that nobody actually understands how to play. If you go fast enough, you never have to wait for air bubbles. Acts 1, 3 (and the final act of Scrap Brain) have shortcuts which let you complete the stages a lot faster but even without these shortcuts, you don't ever have to wait if you know what you're doing. Imo, it's in the top 3 zones of the game Really, all the issues people seem to have with zones like Marble, Scrap Brain & parts of Spring Yard don't actually really exist for Labyrinth Zone imo. There's no waiting around (again, if you're good enough), there are shortcuts, there are no death pits. The conveyor belts at 12:53 that you say are "mandatory waiting" sections just aren't. Simply jumping to the platforms in front of you let you ge thtrough these sections faster. You are pretty slow underwater but you can jump higher which allows for interesting mechanics and the addition of the spin dash in later versions of the game actually improve Labyrinth zone greatly imo. The spin dash does improve Marble zone somewhat too but there are still sections that you have to wait on which is why I prefer Labyrinth. And for Scrap Brain, the spin dash trivializes most of it because the hazards of that stage weren't built around the spin dash. With the spin dash, you can just get damaged and spin dash to get through basically any hazard that stands in your way
Final Zone presents the best boss of the game, narratively speaking. Imagine you are Robotnik. This pesky blue hedgehog keeps destroying your machines, he dodges attacks at the speed of sound, and anytime you hit him, he stays alive because of some rings. What do you do? Limit his ability to dodge by putting him in a claustrophobic room, add crushing presses, and get rid of any rings. The perfect plan to combat a fast enemy relying on rings to survive. Also, Sonic's freedom-loving spirit being challenged one final time in such a small room, surrounded by machines, is perfection, IMO.
In my opinion sonic the hedgehog sits in a weird spot. It's definitely innovative and iconic but when people say "Sonic was never good" thats a very general statement. Sonic the hedgehog 1991 may not have been the sonics greatest outing despite being the first however it laid the groundwork for Sonic the hedgehog 2 and 3 which are arguably the fastest and most enjoyed / replayable games in the series. In Sonic the hedgehog 1 just because there's levels that have you going at a slower Pace doesn't mean the game isn't built around going fast. Sometimes you'll find yourself backing up to take a bit of time to run and build up a little speed to clear a jump that would not be possible with a stationary jump. I think people think too much about "fast" when it comes to Sonic and not enough about the physics and actual platforming that comes along with it.
Great review Spontman and I dig the ACCELIO music intertwined with the ost. You've done a good job here and for what it's worth you entertained me. Thank you.
Every positive thing you listed about this game, including the momentum based gameplay is why I can still enjoy this game today, despite the massive improvements brought on by both of its successors. The only level I don't like is Labyrinth Zone, and even then, that level is not as annoying as it used to be. Labyrinth Zone act 4--I mean Scrap Brain Zone act 3 doesn't even bother me, because I know the shortcut.
I've finally got some time to watch and comment on this video. I've actually played a lot of the games in the classic era so I can actually talk about gameplay. I basically agree with you on this one, I actually enjoy playing this game. I also don't mind the blocky platforming (except for Labyrinth Zone), I like being challenged with platforming and enjoyed how they did it in this game. I also like the multiple path gameplay that's based around rewarding good platforming with speed. I agree with you on the music as well, I don't get the people who say it's not good or stand out.
While I have a soft spot for the Sonic game canon, the thing that first drew me to Sonic and which motivated me to save up my allowance to buy a Sega Genesis was Sonic himself. The character charmed my socks off and at that time, the only way to partake in Sonic's world was via his video games. Had he been primarily a comic book character or a cartoon character or a toy, I'd consume that instead. I haven't played any Sonic games past the Genesis era but I'm still sucked in by Sonic, his friends and rivals, and the world they inhabit. That, to me, is Sonic's enduring appeal.
This is such a great review/analysis of the game! As a long aside, anyone who thinks Sonic 1 is a badly designed game as a whole needs to play its Mirror World counterpart, Bubsy, while values aesthetics over cohesive design. That game can be summed up as "Square peg meet round hole"--it's basically a Mario clone with Sonic's speed and Knuckles gliding shoehorned in, with combat that just doesn't mesh well with the speed of a Sonic type game, so it comes off as a frustrating game (the Sega Genesis port of Zool had a similar issue, since the original Amiga game was NOT designed to be played as fast as he moves in that port). The late Michael Beryln really liked Sonic 1--he played it for a solid week straight and wrote a document about why it was a great game so he could get his boss to greenlight the first Bubsy game--and kind of 'got' that the point of the game was that you had to play it over and over again to get better at it so you could get into the games rhythm and learn the skills to beat each level faster. I'll even give Bubsy credit for having its own small improvements (i.e. an in-game tutorial, having the camera pan ahead of Bubsy while running) But Berlyn misunderstood one fundamental thing about it--the reason that Sonic 1 worked is because the levels were (mostly) built around Sonic's abilities and the game didn't punish you too harshly if you screwed up thanks to the Ring system (Mario's power-up system works in a similar way). Bubsy meanwhile is totally unforgiving--its levels are very maze like and go out of their way to screw you over if you make ANY mistakes at all, because he has one hit point, will die almost as easily as NES Silver Surfer if he runs into virtually ANYTHING that isn't a power-up (that he dies from hitting a wall too fast is just sadistic) and has no reliable means of building up his defense (and not even the hard to find invincibility power-up can save you from all of these), and that includes if he falls too high from above without gliding. The game does a poor job of giving players feedback of what exactly they did wrong and expects them to learn purely thru trial and error. The odd enemy hitboxes and the camera not moving with Bubsy's jumps doesn't help. If Sonic or Mario tried that (or rather, relied entirely on it), it would have completely killed the flow of the gameplay and discouraged newcomers from improving. And to make matters worse, the way Bubsy gains crazy momentum on a constant basis compared to Sonic makes the game feel like youre never really in control the whole time. Bubsy's platforming DEMANDS that you play on defense at all times despite Bubsy's high speed and gliding. Imagine if Sonic 1's level design was entirely built like Marble or Labyrinth Zone or Metropolis Zone from Sonic 2, and that sums up what Bubsy's all around design is like. Its counterintuitive and exasperating to play unless you REALLY know the levels and how Bubsy's bizarre momentum and slope physics work in and out. But whereas Sonic is rewarding to better yourself at and is still consistently fun even when you slip up or have to deal with some level design dips, Bubsy as a whole is straight up punishing to play. And the less said about the complete mess that is Bubsy II, the better...
The SNES and Genesis both used chips that were mini synthesizers, and both sampled sounds. That’s what a synthesizer does, it samples sounds from other instruments. Edited because my first attempt i sounded like a dick 😅
Sonic 1 will always be good to some degree in my opinion. Sure it had some weird mechanics that would be fixed in Sonic 2, but if Sonic 1 didn’t sell like hotcakes, we wouldn’t have Sonic 2, let alone an ENTIRE FRANCHISE. So yeah, I will always respect the original Sonic in that regard.
I think it really needs to be emphasized how different this game was from the platformers that preceded it. Even the "bad" levels in this game only seem put of place when they're compared to the brilliance we would see in it's immediate sequels.
even if we accept that the platforming was mediocre, this does not change the fact that the game is visually stunning and the soundtrack is unforgettable. everything about the game pops out of the TV. that's why we all loved the game in the 90s.
Still my favorite, along with CD. Maybe i just like Oshima’s design, the art and music too. I always thought of Sonic’s speed as more the marketing attached, but the other sequels pushed that further.
Pretty much same, I do much better if I play it at slow pace and resort to exploration, the only problem with sonic 1 is that it feels like false advertising
I disagree. I think it’s quite similar to Mega Man 1. They’re both great games that aren’t as polished as their sequels and contain some infamously difficult or frustrating parts, but also each contain probably the most iconic part of their respective series: Green Hill for Sonic and the Yellow Devil for Mega Man. Mario 1 I think is the best of the three, arguably better-designed than its sequels. Everything in that game comes together perfectly to create an extremely focused and perfectly-balanced experience that hasn’t aged a bit since 1985.
Great video, dude. Sonic 1 is great, but hasn’t aged gracefully in my opinion. Mind you, later entries have the benefit of hindsight, so it’s a little hard to hate on this one.
Finally, a more balanced review of Marble Zone - admittedly, it's far from being the best zone; however, I think it's overhated by most people. I never dread playing through it and actually enjoy some of the sections (e.g. the bit where you outrun the lava). I wish I could say the same about Labyrinth and Scrap Brain 😬
How ironic that, despite his video game career being pretty bad for a long time now, it was Sonic, that broke the over 30 year long "bad video game movie"-curse.
I guess im in the minority but I like the block platforming in this game. There's some stuff I don't like, such as sonic dying instantly if squished even slightly or the randomly spawning air bubbles in labyrinth, but imo these stages are weighed down by small design choices rather than "not playing to sonics gimmick"
Sonic the Hedgehog was my first gaming experience, back when it first came out. I was 5 years old. It's definitely not perfect and it's not even my favorite, but it was always then and still is a great game. I'd rather play it any day over almost any Mario game. 64 is the one exception.
My wife and I recently played through the 2D era games in chronalogical order, including fan games, and we enjoyed every single one... except Sonic 1. I'm glad the series succeeded, but regardless of what the standard was at the time we didn't like it. The slowness, the special stage, and some of the stages' cheap traps kept us from enjoying it. Anyone wondering our game order, we did Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic 3 A.I.R. (3&K w/ upgrades), Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit, Sonic Mania, and Sonic and the Fallen Star. My favorite was Fallen Star and my wife's was CD.
This game has more "vibe" than it's Genny sequels. It also has the best bonus stages (they are a tedious chore in the sequels). It's also more polished. However, it does have a couple of flaws: the slow pace of Marble and Labyrinth would be fine for variety, but they are much too long. If you're going to have 2 zones with zero slopes, then cut them down by half their current length, at least. The stages, as they stand, are good designs "in a vaccum", but not 3 acts in a row with Sonic physics. The other flaw is too many random spike placements that don't quite vibe with the momentum-based character control. The removal of parallax layers in some markets/regions was very strange too, visually speaking. Also another frame of animation for the bonus stage rotation would go a long way.
I only play Green Hill zone then reset or turn the console off, as everything after that is anti-speed. I will say I loved the game as a kid, it's just I don't feel it anymore.
@@tailzgimer1726The problem isn't Marble zone's difficulty. It's the bs jankiness of the level coming right after green hill zone. May not be necessarily hard, but it's extremely boring and slows the game down to a screeching halt Starlight zone, comparatively, is much closer to green hill zone in it's level design then marble zone is.
i think they had to put the speed down in those levels else the game would be too quickt. The amount of fast beatable levels on the cardridges was just too small
Yeah, when I was growing up, I actually didn't care for the first Sonic Game all that much; I found it so lacking compared to it's successors - no Super Sonic, no save function, and no _spin-dash?_ Yeah, I would rather just skip to Sonic 2. I tried playing the first game for my channel a few years ago and it was a near-disaster. I found levels like Marble Hill and Scrap-Zone to be the most frustrating, with of course Labyrinth Zone being downright intolerable. The other three zones were where I was having the most fun, but I felt like they ended far too quickly compared to the others, so the fun was over just as it began. But the thing I disliked the most about the game were the Special Stages. It really is one of those beginners-trap kind of things, because unless you knew what you were looking-for, you'd have no idea what the Chaos Emerald was, or how to get it. Plus, it's so nerve-wracking to get the emerald cause you know that at any wrong move that 9 times out of 10 isn't your fault will send you tumbling to the exit without the emerald. But I think the thing I dislike the most is how _vulnerable_ Sonic feels. Without the spin-dash, it feels like not only does it take longer for Sonic to build-momentum, but until he's got up to a certain speed before he can roll into a ball, he's so vulnerable to attacks. I don't get that feeling from Mario Games, even without Power-Ups, Mario still feels capable enough to take on most threats he comes across. With Sonic, even with rings he still feels _delicate._ So yeah, Sonic 1 still isn't my favorite. It just feels incomplete.
my biggest problem with sonic 1 is the jank, some enemies are just bad positioned, you need to memorize some obstacles bc a bunch of them are gotchas(looking ate you scrap brain zone) its not a bag game but damm when you play some later games like sonic 3, sonic mania etc you see how bad the level desings were
Sonic 2 & Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) were better games than Sonic 1 but Sonic 1 was not a bad game. Sonic 1 using parallax gave a feeling of speed that was lacking from Mario games and the movement in Sonic games was far more fluid than the tighter controls of Mario. Ultimately sonic had a lot more spectacle to it, sections of the game where the levels essentially went auto, you were still in control but you didn't need to directly control anything and that allowed the action to flow in a more directed fashion. Comparing Labyrinth Zone in Sonic 1 to Hydrocity in Sonic 3, the latter has A LOT more spectacle which allowed that particular water level to actually be fun, it also had over-lapping pipes and other tricks going on giving the impression of much more complicated level design than really was happening. But I do think the main thing Sonic games had over Mario is the directions, Mario levels on the most part are just left to right, All sonic levels also end on the right but often have sections where you go up, down, left or right.
I think for the most part Sonic 1 is 50% good and 50% bad. What I mean by that is that 3 zones, Green Hill, Spring Yard, and Starlight are fun zones, but Marble, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain mostly suck
I cant wait until you cover Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I have huge nostalgia goggles on for it always - but its the perfect Sonic game to me. I wish they’d just try to make a proper sequel to it. Same sprites, etc.
Im suprised at how critical people are with this game. Its not perfect yes but I think if you look past some of the bad stuff it still is a great game. If you have enough patience then im sure you can enjoy this. Ill admit though, labyrinth still is a pain.Obviously doesn't hold a candle to sonic 2, 3 & K, CD and mania of course. Should you still play THIS game. Id say yes if you have the patience.
Yeah honestly this game is better than CD but not by a lot. Being bounced around in CD and having no control is not fun and saying the music is amazing doesn’t save it. Only better things Sonic CD has is the Music, Story, Characters, and possibly the consistency. Sonic 1 is only better with the spindash and his other moves (Insta Shield, Drop Dash, Peelout) tho. Crazy that a small amount of people think CD is the best game in the Classic series. And 4 out of the 6 zones in the game are Good (yes I like Marble Zone cause you can actually go fast if you’re good). And the bosses are good too while CD bosses suck other than Metal Sonic. Its better especially if you’re playing Sonic 1 Forever. If we’re talking Vanilla CD and Vanilla Sonic 1, CD wins easily.
2:44 nah nostalgia biased is No mercy fans and Zelda fans Basically Nintendo fans in general 😂 If you claim one of those N64 games can go toe to toe with any modern game you are out of your mind.
I was 11 in 91. My older sister showed me Sonic 1 playing on her new 'Mega Drive' and the moment I saw it, my life changed. Seeing the blue dude moving so fast with alll that parralax and colour, I was hooked on video games for life after that.
Yep and that experience is hard to explain. I remember seeing him do a loop and my 9 year old brain broke, heck hearing the clear “SEGA” at the beginning made me want the game lol.
I was 5 going on 6. The loop did it for me 😂
Do you still keep up with the series now?
Did you play the new game: shadow generations? It was super cool.
Sonic 1 (along with 2 and 3) is what kept Nintendo from being a monopoly, and showed that they CAN be challeged in their own game, opening the doors for other competitors that might not have had the courage otherwise.
"Sonic the Hedgehog" - the game that pushed British console gaming into the mainstream.
Sonic caused the Boston tea party
I’m from the UK
It's always baffled me how home computers dominated gaming in the UK during the 8-bit era. Granted, most NES games are as approachable as a rabid grizzly bear, I couldn't imagine prefering to play something like Dizzy instead of Super Mario Bros or even Alex Kidd.
@@GoldenGrenadier
In the UK, the NES launched with almost no killer apps. We did get "Super Mario Bros.", but almost every other game likely already existed on computers for much cheaper. It wasn't until the machine was bundled with the rubbish Ninja Turtles game in 1990 that it started selling well. It didn't last long, though, due to the game being quickly ported to many computers, with the ZX Spectrum version particularly being an improvement and a massive seller.
Essentially, gaming in late '80s Britain looked like this:
Micros = VHS
Sega = Betamax
Nintendo = Video 2000
@@GoldenGrenadierI had a nes. My friend had a spectrum. I thought it was weird...janky...and couldn't understand why he didn't just get a nes!
Anyone who says Sonic 1 isn’t good hasn’t got a clue what they’re talking about.
The whole ‘You’re not going fast so it’s bad’ argument is silly. When you’re on the slower stages it’s some of the best platforming ever made with very precise controls and intuitive gameplay.
Even Labyrinth gets a bad rap. It’s slower but it’s really not that bad and it encourages you to make dashes between bubbles which really aren’t that far apart.
I often get the feeling that people who criticise Sonic have only played a few minutes of the game and then jump on the bandwagon in order to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
Facts' s1 is my fav sonic
I think 1 is kinda meh but I agree that most people who hate on it probably played marble zone and then stopped
You hit the nail on the head, buddy! Sonic 1 is a -platformer-!
I'd play Sonic 1 over Generations any day of the week.
Marble Zone can be slow and sluggish the first couple of rounds, but after a while and as you get better and experiment a bit and test your skills, you can easily brush through the slow bits and fly through the Zone quite fast. Same with Labyrinth.
I never really understood people's beef with labyrinth zone. The air bubbles are spaced out pretty well so that you come across one well before your air timer starts to go off. The zone is kind of like the very first boss in that it punishes greed. if you try to outrun the wrecking ball for too long by jumping to the other side between robotnik and the ball, you'll eventually get hit because the ball gains on you every swing. If you try to run past air pockets to save time, then you'll probably drown right before you get to the surface.
This. I definitely still understand why people hate it- it's the slowest zone by far with the perfect storm of blocky, linear level design, underwater physics, and lag, and the traps can be honestly mean, but the main complaint about drowning never really made sense to me (same with the ghosts in Sandopolis Act 2 in S&K, as long as you don't dawdle and make sure to actually pull the levers you'll never even take damage from them). idk though, maybe I'm just overestimating the average player's skill level. In any case I'd sooner play Labyrinth than Scrap Brain, at least Labyrinth doesn't have the on-and-off speed that makes it too easy to run right into traps or bottomless pits that aren't always telegraphed well.
They don’t have beef with labarinth itself they just get trauma from scrap brain act 3
Clearly you didn't pay attention to the video.
Just remember however much you don’t like this game, there wouldn’t be the WHOLE SONIC SERIES without it
It was a good first try
He gets it , so no need to attack him
I would rather separate historical importance and quality tough
altough the quality can contribute to historical importance, despite requiring not much of it due to the historical context
so sonic 1 is important but has issues
@@crypticforevzThis is hardly an attack
@@ssg-eggunner Sonic the Hedgehog is a great plateformer, not as easy as Sonic 2. So not this much accessible but yeah as far as quality is concerned, it's a great game.
The idea that the original game is bad is BEYOND dumb. Anybody on the planet can literally go and play it RIGHT now and enjoy it a lot cause it is a fun game.
Proof?
I played the entire trilogy for the first time in 2015 and I had one hell of a blast. In fact I played adventure 1 and 2 before touching the genesis games and guess what I still had fun.
I still don't like sonic 1
in scrap brain zone 3 you actually skip like 90% of the level right at the start if you get under the moving platform, there is only a small bit of the level to navigate through (dont drop into the water till you cant go any further) and it takes you to the last bit of that level.
True, but first time players aren’t going to know that, and will likely go through the main stage. Which suffers from the same bad design decisions as labyrinth zone.
Glad I'm not the only person to figure that out.
I know that I'm old and all that, but it still surprises me when people who make great, weighty content about stuff from my childhood, casually mention they weren't even alive at the time. I love how simple entertainment products like the first few sonic games still hold so much iconic value. I still enjoy gaming today, preferably on high end PC hardware, but nothing comes close to incredibly well designed games that'll easily fit on a floppy disk. It's crazy how far we've come and in the meantime, games from 30 something years ago still manage to hold up today.
I covered it a bit in my own Sonic level, but a big part of the reason people think of Sonic 1 as "a bad game" is because they're using a standard for Sonic games that literally didn't exist at the time Sonic 1 was made.
Yes, Marble and Labyrinth are slow...... and so was basically all platforming at the time, as was Mario at the time. You can't call slow platforming inherently bad unless you say its also bad when other games do it. Its a special rule we made just for Sonic that you're not allowed to have slow platforming levels.
If you forget for a second about Sonic as a series and really a genre of its own, and you just walk down the aisle of a 1990 video game store, Sonic 1's platforming is miles ahead of most of the competition.
Hell, I LIKE that it's willing to be slow. It's actually willing to stick Sonic in a place he doesn't want to be. Faster doesn't equal better and slower doesn't equal worse. I'm not even sure where people get the idea that it's supposed to be about going fast all the time. It's just a fun platformer with fun physics.
People associate sonic the game with sonic the personality. They remember Jaleel White saying “Gotta go fast” in the cartoon and associate the fact that he’s supposed to be the fastest thing in that universe with the idea that the game is supposed to be fast. He CAN go fast, but in a real world he wouldn’t always be able to.
I'm gonna be straight up with you here. Even by NES Mario standards, those levels are bad. Labyrinth feels like you're moving through mud, and Marble zone relies far too much on stopping, going, and waiting. They are far slower than basically every single level in mario 1 even when you get good at them. Making you wait for platforms to move or making you push a block is not level design.
@@RobBlu-d6u " Even by NES Mario standards, those levels are bad. "
That you cite NES Mario design as though it is lesser than later Mario design tells me we aren't going to see eye to eye. Suffice to say, I don't consider "It is slow" to be any kind of a criticism at all. At least, not by itself. You can not like it, just as someone might not like a movie because it is 4 hours long, but that doesn't make long movies or slow levels "bad".
@@busydadbacklogSee that's your problem. Slow 100% equals bad when what you're doing isn't engaging. Standing still and waiting for a platform is not fun, same with slowly trusting through water in Labrinth zone, not only is it a complete whiplash of a zone since it takes everything you know about the other Sonic zones and completely throws them into the trash, but also has so many bullshit hazards that insta kill you and it sucks balls. I don't want to do shit platforming under water when speeding through loops is 100 times funner. Also your statement about a movie being 4 hours long not meaning it's bad isn't the point and shows that you don't understand the argument. If the movie is 4 hours long and is entertaining then ok. That's fine, if it's a trudge to get through then that's when those 4 hours start to suck.
I do think you should have given Scrap Brain Zone more credit. That level may not be as speedy as Starlight, but you can still make short work of it by using the physics. SBZ is fairly unique because a lot of the hazards do test Sonic's ability to not just accelerate, but also to slow down. There are many segments where it's beneficial to let go of the D-pad or start counter steering your jumps so you don't get hit by the buzz saws on the conveyer belts, or dodging the fire hazard that turn on and off after you figured out the rhythm. You can keep going forward pretty consistently if you are willing to let go the gas now and again. It's still heavily reliant on the Sonic physics despite not having as many downwards slopes.
Yeah I should've spent a little more time talking about acts 1 and 2, they have some good moments. Act 3 just sours the whole thing.
@@spontman To be fair though, Act 3 has a top path shortcut that makes it last only like 30 seconds, so at least if you're decent and know what you're doing you don't really have to experience the pain of Labyrinth Act 4, so it's not AS bad as it could have been.
@@spontmanact 3 isn't that bad. It'd actually more challenging then the normal labyrinth, and I rly liked it for that. Also, labyrinth is am actual good level imo. I appreciated that it can be actual hard
@@legoboy7107imo, labyrinth isn't bad
I think that star light and spring yard are the worst levels imo
The Special Stages lowkey grew on me.
Lowkey?
I love Sonic 1 !!! The holy grail of the 16 bits era !!
Same here 😀 its still my favorite in the series.
Keep it up Spontman. You make really great sonic content
People frequently play this and not understand why Sonic was made. Yuji Naka liked Mario, but when he got a game over and had to replay previous levels there was little he could do to speed through them faster with his additional knowledge and skill with the game. That's the concept of Sonic. When you replay levels and become more familiar with them then not only will you be able to get through them, but there's room for the player to experiment in ways to get through stages faster making repeating levels more enjoyable.
You said that the final boss does not follow the other bosses design philosophy, then why didnt you mention the labyrinth zone boss? THAT ONE IS OBNOXIOUS
You're right that it is obnoxious, but at least unlike the final boss you can make quick work of it if you know what you're doing.
@@spontman fair enough, I still prefer the final boss (not sure why tho😅)
You say that the Sega Genesis was quickly aging by 1991, and that's funny, because many developers found ways to eek out a shitload of graphical prowess by the mid-90s. One of the best examples I can think of in that regard is Batman and Robin
Spring Yard Zone was really fun, but having to play through Marble Zone just to get to it kept me from wanting to play the game often. Thank goodness for the level select code!
Sonic one is good but I absolutely love Sonic 2. I was so good at it I could get all the chaos emeralds in just a couple stages and play through the game with super Sonic. This feat would blow all my friends away and solidify me as a master gamer in their eyes.
"...otherwise my controller would have received a one-way ticket to Dry-Wall Land by now." is my new favorite qoute.
I wonder if mariotehplumber is watching this with the only complaint being that someone called it “imperfect” considering how factually perfect he treats it as, but I think that this is a very fair review of a game that started such a mixed bag of a video game franchise with a bang and only got better in 2013 by fixing the flaws of the original on mobile devices, kinda like Sonic 2.
I haven't heard that name in years.
Wish I could forget it again.
Really enjoyed this one & looking forward to seeing you cover the rest of the series.
Also glad to see you've dropped the segment where you discuss your 3 core principles of Sonic level design which you had in the 3D reviews, the video flows better without it.
Thanks, and yeah not only do I think the 3 staples ultimately hurt the pacing, I also think I was able to better establish my standards for Sonic in this video. I've come to realize it's not an arbitrary checklist that made the classic games great.
I like it as a platformer, but it really comes across as a game unsure of itself. You can tell behind the scenes, too, with ideas like having slower levels to even out the pacing, as I paraphrase from Naka. They were afraid the speed would be overwhelming for new players, and it shows in the final product. It’s a pretty good game, but I wouldn’t call it great. Its innovation in the genre helped it a lot
12:35 as annoying as Scrap Brain Act 3 “Labyrinth Act 4” is, it is another part of the storytelling thing you were talking about earlier. It is supposed to represent that Robotnik doesn't care about the ruins, so he pollutes them.
Sonic 1 is a good game imo. While not as good as the other classic games like CD, 2, Mania, Superstars, and especially 3&K I would still say the game holds up to his day, despite the pacing issues here and there and the first game syndrome plaguing the game, it’s a game I can pick up play and enjoy it, I think I’ve played and beaten this game more than the other games kinda like Crash 1 for me. Great review can’t wait to see your thoughts on other 2d Sonic games.
Im happy you consider Superstars as a good game ngl
Narrator with a smooth, 30-year-old sounding voice: I wasn't even born in the 90s.
WAIT WHAT?!
I'm happy you went back and played the nostalgic games.
I remember seeing sonic for the first time in a sears store I believe, they had a demo genesis with a multi game player. Sonic looked head and shoulders above graphically to mario 1 through 3 on the nes. I almost felt like I was betraying mario and nintendo because I liked it so much. I get a jolt of that first time feeling laying eyes on the game as a kid just talking about it. Very special time in my childhood. Thanks Sega and nintendo for that matter ❤
Sonic 1 is the 1st game i remember playing as a child in the 90's and 30 years later i still enjoy playing it just as much now as i did then.
This game is an masterpiece Despite the Pacing issues and them special stages are the worst part of the game but will forever be Iconic just like the entire game itself! and even i believe this game introduced Drowning while under water in one of the forever Scariest moments in video gaming forever!
Marble Zone: Mario castle stage
Labyrinth Zone: Mario underwater stage
Scrap Brain Zone: Mega Man stage
12:48 - Nice jab. Glad we actually cleared that up XD
Labyrinth doesn't require you to wait at all. I actually think it's a great zone that nobody actually understands how to play. If you go fast enough, you never have to wait for air bubbles. Acts 1, 3 (and the final act of Scrap Brain) have shortcuts which let you complete the stages a lot faster but even without these shortcuts, you don't ever have to wait if you know what you're doing. Imo, it's in the top 3 zones of the game
Really, all the issues people seem to have with zones like Marble, Scrap Brain & parts of Spring Yard don't actually really exist for Labyrinth Zone imo. There's no waiting around (again, if you're good enough), there are shortcuts, there are no death pits. The conveyor belts at 12:53 that you say are "mandatory waiting" sections just aren't. Simply jumping to the platforms in front of you let you ge thtrough these sections faster. You are pretty slow underwater but you can jump higher which allows for interesting mechanics and the addition of the spin dash in later versions of the game actually improve Labyrinth zone greatly imo. The spin dash does improve Marble zone somewhat too but there are still sections that you have to wait on which is why I prefer Labyrinth. And for Scrap Brain, the spin dash trivializes most of it because the hazards of that stage weren't built around the spin dash. With the spin dash, you can just get damaged and spin dash to get through basically any hazard that stands in your way
Sonic 1 is a classic. Its a great first game for Sonic. The soundtrack is also a classic.
Woo! New series!
also 60-90% of all development time went to green hill, the rest of the game was made in crunch before release.
Final Zone presents the best boss of the game, narratively speaking. Imagine you are Robotnik. This pesky blue hedgehog keeps destroying your machines, he dodges attacks at the speed of sound, and anytime you hit him, he stays alive because of some rings. What do you do? Limit his ability to dodge by putting him in a claustrophobic room, add crushing presses, and get rid of any rings. The perfect plan to combat a fast enemy relying on rings to survive. Also, Sonic's freedom-loving spirit being challenged one final time in such a small room, surrounded by machines, is perfection, IMO.
as a dude, who wasn’t alive in the 90’s I DID actually play a sega genesis in 2010’s on a CRT, still do.
Unpopular take but this is my favorite Sonic game
BASED!
In my opinion sonic the hedgehog sits in a weird spot. It's definitely innovative and iconic but when people say "Sonic was never good" thats a very general statement. Sonic the hedgehog 1991 may not have been the sonics greatest outing despite being the first however it laid the groundwork for Sonic the hedgehog 2 and 3 which are arguably the fastest and most enjoyed / replayable games in the series. In Sonic the hedgehog 1 just because there's levels that have you going at a slower Pace doesn't mean the game isn't built around going fast. Sometimes you'll find yourself backing up to take a bit of time to run and build up a little speed to clear a jump that would not be possible with a stationary jump. I think people think too much about "fast" when it comes to Sonic and not enough about the physics and actual platforming that comes along with it.
Great review Spontman and I dig the ACCELIO music intertwined with the ost. You've done a good job here and for what it's worth you entertained me. Thank you.
Also, Sonic aged really well. It still looks good. And the sound was really good too.
I'm 46, I remember Sonic coming out. It was amazing to us.
Also, Sonic aged really well. It still looks good. And the sound was really good too.
Every positive thing you listed about this game, including the momentum based gameplay is why I can still enjoy this game today, despite the massive improvements brought on by both of its successors. The only level I don't like is Labyrinth Zone, and even then, that level is not as annoying as it used to be. Labyrinth Zone act 4--I mean Scrap Brain Zone act 3 doesn't even bother me, because I know the shortcut.
I've finally got some time to watch and comment on this video. I've actually played a lot of the games in the classic era so I can actually talk about gameplay.
I basically agree with you on this one, I actually enjoy playing this game. I also don't mind the blocky platforming (except for Labyrinth Zone), I like being challenged with platforming and enjoyed how they did it in this game. I also like the multiple path gameplay that's based around rewarding good platforming with speed.
I agree with you on the music as well, I don't get the people who say it's not good or stand out.
While I have a soft spot for the Sonic game canon, the thing that first drew me to Sonic and which motivated me to save up my allowance to buy a Sega Genesis was Sonic himself. The character charmed my socks off and at that time, the only way to partake in Sonic's world was via his video games. Had he been primarily a comic book character or a cartoon character or a toy, I'd consume that instead. I haven't played any Sonic games past the Genesis era but I'm still sucked in by Sonic, his friends and rivals, and the world they inhabit. That, to me, is Sonic's enduring appeal.
This is such a great review/analysis of the game! As a long aside, anyone who thinks Sonic 1 is a badly designed game as a whole needs to play its Mirror World counterpart, Bubsy, while values aesthetics over cohesive design. That game can be summed up as "Square peg meet round hole"--it's basically a Mario clone with Sonic's speed and Knuckles gliding shoehorned in, with combat that just doesn't mesh well with the speed of a Sonic type game, so it comes off as a frustrating game (the Sega Genesis port of Zool had a similar issue, since the original Amiga game was NOT designed to be played as fast as he moves in that port). The late Michael Beryln really liked Sonic 1--he played it for a solid week straight and wrote a document about why it was a great game so he could get his boss to greenlight the first Bubsy game--and kind of 'got' that the point of the game was that you had to play it over and over again to get better at it so you could get into the games rhythm and learn the skills to beat each level faster. I'll even give Bubsy credit for having its own small improvements (i.e. an in-game tutorial, having the camera pan ahead of Bubsy while running)
But Berlyn misunderstood one fundamental thing about it--the reason that Sonic 1 worked is because the levels were (mostly) built around Sonic's abilities and the game didn't punish you too harshly if you screwed up thanks to the Ring system (Mario's power-up system works in a similar way). Bubsy meanwhile is totally unforgiving--its levels are very maze like and go out of their way to screw you over if you make ANY mistakes at all, because he has one hit point, will die almost as easily as NES Silver Surfer if he runs into virtually ANYTHING that isn't a power-up (that he dies from hitting a wall too fast is just sadistic) and has no reliable means of building up his defense (and not even the hard to find invincibility power-up can save you from all of these), and that includes if he falls too high from above without gliding. The game does a poor job of giving players feedback of what exactly they did wrong and expects them to learn purely thru trial and error. The odd enemy hitboxes and the camera not moving with Bubsy's jumps doesn't help. If Sonic or Mario tried that (or rather, relied entirely on it), it would have completely killed the flow of the gameplay and discouraged newcomers from improving. And to make matters worse, the way Bubsy gains crazy momentum on a constant basis compared to Sonic makes the game feel like youre never really in control the whole time. Bubsy's platforming DEMANDS that you play on defense at all times despite Bubsy's high speed and gliding. Imagine if Sonic 1's level design was entirely built like Marble or Labyrinth Zone or Metropolis Zone from Sonic 2, and that sums up what Bubsy's all around design is like. Its counterintuitive and exasperating to play unless you REALLY know the levels and how Bubsy's bizarre momentum and slope physics work in and out. But whereas Sonic is rewarding to better yourself at and is still consistently fun even when you slip up or have to deal with some level design dips, Bubsy as a whole is straight up punishing to play.
And the less said about the complete mess that is Bubsy II, the better...
The SNES and Genesis both used chips that were mini synthesizers, and both sampled sounds. That’s what a synthesizer does, it samples sounds from other instruments. Edited because my first attempt i sounded like a dick 😅
How come you didn’t use sonic 1 forever in this review?
Because only huge NERDS play the fan ports over origins LOL
I think I have a nostalgia cap on because it was groundbreaking when it came out
In the master system (8-bit) version if you collect all chaos emeralds the eggman's base will be gone from the map
I almost choked while eating food when I heard you say a one way ticket to drywall land as iff it was a location in super mario bros. 3.
LMAO
Sonic 1 will always be good to some degree in my opinion. Sure it had some weird mechanics that would be fixed in Sonic 2, but if Sonic 1 didn’t sell like hotcakes, we wouldn’t have Sonic 2, let alone an ENTIRE FRANCHISE.
So yeah, I will always respect the original Sonic in that regard.
that Spotify link doesnt work but that song is a banger.
"Sonic was never good" is probably one of the most successful gaslighting campaigns I've ever seen
Thanks for a fair and balanced review. I really enjoyed the video.
I think it really needs to be emphasized how different this game was from the platformers that preceded it.
Even the "bad" levels in this game only seem put of place when they're compared to the brilliance we would see in it's immediate sequels.
even if we accept that the platforming was mediocre, this does not change the fact that the game is visually stunning and the soundtrack is unforgettable. everything about the game pops out of the TV. that's why we all loved the game in the 90s.
Still my favorite, along with CD. Maybe i just like Oshima’s design, the art and music too. I always thought of Sonic’s speed as more the marketing attached, but the other sequels
pushed that further.
Pretty much same, I do much better if I play it at slow pace and resort to exploration, the only problem with sonic 1 is that it feels like false advertising
I love Dino's
I also love Dino's
12:43 Marty is the reason why I don't listen to Second Wind Podcast. I really wish he stayed at Escapist.
Sonic 1 may not have aged as well compared to its sequels, but it has aged better than say, Megaman 1, or SMB 1 compared to their respective sequels
I disagree. I think it’s quite similar to Mega Man 1. They’re both great games that aren’t as polished as their sequels and contain some infamously difficult or frustrating parts, but also each contain probably the most iconic part of their respective series: Green Hill for Sonic and the Yellow Devil for Mega Man. Mario 1 I think is the best of the three, arguably better-designed than its sequels. Everything in that game comes together perfectly to create an extremely focused and perfectly-balanced experience that hasn’t aged a bit since 1985.
Finally...a sonic 1 take I can identify with 😂
It was like streets of rage...once the second was out no one wanted to play the first.
Bold statement: I like Sonic 1 more than S2 and S3!
We are one of the few
I’m curious, what about it do you like more?
Dang ive never seen anyone say they like sonic 1 the best out of the 3...or 4 idk
This was my childhood, of course it's a great game 🎮
The criticism is important that sonic isn't actually about going fast.
Love the first Sonic game.
Great video, dude. Sonic 1 is great, but hasn’t aged gracefully in my opinion. Mind you, later entries have the benefit of hindsight, so it’s a little hard to hate on this one.
Finally, a more balanced review of Marble Zone - admittedly, it's far from being the best zone; however, I think it's overhated by most people. I never dread playing through it and actually enjoy some of the sections (e.g. the bit where you outrun the lava). I wish I could say the same about Labyrinth and Scrap Brain 😬
Me who likes labyrinth watching this:
How ironic that, despite his video game career being pretty bad for a long time now, it was Sonic, that broke the over 30 year long "bad video game movie"-curse.
I guess im in the minority but I like the block platforming in this game. There's some stuff I don't like, such as sonic dying instantly if squished even slightly or the randomly spawning air bubbles in labyrinth, but imo these stages are weighed down by small design choices rather than "not playing to sonics gimmick"
Sonic the Hedgehog was my first gaming experience, back when it first came out. I was 5 years old. It's definitely not perfect and it's not even my favorite, but it was always then and still is a great game. I'd rather play it any day over almost any Mario game. 64 is the one exception.
My wife and I recently played through the 2D era games in chronalogical order, including fan games, and we enjoyed every single one... except Sonic 1. I'm glad the series succeeded, but regardless of what the standard was at the time we didn't like it. The slowness, the special stage, and some of the stages' cheap traps kept us from enjoying it.
Anyone wondering our game order, we did Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic 3 A.I.R. (3&K w/ upgrades), Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit, Sonic Mania, and Sonic and the Fallen Star. My favorite was Fallen Star and my wife's was CD.
This game is moistly lit.
I never understood the why Sonic 1 was looked down upon so much, the hate always felt so forced.
This game has more "vibe" than it's Genny sequels. It also has the best bonus stages (they are a tedious chore in the sequels). It's also more polished. However, it does have a couple of flaws: the slow pace of Marble and Labyrinth would be fine for variety, but they are much too long. If you're going to have 2 zones with zero slopes, then cut them down by half their current length, at least. The stages, as they stand, are good designs "in a vaccum", but not 3 acts in a row with Sonic physics. The other flaw is too many random spike placements that don't quite vibe with the momentum-based character control.
The removal of parallax layers in some markets/regions was very strange too, visually speaking. Also another frame of animation for the bonus stage rotation would go a long way.
I only play Green Hill zone then reset or turn the console off, as everything after that is anti-speed. I will say I loved the game as a kid, it's just I don't feel it anymore.
Wait, why is there not Professor Pickle on the thumbnail?
Are you sure about that?
Hes in the backround as a flower
I feel like anyone will find any reason they can dream up to bash any sonic game
Great video :)
The problem sonic 1 has is that Marble Zone is the second level of the game. Switch it and Starlight zone and the game gets significantly better
Marble zone isn’t even that hard get gud scub
@@tailzgimer1726The problem isn't Marble zone's difficulty. It's the bs jankiness of the level coming right after green hill zone. May not be necessarily hard, but it's extremely boring and slows the game down to a screeching halt Starlight zone, comparatively, is much closer to green hill zone in it's level design then marble zone is.
i think they had to put the speed down in those levels else the game would be too quickt. The amount of fast beatable levels on the cardridges was just too small
You got a new folloewer :)
Yeah, when I was growing up, I actually didn't care for the first Sonic Game all that much; I found it so lacking compared to it's successors - no Super Sonic, no save function, and no _spin-dash?_ Yeah, I would rather just skip to Sonic 2.
I tried playing the first game for my channel a few years ago and it was a near-disaster. I found levels like Marble Hill and Scrap-Zone to be the most frustrating, with of course Labyrinth Zone being downright intolerable. The other three zones were where I was having the most fun, but I felt like they ended far too quickly compared to the others, so the fun was over just as it began. But the thing I disliked the most about the game were the Special Stages. It really is one of those beginners-trap kind of things, because unless you knew what you were looking-for, you'd have no idea what the Chaos Emerald was, or how to get it. Plus, it's so nerve-wracking to get the emerald cause you know that at any wrong move that 9 times out of 10 isn't your fault will send you tumbling to the exit without the emerald.
But I think the thing I dislike the most is how _vulnerable_ Sonic feels. Without the spin-dash, it feels like not only does it take longer for Sonic to build-momentum, but until he's got up to a certain speed before he can roll into a ball, he's so vulnerable to attacks. I don't get that feeling from Mario Games, even without Power-Ups, Mario still feels capable enough to take on most threats he comes across. With Sonic, even with rings he still feels _delicate._
So yeah, Sonic 1 still isn't my favorite. It just feels incomplete.
my biggest problem with sonic 1 is the jank, some enemies are just bad positioned, you need to memorize some obstacles bc a bunch of them are gotchas(looking ate you scrap brain zone)
its not a bag game but damm when you play some later games like sonic 3, sonic mania etc you see how bad the level desings were
naka actually purposely slowed down the game because he was afraid no one would buy a speed game.
Sonic 2 & Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) were better games than Sonic 1 but Sonic 1 was not a bad game. Sonic 1 using parallax gave a feeling of speed that was lacking from Mario games and the movement in Sonic games was far more fluid than the tighter controls of Mario. Ultimately sonic had a lot more spectacle to it, sections of the game where the levels essentially went auto, you were still in control but you didn't need to directly control anything and that allowed the action to flow in a more directed fashion. Comparing Labyrinth Zone in Sonic 1 to Hydrocity in Sonic 3, the latter has A LOT more spectacle which allowed that particular water level to actually be fun, it also had over-lapping pipes and other tricks going on giving the impression of much more complicated level design than really was happening.
But I do think the main thing Sonic games had over Mario is the directions, Mario levels on the most part are just left to right, All sonic levels also end on the right but often have sections where you go up, down, left or right.
I think for the most part Sonic 1 is 50% good and 50% bad. What I mean by that is that 3 zones, Green Hill, Spring Yard, and Starlight are fun zones, but Marble, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain mostly suck
The first Sonic was great, it’s my favorite in the series. My introduction to Sonic was part 2, but it’s boring compared to the initial game.
I cant wait until you cover Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I have huge nostalgia goggles on for it always - but its the perfect Sonic game to me. I wish they’d just try to make a proper sequel to it. Same sprites, etc.
I lice sonic 1 special stages allot for me they are the beder that 2 and 3
Great Review. This game is way too overhated for what it started.
You are so dam funny
Is that suppose to be sarcasm or you actually mean it?
@@Animator-boy-b8h i mean it, i love this dudes channel
@@Hadoriseternal oh ok
Im suprised at how critical people are with this game. Its not perfect yes but I think if you look past some of the bad stuff it still is a great game. If you have enough patience then im sure you can enjoy this. Ill admit though, labyrinth still is a pain.Obviously doesn't hold a candle to sonic 2, 3 & K, CD and mania of course. Should you still play THIS game. Id say yes if you have the patience.
Dude its the final boss its meant to be hard
Yeah honestly this game is better than CD but not by a lot. Being bounced around in CD and having no control is not fun and saying the music is amazing doesn’t save it. Only better things Sonic CD has is the Music, Story, Characters, and possibly the consistency. Sonic 1 is only better with the spindash and his other moves (Insta Shield, Drop Dash, Peelout) tho. Crazy that a small amount of people think CD is the best game in the Classic series. And 4 out of the 6 zones in the game are Good (yes I like Marble Zone cause you can actually go fast if you’re good). And the bosses are good too while CD bosses suck other than Metal Sonic.
Its better especially if you’re playing Sonic 1 Forever. If we’re talking Vanilla CD and Vanilla Sonic 1, CD wins easily.
2:44 nah nostalgia biased is
No mercy fans and Zelda fans
Basically Nintendo fans in general 😂
If you claim one of those N64 games can go toe to toe with any modern game you are out of your mind.
Sonic 1, 2 and 3 were great. It didn't transition well to 3D, nor does it need to.