VideoGame Worth its Price, at Least
Sonic 1 is a lot like other platforming ip debuts in that it's not bad, but everything it does has been done better by later entries.
One of the hallmarks of good Sonic games is not just speed, but rewarding the player for understanding the game's controls and mechanics to a T and taking advantage of them to blitz stages even more quickly than the game usually shows off for. This type of design is even present in the more ''automated'' entries
, but here, the game's greatest strength, this speed, is undercut with level design that goes out of its way to stop you from setting up a good pace for the entirety of Marble, 1/2 of Spring Yard, Labyrinth and Scrap Brain, which by measure of time, is more than half of the game. What we're left with isn't bad per se, but in this day and age, it's average to a fault.
Other than that, Sonic himself handles beautifully. His jump and roll attacks do their jobs with minimal, forgivable hiccups, although jumping out of a roll disables your control, leading to some potshots. He has a cap on his ground speed, which can only be surpassed by rolling given a slope and understanding of which ones are suitable for use, but again, there are long stretches where the game just refuses to let you make use of it.
Not to mention its presentation. There are none of those chunky, muddy sprites you think of when ''early genesis'' comes to mind, and the soundtrack is eleven times better than what can only be described as the twang that plagued most Genesis games. The first half is surprisingly catchy, and I've caught myself humming Spring Yard and and Marble Zone's themes out loud several times.
It's a... B-Ok game. Pick it up you're curious about the franchise's origins, or if you're a fan, but otherwise, just stick with CD and 3&K. Sonic 1 is available for the Genesis, Saturn on Sonic Jam, Dreamcast through the Sega Smash Pack, GBA, DS and PSP through the classic collection, Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox via the mega collection, 7th-gen consoles by independent download and on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, Steam, mobile devices, and probably your toaster. Just stay the hell away from the GBA version. It's a pretty sloppy port.
VideoGame Clever one, Sega. Clever one
I wasn't really looking forward to the first entry of the Sonic series, to be honest. But, who knew? It's actually pretty decent!
One thing that Sonic has going for it is its... rather personal approach to level design: the game actively punishes you for trying out its greatest strength, which is the speed the character can really simply build up; the level design is filled to the limit with spikes, springs that send you flying back into a pit, enemies that don't announce their presence in any way... and walls. Ouch. The really big character on screen isn't a problem until you start running, but when you do, it's a disaster. Although, to be honest, even if you had a bigger screen or a shorter character, you'll still have problems with the enemy's placement and the way they pop out of the right side of the television (case in point: Sonic Mania).
But this is the point: until you start going fast. One thing I really like about classic Sonic games is the fact that its greatest strength is hidden after a level design and an interface that doesn't support it. But everything is under the control of your buttons, so it's not really "trial and error", because nobody's forcing you to go fast. You might want, but you have to play by the rules to get there. And once you do, it's glorious: hidden paths, shortcuts, rewards, high scores... it's absolutely amazing when you can actually master this speed and unlock naturally what the game always had in store for you. There is a real sense of reward in mastering the level and making that awful death-trap-filled hell into a playground.
The first one of the series, however, also has a weird fetish for slow platforming. And we're talking about REALLY slow platforming here. Blocks and buttons and stuff. Is it bad? No... but those levels are kind of lacking in terms of personality, and they fill like, half of the game. It feels like the developers were both giving the players a time out and experimenting with various kinds of physics. Again, not bad, but far from what makes these games amazing.
All things considered, this is still a pretty nice game and a good introduction to the series. And if you don't like the learning curve of the speed levels, maybe you'll appreciate the slow ones more than I do. My personal ranking of the zones would be:
Green Hill > Starlight Zone > Spring Yard Zone > Labyrinth Zone > Scrap Brain and Final Zone > Marble Zone
Overall, the game's a solid 8/10. Not outstanding, but pretty sweet indeed.