50 Years of Video Games: Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis/Mega Drive)

It’s a tale told often in the retro video game world. The dominance of Nintendo with its plumber mascot dressed in red whose popularity seemed incontestable. Companies tried, and some made a good dent in the market, but it seemed like Mario and his creators were comfortably king of the industry. Sega had been a big name in the arcades for a while and then tried to transition into the console market, but their Mega Drive languished in Japan and even with the bold “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” ad campaign it was still struggling to prove itself in the United States. Soon though, a focused effort was made; Yuji Naka wanted the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. but faster, Naoto Ohshima created an appealing blue hedgehog character with attitude, and under the project name “Defeat Mario” they concocted a new side-scrolling platformer that would end up taking the world by storm. Sonic the Hedgehog, released in 1991, would usher in a new era for Sega and help them to even briefly wrest control of market dominance from Nintendo in the States, other companies began throwing together snarky animal mascots to leech off the game’s popularity, and even over 30 years later we still see “The Blue Blur”‘s first game ported to new consoles and released in game collections so often it definitely has a shot of becoming the most rereleased game of all time.

But what made this game land so well back then and resonate strongly enough now that they can keep selling it successfully again and again? While speed is often touted as the main strength of the Sonic the Hedgehog experience, it’s a reduction of the true appeal, this platformer not trying to capture the same thrills as a racing game since there are still enemies for the fast running hedgehog to avoid and pieces of the environment he needs to cautiously approach. The game’s first area, Green Hill Zone, had an eight month development period and it shows in that it encapsulates much of how the game actually handles speed and its relationship to level traversal.

In the best levels of Sonic the Hedgehog, the path forward is never just a flat track to run across but a layered space with multiple tiers you can travel through. If you choose to stick to the lowest level in Green Hill Zone you do have room to build up speed, but more enemies and spikes will threaten to interrupt and springs might be waiting to shoot you backwards if you aren’t paying attention. This area still has some moments of spectacle like a loop-de-loop you can pass through if you’re moving fast enough or walls you can smash through if you roll up into a ball while running, but you’ll either have to have good reflexes or gradually learn what’s ahead if you want to maintain speed. While the exact size of the level varies over time and between the zone’s three acts, middle tier areas often provide similar speedy movement that puts you a bit more out of range of danger, but the upper areas that are often the safest are also usually the slowest. Goodies can be found up here like extra lives and the platforming demands a lot more patience and smart jumping, but it’s not overly slow either so it offers a skill-focused route for those looking for a path where the risk is mostly just dropping to the areas below.

A lot of the environment in Green Hill Zone is also related to building up speed. Springs can assist you at times, either to reach higher areas or give you a surge of speed. Halfpipes and slopes allow you to curl up into a ball to build up momentum or you might need enough to actually rise out of them to the area above. While the original Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t have the spin dash that lets you accumulate speed at a standstill, the area design usually gives you a good amount of room to build up momentum when needed and maintaining it can lead to satisfying stretches where you’re zipping past danger or easily defeating enemies either by leaping into them or rolling through them. The game doesn’t give up ground too easily, you’ll have to mix in some jumping inevitably and enemies often have some means of hurting you if you don’t approach them right or give them a moment to attack, but the game tries to cultivate a sense in the player of when they can indulge themselves in high velocity action or when they should be a little cautious how fast they’re moving.

Green Hill Zone does a wonderful job setting up all of these ideas that helped Sonic the Hedgehog stand out back in 1991 and make it appealing still today, but as you move out of it and start exploring other levels, things begin to change. Some areas like Spring Yard Zone and Star Light Zone continue to build on the ideas seen in those early stages and throw in some reasonable shifts. Spring Yard has a lot of pinball inspired obstacles like bumpers and puts a lot more dangers like swinging spiked balls that can be cleared if you approach them at speed but if you miss your window you need to slow down and time your movement through. Star Light embraces ramps and slopes a lot more than other stages but also makes it easier to throw yourself into a deadly drop by mistake while the most common enemies are bombs you don’t want to get close to. However, for these three major zones, each one having three acts each so nine levels in total, there are also three other zones that shift up the action to some much slower platforming gameplay.

Once you enter Marble Zone, you’ll notice the ruins don’t give you much room to run. Once you run into the interior areas, there are long stretches of lava where you need to ride blocks to cross, timed spike traps you need to wait out and move past when it’s safe, and moments where you push blocks slowly onto switches. You’ll often get a surge of action here or there like running around outside or outrunning a lava flow, but the pacing is very different and your movement ends up much more deliberate. Labyrinth Zone has a good amount of the acts take place underwater and slows down Sonic’s actions while adding the need to grab air bubbles to avoid drowning, and the game’s final areas have more movements of moving through deadly level geometry patiently rather than explosively. Spring Yard even has moments where you will essentially have to stand on moving blocks and slowly walk between them, and the options for traversing levels often thin in the areas where the gameplay slows down. The good news is these areas still usually offer some solid platforming experiences besides the moments where you’re just waiting to progress, a few small puzzle elements thrown in that aren’t hard to solve but still mean you’re remaining active and involved, just not hitting the same heights as exploring large levels brimming with opportunity as you try to maintain your speed.

Apparently areas like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone were the game’s creators hedging their bets, these more traditional low speed but still dangerous platforming segments there in case the momentum-based tiered level designs elsewhere didn’t click with gamers. It seems the opposite was true in the end, as it can almost feel like you’re briefly playing a different style of game when these moments arise, but Sonic’s movement, the placement of enemies, and the general level layouts still mean that at least the less exciting style still has some appeal. Funnily enough though, this literal change of pace is probably done better elsewhere. If the developers felt they needed to slow down the game occasionally to prevent it from being overwhelmingly in its energy and pace, the boss battles already seemed a perfect fit for such a role.

In Sonic the Hedgehog, the villainous Doctor Robotnik has begun capturing small animals to serve as the energy source for his many robots. Sonic the Hedgehog heads out to help his animal friends, bashing open the robots to free the creatures within and gradually moving from the bright, sunny natural world near the start of the game to the industrial domain of the evil doctor. At the end of almost every zone, Sonic and Robotnik face off, the portly mustached scientist bringing some new attack method to try and take Sonic down this time. Robotnik’s flying capsule is a sturdy little thing that usually takes eight hits to destroy, this allowing the specific attachments he brings to the fight to have time to pose a threat. Save for the Labyrinth Zone encounter that oddly enough focuses on a vertical chase in the otherwise slowest area, Robotnik’s fights take place on a single screen and take advantage of that, things like a wrecking ball dominating a good amount of space so you need to avoid it while going for the jump attacks. The Spring Yard fight in particular is interesting due to its greater interactivity, the player needing to bait Robotnik into slamming down with his spike attachment and then dodge and jump into him to hurt him. However, that spike takes a chunk out of the ground each time it makes contact, the player needing to make sure they don’t run out of space before they’ve taken out their rather durable foe.

If you do take damage in Sonic the Hedgehog though, a rather interesting health system is at play. During levels you will find many floating golden rings to collect. These aren’t just there to bolster your score though, since whenever Sonic takes damage, so long as he has at least one ring, he’ll be able to survive it. However, all of the rings he has collected will fly out of him, the player able to even try and collect them before they disappear. The advantage to more rings ends up being that you have a better chance of collecting them if they’re knocked out of you, and the speed-focused moments of the game end up easier to handle since even if you do accidentally ram into an enemy, you’ll survive and can even gather up some scattered rings and get right back into the action without too much fear. There are moments that can still instantly kill Sonic though, things like drowning, deadly drops, and crushing all wiping him out instantly. In areas like the boss fights and areas with dangerous terrain the rings can end up out of reach before you can grab them and you might have to nurse a single one to try and survive, so danger is definitely present despite this intelligent means of letting the player embrace thrilling risks. However, there are a few little issues, like how the mercy invincibility after being hit by an attack doesn’t apply to spikes so you can get knocked onto them and instantly die, but it’s not a common enough concern to really cause consistent problems.

Underneath the basic goal of freeing his animal friends, Sonic the Hedgehog can also go for collecting six Chaos Emeralds to get a different, albeit barely changed, ending. Complete most boss-free levels with 50 rings or more you can enter a bonus stage where you tumble around a surreal space like a pinball, the area disorienting in its spinning and a bit rough to control. Grab the gem before getting booted out though and you can start working towards the alternate ending. While the reward is underwhelming, the 50 ring requirement already makes this clearly a small goal for more experienced players to shoot for rather than a way of gating players from something special, although the special stage designs definitely seem to focus more on confusion over interesting challenges so it’s harder to muster up the energy to really go for it.

Conversely, the game’s music feels like an unconditional success, making wonderful use of the Sega Genesis hardware when many other developers can feel like they struggle to realize its potential. A peppy intro on the title screen immediately gets you pumped before Green Hill Zone’s theme invites you in with a theme that packs the right amount of energy for speedy play but still feels bright and inviting so the sunny feeling fits if you’re trying to traverse through the slower layers. Marble Zone’s slower pace is complimented by a mysterious soundtrack that sounds a little more dangerous to match its spike traps and lava while Spring Yard has a carnival strut to it that fits its presentation. Star Light’s feels almost triumphantly pleasant as you push towards the game’s final zone, and whenever it’s time for fight Dr. Robotnik he’s ushered in with proper gravitas thanks to his march theme. Even regular sound effects have some distinct and effective sounds, contact with spikes having a pointed high pitched noise to emphasize the sudden injury, the sound of a defeated robot matching their popping to release the animal, and the music that plays as you begin to drown rapidly escalating an urgent nervous tune to match your efforts to leave the water or find an air bubble quickly. Music would go on to be an important element of the series, and no doubt it was because right out of the gate the sound design was nailed excellently.

THE VERDICT: At its best Sonic the Hedgehog is a thrilling platformer about building up and maintaining speed, but for every moment of exploring multi-tiered levels and using momentum to your advantage there are levels where a more ponderous pace leads to less exciting action. The moments of waiting out traps or carefully weaving through danger are still fine enough challenges and moments like the boss fights use the change in pace to their advantage as you need to be smart in how you move about the fight just like how you need to carefully respond to what’s ahead when moving quickly. Some excellent music keeps the game from ever losing its energy though and its moments of greatness make up for the times it seems to slow down for the sake of it, so while it is an uneven play, Sonic the Hedgehog is still an enjoyable platformer with a few incredible strengths.

And so, I give Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive…

A GOOD rating. The design ethos behind areas like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone would probably make for a mediocre platformer if embraced in full, but despite being included in case players needed a break from the zippier levels, these slower areas instead benefit by having the player head to more exciting levels between the ponderous play. It’s easier to accept slowly riding across lava or needing to carefully navigate underwater when around the corner is a zone that will provide you the greater freedom of movement and route choice that make this game so appealing. Speed isn’t just satisfying because it lets you get somewhat faster either, as you need to keep responding to what’s ahead, avoiding or destroying robots and leaping to cross gaps and potentially even find alternate routes with little rewards for starting to understand how to utilize the movement options momentum grants you. If Robotnik’s boss fights were increased in frequency but the actual slower and simpler stages were given more complex and speed focused designs than it feels like Sonic the Hedgehog could have had the kind of periodic break from speedy play required to avoid burnout without instead pushing the player away with moments of mild puzzles and careful jumping.

Sonic the Hedgehog would learn to embrace its identity more in future sequels and those really show the potential of its unique momentum-focused speedy platforming, but going back to the first game is still a fun time and its slower paced moments don’t ruin it so much as show that even in their efforts to take down their main competitor, Sega was still cautious and tried to shore things up with traditional play. Sonic would help propel them to greatness though and Sega itself began to embrace riskier ideas in general, some paying off like other unique game franchises while others like modular hardware and add-ons complicated things a bit too much. Sonic the Hedgehog became Sega’s mascot quickly and became the face of one of gaming’s biggest company rivalries even though in the present Nintendo and Sega work together routinely instead of vehemently try to outdo each other. It may not have fully realized its ideas, but when it does succeed, be it in the level designs or music, Sonic the Hedgehog is enjoyable enough that it’s no surprise that people still keep buying up this classic as it continues to stick with us by appearing on every console it can.