User:Athena Hawkins/Rating Sonic Games II

Hello guys. I need to take a break from REAL LIFE and the ZAXINIAN LIFTS so I'm writing reviews for games belonging to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as that series is the one I grew up most with, and I have most of the series' games. Having played them since I was two, and now that I'm seventeen, I have been playing them for approximately fifteen years of my life. With those facts said, I have a perfect right to judge the series and almost all of its games, so why not get started with some reviews?

I will only be reviewing the games that I have PLAYED, so ones like Sonic Lost World are out of the question, and I will also avoid writing reviews for games I have only played mere demos of, such as Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. I will write each game with a synopsis on what it is, what I think of its content, and I will provide a final score, ranking from E (worst), D (bad), C (okay), B (good), A (great), and to S (best).

Sonic the Hedgehog


The very first game of the series, this 1991 Sega Mega Drive title is one of a few that people think of when it comes to classical Sonic games, and it has been met with critical acclaim since launch and saw rerelease on various systems, such as on the Nintendo Gamecube's Sonic Mega Collection title and the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console program. It is this game and its sequel that began this mass rivalry against Nintendo's Super Mario, and they've been fighting for a solid decade. Then you have weird things happen like Olympics crossovers.

Like many classics, this game had a simple plot: Sonic's animal friends start to disappear as the evil Dr. Robotnik converts them into "Badniks", a series of robots that he created, as part of a scheme to gain the six Chaos Emeralds within South Island, the game's home location. Sonic decides that it's his duty to stop them, so he goes out to kick Robotnik out of his land with his spiny butt. This was actually mentioned only in the Japanese manual so no one in America heard of it unless they looked up this stuff online.

In terms of gameplay, Sonic the Hedgehog has some pretty straight-forward gameplay here, folks. Get to the end-level sign post within ten minutes whilst collecting rings to save your skin, defeat Badniks by rolling into them or jumping into them, and jump on springs and beat the bad Robotnik at each Zone's third act. This style of gameplay would carry into the rest of the main classic series, although the Zones eventually had only two acts and there would be occasional changes to overall gameplay in design, but we're not here to talk about that.

Let's get egg crackin' on things.

Gameplay Factor
This is really basic gameplay, but it works. It's really typical gameplay, it's nothing special, but it did set up the formula of the series and it did a good job in setting the series' standards. However, the gameplay is kind of slow, and going fast is rather difficult for reasons I will explain in the next section. In addition, it's basically simple run and jump for the most part, but ehh I'll let it slide because the game is like a guinea pig experiment in order to rival Mario. It'll receive a B - sort of flawed, but it works and became a good basis game design for the rest of the main series to follow.

Level Design
Now, the gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty good, but the level design has rather mixed reception from me. The game starts off with Green Hill Zone, which has three, solidly built Acts, but it tricks you into thinking that the rest of the game has that sort of good speed, and the following levels such as Marble and Labyrinth are slow-paced and rather uninteresting for the most part. In addition, a lot of the level design prevents you from going fast in later levels, and even speed-oriented levels such as Spring Yard Zone often stop you from going fast with an obstacle such as a bumper. It'll receive a C...it's not bad design, but it doesn't really compliment what the game was going for really.

Presentation
And the presentation of the game is where the game really shines. With colorful graphics, fairly detailed backgrounds and pleasant looking stages without odd choices of colors. The soundtrack is really good too, each theme accurately represents their stages and they're all colorful and neat to listen to. The boss theme though is oddly intimidating and frightening however, especially as none of the bosses are even difficult and are actually simple and easy to defeat. The presentation receives an A in effort, the creators knew what they were doing for overall presentation.

Difficulty & Challenge
Sonic the Hedgehog, at least in my opinion, isn't really a balanced game. The first level, Green Hill, is pretty easy, but Marble Zone is much more difficult in comparison and it's easy to die with the sudden lava, and the enemy placement can be awful at times, and the hazards just add insult to injury such as crusher pillars. Spring Yard Zone and Star Light Zone are easier and are more forgiving, but Labyrinth Zone can easily crush a player's dreams of making it to the game's end. Scrap Brain's difficulty is reasonable, but some parts of it randomly throw you off stage if you're not careful when you come out of things such as those weird elevators. It's a good challenge, but the difficulty can be unforgiving. For such, it receives a D.

Boss Design
Bosses are known for being definitive characteristics of video games. They're usually there, you have to beat them to move on. And of course, at the end Act of every Zone besides Scrap Brain, Dr. Robotnik awaits the player in a machine. But are these good bosses? The first one has an alright difficulty, but the rest are laughably easy besides the Labyrinth boss, which was honestly just a lazy game of chase while escaping rising water. The final boss is also a CRUSHING disappointment (get it?), and altogether these are some rather inexcusable pieces of garbage. I am giving Sonic Team an E for their efforts, these are easily some of the worst bosses they have ever created for the Sonic franchise.

Bonuses
Sonic the Hedgehog offers bonus stages which are rotating arenas that keep Sonic in a ball as he seeks out the Chaos Emerald. They're not really too challenging but can be ultimately frustrating and really have no purpose except for receiving a "good ending", which isn't worth it as hardly anything changes for the good ending. They're more of a time waster than anything...they get a D, they're not very special at all, but are at least decent challenges?

So Far...

 * Brank_jaysonjean.png - Gameplay
 * Crank_jaysonjean.png - Level Design
 * Arank_jaysonjean.png - Presentation
 * Drank_jaysonjean.png - Difficulty & Challenge
 * Erank_jaysonjean.png - Boss Design
 * Drank_jaysonjean.png - Bonuses

Final Verdict
So Sonic the Hedgehog isn't that good of a game, but it's ultimately a guinea pig experiment made in order to rival and beat Super Mario. I can understand how it could appeal to others by having some unique mechanics like collecting Rings to save their skins, but to me it's a slow, clunky mess. However, the core mechanics and the presentation really do shine here, and the colors of the game coax me to play the game again and again, although I continue to quit the game on reaching Labyrinth Zone as I just don't really care for that level.

Based on these factors...



I give the game a C Rank. It's rather average and meh in fields, but it does have a few shining factors. It's only really worth playing if you enjoy playing labyrinth-styled games, but as someone who expected the game to be fast, it doesn't really go fast. You could even say it's too slow.

Poll
What Sonic game do I do next? Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles Sonic 3D Blast