Retro Memories - Sonic the Hedgehog
Just in case you’re wondering, I’m talking about the original Mega Drive / Genesis version of Sonic the Hedgehog here, not the god awful next-gen version – the only memories I have of that one are bad.
When I first played the original Sonic the Hedgehog, it blew my mind, It was the fastest moving game of its time. It felt like there was so much going on, but yet it was so simplistic (in my opinion where these recent 3D releases have gone wrong) all three of the face buttons performed the same function – jump!
Each play through of the games levels felt like it had something new to offer, getting to the top of the levels brought great rewards. Unlike the sequels in the series – which added the spin-dash, you needed momentum from the ramps and pipes to actually get up to the top. Staying there, however was a much more difficult prospect, with pixel perfect jumps needed - platforming at its greatest!
At the tender age of 8 (when I first played the game) to be honest I wasn’t particularly good. I could only get to the second zone (Marble) no matter how hard I tried. Rather than putting me off, this actually spurred me on to keep trying, and reach that next level – practice most certainly makes perfect in this game. Even playing the game through now though, It’s probably the most difficult of the Mega Drive Sonic games. It seems to have just the right level of difficulty, straddling the line perfectly between Stupidly easy and Frustratingly difficult.
Whilst the game has been re-released many many times over the years, these have mostly been emulated versions of the classic. The mega drive version was simply the complete package, from box-art to the instruction manual, everything was beautifully designed.
Posted in Retro Memories