Sega Genesis #3: Sonic the Hedgehog

Even though Sega had already been in the home console game for around ten years, this is where Sega began for most people. It's so synonymous with the company that it's hard to even think about Sega games existing before this, and yet they had been in the game a long time. They started out as a 3rd party publisher releasing games on Atari and Colecovision, and in 1986 they released the Master System which competed with the NES. Heck, Sonic's wasn't even their original mascot. That honor goes to Alex Kidd. He had a strong start on the Master System, but his subsequent games ruined the character. Hey, that sounds a little familiar.

Sonic the Hedgehog was released about two years into the life of the Genesis, and it caused millions of kids to suddenly want one. I'll never forget those old commercials. Sonic seemed so fast and exciting. We all doubted that Nintendo could do a game like that. They also had Larry Cedar dressed up like and old lady with tongue-in-cheek references to Mario. Back then Mario was the king of video games, and I had never heard him mentioned negatively anywhere. It was like I was suddenly in an alternate universe where there were other machines to play video games on. I was actually pretty excited.

By the time I realized that I wanted a Genesis in 1991 "Santa" had already gotten me a SNES. Luckily that thing was awesome, and I was able to put Sonic out of my mind until next Christmas. There are some things I will always remember, and one of those is the first time I played Sonic. First of all, when you turned on a Genesis game it would talk to you. That was almost cool enough right there to justify getting the new system. Of course it also had all those good games. That was definitely a plus.

Sonic blew me away when I first played it. The style of game was familiar, but everything about it was different. It was super fast, had those giant levels with branching paths and plenty of hidden treasures, that cool rotating bonus level, and of course the unique ring system. Ever since Super Mario Brothers came out games had you collecting 100 of something. Occasionally it was only 50, but the end result was usually just a 1-up. Sonic changed everything by making the rings he collected act as his life bar. Sure you could get an extra life at 100, but that was only part of it. It was contorting to know that you would be safe as long as you had 1 ring left.

I played the heck out of this game as a kid. I loved pausing the game at certain times to reveal funny graphical moments. Times like when Dr. Robotnik's giants glowing wrecking ball would be solid brown, or when two swinging platforms in Marble Zone would swing towards each other and actually fuse together for a moment. This is something I still do when I play the game, and it shows how obsessive about this game I was.

This game was also quite hard, and it was years before I ever actually beat it. I always got hung up on Labyrinth Zone. All those hidden spikes and drowning possibilities got to me. I've still only been to Starlight and Scrap Brain Zone a few times. What I had to do to beat this game was walk away for a while and try again when I was older. When I played it again in high school I suddenly found out that I was awesome at Sonic. When I beat the game I had over 20 lives and every emerald and continue that was available. I actually felt a little silly having so much trouble with it, but that's the game. I was only so good because I knew all those earlier levels well and could snatch up all the rings and lives.

I thought that it might be difficult again playing it now after so long, but I didn't have too much trouble. I don't think I died until Labyrinth Zone, but after that I died plenty. I still got all the emeralds, and I had forgotten how disappointing the ending was. Well that's Sega for you. I did have a great time playing it though. It took a little under an hour, and it was a nice way to spend a Friday evening.

So that's Sonic the Hedgehog. It's the game that started arguments all over the country among kids who weren't that into sports. Mario vs Sonic debates are still heated today. This also marks the beginning of what was probably the greatest era in gaming. All of a sudden Nintendo had competition and that caused them to make better games. There would be countless classics from both companies, and a few stray ones on other systems, for the next 6 years or so before Sega started to implode and Sony became the new king in town. Still, I doubt any of our childhoods would have been nearly as fun without Sega's glory days.

Oh, and on a side note my girlfriend also beat Sonic for the first time soon after I got done with it. It took her a lot more lives, but she stuck with it and was able to take down Robotnik with no trouble. I think she deserves a round of applause, so clap for her when you read this. She won't be able to hear you, but I think she'll still appreciate it.

Sega Genesis #2: Pocahontas

I played through this game on special request from my girlfriend. She told me that it was one of her favorite games as a kid. It actually took her a while to track down an affordable copy. I guess it's not that common even though it's a licensed property from the 16 bit glory days. She used to tell me all about this game putting special emphasis on how easy it was. I wonder if this old video game pro will find the game as easy as he expects it to be?

Actually this game drove me crazy! It's an interesting little game that is sort of the kid version of Prince of Persia. There's lots of ledge jumping and puzzle solving, but not nearly as many spikes. You also get to switch between Meeko the raccoon and Pocahontas by pressing the C button. This leads to some interesting puzzles, and for some gamers extremely frustrating situations. You also get abilities from animals such as being able to run and swim faster which is always a plus.

However, this didn't keep me from being completely hopeless in the first level. Of course the best part was that my girlfriend got to watch the whole thing. Dying isn't particularly easy on this game, but you can do things that make the game take much longer. I was expecting this game to take about 15 minutes, but it ended up taking a few hours. You often need Pocahontas to help Meeko get through certain spots, so of course I would run way ahead of him and have to slowly go back and recover him. Meeko can't swim, so of course at every body of water I would either forget to push him a log or I would just miss my jump. I still have nightmares of a poor little raccoon struggling in the water. Don't worry though, Meeko can't die in this one. In addition to all that I missed all the easy puzzles. The ones that just involved pushing a rock were the ones I overlooked in search of something more complex. Sometimes the simplest solution is best.

In fact the only thing I was good at was all that ledge jumping. Of course this is the one thing in the game my girlfriend wasn't good at. Would you expect it to work out any other way?

So there I was making myself look like a fool while my girlfriend laughed at me. I know that sounds bad, but I actually had a great time playing this one. I feel very fortunate to have a girlfriend who plays old games along with me. We had a great time as we laughed at my ineptitude. It was one of those dream relationship moments. My only regret is that I didn't beat the game during that first sitting. Those see-saws were just too damn hard to get past and by then it was pretty late.

I actually beat the game the next day, and it was one of the most enjoyable games that I've played for this blog so far. The game is good but not great, but it it sure had a good story attached to it. My girlfriend grew up loving that game many years ago. It took her forever to find a copy, and when she finally did she shared it with me. I think my favorite part about video games is that they bring couples together. That and explosions. They're pretty cool too.

Sega Genesis #1: World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck

So this is the first Genesis game I've done for my blog, but I'm not going to spend too much time introducing it. Not much to introduce really. I never played it until last weekend. I recently discovered that I have over 50 Genesis games at my disposal, but I have played through very few of them. Since so many of them are character based platform games I should be able to cross them off my list quickly. Hopefully the games don't prove me wrong.

I think it's fitting that the first game I picked to play was a Mickey Mouse game. Genesis was best known for two things: sports games and licensed character games. I'm not sure why they were so popular. Were there not enough original characters on the system? Many of the games were also released on Super Nintendo, but it seems like they were more popular on Genesis. I can't think of anyone who played the SNES version of Aladdin. It was all about Genesis. World of Illusion was a Genesis exclusive, and it's one I never played as a kid. That's kind of a shame, because I think my window for maximum enjoyment of this game passed quite a few years ago.

If there was ever a game that didn't need a password it's this one. It's one of the shortest platform games I've ever played. I think it's only got five levels, and none of them besides that water level are much of a challenge. The whole thing only takes about 20 minutes. On top of that the password is a little confusing. It has various Disney characters on playing cards. Most of them are recognizable, but there are a couple obscure ones. Back in the early 90s you would not have been able to take a digital picture of it, so you'd have to write it down. Hopefully you know who Horace Horsecollar is because that would certainly help. On top of that you have to toggle through all the different cards, so if you miss one you have to go all the way back through them.

Well for someone who claims to not need a password I sure seem to know a lot about it. Okay so maybe I used it once, but it was pretty late when I started the game and I had other things to do. I hope you don't think less of me because I admitted that. Okay now that I've written a giant paragraph about the password I can move on to the game.

World of Illusion is a pretty good concept, but I wish there was more to it. Mickey and Donald stumble into a magical world controlled by a powerful wizard. At least he thinks he's powerful. It's got your basic platform elements in it, but magic is the real gimmick. Every level you get a new magical spell. At first I thought I was actually going to use them when I felt like it, but they are used at preset times. You do get to hear Mickey and Donald say "alakazam" so that's pretty cool. The spells give you a magic carpet for the flying level, a giant bubble for the underwater level, and a teleporting box for the level where everything is huge (my personal favorite). It's not much, but it does make the game a little more interesting than just walking to the right and swooshing your magic blanket at everything.

You can see the Sonic influence in the level design. There are branching paths you can take with hidden power ups. All this is just fine, but what bugs me about this one is the bosses. This game has just about the easiest bosses I've ever seen. It's not only because it's a kid's game either. I've played many games designed for kids in my day but nothing compares to this. That spider boss doesn't even do anything. He just climbs up and down until you kill him. The clock boss is odd but definitely not a challenge. The only boss that was difficult at all was the shark boss, but I blame this more on poor design than anything else. In fact the final boss might have been the easiest of the bunch. I'm not sure if he ever even hit me. If his magic truly is stronger than Mickey's than you'd think he could at least fought back.

Oh yeah I just remembered something else that the Genesis is known for: bad endings. This one certainly fits the description. They get back and finish their magic act, and then as the credits roll Mickey and Donald walk over a hill in the forest. And then they walk over the same hill again. Then they walk over the same hill again. I was really hopping that they were going somewhere, but in the end they just stop and look at you. I guessed they realized that they weren't getting anywhere. That's about how I felt when it was all over.

Anyway I don't mean to be so hard on this game. It's not bad. It's a good one to pick up at your local used game store if you're looking for a Genesis game to beat. I just wish the developers would've went a little bit further. If it had more levels, harder bosses, and a way to select different magics for different situations than it could've been a great game. At one point the game shows you a list of the cast members. This includes Goofy, Daisy, Mini, and several others. However, their only appearance is in the audience during the magic show. You just see their little heads sticking out. That's how I feel about this game. It has potential, but it's just not all there. How's that for a good analogy?