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.