Sonic the Hedgehog

North American Genesis box art.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a platform action game developed and published by Sega and first released for the Genesis on 1991-06-23. It is the first game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Personal

I had seen commercials for Sonic the Hedgehog long before I had played it. A middle school friend of mine had a Genesis and I played it at his house. I remember being very impressed with the way the game looked, but I found it to be quite difficult. I tried running through the game and kept hitting enemies, spikes, and various other hazards. All in all, I didn't enjoy the game, and, to this day, I still don't care much for Sonic games.

Status

I do not own this game and I have never beaten it.

Review

4	3	7	7	5

Best Version: Genesis

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has fantastic background graphics, sprites, and animation.
• Masato Nakamura's music is very enjoyable.
• The evolving boss battles are pretty good. Nothing too crazy, but different enough to show a steady increase in the challenging.
• In the few areas where it's safe to run fast, it's wonderful to watch Sonic moving at top speed.
• Sonic dropping all his rings is a cool graphic effect.
• The bonus stages are a nice break from the regular levels.

Bad

• The plot doesn't make any sense. Why is Dr. Robotnik turning woodland creatures into robots when he's interested in obtaining the chaos jewels?
• Getting a 1up from accruing 100 rings seems awfully derivative of the coins in Super Mario Bros.
• Sonic is very slow and difficult to control when you have to go up hills without enough space to build up speed.

Ugly

• The game's main gimmick is that you can run fast, but, in reality, running fast will just get you killed. Since Sonic is centered on the screen, you have only a split second to react to hazards, not nearly enough for most humans. To stand a chance of success, you must slowly make your way through each section gently, avoiding the many hazards, until you have each level memorized; it's quite tedious.

Media

Documentation

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Manual.pdf

  Genesis manual.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Manual (Japan).pdf

  Mega Drive Japanese manual.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Ad (Europe).jpg

  European ad.

Maps

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Green Hill Zone - Act 1.png

  Green Hill Zone, Act 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Green Hill Zone - Act 2.png

  Green Hill Zone, Act 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Green Hill Zone - Act 3.png

  Green Hill Zone, Act 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Marble Zone - Act 1.png

  Marble Zone, Act 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Marble Zone - Act 2.png

  Marble Zone, Act 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Marble Zone - Act 3.png

  Marble Zone, Act 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Spring Yard Zone - Act 1.png

  Spring Yard Zone, Act 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Spring Yard Zone - Act 2.png

  Spring Yard Zone, Act 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Spring Yard Zone - Act 3.png

  Spring Yard Zone, Act 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Labyrinth Zone - Act 1.png

  Labyrinth Zone, Act 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Labyrinth Zone - Act 2.png

  Labyrinth Zone, Act 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Labyrinth Zone - Act 3.png

  Labyrinth Zone, Act 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Star Light Zone - Act 1.png

  Star Light Zone, Act 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Star Light Zone - Act 2.png

  Star Light Zone, Act 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Star Light Zone - Act 3.png

  Star Light Zone, Act 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Scrap Brain Zone - Act 1.png

  Scrap Brain Zone, Act 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Scrap Brain Zone - Act 2.png

  Scrap Brain Zone, Act 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Scrap Brain Zone - Act 3.png

  Scrap Brain Zone, Act 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Special Stage - 1.png

  Special Stage - 1.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Special Stage - 2.png

  Special Stage - 2.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Special Stage - 3.png

  Special Stage - 3.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Special Stage - 4.png

  Special Stage - 4.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Special Stage - 5.png

  Special Stage - 5.

• Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN - Maps - Special Stage - 6.png

  Special Stage - 6.

Fan Art

• 

  Fan art by Chris McGuire.

• 

  What if Sonic ran like an idiot?

Videos

Review - Segaiden.

Postmortem.

Longplay.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Sonic the Hedgehog
Japanese	ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ	Sonikku za Hejjihoggu	Sonic the Hedgehog

Links