Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega Genesis

There are only two revisions of Sonic 1 released on cart, and the only places where the later revision was released were Japan and Korea, so there will be no difference between any of the US and Europe versions. The one you linked to is the standard European one btw. By 'mainstream' you might be thinking of the US one.

The Japan revision, REV01, merely adds subtleties like moving clouds in Green Hil Zone and possibly fixes some bugs. Gameplay itself is the same. There is one more revision of Sonic 1, found in Sonic Mega Collection, which is the Japan one with the spike damage behavior changed to that of Sonic 2.

Some Japan carts have the REV00 US/EU revision, and as far as I know there's no way to tell which one a cart is by looking at it :/

 

Essentially that's the UK box but the Megadrive markings have been replaced with Genesis ones.

Good thing if you ask me, the UK art shits over the US imo. If only they'd maintained that style for Sonic 2 as well.

 

It's the Canadian version.

 

I have that same one, an ebay seller promised me a "North American" copy with the US box art, only for me to receive the Canadian version. For that price it's not worth it, I bought mine for $6 with free shipping.

 

If that's on official version, then somebody goofed putting the boxart together...The Mega Drive markings have all been changed to Genesis, but under "16-BIT CARTRIDGE" on the front, it says "For use with the Sega Mega Drive video entertainment system".

 

Up until about five years ago, that was the only Sonic The Hedgehog cover art I knew about. It kicks arse compared to the colourful one with all the loops and rings. I love this cover. It's the one I have.

 

Man. That box art makes me super nostalgic; my first console was an MD with that and SoR (UK PAL).

 

Wow, that's pretty nifty. Reminds me of a bit of culture shock I experienced back during the 90s when I made a friend whose family moved here from England, and this kid had a ton of Mega Drive games, and even a Master System add-on with games for that. I don't even think I'd heard of the Master System yet. Imagine my surprise after seeing completely different box art for Sonic 1 and learning about the console name difference, at like 9 years old. Sonic & Knuckles hadn't been out for very long, and the 16-bit era was starting to fade away as the 32-bit consoles and the N64 took over the market.

I miss those days. He eventually moved back to England a few years later, and I saw him one more time when they were on their way out to Arizona, when I was 18. This kid is totally part of the reason for my user name, and why I managed to stick with Sonic in the latter part of the 90s (I find it oddly coincidental that they moved here around '95 and moved back when the Dreamcast came out). I met him around the time I conceived TJ, and he ended up getting a Saturn with Sonic Jam, which was where I first saw the Sonic CD intro - and as you know, the video on Sonic Jam plays 'You Can Do Anything'. One of the first 'comic books' I drew as a kid was called the Sonic Warriors, and it was about TJ, this kid I knew, and our other friend, and we were all Sonic fans who got to meet Sonic and friends after rescuing them from the Death Egg. It was cheesy, spawned two or three more comic books, and years later transitioned into a horrible fanfic that lasted waaaaaaaaaaaay too long.

So...um...thanks, Lord Kanti, for the nostalgia trip. Much appreciated. I got my own Saturn and Sonic Jam a few years back when I started college. Maybe I'll go trip some more.

 

Yeah that's the PAL version. I think what's funny is that you guys are like "The PAL art is so much better" where as when I imported the US version of Sonic 1 my friend and I were like "Wow. The American art is so much cooler." Still nothing beats the art for Sonic 2.

EDIT. I retract that statement. The Sonic and Knuckles logo is still one of the coolest images I have ever seen.

 

This.

 

I've always liked the European cover for Sonic 1. It's subdued, but not bland. Nice midpoint between the other covers. I always kind of got the feeling as a kid that this was one of those images that was iconic. Even thought I personally preferred the design for Sonic 2, with Eggman looming over them, there's something nicely understated about this one that leaves it feeling... I dunno how to say it. Definitive.

 

Funnily enough, I did the same thing as a kid. And was all "Wow! American" over it as well. I think back in those days, British kids thought that anything to do with America, and anything from there was awesome. I really was obsessed with the place since I first saw Home Alone.

Now? I just see it as a horrible, depressing shithole of a place, full of boring, annoying, stupid people. (*ahem* Apart from the Americans here at Retro naturally ). And for that reason I can now objectively say that our box art was actually better looking, although I am tempted to redraw the Genesis box art in the Euro/Jap style, 'cos I think that would look pretty sweet!

 

It's a toss-up for me.

I like that the Japanese/Euro boxes have the characters drawn on-model (with the exception of stuff like Sonic 3...what happened? and avoid things like Sonic's sawblade spines or his absolutely painful-looking "3" gesture on the cover of Sonic 3. There's also something I just like about the little doodles in the background of the Sonic 1 box, even though I'm not usually fond of characters floating in space.

I like the American artwork for having elaborate background designs that make the covers look like they could be fully realized pieces of art hanging on a wall somewhere rather a bunch of stock art essentially copy pasted on with no context. Plus I've always liked the airbrushed look, I still strongly associate it with Sonic.

Sonic & Knuckles is an exception though. It's one of the rare cases where simple works because the logo is just such a friggin' cool design. It's like the 1989 Batman poster.

 

I feel really stupid only learning recently that the N64 ran on a 64 bit MIPS architecture...

 

I disagree. With the US version, you get a better idea of what's in the game, while that box is just a copy/paste stock boxart.

The Master System version, however...



Best of both worlds.

 

I completely forgot about that. Awesome!

 

The rings ruin it for me. Sonic being stock art I can tolerate since he actually fits into the scene (even though the scale seems wrong and he doesn't have a shadow), but it looks like the same ring was just copy pasted loads of times with no rhyme or reason. There's no sense of scale or perspective with them.

The backdrop is beautiful though. It's pretty much how I'd imagine Sonic 1 HD to look.

 

Korean versions from my own collection.