What's the best part of the Sonic series?

I think what really drew me into the series were the designs and the music. Sonic 2 was the first game I ever played back when I was 4 years old. I was horrible at it, but I kept coming back to it. I don't remember everything about those times, but I doubt I was drawn in as a result of the gameplay, because I had no frame of reference and I was absolutely awful at the game (it took me 9 years to beat Sonic 2 without cheat codes). But the art and the music really stuck with me, and I think that's what made me come back to the games in those early years. I think that's partially why I continue to come back to the series, and it's also why I get upset if a game is not on point aesthetically or musically. For example, Modern vs Classic character designs may be a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, but I fell in love with the Classic designs. Seeing Sonic in Sonic 06 (the worst offender design wise IMO) shits all over that.

 

Sonic The Hedgehog was basically the perfect game for me; there was so much in it that fitted what I needed in a game, it only made harder for me to spot any weak points in it (except for special stages, I badly hate those). Anyway, this is too ambiguous to answer your question, so I'll be more specific:

- The engine:
Speed is nice, and everyone knows its engine was way ahead of its time, but the relevant fact here is that it felt so natural, so intuitive, I didn't even need to practice. Of course, I had to practice to overcome specific elements from different zones, and the boss chase at Labyrinth zone kept me away from beating the game without cheats for a long time, but I just was one with Sonic whenever I played the game.

- Controls:
This is more like an appendix of the previous line, but, well, whatever. Sonic The Hedgehog had really condensed controls: Start button for pausing, D-pad for directions, and any other button in the game pad to do the very same thing, jump and attack in a single action. Not just that, but the attack was mantained until Sonic was back in the ground, and, a less original feature, the jump distance and height varied if you kept the action button pressed, something really useful in this kind of engine. You want to attack while on the ground? Just move and press down, you'll be rolling grounded instead of spinning in the air, and that's all. No need to think which button did what, no possible mistakes, just what you wanted as soon as you thought of it.

- The graphics:
There are two main things about these that made me love them: first, the backgrounds art and parallax effect made me had a strong 3D feel, they really looked like they were far, and, sometimes, the foreground tiles helped a lot with this (green hill cliffs, the indoors and outdoors effects...); but, second and equally important, the constant presence of geometry and tdimensions measured in powers of two, made it a really ordered environment, unreal but coherent. It's hard to explain, but this all stunned me and made me feel safe and calm at the same time, like an ideal flawless world so impossible, yet so right.

- The sound:
This one itsn't so trascendental as the others, but I liked that kind of music, and tracks usually fitted the place they were assigned to (not very fond of Labyrinth music for Labyrinth zone, I prefer the 8-bit track). As of today, Star Light theme makes me feel better when I'm sad.

- The plot:
Simple, but very symbolic: natural life against cold technology, balance and harmony against selfish intentions, true and strong positive feelings against the corruption of power, the wild freedom against the excessive control of man's hand. it doesn't need explanation, your heart knows which is the paradise and which is the hell.

- Difficulty:
Ok, Sonic The Hedhehog wasn't really a hard game, but, if you've watched Yasuhara's exposition, you'll understand better what I'm gonna say: Sonic could be fast, some areas could have been harder than others, but the stress was kept at healthy levels, because, no matter the danger, you could always go at your own pace, you could take a second to think which was the best way to go ahead and avoid traps or beat the bosses (well, except maybe in that goddamn Labyrinth boss chase). Knowing you have the power, that it's all up to you, no matter what dangers lied ahead, was really comforting. Underwater air supply may have something to argue about this, but it was a reasonable danger and there were air bubbles all over the place.

This has been long, and doesn't point to a single element to decide the best thing in it, but you've seen a common characteristic on all points I've explained: almost everything was right where it had to be, Sonic world felt real and ready for anyone to explore and enjoy it. I don't get this feeling enough with many other games, specially modern 3D games, be them Sonic games or not. They can have a lot of gimmicks, stunning graphics and stunts, but they are mechanics, developed things, not an alternate reality you enter just pushing a button. This is what I feel with Sonic, and I don't need to think about it to explain it, it's obvious for me.

Well, this was indeed a good place to write the last post of my trial period. See you on the other side (or maybe not).

 

That you get to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of Dr. Eggman.

 

Sonic's design, attitude and the music. I liked that at first Sonic was jerk, but he still did the right thing. And his design screams that to me (which is why I like the OVA version of him a lot.)

And I especially love the city levels in the games.

 

The level art. The first picture I ever drew back when I was 3 was Emerald Hill- it was just a single green line with dips and loops and yellow circles for rings. There was probably a little stick figure Sonic in there somewhere, but I'm not even sure. I think it was incredibly prescient that it was the geometry and scale of that world that captivated me before anything else. Most kids probably would've focused on the characters first. The trajectory of my entire life was pretty much set with that drawing.

 

Before seeing Sonic in 1991 (I was maybe 8 years old), I wasn't actually interested in video games, In fact I wouldn't touch any games for a few reasons....Mainly because I preferred Lego blocks and adventuring outside with the neighborhood kids, I was also very creative with crafts and drawing. And even back then I had the mind set that games were bad for you by hearing what some adults were saying on TV and in school. So it made accepting games a little harder.

If someone like a friend showed me a game, and asked if I wanted to play, I was already bored watching them play, and turned them down, because they just looked soooo dull and frustrating, most of the games that i was shown were overhead shooters with bland colors. and or games that looked kinda pointless. but than again I didn't really get to see any good playthrews of these games because my friend would always die and get frustrated and than we'd go out to play.

The first time I seen Sonic, it was a warm summer day, and I remember going over to a friends house with the intent to get into his lego sets, Anyways he fired up the TV and the Sega genesis and there was Sonic! The game was unlike anything that I had ever seen before. (compared to previous visits where he attempted to force me to play games like Tetris and 1942 on the NES, And yes even Mario failed to grab my attention!)

I could go on and on about the best parts of Sonic, but I think the guys above pretty much covered it all. It was Flashy! Lots of colors, simple but difficult controls, It gave you something fun to master. And the biggest thing that I remember was that we'd joke about when Sonic was ducking , that he was licking his sack.........
Anyways Sonic had that really amazing hook that even sucked me into the world of games. And I was very jaded about playing games before that.

 

If I personally had to pick the one exact thing that is the best from the franchise, I honestly have to go with the music. We can all agree that pretty much all (except for a handful of games) from the franchise has had some of the most epic music from any video game franchise. Even if the game play sucked, the music was phenomenal.

 

Physics. You know, I skipped a generation and went straight from the Atari 2600 to the Genesis, so I was used to much simpler games. My Genesis was bundled with Sonic 1, and I immediately fell in love with how smooth everything was. The physics felt "just right", and to this day it remains the gold standard for platformers to me.

Another aspect I'm really fond of are the rings. Instead of a fixed number of hits or a health bar like most games had, Sonic introduced this flexible system that allows you to immediately recover your "health" after getting hit, and I simply love knowing that as long as I can keep at least 1 ring, I'll be fine.

 

The ability to draw in kids, even to this day.

When I started playing Sonic, it's because SA2 drew me in. The box art, the crazy designs of the levels, how cool Sonic looked. That has always been Sonic's thing, attracting children to play. As much as we get annoyed today with Original the Character and other things implemented into the games that are very clearly aimed at getting kids hooked, keep in mind that most people play these games as kids and only as kids. We're not a rare bunch, playing video games well out of childhood and into adulthood, but this fandom that we're in is definitely not squarely aimed at adults.

Oh, and the music. So many solid compositions have been written for the Sonic series. Even if the lyrics don't make sense here and there, so much of the music is great.

 

The character designs definitely drew me in. I asked for Sonic Advance 3 with my first Gameboy Advance for Christmas because I saw the box art with all the characters on it in a toy catalogue. I remember especially loving Cream's art. The dynamic poses and the iconic designs were the big draw for me.

 

I forgot to mention this, but yes, this is unique (or it was, back then): the ability to recover your dropped health as it was flying away.

 

For me, it was initially was just something to do while my parents were in Service Merchandise. The simplicity of the game, the free movement of the character, the ability to kill enemies in multiple ways using the same jump/spinning ability. In the Mario games you couldn't press "down" to narrowly kill an enemy you are about the accidentally touch. You had to jump exactly on top of that gumba to kill it. The life support system in the rings is probably the most valuable and innovate thing about the series. You didn't just have heart meters, height/power layers, or as many insta-death situations to worry about. Granted, if you lost all your rings, you are screwed, but that is an extremely rare event. Invincibility boxes didn't jump around like stars, speed shoes, a shield (then multiple types later on), and a special ending for collecting the Chaos Emeralds versus just getting from the beginning of the game to the end. Even the levels themselves were extremely diverse, instead of just a recolor of the previous one with pits and obstacles in slightly different places.

I'm one of the rare individuals that remembered life before the spin dash (and before other characters besides Dr. Robotnik) and scoff at all the Sonic 1 remakes that include it. The thing about the spin dash that shows the natural evolution to the even more convenient drop dash is that you always had to come to a complete stop to use it. Honestly, the marginally functional insta-shield didn't have much use besides a cool visual effect and sound, while the drop dash serves a better purpose.

Wow, writing this has really gotten me to think, reflect, and even get a little teary eyed.

I really was highly disappointed with Sonic 3D Blast (it actually gave me motion sickness when I was younger) and I HATED Sonic Adventure when it first came out, but got it for GameCube in 2003. I got SA2B with my GameCube and ended up playing that first all the way through. Sonic Heroes was an attempt to get back to the roots, but playing the same levels and those stupid Robot Storm boss sections were tiring....even though it had a great Metal Sonic story.

Sonic CD was a later in life thing as I didn't have a Sega CD and I played only part of the special stage in a Best Buy once in 93 or 94.

In may ways, I find Sonic 1 the most difficult of the Genesis/Mega Drive series as you only had the basics and a lot of patterns of the newer games weren't present yet. I used to have heart pounding moments with the Marble Zone Lava...which made Marble Garden seem like a beautiful joke...even with the earthquake section. The other thing is that each zone felt like 3 long acts. It's special indeed.