Does Sonic 1 honestly hold up?

Yes, it holds up. I still play it from time to time and the platform-game lover inside of me has a soft spot for the slower sections that break up the pace of the game.
I also love the simplistic, artistic style of the levels as it shows that even with a limited amount of style, it still shone through. I'm also a sucker for the higher difficulty curve that I feel is presented. I can't see it too much now, but when I was a kid I found this game hard as nails compared to Sonic 2 and 3. And that was a good thing as it made me come back for more; determined to finally beat it.

Let's also not forget that Sonic 1 was the game that was created to rival Mario (specifically rivaled against Super Mario World) and over here in the UK at least, it succeeded. If that doesn't help hold it up then I don't know what will.

 

I've got bias towards Sonic 1. I bought it on my click wheel iPod years ago, and since I had very few legitimate games on that thing, Sonic was my go-to game. I must have beat that game over 30 times. I got to learn everything about it, the level design was completely memorized, so playing through the entire thing was a breeze.

Sonic 2 and CD, I think had some major lapses in level design. It felt like each one punished you for not memorizing the levels, with enemies you couldn't see coming, springs you couldn't see in CD's case, and paths far too easy to miss while moving. CD also relies way too much on bumpers and springs. I don't think either of them is a bad game, but I just feel Sonic 1 doesn't have those problems.

 

Sonic 1 is still awesome, and only Sonic CD surpasses its visual style (mainly because Sonic CD is Sonic 1 on acid).

 

Haha totally this! I've always liked Sonic 1 but playing it a couple of times a day on my iPod back and forth from work a few years back really made me appreciate it.

Mechanically, I feel Sonic 1 is the best of the lot, as speed is a reward that you have to master the game for. The game can get hard but never feels unfair, and it's not afraid to slow you down for some proper platforming. Modern Sonic can learn a lot from Sonic 1, and not just from Green Hill Zone and its badniks.

Sonic 1 is awesome and all you haters need to learn how to vidya =P

 

^ Probably the best post in the thread. I had a problem with the lack of spindashing at first myself, but by playing Sonic 1, I could see it didn't really need it. SEGA wouldn't be porting Sonic 1 to every phone and your toaster if they themselves didn't believe it still holds up.

I have a cartridge of Sonic Advance 3, and there are lots of places specific character types can't get into easily; I've had it for years and haven't really seen the half of its alternate paths. I felt like the level design in the Advance games was at its best in SA3, it had a fair balance of speed and exploration, (Much like Sonic CD, so reckless running like in SA2 gets you killed.) but SA1 comes the closest to feeling like Sonic 1 and 2.

 

From a technical standpoint Sonic 1 has the most complex collision geometry (tiles) as seen in green hill zone vs any of the later sonic game's levels.

 

It definitely hold up. I really like to compare Sonic 1 vs 2 and 3 to say Super Mario Bros. VS SMB 3 and Mario World.

Yeah, SMB1 was a huge game changer, but 3 and Mario World took that formula and expanded on it making bigger and better games. Which is essentially the same with Sonic.

Sonic 1 was great. But 2 came along and overshadowed it. For me, I like 2 more because 2 is better paced than 1. With Sonic 1, you go from Green Hill to Marble Zone, and Marble zone is pretty slow, so that really turns me off from the game. But Sonic 2 goes from Emerald Hill to Chemical Plant which keeps the fast pace going and keeps me playing.

That's just me, honestly, but Sonic 1 has still held up and is till fun to play, I just think maybe change the level order and you've got a better game.

 

I think this relates most closely to the problem Crash/Spyro 1 have compared to 2 and 3: the reality tends to be that because they're missing features found in later games makes most of us hesitant to go back. Ignoring the fact that Spyro/Crash 2 and 3 are usually considered less cheap, more expansive and generally better than their first outings, Crash is missing the slide and Spyro is missing the mid-air float-stop-thing. Those are vital control features to later games, and people see places where they could be useful in the first games. It doesn't make them bad (although some would argue against that on Crash's side), it just makes you wish you had something to enhance an already fine game.
Sure, some of the Acts in Sonic 1 will kill you if you speed through them, but people see where the Spindash would be useful and want it. Nowadays we can with Stealth and Taxman's port, but that doesn't change the fact that it still wasn't originally intended and most of the game is "slow" compared to future games. This is why I can't really get into Sonic 1. Of course, I'm 16 in two weeks and my first Sonic game was SA2B, so that says a lot.

EDIT: I love CD, 2 and 3, but I just can't get into 1. It's not as fast-paced as the others. That doesn't make it bad, it just doesn't make it my thing.

 

I count each act as a separate level. If I love an entire zone, I love every act from that zone which means I love 11/20 of the stages from Sonic 2. I never said I hate any zone from Sonic 2. In fact, I like every level from that game and think it's an excellent game but not as enjoyable as Sonic 1 and 3&K. I don't dislike the elevator mechanic as much as I don't really care for it. The platforms that went up and down in Spring Yard were more fun than the elevator because it was more interactive and there was a risk of death if you're careless with the platforms. I mostly pointed out the elevator mechanic because a lot of people complain about Sonic 1's slower pace, yet I feel Casino Night Zone was slower paced than most of Sonic 1's levels.

Aquatic Ruin Zone and Labyrinth Zone are very different stages. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's possible to avoid water throughout the entirety of Aquatic Ruin Zone. Compared to Labyrinth Zone and Hydrocity Zone, water felt more integrated into those stages where it was more than just a punishment for falling down. Was water ever used as a punishment in those stages? Yes, but navigating through water sections in most of LZ and HCZ did not feel like a punishment for screwing up. I can't say the same about ARZ.

Ah. I could never get into that game as much as Sonic Advance 1 and 2, so I wasn't sure.

 

The cracks are showing, but any game released more than 20 years ago will do that.

Sonic 1 is very refined and I still like to run through the zones to this day.

 

The backgrounds and scenery are the most noticeable shortcomings to me. That, and the special stage is a pain, but that could happen to any game.

The formula was refined in Sonic 2, but not every change was necessarily for the better. For one, Sonic 1 has a greater emphasis on platforming than most games in the series, which I like. Really, Sonic 1 is still fun today, not in spite of its differences, but because of them.

 

I can't say anything other than that Sonic The Hedgehog is a perfect game. In terms of how a game should be structured it's spot on.

I'm a retro gamer and I play retro games every day with the likes of the NES, SNES, GameBoy, Master System, Mega Drive, N64, Playstation, GameCube etc. Mostly every game I play on those consoles has aged in some way or another. Even the consoles hardware sometimes just doesn't do it justice. Super Mario Bros is quite a basic experience by today's Mario's, the graphics on most GameBoy games don't hold up well, the soundchip on SNES sounds weaker every time I play, Alex Kidd is just not fun to play nowadays, Mega Drive games in general often don't implement decent difficulty structuring, the N64's lack of video output leaves some games feeling incomplete, the PS graphics in general haven't aged well...

However, every generation, a few games are built so well (and on the right platform) that no matter when you go to play them, they feel and look as fresh as when they were released. One of those games, which I only played from 2008 onward is Ocarina of Time. Yes the graphics aren't top notch anymore, but it still looks like it should, and everything is distinguishable. The controls are great and even the lack of a camera stick feels fine.

Another of these rare games is Sonic The Hedgehog. Unlike Mario World which now looks flatter than paper, Sonic 1's art style is still pleasing, still fresh, could still look decent as a new indie game, and epitomizes the early 16BIT era of gaming with it's pixel perfect grass, pseudo-3D trees and varied and colourful landscapes.

The controls are perfect, the physics still revered and wanted for newer titles today, the level tropes are much more unique than later titles, the music is still catchy and sounds great, the SFX have become known as more arcade-like and retro in recent years and are often used on TV adverts and the like, and the whole concept of the game is still as appealing as it was back then too.

It also has less game breaking glitches than games afterwards, which is a bonus.

I often sit down and run through S1 on my Mega Drive, in 50htz, like a boss.

 

Fixed. =P

 

True, but I like the nostalgia of it. Granted, I prefer the game 60htz on GCN but it's still nice :v:

 

Now now, Sonic 1 is still a very good game. While compared to games like Sonic 2, 3&K and even CD it might feel a bit simpler, Sonic 1 is still a classic.

That being said the people that say Sonic 1 is the best in the series need to reconsider. Sonic 2 expanded everything from Sonic 1 and made Sonic much more fluid and dynamic. Sonic CD added exploration to the formula, which was cool IMO. Sonic 3&K expanded the series to feel more like an Adventure, the big and detailed worlds helped it.

 

Yeah, 60Hz Sonic blew my mind when I first encountered it. So many memories are tied to the 50Hz version that 60Hz seems too fast to me at times.