Old timer reflections on classic era

Interesting post!

I'm not sure if missing Christmas '93 was the biggest blunder, but it does make me wonder... well, what do you think? If Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles had not been split up, and released as the full Sonic 3, including the introduction and playability of Knuckles in one giant game, if that had released in late '94 against Donkey Kong Country... does it move the needle enough to change the outcome?

 

I remember the excitement of having played Sonic 3 to then discover that there was an add-on that essentially doubled the content of the overall game. The final act of the story with the master emerald, the betrayal of Robotnik, Sky Santcuary, Death Egg and the Doomsday Zone is, to this day, the most important and defining experience that I've had with computer games.

Donkey Kong Country looked impressive an all but I didn't own a SNES, therefore it didn't compete with my experience with the Sonic games. I suspect there were a lot of kids, some of which undoubtedly frequent this board, that were in a similar position. My single mother couldn't afford two consoles and probably saw no sense in owning multiple anyway. I even had to borrow Sonic 3 from my cousin and the Sonic and Knuckles cart from a neighbour. If fate had it that we got a SNES iinstead of a Mega drive, I'd probably be posting this kind of reflection on a Mario message board.

 

It also depends on where you were. In the UK Nintendo never beat SEGA and for me, SEGA milked Sonic far too much so even by the 3rd game people were starting to get bored of the games
I think people also overlooked what really helped Sonic be so big too. Not only did it look and sound amazing but it was so simple to pick up and play (just one button) anyone could play it.

TBH I found DCK overrated and very boring also people look over the 2 year cap between the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo I found myself and a lot my gaming mates people who shopped at the same import shop getting bored of the Mega Drive by 1994 and very much looking forward to the nextgen. We were starting to get very bored with the basic left to right scrolling 2D games and even things like Mode 7 was getting boring and lost its wow factor

 

yeah this blew my little child mind honestly. The idea of continuity was very new to me at that time. I had a similar experience watching my mom play Crash 1 and then having Crash 2 come out (in a time where I was old enough to understand more than "Sonic is Sonic" as opposed to them being separate games).

I can't really add much more than that, I was never really involved in the console wars as I was a literal child in a pretty poor household who got everything except the Dreamcast late. There's also the additional wrinkle of being a girl growing up on military bases - so it wasn't as if my peers would really talk video games with me, and I moved often enough that the zeitgeist was different every couple years for me.

Literally the first SNES game I had played was Link to the Past and that was the GBA port, with the second being Super Metroid on the Wii VC, and those were literally, actually the only SNES games I had ever played for many years until emulating Chrono Trigger and Bahamut Lagoon back in the mid 2010s. I had seen (though not really played) N64 games at my friend's house before playing a single SNES game, but I never owned an N64 either. I never really felt the restlessness of 2D vs 3D games, and today I still don't, but Sonic Adventure did blow my mind when it released.

 

Same. Although in my case, everyone but me got over Sonic and the Megadrive and moved on. D:

 

While I agree that Sonic was a pretty massive success in late 92, and all throughout 93/early 94...

You are correct about there being a dropoff in late 94 when DCK came and gave Nintendo a new surge. DCK2 was why I finally wanted a home console in the first place, even if I ended up settling with Sonic game instead, but that's less the point of my post.

I'd argue we've reached a new zenith for the character in this late modern era between the releases of Movies #2 and #3. Sonic Frontiers, the goodwill and strong online fan scene and fangame culture surrounding the Mania/Retro engine (which is now popular way beyond this forum), a resurgence in popular meme culture for the character (and very effective marketing from the studio) and Sonic X Shadow Generations all led to arguably comparable heights, maybe even higher than the 1990s.

I don't remember Sonic being this big of a part of pop culture at any point 'since' the early 90s at best.

 

Well of course,

I and most of my close mates and school friends started gaming on the ZX Spectrum before moving on to the Master System. We were starting to get bored of the same style of games and it was becoming that way for a lot of the press with TV shows like GameWorld/Barry TV reviews saying yawn.... can't we have something new? and also gaming mag were getting a little bored of the same style of game

Sonic was always going to suffer and see a sales sild with the last few titles SEGA made them far too frequent and even on the SNES you saw sales dip with the 1st DKC and the 3rd one and Nintendo games always seem to sell millions more even on systems that didn't sell great like the Wii U. That's to overlook how the SNES was 2 years behind that of the Mega Drive. So if you were gaming on the SNES a lot of the games would seem newer to you that if you a Mega Drive gamer.

Loads were ready to move on mind and couldn't wait for the PlayStation while SEGA tried to kid itself the 16-bit market and how it needed another add-on and yet another 16-bit Sonic game

That was the fatal mistake SEGA America/Europe made. Not only were lots ready to move on they were now young adults working and with plenty of cash on the hip and could afford a high price console

 

I don't know how I managed to remain unaware of the 32x until I join Sonic Retro back in the day (2003). No wonder it was a commercial failure.

EDIT: Or atleast I don't remember being aware of it. Based on the look of it, and knowing me, I probably had no idea what it was even meant to be.

 

Back when you could rent consoles at video stores, I remember renting the 32X with Knuckles' Chaotix, and then later the Saturn with Virtua Fighter, but I feel like even at that time of '95 or so, neither were strongly considered to be purchased in my household — and generally speaking in my school and neighborhood, everyone was waiting for the "Ultra 64" to truly deliver 3D next-gen gaming, anyway.

 

To the UK members, do you remember the 32X being available for rental anywhere? I didn't live near a Blockbusters so I'm unaware of any possible availability there at the time. I was blessed by living next to a "Choices" rental shop.

 

I'm British. I didn't know the 32X existed. I was only vaguely aware that the Saturn existed because of Sonic R. But I was also really young back then (born in 1991). I remember the Dreamcast because I got one with Adventure. I distinctly remember no one had one and I didn't really talk about it much at school because SEGA was already considered lame and 'kiddy' when I was 10. PS2 was all the rage because the PS1 was much bigger than either Nintendo or SEGA over here at the time. When I was 12 everyone was playing 18 rated games that were adult and serious. Sonic and Nintendo were considered too 'kiddy'. I remember that chilled when I hit 15 and even the 'cool' kids admitted to watching Finding Nemo. But between 12-14 no kid at my school would ever admit to playing such childish games. I mean playing games back then was considered very nerdy anyway unless it was something like GTA.

 

A lot had moved on the 32Bit era by then and you could just see that reflected in charts but more importantly retail shops and even the gaming mag's.
Most of the hype most of the talk was all about the next gen in late 1995.

Most people in my gaming circles never had a Super Nintendo and we all for the Mega Drive or Atari ST/Amiga (yeah really) all moved on the PS1 in late 1995 with Tekken and Destruction Derby being a massive part of that shift, by mid 1996 most of my friends, my local gaming shops were all going nuts over Resident Evil along with the likes of CVG.

It was also a little different for the big Nintendo fans the Super Nintendo was 2 years behind that of the Mega Drive life cycle and Nintendo launch plans for the N64 were delayed by nearly a year when they had to announce a delay into 1996 for their new hardware even having to put page adverts for the delay in gaming mag's

Not at my Blockbuster they didn't even rent out 32X games either but I live in rural S Wales valleys so it was only a little Blockbuster store It didn't rent out any gaming hardware but did rent out PS1 and Saturn games going into the next gen and had a pretty big selection of games too for the time.





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Somewhat related: I've been researching pinball a lot lately and the history is fascinating especially with regards to Sega. Sega originally made pinball machines from 1971-1978 then in 1994 they bought out Data East's pinball division (which was originally Stern). Sega made pinball machines from 1994-1999. Sega sold the pinball assets to (president) Gary Stern, who then (re)founded Stern Pinball.

Since I knew Sega made pinball machines it always baffled me that they never made a Sonic pinball machine. But seeing the timeline makes it make more sense. They didn't re-enter the pinball market until 1994 (a year after Sonic Spinball) by which time Sonic had dramatically decreased in popularity. And they left the market in early 1999 just after Sonic adventure released in Japan and before it's North American release. They made pinball tables during the only years when Sonic was not a world-wide phenomenon.

Imagine if that window were just a couple years wider. Sega probably could have made a Sonic and Knuckles themed or Sonic Spinball themed Pinball machine. Or imagine one based on SA1 or SA2 It would be so cool to fight Perfect Chaos on a pinball machine. It seems that this is just an example of the timing not working out.

 

Sega Pinball did make a Sonic token roll game.

 

The wiki says that it was developed by Leisure America and published by Sting International.

 

Thanks. Should've read the article first.