Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Revolutionary"

A fun side scroller in a realm of sidescrollers.

Back then, most games weren't worth even considering buying. All you could do was walk and jump. Some of them featured attacking, but not nearly enough. Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the first games to add something fresh and new to the time. Instead of just walking around trying to not get hit like in nearly every other game, you speed across the screen faster anyone ever thougth possible. The game was fun because that was all it tried to be. Fun.

When you start up the game, figuring out what to do is literally child's play. You can move with the D-pad ( really fast) and jump with any if the other buttons. You can jump through enemies for points and collect rings along the way. The level's are somewhat like tracks, so you'll find yourself going through loops and flying from hitting bounce buttons all the while moving at breakneck speed. No other game allowed for this kind of gameplay, so it was naturally fun for anybody who played games during that age. The player will proceed through several stages, all detailed and just as beautiful and creative as the last. With each level, new concepts came into play. In one stage you might need to remember to dodge lava and spikes while in another you would watch for air bubbles so you don't suffocate underwater. Rarely would does it use the same style of track as the previous stage, so you never get bored of repetition even though the game's controls are so simple.

Of course there are secrets to look for in each level as well. If you had 50 rings by the end of the level, you went into a bonus stage. While looking through stages you might find other things that will help you along the level, such as lives, rings, or shields. However, if the player didn't keep their eyes peeled the whole time, the might run into something unfair. Several times during play you might run into something you couldn't have possibly seen coming because of the speed of the screen itself. It isn't a challenge so much as an unfair irritation when you are running along the screen and having fun only for a sudden giant spike to the face.

Generally, stuff like graphics and sound are noticed on the side. That is not so here. The features of the game are so charming and well done they will probably be burned into your head after beating the game. The graphics are bright, colorful, and overall a delight to look at. When that moves at high speeds it mideas well be a giant exploding firework. The music is delightful and sticks to your head several days or even days after play and the noises made while in gameplay generally make you in a better mood since you almost always hear them when you do something good. Whether it be smashing through a wall, jumping through a foe, or simply collecting a ring, the background noise is never an irritation. The sound matches the graphics and they mix together to give and can seem to move as one while playing well.

Up until this point, gaming has been about scampering across the screen to try not to get hit by anything at a slow rate. You could go to the store, buy 5 games, and find all of them to be almost the same concept. When you bought this game, you realized that. This game is more tuned to the player rather than the programmer. It dares to be different and succeeds. 9 out of 10.