Is there any videogame occurrence more memorable than the intro music to the original Sonic the Hedgehog? Released 20 years ago today, when he first graced our screens back in 1991 he was one cool character. Whilst Mario was a slightly awkward chubster, Sonic had presence, attitude, and the gall to actually tap his toes impatiently if you left him waiting for too long.
Despite losing a bit of his lustre with his 3D adventures, I think we can all agree that Sonic 1 to 3 (plus Sonic and Knuckles) were fine examples of how to do platforming games correctly. Happy Birthday, Sonic! Don’t forget the Sonic Generations demo will be live on the PSN today.
Oh, and it’s Dr. Robotnik. Eggman isn’t welcome here.
minerwilly
Happy Birthday Sonic , i spent my first proper pay cheque on you when i bought my Megadrive . I still have fond memories of that underwater level where you had to get bubbles for oxygen .
hazelam
i guess that’s why they released the demo today instead of yesterday.
i tried the demo, and it pains me to say this, but i just didn’t like it.
graphically it looks great, drawing on the best from the original and the new games, and the level design looks pretty good too, once again, taking the best element from the old games and mixing them in with the good parts of the newer titles.
where it falls down is in the handling of sonic.
he just doesn’t handle right.
he takes way too long to get up to speed, and once he does, he;s too hard to stop, i tried the demo several times and not once did i manage to land on a moving platform, yeah i know that’s partly down to my, lack of, skill.
he just feels too heavy, like he has too much momentum.
it’s like driving a porsche that handles like a bus.
yet weirdly, sometimes he would just kind of stop when he lands.
he can get up to a bloody high speed if there’s a long enough stretch of level you can run along, but when he does, at that point you’re just a spectator, even if you could control him at that speed, he goes so fast you past everything before you even have a chance to react to it.
i, like many, was hoping this would be a return to form for sonic, but sadly, i don’t think it is.
and i am an unabashed sonic fan, i’ve even got one of the wii games, the secret rings, and the ds rpg that bioware made.
so this isn’t just bashing sonic for the sake of it.
it’s not just that it’s not the way sonic should handle, but that no game character should handle like that.
it takes to loong to get up to speed, it’s too hard to slow down or change direction, and once you get up to full speed, it’s just TOO fast.
it would have been nice to try the other style of gameplay as well as just the classic level in the demo, maybe they’ll have a separate demo for that later.
bigkingy
Bit disappointed with the demo today. Seemed a bit blurry.
sparkyscrum
I have to agree with the above posters. It’s hard to see the level around Sonic as any speed and rings you just can’t see properly. And he does handle badly. I’m disappointed as I count my self as a big Sonic fan. I more looking forward to Sonic 4: Episode 2 than Generations now.