The Sonic Conundrum (Part 1)

Ah, Sonic, one of the most beloved video game characters of all time.

Created by Sega in 1991 as an answer to Nintendo's ever-popular Super Mario, Sonic's rocket to stardom was quick and swift.  His first game, Sonic the Hedgehog, met with overwhelmingly strong reception, and since then, he has always been a popular icon of gaming.

In recent years, Sonic hasn't had the best luck with his games, some of them being complete glitchy messes, and others have gotten decent reviews, but he hasn't seemed to been able to recapture the magic of his first games...  Or has he?

Saying that Sonic has fallen from his 'previous glory' would indicate that his games were actually good at some point, right?  So this presents the question:  Were Sonic's games ever good?


Yes, Sonic is an appealing character in concept.  He has bright colors, a sassy attitude, and he runs, "At the speed of sound."  Who doesn't love a guy who can run at the speeds of a fighter jet?  But one of his most recognizable traits, his speed, is possibly one of his biggest downfalls.

As a gameplay element, Sonic's speed has always been an issue.  Human reaction times must be taken into account when designing a proper video game, and Sonic's games abuse these reaction times at every corner.  Sonic games are known for throwing unfair challenges at the player which require much quicker reaction times than the average human can possibly hope for, and yes, the ones most guilty of this are the original sidescrollers from the 90s, not the new ones oddly enough.

Take for example the GIF below taken from Sonic's debut title, which I have decided to use as an example for the first part of this article.  As you can see, I am trying to move quickly through the level, so I jump off the swinging platform, expecting to accelerate.  But suddenly, an enemy appears, and I have little time to react.  Thus, I am hit and lose my rings.  This happens all the time when you are trying to speed through levels.  The viewing area around Sonic is simply too small to react to anything entering the screen when sonic is moving quickly.

Don't move quickly, or you will be punished for it

So if we stop trying to speed through levels and play it like your normal everyday sidescroller, maybe the game will be more fair to the player.  Think again.  Despite there being plenty of obstacles to prevent you from wanting to move quickly, every part of the game design is telling you to go fast.  From loops you need to speed through, long sections with nothing to stop you from going fast, and Sonic's speed, Sonic's debut title makes you want to move fast, yet it punishes speed every chance it gets.  These issues plague all of Sonic's early sidescrolling games, and many of his more recent ones as well.

This leads me into another point.  While most of the game punishes you for going fast, there are certain sections that require absolutely no skill.  All they require of you is pressing down one button, and they will just complete themselves on their own.

This counts as gameplay?

Sonic games can't seem to decide what they are.  Are they action games, or slow-paced platformers?

A couple other things I've found bothersome in the early Sonic titles are the loose controls.  Despite having some more demanding platforming sequences, Sonic kind of shuffles and slides around, and this makes it difficult to make precise movements.  Its not the worst, but its far from the best.

Also, why can't Sonic the supersonic hedgehog accelerate up the slightest incline?

I'm supersonic, but I can't run up a 22.5 degree incline

This makes for some really awkward sequences where you've stopped to avoid some hazard, and you want to try to get up a tiny hill.

So now that we have established that Sonic's early games weren't all that amazing, and probably mediocre at best, we can safely say that, no, Sonic never, 'fell from his former glory,' because he never had this supposed glory to begin with.  In our youth, we were deceived by advertising and hype into thinking that Sonic's games were actually good.  In fact, I would make the argument that Sonic's games are better today than they were at his inception, but that is for another day!

I will write a follow up for this article making points as to why I believe modern Sonic to be better than classic Sonic, but this article has already taken many times longer than I believed it would, so I need a temporary break from Sonic.  If you stay tuned, I will eventually write a part 2 to this article!

Thanks for reading!  And if you have any points you would like to make yourself, leave them in the comments section below!