Released: June 23, 1991
Played on: 3DS (Sega 3D Classics)

As with most video game enjoyers, the holes in my personal Video Game history are defined by the consoles I was fortunate enough to have access to growing up. I have had access to a PC for pretty much my entire recorded memory, but my first console was an N64. We made the switch to an Xbox to get in on Halo, followed by a 360, and then a switch to PS4. I had every Nintendo handheld at one point or another but was mainly a Game Boy kid. Notably, I did have a Game Gear, though I never did get into the copy of Sonic Triple Trouble I owned. Other than that, I played a bit of Sonic Generations on Xbox 360, and I tried Sonic 4 when it came out.

So, this is really my first serious dive into a Sonic game. My platforming experience is primarily Mario, though I’ve also enjoyed platforming in some other games like Guacamelee. The thing I recall about my brief Sonic experiences in the past was trying to “Go Fast” and getting frustrated as the consequences of moving with that speed. The main tension I felt playing Sonic 1 was between moving quickly through the level and knowing what lies ahead.

I can imagine that if I had been playing this in the mid-90s, I might have enjoyed learning the stages well enough to chase after quicker times and higher score, but my experience here was largely frustrated by the experience of trying to slow down enough to execute the platforming and not run into an enemy. Sonic’s acceleration and high top speed is constantly pushing you to move faster, and there was a lot of times where I would throw caution to the wind and pin it to the right, knowing that I would inevitably hit an enemy that I did not see coming. Sonic also carries a fair amount of momentum, which encourages a more reckless approach to encounters.

I didn’t find too much of a challenge with the levels themselves – It was really only encounters with enemies where I found the momentum to be annoying. Perhaps with a bit more time, I might’ve learned to spot incoming enemies fast enough, and understand how best to attack them, but I found that my play pattern was getting up to speed, enjoying it for a brief moment, and then running into an enemy, losing my rings, and then assessing how to handle the situation. Getting up to speed only to be brought to a halt by a spikey-backed enemy just doesn’t really hit for me.

I appreciated the elegance of the rings system – Having even one ring allows you to run into an enemy, and even after that you’re more likely than not able to recover at least one ring. This system allows scrubs like me to move more recklessly, while still incentivizing doing levels more competently to achieve a higher score. Maybe this system seemed more obvious back when arcade games where still dominant, but I did enjoy its incentives.

Here’s where I make a confession – I did make use of the 3DS version’s save state system. While I tried to keep it to a minimum, I am not above avoiding losing progress by the unforgiving nature of Sonic 1’s lack of a save system. I’m sure this made my impression of the game to be more forgiving than that of someone playing on a Genesis, but I am not above such niceties.

In my experience, Sonic 1 has a reputation of being the slowest of the original trilogy. I suspect this is the sensation I was running up against – that the levels do not lend themselves to entering into a high speed flow state as much as 2 and 3 do. With that said, I found the level design to be great! Having stage with multiple paths definitely had a novelty coming from a Mario infant, and while I only made it as far as Star Light Zone, I enjoyed them all in their own ways. Green Hill Zone is built to allow players to explore the sensation of speed, which works doubly well as an introduction to the game and the character.

Moving from that to Marble Zone’s more platforming-centric designs was a nice shift. Maybe I simply found myself to be more at home in the levels that more strongly encouraged a more traditional approach to platforming, but I did not mind it one bit. Spring Yard Zone’s introduction of verticality was enjoyable, and I found myself enjoying the water levels of Labyrinth Zone more than I would’ve expected to.

I did find the Eggman fights to be annoying. I understand that anything more that what they were was unlikely for a game at that time, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed them for it. I simply found them bland and repetitive – after the strength of the varied levels, the weakness of the repetitive boss fights felt like a weak way to end each level.

I do have to mark out the quality of not only the soundtrack, but the sound design in general. I have a tendency to gravitate towards “podcast games”, so I can continue the vital work of plugging away at my always-growing Pocket Casts queue while playing a game, but with this project I’m making sure to indulge in the soundscape of the games, and this is absolutely essential for Sonic. You’ve osmosed most of the music tracks one way or another but hearing them in their original glory really highlights their excellence. The sound of collecting a ring, losing rings, slamming on the brakes, and certainly the warning sound of Sonic running out of oxygen while swimming are all well deserving of their iconic status.

As a skeptic of the Sonic games, I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Again, I am left wondering if I would’ve enjoyed trying Sonic 3 more, and I suspect I’ll find time for it at some point. If you are looking to dip your feet in, I would probably suggest you go that route, though I certainly don’t regret giving 1 a shot first.