The YouTube channel Super Bunnyhop has uploaded a 39-minute look at the first level of every main Sonic game. Hit the jump to see it, and also to get a full list of the games covered.
The list to clarify is the following:
- Sonic 1
- Sonic 2
- Sonic CD
- Sonic 3
- Sonic & Knuckles
- Sonic Adventure
- Sonic Adventure 2
- Sonic Heroes
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- Sonic ’06
- Sonic Unleashed (HD)
- Sonic 4 Ep. 1
- Sonic Colors (Wii)
- Sonic Generations (HD)
- Sonic Lost World (Wii U)
- Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
SBH gives a rundown on how the levels play. their design, fun factor, etc. Just a very detailed look at the first levels of Sonic’s history.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kE9BR24XIw
Did you enjoy the video? Do you agree or disagree with any of SBH’s opinions? Let us know in the comments!
I really like the video. I think he was a bit hard on Adventure 1, but other than that I’m mostly with him.
Sweet Jesus, the Adventure 1 part.
Like, wow, can you GET anymore biased?
You SA1 fans are so cute
You SA1 fans are so cute (2)
At least the SA1 fanbase isn’t pulling the “you guys are so cute” card every time someone disagrees with them.
No but they do make an ‘enemies list’. Yup that is a thing with some groups.
Some SA1 fans make a enemy list, not all of them.
Are you referencing the SA3 page? That list was made by one of the members, and the admins had no control of that list whatsoever. I think the same member apologized as well.
Please drop it, Hogfather.
I could drop it but lets be honest there’s plenty of other stuff I could use.
List them when you finally write “Why I don’t get this ‘true Sonic spirit thing'”. It originated from the SA3 page, so I’m pretty sure you’d have a great time poking fun at ’em.
Seriously, when are you gonna write it? You haven’t said anything about it in months.
When I actually find something written by them which isn’t just someone saying “I want a game with the title SA3 which doesn’t suck.” With some random fan art to support it of Sonic looking dark and moody… maybe with a gun in it or some fire.
Because that’s basically what every single piece of media I’ve seen about it boils down to.
Basically I don’t see how he was being biased when everything he said about SA1 was being shown on screen in example. I think SA1 fans have played the game so much they have literally forgotten what a broken mess it can be when you’re not used to it’s quirks yet. The only thing that’s subjective about what he said is to what intensity it has aged due to all these things, but those things are definitely there.
Depends on how hard you’re looking for bugs. I have played The Dreamcast original and Have never really encountered bugs outside of terrible camera issues and wonky collision detection. I only heard about those bugs when YouTube became a thing.
That being said, without some those bugs, I don’t thinks SA1 would be as relevant today: some of those bugs allow you to exploit the game and speedrun in the game, adding a re playable factor to an old game.
However, let’s all agree that it has aged very considerable, especially with the sound issues.
How can crisizing a guy cute?
SA1 level design has many flaws, but this guy overblew it.
1) Unleashed stages are a roller coaster where you simply press X (or whatever boost is assigned to) to win. You don’t even need to check the screen to see where you’re going. Lack of boost, or limiting how much you can use is a positive thing. I can’t believe that a Sonic fan would prefer Unleashed Day / Generations Modern stages over SA1 stages.
2) No first stage should have bottomless pits. No first stage at all.
3) Telegraphing enemy movements is a plus, like Generations did.
4) Heroes had possibly the most interesting stage design. Due to the control scheme there was room to create a variety of obstacles and ways to overcome them. At the same time, despite having a lower general speed due to changing formations, the game still felt quick.
5) Lost World had a nice idea with slowing Sonic down to make him more controllable, but it was taken too far. If anything, maybe they should have the default speed be the fast and holding the trigger make him go slow.
The main problem is, as is stated in the video, that it takes a lot of time to design one single stage, so the devs have to go the MMO route and force you to run the same content lots of times to make the game last longer than 3 hours. Maybe they should create a 2nd-generation Hedgehog Engine that just requires them to create the playable routes and the game autocreates everything in the background to save time.
Heroes might have had interesting stage design but using the control scheme as a positive is just asinine. Also, Heroes did not feel quick. The only game that felt slower than Heroes was the Night stages in Unleashed.
Also, the whole “you’re not a Sonic fan if you like/dislike X” is so subjective that it doesn’t really hold any water any more as part of discussion.
Why do people always leave Black Knight and Secret Rings out when making this sort of thing (lists, compilations etc.)? Are we all collectively pretending they don’t exist or something?
They’re not main series games. Rise of Lyric shouldn’t be on the list either.
They’re not really considered as main series Sonic games. That’s why.
Then again, neither are Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, so I have to wonder why those are there.
Shadow the Hedgehog is debatable. It’s a characters spin-off, but it continues and follow events that happened to Shadow after SA2 and Heroes.
How is ROL a main Sonic game?
It aint
At this point it may as well be since people treat it as such and continually group it along with the main series titles. The guy knows that Sonic Boom is a spin-off franchise, so why is it on the list as a main series game.
At first I agreed, but Carbo on the SSMB made a good point that for better or worse, SEGA was treating it as a major entry for Sonic and using Boom assets as the “face” of Sonic for the entire year of it’s release, so it’s not completely misguided to include it. Secret Rings and Riders are definite spin-offs, and SEGA’s treatment of them reflected it – not the case with Boom.
Yeah I agree that SEGA made Sonic Boom the main focused of Sonic for over an year. But I think another reason why they gave it more attention then other spin-off titles like Secret Rings and Riders is because Sonic Boom is not just a video game. It’s also a TV series, comics, toys, etc and SEGA spent a lot of money on it.
But yeah, SEGA was treating Rise of Lyric like it’s another main entry in the series, and Modern Sonic took an huge backseat after that. The only thing we got out of Modern Sonic since Lost World is mobile games and Mario and Sonic at the Rio Olympic Games. We don’t know if Modern Sonic is going to return for the anniversary at all.
They need to give Sonic Boom very little exposure as possible for the 25th anniversary. Sonic Boom shouldn’t be the thing that will celebrate the franchise 25 year if it’s meant to be a spin-off franchise. They should treat it as such.
So what he’s saying is that most sonic games suck because sega are only maoing games for money and not quality and that my life is lie…well damn
Sonic is still a young franchise!
There’s no doubt in my mind that Sonic WILL be great again and it WILL be soon although I won’t say that the next game is guaranteed, it’s just been taking a long time, but I do think Sega has been listening and that’s why they laid off people and are now re-branding.
They’re trying to change!
We’ll get there folks… We’ll get there
Young franchise? The average expected age that is going to laugh with the jokes in the script is less than half the age of the franchise.
Young?… I guess so are all of Nintendos main IPs (aside from Splatoon and Smash Bros.)…
WELL. That was the most depressing video I’ve ever seen in my life.
This reviewer is the soul embodiment of what every Sonic fan hates. He doesn’t bring anything new to the table on we already know negatively about Sonic. His conclusion is that Sonic was never meant to be well and is just made for marketing after the Genesis era. I have to disagree on that, Sonic had a good streak going through the adventure titles to Sonic Heroes. It’s easy to negatively judge on Adventure 1 now but at the time, people didn’t mind. My first experience with it was on a Nintendo Gamecube and it was very fun for me. Today I see the many flaws it had, but I never noticed it as a child. You also need to give the creator some slack considering it was the first main 3D Sonic game. The reviewer doesn’t mention that the downfall also has to do with the fanbase. The fanbase is the reason for Shadow’s return in Sonic Heroes, which lead to Shadow The Hedgehog. After the negative feedback, Sega peddled back to the Adventure formula with Sonic 06. By this time, they focused on sales rather than quality. This made the game rushed leading to another failure. The failure was bad that they planned on finishing the series which lead to them actually putting more effort and budget on the last Sonic game. The game was Sonic Unleashed, after it’s success they decided to continue the series and they didn’t know how. Leading to more reboots, trying to win old fans by bringing nostalgia gameplay, and after the failure of Boom, they realized how low Sonic has become. Sega said it’s first apology to the fans for betraying the trust for the last decade. My conclusion is yes, Sonic is handled irresponsibly but he still has potential to become great. He just needs to be put in the right hands. We will see 2016.
“The reviewer doesn’t mention that the downfall also has to do with the fanbase. The fanbase is the reason for Shadow’s return in Sonic Heroes, which lead to Shadow The Hedgehog.”
I know I’ve never wanted Shadow to come back after SA2, and I never wanted Shadow to have his own spin-off game with a lot of swearing and guns either. So it’s not fair to completely blame it on the fanbase.
“The failure was bad that they planned on finishing the series which lead to them actually putting more effort and budget on the last Sonic game. The game was Sonic Unleashed, after it’s success they decided to continue the series and they didn’t know how.”
I think they knew how after Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Colors is made because of the feedback on the daytime stages in Unleashed. Alot of reviewers say that if they took out the werehog the game would’ve been better received. Then we got Sonic Generations which is well-received, and then SEGA completely dropped the boost gameplay in Sonic Lost World.
I also forgot to add that Sonic was doing better after Sonic Unleashed, and people said that the series is slowly improving from 2010-2013. Colors and Generations are decent games. They may not be perfect, but that’s when people started to see some improvements. Baby-steps. Sonic Lost World is pretty mixed, and Sonic Boom pretty much took that work to improve the franchise and threw it all out the window. Now it feels like SEGA is starting all over again with the “Sonic’s hey-day”. The series felt like how it was before Sonic 4 came out when they were talking about Sonic going to it’s roots.
reply to Sonfan: I didn’t say to blame the whole thing on fans. It’s both Sega and the fanbase that resulted the downfall. I wouldn’t say Sega was great after Unleashed considering they hired new creators, Pontac and the other guy. These new creators were never fans of the Sonic series (which they admitted in an interview). They are the reason for changing Sonic’s personality and making it appeal more to a young audience. Yes, we got Generations but was it a complete success? Not really, considering the game is very short, the plot was mediocre, and the replay value slowly wears off. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game but thanks to Sega’s quick sales over quality, the game doesn’t bring any impact to the series except the high potential for the next game. Right now Sega is milking the nostalgia formula to death and putting attention toward Classic Sonic and Boom Sonic instead of Modern so far. All we could do is hope for the best.
“Right now Sega is milking the nostalgia formula to death and putting attention toward Classic Sonic and Boom Sonic instead of Modern so far. All we could do is hope for the best.”
This really bugs me. Why do you say that SEGA is ‘milking’ the nostalgia formula to death? When was the last time we got a proper Sonic game with Classic Sonic as the playable character (besides Generations and Sonic Runners)? If by “nostalgia formula’ you mean 2D, then I don’t see how that’s a bad thing especially after Sonic Boom.
Of course there’s a huge possibility they’ll give more attention towards Classic Sonic if they’re planning on bringing him back for the anniversary. I personally wouldn’t mind it at all, and I don’t think bringing him back is nostalgia pandering either, especially since most people want him back.
“I wouldn’t say Sega was great after Unleashed considering they hired new creators, Pontac and the other guy. These new creators were never fans of the Sonic series (which they admitted in an interview). They are the reason for changing Sonic’s personality and making it appeal more to a young audience.”
You mean new writers. Pontac and the other guy don’t create the games or in charge of whatever direction or decision for the Sonic franchise.
Damn that’s a bit of a scary feeling knowing sonic could have ended after unleashed, but honestly doesn’t anyone see a pattern. I see a lot of ups and downs for sonic and his games and I’m pretty sure we hit a low point. So we might go back up and hopefully we get to a middle ground to be safe.
Another thing I like to point out in the video he didn’t mention is that sonic has a specific formula to his games one of which is to have a wide range of platforming while still being able to move fast. While this is true for most sonic games, sonic lost world didn’t use this idea well cause sonic was slowed down sure you can make him go fast but it wasn’t sonic. It’s fine to take out the boost that sonic had but it’s not fine if you actually slowed down your character with a separate button to speed him up. Another thing which sega has done right is the use of the environment, what I mean by this is that sonic uses what is around to his advantage when it’s to help him get to point A to B faster. This idea is used in many sonic games and it is as fun as it is helpful whether it’s to his own abilities or what is around him like a short cut, we as the players love to finish the game fast. And lastly is to have enemies around cause a good game can’t be considered good without challenges and obstacles in your way. However as mention before no one likes to be slowed down or even be stopped just to fight enemies so they can move on its cheap and has no purpose, like in shadow the hedgehog, sonic 06, sonic unleashed (werehog stages) sonic colors (although this is acceptable) and sonic lost world for the 3DS (which is just plan bad)
Lastly I have to agree with this guy about the fan base we are not helping sonic were just there supporting him but not there to help him. Honestly I don’t know what went wrong with sonic after shadow the hedgehog but I do know that it was for the fan service. We didn’t help out at all with our wishes and ideas for the sonic game and the 2 big games to support this idea is shadow the hedgehog and sonic 06 I would say sonic unleashed but it wasn’t so bad. If the sonic team ever sees this post then you should know and have read how to make a good sonic game or at least a safe one it’s fine to add a gimmick but don’t completely change or take away a part of sonic’s formula.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be upset if the series ended on Unleashed because the gameplay and story plot were strong. Yeah the Werehog wasn’t a great idea but it brought something new to the table and it had some fun aspects. The game stuck to Sonic’s roots and that’s all fans can ask for. I’m not really a fan of the new gimmicks such as Wisps. It’s fine to have it in Colors but it just didn’t fit in Lost World. I would like to see more acceptable gimmicks return like the Light speed dash or element shields like in Generations. I have yet to see a new gimmick I enjoyed.
Eh, I don’t think the series ending at Unleashed is a good idea. The HD version received mixed to terrible reviews and the Wii/PS2 version is slightly better. Unleashed is getting a lot of flak mostly because of the werehog, and if Unleashed is the final game in the series then people will blame it on the werehog saying that the werehog killed off the Sonic franchise.
I like Sonic Unleashed, but it seems like those games that only Sonic fans can appreciate and see it’s beauty.
reply to Sonfan: The new writers, that’s what I meant. They actually do have something to do with the direction of Sonic since they are the writers. They’re writing has changed Sonic’s attitude in a way that I really don’t enjoy. Sonic was meant to appeal to teens and their direction is appealing to young kids. If Boom is good for anything it should be for that type of audience. These new writers do not even know Sonic’s story ark which is extremely disappointing. They have done a little research but still…. why? Hire people that actually know the franchise well. That’s just my opinion.
In reply to Steven: No, Sonic is meant for everyone since the beginning. That’s why the games are always rated E or E-10 for EVERYONE. Meaning that anybody at any age can play them. Kids, teens and adults. They’re not meant to only appeal to one audience. I don’t know what Sonic’s story arc is either. The story in the 3D games keep changing in every title. They just need to know the premise (Sonic collecting rings and emeralds, freeing animals, etc) and build from there. The Sonic franchise is very easy to learn.
Reply to Sonfan: Obviously you never saw any documentary of Sonic. Sonic originally was made to appeal to teens since Mario was appealing to kids. The edginess to Sonic is what Sega wanted teens to enjoy about the character. It could still be for kids but it tried to appeal to a higher age while still being for everyone. The jokes were not dumb down for kids and it kept itself seriously. You’re right, the franchise isn’t hard to learn but if you are going to handle a franchise you need to know a good majority of it. Otherwise you could completely change the character and get a lot of fans pist. The point is, that Sonic isn’t in good hands right now and these writers need to get a clue on what makes a good Sonic game. My advice is to leave 2D to Classic Sonic, 3D to Modern Sonic. Make Modern Sonic cool again without it being too forced and cheesy. If Boom continues than leave the slapstick humor to that. And take your time with it to make it have good quality.
“The point is, that Sonic isn’t in good hands right now and these writers need to get a clue on what makes a good Sonic game.”
And yet again, they don’t make the games. Maybe you should tell that to the developers (Sonic Team or Takashi Iizuka) or whoever is handling the franchise right now instead of blaming everything on the writers. SEGA are the ones who keeps hiring new people who don’t know much about the franchise. Last time I’ve checked (aside from Lost World which was mixed), Colors and Generations still did pretty well despite the writers not having as much knowledge on the franchise. They just knew the premise and build up from there. Now people who don’t like them will keep using that against them or try to find whatever dirt they can. The Sonic series has MUCH, MUCH bigger problems right now, and we don’t even know that we’re ever getting another Modern Sonic game.
also, I still don’t believe that Sonic is meant to appeal to only teens. Yes I’ve watched the documentarys. Yes, Sonic is meant to be an edgier character then Mario. Yes, he suppose to have more of an attitude. But Sonic games can still be enjoyed by everyone and they’re not targeted to just one audience. For years, I think alot of teens and adults thinks Sonic is for kids anyway. As a 31 year old, I don’t even want to admit that I still play Sonic games without people making fun of me “Oh, you still play that shit?” “Sonic is for kids” and “Play some real games”. *sighs*
If you actually read what I typed, I said it was meant to appeal to teens while being for everyone. I’m not saying only teens could enjoy it. Who do you think the developers gets their ideas from? The writers. Colors and Generations were good because they used the formula from Unleashed day time stages. As for the cutscenes, they were horrible in both games. The jokes were awful, the line delivery sucked, and the games were lazy short. In Sonic Colors they just split the 3 acts into 7 parts and called them acts. If you enjoy it, that’s fine. To me, they could do better with more effort. You could believe what you want to believe, I been with the series since it started. I believe they could do better than what they are providing. I’m pretty sure there will be a modern Sonic game this year, at least a trailer for it. The longer it takes, the more time they are putting into it.
Okay, whatever. This discussion only reminds me why I even wanted Sonic Boom to be good in the first place just so I can have something else Sonic related to look forward. I’m just tired of the same tired-ass discussions and arguments and people telling me what is horrible when it comes to Modern Sonic. “The story sucks, the writing sucks, the game is too short, the gameplay sucks, why did they bring this character back,WAH, WAH, WAH.” It’s like people only wanted Sonic Boom to fail so they can go back to complaining about Modern Sonic again. I don’t think I’m even excited for the 25th anniversary anymore.
Lol you could enjoy whatever game you want. My guilty pleasure is 06. I had fun with it even though people hate it. It’s okay to criticise Sonic, it’s their opinion. If you enjoy the latest games, that’s great. I’m glad some people can. All i’m saying is I have faith that Sonic can be better than what he is now. I’m excited for next 25th anniversary since Sega said they want to gain the trust back and have more quality in Sonic games.
true
Didn’t watch the video, and probably won’t, but if Shadow the Hedgehog is a main series title then so is Knuckles Chaotix and Tails Adventure. Sonic 4: Ep 2 should probably be in there as well since S3 and S&K are considered separately. And I don’t care what criteria you use, Rise of Lyric is explicitly a spin-off. Hell, it’s a video game spin-off of a spin-off TV show so it’s like, twice removed from the main series.
What I’m saying is this guy either didn’t do his research, or purposefully included 2 of the worst spinoffs to skew the stats further towards Sonic games being generally bad. Mind you I think Sonic games _are_ generally bad, but if you’re only looking at the first stage of the main releases I don’t think you’ll have enough evidence to make your point.
Very true.
What defines the “main” Sonic games from others?
So, SONIC BOOM is part of the main series?!…
NO way!!…
No not exactly but if you remember from the news sega mention before sonic boom came out, it was supposed to be its own separate series from the main story arc. So in a way sonic boom is now its own story franchise.
It’s not. The guy knows that Sonic Boom a spin-off but included it in the video as a main series title anyway.
Oh boy, people who dislike Sonic are gonna have a field day with this one. “Sonic is a corporate character,” “The classic games are sloppy at best,” etc.
But I don’t blame him, since I find his critique pretty entertainingly intriguing and legitimate. Especially for someone who perhaps doesn’t have much nostalgic attachment to the series in general. The inconsistency of the series really is its biggest downfall.
Imagine if they kept building on the classic games? Games that are already highly well-regarded and reached their “peak” with S3&K. Imagine if they learned from whatever slight flaws that game has and just built on it from there?
Or, more realistically, what if they kept building up on the Adventure games? Those games, while looked at in a very negative light today, were very well-regarded back in the day and seen as technical achievements. What if they actually stuck to that style and fixed the flaws with each subsequent game?
Why is it that Mario 64 has arguably just as many flaws as Sonic Adventure, but is looked back on in a positive light? Besides series reputation, I believe it has to do with people having something to compare to in contrast with Mario 64. Games like Galaxy 1/2 wouldn’t not have been as good as they are if they weren’t built on the already strong foundation of Mario 64.
Now poor ol’ Sonic on the other hand never had that chance. At least with the classic games when people say Sonic 1 is just okay, they have Sonic 3 & Knuckles 2 or even CD to compare it to. But with the Adventure games, there’s not much.
But it’s too late for an Adventure game. What baffles me now is why did they drop the boost formula? With Generations and Colors, people absolutely adored that shit. Even people who don’t like Sonic generally praise those games for their good design and truly sticking to Sonic’s speed.
I don’t believe it’s too late for Sega to bring back Sonic, but damn would they have to work their fucking asses off and stay consistent to a teenth so they could get people’s trust back. But sadly, that may never happen.
Here’s hoping for a great 25th anniversary game at least.
Honestly, if it’s a high quality game with outstanding graphics then they can get their trust back; especially if they advertise it well. Now another thing to worry about is the Sonic Movie which could possibly help or hurt the franchise.
I do agree with most of what was said, but I personally have no problem with the Adventure games’ core control and, while I do agree that Sonic Team trying to reinvent the wheel after they get it near perfect is idiotic, I do get a kick out of Sonic Lost World’s control. I hope that Sonic Team throws out the dumb concept of “innovating” just for the sake of innovation and streamlines at least Modern Sonic. They can innovate the heck out of Sonic Boom, but when it comes to Modern/Legacy Sonic, there needs to be consistency.
“every main Sonic game”
>Sonic 4 and Sonic Boom
>No Rush
And yes I still count Rush as a main platforming game along with the Advance games. They were the ones to introduce Cream and Blaze first, so yeah.
Sonic 4 is a main series game (it’s suppose to be a sequel to S3&K). He included episode 1 but not episode 2 for some reason.
I still don’t count it as one, it sure doesn’t FEEL like a real sequel to S3&K and not to mention it originally started life as “Sonic the Portable” and then they just hyped it up to passing into off as a new Classic game.
This guy gave Pontac and Gaff way too much credit with the writing. That was never a good idea to begin with. XP
I know right!
I didn’t see the following on the list:
-Underground Zone
-Volcanic Vault
-Turquoise Hill Zone
-Great Turquoise Zone
-Training Area (Tails’ Skypatrol)
-Poloy’s Forest
-Isolated Island or Botanic Base
-Green Grove Zone
-Neo South Island Zone
-Neo Green Hill
-Route 99
-Leaf Storm
-Plant Kingdom
-Forest Falls
-Blue Coast
-Sylvania Castle
I’ll leave out the racing games, pinball games, storybook games, party games, fighting games, and Sonic Labyrinth.
I get the whole “don’t forget the portable/8-bit titles, they’re traditional Sonic platformers too!” but in what universe are either Tails Game Gear game – Skypatrol especially – main series titles?
The Game Gear games, Chaotix, SegaSonic, and 3D Flickies Island aren’t main games.
But Boom was included?
No one outside the fanbase distinguishes the main series from the Boom series. To them, RoL and SC are just two more bad games with Sonic’s face on the cover.
But why encourage it? And this was made by someone FROM the fanbase.
well SEGA has the knowledge to keep sonic alive.
I hope they do.