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View Full Version : Sonic 15th Anniversary WEEK! Day 1 - 16-Bit Days



GrayFox
06-20-2006, 12:30 AM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/grayfox1212/SONICBANNERDEAL-1.gif

It begins, my retrospective on Sonic. Who didn't see this coming? It's me. Also, sorry about the late posting, I've been at the office all day long.

BUT alas, June 23rd, 2006 brings upon this small planet Sonic's 15th anniversary. What shall this birthday bring to us all? Possibly a fantastic Next-Gen Sonic the Hedgehog game for the 360 and PS3? A brand new solo adventure that immediately rocks your pants off when you play it on the Wii? Fantastic portable adventures with Sonic Rivals?

Who knows, we just gotta wait. But in anticipation of Sonic's new games this year, and his 15th birthday, I thought Digital Press, and any other site that people deem this message appropriate, should celebrate the games and joy Sonic has brought. Maybe you only enjoyed him as a child when Sonic defied Mario with his edgy attitude, or maybe you're like me and have become way too obcessive with one character.

Whatever character you fall under, I hope you can realize that Sonic came from humble beginnings, and continues to be a huge household name. My opinions on the Sonic games will always be controversial, but I hope we can all try and agree on just one point in this week.

At one point, we all enjoyed a Sonic game. Maybe for a few minutes, maybe as a child, maybe as an adult. Maybe always. I hope.

Anyways, here we go, I want people to contribute to the threads. I'm going to attempt to make a new thread each night.

1) 16-Bit
2) 32-Bit, oh the dark days indeedy
3) Dreamcast and Current Gen - Revival to some people, not to others.
4) "THE FUTURE!" - Doc

For the 16-Bit generation, Sonic was defined by Sonic 2 and Sonic CD for myself. Yes, Sonic 3 & Knuckles was absolutely amazing, and might possibly be my favorite Sonic title after Sonic CD, but I don't have time to write a thesis on the glory of Sonic during these times.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/grayfox1212/box.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/grayfox1212/sonic2_1.jpg

Sonic 2. It might not have the level design of the original, but Sonic 2 was the first Sonic game I bought with my own money. It meant something to me, and obviously its a fantastic game in its own right. Tails was introduced, and we got our hand on the first of many sidekicks. Chemical Plant Zone? Casino Night Zone? Oh, those tunes will always make me smile. Fantastic music, great levels, and the spin dash? What? A new move? RIVETING!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/grayfox1212/megacdcvr-medium.jpg

But it doesn't matter, the peel out is still cooler looking eh?

Sonic CD, my favorite game of all time, and obviously the best Sonic game in my strange book of opinions. But what makes it so good? Well, nostaglia helps a lot here for myself. A good friend of mine and myself played through this game multiple times in one night in order to get every damn Future to be good, and all the time stones. Boy was that ending with the swaying flowers worth it. Boy was it worth it.

But the game was different. The game had an emphasis on more vertical levels, and speed wasn't as important here. The idea of moving into different time zones was also an interesting way of putting a nice twist on Sonic's gameplay. Creating good futures was a great way of going about the game, but you could also reach the game's best finale by going the classic Sonic route by getting the Time Stones (Chaos Emeralds in most Sonic games, obviously) in the crazy mode 7, UFO filled as well, special zones. Get all of them, and like in Sonic 1/2, you're treated to a better ending.

The music though, OH the music. Spencer's soundtrack is fantastic in my opinion, and people need to realize this. Yes, the Japanese/European Sonic CD has a better selection of CD-Quality music, but Spencer did a great job. I appauld him, very late. Sonic CD for the win.

I'd love to now get into Sonic 3, Knuckles, 3D Blast, Game Gear titles, etc, but I thought I'd just hit my favorite games of the 16-Bit generation. Your turn.

alec006
06-20-2006, 12:45 AM
Oh god ive waited for this all year long,Sonics 15th Birthday,starting with my favorate days the 16 Bit erra. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my favorate System the Sega Genesis,nothing like playing the lush Green Hills of the Emerald Hill Zone or hearing the music of the deadly but fun Chemical Plant Zone,lets not forget the game that Started it all with the Special Stage that made you glare at your RF Blured Screen in amazment. Lets also not forget some fun but almost forgoten Sega Master System and Gamegear ports,nothing like hearing 8-Bit Sonic Sound. Glad that this is only the beginning Of the week of Sonic the Hedgehog one of the best videogame charaters of all time.......Damet i fell in the Chemicals again LOL ,oh well lets count down to Sonic Summer.

http://sonicology.fateback.com/beta/sonic2/betarom/cpz2.png

Blanka789
06-20-2006, 12:56 AM
Happy birthday, and Sonic CD is still easily a top 5 game. Here's to many more years.

Matt-El
06-20-2006, 04:15 AM
T'was Sonic 1 that brought me joy in my early years. Renting many times a genesis deck ($6 bucks! X_x ) to play ONLY that game, I feel that I am a long time sonic fan.

Missing a couple of soccer games here and there to catch his ABC adventures, and sewing a patch onto my jersey in 4th grade that said "sega power" on it, showed it's influence on me. Surprisingly, I did not receive a genesis until the time that Sonic 3 came out, but that did not deter me. I was, and still am, a sonic fan.

Cheers sonic! Let's get pissed!

dreamcaster
06-20-2006, 04:53 AM
Being a Super NES owner and player back in the day (only ONE of my friends had a Mega Drive), Mario was the platformer I mostly exposed to and probably the first 16-bit one I played.

That said, the first time I played my friend's copy of Sonic 2, I was blown away. The speed was amazing but what impressed me most is the TWO PLAYER SIMULTANEOUS MODE. Sure, it looked squished on our sub-standard PAL console, but it was an amazing idea. All I could think was, "WHY DOESN'T MARIO HAVE THIS????!". But, I couldn't afford extra games for my SNES, let alone buying a Mega Drive AND Sonic 2. So that was that.

But, it's Sonic CD which is my favourite 2-D Sonic, favourite 16-bit Sonic, and favourite Sonic game of ALL time. I always did, and still do, find the SNES the superior machine to the Mega Drive, but I've always had this romanticism with the Mega CD, and Sonic CD blew me away. Big levels, amazing graphics, and most importantly CD quality sound.

The Japanese version of Sonic has one of THE best soundtracks of all time, and the western bastardisation of the game's music is unfortunate.

*hugs Japanese Sonic CD* :D

Emuaust
06-20-2006, 05:34 AM
Well my first introduction to sonic was Sonic 1 on the MD
my friend and I hired it and played that absolute shit out of it
all weekend, what great times,

Oh and SMS Sonic 1 and 2 are the greatest 8bit games IMO,
why oh why Sega went for the crappy ratio of the GG versions
for the Sonic collections still baffles me to no end!

Oh and for the Record I bought Sonic cd when it came out
and hated it, I still hate it to this day.



Sonic 3 & Knuckes forever!,amazing graphics and amazing
sound, it really is the pinnacle of the Megadrive IMO.

CosmicMonkey
06-20-2006, 06:01 AM
Well thanks for posting, I'd never have thought about it otherwise!

I declare this my Official Sonic Week. I'm gonna spend the rest of the week going through Sonics 1 - 3, S&K and CD.

kainemaxwell
06-20-2006, 08:45 AM
That's a sweet cover to the japanese Sonic CD!

B - Mark
06-20-2006, 03:21 PM
His attitude is very good.

June 23 is the Sonicīs birthday.

I like the Sonic series since 16-bit era.

And i had a great expectative aout this games Sonic The Hedgehog for PS3 and XBox 360 and Sonic Wild Fire for Nintendo Wii.

Other Sonic games canīt be forget is the 8-bit Sonic games.

More exactaly this games:
- Sonic the Hedgehog ( Master System and Game Gear )
- Sonic the Hedgeog 2 ( Master System and Game Gear )
- Sonic Chaos ( Master System and Game Gear )

Amy Rose
06-21-2006, 08:03 PM
Sonic & Knuckles is my pick for this time period. While Sonic CD is a fan favourite, S3&K got the most playtime as far as I was concerned. Knuckles was my favourite Sega character for years, and I LOVED the fact that he actually became playable as far back as Sonic 2 thanks to the lock on technology! The Mega Drive is also my favourite console of all time, so no surprises there. :P

Also Carey, why no 8-bit love?

GrayFox
06-21-2006, 08:06 PM
Sonic & Knuckles is my pick for this time period. While Sonic CD is a fan favourite, S3&K got the most playtime as far as I was concerned. Knuckles was my favourite Sega character for years, and I LOVED the fact that he actually became playable as far back as Sonic 2 thanks to the lock on technology! The Mega Drive is also my favourite console of all time, so no surprises there. :P

Also Carey, why no 8-bit love?

Heh, Sonic first appeared on Genesis, and thus started on 16-Bit love. 16-Bit Sonic was much more important I says!

I could've included them, but I just wanted to include my favorite Sonic games of this period, and I mean honestly, the 8-Bit SMS and GG versions of the Sonics can't compare to the Genesis/Mega Drive versions

Saying that though, I played the shit outta Sonic 2 on my GG.

idrougge
06-21-2006, 08:24 PM
I must say that my favourite Sonic is the original game. It seems that most have decided that Sonic 2 was the defining moment for the series, but I'm still in love with the absolutely basic gameplay of the original, not to mention the incredibly fresh graphics. Most importantly, the original Sonic soundtrack was a tour-de-force by Sega's sound team. Sonic 2 is in comparison very weak in the sonics department (pun intended).

Arasoi
06-21-2006, 08:30 PM
Sonic CD was an excellent game. Cool levels, interesting premise (different time zones), and a great redbook OST (I refer to the US version).

Like most CD games of the era, it made great use of the medium's extra storage space for a diverse and very enjoyable game.

j_factor
06-21-2006, 09:33 PM
I really, really liked Sonic Triple Trouble for GG. It had really nice-looking graphics and great speed; it really felt like they were pushing the old Z80 to its absolute limit. I wish they had made an SMS version... the SMS versions of 1 and 2 play better than on GG. Even Tec Toy didn't make an SMS version of Triple Trouble (although they did port Blast, ugh). :(

kainemaxwell
06-22-2006, 12:57 AM
And in celebration of this week, couple my friends as Tails and Super Sonic.
http://images.cosplay.com/photos/72/724406.jpg

MarioMania
06-22-2006, 04:10 AM
I prefur Sonic on the Genesis/Mega Drive over the 3D Sonic's any day

Juganawt
06-22-2006, 01:02 PM
I loved the 16 bit sonic games... infact I used to do time trials on each level of the original (has anyone ever managed to beat 27 seconds on World 1 Level 1?)

My favourite of the 16 bits (and in fact, favourite sonic game) is Sonic CD. Absolutely fantastic level design, interested Past Present & Future concepts, and cool Mode 7 style levels as well... all coupled with spotless presentation and an excellent soundtrack.

They'll never make a better platform game than Sonic CD.