First Time Sonic

[Magnum Valentino]

The best Sonic game is Sonic Mania.

It actually is, but it only works at maximum efficacy if you have played and adore the four games it references. Playing Mania at midnight the night it was released is still one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had.

[JamesTC]

Sonic 3 & Knuckles > Sonic Mania > Sonic 2 > Sonic 1 > Sonic CD

I do actually really like Sonic CD too, I just can't put the rest below it.

that hovering vertical cylinder in the Carnival Night zone (in 3) that completely flummoxed me when I was her age and rented the game from Xtra-Vision. To be able to find common ground with a child 20 years later over the same piece of unintuitive once-in-a-game physics was extraordinarily affirming.

The famous barrel of doom. Hilarious how all you need to do is press up and down on it to get passed it but it flummoxed kids all across the world. They even added a blurb in the manual about it, and I think considered removing it.

I'm not sure where she even got her hands on Sonic 3 as in 2016 it was usually left off most of those compilation discs for PS3 and PS4 generations because of rights, wasn't it?

Yeah, the talk is it is Michael Jackson's music was used when it shouldn't have been as he was quietly sacked from the game. To be honest, the music from the prototype is so much better. Only Ice Cap Zone, Carnival Night Zone and Launch Base Zone use Jackson's music in the end. The original Carnival Night and Launch Base before Jackson's involvement are absolute bangers.

Rumours going around that the tracks will be replaced for the upcoming Sonic Origins collection released at the end of June.

[Steven88]

The best Sonic game is Sonic Mania.

I love Sonic 1-3 and S&K but Sonic Mania did nothing for me.

[Kelvin]

I really liked Sonic Mania, but I never complete subsequent playthroughs because so many of the bosses are a complete arse ache. I always end up giving up at the helicopter one* a few levels in.

*I've beaten it (and the game) several times, to be clear. I just find certain bosses a chore and if I die on them it kills my motivation to play on. 

[madhair60]

Sonic Mania is probably the biggest disappointment in my gaming life, on reflection. It should have been a slam dunk, but its ridiculous, almost feverish obsession with referencing almost every fucking thing in the series turns it into nothing more than a digital museum, really. I mean, it's fine. It's a 7. But sheesh.

[Norton Canes]

I'm using this emulator

Can anyone tell me if it's got the level unlock cheat thing, and if so how to access it? Enjoying the game but already fed up of having to go through Green Hill each time I want to try and finish Marble.

[JamesTC]

For Sonic 1, press Up, Down, Left, Right on the title screen, then hold the key which corresponds to the controller button A and press Start.

[Spiteface]

Sonic Mania is probably the biggest disappointment in my gaming life, on reflection. It should have been a slam dunk, but its ridiculous, almost feverish obsession with referencing almost every fucking thing in the series turns it into nothing more than a digital museum, really. I mean, it's fine. It's a 7. But sheesh.

It really is overhyped by people.

Bear in mind I've been into Sonic since 1991, so yeah, it is right up my alley in so many ways, but then you start wondering if you're just being pandered to.

It's lovely, but it doesn't enchant me in the way I was when I first plugged my Sonic 3 cartridge into Sonic & Knuckles on Christmas day in 1994.

Word is Sonic Team is also working on a new 2D game, in addition to Sonic Frontiers, which is apparently a proper open world-type game, which Sonic hasn't really done before.

The 2D game is expected to be like the Advance titles, which were okay, but I don't think people will take to it like they did Mania.

[Kelvin]

Mania feels and looks right, though, that's the thing. Yes, its too reliant on classic worlds and references, but the actual level design, movement and visuals are exactly how people remember the best sonic games - while actually, I'd argue, improving on them a fair bit.

[Norton Canes]

For Sonic 1, press Up, Down, Left, Right on the title screen, then hold the key which corresponds to the controller button A and press Start

Thanks. Can't get it to work doing that, though. Don't suppose anyone has a couple of minutes to try it out (on the link above) and see if it works..?

God I am such a dunce.

[willbo]

I think this wins for being one of the strangest Sonic videos out there (that isn't fanart related)

[JamesTC]

Thanks. Can't get it to work doing that, though. Don't suppose anyone has a couple of minutes to try it out (on the link above) and see if it works..?

God I am such a dunce.

Just tried it myself. I hear the chime to say it has worked but it doesn't seem to register that I am holding a button when I press enter and it just goes into the game. Might just not work on that website.

[Norton Canes]

Ah well. Long way round it is then

[Replies From View]

It's really good if you like holding down a right button and pressing a jump button at random intervals.

Or "computer games" as they are called.

[madhair60]

Edit: NO. I WILL NOT GET MAD ABOUT PEOPLE BEING WRONG ABOUT SONIC. NOT AGAIN

[Kelvin]

Edit: NO. I WILL NOT GET MAD ABOUT PEOPLE BEING WRONG ABOUT SONIC. NOT AGAIN

haha, I know it was my post cause I got the notification. I can take it, I loves ya madders :)

[Replies From View]

Interesting isn't it how Sonic the Hedgehog is an anagram of Stonehenge Cunto.

[Replies From View]

For Sonic 1, press Up, Down, Left, Right on the title screen, then hold the key which corresponds to the controller button A and press Start.

NAMROOD

[Norton Canes]

Ah, this Genesis emulator does the cheats

[RetroRobot]

I bloody love Sonic. Replayed Adventure recently and while it has problems it still shines thanks to the teams ambition. Then I tried 2, and remembered why I haven't finished this game since playing it for the first time. Loses all the charm of the original.

Mind you my Sonic takes aren't always good... I enjoyed Sonic Forces.

[JamesTC]

I finished Sonic Forces in one sitting. Glitchy mess of a game.

Sonic Unleashed was a very underrated game though.

[Kelvin]

As someone whose never played the 3D Sonics*, what is it about Adventure that makes it so well regarded among fans, compared to later games (including its sequel) that are generally considered inferior? Putting aside the ways it may have dated now, what was it that people liked about Adventure that SEGA got wrong in almost every subsequent 3D game?

*I've played bits of them over the years, but never a full game. 

[RetroRobot]

As someone whose never played the 3D Sonics*, what is it about Adventure that makes it so well regarded among fans, compared to later games (including its sequel) that are generally considered inferior? Putting aside the ways it may have dated now, what was it that people liked about Adventure that SEGA got wrong in almost every subsequent 3D game?

*I've played bits of them over the years, but never a full game. 

Personally I think 3D Sonic was better in Unleashed, Generations and Colours because "Crash Bandicoot but fast" is very fun and feels like what 3D Sonic should be.

That said Adventure had a weirdly ambitious scope to it. Its an action platfromer with some open worlds, a proper story (that isn't very good but is when you're 7) and every design choice was to show what the Dreamcast could do.

Sonic's levels (and Tails') are a lot of fun and the developers let you use their moves to utterly break the game. You can spindash, and time a jump just right to go flying through the levels. They're not as good as their contemporaries, Mario 64, Spyro, Banjo etc, but there's charm to blowing through levels and learning the controls to do it again faster.

The other gameplay styles I'm not a fan of but they aren't all bad. The idea behind them was with costs some Dreamcast players would only get one game, so they wanted to make Adventure a lot of games. It's a platformer, it's a pet raising sim, it's a survival game, it's a shooter, and a fishing game. Which doesn't really work now but if you can imagine what it was like when it was new then I think it helps in understanding what they were going for.

Again it's not my favourite but it was a massive deal as a kid. It doesn't hold up very well but if you can put yourself in 1999 and understand what it's trying to do there is some charm to it.

If not, I'd say just play Generations as that's still ace.

[JamesTC]

There is a great fangame called Sonic Robo Blast 2 that was built on the Doom engine and kind of imagines what a 3D Sega Saturn game could have been. It really does feel like a natural progression from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

[madhair60]

Sonic Adventure has heart and soul.

[Kelvin]

Sonic Adventure has heart and soul.

Like Blues music?

[stonkers]

The famous barrel of doom. Hilarious how all you need to do is press up and down on it to get passed it but it flummoxed kids all across the world. They even added a blurb in the manual about it, and I think considered removing it.

For Sonic Jam on the Saturn, Sonic Team rebalanced the difficulty of each game a bit, and I'm pretty sure they removed the barrel of doom. It still gives the option of playing the original levels though.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

first time with sonic was disappointing. didn't even cum

[JamesTC]

first time with sonic was disappointing. didn't even cum

Rouge the Bat is what you want. Fit as.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

Rouge the Bat is what you want. Fit as.

mm. guess she won't be so fast