Sonic The Hedgehog (Arcade) Reviews

hey all this is my first review so be gentle :)

Sonic, the fastest blue hedgehog on earth, will rocket through hair-raising loop-de-loops and take dizzying dives past bubbling lava, waterfalls and more in Sonic the Hedgehog Arcade. Gather up the rings and stop Dr.Eggman's (aka Dr. Robotnik) schemes for world domination! A classic! with the added save/load feature it makes it even easier to get to your favourite level. sonics back in all his retro glory!!!

Presentation:
The new menu is ok but its the same as all the other XBLA games.

Graphics:
Sonic was always a nice-looking game, with solid art design and some great animations. The enhanced look serves it well.

Sound
The music holds up well over time. The different tracks for each stage add some individuality to every level.

Gameplay
Back in the day, this was just about the best platformer money could buy. It may be a bit dated at this point, but it's still a blast.

Lasting Appeal
It's a relatively short experience, with very little replay value. My fastest time from start to finish is under 22 mins so after that it kinda loses its apeal. role on sonic 4 EP1

Sonic The Hedgehog - Released originally in 1991.

This is where the story of our favourite blue hedgehog began.

Everyone should know who Sonic is! but for those who don't, here's a bit of background on the story:

Sonic the Hedgehog is a blue hedgehog who lives on South Island with his animal friends. He encounters an evil scientist named Doctor Ivo Robotnik, known as Dr. Eggman in the Japanese version, for the first time. Dr. Robotnik/Eggman seeks to obtain the powerful Chaos Emeralds so that he can take over the world, and sets about transforming animals into robots to serve his ends.
Realizing Dr. Robotnik/Eggman's evil ambitions, Sonic pursues him through several of the world's "Zones" before eventually defeating him in Scrap Brain Zone. Following this victory, Sonic returns home to South Island to rejoin his friends and to resume his normal life. If the player was able to collect all the Chaos Emeralds, their power produces new plant life in Green Hill Zone, which surprises Sonic.

Gameplay:
You play as Sonic, through 7 Zones:

Green Hill Zone
Labyrinth Zone
Marble Zone
Starlight Zone
Spring Yard Zone
Scrap Brain Zone
Final Zone

You run your way through these zones in a 2D platformer, encountering enemies and traps along the way, Badniks, these are creatures that Eggman stole and turned into robots, so you must defeat them in order to free the animal trapped inside.

At the end of each act, you will be given a time bonus, the faster you are, the more points you will score, the time bonuses are like this:

Game clock reads 0:29 or less = 50000
Game clock reads 0:30 to 0:44 = 10000
Game clock reads 0:45 to 0:59 = 5000
Game clock reads 1:00 to 1:29 = 4000
Game clock reads 1:30 to 1:59 = 3000
Game clock reads 2:00 to 2:59 = 2000
Game clock reads 3:00 to 3:59 = 1000
Game clock reads 4:00 to 4:59 = 500
Game clock reads 5:00 or more = 0

Also at the end of each act, providing you have 50 rings at the time, you will see a giant ring, which you can jump into to be transported to the special stage, from there you can obtain a Chaos Emerald.

Soundtrack:
The soundtracks for all Sonic games are amazing, and very well composed, this is no different, each track from each zone is definitely memorable.

Replayability:
Easily one to go back to, it was never a game to finish and put away onto the shelf, this is one game you can finish and replay time and time again.

I cannot think of anyone who hasn't played Sonic The Hedgehog, this was my first game I ever played, back when I had my Megadrive, if you haven't played any of these, I highly recommend you give them a try, though they may feel out dated, there's nothing that can compare to old style retro games.

Sonic The Hedgehog is a fast-paced platformer released back in 1991, on the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive.

Ever since its release, the series has been pumping out games. And it all started right here, re-released for the xbox 360! Was it a good port?

Gameplay: It's like a roller-coaster!

Sonic handles like no other game character I've seen!
First, the controls are simple and easy to handle. You move Sonic with the thumbstick, and jump with the A button. You can hold down on the thumbstick when running down a slope to turn into a ball for increased speed! Overall, the gameplay is fun!

Next up, the ring mechanic, in the levels, you collect rings, these rings are then added up at the end of the stage for a total amount of points. However, if you finish a level with over 50 rings, a giant ring will appear at the end, if you jump into this, you are sent into a mini-game, to help collect a chaos emerald!

Now, the chaos emerald don't really effect the gameplay at all, but they still can be collected, you overall need to collect 6 in total to reach the true ending, and an achievement.

Along the way, you face robots called badniks, these guys are very easy to kill, just jump through/on them and you won't lose any momentum at all! When these guys get destroyed, a little animal comes out, this will be explained in the Story section.

Sonic can also pick up temporary power-ups along the levels, such as an Bubble Shield to allow him to take an extra hit without losing any rings and speed shoes to increase his speed.

Overall, the gameplay is simple and fun! 8/10

Level Design: Woah Lord

If you're going fast then you're going to want levels were this is easy and fun to do, right?

Well for the first zone, Green Hill Zone, you have basic running forward, jumping at right times and defeating enemies.

The rest are basic platforming, although you occasionally get some zones that have really fun running sections.

The problem I have with some of the levels is that a lot of cheap deaths can happen easily, In Scrap-Brain Zone, the first 3 seconds of the level you can fall into a trap that will lead you to a bottomless pit.

A lot of the levels are like these, and sometimes you can be running straight forward when out of nowhere a spring appears and pushes you back quite a distance and can either lead to getting hit or death.

The game can get really challenging as soon as you hit Labyrinth Zone. I was at remote-throwing rage at those points.

Overall, the levels can be well done, but sometimes just don't work. 7/10.

Graphics: Radical!

This game was originally released in 1991, so it would obviously be unfair to judge it from a 2015 point of view.

The graphics are quite bright, not to bright, but bright enough to show what type of environment you are in.

When you are in green hill zone, it really looks like a place green and grassy, it's beautiful!

Scrap-Brain Zone looks like a futuristic lab, and the graphic shows this clearly!

Overall there isn't much to say about the graphics over than they're damn beautiful, great use of colours! 9/10!

Story: He's a freedom fighter!

Unfortunately, the story isn't really accessible via the 360, and instead of having a manual to read, you have to resort to the internet!

I don't like copy and pasting from sources, but what I can tell is this:

Doctor Robotnik wants to have world dominance, so he comes to a little island populated by little animals, and puts them in robots. This does something??? (I'm really not sure) but either way, Sonic is here to stop this, by destroying all the badniks on his way to find Robotnik.

With the chaos emeralds in his grasp, he can stop Robotnik and his evil plans.

Overall, its a story for the kids, so I can't really judge it. 5.5/10

Soundtrack: It's fly!

The soundtrack is something I would definitely consider buying, I couldn't think of a single stage I wasn't bopping my head to (Well, maybe Labyrinth Zone and Marble Zone), it's pure good 8-Bit nostalgia!

Overall, it's jamming! 8/10!

Achievements: Not as hard as you think! (This does not effect the score for the game)

Nearly all achievements in this game will definitely be picked up first playthrough, however, the only time I believe you will have trouble is the "Complete the game in 40 minutes" achievement, but with the save feature in the game, it's all a matter of reloading your save if you feel like you've wasted time.
If you are willing to spend the time, an easy one day completion, 8/10.

if you've never played a Sonic game before, this is a great place to start, if you want nostalgia, this port is good enough to bring it back! Want some easy 200g? This is the quick stop for you!

Fun, Easy and Simple! 9/10! (4 Stars)

I'll leave you with my favourite track from the game

The Classic Sega game Sonic the Hedgehog makes it's way onto the Xbox and is just as fun as it was years ago!

The video is slightly better, the untrained eye probably won't recognize the improvement in graphics over the original. (Hell, I didn't even notice until I played the original at a friends house)

The Audio is crisper, but again, most people won't even notice because it's all the same original tracks (as far as I can tell)

The overall game is still fun even in this more modern time, and the save/load features make playing the game less stressful and you can always save when you're doing well, and re-load when you don't to ensure you get all the chaos emeralds! (save/reload feature not particularly needed if you're trying to beat speed records)

Coming from the S/NES era, this was always a game I felt to be a knock-off of Mario and the gang. I can honestly say I never played until it was released on XBLA.

If only I had opened my mind back in the days. This game is great. I had a lot of fun trying to beat the levels. I recommend to anyone looking for a decent challenge; getting 200/200 takes a bit of tedious restarting if you fail, but only after you've beaten the game the old-fashioned way. I guess that's my only complaint, the last achievement (<30 mins) is a pain and required another play through.