Sonic the Hedgehog Review

A Celebration

Sonic the Hedgehog was released on Wednesday the 11th to celebrate the opening of E3 and at just 400 points is was a very difficult offer to turn down. It puzzles me why they released it alongside the dire Golden Axe - available on the same day for the same money. It was almost as though Microsoft were testing us. Will we a) choose games Golden Axe and therefore indicate to the powers behind the selection process that we, the consumer, will simply buy anything for the price of a bacon sandwich or b) choose Sonic the Hedgehog and send the message loud and clear that this is the type of game we want to play on XBLA and this is the kind of money we want to pay for it? Because it is.

The difference between the two is astonishing. Not only in terms of graphics and pad response, but in overall design quality. Although both games were released by Sega within two years of each other, the jump in quality and ideas is marked. If Sega were cutting their teeth with Golden Axe, then Sonic was the step into manhood.
Sonic the Hedgehog went down in history for a reason and playing the game once more on XBLA it is made clear just why we still revere it today.

The Lord of the Rings

From the first moment on Green Hill you’re whizzing about the place getting bumped and buffeted around the place. The ingenious level-design anticipating where you might jump and placing an obstacle at just the right height to lull you into a false sense of security. Your eyes twitch as you try to navigate the jumps, springs and pitfalls that stand in your way progression. You reel as you think you’ve pulled off a lucky escape only to find your path blocked by a set of spikes and watch in horror and the 95 or so rings you’ve hoarded going after that extra life and Centurion Achievement are splayed flickering across the screen only to fade out of site as you hurriedly try to re-gather them all. Great stuff.

Sonic: Spikey

As for the Achievements they are nicely spread throughout the game whilst a few are trying to do their best to encourage replayability and thus actually serving a purpose. For example, the ‘Fast Green’ Achievement is awarded to the player who can complete Green Hill, Act 1 in under 35 seconds. No mean feat. However, Achievements such as ‘Perfect Win’, given to the player who completes the game without dying, is somewhat missing the point I feel. Sonic is all about risk management, going for it as fast as possible. Playing the game cautiously and learning every level by heart goes against the grain of the core mechanic of the game: speed. However, this is countered by the ‘Fast Win’ Achievement, which offers a handful of points to those who complete the game in under 40 minutes. So there’s plenty to aim for the die-hard fans out there.

A lesson to be learned

A classic like Sonic is hard to score. If you haven’t played it before, then it’s a 10, absolutely no doubt whatsoever. It is something that must be experienced and compared with platformers today, still hold it’s own in terms of ingenuity and invention. If however, you’ve played the game to death, both when it came out and in all various in carnations since I’d still score it 8, as it controls beautifully and the challenges offered up by the Achievements really give some added value to experience.

Microsoft’s XBLA continues to receive criticism for charging its subscribers for re-hashes of games that weren’t even considered that great the 100 or so years ago when they were released. Every now and then however, they get it right. Maybe it’s just a case of them finding some old treasure in the dark, as they stumble around blindly throwing out any old thing they come across, or maybe they really are trying to provide a service where all tastes are catered for? Who knows? What we do know however, is that many of the titles release are never really worth the price of admission. I’m looking at you, Yie Ar kung Fu. Still, when it’s good it’s good, as the countless hours spent on titles such as Geometry Wars, Doom and now Sonic the Hedgehog will testify.

I implore all to purchase this game, even if you only play it for a couple of hours. Send out the message to Microsoft that this is the kind of game we want to see reproduced. This is what we want to invest in.

9/10