Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game)

This article is about the 16-bit 1991 game. For the 8-bit game, see Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit). For the 2006 game, see Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game).

Sonic the Hedgehog
File:Sonic1 box usa.jpg
Developer(s)	Sonic Team
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Hirokazu Yasuhara
Artist(s)	Naoto Ohshima (character design)
Composer(s)	Masato Nakamura
Platform(s)	Mega Drive/Genesis, iPod, iPhone OS Mobile phone, Virtual Console, Game Boy Advance, Xbox Live Arcade PC See also: Compilation releases and release history
Release	NA: June 23, 1991 EU: June 23, 1991 JP: July 26, 1991 CAN: May 29, 1999 (PC) NA: November 14, 2006 (GBA)
Genre(s)	Platform,Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player

Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Sonikku za Hejjihoggu) is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis system. It is the inaugural game in Sega's flagship Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, and was the first title developed by Sonic Team. It was first released on June 23, 1991 in North America, and the same day in Europe. The Japanese Mega Drive version was released on July 26, 1991. It is sometimes retroactively referred to as Sonic the Hedgehog 1 or Sonic 1 to differentiate it from both its main character and sequels in the same series.

This game propelled the Genesis into mass popularity in North America. After it was released, it eventually replaced Altered Beast as the game bundled with the console, and was later replaced with its first sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The game featured many novel elements which contributed to its popularity and helped to promote the uptake of 16-bit consoles. The game is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time, placing #63 on IGN's 2007 list.

Sonic the Hedgehog added the element of speed to the standard platform formula and introduced other unique elements as well, such as the loops, springboards, high-speed devices, and the rings now permanently associated with the game series.

The game was both a critical and commercial success. As of November 19, 2007, the game has sold 4 million copies, the second-highest amount for a Genesis game, behind Sonic 2, which has sold 6 million copies.

Gameplay

Overview

In the game, Sonic has to prevent Dr. Robotnik from collecting six (seven in the later games) of the Chaos Emeralds in an attempt to rule South Island. He must traverse six "zones", each comprising three stages or "acts", until he confronts Robotnik for the last time in the Final Zone.

The gameplay centers around elements that exploit the increased performance of the 16-bit console over its 8-bit forebears. It is notable for being both simplistic and engaging for players.

Sonic could run, jump, and roll at significantly higher speeds than most platformers of the time. Unlike other platformers, the game's levels were designed to encourage the player to progress quickly. Springs, slopes, high falls and loop-de-loops were all available to both boost and challenge the player to reach high speeds. This was all accomplished without any slowdown in framerates, adding to the experience.

Features

A typical in-game screenshot of Sonic the Hedgehog, taken from its first level, Green Hill Zone.

Essential to the gameplay are the golden rings the player collects along his/her way in each level; a feature which would become one of the defining characteristics of the series. These items are regularly placed around the level map and serve multiple functions. First, the player collects rings to protect Sonic. As long as they have at least one ring, the player will not lose a life when injured. Instead, when hit, up to 40 of the rings the player has collected will fly outward and scatter around the immediate area, some of which can then be retrieved before they disappear. If the player runs into an enemy without a single ring, they will lose a life. If the player collects 100 rings they will gain a life, and gain an additional life for every 100 rings after that, provided the rings are not lost.

If the player has at least 50 rings at the end of an act, a giant golden ring will float above the finishing sign which can be jumped through to enter one of the Special Stages (this excludes the final act of a stage, when Sonic will enter a boss fight). At the end of each act, the total number of rings the player has is multiplied by 100 and added to the player's score. During the score-tallying, the player can also jump through the air to find hidden emblems which can range from 100 to 10,000 points.

Also scattered throughout each level are monitors which, when broken by the character, reward the player with one of a variety of bonuses. These include a shield which will protect Sonic from a single hit, a 10-ring bonus, an extra life, temporary invincibility (accompanied with a temporary change in music), and "Super Sneakers", which give the player a temporary speed boost (and increase the tempo of the music for the duration). The item monitors have become another long-lasting feature in the series, though they have been changed to bubble-like containers in later games.

Despite the various types of protection available, neither the shield, rings, nor invincibility will prevent the player losing a life if Sonic is crushed (by a trap or between a wall and a moving platform), drowned, runs out of time (each act has a ten-minute time limit), or falls into a bottomless pit.

Progression through the game is made easier for the player by lamp posts that act as checkpoints. When Sonic passes a lamp post, its color changes from blue to red, and the next time a life is lost, gameplay will restart at that point rather than at the beginning of the act. In the Japanese version, if a checkpoint is activated and a life is lost as a result of running out of time, the time at the checkpoint will reset to 0:00.

Hazards the player experiences include a wide variety of "badniks" - these appear as animals trapped inside mechanical bodies which are released the moment the player hits them. Each badnik takes one hit to destroy, but they vary greatly from Zone to Zone; some will walk in a set path, others will try blasting the player, and some cannot be avoided at all. The player must also avoid rows of sharp spikes, cliffs, and elaborate death traps. There is also the threat of drowning, as the player can only survive approximately 30 seconds underwater (locating air bubbles can extend this).

The game features no game saves or passwords. This means that the game has to be restarted from the beginning when the player runs out of continues or turns off the system unless the player uses a cheat code to access the level select screen.

Graphics and sound

At the time of its release, Sonic the Hedgehog boasted impressive 16-bit graphics, with richly animated sprites and varied colors, fully utilising the Mega Drive's enhanced color palette. Flowers moved, rings spun, lights blinked, and water shimmered in the background.

The game also takes full advantage of the on-board Zilog Z80 and Yamaha synthesizer sound chip, and is filled with sound effects, chimes, bops and beats following the player through the levels. Many sounds play on top of one another and most of the game's sounds were unique and of higher quality than earlier 8-bit sounds.

Besides detailed sound and animation, Sonic the Hedgehog is especially known for its dynamic music, composed by Masato Nakamura, a member of the popular J-Pop band, Dreams Come True. Using 8-bit stereo sound, the music is rich and varied throughout each level. Particularly notable are the game's recognizable main theme and the music to Star Light Zone. Sonic the Hedgehog's soundtrack is still highly popular in remixing communities on the Internet, such as OverClocked ReMix. Similarities to the Green Hill Zone theme can be found in "Dreams of an Absolution", the theme for Silver the Hedgehog in the 2006 Sonic game, also called Sonic the Hedgehog, though the song's composer Lee Brotherton claims that this was an unintentional coincidence.

Character art and game packaging

Akira Watanabe, the illustrator of the character art, said that his sole goal was to depict the characters as "colorful" and to use clear cutting lines and gradation to "finish them neatly."

Watanabe said that the developers asked him to create a package design "similar to pop art." Watanabe aimed to create the design "without being particular to conventional packages." Watanabe intended to create an "original, stylish pop game package."

Development

Development for Sonic the Hedgehog began in April 1990, after Sega ordered its AM-8 team to develop a game featuring a mascot for the company. After choosing a hedgehog as the main character, the 5-person group changed its name to Sonic Team and started working on Sonic the Hedgehog. The main minds behind the game were character designer Naoto Ohshima, game programmer Yuji Naka and designer Hirokazu Yasuhara.

The game was originally intended to feature a sound test menu, with animated graphics based around Sonic break-dancing to the music of a "Sonic Band" consisting of Sharps Chicken (guitar), Max Monkey, (guitar), Mach Rabbit (drums), and Vector the Crocodile (keyboard/synth); Vector was later re-designed and re-used for the games Knuckles' Chaotix and Sonic Heroes. The development schedule meant that the feature had to be scrapped, and Yuji Naka decided to replace the test with the "SEGA!" chant used in TV advertisements, which took up 1/8 of the 4-megabit cartridge. A text-only sound test option remained in the final game's level select cheat menu.

This is the only Mega Drive/Genesis Sonic game made entirely in Japan/Korea. Although Sonic the Hedgehog CD was made in Japan as well, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles were produced in North America at Sega Technical Institute, albeit with almost exclusively Japanese staff members. Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, however, was produced almost entirely by Americans, the only Sonic game to date to do so. Sonic 3D featured Japanese staff, but much of the work was done by the UK-based video game company Traveller's Tales, who also produced Sonic R.

Versions and releases

The first version, released in North America and Europe, lacked some graphical enhancements that were added to the later Japanese release. The Japanese version included clouds that moved independently of the scrolling background (even when the main character stands still) in the Green Hill Zone and two water graphical effects in the Labyrinth Zone, which consisted of a rippling effect on the foreground and a swirling effect on the background. This effect was only applied to the areas that were under the water line. Also in the Japanese version, all levels of the game had many more layers of parallax scrolling in their backgrounds.

The first version also gave the player an enormous 250,000 point bonus if a stage was cleared in less than 30 seconds. Subsequent revisions cut the bonus down to 50,000.

The later Japanese version 2.0 fixed the "spike bug" (a bug in which Sonic would instantly die if he "bounced" from one set of spikes to another due to him not gaining temporary invincibility until his feet touched the ground). Also fixed in both Japanese versions is the level select cheat, which listed the game's levels in an erroneous order.

In addition to this, due to differences between standard PAL and NTSC refresh rates, the European version of the game played at about 83% speed of the NTSC version (which also slows down the music to the point of notice), a problem that has been fixed for the remaining Mega Drive Sonic games, but not for Sonic the Hedgehog's appearances in some of the collections (e.g. Sonic Jam) or the Wii's Virtual Console version of the game.

8-bit version

Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game that was released for the Sega Master System and the Game Gear. The game loosely followed the design of the 16-bit game. The Sega Master System version was the final title for the console released in the USA and is now on the Wii Virtual Console, released in North America on August 4, 2008 and in Europe on September 19, 2008. The Game Gear version has appeared with other titles on Sonic Adventure DX for GameCube and PC and Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. A conversion for Palm Tungsten handhelds was also released in 2003 by Sega Mobile.

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

File:Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis.jpg

Game Boy Advance box art.

A new version of the game, which was entitled Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis, was released for the Game Boy Advance in November 2006 as part of the celebrations of the original game's 15th anniversary. The game is a remake of the original game as opposed to a port. It includes a new save feature and a special "Anniversary Mode" featuring the Spin-Dash move that was added in later games. In addition, the view is slightly zoomed in and adapted for the GBA's widescreen aspect ratio, and the level select and debug codes have been left out, the former due to the fact that there is already a zone select screen. The reception was negative, as many reviewers criticized the game for its slow frame rate, music, and glitches -- most called the game "unplayable."

Compilation releases

Compilations that include the game are Sonic Compilation (1995) and Sega 6-Pak (1996) for the Sega Genesis; Sonic Jam (1997) for the Sega Saturn; Sega Smash Pack (1999) for the Sega Dreamcast; Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for the GameCube; Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004) for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, SEGA Mega Drive Collection PSP and Sega Genesis Collection (2006) for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The Sonic Jam version, like all of the four games included in the title, was given "easy" and "medium" options (as well as an "original" option, the game as it was) that removed acts, bosses, enemies, spikes, traps and pits. These "easy" and "medium" options were not included with any other versions of the game. In addition, the Spin-Dash, a move that did not debut until Sonic 2 the following year, was implemented in the first game. It is interesting to note that the spike bug from earlier versions of Sonic the Hedgehog can be triggered if Spin Dash is turned off.

Sonic Mega Collection and Mega Collection Plus feature all three revisions of the game. The GameCube PAL edition of Mega Collection for the GameCube supports a 60 Hz option, which not only allows the game to be played full-screen and at its original speed, but also allows either the US or Japanese version 2.0 iterations to be played via a cheat code (the first Japanese version is the default). If the 50 Hz option is selected, these cheat codes do not work and only the PAL edition of the game can be played.

In Sega Genesis Collection, both the US and European releases of this collection contain the US version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Releases on other platforms

The original game was converted into a Famicom game called Somari by a group of software pirates in Hong Kong. The game, which is mostly playable, replaces Sonic with Mario wearing Tails' shoes.

A Java ME conversion for mobile phones running Java was released by I-Phone in 2006. This version, Sonic the Hedgehog Part 1, includes only the first three zones, with the remainder released as Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2 by Glu Mobile in 2007. This version mostly follows the Mega Drive version, but some features have been removed, most notably the Special Stage. There has also been a second, not as widely known version the game for Verizon phones, that has everything the original version did, although strangely removing all sound effects from the game. The mobile phone version also came bundled with some Panasonic cell phones in Europe and Japan.

In 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog became available for Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service from launch, and in 2007 entered Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade, under the title Sonic the Hedgehog Arcade. The 360 version does not allow the use of cheats to prevent undue earning of Achievements. It also has options for graphic smoothing, saving and loading current progress in-game and to resize the gameplay window.

The game was also present on the Danger Hiptop's Sidekick 3, Real Arcade and GameTap (along with most classic Sonic games).

In response to the negative reception of Sega's port on the Gameboy Advance, a programmer named Stealth released a proof-of-concept version of Sonic 1 to the Gameboy Advance by using the original Genesis version's data from disassembly.

In 2004, Sega released Sonic The Hedgehog for PlayStation and the PlayStation Store for $3.95c for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3.

In 2007 the game was made available on the iTunes store as a game for the iPod nano with video, the iPod classic, and iPod with video.

Sonic the Hedgehog appeared next in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, along with many of the series subsequent games.

A few talented programmers successfully reversed engineered Sonic the Hedgehog and ported it to the Sega CD (revised and under the name Sonic Megamix), Sega 32X, and successfully ported it to the Gameboy Advance as a tech demo to show that Sonic the Hedgehog and really any Genesis classic is doable on such a platform.

In early 2009, Sega announced that the game would be available for Apple's iPhone OS in the Spring.

Credits

• Game Plan: Hirokazu Yasuhara (credited as Carol Yas)
• Program: Yuji Naka (as YU2)
• Character Design: Naoto Ohshima (as Bigisland)
• Design: Jinya Itoh (as Jinya), Rieko Kodama (as Phenix Rie)
• Sound Producer: Masato Nakamura
• Sound Program: Hiroshi Kubota (as Jimita), Macky

Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog

File:Knucklesmarble.png

Knuckles in Marble Zone, in an area where Sonic cannot access, above the main path.

In the development of Sonic & Knuckles, Sega decided to leave Knuckles the Echidna out of the original game. According to several programmers and hackers, the reason why Knuckles could not be placed into Sonic the Hedgehog like he was in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was that the palette colors of Knuckles' sprite would have, in fact, completely altered the palette scheme of the entire game. Therefore, instead of a Knuckles in Sonic 1 feature, using Sonic & Knuckles with Sonic the Hedgehog unlocks the full version of the Blue Sphere game.

External links

• Sonic Central Official American website
• Sonic Channel Official Japanese website
• Sonic City Official Europe website
• MobyGames article of Sonic The Hedgehog
• Template:Sonic Retro