After the initial success of Sonic the Hedgehog 1, SEGA created the stunning Sonic 2. Continuing with this massive franchise, SEGA decided to follow Sonic 2 up with a predictably titled Sonic 3. Many fans were ultimately disappointed with Sonic 3 as it kept to the same style, format and gameplay as previous iterations of the franchise and did nothing to move the series forward – unlike Nintendo with Super Mario World.

The same general premise is applied to Sonic 3 as with the previous Sonic titles: press right and jump over everything; although this has been slightly tweaked, as there’s now various places where the player has to press left and go back on themselves a touch and there are far more obstacles to jump over, along with new “boxes,” as well. The new additions include a fire box and the water box, which will allow Sonic so be invincible to fire and not drown underwater, respectively.

Along with these new additions comes a new enemy: Knuckles. This red echidna is able to glide along the world and does his best to cause as much trouble to Sonic and his trusty partner Tails as well as the renamed Dr Eggman. Unfortunately, Sonic has no direct contact with Knuckles and he is more of a token gesture of an enemy than someone of relevance.

The general level design has stayed the same, with only two levels per Zone on the whole, but inside of each level there hasn’t been a noticeable change. Sonic looks entirely different to Sonic 2, and the graphics on the whole have all been changed. This causes divides in the Sonic community as many feel that the previous graphics were better, and I, too, believe that Sonic looks out of place and although the graphics are vibrant and well drawn, still aren’t as good as the style of previous iterations of the series.

However, with all that aside, the new additions to the game make it fun and now at the end of each level instead of just running through the finish line, the player will get the option to play around with the spinning “Level Complete” sign. By playing, Sonic is able to gain more points and also depending when it lands Sonic is also able to get a box of Rings, and varying boxes from the Fire Box, to the Eggman Box. This little change is a great addition as it makes the game feel different from its previous titles.

Additionally, one massive change is the save system. Unlike in all of the previous Sonic games, Sonic 3 features some form of automatic saving and has Save Files as well. After each level has been completed the game autosaves so that the player needn’t start from the beginning again, but can if they want to. This is a great addition at the time, considering The Legend of Zelda had been saving games seven years earlier.

There’s also another change to the Special Stage zone: this is still 3D such as with Sonic 2; however, instead of collecting Rings and coming to the end of a race Sonic has to run around the Special Stage world, avoiding the Red Balls and only getting the Blue ones. After collecting all of the Blue Balls the Chaos Emerald will appear. This Special Stage is no longer found above the in-game save points either, they are hidden away in the scenery of the level and are a flash back to Sonic 1 when a player finished with over 50 Rings, there was a giant Ring. This Giant Ring is back and is often the entire size of the hidden area.

Sonic 3 is a must-have for all Sonic 2D fans as it follows the same winning formula; however, it’s probably the worst of the 3 games solely because it’s not trying to do anything new. There are a few new and beneficial additions to the title, yet on the whole, it feels a little tired. This game is best experienced as Knuckles with Sonic 3 put ontop of Sonic and Knuckles; unfortunately, this game still doesn’t exist on the Virtual Console yet, but we may experience it one day.

After the amazing success of Sonic 1 on the Megadrive, SEGA decided that it would capitalize on the success of Sonic 1 and create a better, faster, stronger version of the first title in what has become a long-running franchise. This game turned out to be Sonic 2, and any gamer old enough will remember it’s launch day being dubbed as Sonic Twos-day (as it was released on a Tuesday). Many gamers will also remember the t-shirts that they were giving away for free, which were our protagonists on the Special Zone.

Yes, protagonists. In Sonic 2, Doctor Robotnik has come back with vengeance, but it’s also with his Death Egg ship that floats in space as well. As Robotnik has got a new thing to keep him going, Sonic manages to find a friend by the name of Miles Prowers, aka Tails. This tan fox has the ability to fly in the sky, and is a welcome companion against Sonic’s rivals.

The premise is essentially the same as Sonic 1: go right and jump over things. However, the gameplay has actually developed and the spin dash from the first game has been upgraded so Sonic and Tails are now able to “charge” their spin dashes from standing still. This allowed for much speedier completion of levels and a much more enjoyable time. It also allowed for a few secret places to be attained, but only if the player was fast enough and jumped at the right moment.

The level design has also changed. Whereas Sonic 1 had three levels per Zone, Sonic 2 only has 2 levels per Zone. At first one could argue that this meant that there was less Sonic playing time, but this would be wrong as the levels are actually a lot longer in Sonic 2 than in Sonic 1 and there are more Zones as well. There are eleven Zones in Sonic 2: seven of them have two levels each, one has three levels and the final two aren’t really Zones as such, but part of the continuing game experience.

The level design has also improved, although speed is still the name of the game, and in many levels the player is actually able to see the Megadrive struggle to keep up, it’s no longer just hit the right button and jump. Although there are no puzzles to figure out, or blocks to move out of the way, the route of each level requires some foresight. The further on in the game the player progresses, the more pitfalls and springs that require a left turn in the air to get to the next platform appear.

Whereas in Sonic 1 the level design was great, in Sonic 2, the level design is superb. Not only that, but the graphics have been kicked up a notch as well and Sonic is not only slightly bigger, but he’s also much more defined, as are the enemies. As with the first iteration of this franchise, the colours are all vibrant and distinct.

Not only that, but the music in Sonic 2 is much better than the first. Although some of the sound effects have been taken along for the second game, such as the noises of the springs and the music for dying, the general background music will burn its way into the skull, much like the first game and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja for the SNES.

With the advent of Tails comes the advent of multiplayer Sonic. Sonic 2’s multiplayer options are pretty expansive considering the age of the game. There are time trial modes and “who can win first” modes. It’s all done on split screens, but at the same time as being on a split screen, Sonic and Tails can, if they so choose, attack one another.

However, the game does slow down significantly when playing in multiplayer mode, to the point where it’s very noticeable. This is something that’s only noticeable to the trained eye — as a child this was something that never appeared to me. As with almost all games on the Megadrive, there is no save feature, which is a great shame considering The Legend of Zelda, several years earlier, had this, and on more primitive hardware. But the Virtual Console does make up for this fact, as it does on all Mega Drive Virtual Console games.

The Special Zone, or Bonus Stage, is brilliant in Sonic 2, as well. If you collect more than 50 Rings and go through a “Save Point” some stars will appear around in. Jump in and Sonic and Tails have become 3D. It’s time to navigate the duo through a race to the finish, where there are bombs coming from all angles, and as many rings as possible need to be collected in the quickest time frame possible, otherwise, the Chaos Emerald is lost.

However, unlike in Sonic 1, these things actually serve a purpose. Once all of the Chaos Emeralds are collected, when Sonic has more than 50 rings and jumps, he can become Super Sonic, and this will allow him to basically fly across the entire level killing everything he touches. Although it does sap all the rings down to zero in the long run.

Sonic 2 is the best Sonic game on the Megadrive, and at only 800 Wii Points it’s most certainly worth adding to your Virtual Console collection. The game is much better than the first, and much better than the third, as well.

Many of the hardcore Nintendo fanboys and girls out there in Zentendoland will remember the rivalry between two of the best videogame characters of all time in the 1990s: Mario VS Sonic. The war was raged across the SNES and the Megadrive (known as the Genesis only in the United States), and there was no real clear victory for either side. Both franchises were hugely successful shifting millions of copies, year after year. As we are in Zentendoland, many probably only had one console, and that was likely the SNES. This is a shame, as Sonic 1 on the Megadrive is arguably one of the best games of its generation, but it’s now available on the Virtual Console for everyone to enjoy.

The basic plot for Sonic is that Dr Robotnik (before he was named Eggman) has taken over the world, taken control of all of the animal inhabitants and then turned them into evil, metal, killing machines. He’s managed to do this as Robotnik is in control of all of the Chaos Emeralds, and our hero Sonic has taken it upon himself to not only defeat Robotnik, but to release as many of these little civilians from their metal shells as possible.

With a simple premise, all that is required is for Sonic to actually go through all of the levels and defeat Robotnik each time. With seven separate Zones, and three levels to each Zone, Sonic 1 is fairly lengthy, especially considering when it was made. At the end of each of these Zones, it’s Sonic’s duty to attack Doctor Robotnik, and depending on what sort of machine Robotnik is in, the tactics that the player would employ change. However, two things did remain constant: Robotnik was always fairly wimpy and only took eight hits to kill, and at the end of each level Sonic would set free the animals of that Zone.

Sonic is all about speed — as all gamers know, Sonic is a super fast hedgehog and with Sonic 1 on the Megadrive, all the player needs to do is push the right button the D-Pad and use one of the buttons to jump, and the basics of Sonic is complete. Owing to this simplistic and effective system, controlling Sonic is very easy. After a little while, it becomes apparent that if you hit the down button whilst running Sonic will turn into a ball and do a spin-dash. This move is helpful as Sonic can usually kill the enemies around him with this move. It also allows him to break through some of the lesser walls in the earlier Zones. Sonic 1 is a pleasure to play, with with distinct character design and brilliant level design helping to create that pleasure. All of the characters are bright and well animated and all of the backgrounds, although sometimes repeating, are unique to each level.

Sonic 1 was also the start of the Golden Ring concept. If Sonic is attacked whilst he is in possession of any number of Gold Rings he will simply drop all of the rings and watch them scatter everywhere, but he does not die — something very different back in the day. However, if he doesn’t have any rings, he’ll simply die and lose a life when hit. This is important as there is no Save function on any of the early Sonic games, and this mechanic enabled players to stay alive longer as long as they were skilled enough.

Fortunately, on the Virtual Console, as we all know, if a player simply exists the Virtual Console game, it’s saved at the point of exit. This makes playing Sonic even more pleasurable as there’s no need to worry about whether or not the player should complete the entire game, or just turn it off.

It’s also fairly difficult — if a player has never played it before, it’ll take some getting used to, especially as certain enemies can only bit hit in certain places and at certain times. Not to mention that although the game was built around speed, patience is a virtue and slowing down pays dividends in some levels. This was especially true when it came to the Special Zones, where if enough rings were collected, a player could jump into a giant Ring and go to the Special Zone where they were able to get a Chaos Emerald if they were good enough.

Buy It!

Overall, Sonic 1 is a fantastic game, and it’s recommended to anyone and everyone. With addictive gameplay, great music and great level design, Sonic is simply a pleasure to play. And at only 800 Wii Points, it’s a steal too.