Musings on Sonic.
When I am in an altered state of mind, drunk/high/whatever, I love playing Sonic. One would think I'd like playing Megaman, after all, Megaman is my series, and I used to use MM1 as a basis on how fucked up I was. If I could beat it without continuing I was in okay shape. Then it got to the point when I was clearly in not okay shape and I still beat it without dying, at which point I stopped using that as a basis.
However, over the past year I have grown to simply love Sonic. When I'm in an altered state of mind that's pretty much all I want to do. No Katamari, no Megaman, just Sonic. Particularly Sonic 3 & Knuckles. While it is by no means my favorite (I like Sonic 2 more because it's harder and has better special stages, I like Sonic 1 more because it's an easy sit down & play and has better special stages, and Sonic CD is my favorite for having so many things to do in every act and has my favorite special stages, in fact S3&K has my least favorite but largest number of special stages) but S3&K has fantastic mechanics and is so incredibly large of a game, with a save system to boot. Sonic 1 was 6 zones (Final zone does not count, especially since Scrap Brain doesn't have a boss), 6 emeralds, and that was it. While that simplicity is part of the beauty of Sonic 1, it doesn't have incredible amounts of replay value. Sonic 2 was 11 zones (counting Sky Chase because of the preceding 3 act Metropolis, and Death Egg because it's the 2 boss fights of Silver Sonic and Robotnik as opposed to the 1 of Final and the preceding boss in Wing Fortress), but it lacked a save system for what was really a long game, and the special stages were almost too difficult without a save system to get proper use of Super Sonic's first incarnation.
S3&K has a save system for 14 zones (though a case could be made for 13 zones given Hidden Palace's lack of any enemies and single boss followed by the 1 act Sky Sanctuary and 2-boss Doomsday zone at the end, given playing as Sonic and have gotten at least Super if not Hyper), and incredible stage design and depth to the game. Even though it posesses my least favorite special stages of the entire series, the sheer depth of gameplay far overcomes that. It is the only Sonic game to date (though I may be mistaken, I have not played much past Sonic Adventure 2 except for Sonic Rush and Advance 1) to have Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails. Using the glitch to get Super Tails in Sonic 2 does not count, in that case it is simply a sprite swap of Super Sonic, getting all the emeralds as Tails in Sonic 2 does nothing in a normal game. The game also did a fantastic job differentiating the characters; Sonic can use shield abilities and has an insta-shield when double jumping normally, Tails can fly, and Knuckles, while running slower and not jumping as high as either Sonic or Tails, can glide, climb walls, and destroy some walls with his fists. This made for different play styles, and with a few other tweaks effectively made Tails easy mode (apart from the chaos emeralds alone doing nothing for Tails, thus requiring the super emeralds to get Super Tails and the complete absence of Hyper Tails), Sonic normal difficulty, and Knuckles hard mode given his fewer number of both special and super rings and changes in boss patterns to make them considerably more difficult, even if he lacks bosses in Carnival Night, Lava Reef, and Hidden Palace and does not even go to Death Egg zone or Doomsday.
However, there are certainly areas where it could have improved.
I currently have a 7 Super Emerald clear file for Sonic&Tails, Tails, and Knuckles. The game will not be complete until I have an additional 7 Super Emerald clear file for Sonic, and a no emerald (chaos or super) clear file for Sonic&Tails, Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic. That's a lot of repetition. While the game did a fantastic job making Super or Hyper variations of the characters an unlockable worth unlocking (with maybe the exception of Hyper Knuckles; he barely runs as fast as Super Sonic, gets no extra jumping height, and his earthquake special attack is rarely, if ever, worth using), they did not do a very good job making seperate paths for the characters. Knuckles does have several exclusive alternate paths in 12 of the acts (out of a 22 act game for Knuckles' playthrough, 24 acts for Tails and 25 for Super or Hyper Sonic, even though in Knuckles' game Hidden Palace is only a single teleport and Sky Sanctuary is a single boss) and all of them are manadatory except for Lava Reef act 1 where it is possible to get to Sonic and Tails' path (and in fact is required to get any Super Rings in Lava Reef) but Sonic&Tails, Tails, and Sonic all have the exact same game. It is possible for Sonic to get to Knuckles' path in Marble Garden act 2, but it requires (to my knowledge, I may be mistaken) Hyper Sonic (not normally available in a non-clear file as Hyper Sonic is only available during the S&K stages and Marble Garden is an S3 stage, but can be returned to with a clear file and Hyper Sonic) and a wall-clipping glitch. There are definitely different paths that are easier for other characters to take (even including Knuckles in that statement when he is not on an exclusive path), but the only thing differentiating a Sonic&Tails playthrough from a Sonic alone playthrough is Tails does not follow him everywhere. Tails even comes in for the Marble Garden bossfight, when it would have made more sense for Sonic to fight Knuckles' boss since Tails is not present for the rest of the game. While it was certainly novel having different characters with different abilities, they could have made special exclusive, even optional, paths for Sonic&Tails, Tails alone, and Sonic alone the way they did for Knuckles, instead of having their respective abilities simply make it easier for them to access certain paths than others.
Locking S3&K together also modifies both games, sometimes not for the better. A boss was removed from Launch Base zone for Sonic and Tails, and while Knuckles fights it he does not fight the first boss of that zone that Sonic and Tails fight. Since Knuckles does not exist in the original Sonic 3 cart, that is passable, but the simple removal of a boss is rather unnerving. If they wanted to save a 3 boss gauntlet for the end of the game, instead of the middle where S3 ends and S&K begins, they could have moved that boss to Death Egg act 2 and made that a 3 boss gauntlet followed by Doomsday zone. Also, locking on S3 to S&K modifies the sound of the game. S&K invincibility and miniboss music are used in S3, removing S3's versions of those respective tracks, which is a shame since S3's are generally more favorable.
Also fuck Sandopolis.
S3&K, while my least favorite of the 4 original Sonic's (not counting S3 and S&K as seperate entities but also including Sonic CD) is the game I turn to when I crave Sonic. Partially because my Sega CD isn't currently present in my apartment, but also because it is simply an expansive game. 14 zones compared to the 6 zones of Sonic 1, 11 zones of Sonic 2, and 7 zones of Sonic CD, and while both Sonic 1 and Sonic CD have 3 acts per zone as opposed to the 2 of Sonic 2 (except Metropolis's 3 acts followed by 1 act Sky chase and later 1 act Death Egg, and S&K's 1 act Hidden Palace and Sky Sanctuary) S3&K's levels are vastly more expansive than any of the others. It often takes me 7 to 9 minutes to complete Sandopolis act 2 and Death Egg act 2, though Death Egg's time consumption is namely because of the first boss. The save feature is also a huge bonus, and 100%ing the game is a feat to be undertaken and does not possess the annoying lag that Sonic CD has with the time travel.
While it's my least favorite of the originals, while the level design could have been better, it is a fantastic game that gets one hell of a lot of playtime from me.
These are my games.
However, over the past year I have grown to simply love Sonic. When I'm in an altered state of mind that's pretty much all I want to do. No Katamari, no Megaman, just Sonic. Particularly Sonic 3 & Knuckles. While it is by no means my favorite (I like Sonic 2 more because it's harder and has better special stages, I like Sonic 1 more because it's an easy sit down & play and has better special stages, and Sonic CD is my favorite for having so many things to do in every act and has my favorite special stages, in fact S3&K has my least favorite but largest number of special stages) but S3&K has fantastic mechanics and is so incredibly large of a game, with a save system to boot. Sonic 1 was 6 zones (Final zone does not count, especially since Scrap Brain doesn't have a boss), 6 emeralds, and that was it. While that simplicity is part of the beauty of Sonic 1, it doesn't have incredible amounts of replay value. Sonic 2 was 11 zones (counting Sky Chase because of the preceding 3 act Metropolis, and Death Egg because it's the 2 boss fights of Silver Sonic and Robotnik as opposed to the 1 of Final and the preceding boss in Wing Fortress), but it lacked a save system for what was really a long game, and the special stages were almost too difficult without a save system to get proper use of Super Sonic's first incarnation.
S3&K has a save system for 14 zones (though a case could be made for 13 zones given Hidden Palace's lack of any enemies and single boss followed by the 1 act Sky Sanctuary and 2-boss Doomsday zone at the end, given playing as Sonic and have gotten at least Super if not Hyper), and incredible stage design and depth to the game. Even though it posesses my least favorite special stages of the entire series, the sheer depth of gameplay far overcomes that. It is the only Sonic game to date (though I may be mistaken, I have not played much past Sonic Adventure 2 except for Sonic Rush and Advance 1) to have Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails. Using the glitch to get Super Tails in Sonic 2 does not count, in that case it is simply a sprite swap of Super Sonic, getting all the emeralds as Tails in Sonic 2 does nothing in a normal game. The game also did a fantastic job differentiating the characters; Sonic can use shield abilities and has an insta-shield when double jumping normally, Tails can fly, and Knuckles, while running slower and not jumping as high as either Sonic or Tails, can glide, climb walls, and destroy some walls with his fists. This made for different play styles, and with a few other tweaks effectively made Tails easy mode (apart from the chaos emeralds alone doing nothing for Tails, thus requiring the super emeralds to get Super Tails and the complete absence of Hyper Tails), Sonic normal difficulty, and Knuckles hard mode given his fewer number of both special and super rings and changes in boss patterns to make them considerably more difficult, even if he lacks bosses in Carnival Night, Lava Reef, and Hidden Palace and does not even go to Death Egg zone or Doomsday.
However, there are certainly areas where it could have improved.
I currently have a 7 Super Emerald clear file for Sonic&Tails, Tails, and Knuckles. The game will not be complete until I have an additional 7 Super Emerald clear file for Sonic, and a no emerald (chaos or super) clear file for Sonic&Tails, Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic. That's a lot of repetition. While the game did a fantastic job making Super or Hyper variations of the characters an unlockable worth unlocking (with maybe the exception of Hyper Knuckles; he barely runs as fast as Super Sonic, gets no extra jumping height, and his earthquake special attack is rarely, if ever, worth using), they did not do a very good job making seperate paths for the characters. Knuckles does have several exclusive alternate paths in 12 of the acts (out of a 22 act game for Knuckles' playthrough, 24 acts for Tails and 25 for Super or Hyper Sonic, even though in Knuckles' game Hidden Palace is only a single teleport and Sky Sanctuary is a single boss) and all of them are manadatory except for Lava Reef act 1 where it is possible to get to Sonic and Tails' path (and in fact is required to get any Super Rings in Lava Reef) but Sonic&Tails, Tails, and Sonic all have the exact same game. It is possible for Sonic to get to Knuckles' path in Marble Garden act 2, but it requires (to my knowledge, I may be mistaken) Hyper Sonic (not normally available in a non-clear file as Hyper Sonic is only available during the S&K stages and Marble Garden is an S3 stage, but can be returned to with a clear file and Hyper Sonic) and a wall-clipping glitch. There are definitely different paths that are easier for other characters to take (even including Knuckles in that statement when he is not on an exclusive path), but the only thing differentiating a Sonic&Tails playthrough from a Sonic alone playthrough is Tails does not follow him everywhere. Tails even comes in for the Marble Garden bossfight, when it would have made more sense for Sonic to fight Knuckles' boss since Tails is not present for the rest of the game. While it was certainly novel having different characters with different abilities, they could have made special exclusive, even optional, paths for Sonic&Tails, Tails alone, and Sonic alone the way they did for Knuckles, instead of having their respective abilities simply make it easier for them to access certain paths than others.
Locking S3&K together also modifies both games, sometimes not for the better. A boss was removed from Launch Base zone for Sonic and Tails, and while Knuckles fights it he does not fight the first boss of that zone that Sonic and Tails fight. Since Knuckles does not exist in the original Sonic 3 cart, that is passable, but the simple removal of a boss is rather unnerving. If they wanted to save a 3 boss gauntlet for the end of the game, instead of the middle where S3 ends and S&K begins, they could have moved that boss to Death Egg act 2 and made that a 3 boss gauntlet followed by Doomsday zone. Also, locking on S3 to S&K modifies the sound of the game. S&K invincibility and miniboss music are used in S3, removing S3's versions of those respective tracks, which is a shame since S3's are generally more favorable.
Also fuck Sandopolis.
S3&K, while my least favorite of the 4 original Sonic's (not counting S3 and S&K as seperate entities but also including Sonic CD) is the game I turn to when I crave Sonic. Partially because my Sega CD isn't currently present in my apartment, but also because it is simply an expansive game. 14 zones compared to the 6 zones of Sonic 1, 11 zones of Sonic 2, and 7 zones of Sonic CD, and while both Sonic 1 and Sonic CD have 3 acts per zone as opposed to the 2 of Sonic 2 (except Metropolis's 3 acts followed by 1 act Sky chase and later 1 act Death Egg, and S&K's 1 act Hidden Palace and Sky Sanctuary) S3&K's levels are vastly more expansive than any of the others. It often takes me 7 to 9 minutes to complete Sandopolis act 2 and Death Egg act 2, though Death Egg's time consumption is namely because of the first boss. The save feature is also a huge bonus, and 100%ing the game is a feat to be undertaken and does not possess the annoying lag that Sonic CD has with the time travel.
While it's my least favorite of the originals, while the level design could have been better, it is a fantastic game that gets one hell of a lot of playtime from me.
These are my games.