![]() ![]() You figure it out! The only drawbacks are that once you figure out the secrets of harnessing Sonic's speed, the game is not that tough to complete (aside from the aforementioned Chaos Emerald challenge, which is a bear). Find all eight and there's a very special surprise.which I won't reveal. Replay value is enhanced by the challenge of finding eight Chaos Emeralds, hidden within special stages that get progressively harder to navigate through. ![]() Great music, by MIDI master Yuzo Koshiro, both highlights the speed of the game and defines the unique character of each Zone. And graphics and gameplay are only part of the story. And herein lay the challenge: control Sonic's speed while completing the mission (the levels were timed, of course) and you would be rewarded with one of the finest gaming experiences ever digitized. Faster than any video game most people had ever played on a home system, so fast that one could easily become overwhelmed by the rapidly shifting scenery. But of course, Sonic was so named because it (and he) was fast. Sonic the Hedgehog was a feast for the eyes with beautiful graphics, well-designed levels and a main character (the titular blue Hedgehog) who had more attitude than any chubby Italian plumber could ever achieve. Most people at the time said, "So it's like Mario Bros., then?" Those people hadn't played Sonic yet. Introduced for 1991, Sonic was in most ways a typical action platform game - cruise through a variety of interesting places, collect power-ups and score points, and attempt to beat the evil bad guy and save the world at the end of the game. Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to Sonic the Hedgehog. Genesis was popular among gamers who simply wanted a change of pace, but the system needed what is now called the "killer app" - a game that was good enough to sell the systems on its own. Mainly, there were not enough of them - and of those, only a few were really very good (Sega relying mainly on lots of blood and gore to pull in older customers). Sega's problem, however, was in Genesis games. Critics were impressed - the semi-3D graphics were a huge improvement over the NES' largely one-dimensional images, and the Genesis platform seemed to have been designed with the serious game-player in mind. Sega took the chance and introduced its groundbreaking 16-bit Genesis system. This meant that the time was right by 1989 for a competitor to rise, like a cobra, from the mists. But Nintendo had relied on the NES architecture for too long. When Sega introduced its competing Master System in 1986 (after a trial run of sorts with a variety of arcade games), it was hard to look past Nintendo's immense library of game cartridges and see that Sega had actually crafted a more capable system. Nintendo's venerable 8-bit NES absolutely ruled the gaming world at that time, with the company using its incredibly powerful marketing department to tackle and eliminate all potential challengers. ![]() Some quick video game history: As a video game company, Sega had always been something of an also-ran when compared to mighty Nintendo during the 1980s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |