I’ll never forget Christmas of 1991. I was an impressionable 8 year old child opening all of my gifts that I had received. While I had loved them all, one clearly stood out amongst the rest. I had received my first game console that my parents had bought for me. Up until that point I had to share the NES with my older brother, but now I finally had something I could call my own. My parents bought me a Sega Genesis. I was happy. I knew when I saw that shiny black box with silver lettering I had something special. I was gonna find out what Genesis does that Nintendon’t. While the Sega Genesis is not exactly my favorite game console, it’s my most treasured and one I find most nostalgic. One of the major reasons for this is because the system came packaged with one of my personal favorite game franchises of all time, Sonic the Hedgehog. However, over the years this love has waned. It has transformed from love, to apathy to loathing hate. This then, is the reflection. This is my life experience with Sonic the Hedgehog. National Kenographic presents.....
Chapter 1: The Genesis of Fanboyism
Truth be told, I hadn’t always wanted a Sega Genesis. I was perfectly happy in the 80s with the NES era and I didn’t really think videogames could become much greater than Super Mario Bros. 3. I played that game to the death. I had seen in various gaming publications of a new gaming console, called the Sega Genesis. They ran various ad campaigns on TV and magazines crowing about how great it was and how NES was a joke in comparison and this and that, and while it looked neat, it failed to really capture me as a gamer. Not that as a kid I didn’t go “Wow those graphics are purty!” but any of the games just failed to make a lasting impression with me as I wasn’t much of a sports gamer and I never could get into Alex Kidd. It just seemed like a poor Mario clone to me. All of that changed when I saw this….
Yes, the original ad for Sonic the Hedgehog. Now Sega gets laughed at for poor marketing strategy and rightly so, however during the early 90s Sega had made absolutely brilliant marketing decisions and strategy. Alex Kidd simply was not pushing Sega consoles and they needed a serious viable contender to the Super Nintendo onslaught. In steps this man...
The face of a man that realizes he is indeed all that and a bag of chips
eam to replace Alex Kidd, interestingly enough a lot of those scrapped designs would be used in later titles, such as Vector the Crocodile, who finally would make an appearance years later. Eventually the team settled on one design, a small hedgehog with an ability to run extremely fast. Dubbed Sonic due to his super speed, he was the obvious choice for the new mascot and was given the color blue to coincide with the trademark Sega logo. Sega wanted it so that when you think of Sega, you think of Sonic the Hedgehog, just like Mario with Nintendo. It was an instant overnight success. Sega had created an amazing attention getter. Sonic was the true alternative to Mario. The character was a perfect representation of the 1990s attitude. Outrageous, wild, out of control, in your face, fast paced and colorful, it made Mario look like an ancient relic of the past in my impressionable elementary mind. The choice was clear. I had to get Sonic the Hedgehog. For the first time ever, Mario and Nintendo had a true viable contender to his throne. That Christmas, Sega Genesis sold 65% more units than Nintendo. It was official. Sonic had knocked Mario off of his throne he held for nearly 10 years. A new sheriff was in town and his name was Sonic. It will easily go down as the greatest marketing strategy in the companies history. Of course, the game was fun too.
As soon as I hooked up my Genesis and booted it up I was instantly blown away. The first thing you recognize is that Sonic has a personality. He isn’t just some sprite. I could see his facial expressions as he nearly falls off of a cliff, the determination he has when charging at full speed and his sense of humor as he gets angry at you for not getting a move on already and his surprise when he gets struck by an enemy. I got a sense of accomplishment and thrill at besting Dr. Robotnik on the first stage and watching him race away in fear. I felt like I was playing as a bad ass and could instantly get a sense of their characters without one word of dialogue or background story being spoken. I only made it to the second Zone on my first play through
, but I still remember it vividly to this day. I played the game all day for hours on end. Everything in the game just came together. Green Hill Zone was a fun romp to introduce you to the world of Sonic. The lush backgrounds, the beautiful music and gorgeous backdrop were placed to give you a sense that “Yes, this is what you are fighting for.” Marble Zone the music gets a bit more dramatic, the stages a bit more challenging before changing gears with Spring Yard Zone and the dreaded Labyrinth Zone, a perfectly named stage that many gamers finally get stuck on thanks to it’s difficulty and somewhat confusing layout. If you can manage to clear that the game brings you Star Light Zone. A peaceful calm setting with beautiful relaxing music to reward you for getting this far. This was also the game’s way of relaxing you before the final stretch, the Scrap Yard with another music track that invokes the feeling of “Hey, this is the end, don’t give up!” Every aspect of game design came together beautifully and after much practice I was finally able to best Dr. Robotnik and he was finally mine. …..Or so I thought and he just flew off again and I was sad and disappointed. But hey, Sonic saved the world for his little forest friends and everything would be ok, at least for now. Sadly, I never could get all of the Chaos Emeralds in that game. The images of Dr. Robotnik taunting me at the end with the remaining ones he had irritated me to this day. I would spend the next year or so beating the game and trying my damnedest to destroy that damn Robotnik at the end and prevent him from getting away but to no avail.
The first of many, many and I do mean many battles with the Doc
Suffice to say, this was my introduction to Sonic the Hedgehog and I became an instant fan. I finally had found a game that made me realize I really did love to play videogames and this was up to that point my clear favorite and still remains a game I play off and on regularly throughout the years. I became a Sonic fan boy.Next Time: In Chapter 2 we revisit 1992 where the best just got better and I determined that all I needed in life were 3 things. God, family and Sonic the Hedgehog.
And thus did many used game retailers clutch their stomachs and laugh heartily at Sega's empty threats.
great post
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