Gotta pay respect to an old friend! (Sonic 30th anniversary)

     Hey friends, so this year is the 30th anniversary of the original Sonic the Hedgehog and honestly I have not done my due tribute for the blue blur this year. I feel as though I need to do at least one post, and honestly probably several to cover the incredible and often troubled history for this anthropomorphic creature that we love ironically or not. Today I'll be covering Sonic's classic titles from Sonic The Hedgehog until Sonic and Knuckles, covering basically the classic era of Mario's greatest competitor when he was at his most competitive. Sonic is known today almost more for his various missteps on his path to greatness than his successes, so today, we're taking a step into the past to recall the days before Sonic was synonymous with hard rock and glitchy controls.

Blast to the past!

    Sonic the Hedgehog is a game about going fast. That's an adage that's been done to death, but it's really true, even though it is actually much more complicated than that. There are a lot of technical jumps in addition to just solid speed, though the big draw for a lot of people when faced with this were the loops and interesting level design. Players were able to fly through and see the impressive movement that Sonic could achieve even when he technically only used the same amount of buttons and controls as Mario. It's little surprise that people instantly clung to Sonic and wanted more and more of him as he continued his fight against Dr. Robotnik with the character design being so appealing, and oozing personality even before he was able to speak, just his animations were so endearing and cartoony, making him an instant standout above most video game characters of his day. Oh, you guys probably came here to hear the story of the original game, right? Get this, that bad guy is capturing little animals to turn into evil robots, and it's up to Sonic to stop him and save the world of Mobius from becoming overrun by the robotic menace. It's a pretty simple story all things considered, and one that has been since fleshed out by various comic books and cartoons, though I'm pretty sure they're all non canon except for the games. Sonic is a hero and saves all the creatures, but what is he missing? A sidekick, that's right!

Two Tails are better than one!

    Sonic 2 takes everything that the first game did pretty well, and kicks it all up to another gear, as well as adds a new sidekick, Miles (Tails) Prower. Tails is a fox with two tails that spin around like a helicopter propeller which allows him to fly. How does this work? Who knows? We love him for it though. He doesn't do much of anything, other than let your little brother or sister play along if they want to, but the camera is always focused on Sonic, so it's extremely easy to lose track of the little orange fox. The story in this second game is the same, truly. Robotnik is once again trying to trap all of the animals of Mobius in his evil creations and it's up to Sonic (and Tails) to defeat him once again! This game is the first time we see a long time "Robotnik/Eggman trope" with the Death Egg. I love this thing because I've never seen a more obvious bit of plagarism than this thing. It's a giant metal ball in the sky with a death laser on it that's threatening to blow up a planet... where have I heard that before? Also, it's called the Death Egg, and it looks almost exactly like the Death Star from Star Wars but with a giant cartoony Robotnik face on it. This is not the only bit of borrowing from other properties, however. This game also brings about the creation of Super Sonic. Once you get all seven Chaos Emeralds from completing bonus games, Sonic is able to turn into his super-powered alter ego just by collecting 50 rings and then jumping in a certain way. Super Sonic is 100% identical to the transformation from "Dragon Ball Z," meaning that he's super fast and all of his fur turns yellow and stands up straight. Sonic is able to stay in Super Sonic form until he loses all of his rings and he returns to normal Sonic form. Kudos to Sega for adding this to the game and having it stay as a staple of not just the 2D games, but also as a major plot point for almost all of the modern Sonic games. It's hilarious and I would be lying if I said I didn't love it. Actually without Super Sonic, it's not possible to get the secret ending which is also a staple for most of the games after this one. It was a cool trick back in the day, and it's still a nice surprise now. After Sonic destroys the Death Egg, the game is over, and the world is safe once again for all the animal citizens. There would be one other furry friend for Sonic to play with that was introduced in these first three (or four) games.

                                                          (The Death Egg in all of its glory)

Here he comes, rougher than the rest of them!

    To start the third game in the series, Sonic already has all of the Chaos Emeralds and is flying around as Super Sonic next to Tails's plane, but he gets punched by a new red character who knocks all of the gems out of him and steals them. Welcome to Emerald Hill Zone and the beginning of this third game in the franchise starts out with a bang. Knuckles the Echidna is here and Robotnik has successfully tricked him into thinking that Sonic is the bad guy and that he wants to steal the Master Emerald, which is Knuckles's ultimate duty, as that's essentially the life force of his tribe of people. Unknown to Knuckles, Robotnik is actually the one who is after the Master Emerald, and once he learns this, he teams up with Sonic to take out the Death Egg (again somehow). This game puts an added improvement on powerups, giving the bubble shields new elemental properties, namely with fire, water, and electricity, all with different cool utilities such as being able to do a little bounce with the water shield. It adds another layer of fun to the proceedings, and I think adds a bit to the package overall. Speaking of the overall package though, I found out the other day (shout out to Scott the Woz's video on Sonic and Knuckles) that Sonic 3 was pushed out incomplete due to cartridge limitations and the package was actually finished in the game Sonic and Knuckles, which came out later that year. 

    This was a really interesting game that actually allowed for the player to play as either Sonic or Knuckles, with Tails nowhere in sight for some reason. Sonic and Knuckles begins where Sonic 3 ends, with the destruction of the Death Egg, which actually shows on the title screen for a cool little touch. Sonic and Knuckles are both interesting characters to play with, and Knuckles's ability to glide around stages is a pretty massive game changer when compared to Sonic's classic platforming. There are new paths built into the stages for this game which are basically intended for Knuckles to be able to utilize his strengths. What's even cooler than the mechanical changes to this game are implemented in the cartridge itself! The Sonic and Knuckles game cartridge had a slot built into it which allowed you to plug in Sonic 3, creating Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which combined all the stages from both of these games as well as allowing you to play as Knuckles in the Sonic 3 stages. It was super cool, and apparently the true way that people were meant to play through Sonic 3 as a whole. Sonic 3 and Knuckles is still today praised as one of the best Sonic games of all time, and though I don't think I've ever played it, I certainly would love to, as I loved both of those separate games a lot. On top of all this, Sonic 2 got the same treatment with Sonic 2 and Knuckles, allowing you to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2. It was an amazing concept, and really was kind of like a DLC for the classic games.

    Sonic's original games have always been considered to be some of the greatest 2D platformers of all time, it's little wonder why people jumped ship for a few years from Mario to Sonic, as the game's music, personality, and dedication to speed and precise platforming all were something completely new and interesting. Personally, I've always enjoyed Mario platformers more, but you have to admit that the Blue Blur has something pretty special going for him. Just listen to Green Hill Zone if you don't believe me, or honestly most of the tracks are pretty spectacular, so you truly can't go wrong with listening to any of them. Sonic's 30th anniversary deserves more than this post though, so I feel like we'll split this post into a few different chunks, talking about different games that Sonic has had over the years. I hope you're all ready, there's some more love for the needlemouse coming down the tube soon. I don't mean a warp pipe though, in this case, I'm referring to the tubes from Chemical Plant Zone, of course.

    Thanks so much for reading this, friends. I know this is extremely late as the 30th anniversary of Sonic is now over halfway over, but I figured I've been writing this blog for a while now and it's about time that I talk about him. Do you have a favorite Sonic game? It's honestly hard for me to choose since these games that I talked about today all came out before I was born, but I've played them all (except Sonic 3 and Knuckles) in various collections, and of the ones that I've discussed today, I think Sonic 2 is my favorite, though all of them are pretty great even today. I've been your Self-Proclaimed Sonic Fan, and I'll talk to you again soon!