Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospective: 25th Anniversary Edition (Part 3)

PART 3: KEEP LOOKING UP AND DOWN AND ALL AROUND.

 SONIC UNLEASHED
(PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii - November 18, 2008)
 (XBox 360 - November 20, 2008)
(PlayStaion 3 - December 9, 2008)

Before I start talking about Sonic Unleashed, I should be clear that I will be talking about the Wii version since it's the one I played. I have little-to-no experiences with any other versions.

Sonic '06 drove many people away from the series, but for some it was Sonic Unleashed that brought them back.
Back when I got my Nintendo Wii for Christmas in 2007, I fell in love with it. I spent hours playing games like 'Wii Sports' 'Twilight Princess' and 'Godzilla Unleashed'.
Then I heard there was a Sonic game on the Wii, I decided to rent it first and it ended up being the WORST Sonic game I have ever played. That game was 'Sonic and the Secret Rings'. Needless to say, it was not the best first impression for Sonic on the system.

Then the trailer for Sonic Unleashed came out. I was blown away by it as well as the videos showcasing the game. Seeing Sonic go faster than he's ever gone before, the new platforming elements, the amazing graphics and the music got me excited. I immediately pre-ordered this game from GameStop, I chose to go with the Wii version.

This game abandons a lot of elements found in the past 3D Sonic games, gone were the days of playing as multiple characters and different stories. From then on, All 3D games would see you play as only Sonic with one simple story. Other characters like Tails and Knuckles would still show up in the later games as supporting characters.

As the tagline for Sonic Unleashed says: "THE DIFFERENCE IS NIGHT AND DAY"
There are 2 different gameplay styles.

First, you have Day Stages. In these Stages, Sonic plays like he always would, but with a whole new set of tricks this time around.
He can now do a Speed Boost in which he can run faster than ever before for a short amount of time.
The Quick Step lets Sonic step to the left or the right in the blink of an eye, think of it like a car changing lanes.
He do a Drift move which helps with turning corners while going fast.
And finally he can Slide under obstacles and can jump up between vertical walls.
All these new moves work great, but the Boost may take some getting used to, believe me when I say, you WILL go VERY FAST!

The Day Stages switch between 3D gameplay like the Adventure games and 2D gameplay like the classic series, a style that would continue throughout the main series. I love this approach, taking the old style and mixing it with the new really makes it feel like a Sonic game brought into the modern world and it is Awesome!

And then you have the Night Stages, probably the most controversial thing about this game.
See, in the game, Dr. Eggman traps Super Sonic in one of his inventions which drains the power of the Emeralds to power a laser that splits the planet into several pieces, unleashing a monster called Dark Gaia.
Doing this causes Sonic to transform into a 'Werehog'. The Werehog controls differently. He doesn't run fast, instead his stages have him going through platforming levels and beating the crap out of monsters/robots. By shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls the Werehog will throw punches and an array of different attacks.
While I don't find these levels as fun as the Day Stages with regular Sonic, I don't find them as horrible as everyone else does. I think the Werehog levels can be a lot of fun. At the time, I actually thought they could've served as a basis for a new way of controlling Knuckles in a future game, though sadly that doesn't look to be the case.

In addition there are also mission stages to complete, such as collecting a set number of rings or don't hit a certain type of objects on your way to the Goal Ring.

The ultimate goal of the game is to find pieces of the Planet Tablets located in each of the Continent's hub worlds (or hub menus in the Wii version), use them to open the Gaia Temples, restore the Chaos Emeralds to their full power and piece the Planet back together.

One thing that kinda irritates me about the game is the ranking system. In order to advance to some levels, you need to collect Sun and Moon Medals. You are awarded Medals based on how fast you complete the levels and your rank is based on that. For example if you get an S Rank, you are awarded 3 Sun/Moon Medals. A Ranks give you 2 and B ranks give you 1.
I wish all you had to do was collect 3 per level, instead of pressuring me to stop dilly-dallying and hurrying to the end. I didn't mind ranking in the past games, but here, it can be very demoralizing.
Well, at least Medal collecting is better here than it was in the XBox/PS3 versions, THAT was ridiculous!

But even that wouldn't stop me from completing the game and I gotta say, when I defeated the final boss and witnessed the ending, I felt pretty good about myself. It was just the pick-me-up I needed after Secret Rings as well as other stressful stuff I was going through at the time
I love Sonic Unleashed, Werehog and all. In fact, while I was playing this game for research, I remembered how much fun I had with it when I first got it. I actually plan to play through the whole game again when I'm finished with this Retrospective. But even I could admit that if there were no Werehog and the game was nothing but Day Stages, this would probably be one of the best Sonic games ever made.
Little did I know, that game was right around the corner...

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4: EPISODE I
(iOS - October 7, 2010)
(Nintendo Wii - October 11, 2010)
(PlayStation 3 - October 12, 2010)
(XBox 360 - October 13, 2010)

What started as a secret new game teased as 'Project Needlemouse' was quickly revealed as being the very surprising Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
But the thing about this game was that it was being released digitally and episodically, something I'm not the biggest fan of. I would have preferred if they made it just one big game like Sonic 3 & Knuckles was, isn't the point of a sequel to be bigger and better than the last game? By releasing them in episodes, that puts the rest of the releases at risk, because if one didn't sell well or do good critically than the development of the next one may not even happen.

Stupid thing is, that's not what other 'fans' were complaining about. There was a group of people actually protesting the use of the modern Sonic design for the game. They even wanted to download Sonic 1 instead of Sonic 4 to...show SEGA what the fans really want? I dunno, it was all very stupid.

Griping aside, is the first episode good? Well, time for more griping.

It plays somewhat like a classic Sonic game (with the addition of the Homing Attack), sounds like a classic Sonic game (even though the boss themes aren't that great) and looks like a classic Sonic game. But it all feels too familiar.
I'm supposed to be playing a new game right? So why am I basically starting the game by playing the first act of Green Hill Zone again?
I know the levels have new gimmicks to make it stand out, but it doesn't stand out enough for me to forget that I'm playing 4 levels I already played in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.

This game brings back Special Stages where you can collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds and turn into Super Sonic during the levels. But not just any Special Stages...Sonic 1's Rotating Mazes. However in these, you move the maze around while guiding Sonic through it and collecting a certain number of Rings to open gates. Did I mention there's a time limit to them? You'll want to keep an eye out for items that increase your time by 5 to 30 seconds.
But even if your time runs out or you accidentally run into a Goal Wall, you can hit pause just before that happens and find that there is an option for you to retry the Stages, giving you infinite tries to complete them. Also, though music will probably put you to sleep.

Even some of the boss fights are the same, except for new tactics Eggman pulls off near the end. And of all the bosses to bring back, why the Death Egg robot?! Though to be fair, it's not as punishingly hard as the original fight. For one thing, you actually get rings! The fight itself however is just too long for me.

Much like Sonic Adventure, I began to like this game less the more I played it. I hoped Episode II would have been better as well as any more episodes if any...

SONIC COLORS 
(Nintendo Wii - November 11, 2010)

While 'Sonic 4: Episode I' was being hyped, a new 3D Sonic game for the Nintendo Wii was announced completely out of nowhere. And much like the trailer for 'Sonic Unleashed', the trailers for 'Sonic Colors' blew me away with it's graphics, gameplay and music! Of course I pre-ordered it right away from GameStop, and doing so got me a sweet Sonic quill hat.

As I expected, Sonic Colors exceeded all my expectations. For this adventure, the Day Stage gameplay from Sonic Unleashed was brought back, refined and made into the core gameplay for the entire game. That easily makes this one of the best Sonic games to date.

But you're not just homing attacking and boosting through the Stages in this game.
The plot of this game revolves around Dr. Eggman building a massive theme park made up of 6 small planets as a way of showing how sorry he is for all the bad things he's done in the past (yeah...sure!).
Sonic and Tails are immediately suspicious of this go to investigate and find out about another scheme involving little Alien creatures called 'Wisps'. The Wisps can be absorbed by Sonic, giving him extraordinary abilities, essentially becoming power-ups.

The Wisp powers can range from shooting like a laser, drilling through the ground, hovering over obstacles and there's even one that turns him into a demon looking Pac-Man thing. Each of the Wisp powers are awesome in there own right and add a ton of replay value.

The Stages are a ton of fun to play through and the music for each of them are fantastic. And you don't have to collect Medals to progress to other stages. What you can however collect Red Star Rings, there are 5 of them hidden in the Acts of each Stage. These rings can unlock bonus levels to play in the Game Land mode, which focuses on this weird Sonic Simulator thing, basically, you control either Sonic or a Mii wearing a Sonic suit, yeah...weird.
Completing these levels will grant you Chaos Emeralds and that means only one thing, something that hadn't been seen in Sonic games for a long while. SUPER SONIC! Up until Sonic Colors, Super Sonic was only playable in the Final Boss fight, but now you could actually play as Super Sonic in the actual game, like the old games. It was so refreshing to see that happen again, I just wish he had better theme music.

A lot of Sonic fans agreed that Sonic Colors was the best game in the series since Adventure 2, and I am still one of them. It was a huge step in the right direction and the next game would carry over the same gameplay style (minus the Wisps) as well as celebrating the best of the series.

SONIC GENERATIONS
(PlayStaion 3 & XBox 360 - November 1, 2011)
(PC -  November 3, 2011)

To celebrate Sonic's 20th Anniversary, SEGA unveiled Sonic Generations, a game that takes Stages from every main Sonic game from the original Genesis game to 'Sonic Colors'.
The story itself takes place during Sonic's birthday and his party is crashed by a mysterious being called the 'Time Eater'. The Time Eater kidnaps Sonic's friends and traps them in different time periods throughout many Stages from Sonic's past games. It's up to Sonic to go through the Stages and rescue his comrades. But he's not alone, Sonic also teams up with his past self from the original Genesis games.

Each Stage is divided into 2 Acts. The first Act puts you in control of Classic Sonic, controlling pretty much the way he does in the old Genesis games, running through 2D versions of Stages. And the second Act puts you in control of Modern Sonic, where the Stages are re-designed for both 2D and 3D gameplay.

The Stages are divided into 3 seperate Era's:
Classic Era (Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, Chemical Plant from Sonic 2 and Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3 & Knuckles)
Dreamcast Era (Speed Highway from Sonic Adventure, City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 and Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes)
Modern Era (Crisis City from Sonic '06, Rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed and Planet Wisp from Sonic Colors)

All the stages have elements and set pieces similar to their original counterparts but with a few new bells and whistles added in and all the stages are a lot of fun to play through. It's especially worth it to play through the levels multiple times in order to access different pathways to the Goal.
I think it would have been cool if they had added more Stages as Downloadable content, Like Ice Cap Zone from 'Sonic 3 & Knuckles' or Green Forest from 'Sonic Adventure 2'. As far as the Stages they did select, I'm satisfied.
There are 2 different music tracks for each Act. While the Modern renditions of the original themes are quite enjoyable, I actually like the Classic renditions a little more, they just sound a lot like they came from one of the Genesis games and they just put a smile on my face. The ones that stand out the most to me are City Escape and Crisis City.

This game also has a ton of unlockables to collect, including additional music tracks you can apply to any Stage Act, custom skills you can apply to both Sonics like a faster boost or the return of the Elemental Shields from 'Sonic 3 & Knuckles' and concept artwork.
You unlock these by either collecting 5 Red Star Rings hidden in each Act or completing Challenges which range from racing another Sonic to the Goal, to using one of the abilities of Sonic's friends to get through obstacles. While they can be pretty hard to do sometimes, I find them to be worth it.

Sonic Generations is one big, fun trip down memory lane and was a great way to celebrate Sonic's 20th Anniversary. With his 25th Anniversary fast approaching, I hope they reveal something just as great. But only time will tell. 

 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4: EPISODE II
(PC & PlayStation 3 - May 15, 2012)
(XBox 360 & Andriod - May 16, 2012)
(iOS - May 17, 2012)

As much of an underwhelming game as Sonic 4 Episode I was, I still downloaded Episode II. And when I played it, I was actually a little surprised.
The level design didn't seem as cut-and-paste as Episode I for the most part. It felt like I was playing familiar levels, but they were distinguishable enough that I didn't feel like I wasn't just playing the same ones with added obstacles. One of my favorite Zones is actually the most original one in the game, White Park Zone. White Park is a beautiful winter wonderland with a roller coaster section and it's really fun. For years we've had Sonic going through Zones like a roller coaster and now he's actually on one.

Episode II borrows gameplay and story elements from both 'Sonic 2' and 'Sonic CD'. Tails joins you for gameplay and you can pull off combo moves to get through stages. For example, you can have Tails fly you up to places and save you from falling to your death. And then there's the Spin Attack that Sonic and Tails combine together to do and break through walls. All of these are great, unfortunately, you can't play as Tails alone.
Also making a return is Metal Sonic, who apparently survived the events of 'Sonic CD'. And if you bought both Episodes I and II on the same platform (except for the Wii), you can unlock 'Episode Metal' which explains how Metal Sonic came to be in the story to begin with. And that means playing through re-worked versions of the first Acts of Stages from Episode I. This is nothing special, your just playing Episode I again, except Sonic looks like Metal Sonic.

Then there's the Special Stages. They're basically Sonic 2's Special Stages and as soon as I saw that, I got afraid. After Sonic Heroes, I never wanted to see those types of Stages again. Fortunately, the Stages are nowhere near as annoying as those. In fact, they start out easier than Sonic 2's. In addition to dodging bombs, you also have to dodge electrical prisms that'll slow you down. And sometimes you'll come across a large group of Rings that you have to grab with a new Tether power up, Sonic and Tails can then stretch apart and grab them with it. The first few Special Stages are pretty easy, it's about at Special Stage 6 where things start to get ridiculous. But just like Episode I, if ya hit pause before you fail the Stages, just hit retry until you win. Special Stage 7 took me close to 75 tries to complete, but at least I got Super Sonic out of it.

Red Star Rings return in this game. And there are 2 in each act. But unlike Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations where collecting them unlock cool stuff, guess what you get in this game? NOTHING!!! Oh, you get an achievement or trophy for getting them all, but if that's all you get that why even include them, it all just seems pointless and I didn't even bother doing it.

Since this game came out there has been no news or even a hint that there will be an Episode III, and that's unfortunate because I felt Episode II got more things right than Episode I. Like I said before I wish this game was not an episodic release to begin with for this very reason, and as a whole, Sonic 4 just feels like a wasted opportunity and I really, really wish I wasn't saying that. I even remember hearing SEGA say that once Sonic 4 was complete, they would consider making a 'Sonic the Hedgehog 5' and even a 'Sonic the Hedgehog 6'!

There were so many possibilities, but so little that was actually given. As a whole, Sonic 4 isn't a bad game at all, it just feels like only half of it has real effort put into it, and seeing as how this is supposed to be a sequel to the best Sonic game ever, it feels disappointing as a whole. And as of now, it looks like this game will forever remain incomplete. Unless a miracle happens.

SONIC LOST WORLD
(Nintendo Wii U - October 18, 2013)

Despite what it's name may imply, Sonic Lost World does not contain any Dinosaurs.

The trailer for the latest Sonic game on Nintendo's Wii U console showed a lot of changes in terms of gameplay and level design.

All the Zones in the games World's consist of these cylindrical-tube like levels, and Sonic can move all around them.
The game still focuses on 2D/3D gameplay, but there are a bunch of new elements included. Sonic can only jog when moving the control stick, in order to make him run fast, you have to hold down a seperate button on the Wii U GamePad. I thought this approach was weird at first, but honestly, I think it can help with platforming and there is a lot of that in this game. The Homing Attack can target multiple enemies at once and Sonic can even kick stronger enemies to weaken them.
Sonic can also preform parkour moves, in lets him run up, across and between walls. However, it can be a bit tricky to pull of correctly and if you slip up, it can lead to disaster or death.

Sonic Lost World is without a doubt, one of the most difficult Sonic games out there. I've never thought Sonic games were too easy, like I said before, they were certainly not cake walks by any means, but the amount of crazy stuff Lost World expects me to do can be outright INSANE! Especially if your trying to collect Red Star Rings!

If you wanted to get some practice in, you'd have to remember where Extra Lives were located in the Zones and grind for them over and over again. When Lost World first came out, collecting 100 Rings didn't grant you an Extra Life, I didn't like this at all, there are plenty of times in the game where your launched into massive groups of Rings sometimes totaling up to above 100 only to see your Lives not go up, it was a little disheartening to see such a staple of the series not be included.
Later on, a patch was released for the game which brought this feature back and that was a huge relief. Now I could collect Lives much easier, which made practicing levels much easier. Collecting Red Star Rings was still difficult for me to do, so I ultimately chose not to go for them.
I got a little better at preforming Parkour moves, but I still got thrown from the levels a lot. But fortunately, preforming Parkour is completely optional and really only needed to get collectibles and access alternate routes.

The story of the game is a little lacking to me. It's Sonic finding this mysterious world called the 'Lost Hex', home to a gang of bad guys called 'The Deadly Six'. The Deadly Six are entertaining enough characters, but after you defeat them, there's really no sense of finality to them in the story, they just sorta disappear.
I kinda wanted a bit more backstory on who the Deadly Six were and what exactly the Lost Hex was all about. You still gotta stop Eggman from accomplishing his evil goals though.

I find if you just go through the game normally without worrying about anything I just mentioned, Sonic Lost World is still a pretty enjoyable game. It can be a bit tricky to get through some of the levels, but trial and error makes all the difference. If your curious enough, I say check it out.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

I just wanna thank you for taking the time to read this, this is one of the biggest things I've ever tried to do so far for The Gryphon's Lair and I put a lot of effort into making this the best I possibly could. I spent weeks playing the games again so I could make sure what I would say about them wasn't complete BS. Doing so brought back a lot of fond memories and made this one of the funnest bit of work I've ever done.
And I did all this while trying to fix up a house for sale, while managing a night shift job and losing a bunch of sleep. Luckily, I started work on this in Mid-April, just to I wouldn't have to rush to get this posted on the date I wanted to.
I wanna give special thanks to my good friend who helped me to edit this retrospective and make it better. Rhiannon, you're way past cool!

But despite all of that, I still love the Sonic the Hedgehog series and now matter how much in a rut he seems to be in right now, I know he'll bounce back, he's done it before. SEGA has announced that they will discuss the future of the series on July 22, 2016 at a special event at the House of Blues in San Diego. And if that means a game announcement, I'll be sure to give my thoughts on it once it's revealed.

1991-2016
Happy Birthday Sonic!!!

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.
So long...

If you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, Be sure to give my FB page a like to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!

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Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospective: 25th Anniversary Edition (Part 2)

 PART 2: DASH INTO THE THIRD DIMENSION.

SONIC 3D BLAST:
(Sega Genesis - November 5, 1996)

While Sonic 1 and 2 were games I played a lot in Daycare, there was another Sonic game that would occasionally show up on the table next to the Genesis. That game was Sonic 3D Blast.

As it's name would imply, this is a whole other beast than the previous games. Instead of running through colorful 2D levels rescuing animals from robots, You run through isometric 3D levels rescuing animals from robots. There is also a third Act with a boss battle.

The main idea for this game is to go through Zones with 2 Acts and rescue these little birds called Flickies from Robotnik's robots and guide them to these gold hoops in multiple areas.

I gotta be honest, There isn't much I can say about this game, because I'm not the biggest fan of it. I mean, the game is not terrible by any means but I don't find it to be enjoyable for very long. It's like Monopoly, fun at first but then drags. And some of the enemies and hazards can be really annoying. When I try to jump on the enemies to free the Flickies, most of the time, I'm gonna get hit and lose my rings. And when I do get hit, the Flickies I have collected scatter and I have to grab hold of them again, but the Flickies have this nasty habit of not locking onto you the first time and I have to pass through one numerous times before I have hold of it again. Having to do this over and over again is very monotonous and I loose interest. This is one of the few Sonic games I have played that I have never completed.

That being said, the game still looks good graphically and the music is passable, I especially like the theme from Rusty Ruin Zone.

One notable thing about this game is that it has a Shield item that when equipped and pressing the jump button twice makes you do an attack that homes in on an enemy. A Homing Attack if you will. It's actually quite handy for taking out robots.

I gotta mention the Special Stages in this game. Tails and Knuckles also appear in this game in certain area's of the Zones, and if you have 50 rings they will take you to the Special Stage where you can nab the 7 Chaos Emeralds (No Super Sonic for collecting them though, sorry.)
You get the Emeralds by running on a track and collecting rings while occasionally jumping over spiked balls. They're similar to the ones from Sonic 2, only these Stages give you way more rings then you need. By the time the prompt comes up telling how many more rings you need to get you'll only need to get like 3 or 5 more and you'll have almost quadruple that amount in your way. Even the spike balls are pretty easy to jump over and avoid and only shave off 10 Rings off your count.

Overall, Sonic 3D Blast is a game I can't enjoy for very long, regardless of how OK I find the game to be. That shouldn't stop others from trying it out though, it's honestly not as bad as most people say it is.

SONIC ADVENTURE

(Sega Dreamcast - December 23, 1998)

(Nintendo GameCube - June 17, 2003)

With the last game, Sonic games began to evolve on to the next generation of consoles. I recall knowing of the Sega Dreamcast, but I never got to own it. I really have no idea why I never pressured my parents to buy me one, especially since I knew there were Sonic games on it. I guess I was distracted by other games around that time. I do remember having a Nintendo 64 around that time and I played a lot of Zelda and Pokemon.

For a time I sadly fell out of the Sonic series. And it didn't help that my Genesis had died rendering me unable to play them. Even with the Sonic & Knuckles Collection, I still felt left out of the series.

Then I got the Nintendo Gamecube and discovered the Sonic Mega Collection, which came with Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast among others. 

I eventually would get to play Sonic Adventure, as well as it's sequel 'Sonic Adventure 2', but not on the Dreamcast where they were first released. I had the pleasure of playing the GameCube re-release of the game 'Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut'.

Now, here's where things get complicated: I actually played Sonic Adventure 2 before I played Sonic Adventure and that may have some effect on my opinions of this game. See, I think Sonic Adventure is a good game, but I find so many things irritating about it.

Sonic Adventure is pretty much like a classic Sonic game, but with more meat to it. You have more characters to play as, bigger levels and a much more expanded story.
Dr. Robotnik, now referred to as 'Eggman' (his original name in Japan), is trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, which are now integrated throughout the story and gameplay, so he can use them to power an ancient being known as 'Chaos', destroy the city of Station Square and build his own city 'Robotnik-Land'. Sonic and friends, of course, ain't having any of that.

There are 6 playable characters with their own different interlocking stories, level design and boss fights. And once their stories are done, a final story is unlocked with the true ending to the game.

Returning playable characters include Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. But unlike the previous games where these 3 all had the same control set, they've all been overhauled.

Sonic plays pretty much the same way. He runs fast, can do the Spin Dash and bounces into robots to free little animals, but he also has a few new tricks up his sleeve. The Homing Attack introduced as a power-up in Sonic 3D Blast is now one of his natural abilities and it's great for taking out enemies.
His gameplay consists of him running through Stages and getting to the end, plain and simple. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sonic stages are easily the best part of the game.

Tails can still fly and can now use his tails to attack enemies. His stages play very much like Sonic's levels, only you have to race against and beat Sonic to the end of them. The stages have been altered to better make use of Tail's abilities and provide a nice bit of level exploration.
There are also times where you can play as Tails piloting his plane called, The Tornado, where you fly through the air shooting down enemies and battling Eggman's massive flying battle station.

Knuckles' levels have him running around stages trying to find pieces of the Master Emerald, the thing he has dedicated his life to guarding. The Emerald has been shattered because of Chaos and it's up to Knuckles to put it back together and restore it to it's rightful place on the floating Island known as 'Angel Island'. Knuckles has to collect 3 pieces in each level and the game has a radar that beeps faster the closer you are to any individual piece. I really enjoy these levels.

Now for the newcomers.
First there's Amy Rose, returning from Sonic CD with a brand new design. She also has a hammer that she can use against enemies, which would be great if there wasn't a delay on the swing and she didn't stop moving to use it. When you play as Amy, you have to outrun one of Eggman's robots and reach a balloon at the end of the stage. Amy isn't too fast so a lot of running around and using the hammer to do a forward lunge is essential for completing the level. Amy isn't anyone I look forward to playing as.

One of the more unique aspects is that you get to play as one of Eggman's robots: E-102 Gamma. As Gamma, your goal is to run through levels while shooting everything in sight because his levels have time limits and the only way to get more time is to kill enemies. However his stages will come to an end a lot sooner than you may think, and while that may be a problem for some, I don't mind it much and I find the stages enjoyable. That, and I'm a sucker for games where I get to shoot things like a maniac.

And then you have...Big the Cat. Where do I begin?
When I saw the trailer, I saw Big and based on his look, I thought he might be the classic old, wise character of the game. That's not what I got at all. Instead, he's an annoying dopey character with a voice that grates on my eardrums. You know what you do as Big?
You fish.
Yes, Big has a small frog friend named 'Froggy'. All Big does throughout the game in his levels is fish for him. I really don't understand why this was put in the game. Yeah, there's the part in the story where Eggman is pursuing Froggy because he swallowed a Chaos Emerald, but besides that, you could remove Big from the game as a whole and it would effect virtually nothing.
Needless to say, I don't enjoy playing as Big.

While I enjoy the gameplay of Sonic Adventure as a whole, I'm not particularly fond of all the work needed to get the gameplay. This game comes with Adventure Fields, areas you explore to get to the levels or collect items you need to unlock levels. These area's can be huge and I find myself running around longer than I should trying to figure out where to go. Granted there balls of light you can select that outright tell you were to go, but I still feel like the Fields are little more than padding. I would have preferred it if it was like the old games where you just go from one stage to the next. Or better yet, make getting to the levels part of the cutscenes in the game.

Speaking of which, I do like how the game looks, it's bright and colorful as a Sonic game should be. Sonic and his friends look especially good in 3 dimensions. However, the presentation and voice direction is really bad. While the voices do match the characters really well, the delivery ranges from good to unbearable. And the lip sync (or rather, lack thereof) is absolutely atrocious.
I'd also have a better time playing through the game and enjoying the scenery if the camera wouldn't jitter all over the place.

In conclusion, I think Sonic Adventure can be fun in doses, I actually liked this game when I was younger, but playing it now I sadly find myself more critical of it. And saying this disappoints me, but Sonic Adventure has not aged well to me at all and feels too much like a chore to play.
Sonic Adventure 2, on the other hand...

SONIC ADVENTURE 2

(Sega Dreamcast - June 23, 2001)
(Nintendo GameCube - December 20, 2001)

I actually came to know about this game in a rather weird way. In my freshman year of High School, I watched the cartoon 'Sonic X' which actually used the stories from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. It wasn't until I was telling my friend about it that he let me know of the video game in question. So having a GameCube, I managed to pick me up a copy of 'Sonic Adventure 2: Battle' and played it for myself.

I love pretty much everything about Sonic Adventure 2. The returning characters are great as well as the new characters, Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the most interesting and well developed characters in the series, and I enjoyed Rouge the Bat. The gameplay feels smoother and there's no Adventure Area's like the last game. You simply go from level to level with story cutscenes in between them. I like this approach better.

The story is really good too. It's can be serious and dark, while still being light-hearted and fun. There are 2 main stories in the game. You have a Hero Side Story, where you play as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles trying to save the planet. And there is also a Dark Side Story, where you try to conquer the planet as Shadow, Rouge and for the first time in the series, you get to take control of Dr. Eggman! Once you complete the Hero and Dark stories, a Last Story unlocks with the true ending.

Sonic Adventure 2 takes 3 of the gameplay styles seen in the previous game and applies them evenly to the 6 characters.

Sonic and Shadow play pretty much the way Sonic did in SA1. You run fast, collect rings, take out enemies and get to the goal. Both also has the returning Homing Attack which is as fun and effective as ever to use. This game also introduces the ability to grind across rails like a skateboarder.

Tails and Eggman both ride in mechanical walkers and control similar to Gamma's gameplay in which you go through levels shooting the crap out of everything, only there are no time limits and you have a health bar you fill by collecting rings. Like I said before, I like these stages, there's nothing more fun than running through levels and blowing up things like a badass!

Knuckles and Rouge go through areas finding Master Emerald shards (Yep, the dang thing broke again). While some levels can be a bit annoying (Lookin' at you Mad Space!), I still enjoy playing these stages a lot.

You may run into a few small glitchy parts of the game that can happen at really random intervals, but I can get past those no problem and they aren't much of a hindrance. Besides, this game is almost 15 years old, I'm willing to cut it some slack.
Unfortunately, this game still suffers from less than stellar presentation. While character animation is better, the voice mixing is still off sync and at many times, characters will flat-out interrupt others.

I can't talk about this game without talking about the music. I just realized I didn't talk much about the music in the last game, and aside form the main theme, I find the music in SA1 to be good, but nothing special.
This game has a ton of memorable songs and tracks. From the first level in the Hero Story 'Escape From the City' to the main theme of the game and the final boss fight 'Live and Learn', the music in Sonic Adventure 2 is fantastic!

Remember how I said I played this game before I played Sonic Adventure and how doing so may have effected my opinions a bit? I love Sonic Adventure 2, when I got through with it I immediately jumped into Sonic Adventure and was disappointed. Sonic Adventure 2 did so many things I loved and Sonic Adventure didn't deliver the same thrills I had when I played it.
Weird thing is, there are a group of Sonic fans who feel the opposite way. I don't agree, but at the same time I will respect their opinion.

For many years, this was my go-to Sonic game. I couldn't stop playing it then and I still find time to play it today, it's awesome.

In fact, I would love to see an HD Remake of this game that makes the game prettier, refines a few gameplay issues and finally fixes the voice problems. It probably wont happen, but that would be awesome!

SONIC HEROES
(Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 & XBox - December 30, 2003)

Ah, Sonic Heroes. I still remember the commercial for this game like it was yesterday, a man running into a room telling an unseen group of heroes that the city was under attack, only to find out that the 'heroes' are all old and kinda lame. The announcer then says it's time for some new heroes: SONIC HEROES!
After seeing this commercial, I hurried down to my local BlockBuster and nabbed me a copy to play on my GameCube.

First off, I wanna say this game looks BEAUTIFUL! The graphics and character models look great and the lip syncing actually matches the movement. The voices also match the characters very nicely, with the exception of Tails who sounds like he has a cold.

In many ways, Sonic Heroes is structured like a classic Sonic game, Levels with 2 Acts and a boss fight, the ability to go to special stages, and multiple characters to play as, it also implements elements from the Adventure series, such as multiple interlocking stories as well as a Final Story

But with Heroes, you don't just play as a lone character, but 4 teams of 3 at the same time. 

Team Sonic, of course has Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.
Team Dark consists of Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega, a robot who seeks revenge on his creator Dr. Eggman for imprisoning him.
Team Rose is comprised of Amy, Cream the Rabbit and Big the Cat. Don't worry there's no fishing in this game, but you'll still want to tear your ears out after hearing him speak.
And then there's Team Chaotix made of up characters who originally appeared in the Sega 32X spin-off game 'Knuckles Chaotix'. Those characters are Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon and Charmy the Bee.

Every team has a character with a special attribute: The Speed characters (Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Espio) run fast and use the homing attack. Fly characters (Tails, Rouge, Cream and Charmy)... well...fly. And your Power characters (Knuckles, Omega, Big and Vector) basically wreck everything they touch. You can also collect colored orbs which level up the characters and make them stronger.
While gameplay is pretty much the same, each team has their own stand out differences. 

In addition, each team represents a different difficulty. 
Team Sonic - Normal
Team Dark - Hard
Team Rose - Easy

Team Chaotix's stages on the other hand range in difficulty. Their levels are mission based, objectives can range from finding a certain number of items or destroying every enemy in the level.

Speaking of enemies, unlike the previous games where one hit would kill them, Eggman's robots now have health bars, meaning you'll have to bounce on and homing attack them multiple times to destroy them depending upon how strong your characters are at the moment. It can be pretty annoying to do if you don't have your level ups.

While I think this game is fun, it's plagued by one pretty big hiccup: The control is slippery as hell. When you get your characters up to speed, they can go pretty dang fast! And you can't just stop on a dime, at least not without sliding off a platform to your death most of the time.

When I played this game that was one of the biggest issues I had with this game and it almost made me hate this game. It got to a point where I actually traded this game in to GameStop (that was the first and last time I will ever do that).
I eventually got the game back because I had actually forgotten what I thought about it before I got rid of it.
And I told myself that this time, I was gonna complete it.
I was having fun at first, but after a while the slippery controls got to me a bit. And it doesn't help that the level design is comprised of moments that you have to react to at a split second notice to avoid certain death and constant hovering over instant death. And the final levels and the game can be a punishing test of patience. 

And while we're on the subject of frustrating things about Sonic Heroes, let's talk about the Special Stages in the game.
To get to them you have to find a key in the second Act of the levels and make it to the Goal without getting hit once or else you will lose it and not get to the Special Stages. If you do this you get transported to the Stage, a half-pipe track similar to Sonic 2, only you have to chase the Chaos Emerald by collecting these colored orbs to increase your speed and catch up to it. 
I'm not gonna try and sugarcoat this...I HATE these stages!
Why? Because of the controls. If you thought the control in the main game feels slippery, it's worse in the Special Stages! The control is way to jittery and in some cases, you wont be able to move in the direction you want to go. It gets worse in the later ones that add groups of spike balls that slow you down exponentially making it harder. And you need the Chaos Emeralds to unlock the final story of the game. My best advice is to replay the levels as Team Rose, since they have the easiest levels to get through with less chances of losing the keys. 

And yet, despite all that, I still pushed forward. I managed to make it past all the frustrating levels and made it to the final boss of the game (which the intro to the game, I think, mistakenly gives away) and I beat the game.

I enjoy Sonic Heroes. A lot. Does it got issues? Sure, but unlike Sonic Adventure, I feel that the good outweighs the bad.
With Sonic Adventure 2 being great and Sonic Heroes being good, Sonic games can only continue to be of the same quality.
...
Right?

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (A.K.A: SONIC '06)
(XBOX 360 - November 14, 2006)
(PlayStation 3 - December 21, 2006)

Oh boy, I have to talk about this one now.

After I played Sonic Adventure 2, my interest in the series had been reinvigorated. Then I picked up and played Heroes and afterwards, I needed more.
The only problem was the next game was coming out on consoles I never owned, the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. At the time, I only knew of the 360 version, so you'd think I would jump at the chance to acquire the console to play it. But, I didn't.

Truth is, there was just nothing else on that console that I cared to play and unlike the GameCube or the upcoming Nintendo Wii, I didn't care to buy a console just to play one game. It had always confused me that there wasn't a version on the Wii. There was one in development, but that turned into the Spin-Off game: Sonic and the Secret Rings. And the less said about that game, the better.

And then I discoverd YouTube. And that was when I learned more about the game. It was apparently one the worst Sonic games ever made.

That brings me to this point: what can I say that hasn't already been said about this game? I feel like people should already know how bad this game is, since it's one of the most talked about and over-reviewed bad games ever. It just feels pointless, It's like trying to talk about 'Batman and Robin', you don't need me to tell you how much of a bad movie it is because it's pretty much common knowledge. I could talk about the details of the gameplay, story and controls, but anything I could add would just be repetitive.

In fact, I can recommend 3 great reviews of Sonic '06 on YouTube by 3 great users:
ClementJ64, SomecallmeJohnny and TheDarknessthecurse
(Videos contain strong language)

But I suppose I should say at least something, I guess, so here goes.

This game has the reputation as being the absolute Sonic game ever made. Do I agree with this? Well, I don't think it's THE worst. But, it's certainly in the top 5.

For one of my birthdays, I got a PlayStation 3 and it became one of my favorite game consoles. And then, I discovered Sonic '06 was released for it. I heard nothing but bad things about it, but I still picked it up to try it for myself. There is a difference between hearing about a bad game and playing a bad game.

There were things I hated about it, the glitches, the load screens and the mach speed sections which were pretty much uncontrollable.
The gameplay was all kinds of mixed bags. I thought Sonic, Shadow and newcomer Silver had interesting mechanics, but a lot of elements just weren't implemented well. I used to think that if a remake of the game was released it would be better, but that still leaves us with one of the worst stories ever put in a Sonic-NO, any video game in general!

I still managed to beat the game, despite the tribulations. But the sad truth is that there is no saving this game. Which is a shame, because there is a possibly good, playable game hidden in this train wreck.

Sonic '06 damaged the series and shortly after, I began to notice the darker side of the Sonic fanbase emerge. People began to turn on the series and stop hoping for the best, they began complaining about the dumbest crap imaginable, like the voice cast supposedly not being as good as the previous games and the inclusion of too many characters just to name a few.

But I never lost hope, I didn't let little things like that get to me. I had faith that the series would get better, and in my opinion, it did. 

TO BE CONCLUDED...

Click here for Part 3

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Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospective: 25th Anniversary Edition (Part 1)

Sonic the Hedgehog is my all time favorite video game series. I've loved it for a long time and I still love it today, even though it's not exactly in the best place right now. Nowadays, people tend to look at the Sonic series in a bit of a negative light. Even though there are good Sonic games in existence, only the bad stuff comes up in conversation.

And even I'll be the first to admit that Sonic has had some major missteps in it's 25 year history. But that's not what this will be about (for the most part). This series means a lot to me and I wanna focus on more of the positive aspects of Sonic and not come off as one of the many infamous "fans" who complain about the stupidest things like green eyes or voice acting.

I will be talking about the main series of games only, so spin-offs like 'Shadow the Hedgehog' and 'Sonic Boom' will not be mentioned. I also wont be talking about any games on Handheld systems, Console games only.
These are my opinions and memories of playing these games. I wont ask others to feel the way I feel, if anything I hope this inspires others to try to find and play these games and form their own opinions.

PART 1: HERE COMES SONIC

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG:
(Sega Genesis - June 23, 1991)

Sonic the Hedgehog was actually one of the first games I ever played. In fact, its the game I have the best memory of playing when I was young. According to my parents, I played 'Super Mario Bros.' (which I referred to as "JUMP") and I dabbled a little into 'The Legend of Zelda', but I unfortunately have no memories of that.

I do however have fond memories of playing Sonic.
It was at my Daycare where I first got my exposure, in one of the play area's there was a table with a Sega Genesis hooked up to a small TV. I got curious, started playing this game I saw about a blue Hedgehog who ran fast and saved little animals from inside robots made by a fat, orange-mustached, man named Robotnik. I probably wasn't very good at it, but I had a ton of fun doing it.
I loved the fact that Sonic moved faster than Mario (and yes I know he can move fast if you hold down B), that made the gameplay a lot of fun. I've always felt that the Mario games were needlessly challenging, if Mario gets hit without a power-up he dies, and power ups aren't exactly plentiful. They're there, but you still have to look for them. This is why I love the Rings, Rings are scattered throughout all the levels and they offer Sonic a level of protection. If Sonic gets hit he'll loose his Rings but they can be picked back up without breaking the fast paced flow, and all you really need is one Ring to avoid dying. And if you collect 100 Rings, you'll be granted an Extra Life.

That isn't to say the game is all easy. After you complete all Acts of Green Hill Zone, you get introduced to Marble Zone, a level that focuses less on speed and more on platforming. And you need to be careful or else you may get crushed or burned in lava. Later you'll run into Labyrinth Zone where there's water all over the place, and unlike Mario, Sonic can't swim, moves slow underwater and will run out of breath and drown. And Scrap Brain Zone...practically everywhere is a death trap!

The music in this game is really good and very catchy. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't know the theme to Green Hill Zone, and every other Zone has their own unique theme and you will be tapping your feet to it while playing through them. And if you finish the game, you'll be treated to a nice medley of the Zone themes during the credits.
In addition the game also has Special Stages that can be unlocked by jumping into a large Gold Ring at the end of any of the first 2 Acts of a Zone with at least 50 Rings collected. You'll enter a rotating, maze-like area that you guide Sonic through to collect a gem called a Chaos Emerald. There are 6 Chaos Emeralds you can collect, they don't affect anything gameplay-wise, but they unlock the best ending in the game. The mazes themselves can be tricky to navigate through and there are bumpers that will bounce you back, slow/speed up the maze rotation or reverse the direction the maze is spinning and you need to avoid the goal orbs that will take you out of the zone or else you won't get the Emerald. I had a lot of trouble with these stages at first, but as I've played this game numerous times, trial and error makes all the difference.

And that's what started my love affair with the series. It wasn't until later that I discovered my parents had at one point bought a Sega Genesis and among games like 'Ms. Pac-Man' and 'Frogger', there was 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and I played it as often as I could. In addition to Sonic the Hedgehog there was a certain other game I noticed we had.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2:
(Sega Genesis - November 21, 1992)

As soon as I found out Sonic 2 existed, I jumped at the chance to play it. Once again, it was hard for me, I don't think I ever made it past the second Zone. I even once tried to play through the whole game when I was a kid, but I had to go somewhere with my parents so I just left the TV and Genesis on and continued to play once I got back. I remember getting pretty far too.

I consider Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to be the 'Link To The Past' of the Sonic series. Meaning it is the game that introduced many of the mainstay elements that would be repeated throughout the series. It introduced Sonic's best friend and loyal sidekick, Miles Prower, or "Tails" as hes more commonly known, a Fox with 2 tails which he uses to fly by spinning them around like a helicopter. Tails follows you throughout your journey to once again rescue animals from robots and thwart the plans of Dr. Robotnik. He can help take out enemies, collect Rings and make it easier to beat bosses, but at times he can also screw you over (more on that later).

The default gameplay has you playing as Sonic and Tails together, but you can choose to play as Sonic or Tails alone. But if you select Tails, for some reason you can't make him fly. I've never understood this.
One of Sonic's signature moves was introduced in Sonic 2, the Spin Dash. In Sonic 1, in order to get up slopes or around loops you had to build up speed by running and hope you were fast enough to go up them. But in Sonic 2, you can use the Spin Dash, by having Sonic crouch, rev up to build up speed quicker and blast off through the different Zones.
There are also more Zones in the game with only 2 Acts this time. While the Zones are still fun and challenging, some of them can be a bit annoying. Metropolis Zone in particular isn't necessarily hard, but it can be long and the enemies and obstacles scattered throughout will make sure your ring count never goes above 1. Wing Fortress Zone isn't hard either, but you will constantly fall to your death.
Then there's the final Zone in the game: Death Egg Zone! Robotnik's base of operations which looks like a Death Star, with his face on it. It isn't so much a level as much as it is a hallway with 2 Boss fights. The first is 'Mecha Sonic' or 'Silver Sonic', the first in a line of robotic duplicates of Sonic. He can be a pain, but once you get his pattern down, he shouldn't be too difficult to beat.
Once you defeat him, you chase down Robotnik, who jumps into a large Robot. This is by far the hardest part of the game, the previous Bosses of the game were pretty easy, but with this one you can't just jump on top of him, you have to wait until he either gets low enough to hit or jump up and hit him when his spike arms aren't in the way. While not one of the most impossible boss fights ever it can be tricky, especially since that, throughout these 2 fights you have ZERO RINGS! There is no way to get any more, you will always have no Rings to fight these Bosses, meaning that if you get hit once you have to start over from the fight with Mecha Sonic. 

I had the hardest time ever trying to beat these bosses, but I could never do it. As I got older and better at the game I eventually did it, but the memories are still there and the Death Egg Robot Boss theme will forever haunt me.

Another part of the game that I struggled with was the Special Stages. There are now 7 Chaos Emeralds to collect and it would remain 7 throughout the main series. Collecting them all grants you the ability to become Super Sonic, in which Sonic turns gold and becomes faster and invincible as long as you keep your Ring count high enough.
The Special Stages in this game consist of Sonic and Tails running through a half-pipe track collecting Rings and avoiding bombs which make you lose Rings. You have to collect a certain number of Rings 3 times. If you do, you are awarded an Emerald, if you don't collect the number of Rings you need, you fail.
One problem I have with this is that the control for this feels slippery, even if I move slightly in one direction, Sonic will move like he's on ice and 9 times out of 10, I will run into bombs or not get the amount of Rings I need to complete the stage.
Tails is another problem, remember how I said he can screw you over? Well, he can also grab Rings and run into bombs. While playing these stages, Tails is always following behind you and when you move Sonic, Tails moves a second after and that can cause problems. It's bad enough when I run into bombs and lose Rings, but when Tails had the one Ring I needed to complete the stage but ran into a bomb before I could finish? That is seriously irritating.

I could probably do it if I had someone else controlling Tails, but to this day, I have never been able to beat Sonic 2 on the Genesis with all 7 Chaos Emeralds collected, because I found the Special Stages just too annoying to even bother.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is often considered to be the best game in the original series. While I can see why people think that, I don't agree. I consider a certain other game to be the best of the original series, but we'll get to that in a bit. That being said, I still think Sonic 2 is a fantastic game that took what made the first game good and made it better. I still find myself replaying it many times and I will continue to do so.

SONIC CD:
(Sega CD - September 23, 1993)

Believe it or not, I had no idea Sonic CD or even the Sega CD console in general was a thing as a kid. It wasn't until I got the Sonic Mega Collection for the Nintendo GameCube that it come to my attention.

I was looking at the extra material when I noticed the movies section had a video called 'Sonic CD Intro Movie'. It was a short animated video showing Sonic running through fields and forests, over water and up cliffs like a badass. But I thought it was a cartoon and not a game. It wasn't till later that I found out it was an actual game, and I knew I had to try it out. I couldn't get a Sega CD or a copy of the game, but I did have a GameCube and there was another Sonic game compilation made for it called 'Sonic Gems Collection' which included such "classic" games as 'Sonic the Fighters' and 'Sonic R', but the stand out inclusion was most definitely Sonic CD.

As I started to play it, I was greeted by the intro movie I saw on the Mega Collection and then the game began. Right from the start, my reactions were all over the place. I liked how colorful it looked compared to Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. The music was catchy and it played pretty much like the originals (though I don't get why we needed 2 different Spin-Dash attacks).

But there were so many things that confused me. Why were there these posts that said 'Past' and 'Future'? Why did the enemies turn into flowers when I destroyed them? And why were the levels designed in such a ridiculous way that had me bouncing backwards, up, down and all around the place. It was kinda making me sick. It was hard to have fun with it cuz it was annoying me so much. I got to a point where I just stopped playing and didn't pick it back up until much later.

Much later I learned more about the game from watching YouTube videos, particularly by one user named: SomecallmeJohnny. His review of the game and a Let's Play he did inspired me to go back and replay it and play it the way it was meant to be played.

The main focus of Sonic CD is time travel, Sonic has to use these posts with the word 'Past' on them to travel back to a point in time before Robotnik took control of the Zone and filled it with his robots by destroying his Robot Generators, therefore making a good future with no enemies and very few hazards. When you do this for the first 2 acts all you need to do to make a good future for the entire Zone is to beat the bosses which range from pathetically easy to annoying and monotonous. You'll have to do this for 7 Zones. All the while you put up with the aforementioned, annoying level gimmicks.
In addition to 'Past' sign posts, there are also posts that can send you into the future. You'll want to avoid these if you don't want to complete the game with a bad future.

There is another way to ensure a good future for the Zones by collecting the Time Stones, this games version of Chaos Emeralds, but only if you can manage to get through the Special Stages. Like in Sonic 1, you need to collect at least 50 rings and jump into a large ring at the end of the first 2 acts. You then get transported into a 3D area where you have to run around and destroy a certain number of UFO's to obtain the Time Stone before the time runs out.
I'm gonna be honest, I hate these stages. The control is way too sluggish when it comes to turning, the UFO's move to erratically for me to even try and hit them and if you land in the water areas (which get more plentiful as you progress), your time will drop by 10 seconds and will run out before you even have time to notice it!
Instead, I always use the time travel method.

This game also introduced 2 characters who would become staples in the series. The first is Amy Rose, A pink Hedgehog who is in love with Sonic. During the second level, Sonic will run into Amy, who is swooning over the Blue Blur, when suddenly she gets kidnapped by the second new character: Metal Sonic, who also serves as the second to last boss of the game. Well, maybe boss isn't the right word, all you have to do is beat Metal Sonic in a race and he'll slam into a wall. With that done, you rescue Amy and proceed to the final Zone of the game.

I gained a new found appreciation for Sonic CD, and while I don't quite rank it as one of my top favorites, I still have a good time playing it, especially with a remade port released for PSN and Android devices in 2011.

Now if only a certain other game would be released on Android devices.
Speaking of which...

SONIC 3 & KNUCKLES

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3: (Sega Genesis - May 27, 1994)

SONIC & KNUCKLES: (Sega Genesis - October 18, 1994)

While I played a great deal of Sonic 1 and 2 at home, I still played it a lot when I was at my Daycare. And then, something crazy happened, I learned that there was a Sonic 3! I was eager to play the next installment in the series that I had grown to love so much. 

Unfortunately, I rarely got the chance. I was picked on a lot and the kid who brought his copy of Sonic 3 never let me play it, for no other reason other than, he didn't like me. It was a crushing experience. I would continue to be picked on until I eventually started Intermediate School. It didn't get much better though, I was verbally abused on an almost daily basis and it pretty much crushed my spirit to the point where I would count down the days till summer vacation, where I could hopefully find solace. And to add insult to injury, my Genesis stopped working and sadly it got thrown out. I had no way to play Sonic anymore are any other Genesis games I had like 'Aladdin' or 'Jurassic Park'.

That all changed one day during summer vacation when I was with my Mom at a Staples store, I was looking through the computer games and I saw the 'Sonic & Knuckles Collection'. Of course, I begged my Mom to buy it for me, she did and I love her for it. I installed it on our computer and I played it pretty much everyday till the cows came home. I would later get a brand new Genesis as well as the 'games' I'm talking about. 

You should know that the game I'm talking about is that it is technically made up of 2 games: 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3' and 'Sonic & Knuckles'. It was made to be one game, but was forced to be split apart because of time/budget reasons at SEGA. To make up for this, the cartridge for Sonic and Knuckles has a cartridge slot built into the top of it, by inserting Sonic 3 on top of it, you unlock 'Sonic 3 & Knuckles' the entire game as it was meant to be played. 

Remember how I said a lot of people thought Sonic 2 was the best game in the original series and how I don't think that's the case?

If you had to ask me to pick the best Sonic game in the series, I would Say Sonic 3 & Knuckles. There is so much I love about this game. Whenever I played through and died while playing Sonic 2, I had to start over from the beginning. Sonic 3, has a save feature that allows you to pick up from the zone you last played and when you play through the entire game, you unlock a level select. Once again you can choose to play as either Sonic and Tails together, Sonic alone or Tails alone (and you can make him fly this time!). And when you locked on with Sonic and Knuckles, you also got to play as Knuckles, a new character who can climb up walls, break through certain areas and glide through the air for a short amount of time. All of these make playing as Knuckles one of the highlights of this game.

Both games had 6 Zones with 2 Acts each and both Acts have their own unique musical tracks and boss fights. The Zones in this game can be huge, allowing for a lot of exploration and multiple pathways to get through the individual Acts. The game also plays out differently, depending on who you play as. Knuckles can go to areas and fight bosses exclusive to him and after completing all 18 Zones when playing as Sonic, a final level is unlocked called Doomsday Zone.

There have been power-ups in the past games, but none of them compare to the Elemental Shields in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The Water Shield allows Sonic to breath underwater and gives him a bounce attack. The Flame Shield protects Sonic from Fire damage and allows Sonic to dash forward like a meteor. But my personal favorite is the Lightning Shield, it protects you from electrical attacks, allows you to do an extra jump in mid-air and attracts rings to you like a magnet. These shields were all awesome and I wish they were in more Sonic games.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles also has the best Special Stages of any Sonic game. By jumping into large Gold Ring's hidden throughout the 16 Acts, you are taken to an area with a large checkerboard floor and the goal is to run into a certain number of Blue Spheres and avoid Red Spheres (touching these will end the stage). These can be a bit hard at first, and if you spend a long enough time in these stages, Sonic will start to run faster, making getting the Blue Spheres a lot more difficult. But I with enough practice, these Special Stages can be easy to do and really fun.
In fact, the Sonic and Knuckles Collection I owned also had the Blue Sphere stages as a separate selectable game. The number of levels you can play are in the millions and I spent a lot of time playing them. Believe me they can get crazy!
Anyway, completing the Special Stages will award you a Chaos Emerald and when you collect all 7, you can turn into Super Sonic. Unlike Sonic 2, I can actually accomplish this goal and blaze through the game as Super Sonic. 

In addition to Chaos Emeralds, Sonic 3 & Knuckles introduces the Super Emeralds, which you can collect after you start the second half of the game. If you thought Super Sonic was cool, if you collect the 7 Super Emeralds, Sonic can turn into HYPER SONIC. And Hyper Sonic is ridiculously awesome! He can move faster, jump higher and can do a dash attack that can kill every enemy in your vicinity.

The Super Emeralds also gives you access to Super Tails, which allows Tails to run and fly faster. But the best thing about Super Tails is how he is surrounded by 4 invincible birds that take out any nearby enemies and make boss fights a joke. Knuckles also gets a Super and Hyper form.

The gameplay, music, levels and content easily make this my favorite Sonic game and, in my opinion, the greatest Sonic game EVER. I've played it more times than I can care to count and have basically become a master at it.

As new game hardware came out, so did more Sonic games. Unfortunately, I was unable to play them for a while because I didn't have the systems to play them on. I would play them eventually and I'll be taking about those next. In part 2, I will look at Sonic's jump into 3D and all the highs and lows that came with it.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Click here for Part 2

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NECA 8" "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC - Figure Review

NECA is well known for making a wide variety of figures based on characters from Movies, TV, Video Games. But they also have a line of clothed action figures based on toys with fabric clothing made in the 70's.

One of these figures that caught me completely off guard is based off one of my favorite musicians ever: "Weird Al" Yankovic.

This figure is a fantastic likeness of the weird one himself, particularly in the heads. Weird Al comes with 2 interchangeable heads: one with his classic short hair and glasses. And the second one represents his modern appearance long hair and no glasses.

The detail on the hair and the faces look great and it is no trouble at all to remove and attach the 2 heads. Just be sure not to squeeze or pull to hard.

The articulation on this figure, while not amazing, is still pretty good.
The heads can rotate and look down slightly but other such movement is kinda hindered by the sculpted hair.
He can turn all the way around at the waist.

Arms can bend and rotate at the shoulders and elbows. The hands rotate at the wrist and can bend slightly, but do not try to force them.
Legs can bend and rotate at the hip.

The shoes can only bend up and down, so getting him to stand up may require fiddling with the legs.

Aside from an extra head, "Weird Al" comes with other accessories, including an extra hand and a Microphone that can be placed in said hand

But no "Weird Al" figure is complete without his signature Accordion. Now, I'm no expert on Accordions, but for the most part it looks pretty well sculpted. It easily attaches to "Weird Al" himself via the straps on the back, and now your ready for a Polka Party.

I wasn't sure what to make of this figure upon the first announcement, but upon getting it out of the box, I have to say that NECA has done a great job with their first "Weird Al" Yankovic figure. That's right, I said first. It has been confirmed that there will be more Weird Al figures being made in the future. I would personally love to see figures based on 'Fat' and 'The Saga Begins'. I'd even love a 'UHF Rambo'.
This figure is a must buy for "Weird Al" fans the world over.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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