Tell Us Dammit

26 responses to “Tell Us Dammit”

1. 

   Nicholas La Sala

   October 13, 2010 at 11:11 am

   Sonic 3 was the first game I ever played, waaay back in 1995. I was always a fan of the series, but I never had a system that played Sonic Games, at least not until my XBOX. I played the crap out of Sonic Heroes, and I am happy to say I enjoyed it. Sonic ’06 was an abomination, and I hated Unleashed.

   The best moment was Unlocking Super Sonic for the first time on Sonic 3. I was always bad at the get blue spheres game, until I mastered it :p

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2. 

   RynoZero

   October 13, 2010 at 11:35 am

   Sonic 2 easter long weekend when i was in like grade 3. got up at 7am and powered all the way through to the end of the game for the very first time.

   or when i combined sonics 3 with S&K and realised you can actually gain the 7 chaos emeralds in sonic 3 then upgrade them to the master emerals in S&K to become ultra sonic, Super Tails and Hyper Knux

   sonic never moved in a downward trajectory for me. i never owned a sega based console after the megadrive so my memories are preserved in sonics 1,2,3 & sonic and Knuckles. although i am tempted to get sonic adventure off the PSN.

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3. 

   Cerzel

   October 13, 2010 at 11:47 am

   First Sonic game I played was Sonic CD. Was pretty good, even if it ran extremely slowly on our old Windows 95.
   Favourite one still has to be Sonic 3&K. Favourite moment would be either the Sky Sanctuary Zone (that awesome music) as Knuckles or of course the final boss as Super/Hyper Sonic.

   I missed both the Adventure games, so things for me went downhill when I got to Sonic Heroes. Terrible platforming, slow gameplay and annoying sidekicks. Then we got Shadow the Hedgehog and… yeah.
   I remain optimistic for Sonic 4 and plan to get it when it goes up.

   Worst moment, though, is one also from Sonic 3&K. Most people will know what I’m referring to. That one barrel in the Carnival Night Zone, where you need to move it up and down to get under it. I, like many others, tried to do this slowly and infuriatingly by timing jumps on it. Years later, I found out that you were supposed to just stand on it and press up and down to move it.

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4. 

   Matt Roe

   October 13, 2010 at 11:48 am

   Only Sonic game I’ve ever played was Sonic CD. That pretty much was 2 whole years of my childhood… then I was robbed and I’ve never played it since, and other Sonic games – even the original ones – just don’t have the same feeling. :'(

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5. 

   James Mac

   October 13, 2010 at 11:51 am

   The first time I played sonic was the green hill zone… and I fell in love with the ping sound those rings made.

   I stopped caring after first seeing a “Werehog” screenshot.

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6. 

   Ryan W

   October 13, 2010 at 11:52 am

   Most loved Sonic moment was beating the Death Egg Zone in Sonic 2, for the first time ever in about 96, after I dug my Mega Drive out of storage and plugged it in. Most hated moment? I imagine you’re going to get this a lot, not knowing how to get past the spot that was blocked by those goddamn accursed **************ing rotating cylinder things in Sonic 3’s Carnival Night Zone. Goddamn I hated that spot, I thought it was a broken game till I looked up GameFAQS almost a decade later and found you could control the ascent and descent with the D+Pad.

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   1. 

      Batguy

      October 13, 2010 at 1:20 pm

      Ditto. I thought that I was nearly there if I jumped with the right rhythm, so I kept experimenting with that. Thankfully I only wasted a couple of days with that malarkey.

      Reply
      1. 

         feneck

         October 13, 2010 at 4:25 pm

         Dear god! I did this as well. However I never worked it out.
         I ended up using my turbo button on a 3rd party controller to get a water bubble to bounce super fast to force it down.

         To be totally honest, I never actually found out you could just use the D+pad until this month when I replayed Sonic 3 on XBLA.
         Embarrassing much…

         Reply
   2. 

      Jimu_Hsien

      October 14, 2010 at 5:05 pm

      OH _HO! I did that too, my older smarter uncle had to figure that one out for me…I had totally forgotten until I read your post!

      Reply
7. 

   Stevorooni

   October 13, 2010 at 12:07 pm

   I remember being amazed when I first saw Sonic running on the Megadrive.

   Unfortunately I didn’t own a Megadrive but we hired Sonic 1 for the Master System and I loved it but couldn’t afford to buy it.

   Some time later I got a copy of Sonic 2 for the Master System for my birthday, then later managed to buy Sonic 1.

   Some time later in life we got a Megadrive with Sonic 2. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles came after that but I never owned the original Sonic for the Megadrive, this was later rectified by the many Sega compilations on later consoles so now I probably own several copies of it!

   I pretty much ignored 3D Sonic, sticking to Sonic Advance and later Sonic Rush on the handhelds. I gave Sonic and the Secret Rings a try but gave up on that pretty quickly.

   I guess the point where Sonic began his downward spiral was when they kept adding all the extra characters to every new game. A support cast is necessary to some degree but do we really need the when there are already a pile of similar characters that have already been created and never been used again?

   Sonic just doesn’t work in 3D and it doesn’t work with a storyline beyond “Eggman stole the Chaos Emeralds”.

   I’m really looking forward to Sonic 4 because it’s the return to basics that the series needs.

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8. 

   Teck Knight

   October 13, 2010 at 12:15 pm

   My favourite Sonic moment has to be when he was put into super smash brothers brawl. NOW I have a favourite character to beat the crap out of all the other “heroes” and villains including that annoying guy Mario 😛 lol.

   When I was convinced that it started going downhill was when it went into games like Sonic Adventure DX. That was such a disappointment. Sonic heroes was pretty fun (Despite that I absolutely hated the homing attack they gave sonic… made precision jump attacking useless and attacks became too easy ever since). Then came seeing ones pop up like Unleashed and Black Knight… seriously he does not need to transform or use a sword to kick arse back then why now?

   My first time playing Sonic was when I first got my Sega Mega Drive. It was a white cartridge with Sonic 1, 2 and Dr Robotnik’s mean bean machine on it… I was so darn good at mean bean machine back then haha.

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9. 

   Wade

   October 13, 2010 at 12:16 pm

   The first sonic game I played was.. Sonic 2 I believe. We were at one of my dads friends house and I was playing games with his son, who was about 2 years older than me. I wouldn’t say I was a fan of the series, but from then on I did look forward to Sonic games because they were genuinely good games.

   Sonic Heroes was the downfall for me. That game made me hate Sega for a long time. Having played Sonic 4 on my iPod Touch.. it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Hopefully Sonic Colours is decent, we’ll have to wait and see.

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10. 

    Minic

    October 13, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    Well, I’m flattered, and happy to divulge.

    First ever Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 2, for the Sega Master System. Great, 8-bit fun, with solid music and interesting level designs. It’s a different beast altogether from the 16-bit version, and I recommend it to any curious fans of the retro.

    Favourite Sonic moment would have to be zooming down the ultra-steep inclines of Marble Garden Zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, my favourite game of the series. As a kid, I only ever had the demo, and being able to actually play the stage rather than just watch video of it was mind-blowing. Climbing on monkey bars in Flying Battery Zone – which has my favourite bit of music in a series full of great music, right up to this day – had the same effect.

    Also, finding out that Shadow the Hedgehog was not as terrible as people made it out to be, but in fact a fairly enjoyable platformer with a good mission structure, despite its silly story and slightly loose controls. That was a nice moment.

    Critical reviews had filled me in on the Hedgehog’s fall from grace, but playing Sonic Adventure 2 drove it home. At least in Sonic Adventure I could avoid the arbitrary characters if I really wanted to. Here, they made me trawl through tedious shooting and exploration stages before giving me back the reins to the speedy hedgehog(s). The presentation was seriously poor, as well. Muddy textures, woeful localisation and audio, Comic Sans MS captions. There you have it.

    Sonic Unleashed was even worse, but for reasons I doubt I really need to go into.

    My flickering hope for the franchise lies with Sonic Colours. No matter what Sega executives say about the target demographic. The trailers just look stunning. Sonic 4, on the other hand, looks like a step backward; the kind that’s all wonky and embarrassing because you tried to cover about two metres and ended up twisting your ankle. You know, that kind. I just watch gameplay trailers and think, “Why don’t I just go and play the first game, if they’re going to reduce everything THIS much?”

    Alright, there you have it.

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11. 

    RynoZero

    October 13, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    seconding that goddamned barrel in carnival night zone. the game simply didnt give any indication you could move in that manner, never used it before that moment or after that level ever again and was completly unituitive to a game where to get anything done you jump on the thing and it goes.

    Reply
12. 

    Batguy

    October 13, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    My first Sonic was the master system version that I borrowed it from a friend. It was OK, but not great. As the news for Sonic 2 started appearing in magazines though, it looked AWESOME, and I was obsessed. I saved up for months and bought it for the master system on the day it came out. Boy was I disappointed.

    Why wasn’t I seeing any of the levels from the magazines? Where were the strings of crazy loop-the-loops? Why couldn’t I spin in the spot? WHERE WAS TAILS?!?!?! Turned out that all the coverage was for the mega drive version and none at all was for the master system one.

    It was actually a pretty decent game all told, but it was NOT what I wanted. So I sold my master system, game boy and all my games to buy a mega drive pack (with Sonic 1 packed in) and Sonic 2. Totally worth it. Even with such a massive build-up, it was probably the only game in my life that met all my expectations. I loved it then and still do. I even love the dodgy multi-player mode, which I played every Saturday morning for months with my little brother.

    My favourite Sonic moment is the whole Death Egg Zone from Sonic 2 – the music, the two cool bosses, and the skill required to beat them both without being hit even once.

    The game also gave me proudest gaming achievement of all time: Realising that I could get all the chaos emeralds before finishing Emerald Hill Zone, doing so, then going on to beat that the whole game without losing a single life AND getting it all on tape. There were white knuckles when playing through Death Egg Zone, I’m telling you!

    As for the downward spiral, it did start with the 3D games, but what killed Sonic for me was the GBA games. All the reviews said that they were a return to form. They weren’t. The developers just didn’t understand how to manage the flow from speed to exploration right and after finishing the first one, I was over it. I started to give in to the “return to form” hype over Sonic 4, but knowing that it’s from the same team as the GBA games has really dampened my enthusiasm.

    So yeah, in summary: Sonic 2. Bloody brilliant.

    Reply
    1. 

       Batguy

       October 13, 2010 at 1:26 pm

       Writing that dusted off the brain cells that remember the original TV ad for Sonic 2. Anybody else remember it: “2 heroes, 2 players, 2 hard, 2 fast, 2 much – Sonic 2, get in 2 it!”

       How could my 13-year-old mind NOT be totally psyched by that?

       And it’s on youtube!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxkRS12B2g

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       1. 

          Batguy

          October 13, 2010 at 1:29 pm

          Actually no it’s not… I’ll actually read past the google search results next time 🙁

          All this talk of Sonic 2 has made me hyperactive. I think I need a lie down…

          Reply
13. 

    Colin

    October 13, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    I was a sonic fanatic in my youth. Sad story, yes. Sonic 1, 2, 3 and S&K were awesome games, I reckon. Don’t like any games produced since. I’m a bit iffy on even buying Sonic 4. The videos just don’t seem to show the same classic feel. I’ve seen better stuff produced by amateurs.

    Reply
14. 

    Al Christie

    October 13, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    best was 30 second speed runs in green hill zone for 50,000 points.
    worst moment was playing sonic 2 on VC and seeing how cheap a lot of the obstacles are.

    Reply
15. 

    Chuloopa

    October 13, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    My first time with sonic was at a blockbuster video back in the days of yore. They had a megadrive set up with sonic and knuckes on it and i immediately fell in love!
    later i got sonic on my master system which was such a fantastic game, then sonic 2.

    When i played the 3d sonic games (dx on Gamecube) i was so underwhelmed, and then my confidence was completely killed off with Shadow the Hedgehog… man, now that was TERRIBLE.

    Since then i haven’t touched a sonic game out of sheer fear they would find a way to kill my beloved hedgehog even more-so.

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16. 

    Wally

    October 13, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    Can I ask a question about Batman: Arkham Asylum? …Ok Great. Is there a way of turning back on the campaign without losing all of your upgrades? I hate it when you play a game and you finely get cool weapons and abilities and then there’s on more enemies the game is finished and your just wondering around the opened world aimlessly. How can we get the Rocksteady Studios to make a patch to switch back on enemies in the campaign?
    Tanks

    Reply
17. 

    Enjoy Medway

    October 13, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    My most triumphant moment was getting past Metal Sonic with all the emeralds in Sonic 2 on the Sega Master System. It was so hard, being a youngin with so much work put behind him to achieve his ultimate goal: Completely finish the game. It was amazing.

    Conversely, the most frustrating point was everything up until then.

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18. 

    Tee

    October 13, 2010 at 7:33 pm

    Seeing an ad and review in a gamer mag, i knewi had to get a megadrive immediately, then imported sonic 2 and eventually 3. played sonic on DC and thought it was pretty good, but the rest after were shit.

    my fav sonic game would have to be sonic CD though, the ability to switch to alternate worlds from the same level was awesome. and the levels were huge.

    Reply
19. 

    Neil Williams

    October 14, 2010 at 1:48 am

    The first time I played a Sonic game is also possibly my most memorable. Y’see, as I kid I had a big issue with hand-eye coordination. I was horribly uncoordinated, and I was actually seeing a specialist about it Progress, unfortunately, was quite slow.

    One parent who also brought her child to the specialist suggested to my parents that they purchase me a game console, as it seemed to be helping her daughter. So one day, my parents dragged me out shopping and took me to look at games consoles. After much deliberation, we decided to go with a Sega MegaDrive, as it came with Sonic 1 and a send-away deal to get Columns and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

    So we got home, and after my father worked out how to set the thing up, I popped in Sonic and turned the console on. And immediately I was absolutely blown away. The gameplay was fast, fluid and (best of all) controllable. The fact that I was controlling this frenetic little rodent as he spun through loop-de-loops, smashed through Badniks and sped towards the end of the level, all with the controller in my hands, just astounded me. I spent every possible moment I could playing that game, and my hand-eye coordination improved dramatically because of it. Within a year or two I was above average, and now I am a hand-eye coordination machine! Not that I’m bragging, of course. 😉

    But it wasn’t just the game itself that had a profound effect on me. It was the logic behind it. I’d see how Sonic would be able to smoothly make it through a loop-de-loop, or how he would drop down from it if he didn’t have enough momentum. I’d see how Sonic would lose momentum on upward inclines, and gain momentum on downward slopes. And I’d wonder how you would make something work like that; how somebody was literally able to make this character move and react in this way.

    I decided right then and there, at the tender age of 5, that I would make games for a living. And at 7, once I’d worked out what that entailed, I’d decided I was going to be a games programmer. And while I’m not there yet, I’m still actively working on it. ^^

    I still have very fond memories of that game (and most the other old-school 2D Sonic games, for that matter), and I make sure to pull out my dusty MegaDrive copy (or one of the various Sonic collections I own) of Sonic 1 every so often to experience that magic again.

    Reply
20. 

    v4next

    October 14, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Been playing Sonic games since the start. First got Sonic 1 for the Sega Master System back in ’92, awesome! Then Sonic 2 for Master System. Then got a Megadrive soon after, Sonic 1, 2 , 3 & Knuckles. Then Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 for Dreamcast in 1999/2000. Best memories; completing each game with all emeralds/ Locking Sonic3 and Sonic & Knuckles together/ playing as Knuckles in Sonic2/ Playing Emerald Coast for the 1st time in Sonic Adventure on DC, at Hi-Tech World (remember that game shop people?) and also, all the great music from each of the games! Hasn’t been a good Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic 4 is a great return to form.

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21. 

    Jimu_Hsien

    October 14, 2010 at 5:03 pm

    Sonic 2- Tails following Sonic seemed like a huge innovation when I was 8.

    Sonic 3 and Knuckles- The lock on cart the story told only in silent pictures THE SOUNDTRACK!

    This game was an amazing accomplishment back when platformers were the “KILLER APP” (Not that the term Killer App existed way back in the mid-90s!).

    Reply