Retronauts Episode 81: Sonic the Hedgehog

I really liked this episode (and yes, screw those barrels), but oh man I can't wait for the deep dive into the 00s-era games when it really went off the rails. The bits I've read about Sonic 06's development just sound like a movie nightmare.

Kevin Bunch

Thanks for the kind words! - Bob

Retronauts

Awesome episode guys! I remember playing Sonic 1 at my friend's house and was completely won over by the graphics and memorable soundtrack. I convinced my parents to trade in my Game Gear (including the TV tuner!) to buy a Genesis (we already had an NES and SNES). I loved Sonic 1 & 2. When Sonic 3 came out, I was disappointed like Andrew above. The music was not as good and what happened to Sonic's sprite?! The game just felt rushed overall (which you guys confirmed in the podcast). Sonic & Knuckles won me back though. I guess their lock-on technology marketing worked on me. I even convinced my parents to buy me a Sega CD just to play Sonic CD (we never bought any other games for the system). After that, Sega lost me as a Sonic fan. The wait for a proper new Sonic was just too long. I was holding out hope for Sonic Xtreme but that never came to fruition. By the time Sonic Adventure came out, I guess I had gotten over my Sonic craze. I bought the 3DS remakes of Sonic 1 and 2 recently and so far they are still fun. I'm looking forward to Sonic Mania as well.

Glad you liked it! - Bob

Retronauts

This was the Retronauts episode I've been waiting for. Thank God Chris Kholer wasn't on the podcast. I can only handle nerd podcasts that don't make me feel like a total dweep, and Chris' hatred of Sega is embarrassing. Like, Michael Scott embarrassing. Thanks for the hours of great content guys, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have planned for the New Year.

shea dewar

SEGA always has the coolest promotional art! — JP

Retronauts

Lol...I'm so glad I'm not the only one that feels that way about Sonic 3. It was something about that game that just didn't do it for me. I'm so much more into 2.

Normallyretro

We were a Sonic household growing up more by accident than anything else. Our cousins had the original Genesis so we played Sonic a lot, and my brother and I fell for the Sega marketing. Hey, we were kids in the single digits and we had no way of knowing what the mid '90s would bring. We weren't allowed to have game systems growing up. Our parents had an expensive computer and told us to play games on that, which is another story. The wall started to come down in 4th grade when they were on the rocks and they finally caved and got us a Game Gear, and then when they divorced a year later our dad bought us a Genesis in what became a tradition with him of going out around November to get the newest system as they came out. I agree with Ray totally. A lot of people seem to think Sonic is "press right and jump," but most of the game was pretty slow with a lot of platforming. I didn't beat Sonic 1 with all the chaos emeralds until I was in high school and I didn't beat Sonic 2 until college, but I always enjoyed those games. Sega kinda lost me after that though. I played Sonic 3 at a friend's house and wasn't impressed, and by that time we'd bought a Super Nintendo on the cheap and I was more preoccupied with games like Mario RPG. My brother got a Dreamcast years later and Sonic Adventure looked interesting but I'd lost interest at that point. Some of the DS games were okay, but I feel like after the first two games they sort of lost the plot. Still, I'll always remember those years in the early '90s of being a Genesis kid. There were some good games and we had a lot of fun.

daecrist

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