Well, even with a franchise as storied in oddball games like Sonic the Hedgehog, the game that started it all is still one that is divisive to a degree with most people due to how different it is from what people would come to know about Sonic.

With Sonic 2 and most games after it since, the focus was always on highlighting speed over setpieces, with occasional moments of platforming, but there often was an attempt to let the player run free with enough space while using platforming segments to keep the player engaged, and most of the time, said segments would have some sort of way to speed through them if you already memorized those like the back of your hand.

...But not Sonic 1.

Despite being the origin of the legendary Green Hill Zone, Sonic 1 is a game that tends to clash with most people that pick up Sonic because of how it often wants you to not rush blindly into everything, as it otherwise will punish or even kill you for it. The loops are in only Green Hill and Star Light, speedy hills you can roll down may or may not lead you into spiesk or a bottomless pit, and there's two zones that are particularly hostile to those naive enough to think the game is easy.

So...here we go.

Marble Zone's hills aren't so green

Green Hill Zone itself needs no introduction - an open field with paths avaialable high and low, loops, some ramps for you to spin and catch some air with...it is a zone that despite having a few places where you have to pay some attention to not run into spikes, is quite lenient enough and stands for most people's favorite in the game.

Or maybe the only one they really play until they get to Marble Zone.

Marble Zone is probably a good exemplifier of how this game goes against the usual Sonic expectations: You don't just run and jump freely all the time over long stretches, but more so run and jump freely until you enter the underground section and are at the mercy of setpieces.

Some are actually skppable with some momentum and well-timed jumps, like those lakes of lava with a moving brick and more floating bricks, as you could potentially run and keep jumping between those floating bricks.

But a couple of others are non negotiable, like waiting for platforms to get out of the way and spiked platforms that rise and fall, getting in the way or being needed to reach a higher platform [as the top of these is NOT spiked]

Spring Yard comes after as a refresher due to being open once more as well as having some setpieces for speed, with hills and U-shaped floors for you to roll, but also is peppered with a sprinkle of Marble's more deliberate stopgaps like hazards that you'll run into and rising blocks you slowly have to wait for to climb up.

And then there's Labyrinth Zone.

Sentenced to the Labyrinth

A water zone that truly puts fear of water into you - and more than that.

To put it bluntly, this is kind of like an Indiana Jones type of location, which would be these lush, golden ruins abandoned by time...that are also chock full of immediately deadly traps. And of course, you must pick up bubbles or resurface every so often to avoid drowning, which can be scary depending of what's nearby you.

A quirk I have to mention in Sonic 1 would be related to spikes.: If you fall on a spike and get hurt, falling on another spike while being on that hurt animation will actually kill you, rather than giving you mercy invincibility. Even a shield in hand only lets you bounce off spikes three times instead of two [assuming you have rings].

So...landing on spikes next to a wall is practically a death sentence, straight up. And Labyrinth Zone has quite a couple of these here and there to catch any reckless schmuck that rushes too much.

I hadn't noticed until now how there's a pattern between these Zones - Green Hill, Spring Yard and Star Light are the more open and speed focused stages, the other two having a handful more beginner traps but still having upper paths for you to have an easier time, while the stages between those instead force you to sit down for platforming more time than expected.

The strongest case for Labyrinth being about taking your time rather than hurrying up into a pit of spikes would be the final of Labyrinth Act 3, where the boss is just Eggman escaping up a vertical section - except that this may be a more effective boss than the other three before, because it used to end my runs every single time years ago.

And even now, it still had taken some retries to figure it out, but basically, despite the threat of rising water, you'll only come out of that in one piece if you are patient while jumping between the fire hazards and ejecting spikes as you climb. Because thankfully, that's all you have to do to complete the stage - no actual encounter with Eggman.

Onto enemy territory

Star Light Zone is a pretty docile stage compared to what came before, but unless you're knowingly taking the upper paths, you'll still run into some beginner traps here and there.

Since its the second to last zone as well, there's some badniks that are basically impervious to any of your attacks, like these walking bombs [oh hey, I know you from Sonic CD] that set to explode in seconds when you approach them and can't be destroyed by you at all otherwise, or the green Orbinaut variant that always spins with its spikballs rather than throwing them.

It sure is a fairly engaging yet not too exaggerated of a level, while also not relying on stopgap sections [closest thing to that are the moving blocks you wait for to rise or lower], most certainly the closest to Green Hill you've been since you left that place.

But Scrap Brain Zone? You're back into walking on eggshells territory, because these are FULL of hazards and even some nasty traps that could send you into more hazards or bottomless pits.

My first time getting past Labyrinth 3 ended up dying to Scrap Brain Zone Act 2, as I was barely scraping along post LB3 and fell to one of the many hazards I didn't expect. Then Scrap Brain 3 on the later revisit took me down with a very nasty spike trap that worked because it was in the underwater section.

Yes, water returns in Scrap Brain Act 3, complete with looking like a silver-colored Labyrinth Zone for extra damage.

The only way you'll tame Scrap Brain Zone is with previous knowledge and being careful with your steps, which on one hand is quite the difficulty spike even compared to Labyrinth Zone, let alone other Sonic games...but on the other hand, there's something very interesting about a final stage being...you know, aptly difficult for a final stage?

Even if they go a bit overboard in the third act - but at least there's a shortcut there that can make your life easier.

Wait, what about the Emeralds? And what about Eggman?

The classic holding on to 50 rings into the end of the stage [until you get to Scrap Brain] will cause a Giant Ring to spawn that sends you into the special stage. The catch?

...Yeah.

I eventually got a grasp of where to go in most of these, either by following the ring paths or knowing that its on the center if the stage starts wide open. But when I first revisited it, I was quite clueless in most stages due to the lack of visibility to see where the right way is, let alone controlling Sonic while in this spinning state.

If you are quite well versed with the zones to hold on to rings AND even know how to deal with all six special stages [yes, six, because Sonic 1 has only six emeralds for some reason], you can actually get them all in half an hour should you get the giant ring and emerald without fail when you visit Green Hill, Marble and Spring Yard's first two acts [you can't get them in Act 3].

Which is what I ended up doing on my third attempt of the day where I pulled it off, after having lost two runs back to back [one to Scrap Brain 3 as I mentioned before...and the other to accidentally doing the Labyrinth signpost crash without knowing of it].

On that try, I managed to cruise through Labyrinth deathless, and stumble a bit on the next two zones but still make it with plenty of lives to spare thanks to my obsession for trying to get 100 rings specifically for that purpose, and then there I was.

The Final Zone, which is the final fight, despite the simple nature of Eggman's attacks, is actually a bit nerve wrecking...because it doesn't give you any rings to take more than one hit.

Although it may not matter as much since one of Eggman's two attacks is trying to crush you with the pistons that rise or fall at you - your chance to attack being when he appears in one of the two that move. Get crushed by these and you'll die instantly anyways, even if you had rings.

The other attack are these electric orbs that go at your direction after a moment, which can be avoided if you try to stay on the middle of where two orbs spawn, but may still get you if you slip the wrong way.

But keep your cool all the way, and...

And this is where I bring up the funny difference that makes getting all emeralds or not.

As a gameplay aspect, it does end up being an additional challenge of mastery due to the requeriment of staying intact with 50 or more rings up to the very end, easier said than done if you haven't played this before, and while the special stages are even more cumbersome on a blind run, they have a way around them when you give them enough time. So its pretty rewarding to see yourself get them all and make it through the end.

...But as a reward in the game itself? Its...hilariously small - the ending cutscene gets changed with your emeralds causing these round flowers to appear at the end, and when the credits after that end, you get a sight of Eggman angrily jumping on the End sign [deserved because he deserves to be mad after the horrors he made me go through].

You don't actually get Super Sonic here, as that was introduced in Sonic 2, and the difference in the ending itself if you don't get them all would be Sonic looking at you disappointed before jumping at the screen instead of using the emeralds, while you'd see Eggman juggling the emeralds at the end with a Try Again text.

...So you either get mocked by Eggman for not bothering with the emeralds, or you get a pretty small change with Sonic not briefly looking disapprovingly at you.

But hey, let me tell you, it does feel different to get here for the first time, more so as the first time I actually complete the game at all, and see Eggman stomping in frustration after spending three hours total in the session I got through it, because again, I lost two attempts before the good one - so that was two hours where Eggman had his way with me until I sent him out of here.

Conclusion

For how much trouble it gave me at first, it was kind of cool that the game does reward you for playing carefully rather than trying to rush it, in the style of other platformers but with the ability to increase your speed off well-timed rolls on hills.

And on that note, as I recently was revisiting Sonic 2 to see if one day I can get an all emeralds run, maybe its because of recency bias [as in, since I just played Sonic 1 enough times to be able to go through it without much hassle] but somehow I didn't feel cheapshotted as many times as I did on my Sonic 2 revisit, which had badniks literally appearing from the walls in Aquatic Ruin, the roulette in Casino Night potentially deciding to drain all your rings because Eggman said so, or Mystic Cave's boss having some wonky hitbosses on whether attacking it on its sides is actually safe or not.

When said boss will leave you on a ringless checkpoint should you die at it.

And that's not even talking about how nonchalantly evil the Special Stages themselves are the moment you go into the third onwards - as even in the second one you can feel the hostility crawling in with the way the bombs are used, let alone on the rest.

...But that's a story when I end up taking a full shot at it once more to gather my thoughts about it. And that would be on the Genesis version too - no high-definition easier to see special stages for me [to my dismay...I'm playing the Genesis version for RetroAchievements but the Retro Engine remake definitely should be easier in both the normal and special stages due to widescreen].

At least I also tried some vanilla Sonic 3 afterwards and could unwind from the frustration of losing my first S2 run on the phone at Mystic Cave's boss. Kinda inoffensive on the level design at least up to Marble Garden, but was curious to try the standalone version since apparently it has a few extra traps for difficulty compared to the S3K version.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Spanish translation with DeepL. All screenshots were captured by myself.

Español

Bueno, incluso con una franquicia tan famosa por sus extravagantes juegos como Sonic the Hedgehog, el juego que lo empezó todo sigue siendo uno que divide en cierta medida a la mayoría de la gente debido a lo diferente que es de lo que la gente acabaría conociendo sobre Sonic.

Con Sonic 2 y la mayoría de los juegos posteriores, la atención se centró siempre en destacar la velocidad por encima de las escenas, con momentos ocasionales de plataformas, pero a menudo se intentaba dejar al jugador correr libremente con suficiente espacio, utilizando segmentos de plataformas para mantenerlo interesado, y la mayoría de las veces, dichos segmentos tenían alguna forma de acelerarlos si ya los memorizabas como la palma de tu mano.

...Pero no Sonic 1.

A pesar de ser el origen de la legendaria Green Hill Zone, Sonic 1 es un juego que tiende a chocar con la mayoría de las personas que eligen a Sonic debido a que a menudo no quiere que te precipites ciegamente en todo, ya que de lo contrario te castigará o incluso te matará por ello. Los bucles solo están en Green Hill y Star Light, las colinas rápidas por las que puedes rodar pueden llevarte o no a un espía o a un pozo sin fondo, y hay dos zonas que son particularmente hostiles para aquellos lo suficientemente ingenuos como para pensar que el juego es fácil.

Así que... allá vamos.

Las colinas de Marble Zone no son tan verdes

Green Hill Zone no necesita presentación: un campo abierto con caminos altos y bajos, bucles, algunas rampas para girar y saltar... Es una zona que, a pesar de tener algunos lugares en los que hay que prestar atención para no chocar contra púas, es bastante indulgente y es la favorita de la mayoría de la gente en el juego.

O tal vez la única a la que realmente juegan hasta llegar a Marble Zone.

Marble Zone es probablemente un buen ejemplo de cómo este juego va en contra de las expectativas habituales de Sonic: no solo corres y saltas libremente todo el tiempo en largas distancias, sino que corres y saltas libremente hasta que entras en la sección subterránea y quedas a merced de los elementos fijos.

Algunas se pueden saltar con algo de impulso y saltos bien sincronizados, como esos lagos de lava con un ladrillo móvil y más ladrillos flotantes, ya que se puede correr y seguir saltando entre esos ladrillos flotantes.

Pero otras son innegociables, como esperar a que las plataformas se aparten y las plataformas con púas que suben y bajan, que se interponen en el camino o que son necesarias para llegar a una plataforma más alta [ya que la parte superior de estas NO tiene púas].

Spring Yard viene después como un refresco, ya que vuelve a estar abierto y tiene algunos elementos para ganar velocidad, con colinas y suelos en forma de U para rodar, pero también está salpicado de algunos obstáculos más deliberados de Marble, como peligros con los que te encontrarás y bloques que se elevan y que tendrás que esperar lentamente para subir.

Y luego está la zona del laberinto.

Condenado al Laberinto

Una zona acuática que realmente te hace temer al agua, y mucho más.

Para decirlo sin rodeos, es como una localización al estilo Indiana Jones, con unas ruinas exuberantes y doradas abandonadas por el tiempo... que también están repletas de trampas mortales. Y, por supuesto, debes recoger burbujas o salir a la superficie de vez en cuando para evitar ahogarte, lo que puede dar miedo dependiendo de lo que haya a tu alrededor.

Una peculiaridad que tengo que mencionar en Sonic 1 estaría relacionada con los pinchos: si caes sobre un pincho y te haces daño, caer sobre otro pincho mientras estás en esa animación de dolor te matará, en lugar de darte invulnerabilidad por piedad. Incluso un escudo en la mano solo te permite rebotar tres veces en los pinchos en lugar de dos [suponiendo que tengas anillos].

Así que... caer sobre púas junto a una pared es prácticamente una sentencia de muerte, sin más. Y Labyrinth Zone tiene un buen par de ellas aquí y allá para atrapar a cualquier imprudente que se precipite demasiado.

Hasta ahora no me había dado cuenta de que hay un patrón entre estas zonas: Green Hill, Spring Yard y Star Light son las fases más abiertas y centradas en la velocidad, las otras dos tienen algunas trampas más para principiantes, pero siguen teniendo caminos superiores para que te resulte más fácil, mientras que las fases entre ellas te obligan a sentart