Someone explain the appeal of 2D Sonic games

[HaloEliteLegend]

I've never played a 2D Sonic game, and from the gameplay I've seen on YouTube, I still don't know why they're great. With Sonic Mania coming up, perhaps I should give it a shot. So help me out here. What made the old Sonic games great?

 

[Disco]

Welll, try one out and see for yourself

 

[SANIC]

Everything that made the Adventure games bad. Smooth gameplay, slick and accurate controls, awesome bonuses, multiple endings, focus on exploration, unique themes etc

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Welll, try one out and see for yourself

I'm actually looking forward to doing that with Mania. It's a part of gaming history I've left overlooked for so long
So what do you like about the older games?

Everything that made the Adventure games bad. Smooth gameplay, slick and accurate controls, awesome bonuses, multiple endings, focus on exploration, unique themes etc

I hear a lot of people love the Adventure games, though. Would you say the original games are better, then?

 

[Chary]

There's two parts to it. There's the exploration and finding all the secrets, and having fun with the level design...and then there's mastering it, and being able to blast through the level at insanely fast speeds, knowing every hill and loop de loop to get the max speed.

If you want to start, you could try 1, though it's a bit clunky compared to 2/3/CD. I honestly say you should start with 2, but if you want to play the BEST the series has to offer, you're going to wanna play the combination romhack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's called Sonic 3 Complete.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I've never played a 2D Sonic game, and from the gameplay I've seen on YouTube, I still don't know why they're great. With Sonic Mania coming up, perhaps I should give it a shot. So help me out here. What made the old Sonic games great?

IT WORKS! LOL

seriously, just play the first sonic game, is everywhere, 3DS, Ios/android, steam, sonic gems collection, sonic mega collection. Sonic ultimate genesis collection. GO get a emulator and play it, on genesis. I recommend Fusion 3.64 emulator.

Trust me when i say it works, there plenty of 3D sonic games with huge glitches, bugs and flaws, 2D ones WORK!

 

[SANIC]

I'm actually looking forward to doing that with Mania. It's a part of gaming history I've left overlooked for so long
So what do you like about the older games?


I hear a lot of people love the Adventure games, though. Would you say the original games are better, then?

Yep. Nostalgia goggles. Unleashed is clearly better than SA1 and 2. Still best games are the classics

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

There's two parts to it. There's the exploration and finding all the secrets, and having fun with the level design...and then there's mastering it, and being able to blast through the level at insanely fast speeds, knowing every hill and loop de loop to get the max speed.

If you want to start, you could try 1, though it's a bit clunky compared to 2/3/CD. I honestly say you should start with 2, but if you want to play the BEST the series has to offer, you're going to wanna play the combination romhack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's called Sonic 3 Complete.

The level design does look really neat. Still very unique to this day, haven't quite seen anything like it in other platformers. I'll give 2 or 3 a try. Also, have you gotten a chance to play Sonic Mania? I don't know if that's something you saw at E3 or not, but was wondering if that'd be a good game to experience the enjoyment the classic games offered.

IT WORKS! LOL

seriously, just play the first sonic game, is everywhere, 3DS, Ios/android, steam, sonic gems collection, sonic mega collection. Sonic ultimate genesis collection. GO get a emulator and play it, on genesis. I recommend Fusion 3.64 emulator.

Trust me when i say it works, there plenty of 3D sonic games with huge glitches, bugs and flaws, 2D ones WORK!

Yeah, the 3D Sonic games gave me a bad impression of the series lol. It didn't help that the first ever Sonic game I played was Sonic 06
I'll go the emulator route and play Sonic 2 or 3 like Chary suggested. Also, thanks for recommending an emulator!

 

[RustInPeace]

There's two parts to it. There's the exploration and finding all the secrets, and having fun with the level design...and then there's mastering it, and being able to blast through the level at insanely fast speeds, knowing every hill and loop de loop to get the max speed.

If you want to start, you could try 1, though it's a bit clunky compared to 2/3/CD. I honestly say you should start with 2, but if you want to play the BEST the series has to offer, you're going to wanna play the combination romhack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's called Sonic 3 Complete.

I was able to clear Sonic 1 and 2 last year in about 2 hours combined because I played the games so many times. I still lost rings here and there, specifically at later levels, such as Scrap Brain Zone. I also made sure to get the Chaos Emeralds early. So for Sonic 1, have all 6 by Act 3 of Spring Yard Zone, and for Sonic 2, all 7 by Chemical Plant Act 2. Always Act 2 because I can never find balloons in Act 1. So yeah, part of the speed in Sonic 2 is getting Super Sonic early. I could try not doing that, but meh, I love Super Sonic and have played the game enough without it back in the day. As for Sonic 3, I played it via emulator with Knuckles combined, and that's it for me with 2D Sonic games. Turns out I played more of the 3D ones, and do still have an affinity for the GC ports of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, as well as Heroes, even Shadow the Hedgehog. Some love for Secret Rings on Wii, and Unleashed, but that's it. I did play Black Knight, which was alright, but only played a bit of it. Despite playing more 3D Sonic games, nothing beats the speed and fun in the first 3 Sonic games. I haven't mastered Sonic 3, never having gotten all the Chaos Emeralds. I played the first two a lot as a kid, starting at age 10, long enough to be extremely nostalgic over.

Sonic Mania's first trailer almost made me cry, I was hit with nostalgia so hard, so this particular game means the most to me in 2017, no other new game has gotten that kind of emotional response this year. Hyped? That's an understatement.

 

[Chary]

The level design does look really neat. Still very unique to this day, haven't quite seen anything like it in other platformers. I'll give 2 or 3 a try. Also, have you gotten a chance to play Sonic Mania? I don't know if that's something you saw at E3 or not, but was wondering if that'd be a good game to experience the enjoyment the classic games offered.



Yeah, the 3D Sonic games gave me a bad impression of the series lol. It didn't help that the first ever Sonic game I played was Sonic 06
I'll go the emulator route and play Sonic 2 or 3 like Chary suggested. Also, thanks for recommending an emulator!

I did get to try Mania, and I pretty much had a little nerd-out paragraph about it, in my e3 coverage. But it's a game that really caters to people who've played all the classics, and I think you'll appreciate it more having played and enjoyed the older games first.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Yeah, the 3D Sonic games gave me a bad impression of the series lol. It didn't help that the first ever Sonic game I played was Sonic 06
I'll go the emulator route and play Sonic 2 or 3 like Chary suggested. Also, thanks for recommending an emulator!

NOPE! you got to do it like the rest of us, in order, sonic 1 then 2 and then sonic cd, then sonic 3, and then sonic & knuckles, then sonic 3 & knuckles... then Knuckles in sonic 2, and then Sonic 3D blast (not as good but still worth trying) and sonic spinball (is a pinball game so don't expect much) Finally dr. robotnik mean bean machine. (Not really a sonic game, is a puyo puyo game, you know the one that the new puyo puyo tetris game is featured in on nintendo switch?

See this is why you need sonic mega collection cause it has ALL THE GENESIS SONIC GAMES, Can't just play them willy nilly first time, gotta do it like the OG you are trying to be.

Trust me, is the only way you gonna learn... (honestly 3 of the games mention you don't have to play but this is what people with sega genesis back in the day played.) we had stuff like this to make games fun

Spoiler

 

[Duckling]

They're faster than 3d sonics as the 2d sanic has a higher refresh rate allowing for the experience and flow the game to be a lot smoother when compared to 3d sanic games

 

[duffmmann]

Frankly I'm still trying to find the appeal of the 3D sonic games. I get the appeal of the 2D titles, they were consistent, so if you liked those games, you'd understandably want more, if you didn't then you wouldn't. With the 3D titles, I just don't get how anyone can be a consistent fan when each title varies so much in quality and overall gameplay mechanics. There is nothing consistent and consequently, I've just become confused about what it is that keeps so many Sonic fans to be fans of the 3D titles specifically.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

I did get to try Mania, and I pretty much had a little nerd-out paragraph about it, in my e3 coverage. But it's a game that really caters to people who've played all the classics, and I think you'll appreciate it more having played and enjoyed the older games first.

Hrmmm now I'm considering binging through the first three games before Mania comes out next week, and just getting a microburst of Sonic in under a week x3
Because if anything, I'm really intrigued now.

NOPE! you got to do it like the rest of us, in order, sonic 1 then 2 and then sonic cd, then sonic 3, and then sonic & knuckles, then sonic 3 & knuckles... then Knuckles in sonic 2, and then Sonic 3D blast (not as good but still worth trying) and sonic spinball (is a pinball game so don't expect much) Finally dr. robotnik mean bean machine. (Not really a sonic game, is a puyo puyo game, you know the one that the new puyo puyo tetris game is featured in on nintendo switch?

See this is why you need sonic mega collection cause it has ALL THE GENESIS SONIC GAMES, Can't just play them willy nilly first time, gotta do it like the OG you are trying to be.

Trust me, is the only way you gonna learn... (honestly 3 of the games mention you don't have to play but this is what people with sega genesis back in the day played.) we had stuff like this to make games fun

Woah, that's a lot
But actually I'd totally be willing to do that. Is Sonic Mega Collection for PC a good enough port of the originals?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Woah, that's a lot
But actually I'd totally be willing to do that. Is Sonic Mega Collection for PC a good enough port of the originals?

Yes, or you can download them all on steam for $5 each. Is just a emulated version of the original genesis game, it does work properly even with the proper "lock on" technology.

Just don't get the Sonic & knuckles collection, that isn't the good one.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

They're faster than 3d sonics as the 2d sanic has a higher refresh rate allowing for the experience and flow the game to be a lot smoother when compared to 3d sanic games

I mean, the originals ran at 60fps I think? 60fps makes sense for Sonic. IIRC, the 3D Sonics usually run at 30fps, right? Then I can see your point.

Frankly I'm still trying to find the appeal of the 3D sonic games. I get the appeal of the 2D titles, they were consistent, so if you liked those games, you'd understandably want more, if you didn't then you wouldn't. With the 3D titles, I just don't get how anyone can be a consistent fan when each title varies so much in quality and overall gameplay mechanics. There is nothing consistent and consequently, I've just become confused about what it is that keeps so many Sonic fans to be fans of the 3D titles specifically.

Yeah, I listened to someone talk about that. The 3D games are all over the place with such varying gameplay styles in each. As you say, the lack of consistency is honestly off-putting.

Yes, or you can download them all on steam for $5 each. Is just a emulated version of the original genesis game, it does work properly even with the proper "lock on" technology.

Just don't get the Sonic & knuckles collection, that isn't the good one.

I think I'll go the Mega Collection route, that one was easy enough to track down. Thank you!

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I think I'll go the Mega Collection route, that one was easy enough to track down. Thank you!

Yeah well is easy and simplify things, even though is just emulation, honestly is one of the better emulation console ports, close enough to M2 or even wii virtual console, some reason some emulation ports like ultimate genesis collection by back bone entertainment had sound issues, and even pc emulators struggle with accurate sound issues.

(Though in this game you have to unlock several games, so maybe find a save file of them unlocked and then play them.

(This also has 6 of 12 gamegear games that was released on sonic characters. You should try them too, maybe part of sonic mania stages as well)

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Yeah well is easy and simplify things, even though is just emulation, honestly is one of the better emulation console ports, close enough to M2 or even wii virtual console, some reason some emulation ports like ultimate genesis collection by back bone entertainment had sound issues, and even pc emulators struggle with accurate sound issues.

(Though in this game you have to unlock several games, so maybe find a save file of them unlocked and then play them.

(This also has 6 of 12 gamegear games that was released on sonic characters. You should try them too, maybe part of sonic mania stages as well)

Oh, are some of the games locked in Sonic Mega Collection? So they can make you play them in order or something?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Oh, are some of the games locked in Sonic Mega Collection? So they can make you play them in order or something?

Well some games are locked, but the initial 7 games are available, and so is the 6 game gear ones. The unlock games are 4 games not related to sonic but are somehow made by sonic team i guess? And the sonic and knuckles "LOCK ON" games, Blue sphere sonic 1 + sonic & knuckles, Knuckles in sonic 2 and sonic 3 & knuckles.

You should be able to just find a save data on game faqs or something and use it.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Well some games are locked, but the initial 7 games are available, and so is the 6 game gear ones. The unlock games are 4 games not related to sonic but are somehow made by sonic team i guess? And the sonic and knuckles "LOCK ON" games, Blue sphere sonic 1 + sonic & knuckles, Knuckles in sonic 2 and sonic 3 & knuckles.

You should be able to just find a save data on game faqs or something and use it.

Yeah, I could just do the save file thing. Btw, what are the "Lock On" games?