Sonic Movie Nostalgia

With the Sonic the Hedgehog movie hitting theaters, I was hard-bitten by the nostalgia bug. So I decided to dust off the two games that plagued me as a child: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic Spinball.

Playing Sonic Spinball was a frustratingly awesome blast from the past. The first thing that made itself apparent was the audio in the game. From the whir of the Tornado overlapping the Sega chime, to the unbelievable soundtrack, it was just what these nostalgic ears missed. As you climb through the pinball based levels, the sound effects become cues to help you improve and achieve better scores. There are two that always stand out to me, the sound when you are about to be swallowed by the water serpent at the bottom of level one, and the theme/sound that the boss makes when you hit them.

Sonic Spinball controls similarly to the other Sonic games, with the small yet purposeful inclusion of your jump buttons also activating the flippers. These controls can be finicky, especially in the bonus levels. One of the buttons activates the left flipper, another for the right and the last activates both. There were a lot of times as I replayed this where I went to activate the left flipper and hit right instead. Once I settled this, I breezed through to the last level.

It was a great experience to go back and conquer the frustrations of Sonic Spinball which lead into a whole new set of frustrations, Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Let’s talk about the good things first. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a familiar game, that intro scene as Super Sonic blowing past the Tornado (Tails’ plane) and rushing towards Angel Island. Then suddenly the Knuckles theme starts playing and you get sucker punched right out of the Super Sonic form and on top of that lose all the Chaos Emeralds you collected in Sonic 2. Straight out of memory on to the big screen.

Running in Sonic games always feels incredible, especially when you hit sets of loops in a row and the rings are piling on. However, a game where you just run with no hazards wouldn't be exciting at all. I may have been a bit rusty at this, but at times it definitely felt like the game was trolling me, a Kaizo Sonic as it were (turns out there actually is a Kaizo Sonic). Sonic will be moving like the wind and he runs right in a spring, which then launches you into some spikes or worse yet, Sonic gets propelled into the air onto to get whacked by a coconut from some robotic monkey looking to set you back. The game encourages speed but punishes people not paying attention, once again probably just my personal rustiness with the title.

It feels great when you complete an emerald bonus area. What truly stood out to me was running around Ice Cap Zone and getting that 50th ring, transforming into Super Sonic. Being able to zip through the levels at that speed is awesome, except when you fall in a hole. Once again the Death Egg has been destroyed and peace has been brought to the lands of Mobius. The Sonic series of games will always hold a place in my heart and they are worth a play-through when you step out of that theater and have the urge to go rolling around at the speed of sound.