The Easiest To Hardest Sonic The Hedgehog Games

Today I’m counting down the hardest side-scrolling Sonic games from the Mega Drive era - games released between 1991 and 1994 - and we’re obviously discounting Sonic Spinball, Mean Bean Machine and Sonic 3D Blast. We’re going from the easiest to the hardest, let’s begin the countdown!

5 - Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Considering that Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were meant to played together, using the lock-on cartridge - it seems obvious that Sonic 3 is piss easy  - it's designed to be the first half of a bigger overall game, thus, easier levels. Sonic 3 introduced a whole array of new items, including the elemental shields - the fire one making you impervious to fire-based enemies, especially the fiery rockets on most bosses, the electric shield, that attracts rings, and the bubble shield - which allows underwater breathing. These shields also deflect projectiles and are as common as muck in the grand scheme of things, some of them being placed on the most direct route through the level - you can also easily acquire them from the checkpoint bonus levels quite easily. Although all of the levels end with a boss - a sub-boss in Act 1 and Dr Robotnik in Act 2, the majority of the sub-bosses are pathetically weak and Dr Robotnik proves more annoying than actually difficult. The Blue Sphere special stage is also the 2nd easiest Chaos Emerald stage in my opinion, the only thing being frustrating about them is the fact you actually have to FIND the giant rings, rather than the 50-rings method. Oh, and the final thing that cements my opinion that Sonic 3 is the easiest game? YOU HAVE RINGS WHEN YOU FIGHT THE FINAL BOSS!

 

4 - Sonic CD

Now Sonic CD is a strange one here at number 4. But you need to bear in mind, we’re comparing Sonic CD to the other Sonic side-scrolling platformers on the Mega Drive, and it’s the odd one out as it uses an entirely different engine and is full of unique mechanics that aren’t present in any other Sonic game, before or since. Sonic CD’s difficulty curve is all over the place - and it’s all down to the ability to warp between different time periods. As a general rule, the past is easier and the future is harder - the past tends to have less enemies and obstacles, while the future is full of badniks and traps. The first few levels are quite easy - a lot of them I breezed through by practically just holding right and the odd jump. The bosses however are all a pain in the arse - every single one has some weird puzzle you need to solve before you even work out how you’re supposed to start causing damage - the strangest of all being the treadmill boss.. The last two levels are a combination of bouncy floor that rockets you to the top of the level, electrocuting mechanisms in the background and having to traverse a factory-style maze as a mini, baby Sonic.

3 - Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Now Sonic 2 is actually both mine and Shelly's favourite Sonic game - I played it to death as a kid, and continue to do so as an adult on a regular basis. To me, in between the jump from Sonic 1 to Sonic 2, the introduction of the spin-dash move and using checkpoints to access the special stages rather than at the end of the level made the game appear easier straightaway. Sonic 2 is very easy up until around Hill Top Zone, where it finally gains a few teeth and they continue sprouting right up until the very end of the game. While Sonic 1's stages all had 3 acts as standard, only one stage in Sonic 2 does, while two only have the one - potentially allowing for more variety in stages. Sonic 2's special stages are easy, if you play as Tails or Sonic alone - letting the CPU control Tails is frustrating as hell, as he just loves crashing into the damn bombs. Alternatively, having a 2nd player control Tails makes these special stages insultingly easy, providing they're a skilled player. Speaking of Tails, both the CPU and a 2nd player makes boss stages easier - allowing for Tails to kick the shit out of Robotnik while Sonic sits back and watches. The combination of Metropolis Zone and Wing Fortress Zone makes the end of the game pretty difficult - and couple that with a double boss on the final stage that kicked my arse over and over as a kid due to the lack of rings - Sonic 2 is a decent contender here.

2 - Sonic The Hedgehog

Like many first installments, and retro games in general; the original Sonic The Hedgehog has a somewhat unforgiving difficulty once it gets going. Green Hill Zone is a little warm-up, which is hastily followed by Marble Zone; a level filled with spikes and lava, Spring Yard Zone, a level filled with enemies who chase you and tons of instant death drops, Labyrinth Zone, which is a fucking UNDERWATER MAZE, Star Light Zone,, actually an easy level, but it's filled with unkillable enemies and Scrap Brain Zone, a level that contains NO checkpoints and also has an act that is a Labyrinth Zone clone, ANOTHER UNDERWATER MAZE. I'm surprised that the final boss is actually pretty easy. You have no rings, of course, but as final bosses go, the only easier one is Sonic The Hedgehog 3's. The special stage is also unforgiving as fuck, constantly spinning around with trippy coloured backgrounds to give you motion sickness as you repeatedly fall into pit after pit after pit.

 

1 - Sonic & Knuckles

And finally we have Sonic & Knuckles - the overall hardest Sonic game released on the Mega Drive. As I previously explained, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were designed to be one game - so it's not surprising that Sonic & Knuckles started half-way up the difficulty curve, where Sonic 3 left off after Launch Base Zone. Right from the beginning, Sonic & Knuckles' first stage, Mushroom Hill Zone is about as difficult as the likes of Casino Night Zone and Spring Yard Zone and it continues building a steep difficulty curve right up until the insanely difficult final boss. The final stage, Death Egg Zone even forces you to traverse the level UPSIDE-DOWN, effectively reversing your controls! While Sonic & Knuckles is lacking in underwater levels, it certainly makes up for it with tons of timed sections, tough platforming, levels that are built like damn mazes and bosses which to find their weak spot is a bloody puzzle.

Unboxing: Arcade Block September 2016

It's time for my eleventh monthly Arcade Block!

As I've previously explained; for a fee of $20 CANADIAN per month, Arcade Block will send you a lovely box of gaming merchandise, including a T-shirt. Shipping costs vary, depending on where you live, and larger T-shirt sizes cost a few $ extra - overall, my boxes including shipping, work out at about £24.

This one was shipped on the 25th of September and arrived on the 7th of October.



And let's take a closer look at the contents:

Sega Mega Drive USB hub

Super Chip Clips

Retro video gaming magazine

Controllers T-Shirt

Assassin's Creed Mega Bloks

Review: Cosmic Spacehead

Cosmic Spacehead is a game released in 1993 by Codemasters for the Sega Mega Drive. It's actually a re-release of a NES game called Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade released in 1991 with shiny, new 16-bit graphics, fixed glitches and a 2-player mode. It's quite a unique concept, sections of open-ended world exploration with point-and-click adventure style puzzles with each world screen broken up by 2D side-scrolling platforming.

Set in around the year 4000, Cosmic Spacehead is a young alien boy who has just returned from visiting planet Earth, and has come back to his home planet of Linoleum only to find out that nobody believes him because he has no proof. So Cosmic sets out to re-visit Earth, this time armed with a camera so that he can take snapshots of New York city and rub them in everyone's faces.

The point-and-click puzzle sections are pretty basic, but after a while, can require backtracking half way around the planet in order to find the right items and the right places to use them. Using the C button, your puzzle approaches are limited to 5 different actions: "TALK TO," "USE," "GIVE," "PICK UP" and "LOOK AT." The vast majority of the puzzles are a bit roundabout, such as using icing sugar to freeze a stream to create a new pathway and building a tactical missile to clear away debris. But when interacting with objects, Cosmic will give you his own opinions on rude post office clerks and vending machines that sell gunpowder.

The side-scrolling platform sections are encountered the first time you leave a screen and attempt to enter the next area. These start out basic, simply avoiding walking eggs and hopping across floating platforms, but gradually get more and more complex, resulting in the player having to time their jumps to avoid being electrocuted or to adjust to changing gravity levels. During the side-scrolling levels, Cosmic can collect cosmic candy bars - 10 of which will award you with an extra life. 

One of the awkward gameplay mechanics of Cosmic Spacehead is that it uses the archaic password system. These passwords are marked by big colourful Ps found in the main city and town areas. However, if you feel that you are doing well for lives, items and money, they can be ignored and returned to at a later stage to be used when you really need them. Using a password point will record all of your cleared levels, solved puzzles and you will retain all of your items and money.

The Mega Drive's 16-bit graphics aren't exactly pushed to their limit, but all of the characters and enemies are unique, colourful and full of personality. The pre-rendered backgrounds range from the jazzy, multi-coloured patterns of the planet Linoleum to the bleak, abandoned areas of the planet Detroitica, which has been overrun by its robot workers. The overly colourful and psychadelic graphics have often been likened to 60s cartoons such as The Jetsons.

For some reason, Cosmic Spacehead also has a 2-player mode. I'll admit that I was disappointed with this. What I wanted was a 2-player co-op style adventure like Sonic The Hedgehog 2. What I got was a regurgitated version of a car driving mini game from the main single player game. Each player drives a bumper car around a maze and tries to throw custard pies at each other.

If you have a Mega Drive, I really reccomend investing in a copy of Cosmic Spacehead. Being over 20 years old now, it's virtually impossible to find new, but I managed to grab a copy of it, with a box, booklet and a poster for only £3. I had it as a child and had been itching to play it again for around 12 years. Being a cartridge game, it's stood the test of time very well. From start to finish, if you know what you're doing. you can look for about 2 hours of gameplay - but if you get stuck looking for the plug for the bathtub or keep losing all of your lives in the Space Station, possibly longer.

Minecraft Creations: Cosmic Spacehead Sprite Statue

Are we ready for more Minecraft Creations? OK then, I present to you (what I believe has never been done before) my 16-bit COSMIC SPACEHEAD sprite statue from the amazing Sega Mega Drive game of the same name:

 

Our lovely Cosmic Spacehead is made purely from wool blocks - red, yellow, white, pink, black and magenta. I extracted his sprite from a screenshot and zoomed it in on PAINT and copied it into the big bland desert area. (Oooh, how very technical I am. :P)

 

With regards to the game itself, I know not many people have heard of it, but Cosmic Spacehead is a truly epic point-and-click/adventure/platformer type thing on the Sega Mega Drive made by the wonderful Codemasters. It's also very cheap - I picked it up from Amazon with the box, booklet and a promotional poster for only like £4. (I did have it as a child but for some reason when my Mega Drive broke my mother took it upon herself to get rid of all my bloody games as well!) I may review it in the future. Wooo. :)

 

I also posted a mini video of my Cosmic to YouTube, so if anyone inexplicably likes the sound of my voice, it's here:



Car Boot Sale Treasure Hunting

The Sunday before last I went to Redcar boot sale with my fiancée, my dad and my gaming nana who plays Bejeweled. I've recently been getting back into some really retro games from the 80s and early 90s to distract myself from the horror that is the Xbox One. Seriously, try it - if you ever start feeling sad or disappointed about the Xbox One, break out your old SNES or original Game Boy and play some awesome retro stuff - all your troubles melt away. :D

Anyway, in addition to mooching online I thought it would be a good idea to have a trawl around the local car boot sales - for some reason there's like 10 different ones held every Sunday around the area where I live, so after casually mentioning it to my dad - he jumped to it. :D

Most of the stalls were just crap, old kids toys and baby clothes - but there were a handful of stands dedicated purely to video games and the odd table that had a small pile of games hidden amongst the old tat - so Shelly and I were competing to see who could spot the games on the stalls first. There was one dude who actually had a SNES for sale and a stack of cartridges of all kinds and we had a long discussion about my new NES. He said he buys wholesale lots on eBay for cheap then sells the stuff for a profit at the boot sales.

At first I didn't think I was going to come out with anything at all - but on the contrary. This is my haul for the day:

 

After I got home, Shelly and I decided to see if I got some good deals - so we searched eBay and Amazon, finding items in identical condition (i.e., boxed, cart only) - and this is what we found:

 

God Of War (PS2):

I paid £1. It's sold online for £5.

 

South Park: Chef's Luv Shack (N64):

I paid £4. It's sold online for £5.

 

Toki: Going Ape Spit (Mega Drive):

I paid £2. It's sold online for £7.

 

Kirby's Pinball Land (Game Boy):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £12.

 

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (Xbox 360):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £18.

 

Mario & Yoshi (Game Boy):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £3.

 

Mega Games 3 (Mega Drive):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £3.50.

 

With every game, I either paid the same or better. :D

Also, I plan to finish Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant, get the 1000G and then sell it onto CeX for £22 exchange value. PROFIT!