1991, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

bdbdbd said:

curl-6 said:

Sonic isn't even in the same league as Zelda IMHO.
He caught people's attention at the time thanks to having nice graphics/audio, a kid-friendly design, and the wow factor of "blast processing" which differentiated him from Mario, but even his best games are an 8/10 while most are straight up bad.
Most of his following is because people played his games as kids and now have rose tinted nostalgia goggles.

I agree for the most part, but Sonic was one of the better platformers. The memorable Sonic games were also published between 1991 and 1994 at the time there wasn't really competition from Nintendo - SMW 1990, DKC 1994 - nobody seems care about Sonic games released 1995 and onwards after we had Donkey Kong games and Yoshi's Island. So I don't think it's about nostalgia that much as it is about the first Sonic games being the best platformers that we had when they were realased.

A lot of this comes down to taste.  According to my taste the Sonic games are the best platformers of the 16-bit generation (especially if you take out the combat platformers like Castlevania).  Super Mario World is a good game, but it felt like a disappointment after Super Mario Bros 3.  I enjoy the gameplay of the 16-bit Sonic games more than Super Mario World.  Donkey Kong Country has the best visuals and music of the three series, but when it comes to gameplay I think it's average.  

Of course, it all comes down to taste.  Something I am seeing from these early 90's threads is that Sonic has a lot of critics.  But then again, that kind of fits the early 90's.  Some people liked the type of games on the Genesis more and some liked the games on the SNES more.  I think I like the platformers more on the Genesis and the RPGs more on the SNES, so I ended up liking both systems.  (And of course the SNES platformers are still fun too, and the Genesis RPGs are still good as well.)