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Forums - Gaming Discussion - 1991, Game of the Year

 

1991, Game of the Year

Street Fighter 2 8 10.26%
 
TMNT: Turtles in Time 2 2.56%
 
Eye of the Beholder 0 0%
 
Sid Meier's Civilization 5 6.41%
 
Metroid 2: Samus Returns 1 1.28%
 
Sonic the Hedgehog 11 14.10%
 
Final Fantasy IV 13 16.67%
 
A Link to the Past 31 39.74%
 
Super Castelvania IV 4 5.13%
 
Other (please specify) 3 3.85%
 
Total:78
Jumpin on 30 September 2023
Dreamcaster999 said:
KLXVER said:

Easy...his games suck.

That's just not true. Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are some of the best platformers ever made. The Adventure games' Sonic stages are also sublime (although the other characters do weigh them down). Colours and Generations are solid. And finally, Sonic Mania stands proudly alongside the Mega Drive games too.

Sonic has had some bad games, but he's definitely had good ones too

I agree with this. Sonic 2 was probably the biggest game for quite some time, until Donkey Kong Country. Sonic 2 was also really good, one of the best 2D platformers of all time.



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Dreamcaster999 on 30 September 2023
KLXVER said:
Dreamcaster999 said:

That's just not true. Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are some of the best platformers ever made. The Adventure games' Sonic stages are also sublime (although the other characters do weigh them down). Colours and Generations are solid. And finally, Sonic Mania stands proudly alongside the Mega Drive games too.

Sonic has had some bad games, but he's definitely had good ones too

Are they though? or did you just play them as a kid and are very nostalgic about them now?

Well, I was born in '99 and only played through them a few years ago so that's definitely not true.

Plus, why is it that this kind of criticism is always levelled at Sonic but not other 90s classics? I think his later bombs have made this revisionist theory about Sonic never being good all too popular when it's truly without merit



Jaicee on 01 October 2023
Dreamcaster999 said:


Sonic the Hedgehog was obviously a phenomenon and a cultural zeitgeist which launched Sega and the Mega Drive to not just compete with, but for a time, even overtake Nintendo. However, I feel that it is a game with inconsistent quality. Green Hill and Starlight are fantastic zones but conversely Marble and Labyrinth are abysmal and fail to understand that the ability to gain and enjoy speed through clever and skillful use of momentum are what makes Sonic so good. Therefore, I can't give Sonic 1 the nod for GotY, but if Sonic 2 can build on the good and eliminate the bad next year...

Kind of agree with this. Fundamentally I liked the game and its premise right from the outset, but the Marble Zone was definitely a turn-off compared to its predecessor for me and the Labyrinth Zone actually resulted in me giving up and quitting the game for months; it kinda ruined the whole thing for me initially. Until I learned about the level select code that allowed me the grace of just skipping it. Then I got to "Scrap Brain Zone Act 3" only to discover that the nightmare was not yet over, omg! Who's idea was that? Like making the Labyrinth Zone the only one with a de facto fourth act? I hope they got fired because that surprise was just evil. It took me years of cultivation before I developed enough skill to actually beat the game straight through.

I actually have the Sonic 1 zones listed in order of my preference on a Google document alongside the other zones from the Sonic classics. I have them ranked thus:

1. Star Light Zone
2. Green Hill Zone
3. Spring Yard Zone
4. Marble Zone
5. Final Zone
6. Scrap Brain Zone <-- Ranks this bad for "Act 3".
27. Labyrinth Zone

Last edited by Jaicee - on 01 October 2023

KLXVER on 01 October 2023
Dreamcaster999 said:
KLXVER said:

Are they though? or did you just play them as a kid and are very nostalgic about them now?

Well, I was born in '99 and only played through them a few years ago so that's definitely not true.

Plus, why is it that this kind of criticism is always levelled at Sonic but not other 90s classics? I think his later bombs have made this revisionist theory about Sonic never being good all too popular when it's truly without merit

A lot of gamers like to feel in control of the game they are playing. Not just trial and error like many of the 2D ones or just auto runners almost like many of the 3D ones. Feels like even when hardcore fans talk about the Sonic games, they usually only talk about maybe 5 games they like in a franchise of probably 50+ games. 



rapsuperstar31 on 01 October 2023
VAMatt said:

It is hard for me to see how people can rank A Link to the Past above Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is now one of the most iconic video game characters of all time.  He has transcended gaming, and become significant in popular culture. He's certainly not on Mario's level, but nobody is. Sonic is in a very solid second place though, with nobody nipping at his heels in third. He came to life with this game in 1991. The way I see it, that makes Sonic the Hedgehog many times more significant than any of the other games in this poll.

There are many great games in this poll. If we were voting in December 1991, I could make a case for many of them. But, we're voting in September 2023, and we have the ability to see the last 32 years of history. And with that in mind, it is painfully obvious that Sonic is the biggest deal. 

Most greatest video games of all time lists have A link to the Past higher than any Sonic game.  Not every game is for everyone, so I'm not going to question why anyone would have Sonic higher.  I think it was a very important game, and it was important for Mario to have a main rival at the time. Me personally, I've never beaten a Sonic game, I've run through a few stages, lost a few gold rings, and stopped playing.  Even though I'm not a fan of Sonic games, I don't have an issue saying it's more important in that it's the first game in it's series vs the 3rd Zelda game in it's series, but the poll is game of the year not the most important game of the year.  At the end of the day, I enjoyed A Link to the Past more, so it's my game of the year 1991.



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Chrkeller on 01 October 2023

Sonic, and sega is general, is grossly overrated in my opinion. Sonic is all flash and no substance. Sonic is a very subpar platformer. Sega's best games with shining force series and skies of arcadia.

Once sonic stops running and jumping is involved, good God it is meh in design and control.

Zelda on the other hand is arguably the most consistent series in gaming, which is crazy given it had been around for 40 years. 

Last edited by Chrkeller - on 01 October 2023

The_Liquid_Laser on 01 October 2023
Jaicee said:
Dreamcaster999 said:


Sonic the Hedgehog was obviously a phenomenon and a cultural zeitgeist which launched Sega and the Mega Drive to not just compete with, but for a time, even overtake Nintendo. However, I feel that it is a game with inconsistent quality. Green Hill and Starlight are fantastic zones but conversely Marble and Labyrinth are abysmal and fail to understand that the ability to gain and enjoy speed through clever and skillful use of momentum are what makes Sonic so good. Therefore, I can't give Sonic 1 the nod for GotY, but if Sonic 2 can build on the good and eliminate the bad next year...

Kind of agree with this. Fundamentally I liked the game and its premise right from the outset, but Marble Zone was definitely a turn-off compared to its predecessor for me and the Labyrinth Zone actually resulted in me giving up and quitting the game for months; it kinda ruined the whole thing for me initially. Until I learned about the level select code that allowed me the grace of just skipping it. Then I got to "Scrap Brain Zone Act 3" only to discover that the nightmare was not yet over, omg! Who's idea was that? Like making the Labyrinth Zone the only one with a de facto fourth act? I hope they got fired because that surprise was just evil. It took me years of cultivation before I developed enough skill to actually beat the game straight through.

I actually have the Sonic 1 zones listed in order of my preference on a Google document alongside the other zones from the Sonic classics. I have them ranked thus:

1. Star Light Zone
2. Green Hill Zone
3. Spring Yard Zone
4. Marble Zone
5. Final Zone
6. Scrap Brain Zone <-- Ranks this bad for "Act 3".
27. Labyrinth Zone

My favorite Sonic game is actually this first one.  Once I beat it, it all clicked in my head how amazing the game is to play from beginning to end.  I even like Marble Zone, because I think a change up in the type of zones is good and enhances the overall experience.  However, the game does seriously lose points for Labyrinth Zone.  I put it in my list of top 50 games every year now, even ahead of Link to the Past.  However, it would have made top 20 if Labyrinth Zone wasn't in there.

There are very few games which do water stages well.  Super Mario Bros comes to mind immediately, but most other water stages are just aweful.



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Jaicee on 01 October 2023
The_Liquid_Laser said:

My favorite Sonic game is actually this first one.  Once I beat it, it all clicked in my head how amazing the game is to play from beginning to end.  I even like Marble Zone, because I think a change up in the type of zones is good and enhances the overall experience.  However, the game does seriously lose points for Labyrinth Zone.  I put it in my list of top 50 games every year now, even ahead of Link to the Past.  However, it would have made top 20 if Labyrinth Zone wasn't in there.

There are very few games which do water stages well.  Super Mario Bros comes to mind immediately, but most other water stages are just aweful.

Literally every other Sonic game handled the water zones better, IMO. In fact, the Aquatic Ruin Zone is actually my second favorite one in Sonic 2. (Or third if you include the Hidden Palace Zone, which is also partially submerged.) Much of the difference lies in superior opportunities to avoid actually going underwater; having that be a kind of penalty for poor performance rather than the definition of the level.



curl-6 on 01 October 2023

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.



Chrkeller on 01 October 2023
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.

That is where my mind goes.  Sonic blew me away as a kid because of the speed and attitude...  not long after getting sonic I realized it was meh.  But some love it, which is fair.  Too each their own.