So time and time again video game music pops into my head. Today, Sonic The Hedgehog 2's Casino Night Zone theme came into my head which then meant I would continue to think about Sonic all day... and it got me wondering... what is YOUR favorite classic Sonic game?

I'm limiting it to the first four because of the age and the fact that S&K linked with the other three.

My favorite has always been Sonic The Hedgehog 2 but I've admittedly never really invested much time into Sonic 3. I've beaten the first and second though. I don't think I've ever beaten S&K either but I used to love it... maybe its time I get my Genesis back out again... as if I didn't have enough games to play.

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@TriforceBun

Sonic 2 + Knuckles is just Sonic 2 as Knuckles. I think there's maybe a small level design change here and there to accommodate for Knuckles' climbing and sucky jump? But I can't remember, it's been a really long time since I played it.


Sonic 3 And Knuckles is what Sonic 3 was supposed to be, i.e. all of the stages from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles playable by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic/Tails.

- Tails and (especially) Knuckles have exclusive areas and paths that only they can reach, changing up the level design quite a bit here and there. Knuckles gets his own "hard mode" versions of every boss from both games.

- When combined, there's an extra set of Chaos Emeralds (called Super Emeralds) that transform each character into an even more ridiculously fast and overpowered Super form (Sonic gets an in-air boost attack that kills everything on-screen, Tails gets killer birdies that seek enemies, Knuckles causes earthquakes when he glides into a wall).

- Knuckles' story actually takes place after (or maybe before?) Sonic's and Tails'. There are appropriate changes to the stages that reflect this, like how the Death Egg is in the background of some Sonic stages but not for Knuckles. There's an interesting write up about that here.

- Probably more stuff I am forgetting that is REALLY INTERESTING.

nate38 said:

So yeah GTFO Negative World, all y'all SNES fanboys might have had DOZENS of excellent, legendary games for your stupid grey system, but your childhood wasn't complete unless you played SONIC every day after school and then pretended you were SONIC when you were running around the neighborhood and rolling into the other kids like you were SONIC.

Word.

"nate38 said:

So yeah GTFO Negative World, all y'all SNES fanboys might have had DOZENS of excellent, legendary games for your stupid grey system, but your childhood wasn't complete unless you played SONIC every day after school and then pretended you were SONIC when you were running around the neighborhood and rolling into the other kids like you were SONIC.

All those in favour of electing Nate to fill Kriswright's post as resident Sega fanboy say 'aye'!

I think I can maybe admit that Sonic 3 & Knuckles was the best in the series...but I dunno, I think Sonic 2 will always just be my favorite.

S3&K did have some pretty brilliant music. It's a shame the Sonic series doesn't have stuff like this anymore.



Honestly, if there is any one area you COULD argue that old school Sonic had it over old school Mario, it's music. There are just so many awesome tracks.

Old school Sonic has one more thing over old school Mario IMO... gameplay.

And speaking of music...

@nate38
That does indeed sound cool. I should unlock that version and give it a shot--I've always been slightly underwhelmed by StH3 and S&K, and it's only recently that I learned it was mostly because they were essentially two halves of one game.

GelatinousEncore said:

Old school Sonic has one more thing over old school Mario IMO... gameplay.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa whoa. Whoa.

Yeah. Actually, classic Sonic's awesomeness aside, I'm not the biggest fan of 2D Mario. The only 2D Mario game I truly adore is Super Mario World. The rest are just very good games (even the NSMB games, I'm not huge on those). Even as a kid, I always preferred Sonic, Donkey Kong Country, and even Wario Land.

3D Mario is a whole different story, though. So is 3D Sonic...

The only thing I don't like about Genesis Sonic is, to quote Egoraptor: "Goddammit, why can everybody fly in this game but me?!"

Oh, no DOUBT. S3&K is EPIC. The "story" (or sequence of events at least) is really awesome. The game does a lot by not really doing much at all.

As a stand alone game though, I like Sonic 2 over Sonic 3 or S&K. I might put the combo (aka, the intended, complete original game) over Sonic 2.

Golden Sun was the same way wasn't it? Wasn't Golden Sun originally going to be one huge game, and it was too big so they made it two games?

@TriforceBun Yeah, if you ever go back and replay the games, take the effort to unlock Sonic 3 and Knuckles in the Mega Collection. Yes, it's an absolutely retarded hassle to start and quit the games umpteen times, but it's worth it to play the game as it was meant to be.

I have equal love for Sonic and Mario...well, not anymore obviously, but Mario platformers and classic Sonic are neck and neck for me.

@nate38 It's a shame that Nintendo didn't do any more traditional Mario games on the SNES (or the N64 or Gamecube for that matter).

@PogueSquadron Yeah, but New Super Mario Wii was a worthy revival, and I'm confident NSMB WiiU will be as well. It would be nice to get a new Super Mario 64, though....


As for Sonic CD, I never put much time into the game until a few years ago. It's interesting, but something about the level design seemed like a bunch of strange experiments. I need to put more time into it someday. I'd appreciate the time travel mechanic more if it was instant instead of using that stupid loading screen every time and killing the pace.

I finished Sonic 2 on X-box. This is my favorite game, though I've barely touched the others. This is mainly because i played sonic 2 on my uncles Master system on the rare occasion.

@Oni Link

Wait what who? I'm going to assume this is on your mum's side, coz no-one on our side had a Master System .

Joe had Sonic 2 & 3 on Mega Drive though.

Sonic 3&K > all for reasons already posted. Separately they aren't that good but combined the way it's meant to be is incredible.

Sonic 3&K was epic. I voted for Sonic & Knuckles for the reason that it could combine with the other three cartridges to make more fun bonus stages with Sonic 1, make Knuckles playable in Sonic 2 and make Sonic 3 into the epic Sonic 3&K. On it's own, the game was just good, but it's the key to greatness.