When the grass was greener. Let's rank the Genny Sonics.

[bork]

When I came home and started unpacking all my games that were stored in the attic, I found Decathlete for the PS2.  Forgot I had that; that was another good Saturn->PS2 port.

Sonic 1 > Sonic 3 and Knuckles > Sonic 2 > Sonic CD

Sonic 1 is the best Sonic game to me. It had tons of secret areas and way to get through levels, the best bonus/warp levels, the emphasis was on actual platforming as opposed to pressing right the majority of the game as was in Sonic 2. It was also the first game I owned, so I'm really attached.

This.  This, 1000 times over.  Sonic 1 to me is not only the best Sonic, it is one of the few that I can actually go back and replay.  All the follow-ups generally came off as boring and too much like their predecessors for me to really get into back then.

I think we can all agree that Sonic on the Genesis was the best.

Sonic > Mario

The only Mario I truly love is Yoshi's Island, which many don't even consider a Mario game. That and the first Mario, for nostalgia.

Oh, YUCK.   

You cannot beat the 8-bit and 16-bit Marios, and I'm not even talking about YI (never really played it).  Mario went to shit for me when the N64 came out, but those 2D Marios still kick the ever-lovin' shit out of everything else even today.  They were perfection.

Sonic 2 stages are so much better than the Sonic 1 or Sonic 3 stages.  I'd say Sonic CD had he worst ones, then Sonic 3, then Sonic 1.  Sonic 2 is the champ.

Sonic 2 special stages are so much better than those in any other Sonic game.

and I actually played Sonic 3 for the first time in Tehran in some Arcade place that limited your play time to 5 minutes.  That was cool. 

Wait a second, Tehran had Sonic 3 arcades?

Guys I think we just lost.

I don't think it was really an arcade.  It was like a shopping or entertainment center, but they just had a bunch of Sega Genesis units set up with Sonic 3 on them.

Haha, I saw something just like that when I went to Israel back in '94.  The "arcade" was just a room full of consoles hooked up (a lot of Neo-Geos especially) and they were charging money to play them.  There were also a number of pirated SF2 SCE and Sonic 2 (or maybe it was 3?) Genesis games and carts illegally converted into arcade units and used in Mexico, IIRC.  EGM talked about it so many years ago.   I thought that was all Israel had, but then the tour we were on stopped at some popular destination for the night, and right near the hotel was the HUGE arcade with everything new at the time, and tons of cabs imported from Japan.  It was fucking awesome.  I played Gals Panic for the first time and some English dude thought I was Israeli and called me a little pervert in Hebrew.   

[CurseoftheGods]

2D Sonic and 2D Mario were both awesome in their own unique ways. It's really hard and unfair to compare both as they tried to achieve different goals with their designs. They're both independent kinds of platformers. 

3D Mario was always better than 3D Sonic, though.

[bork]

2D Sonic and 2D Mario were both awesome in their own unique ways. It's really hard and unfair to compare both as they tried to achieve different goals with their designs. They're both independent kinds of platformers. 

3D Mario was always better than 3D Sonic, though.

Nah.  That line gets used far too much these days.  What made the Mario games great was that each new version (SMB2 Japanese aside) was something different.  Sonic just rehashed itself over and over and OVER again.  It even kept using the same level types.  Did we really need casino zones in every fucking game?

[CurseoftheGods]

Did we need snow and lava levels in every Mario game?

The Sonic sequels were far from rehashes. In each game they added a significant, new component.

Sonic CD - Time travel, was more exploration based.
Sonic 2 - Spinball made gaining momentum more accessible. 2-player mode. Super Sonic.
Sonic 3 - Save system. Power ups that were actually useful. Sonic and Tails can be played seperately and had different gameplay mechanics.
S&K - First home console expansion pack. New playable character that's different from Sonic and Tails. "Lock on technology" increased replay level in older games (eg. Knuckles in Sonic 2).

Not to mention that each of those games had vastly different level design from one to the other.

2D Sonic was always about manipulating the physics, trying to get from point A to B in the fastest time possible. It was all about perfecting speed runs for me and maintaining momentum. 2D Mario was always more exploration based and platform heavy. It was sort of more laid back, and the level layouts encouraged you to search for secret areas for power-ups, lives, etc.

   
 

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Dynamite Deka was so awesome. 

I got Dynamite Deka 2 on the DC. So many good memories from playing that game with friends.

I hate to be the jerk that derails things, but.  Well, has any of the J-bore crew or anybody else played/even seen Dynamite Dekka 3/Asian Dynamite?  I haven't heard a peep about it since it was announced some time ago and I doubt it would have even gotten my attention were it not a Sega game in 2007 being released on the Naomi platform.


have you seen me?

[AdmiralViscen]

What is Dynamite Dekka 2, was it Jap only?

[Rman]

What is Dynamite Dekka 2, was it Jap only?

No.  It was released here as Dynamite Cop for the Dreamcast.  It's the sequel to Die Hard Arcade for Saturn, known as Dynamite Deka 1 in Japan.

Dynamite Deka 1 (Jpn) = Die Hard Arcade (US)
Dynamite Deka 2 (Jpn) = Dynamite Cop (US)

Another great beat em' up was Zombie's Revenge, which also saw a Dreamcast release, as it ran on a Naomi board in the arcades.  Might have been made the same team.  I'm not sure.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

lol, I played the PC version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles today because of this thread, and I never realized how horrible it is.

Unless you want everything to go at hyper speed you have to make it fullscreen (which really hurts your eyes) and the MIDI music is truly awful.

[cool breeze]

I have Sonic R for the PC, I might play that this weekend

[Himu]

I just don't understand why Sega of America keeps doing the Genesis collections. They act as if it's they're the only Sega games ever. Do a Arcade, Saturn, and Dreamcast compilation you fucks.

I want to play Virtua Fighter 2 online.

[modkennylaine]

Sonic 2=Sonic 3>S&K>Sonic 1

I haven't played CD yet, I really hope it's on the 360 compilation. 

Sonic 2 had my favorite stages, but it was definitely more on the RUSH THROUGH THE LEVEL side than Sonic 3, which brought back the exploration from Sonic 1. I haven't actually beaten Sonic & Knuckles ( ) yet but uh, I will eventually get around to it. I really enjoyed playing co-op in Sonic 3, what with being able to control Tails (who can fly AND pick up Sonic if you're doing 2-player). Sonic 3 had the best music, hands-down. Sonic 1 was always too difficult for me, but I started playing it when I was 7.

Sonic 2 had way better specific 2-player mode though--Sonic 3's absolutely sucked.

And yeah, I'd kill for some Saturn ports, especially if they'd bring over some of the JP-only games. Dragon Force 2, the entirety of Shining Force 3, D&D...   :sonic

[dammitmattt]

Sonic 1 - the most memorable, balanced, and replayable Sonic
Sonic CD - awesome time travel mechanic + best bonus stages + crazy good music
Sonic 3+Knuckles - way too damn big and meandering, otherwise it's good
Sonic 2 - not a bad game, but it felt rushed with much worse level design than Sonic 1

[EmCeeGrammar]

Sonic 3 has the best music/graphics and level design, I can forgive its brevity because I love replaying it.  Some of the in stage transformations and segways are great.
Sonic 1 still is the sonic that requires the most effort to use the physics in the game properly; The thinking man's sonic game.
Sonic 2 is okay, but the spin dash and the first shitty friend werent used intelligently.
I only had one sonic and knuckles gaming session in my life and all I remember was it being weird.
I hope sonic3&knuckles finds its way to the VC at some point.

[treythemovie]

Man this is hard but:

1.) Sonic 1 -- definitely the best platforming in the series. After this point Sega got too attached to the "blast processing" marketing label and started sacrificing platforming for shitty speed sections
2.) Sonic 3 & Knuckles -- good game but the level design could have been better. Not nearly as refined as Sonic 1
3.) Sonic 2 -- Has some of the most interesting levels but alot of it was hurt but a refocused emphasis on speed. Plus it loses points for having the most aggrevating Chaos Emerald collecting function. Still awesome though
4.) Sonic CD -- was good but not nearly was great as the other 3

All 4 were still great games though, especially compared to current Sonic :/