Sonic

[Bleeders]

Grabbed this on the way out this morning and snapped up the "Beat GHZ Act 1 in under 35 seconds" achievement.

Same ol' Sonic, no HD upgrade. The game is made even easier by the Save function they've added into it now, but I'm trying to beat the certain stages in the alloted time, sure it'll be fun for a short time.

[Ratso]

No added spin dash a la Sonic Jam however, and it's the US ROM apparently so the clouds on Green Hill Zone are static (I believe).

Despite owning this in several other formats and incarnations I will of course shell out another £3.40 for this to play through for Achievements and high score.

[HumanEnergy]

Think I'll give this a go too, haven't bought an Arcade game for a while and I haven't played Sonic for ages either. It also has achievements that I should be able to do with no probs, which is nice :)

[MarioMark]

Beat the game without dying achievement is gonna be fun! I owe this too my childhood.

[Bleeders]

It's made easier though, surely by the save option within the game, non?

[MarioMark]

It's made easier though, surely by the save option within the game, non?

What so if I die I can just reload and the game will never know? I'm not bothered about the points in the game, just the achievements them selves, to give one of my favourite games a new lease of life. :)

[MarioMark]

Wow, I love the full screen and smoothing option, it looks better than the VC version on a HDTV, so it's worth the purchase. :)

Edit: Also in stereo!

[Bleeders]

What so if I die I can just reload and the game will never know? I'm not bothered about the points in the game, just the achievements them selves, to give one of my favourite games a new lease of life. :)

Yeah, reload save, game is none-the-wiser, probably.

[HumanEnergy]

Gonna grab this at lunch. I know what you mean about childhood memories Selix, one Xmas (1991 or 1992) we got a Megadrive with Sonic and it was the greatest thing ever :D

[MarioMark]

it was the greatest thing ever :D

Still is! :thumb:

[kendra]

I bought this, never played Sonic seriously before, infact I don't think I've played it for more than 10 minutes before in my life (that was when I bought a Sega Master System from eBay), urg I prefer Mario, dang=)

[RuBiQ]

what are the achievements?

[HumanEnergy]

1. Centurion
Get 100 or more rings.
10 points

2. Clear Green
Clear the Green Hill Zone.
5 points

3. Fast Green
Beat Green Hill Zone Act 1 in under 35 seconds.
10 points

4. Fast Marble
Beat Marble Zone Act 1 in under 80 seconds.
15 points

5. Star Light Zone
Get to the Star Light Zone.
5 points

6. Spring Yard Zone
Get to the Spring Yard Zone.
7 points

7. Labyrinth Zone
Get to the Labyrinth Zone.
8 points

8. Chaos Emerald
Get one Chaos Emerald.
10 points

9. Chaos Master
Get all the Chaos Emeralds.
35 points

10. Win
Beat the game.
25 points

11. Fast Win
Beat the game in under 40 minutes.
30 points

12. Perfect Win
Beat the game without dying.
40 points

[RuBiQ]

cool, some of them could be fun to try and get. Espec the CHAOS one, i think i always managed to miss one every time i played in the old days

[johnno15]

Still is! :thumb:

Is it really mario mark?

You should be ashamed:scared:

[ChrisField]

Achievement 12 looks a tricky! So is this 400pts? I'm a sucker for the GHZ music....

[weightgain]

Sonic rocks on XBL!!!! Loving this and Golden Axe - roll on Sonic 2!!

[kendra]

I manage to complete it - short game?

Anyone else get the nice bug of if you put your own custom soundtrack on, you won't hear any sound at all ? Great (sarcasm).

Also what is a Chaos Emerald and how does one get one ?

[HumanEnergy]

Finish a level with 50+ rings and there'll be a giant ring after the finishing post at the end of the level. Jump into the ring and you're transported to a little mini game where you can collect said emerald :)

[kendra]

Ta, done that a few times but didn't know they were there, I just thought it was some bonus stage to get loads of coins.

The saving really makes collecting emeralds easy.... save right as you've finished the level, unlimited goes... damn my achievement whoring.

[Ouenben]

does the classic cheat work on this?

my impression from the demo is that it probably wont. as it seems to start the proper game straight at Level 1, no intro.

[kendra]

Well managed to get 170/200 out of it, can't complete the game in under 40 minutes...

[MarioMark]

Is it really mario mark?

You should be ashamed:scared:

lol, sorry man. I used to be more of a Sonic fan. But if you compare the Xbox 360 Sonic game, next to Super Mario Galaxy, then you get your answer. :lol:

Well managed to get 170/200 out of it, can't complete the game in under 40 minutes...

Try man try! I'm gonna go for the full 200 whack, not done it on a XBLA game yet.

[kendra]

Well I did one speed run and had no idea what time I had, since there's no way of knowing. So I guess I need to play again and record all the times, should be easy since now I know most of the routes (Hopefully the under 40 minute achievement is just the sum of all the times at the end of the map).

I really did think the game was longer than this!

[Akira]

such a timeless classic.Feels as good to play today as it did way back when.What happened to sonic :(

[Lyris]

Wow, the download is 29mb. Wonder what's packed in there? Is the music all pre-recorded rather than emulated maybe?

[RuBiQ]

1st go, got 9/12 achievements
only 3 to get

Collect all the Chaos Diamonds
Complete under 40 minutes
do the 2nd act in a speedy time

Ill try maybe over the weekend. it was easy tho

[MarioMark]

Wow, the download is 29mb. Wonder what's packed in there? Is the music all pre-recorded rather than emulated maybe?

Good point. The zipped rom file isn't even a MB!

You can't do the Up, Down, Left, Right cheat either because the menu is different.

[Ratso]

Indeed my one real criticism of both the Sega Vintage games is that you only seem to be able to have the attract mode running in a tiny window.

Unless anybody knows different...

[kendra]

200/200
:)

[stainboy]

I wouldn't even have known about this yesterday if it hadn't downloaded itself, it didn't show up in the new games and since golden axe did I would never have gone looking for another new un.

Despite playing the crap out of it I have never owned Sonic 1 myself so I may just have to get this. No rush though, since I'm playing a lot of Carcassonne at the mo.

[MarioMark]

200/200
:)

I'm on 170 at the moment. Been loving playing this again, and like I said the acheivements have given the game a new lease of life.

When doing the game in under 40 mins, did you just blast through it? Or can you reload your save if you feel you've done a stage too slow, and do you have to get all the Chaos Emeralds?

[James Mc Fadden]

Just got 200/200 myself. Yes! ^_^

I just had to get the Complete under 40 minutes achievement to finish it.

MarioMark, to answer a few of your questions regarding this achievement. Yes, i did blast through it but you can (I did) reload your save whenever you want if your not happy with something etc and I can confirm you dont have to have all the Chaos Emeralds to unlock it. (Although I had the Emeralds achievement already so I dont know if that affects it in anyway but my guessing is it wouldnt!)

Hope that helps.

[MarioMark]

Nice one, cheers! Roll on Sonic 2! :thumb:

[James Mc Fadden]

No problem.

Yeah, I can't wait for Sonic 2. Has a release date been given for it do you know you?

[MarioMark]

No, just confirmed that's all. But now the Xbox Live Arcade SEGA Emulator is built, I can't see it taking long to slap the Sonic 2 Rom on it. Surly Streets of Rage Online is a must now Golden Axe is out and Online.

[Shakey_Jake33]

Oh god they've put on some nasty blurring filter to 'get rid of jaggies' >_< Why do they always destroy the clarity by doing this to old games?! It's the same even if you disable Smoothing.

[Akira]

No, just confirmed that's all.It's been confirmed? awesome news.

[kendra]

Just got 200/200 myself. Yes! ^_^

I just had to get the Complete under 40 minutes achievement to finish it.

MarioMark, to answer a few of your questions regarding this achievement. Yes, i did blast through it but you can (I did) reload your save whenever you want if your not happy with something etc and I can confirm you dont have to have all the Chaos Emeralds to unlock it. (Although I had the Emeralds achievement already so I dont know if that affects it in anyway but my guessing is it wouldnt!)

Hope that helps. What he said, you only need 6 Chaos Emeralds, just continually use the save function when you're about to enter and keep trying

for the Fast Win...

Times for each level/zone


Green Hill Zone
0:39
0:35
1:31
== 2:45

Marble Zone
1:35
2:14
3:21
== 7:10

Spring Yard Zone
1:52
1:26
2:22
== 5:40

Labyrinth Zone
2:37
2:13
3:59
== 8:49

Star Light Zone
1:13
0:40
2:41
== 4:44

Scrap Brain Zone
1:53
2:04
x:yy (Didn't catch it, it was about 3 minutes however)
== 7:00 (Guestimate)

Final Zone
2:01

Total: About 38-39 minutes (depending on what Act III of Scrap Brain Zone was). I used http://www.onlineconversion.com/advanced_time_calculator.htm to add up my times on the fly to make sure I was within range.

Going on my times though I'd say maximum time per zone:
1) Green Hill Zone - 3 minutes
2) Marble Zone - 7 minutes
3) Spring Yard Zone - 6 minutes
4) Labyrinth Zone - 9 minutes
5) Star Light Zone - 5 minutes
6) Scrap Brain Zone - 7 minutes
7) Final Zone - 2 minutes

Total = 39 minutes.

[HumanEnergy]

Sat down and had a proper go on this today and polished off the achievements I hadn't got on my previous five minute goes. Slightly annoyed at how many goes I had to take to get the Green Hill and Marble fast time achievements though. It's not right that I was able to do those things easier when I was 11 than I can now :)

Still, 200/200 for the first time on an arcade game :thumb: (although I'd have it on Cloning Clyde as well if there was ever anyone playing it online!)

[Duckula]

The achievements really do add more fun to the mix. The only arcade games I've got 200/200 on are this and castlevania.

[saturn-gamer]

Is this the hardest 2d Sonic game or what? I always breezed through it on the MD but now I'm having huge difficulties with it. I probably need to get used to it. I did Green Hill in 31 secs though. I'm now about to enter GH 3, with 2 emeralds already snapped up. Yeah, the instant save is lame but oh so handy :)

Those bonus stage still totally suck though. Gimme Sonic 2 and Sonic 3's.

Also, its too bad but understandable that it lacks the spindash. It was featured in Sonic Jam on the Saturn iirc.

[Haribokart]

Love this! What does smoothing do..?

[Zanza]

makes it look naff

[Shakey_Jake33]

Love this! What does smoothing do..?
Some people love these filters, they're like what you get in emulators on PC, 'smoothing' to make it less blocky.

Destroys any clarity in the image though, I think it looks nasty. Gimmie blocky as it's meant to be tbh.

SotN XBLA had it, optional enable/disable. I think they call it 'enhanced' mode...

[MarioMark]

Some people love these filters, they're like what you get in emulators on PC, 'smoothing' to make it less blocky.

Destroys any clarity in the image though, I think it looks nasty. Gimmie blocky as it's meant to be tbh.

SotN XBLA had it, optional enable/disable. I think they call it 'enhanced' mode...


Depends on viewing distance and what TV you have. On my HD set I have it turned on, and I'm not too close to the TV. I do notice the disadvantages to it though when I'm up close, but because I'm at the correct viewing distance away from the TV it looks better to me. :)

[El Leone]

No, just confirmed that's all. But now the Xbox Live Arcade SEGA Emulator is built, I can't see it taking long to slap the Sonic 2 Rom on it. Surly Streets of Rage Online is a must now Golden Axe is out and Online.

Do you have a link to confirmation? I love Sonic 2, alot alot more than the original. Co op as well. Still, Sonic 3 and Knuckles would be the dream.

Managed to get 32k as well, I'm on the top of my friends leaderboard.

Edit: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/06/esrb-sonic-the-hedgehog-2-rated-e-for-xbox-360/

[MarioMark]

Still, Sonic 3 and Knuckles would be the dream.


Yeah, but I bet they release them as a seperate game to make more money :(

I'd love to see 3&K come out as a whole package, as one massive Sonic game, it's the best IMO.

Edit: Just thinking about how good Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 + Knuckles were, how did they let the franchise get so bad over the years? Sonic Advance and Rush are ok but they don't feel like the old Mega Drive ones.

[prinnysquad]

OOf I had to have a go at that Marble Zone speed achievement quite a few times. The annoying thing = it's all about when you reach the lifts, spikes, crushing platforms, etc.

I did a flawless speed run through that clocked in at about 92 seconds because I happened to reach the green platforms when they were blocking the way, and that set in motion an unavoidable series of waiting games.

When I got the achievement it was on a really grubby runthrough featuring numerous jumps straight into the lava, but I seemed to hit all the moving platforms at the right time. That achievement felt unclean.

[AngelsInFlight]

Just picked some points up for this! Can't wait to get it, along with Golden Axe to play with my mates :D!

[DavidHolliss]

Prinnysquad I spent about 40 minutes getting that one last night, you know you can save mid-level ? there are some good runs on youtube - if anyone's still struggling. It's just a case of getting to the chandlier shaped thing near the end of the level before it climbs and costs you another four or five seconds.

[prinnysquad]

I may have had a sneak look at youtube at one point ;) ... only to notice there were no magical shortcuts that I somehow missed when I played the game religiously as a kid. It quickly became apparent that the sub 80-second runthrough was all down to luck and flukey timing.

[AngelsInFlight]

Picked up the Win, Perfect Win and the achievment for obtaining 100 Rings today! A good day for the ol' Gamerscore :)!

[DavidHolliss]

I'm just playing through slowly, without losing a life, got no chance of getting the sub 40 minute achievement though. Nice game to pick up and play for ten minutes :)