My Favourite Boss Battles Part 2: Robotnik (Sonic 1)

What makes this boss battle so purely memorable for me is simply that it is my first boss battle. I had reached the end of Green Hill Zone Act 3 only to be met with this monstrosity swinging a ball at me. I felt that panic of not knowing what to do after I hit him only to find he was still alive; up until this point all of my enemies had died in the one attack. The boss battle music served up dramatic tension while I was destroyed by what was probably one of the easiest boss battles in gaming. What can I say, I was a noob.

However, there are interesting aspects to this boss battle beyond just being my first; the way the ball swung in a predictable manner forced the player to learn how to time Sonic’s jumps, and got us especially familiar with the mechanic; the time that Sonic hovered in the air, the height of the jump itself, the speed at which he fell to the ground. In this boss battle we were forced to confirm that we knew how to do the jump attack at a proficient level enough to move on. As far as teaching players go, the overall result is effective.

Not only that, but this battle taught us about the structure of the game; we had been through three acts, and now we had a boss. Now we knew to expect that the next zone will have three acts and a boss. It taught us a lot about the story; if you didn’t read the manual, you’d be forgiven for wondering why there were robots patrolling around, but this game gave you the smoking gun; there’s a bad guy.

It seems elementary to this day, but in the retro gaming era these lessons were big things, and it is clear that Sonic’s developers took the thinking that a game should be teaching you its mechanics as you play. Sonic 1’s first boss might not be the most memorable to many gamers, but for someone playing his first ever videogame, it is probably one of the most important teaching exercises in a game that I’ve experienced. 

My Favourite Gaming Sequels: Sonic 2

The modern age of the gaming sequel has given it a bad rep. It is hard to remember a time when a sequel wasn’t a rehash of an old formula with slightly better graphics. As hard as it is to believe, video game sequels used to be more than a creatively-bankrupt exercise in selling to the lowest common denominator.

Even today, there are still some excellent sequels that come out and show us how well a formula can be iterated upon. The best sequels are the ones that are still familiar in formula, but offer a logical iteration and quality-of-life improvements to the underlying mechanics in a way that expands upon the game, its story and universe in a way that makes it feel fresh and exciting.

With that in mind, I made a list of my favourite gaming sequels, which will form the next few posts, as well as the typical long-winded, overthinking explanations reasoning why I found them so intriguing.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

The first title on this list is also my least favourite of my favourite sequels. Don’t get me wrong, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a great game, and a good sequel; it just doesn’t quite hit the same lofty heights as other sequel titles.

What makes Sonic 2 so great as a sequel is that it improved on the tropes in Sonic 1 to create new, interesting ways to play, while at the same time adding an iconic quality-of-life upgrade in the form of the Spin Dash; a move that allows a player to build up speed before exploding forward in a spin attack. 

Sonic’s pinball physics get their logical iteration in the form of the Casino Night Zone, with interesting gambling mechanics to boot. The underwater levels, seen as one of the worst elements of the preceding title in the series, are also improved upon and are given an improved design that allows skilled players to speed through with the relative ease that wasn’t found in Labyrinth Zone. 

Casino Night Zone is an iconic implementation of pinball physics, and very pretty to look at.
Image credit: http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic2/casinonight/

Colours, graphics and music are all improved upon, and the experience as a whole is streamlined. The addition of Tails as a character is decidedly take-it-or-leave-it, but before Modern Sonic’s menagerie of forgettable amigos, this was a breath of fresh air.

What makes Sonic 2 less of a favourite sequel than other video game sequels is that it has too many of ‘those’ levels. The levels where progress is slow and plodding and based less on the flow of high-speed hold-right platforming in the style of Green Hill Zone. 

There are a lot of times where you have to stop all forward motion to work out which direction to go and where to find that elusive platform upward to the next part of the stage. I found the Mystic Cave Zone, famous for that hole, to be among the worst offenders, with Metropolis Zone and Oil Ocean Zone equally guilty of this. Sonic is about flow and these levels just don’t let the gameplay shine in its best way. 

THAT hole; one of the most infuriating elements of game design I've ever experienced.
Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LD9Yekzajk

The infuriating Special Stages, while never a strong point for any Sonic game, were among my least favourite in the series (requiring course memory or psychic powers to complete).

The Special Stages can be unfair and require fast reflexes, and are even harder to navigate with Tails.
Image credit: http://info.sonicretro.org/Special_Stage_(Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_16-bit)

However, as far as iterating on the previous title, Sonic 2 introduced many of the new mechanics and tropes that stuck with the series for a while; the Death Egg, the spin-dash and 2-acts per level instead of 3 acts. It improves upon the formula of the previous title excellently, with improvements in graphics and sound among the most memorable of alterations. For that reason, Sonic 2 makes a good first contender for one of my favourite gaming sequels.