Where to even start with a game such as Sonic The Hedgehog? This first outing of the blue hedgehog has been ported to possibly every system ever made: ever. Seriously, the only home console that doesn’t have a port of this game might be the PlayStation 3. The first Sonic game isn't quite as fast as the later releases in the series, with the levels more meticulous and dangerous than the following games speed isn't as emphasized. Most of the levels have multiple paths to the end of the stage, with some better hidden than others.
The game is comprised of six Zones with a final boss Zone at the end. All the Zones but the final have three acts to them, with the last act ending in a confrontation with Dr. Eggman/Robotnik (depending on where you started in the series will depend on the name you like best as the Doctor was ret-conned to change the name officially to Eggman, bridging the gap between the eastern and western game names). The acts all share the same theme within each Zone, whether it be color or elements, like lava and water, they are consistent throughout with each act having an excellent and unique layout.
With the game being out for over 15 years and ported to just about every console from the Dreamcast on, I don’t really know how much more there is to say about this game outside of the quality of the port. Unfortunately the port, while very playable, isn't even close to the best one available. My main problem is that I used an HDTV, and the way to re-size the game isn’t very user friendly. You can re-size the game screen either vertically or horizontally, but not at the same time. With some trickery of the left analogue stick I did manage to get it a bit larger than the default size while maintaining a proper aspect ratio, but I couldn't pull it off well enough to make it fill the whole screen.
The graphics themselves are also somewhat distorted. Not only are the pixels a bit fuzzy around the edges, and they look even worse when the smoothing option is turned on. Though the game is not hindered from this, it does pain the traditionalist in me to see such inaccuracies. While emulating the sound of the Genesis is notoriously difficult to do, this is possibly sound emulation at its lowest. Many of the effects are off balance from the background music, and even some of the soundtrack suffers from the emulation (Labyrinth Zone takes the largest hit).
Luckily the game has aged rather well and it was enjoyable to play through again. Something always seemed off while playing the 360 Live Arcade port, whether it was the poor d-pad of the 360 controller, the seemingly not-too-responsive analogue stick, the slightly off sound effects, or the muddied graphics. It was always something. I had a fun time with the play through, but I know my money would be better spent elsewhere.
