Memorable Sonic Childhood Memories

[Plasme]

The first Sonic game I ever played was Sonic 3D Flickies Island on the Megadrive, and shortly after I got Sonic 1, Sonic and Knuckles and a cartridge called Sonic compilation which featured Sonic 2 on it. I had no idea what the cheat codes for the old Sonic games were at this time, because this was around 1996 and I had no access to the internet at this time, so I would play through the games in one run just to fight Mecha Sonic is Sonic and Knuckles and Silver Sonic in Sonic 2. Those were good times!

However, Sonic 3 was always the elusive game. If I remember correctly, I really got into Sonic around 1996, and getting Sonic 3 was really hard in the UK around that time, it cost like £80 or something to buy second hand. I played it once because I rented it and really liked it, not because of it's level design or anything, but because Tails could fly in it and Tails was my favourite character  . One day we found it in a shop at random and I was so hyped to play it. I completed it on its own at first, and then beat it when it was locked to Sonic and Knuckles and unlocked Hyper Sonic and everything, it was so cool.

I was also really into the UK Sonic Comic, so knew a bit about Sonic Adventure before I finally got a Dreamcast and played Sonic Adventure. It was so cool to play the comic storyline and see all the events come to life in a game, Chaos and Tikal etc. It was different to the comic, but close enough that it felt really magical. I really, really loved Adventure 2. I actually remember my dad bought me that when it came out because Sonic Shuffle beat my ass and I could only barely manage to beat it  . I thought the story and Shadow was so badass, I would go back and rewatch cutscenes and replay memorable bosses, in particular the final Shadow boss. I remember when Shadow turned good I was so shocked, and the Super Shadow (I called him Hyper Shadow) and Super Sonic fight was so cool my 12 year old self almost died when I saw it. 

After the Adventure games, I kind of grew up and still loved Sonic, but could see that the stories were actually really stupid. I do have fond memories of Heroes though, I was an absolutely huge Metal Sonic fan (still am) and was absolutely shocked when I saw the opening animation and Metal was in it. I was disappointed by his final boss, because I wanted to fight the real Metal Sonic, but it was still really cool to fight him after such a long time. Metal is in everything now, but when Heroes came out, he hadn't been a major character in a while, and so it was so cool to fight him again.

After Heroes, I kind of drifted out of the franchise a bit, but there were a few games which had a really big impact on me. In particular, when Gems came out, that was the first chance I had to play Sonic CD, Sonic The Fighters and Sonic R. Regardless of their quality, Sonic CD and Sonic R were something like mythical games, because I knew about them in my childhood but never had the chance to play them. It was so cool to play them at last. And actually, the gallery and unlockable artwork had a big impact on me too, it was great to have such cool Sonic artwork to unlock which I had never seen before.

Do you have any special Sonic childhood memories?

[Big Panda]

Didn’t we have a thread like this only recently?

Whatever...

The best Sonic-related childhood memory I keep talking about was the lead-up to the Dreamcast’s and Sonic Adventure’s release. I first found out about Sonic Adventure when I was 6, in the summer in a catalogue and, interested, I showed mum, and started going “what can I play it on? Is it on Playstation?” (we’d initially decided I’d be getting a Playstation that Christmas). I found it was on this new thing called a Dreamcast and, from that moment on, we’d decided that’s what I was getting for that Christmas (in hindsight, it was a pretty tall order, considering it was a brand new system: iirc it ended up being a joint present between my mum and big sister).

Since then, the Dreamcast and this shiny new Sonic game was near-on all I could think about up to Christmas day. I’d ask my mum to buy me any video game magazine I saw that had them on the cover, I got super excited on those occassions the system appeared on TV, and I drew a bunch of pictures too.

I wish I could go back to that magical part of my childhhood.

[Nicky Nicardo]

For me, the best ones will always be waking up every single morning and watching The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog before going to school. Thinking back to that always puts a smile on my face.

That, and playing Sonic 3 and Knuckles as a kid at my grandmother's house. I can practically 'feel' what it's like to be back there and stuff, y'know?

Also, even though it's more recent-ish, constantly seeing Sonic Adventure 2 on my sibling's television back in middle school - that game was always being played in our house, so even though I didn't play it much myself, I knew basically everything about it from constantly having it in front of me or in the background. xDD

[Mr Silvia]

My first exposure to Sonic was Sonic Underground. I loved it, and it's probably warped what I desire from the franchise ever since, honestly. Can't remember much about what I liked, other then I liked Manic, the title theme was cool and Knuckles was in the show at one point. I rewatched it last year and it was hilariously terrible... but there are quite a few things I liked. Those songs make want want to die though.  I think I was in Kindergarden at the time it was showing? I wondered for years what happened to that show.

After it disappeared, Sonic essentially disappeared for me. The next time I remember seeing Sonic was in 2008, it was an advertisement for Unleashed in Official Xbox Magazine. I was just like "wtf, Sonic is still a thing?" Like, I hadn't heard a thing about the franchise in years. Fast forward a few years, and in 2012 was my first proper exposure to a Sonic game. My high school had a plug and play thing with Super Mario Brothers and Sonic 2 loaded on it, and people were screwing around with it at the end of the year. Maybe 5 people total in the room? I remember seeing Emerald Hill zone and Chemical Plant zone for the first time and thinking it was FUCKING LIT, like, it was the coolest platformer I had ever seen. I also remember saying that I thought Tails was female and, er, something about being Sonic's "love interest" and the one guy who knew about Sonic there was really pissed off at my plebeian lack of knowledge about the franchise. The teacher who happened to be there tried to diffuse things peacefully, while the Gangsta dude there simply stated: "Dude, that ain't no fucking Dude." lmao. 

TLDR: Sonic was never part of childhood, honestly. My childhood was bloody miserable. It's probably a good thing I don't associate Sonic with it.  I've only really been looking into the Sonic franchise since 2013. Not sure where I should really have put this, but screw it, I'm venting here today!

[Cuz]

Fooling around Angel Island and Mushroom Hill. As a kid I wouldn't really brute force the levels and more often I would just find a ledge or rock to tether on and admire each character's balancing and pushing animations, often running the timer down to 10 minutes. With Angel Island it was the balancing and Mushroom Hill it was the pulleys. xD I would explore these zones rather them complete them.

Also Sonic CD, just like working out how to do the whole game. CD's very lenient for a video game of it's era and to this day I'd recommend it to anyone who just wants to get to grips with the classic physics and just the basics of 2D platforming in general.

Renting and rerunning the SatAM tapes ad nauseam, never could find the show on television. AoStH on the other hand I found and also watched ad nauseam. It fit me like a glove with classic Looney Tunes being possibly my earliest exposure to cartoons, and I've never told anyone this, but I distinctly remember believing Tails was a girl for a hilariously long time.

[SaturnWolf]

Oh man. All those summer nights where I would pull all nighters playing Sonic Unleashed or all the days I ran home, grabbing a bag of Sun Chips, running upstairs and firing up my Dreamcast and playing Sonic Adventure from dinner and until I went to bed, or how I've played the Genesis games all individually literally hundreds of times in my life?

 

That's just scratching the surface.

[superman43]

I remember playing the classic games (except CD) in my grandma's house, grandpa's PC with W98. He had the Kgen98 emulator on CD (windows 98 predecessor of Kega Fusion) and all genesis/megadrive games were there. 

I played it often with my 2 cousins, so I could see a kind of parallel between Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and us. 

For a long time we were at the dead end with the barrel (for S3) and slides in Sandopolis Act 2 (for S&K). It was around 2002, with no internet whatsoever. My initial thought was that an icy zone succeeds Sandopolis. I had no idea what will succeed Carnival Night. 

[Red Hot Jack]

For me it was watching Sonic X as a kid, especially when season 1 was over, I was waiting for season 2 and felt like it was never coming, same music with season 3, I had to wait an eternity to watch it, which made for some great hype when it finally came to my country.

To be honest, when I first saw a glimpse of Knuckles and Amy in episode 3, it was just so different from Adventures (the only Sonic thing I had seen), so I disliked it immediately... then I watched the whole thing and I loved it, I loved Sonic, something that didn't happen with AoStH, which I barely liked.

So I started to investigate about who Sonic was, bought some games for PC (I didn't have any consoles), and then I bought a PS2 just to play some of those. I wasn't a big videogame fan before, Sonic was my introduction.

Then another moment I remember was discovering the classics with my cousin, particularly S3&K, the moment when I fought Knuckles in Hidden Palace, and then coming to Sky Sanctuary and the Death Egg, it felt epic. Also, playing Sonic Heroes obviously, my first Sonic game, I think I spent over a year playing it, and replaying it.

[Marco9966]

Me and childhood friends would sit around the computer playing SA1 and Sonic Riders, getting excited when beating Perfect Chaos. I'm the only one that still plays these games.

But I noticed something, lots and lots of non-Sonic fan adults have the Sonic running games on their mobile.

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

I must be getting old as I can't completely remember how it all happen. I originally had a NES as my first system and was a big fan of the Mario games. Then for some reason in 1991 I wanted a Sega Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog. Can't remember how I found out about it back then at the age of 6. Must of been from TV commercials. But anyway I got the Genesis and Sonic 1 by the end of that year and was instantly hooked.

I also remember when Sonic 2 came out my dad just randomly bought it for me. It's the only time I can recall having been given a video game when it wasn't my birthday or Christmas. 

I can recall one childhood friend who also had a Genesis and can remember playing games with him and I remember watching AoStH as a kid. 

[Myst]

I was a child of the 90s. I remember coming home from Elementary School every day, my mom always had a piping hot bowl of Sonic the Hedgehog spaghetti-o's ready for me. My sister would always poke at me 'Hey look! I'm eating Sonic's head! Nyah! Nyah!'

[PC the Hedgehog]

I have so many great Sonic-related memories.

-First playing Sonic at a mall kiosk back in 1991.
-Discovering Sonic CD at a mall kiosk. I had no idea what this mysterious new Sonic game was, and it looked amazing. Never played it again until it came out on PC years later.
-Watching my recorded tape of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog after school every day.
-Seeing the primetime preview of Sonic SatAM and hearing Sonic speak for the first time, then wondering why Tails was turned into a girl (seriously, Sally just pops up out of nowhere; who are us dumb six year olds SUPPOSED to think this random new character is?).
-Watching season 2 of SatAM and getting excited to see the story build to a climax...only to miss the final episode because the show changed timeslots and I didn't know it.
-Playing Sonic 3D Blast with my cousins during the summer.
-Playing the Game Gear Sonic games on long car rides with my dad.
-Watching my tape of the Sonic OVA over and over and over again. Seriously, it was and still is SO GOOD.
-Watching my tape that featured the first video footage of Sonic Adventure and being absolutely enamored with it for the full year+ I had to wait for the game to actually come out. To this day, I've never been more pumped for a Sonic game than Adventure.
-Playing the Japanese version of Sonic Adventure almost every Saturday at a local game store when I drove into the city. Made it all the way to Casinopolis before we had to go. Seriously, the wait for Adventure was excruciating.
-Staying home from summer school to play Sonic Adventure 2.

Lots of memories. Don't think I've had any great memories since then that I can think of.

[Tarnish]

My 3 older brothers, being teenagers at the early 90s (and before the family had any computer), rented both the Mega Driver and Super Nintendo a few times for the weekends. Being 4-6 years old at the time and them being rental systems, I never got to play them back in the day (tho I clearly recall messing around with Mortal Kombat 1 alone in 2 player mode..that in the dungeon/prison stage gave me the creeps, lol), and I don't even really remember watching them play the games, they recorded some of their playthroughs on a VHS tape. So we had a tape with a ton of Super Mario World footage..and also the Death Egg Zone, the robot Sonic boss, the final boss, the ending and credits of Sonic 2. For some weird reason, the Sonic 2 footage ended up being recorded in black and white..but still, I must have watched that Sonic 2 footage dozens of times over the years. I might have not played it, but the look of the game and especially the music was just out of this world that made me want to watch it again and again.

Then years later at the end of the 90s, when my brothers got a computer and they had access to the Internet in high school, they started bringing home emulators and roms on 1,44 MB floppy disks..and of course, among the games was Sonic 2. So half a decade later, I actually got to play the game that intrigued me so much on an emulator, lol.