Sonic The Hedgehog: 20 years of FUUUU

[eXtaticus]

Fucking hate how A double-taps itself so easily on GC controllers.

I also hate the dodgy button layout, the lack of a proper thumb grip on the C-Stick, the lack of a second shoulder button, the fact that 360 degree movement is severely hampered by the restrictions of the octagon that cages the thumbstick, and the ever-so-slighly ropey D-pad.

But that's just me, I guess, and the blu blur; if you want to play Sonic Adventure 2 that way, then who am I to argue?

[DC111]

Sled.... THE SLED!!!

Ragequit. This ruined so many time-attack attempts for this stage. Took me forever to get those damn chili dogs. It was always just THAT ONE PART, where you had to jump over the spike rods and then straighten out in time to not miss the boost ramp.

[Silverfang]

Metropolis zone,those freakin SLICERS

Edited June 15, 2011 by Silverfang

[Nepenthe]

Ugh, that was insane! I don't know if you're thinking of the same area that I am, but what comes to mind is a part in that level that is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY TO FINISHING THE LEVEL, it's just a detour up a set of stairs, and you get surrounded by these fuckers and you can't go back down the stairs until you defeat them or die.

No, I'm talking about the area before the unnecessary(?) battle where you have to find the colored keys. You got two red bees and a fire wizard, and you can't get past them without initiating a fight because they're facing you, making the line of sight unavoidable. Okay, fine.

First order of business: extinguish the wizard with a barrel of water. Oh-p, the bee hit you in the back causing you to drop the barrel. Then the second bee came. Then you start trying to rip the bees to shreds, but they keep dodging your advances. Sometimes you even initiate a finisher on accident and suffer even more damage because the bees' QTE prompts are stupid-fast. When you finally manage to grab one, there you are on fire because in the time you spent flailing around like an epileptic gorilla the wizard conjured a fire ball from off screen. And you have to do this two or three times. Don't get trapped in a side room either; it's like throwing yourself in a dryer full of pebbles.

I died more times on that part than I should have the first time I played the game. I just spam Unleashed mode when I reach that part now.

Oh, and FUCKING BINGO HIGHWAY. The last part of that level... SO. MANY. RAGEQUITS. And if I can steal someone's analogy, Sonic controls like soap on ice. I can't believe I forgot about that until now. God, I hate that level. I love that level. I never want to play it again. I hope it's in Generations.

I liked Bingo Highway. ;; I have to admit, the final pinball machine is a pain in the neck, and the rolling controls are not suitable for dodging a lot of the pits they placed in the stage, but the overall concept was fun, especially with the characters actually playing bingo, and it was a highlight for me in an otherwise boring game.

[HyperGogeta]

Finding Yasmin on Unleashed.

HARDEST.

SIDE.

MISSION.

EVER.

AND Eggman Land.

Not to mention EVERY FUCKIN SPECIAL STAGE IN SONIC 2!!! why?!?! WHY CAN'T YOU JUMP WHEN I JUMP TAILS!!!

Edited June 15, 2011 by HyperGogeta

[Dark Qiviut]

Metropolis zone,those freakin SLICERS

They're nothing compared to this…

…and this…

Boy, did they piss me off! Doing fine when "BAM!", I lose my rings! Slicers are rather tame to me.

Edited June 15, 2011 by Attitude Adjustment

[sonfan1984]

Not to mention EVERY FUCKIN SPECIAL STAGE IN SONIC 2!!! why?!?! WHY CAN'T YOU JUMP WHEN I JUMP TAILS!!!

That's why I always play as Sonic alone in Sonic 2.

[HyperGogeta]

That's why I always play as Sonic alone in Sonic 2.

I would do that, but because the version I played had tails in it and he couldn't be disabled, I hate it.

Not to mention I remember first playing that Peice of crap back in 2000.

I haven't played it since 2001.

[Badnik Mechanic]

What I'm about to say, probably affected nearly every single UK sonic fan at one point... yet nobody ever mentions it.

The Bad Influence Sonic 2 Level Select incident

Bad Influence was computer games TV show, it was very light hearted and pretty good. In terms of videogame TV shows, it was one of the best, if not 'the best' all things considered. To put it into perspective. If GamesMaster was Top Gear, Bad Infleunce was 5th Gear. Both great shows, but for very different reasons.

Anyway. Sonic 2 had been out for about a month or so, it was mid January, and to date nobody had found the level select cheat. Not even the biggest magazines at the time like Sega Power or Mean Machines had it. So everyone that had Sonic 2 had no choice but to play it from start instead of picking their favourite level from the word go.

Then suddenly during a trailer for the next weeks Bad Influence, they announced that they had the level select cheat and would be showing you how to do it in their next episode. So everybody had their VHS recorders set and the moment came where they announced the code...

This is that exact episode.

At 4:55 the first time anyone in the UK ever saw the Sonic 2 level select cheat

Now if you watch that (dodgy) clip, you don't see him do the cheat... but you do see the level select screen, we knew then that it was real... there was just one problem...

"WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE OPTIONS MENU!?"

If you start Sonic 2... this is what you see.

Select either of those and you start the said mode... no options menu.

Virtually nobody had even seen the Sonic 2 options menu before because most people couldn't wait to play the game, they just started it up. Theres no indication from the title screen of an options menu.

So for a week, myself and tons of other people were pulling our hair out trying to find the bloody options menu!

To give you an idea as to how many people this enraged. Within seconds of that episode of Bad Influence ending, their phones went into meltdown with people rining up, all asking how you do the level select.

There was such a demand from Sonic fans that in the next episode Violet Berlin did something that they had never done before, re-told everyone how to do the cheat and this time they even showed you what the options menu looked like and did the cheat live on the show!

It's literally right at the start of that video.

But.... THEY DIDN'T TELL US HOW TO GET TO THE OPTIONS MENU! Again people were pulling their hair out trying to find the options screen, the next month magazines started printing the cheat and even they didn't tell you how to do it. It wasn't until several months later that magazines began to get letters quoting the Bad Influence episode and asking how do you get an options screen in Sonic 2, that we started to see this line being added to the cheat instructions "Push Up on the title screen"

Now whilst this information is in the manual, a lot of people who owned this game were kids, and EU game manuals were notoriously wordy and had a lot of text in multiple languages, we simply didn't read them. Between the second re-telling of the cheat on Bad Influence and the magazines getting their act together, a lot of people had worked out how to find the options screen and word had gotten out.

But this... THIS... for me was my major "RAWR" moment due to the countless hours I spent watching that one scene from Bad Influence trying to figure out where the options screen was.

In fact, if you google "Bad Influence Sonic 2 level select" you'll see loads of other people who still go on about how they couldn't do it...

There's also the Sonic 3 level select cheat but thats just a total bastard.

YASMIN.

You know what I'm talking about.

I... didn't have any problem with this stage, I did it on my first go... sorry...

[The Man On The Inside]

Getting all 180 emblems in SA2 is filled with rage. My epic two-year on-off quest to do this was fraught with some of the most nonsensical rage-inducing stuff ever put into a game.....

....Route 280 with Rouge. One of the missions in the level was to not touch a single wall, not once.

Now, to a-rank that mission you need to do it in a time limit. Like, a really tight time. (can't remember what it was exactly) You can imagine the rage.....

....Chao race (no karate and no in-game stat tracking since this was on dreamcast), Diamond, level 5. Literally months (and I really mean months) of solid chaos drive/animal farming to get the stupid little bastard at a high enough level to compete, hoping he doesn't die before long.....

...without Chao Adventure 2.

I swear, the amount of times the little bugger fell over at the wrong moment. Also he was a dumbass. Watching in horror as my chao leisurely makes his way to a cube fruit (when the other 3 objects are the 3 sonics that are required to pass) was not fun.

>_<

A-ranking the 5 missions of Mad Space.

A-ranking the 5 missions of ANY HUNTING STAGE, for that matter.

Oh, and another thing.

I didn't find (or even know about) Knuckles' air necklace until long after I finished Cannon's Core. Meaning that on the first time through I had to to do it without the necklace.

Yeeeeeeeaaah.

[eXtaticus]

The Bad Influence Sonic 2 Level Select incident

Heh, some of the first things I found in Sonic 2 were the options menu and the sound test...

Edited June 16, 2011 by eXtaticus

[Balding Spider]

It's no secret I hated Unleashed with a passion, both day and night stages were garbage to me. However there was one moment that made me pissed off beyond believability. That moment was the Dark Gaia battle.

I mean you don't even fight him. Much of it's just QTE's, it's horrible. And they even gave Super Sonic a life meter.

Just.... no...

Edited June 16, 2011 by Balding Spider

[T-Min]

ARGH, I forgot about the Dark Gaia Battle! That freaking Light Gaia Colossus or whatever's punches moved really slowly, and if you get a game over at any part of the battle? You go straight back to the Egg Dragoon battle. Fricken stupid battle...

[Johnny Boy]

It's no secret I hated Unleashed with a passion, both day and night stages were garbage to me. However there was one moment that made me pissed off beyond believability. That moment was the Dark Gaia battle.

I mean you don't even fight him. Much of it's just QTE's, it's horrible. And they even gave Super Sonic a life meter.

Just.... no...

That reminds me. ANY boss battle where sonic lost rings in his super form made me rage.

[Nepenthe]

Isn't that...every battle with Super Sonic? Losing rings during the state has been part of the deal since the form's debut.

[TwoTailedFox]

Metropolis Zone (especially the boss )

Security Hall (A treasure hunting mission is bad enough, but one that is timed AND required?!?! Uhg).

THE BIOLIZARD!

Marble Garden Zone Boss (Really hard when as Tails)

Trying to get all the emblems

Tails hitting those spike things in the Sonic 2 special stages (Are you blind Tails?)

[Johnny Boy]

Isn't that...every battle with Super Sonic? Losing rings during the state has been part of the deal since the form's debut.

No I meant losing rings as in getting hit by the boss makes you lose rings.

[Ekaje]

Playing the larger Hunting stages in SA2 for the first time. Though I suppose that's more of a ZZZZZZ than a FUUUU-.

The late Special Stages in Rush were a big pain for me. I did them once and am never going to again.

Edited June 16, 2011 by Ekaje

[Phos]

The Dark Titans are the only enemies who provide the Werehog some real challenge sans a group of high-tier Egg Fighters. If you're knocked away by a jump, all you have to do is not get up and the game won't register any damage from the ensuing shockwave. As for the slap maneuver working from behind, that would be you getting hit by its tail. =P

But I digress. Want to know what's a really annoying Werehog enemy?

When the red ones gang up on you in Arid Sands, and they're backed by the wizards that are on fire, you've got a recipe for raeg.

I found out after beating the game that easiest way to deal with bees and their cheap ass collision detection is to grab them and throw them at other enemies, they do so much damage. Then you grab some of the crappy little guys and throw them at the bees, or you can just throw them into a corner and then chain throw them to death.

Isn't that...every battle with Super Sonic? Losing rings during the state has been part of the deal since the form's debut.

Super Sonic tends to be invulnerable and loose rings over time. Super Sonic in Unleashed was lame and had a glass jaw (hurt by hitting rocks?), and if that wasn't enough, he would sometimes just randomly explode as though you were hit by something when you obviously weren't. This battle being so hard also doesn't make sense in the narrative, there's no mention that someone like Sonic is actually required to beat Necron dark gaia, and yet the gaia colossus seems powerless to deal with Ultimicia's dark gaia's final form. No exaggeration, this battle is seriously on my short list of worst boss battles I've ever played.

[Steelers2056]

I'm probably one of the angriest gamers to ever play sonic, So I'll have a few.;

-The special stages. All of them. I can't get 100% on anything but sonic 1 and I even struggle with that.

-Metropolis Zone.

-The final boss in Sonic 2.

-The barrel of doom. I got two time overs on it before finding a video on how to clear it.

-Fishing and treasure hunting.

-Sky deck because the camera always screws me over.

-The Egg viper.

-Security Hall. I hate this level. Probably lost 20 lives on it before I even beat it.

-Death Chamber.

-The Egg golem. For some reason I'm terrible at this boss.

-Final chase and Final rush.

-All of sonic heroes. Actually, the first few stages, Since I kind of rage quit at rail canyon.

-Both versions of unleashed. I've thrown both discs across the yard.(The Wii version twice)

-The lost labyrinth boss in sonic 4.

-Egg station in sonic 4.

-All of the yellow spring acts in colors. The only thing I hate about that game.

[Nepenthe]

I found out after beating the game that easiest way to deal with bees and their cheap ass collision detection is to grab them and throw them at other enemies, they do so much damage. Then you grab some of the crappy little guys and throw them at the bees, or you can just throw them into a corner and then chain throw them to death.

I tend to have a bit more fun than that: Instead of throwing them outright like I do the Little Rexes, I spam Y to slam them back and forth. It forces you to remain still and can be a problem if there's a bee or wizard too far away, but it's a hilarious way to take out every enemy within arm's reach.

Super Sonic tends to be invulnerable and loose rings over time. Super Sonic in Unleashed was lame and had a glass jaw (hurt by hitting rocks?), and if that wasn't enough, he would sometimes just randomly explode as though you were hit by something when you obviously weren't. This battle being so hard also doesn't make sense in the narrative, there's no mention that someone like Sonic is actually required to beat Necron dark gaia, and yet the gaia colossus seems powerless to deal with Ultimicia's dark gaia's final form. No exaggeration, this battle is seriously on my short list of worst boss battles I've ever played.

Fortunately for me, I've never had an encounter with random explosions. Head-on collisions with rocks? Yes.

I don't think the narrative context for the fight is completely unfitting though. For one thing, Chip admits the early awakening has caused problems with their abilities anyways. And as far as I knew, Dark Gaia is actually supposed to destroy the world while Light Gaia cleans it up; there's nothing mentioned in the legends about Chip ever intervening with the apocalyptic process, and it's arguable that he wasn't supposed to but did anyways because of the bond he established with Sonic and the planet, and because none of the events should've even been happening at that point in time anyways. All of this seems to make the idea that Chip's demonstrated abilities were not contradictory very plausible.

[Jetronic]

Unlocking Super Sonic in Sonic the Fighters. Sooooo frustrating.

Metal Sonic's cheap grab that dropped nearly half your life made that so infuriating. But man oh man, when I finally got it, I slapped Metal over...and over...and over again :3

No I meant losing rings as in getting hit by the boss makes you lose rings.

If you play Sonic 3 by itself, "Big arms" can knock every ring out of Super Sonic with a single slam. After that one of the rings glitched and turned into a piece of cheddar cheese =o

[-Mark-]

Oh yeah, let me add to my list with;

-Big's B and A-Rank fishing missions in Sonic Adventure

-Trying to get that goddamned 'Untouchable' achievement in Sonic 4

Getting all the rings during the final cutscene in Sonic 4 also gets notable mention, although not as badly.

Oh, and the Sonic 4 Special Stages in the iPod version. OH GOD. They're so much easier with proper controls.

[Blacklightning]

The final boss of Sonic 2. For fuck's sake, how were we supposed to figure out how to hit the bastard without losing virtually every life accumulated through the rest of the game? It's bad enough that he has such ridiculously high HP and infrequent, spread apart moments of vulnerability that it's very possible to Time Over even when you DO know how to beat him, and that it follows immediately after the Silver Sonic fight which is almost equally based around trial and error, and that you get no fucking checkpoints for beating that prick and have to do the entire level from scratch if you die on Eggman again sdlakfdhlkjfdasfhkajsfh.

Rouge's story in Sonic Battle. I don't know what the fuck happened here, but the difficulty curve suddenly spikes through the fucking roof and I don't even know why, just that Amy and her goddamned imaginary friend was somehow kicking my ass. That's not even the worst part - this was a 2v2, so it was at least technically fair. Later the game has the fucking nerve to throw that same suddenly-asshole AI at you in a 3v1, with you at the disadvantage. I literally broke a GBA over this - quite possibly the only time I have ever smashed a console purely out of seething bloody rage. How on earth did the fucking overpowered final bosses manage to be less rage inducing than this?

Any machspeed section in Sonic '06. Need all those rings for an S-rank? Well fuck you, here's a highspeed section with shitty controls and a very high probability not only of losing all the rings necessary for a decent rank, but also kill you outright and lose all of your score entirely so you'll get a crappy rank just for dying once. Incidentally, why are you still playing this game.

Any special stage in the Advance games. How the fuck do I even get into them, let alone align myself with the rings during one? Speaking of Advance games, the majority of SA3, but specifically, Chaos fucking Angel. Why music so awesome was given to a stage so badly designed, I have no idea.

Trying to win a Special Stage in Sonic 2's 2P mode. It's essentially a fight to get in front of one-another to out-prioritize the other player and get the majority of the best ring deposits. Needless to say, if you start as Tails, you're completely fucked right from the start. Might as well not even have a tiebreaker and auto-award all the ties to 1P.

Speaking of which, those cocksuckers in SA2B VS races who wait right up until you're above a death pit to Sonic Wind your ass into it. Then don't bother getting any checkpoints along the way just to force you to start the entire level from scratch again. Even Amy is less of a cunt by comparison. And I'd know about that, because I main her.

Emerald #7 on Sonic Rush. Just... what the fuck, man. I can't believe they actually expected us to squeeze through those tiny little gaps in the minefields and collect nearly every individual ring in the special stage to finish this. Rush Adventure isn't much better.

[SuperStingray]

Eggmanland wasn't to tough until the hot dog run. That took me at least 70 tries. But then the second two hot dogs only took me less than 5 each.

Other than most of the ones already mentioned (thanks for reminding me of Yasmin. I didn't even know half those shortcuts existed and I always ran out of time by the bobbing pillars) I'd have to say Big in SA1. Particularly the final "boss." The fishing controls are unintuitive and jumpy and that last fight is essentially throwing a ball into a haystack and hoping it hits the needle.