Sonic 2 Indulgent Retrospective

Following a post by dearest friend Dave on Sonic 2 and cheating I went on a nostalgic bender thinking about my personal experiences on the game that first made me aware of gaming. I had always played, flapping around in gamespaces never really considering the ludic construct or consequence and rhythm. Sonic 2 was released in 1992, perfect timing for my spungey mind eager to absorb the lessons that would take me through the next two generations of videogames. 

What lingers with me most is the competitive edge that the two player game instilled in me as well as introducing me to the fun of aberrant play. The 'verses' set up of Sonic 2 was tiny and perfect, only making 4 levels accessible as well as bonus rounds. I recall now critical awareness sparking at the time as the bonus rounds I professed to be 'biased' (I would later find this to be 'unbalanced') towards Sonic and formulating a form of play that balanced the grounds. Myself and  my foe (regularly an anonymous cheating friend) would turn our backs to the screen and blindly control our characters through the assault course. The pleasure was phenomenal, we could hear both the sounds that indicated coin collection (the game imperative) and the crashing sounds of boulders indicating the loss of coins though you could never be sure whose character events belonged to. Turning around would be anticipated and full of pleasant surprise wether your character won or lost. Gradually my friend came to win these blind games more and more. This was not due to some tactic knowledge of the course as there were variations and we turned our heads before identifying which course we were playing. One day amidst our giggles I looked to my left catching my friends face in the reflection of the fire place. She had been cheating! Every match she had been playing the mirror reflection of the game. This was when I realised this was serious. Games were serious and it was ON NOW!

Allowing the cheater back into the game, the idea of playing a game began to change for me. It began to evolve. I was actually looking at the space, dissecting it. Working it out. It wasn't so much about winning but screwing up the other player. In the 'Mystic Cave' levels I could do this expertly. Crumbling floors would ensure that another player could not follow my passage through the shortest route, while in the 'Casino Nights' levels taking elevators or occupying pinball flacks prevented the other player from using them gaining me a few seconds advantage. Collecting boxes was also key and memorizing where the 'death boxes' were they could avoided and collected by the other player to their disadvantage, 'teleport' boxes, though not always fixed in their positions, could sneakily be relied upon to swap my place with the other player should they have the advantage. This was the first and deepest pleasure I had experienced in play, formed of knowledge that came to match execution. 

xoxo Final Girl