As a plant-centered channel, talking about Sonic the Hedgehog seems a stretch. Yet I would propose that understanding how to grow chilis Capsicum annuum hold the secret sauce to the blue blur’s video game legacy and future as well as his favorite chili dogs.
For those that somehow don’t know Sonic, he’s the fastest thing alive, alive, alive! Sorry. Nostalgia. My childhood is filled with gardening and games like Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle with mostly sonic and shadow stages, the GameCube‘s Sonic mega-collection where I played the classics like Sonic the hedgehog, Sonic and knuckles, Dr. Roboticnic’s Mean Bean Machine, and played that Sonic CD intro so many times. After gardening with dad, or tending flowers with mom, I enjoyed Sonic Heros, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders, the black night game way more than the critics did. Even now, I pop into steam, boot up sonic generations, and will play the first few levels when I need my Fix.
Calling it a fix is right. Unlike many other game genres and franchises, sonic games offer something unique. The experience of playing many of the sonic levels is nearly impossible to copy even for the game developers that usually make the games. If I want to play a first-person shooter game, there are many franchises that I can play for a similar experience. If I want to play a Tower defense game, there are all sorts of games I can play to get that tower defense experience. You could call the cool blue blaze a platformer but when you play platformers and then play a good level of the sapphire speed demon, it does not feel right. The bad games, with their slow, clunkiness, bad camera angles, and other issues do feel somewhat like platformers, but playing a good sonic level you enjoy does not feel like that in the slightest.
To explain what I mean let’s look at someone playing one of the best levels, in the franchise history. Sonic Generations green hill zone. Sonic JGB the YouTuber is playing this level because my pc is potato and does not record well.
(Allow one of the greatest levels to play for a few seconds)
Fast does not begin to describe all of this. While this is not a perfect run of the level, it’s not hard to get under 2 minutes. You just have to act and react to the path, hoops, and springs that launch you into the air, follow some rings that jingle when you collect them, dashing through loop-de-loops, grinding on swirly rails, and going through alternative paths, dashing with boost, all the while rocking out to a jamming level theme all the while to get to the goal at the very end. S Rank. YESSS!
But, what did we just experience? It’s difficult to properly describe. In the new frame plus channel video The Animation of Sonic Games, James a video game animator does say that he tends to think of these games less as a platformer and more like a rhythm game, like how Rayman games use rhythm as a core dynamic. While Rayman games never go as fast and tend to focus on more precision platforming, there is something true to this.
Adam Millard – The Architect of Games notes in his video, What even is a Sonic, that Sonic games have two opposites of a similar spectrum. Automatics like rail grinding, and loop de loops require little to no input from the player, while organics like many of the classic sonic games are where you have to react quickly to get to an alternative path or jump out of the way of obstacles. The best games have a mix of both, with the organics offering the challenge, and the automatics offering spectacle and breaking up the challenge so that it’s more manageable.
Many video game reviewers have noted that for the blue blur, moving to 3 dimensions was difficult to do. Things like the camera following him did not always cooperate and interfered with the flow of the game. The camera issue also exists in 2D games, as some were on such small screens like game boy advances and smaller phones that it makes it difficult to react to whatever is coming next. On a good level, the camera is never mentioned because no one notices. You don’t notice the camera until it misbehaves.
There is also a green hill zone phenomenon. If we look at all the games with the green hill zone in them according to the Sonic Wiki there is a ton. Not only that but games like Sonic Heros do have a first zone that has a similar look and feel to G.H.Z. It’s easy to write off this as nostalgia, but what I never see mentioned is the mastery aspect. The first level is the easiest to get into a good rhythm for, the spectacle is high with a minimal challenge, and negatives like bad camera angles are infrequent. When people play and replay the first level, they get a taste of that pure indigo incredibleness quickly, and their mastery of the first level quickly translates to a greater thrill in the harder, later levels. For many that first level is where everything came together, and they became fans for life!
While some games have amazing levels, a speed-lord, choose your own adventure, reaction gratification, thrill ride all the way from start to finish, it’s not easy to make. Even SEGA struggles with making good speed games and even the good games have a bad level or two. Yet I think that if we understand how people grow chili peppers, we will have a model for how to make great games like this. Not only that, new video game developers could make games that give that similar feeling, preserving a rare mode of play that is almost impossible to replicate. Let’s get growing.
One must first determine varieties as Bird-Eye chilis are very different than Serrano’s Habaneros, and Jalapenos. They have different growing requirements, different harvesting times, differing sensitivity to mold, rot, parasites, viruses, and much more despite being the same species. Keep in mind plant varieties have the same genus and species scientific name but are often given the third label to denote their variety. Every great sonic game is like a new variety of a death-fire strip, that while every pepper benefits from long hot days, and soil that drains very well, Bird eyes or Thai’s mature in 90-100 days, while many jalapenos take over 145-160 days to fully mature. Some peppers tolerate crowding while others need a lot of space, and for some peppers, you need to remove some of the flowers so that there are fewer but larger chilis and some prefer a bloom-focused fertilizer because you want a lot of little hotties. Just like having a clear image of what variety allows you to plan on making the best garden, so too does having a clear vision of the specific mechanics of a Sonic game make things great.
Remember how some chilis take over 150 days to grow, while others only take 90? Lettuce, beets, and microgreens tend to take around 50-55 days to grow from seed to harvest and are considered short growers. In contrast, many tomatoes and chilis take a much longer growing season. Growing the red hots in places like Scotland or Canada means that you have to start growing indoors during January when the snow is thick on the ground. Many of the worst games in the Hedgehog’s legacy is a product of a studio not given enough time to make something work. Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom come to mind as plagued by a rushed production and release. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Crowding is also a problem, where planting peppers too close results in the peppers fighting for nutrients and water. They are also sensitive to weeds, which outcompete your habaneros and poblanos. Sega the publishers for most if not all Sonic games are often trying to publish too many games, which means not enough time to make each one the best it could be. Compounding the problem, SEGA also is trying to publish and push other franchises out meaning that the people that work on the games often split their focus on other games, resulting in less time and care for each level. Adding six months to a year of space more in-between releases could result in better games that people will want to play forever!
As your Scotch Bonnets grow, it benefits to have hot days. While 70F – 21.1C is a low end, many of the peppers grow best when most if not all the days are over 80F – 26.6C. These hot days allow the flavors and heat of the peppers to ripen and mature creating something great. Much of the best levels have this same intensity having the best maturity, where levels start of calm but build as you traverse through the levels, with simple mechanics introduced in the beginning building into something brilliant in the end! Like a rollercoaster, the excitement builds and explodes constantly rising and falling until you get to the end. Levels should be complex enough to allow the player meaningful choices, but too much slows the flow of the level, resulting in a frustrating experience. There’s a reason why people loathe Big the Cat in Adventure 1 and the Knuckles and Rouge Levels in Adventure 2 Battle.
The last part of our adventure is the harvest. Due to these plants taking so long to mature, it’s very tempting to pick them early, but those that do find a bitter, dull flavored heat. Yet, if one is patient, picking when the peppers have ripened up properly, the best heat and flavor awaits! Those that wait too long find the peppery fruit rotting on the branch, inedible. This gameplay needs the spectacle and polish of things being fine-tuned to being just right. From riding the biggest loop-de-loop, outrunning pursuers, switching rails, that ending can make or break a level. End a level too soon and people don’t feel catharsis, that satisfaction when beating it, but if the level is too long, and it rots.
The future of Sonic Games has been up for debate for a long time. With every subpar release, people bemoan that it’s dying, and with every success, fanboys rejoice for the gameplay is almost impossible to replicate even for SEGA and the Sonic Team. Yet, if we treat the blue blur like a chili plant, we will pick the right kind of variety, polish the particulars, give plenty of time and effort to the plant to allow maximum growth, maximize intensity and end the experience at the right place and the right time. It is my wish that the future that after tending to some Pri-Pris and Banana chilis I can relax in my home, eat a spicy chili dog, and enjoy another level of a speed-lord, choose my own adventure, reaction gratification, thrill ride all the way from start to finish. Until then let’s cultivate some greatness.
This video has taken me a lot of time to script out, research and present to you. If you enjoyed this please like this video and tell me what you loved or hated. If you want to support me further, MY SUBSCRIBESTAR is in the description below. Now cultivate some greatness!
Sources not directly cited in the video include:
Videogame Footage from Sonic 1, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Sonic Mega Collection, Sonic Advance, Sonic Heros, Sonic and the Black Night, Sonic O6, Sonic Generations.
By Joystiq, [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31577913
Reading and riding this ride was fun! You have filled it with perceptive analogies to keep interest high—generously informative and practically entertaining! Keep writing so that we can avail ourselves of this wonderful opportunity to learn!