Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Oh and Sonic too...

Now that I sit down to consider it, Sonic the Hedgehog had a pretty neat take on the whole health system too. Not only did rings represent your health, at least to the extent that to have rings was to stay alive. But rings were also the monetary system for the game, though in this sense by "monetary system" I mean the way in which the player can accrue extra live. In retrospect it was a super forgiving life system, as you only needed one ring to continue to survive (considering the breakneck speeds one can attain in sonic, having a health system where it is easy to get back on ones feet quickly was very important), but at the same time to flourish (especially back on the Sega Genesis, where your lives were very limited) one needed to become a friggin savant at collecting the things without losing them. Thus newer players are given a good chance at not dying repeatedly, and experienced players are rewarded by having a nice buffer of extra lives once they reached the later, less forgiving levels. This my friends, is a good way to go about designing a video game (or at least one aspect of one). Anyway, blah blah rant rant. Feel free to comment if you can think of any other games that use a unique health system!

16 comments:

  1. oo i've never thought of it like that where "it is easy to get back on ones feet quickly was very important), but at the same time to flourish one needed to become a friggin savant at collecting the things without losing them"

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  2. I don't think that system is that forgiving. If you get attacked twice in succession, the second time with no rings, you're dead.

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  3. I like the way you analyze gaming.

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  4. Man having 99 rings and then getting hit was maddening.

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  5. ...deep man...deep pretty awesome though i must say

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  6. You know...in all my years in playing sonic I never really realized that the ring was actually the health system.

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  7. Sonic introduced many innovations to the world of gaming. It deserves its fame and prestige.

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  8. I was never a huge sonic fan :(

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  9. I used to play it a lot when I was younger

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  10. All the new First person shooters for the most part have a health system that I think is neat, Your health just regains when your not getting shot. That is the kind of health system that I like.

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  11. True. Sonic had much original little things, comparing others game of that time.

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  12. I did love sonic when I was younger. I remember Sonic the Hedgehog 2's final battle that didn't start you with any rings, I never actually legitimately beat the game.

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