Cool details and secrets in Sonic 1

[@Gradient___]

I remember finding a secret in Sonic 2 completely by accident. In Chemical Plant Act 2, there's a hidden pathway on the upper route just before the rising water section that rewards you with a ton of rings and loop-de-loops that skips the entire rest of the act and places you just before the boss!

[@anthonywise1989]

I've found this before also but then i forgot where it was lol

[@Wonderguard1]

You can also get yourself stuck in this bit of the level of you managed to jump over the loops as you fall into a pit with nothing. You have to let the timer get to 9:59 before you can try again via time over if you don't have a save state or alike available. The only way out is Knuckles unless mods give tails the ability to fly 🤣

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Son of a whore, I've played hundreds of times and never seen that section

[@nobodyshome6792]

That isn't a "secret route" actually. It is the main path. There are a lot of these throughout the first few Sonic games. The short route (regular/correct path for speed clearing) and the long path that explores the majority of the stage. It isn't as obvious in the first couple of games as it was in SonicCD, where this was the case for every single stage in that game. At least, according to Yuji Naka, the level designer for Sonic, Sonic 2, and SonicCD. Takahashi Iizuka noted that he and his team have attempted to continue that practice, but not for every game level.

[@beemoh]

I am hearing about this now from your comment, and I've had Sonic 2 on the Megadrive since not long after it came out. The worst thing is, now I've looked it up on Sonic Retro, all the information for it is there for you in-game.

[@obsoletepoc7050]

7:18 The One-up and ring monitors are actually possible to get, but not from that secret path. If you want them, you need to take the normal path, and platforms will appear beside the wall that you can climb up (the same kinda platforms that appear at some pits in the stage to help you escape). Unfortunately, before you get to the way up, there's a 1-way door. So you can't get to the thing with less than 50 and go back and take the secret path after since the door will be locked.

[@theharvardyard2356]

Being a Cybershell fan I had already learned all of this, except that the bubbles in act 3 of labyrinth are actually on a different timer. That was a new one!

[@KryyssTV]

In defense of Sonic 2's enviromental storytelling, it was revealed in a developer interview that it originally had a time travel narrative not unlike Sonic CD which was scrapped very late in development due to deadlines. So what was already finished was simply reorganised into a hastily assembled assortment of levels which was nothing like the original concept. This was why the game had such a seemingly random mixture of level themes but could clearly be sorted into two groups - natural and urban/industrial. The time travelling element was originally going to have you return to previously natural environments that were now covered in Robotnik's factories and megacities. This is why you often have this back and forth pattern of a nature level followed by an industrial/urban level as the devs seemed to try and maintain something of the original idea. It would therefore suggest that Chemical Plant was meant to be the altered history Emerald Hill.

[@BrettWyrick]

Whoa. That's insane. Thanks for sharing!

[@josemo9204]

But they had a time travel concept in the other sonic game, what was it Sonic CD?

[@KryyssTV]

@@josemo9204 Based upon what Yasuhara said during his 2017 talk, the Sonic CD development was done independantly of Sonic 2 so it was just coincidental that both teams wanted to do a time travel theme. The difference is that the Sonic 2 development process ran into problems that resulted in massive cutbacks.

[@TheSupaCrew]

@KryyssTV I know lots about sonic 2's time travel info and that's a lot of great levels scrapped. Glad people have remade the game with the levels added.

[@Akirathehusky]

Glad it was scrapped. Sonic 2 is perfect the way it is.

[@DavidDoodleCartoons]

Something I learned recently is that in the original Genesis Sonic 1 and only in that game you can push the blocks in Marble Zone by rolling into them, idk if this is common knowledge but since this feature never made a return I thought it was worth mentioning

[@helmetluigi]

You can push things by spin dashing in place next to it in sonic3, something similar is to spindash on top of the discs that open paths in marble garden zone, it makes you bounce while youre still spin dashing in air, its not much but i always thought it was a neat little fun thing to do

[@SullySadface]

​@@helmetluigii like trying to bounce until timing out

[@ThyRetroNerd]

You can also roll onto rocks to push them in Sonic 3 in angel island act 1. It's sad that the Christian Whitehead remakes don't include that feature/bug, but the fanmade widescreen versions do keep it, like Sonic 3 AIR

[@CoralCopperHead]

@@helmetluigi ...Aren't you _supposed_ to spindash on them to activate them?

[@Fafr]

@@helmetluigi Bouncing off of them is actually a quicker way to get through the level

[@chrishateley5582]

Back in pre-internet days when we used to buy dedicated gaming magazines to learn about new games, many of them would contain pictures of entire level maps as one image, showing locations of all hidden areas and power ups. I used to love those as they gave you a sense of how huge the levels really were outside of the edges of your state-of-the-art 24 inch screen.

[@danielhall6888]

It is possible to get those 4 ring boxes and life in SB2. There is a platform underneath there that takes a long ass time to spawn, but that's how you'd get up there.

[@papersonic9941]

Reminds me of that platform in SA¹'s Final Egg that takes forever to come down and leads to some lives.

[@Theguyman2011]

​@@papersonic9941 where do i find it...?

[@Dom_Maretti]

6:55 - If you jump carefully enough to partially clip through the corner there next to the rotating platforms, above the ring box, you can break a hidden box that produces a glitchy tulip-looking graphic. My friend discovered this when he was like 8 and it blew his mind, and he was so happy to show it to me. Doing more research on it now, it's apparently a "static" power-up which is probably an exception handler that prevents the game from crashing when a power-up box with no associated power-up is broken.

[@TheRamblingSoul]

"This *33-year-old* game” Oof, I felt that one.

[@KING_STRONGTH]

I'm almost a 33 year old game myself. 💀

[@T7_101]

I like when things and video games have things that make them feel personal. my favourite detail in video games is probably the joke language settings in the older versions of Minecraft, barely anyone cared about being about to play with pirate slang or Aussie slang but It was still really cool none the less

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

I used to play with pirate speak!

[@T7_101]

@@NeatOnTheRocks(puts on bandana) I suppose ye Scuttlebutt about ya being a Lubber is wrong

[@pvzmariosonica8fan]

​@@NeatOnTheRocksBack in the day, certain Roblox levels had a hidden gimmick, where if you typed "pirate" in the chat box, it would start playing the "You Are A Pirate" song from LazyTown

[@theanimationboyoffiicial]

@@NeatOnTheRocks how do you get sonic 1 forever

[@markbardwell1404]

Among the reasons the skip in Labyrinth Zone wasn’t know about is because the official Sonic 1 & 2 Guide *lied* about it. It said-complete with a bogus visual-that you had to jump on the jaws and bounce across the top of the water (which cannot be done).

[@alaistairhamilton8838]

When I was a kid, proudly boasting to others in class that you not only made it through Labyrinth Zone Acts 1 to 3 AND beat Eggman (Dr. Robotnik for our generation) as the zone boss made you the man among your contemporaries. I also used to get mad anxiety when that music began when Sonic was short of air. Didn't we all?!

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

You would have been a god in my friend circle, I didn't beat Labyrinth legit til I was probably in junior high

[@PastellaUwU]

People always remember sonic 1 as "the not very good one" in terms of the whole series , but they have to remember that unlike sonic 2 , sonic 1 did not have "the previous sonic" to fall back on

[@vulpes6144]

Sonic 1 for the Master System was my first video game, and I loved how much exploration was encouraged to find the Chaos Emeralds trapped within the level itself

[@koolaid33]

I didn't know any of these secret paths except the one in case you fall in Marble Zone. These are honestly really cool. I have a hard time imagining the Sonic franchise without secrets, they are practically synonymous with the brand especially after the sound test secret in Sonic CD.

[@user-lk3hz2tj9s]

I always took that falling block path in Labyrinth Act 3 because I thought it was the normal path.

[@SurfRay]

OMG SAME LOL

[@Amsel_616]

I only played the normal path like 2 times in my entire life since i got that path by accident after raging to the normal path and trying to speedrun.

[@KaoruMzk]

Same. What's the "intended" path?

[@SullySadface]

​@@KaoruMzkprobably left

[@finnhaverkamp]

Same

[@JamesRoblox440]

it’s even cool how the offical sonic channel told us the secret passageway to the end of the level in Labyrinth Zone.

[@GavinArtster]

In Scrap Brain act 2, it actually IS possible to get those monitors. If you DON’T go to the top path with the 50 rings tube, go to the area with the button. Wait 15 seconds, and platforms will appear to help you get the monitors!

[@ChaosGamer777]

Him: "why do we keep coming back to the original Sonic the Hedgehog?" Me: "because it's FREAKING AWESOME!!!"

[@TheWax70]

Nice video! Didn't know about a few of these secrets.

[@caramelflann]

The man! The myth! The legend!

[@dalek907]

Oh man you were my childhood

[@scrapbrainsinc]

To me, Classic Sonic games are forever coupled with the Debug mode, as this is how I first seen Sonic. Being able to explore the world, I wonder why was all this here, made these games beyond replayable.

[@SweaterSwagg]

Sonic 1 is such and excellent first title for the franchise, a real classic and still beautiful! Great vid bro

[@andy120195]

7:17 It is possible to reach it. On the middle path, there are some temporary platforms that are hard to find and also hard to use that lead there. Watch a Ring Attack of this stage and you'll see it for yourself (in general Ring Attacks are real gold mines for secrets in Sonic games, even though they also don't lead to everything)

[@StrikerZero6]

The labyrinth zone one caught me off guard, I never knew about that one, but I always got that scrap brain zone one without even knowing it was a secret o_o

[@Kenwoo02]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this but i really like that you're playing the fan remakes (Sonic 1 Forever and Sonic 2 Absolute) for footage instead of origins

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

I played Origins in a previous video and the comments told me to play Forever LOL

[@ThatSneakman]

​@NeatOnTheRocks Origins at lesst is in a better state than it was thankfully but yeah, Absolute, Forever, 3 AIR and CD Miracle Edition blow it out of the water

[@kingstarscream320]

Only original versions are acceptable.

[@Fysisoikeineidolon]

that 1up and 4 ring monitors that you pointed out are possible to get its just you have to wait below it and these disappearing blocks will appear to climb up there but they appear very slowly

[@KairuHakubi]

it's amazing how the not-necessarily-linear nature of Sonic levels, with branches that branch and unbranch at will, has kept me from knowing about the majority of the secrets over the course of 30 years playing.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

It's true! I tend to take the same, comfortable paths every time I play these games. Then I take a step back and try something new and I'm ALWAYS rewarded!

[@stuckin9468]

I have been playing these games for almost 30 years and wasn’t even aware of some of these, now I can’t wait to go back and try them for myself!

[@matttiberius1900]

33 year old game........

[@SS5SS5]

Yup. It’s great!

[@XinGraves13]

.... Yeah. ...

[@Jafiveon]

Nope. Nope. Nope. I hate it.

[@TrueSkyl1n3]

Stop it you!

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Shhhh 🤫 we aren't old

[@SparkyMK3]

Ive played Sonic 1 so many times, and I didnt even know about that secret top route in SBZ Act 2 until now thanks to this video! This game is just full of surprises! :)

[@lil_s24]

I loved the Sonic Unleashed secrets when I was five when I played Unleashed and till this day I still love them! It feels so rewarding to look other places whereas in a normal playthrough you wouldn’t be able to see it. That’s why I love the werehog stages because of the exploration and secrets. Every time I get that medal or that disc (or book) I feel like I have achieved something 🤑👍 Sorry if I wrote a lot. It’s just the way how I do things

[@digimaks]

Sonic 3 shields + Super Sonic in Sonic 1 is absolute overkill... the level design was not intended for those "helpers" , making the too easy to pass.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

True, but it's fun

[@andrewcampbell802]

Thank you!!🎉

[@Racecar564]

WOW! I never knew about the Labyrinth Zone skip, nor the Scrap Brain Act 2 one! Nor did I even realize the Green Hill one, but I knew about some of those Marble Zone ones. As much as I've played this game, and still, many of those evaded me entirely. I've gotta try it out on my Genesis next time I play!

[@mysteriousbob]

I've been playing Sonic for 30 years. The first time I played Scrap Brain Act 3, I naturally did the shortcut without thinking. To this day I've never played through the 'actual' Scrap Brain Zone 3.

[@tnmgroupptyltd1509]

I’ve seen the level map and it is madness

[@SpiralPegasus]

I didn't know about that teleporter either! It's one of those things you eventually get by accident and then wonder why you can't trigger it again for the entirety of your life. Sonic and Knuckles has this! Both the 2 giant rings hidden below movable spikes (of which I thought there were none) and, amidst others, the section hidden up top in the last pump elevator of Mushroom Hill. I *think* you ought to pull whilst passing through each "window" but I still don't know for sure. Ah, there's also a part near the start of Casino Night 1 where, if you use the right flipper to propel yourself upward, bounce on the shield crab, and go left, you fall through five sets of slots that grant you a 1000 points each. Great video!

[@hyperknux77]

In the last pump elevator on Mushroom Hill, you have to pull the left one to access the hidden section.

[@Adam_U]

I know these games inside-out so didn't expect to learn anything new, but that Scrap Brain teleporter thing was new to me! Wow.

[@Kids-hl8gs]

As a explorer-based gamer, i like those kind of easter eggs, finding easter eggs rooms in Portal 2, Secret Rooms in Arcane Odyssey, hidden prizes in a wall that is an actual tunnel, or just tiny areas to chill in, these are the things that make exploration fun, finding more intresting places at the same time youre trying to find a Secret Room, and thats why i love exploration.

[@GogglzMUSIC]

This sorta stuff is why I love arg games like shipwrecked 64, there's whole layers of secrets beneath the surface that take you just messing around to figure out

[@SonicTheBlueBlur15]

The original level order makes alot of since now that i have sonic origins and the sonic 1 island has green hill near labyrinth and marble zone was much more further so i was confused but now that i see this it makes alot of sense

[@zac3249]

Seeing little secrets and easter eggs in games and videos is amazing. I love TerminalMontage's animations cause he'll literally have a character or a whole 5 paragraphs of text appear for one frame before moving on, and if you blink you'd miss it. It's so cool

[@chrissysonicutdrloz]

HalfBreadChaos does he same thing (not Sonic videos, tho).

[@DavidXNewton]

What a fascinating list :) I definitely enjoy secrets that make it seem like you’re somewhere you’re not supposed to be. And I miss the era where these things could be hidden and spread through rumours, and you never quite knew what was true and what wasn’t, instead of just going on to the internet and having them all there!

[@goldbigeagle6772]

“Real living world we were peeking into instead of games meant to be beaten” wow that’s exactly it

[@fnnnn5986]

Sonic was my first game ever and that Labyrinth zone shortcut and the double teleporter blew my mind.

[@edonslow1456]

I knew that teleporter in Scrap Brain sometimes took you to one level, and sometimes took you to another, but never figured out why. Mind blown.

[@Sly88Frye]

Some of the secrets you pointed out I knew about. Especially the one in act 3 a scrap brain zone because I actually never even considered it a secret. It was just obvious that oh hey you can choose to go above or go below as long as you go quickly enough. I wasn't aware of the secret one-up in act 1 of marble zone but I knew about the ones from act 2 and act 3. These things I knew since I played the game as a kid in the '90s. Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't the very first video game I ever played but it was the first video game I ever beat because I just enjoyed it that much.

[@HeyLaserLips]

Wow. I still play through this game once a year or so and have done since I first got my Mega Drive in 1993, and while I knew about most of these shortcuts, I still never knew about either the shortcut in Labrynth Act 1 or the alternative path for collecting 50 rings in Scrap Brain Act 2. It's crazy I'm still learning things about a game 31 years on.

[@xX1Tr1ll10nXx]

i was like "Heyyyy... what about secret palace?" *this isnt sonic 2*

[@kingkazma3246]

As a kid I played Sonic 1,2,3 and K religiously, my mind was blown when I played Sonic Jam and found out all the secrets and lore!

[@Muzzsjm]

I had never actually considered the story aspect of Sonic1 so thanks for the cool video. Sonic 2 and the other games had a more disenable story because they added the cutscene pictures, like the one with Tails saving Sonic in his bi-plane after Death Egg blew up, and you could tell Sonic was following a path through zones.... Skyzone being the flight to Winged Fortress etc. I just assumed story wasn't a thing in the original game. There were then the cut scenes added when Knuckles trolled Sonic in the other games. The aspect you mentioned about Scrap Brain being above the ancient Ruins of Labyrinth is cool and I'd never even thought about this. I just assumed they used the island map in the Gamegear version because they had less memory to create as many actual zones on the smaller cartridges.

[@Im2lazy4thisCrit]

I know all of these because of Cybershell, haha. Amazing video! I always appreciate when people make videos about Sonic 1 in particular in present day since it’s my favorite of the 2D era.

[@MarionetteKazuko]

There is something about stumbling upon things in old games that is just magical, even back then when finding them. Like the one you found in this video with the teleporter, there were no hints or advertisement/guide regarding it, yet there it is. Now a days achievement notifications are needed to keep the kid's attention. "Achievement Unlock! Beat Tutorial!" or even if it is something a bit more hidden or cryptic it doesn't feel that was as again there is some achievement tied to it, a pat on that back and advertise it everywhere.

[@sweethinako5248]

I knew about almost 90% of those s alone when i was a kid , But i dind t know about the labyrinth zone one thank you sonic 1 was my very first game ever

[@Hutch2Much]

i’m a big fan of sonic 1, and i love learning more about its secrets and design. great video!

[@JoeDouglas]

Brilliant video. I've been playing Sonic since 91 and there's stuff in here I never knew. Awesome work!

[@ShaneHpixels]

I love Sonic 1. I know people think Sonic has always been "all about speed", but Marble Zone alone always debunked that. I love the cautious exploration levels.

[@lucaselias9824]

I never being a great fan of Marble Zone but my mind exploded when i found the secrets way back, expect from act 3 that was a new one.

[@panos21sonic]

Id be all for pure platforming but the sections where you can just put the controller down for 5-15 secs just waiting to cross lava/for a spiky chandelier thingy to fully retract just make the whole zone kind of a pain in the ass.

[@theheartbreakcat]

@@panos21sonic the thing is that speed actually rewards you in most of those stations, whether it's speed momentum letting you jump from platform to platform without waiting for the slow moving brick (such as right before the 2nd marble zone wall secret) or being able to get to each chain before they close up and have to wait for them to come down again. What I love about Sonic 1 is that it doesn't "punish" you for speed per say, it makes you learn how to CONTROL it

[@panos21sonic]

@@theheartbreakcat That doesnt hold true for every obstacle in marble zone. My point still stands with every crusher there. And in spring yard too

[@theheartbreakcat]

@@panos21sonic you still have to move quickly to avoid being crushed when you get your opening

[@Sonicmusicisunarguablygoated]

people complain about how some sections of this game are slow. That’s the idea your goal is to work hard that you achieve that speed so it’s more satisfying.

[@tnmgroupptyltd1509]

Yeah and the frame rate fluctuates, for example, taking damage with a ton of rings

[@Sonicmusicisunarguablygoated]

@@tnmgroupptyltd1509 true

[@cohenlemcke]

Really great video, enjoyed a lot! Made me wanna go play Sonic 1, which is an urge I don’t get often. This channel has a lot of potential. Nice work

[@BANCLAMOFFICIAL]

Good video about a Great Game! Thank you for another enjoyable youtube session

[@taco1010]

What makes it special is its hidden well and rakes work to find. In todays age, people need everything handed to them robbing them of potentially meaningful experiences

[@speedrunner539]

FINALLY!!! a player who plays the Team Forever projects!

[@DandyDNA]

I love it when games have obscure secrets that you'd never find by playing normally.

[@jerberus5563]

Those were good times. I loved playing Sonic 2 and 3 with Sonic and Knuckles as Knuckles.

[@josemo9204]

Love to see that some is also this enthusiast in sonic games! In Sonic 2 in the Metropolis Zone there is this bug, if you move to the right while the teleport, while being supersonic, you glitch out of the teleporter and fall beneath it.

[@mopbrothers]

Sonic 1 is more memorable than later titles. I never found any of the secret routes as a kid, cause I just wanted to beat the game and it was hard enough as it was.

[@EleventhFloorBelfry]

There's a game that came out semi-recently called Void Stranger that is built almost entirely around this design ethos of hiding random stuff and just expecting you to figure it out.

[@shad0wofmasakad0]

This is literally such a badass and swag KZbin channel, great job man!

[@BeautyMarkRush]

7:23 I love how the CRT effect, combined with the curved aspect ratio (fish-lens?) and the perspective of some sprits, like the ceilings, creates a totally unique "3D" effect along with the camera movement. The modern version without the filters just look bland. Sonic 1~3 art tricks never fail to amaze me. You made me remember about the crazy fake rumors and jokes, like the convoluted process to unlock Ryu's master in SF lol. When I was a kid, I really enjoyed exploring the games like this so I understand that passion you talk about, but I'm gonna be honest with you: as I grew older, the free time to look for those secrets grew smaller, so I'm kinda glad when the game is designed to be clearer and with less hidden things. Back then, I would go crazy by finding the holes near the trees in Hyrule Field you had to bomb for them to open in OoT. Nowadays, I'd be really mad and think this is such a bs thing to do lol

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

Thanks for appreciating the editing 😄 And well said lol what is considered good game design is an ever evolving idea

[@Buttermilk_the_pony]

Quite proud to say I knew about all these except for the Labyrinth Act 1 shortcut :D

[@TheRetroMartin]

Didn't know the spring yard jump off the ramp (always forget to try it when I go through it) and the Labyrinth one on the floaty platform is very cool. Wasn't aware of the scrap brain teleporter either. I was aware of all the rest (maybe the green hill jump over the spikes...can't remember if I ever found that) Some cool stuff. It's always been a great game ever since it came out!

[@hypernovaD]

Jeez.. I did not know any of these.. after all these years this game still really surprises me..

[@robintst]

Sonic 1's importance to this day is that it was the turning point the Genesis needed after it's underwhelming first couple of years, many forget or never paid attention to the fact that the system launched in Japan in 1988, it was already out for 2 years when the Super Famicom dropped. And it still might not have performed as well in Japan as SEGA hoped after that but Sonic 1 is the reason the Genesis eventually became a pop culture cornerstone in the west and made SEGA household name for us.

[@ItYaBoiGreen]

All of these secrets I knew because of the legendary cybershell but I’d like to say ur editing is great and super smooth and just fantastic in general I’ve gotta follow ya more!

[@PhoenixDening-cz5wd]

The looping thing is in tidal tempest

[@brentgreeff1115]

I was a sonic nut, I thought I knew every secret in Sonic 1, thanks for this.

[@HighScorsese]

I will say that I definitely DO consider Sonic 1 my favorite classic Sonic game

[@jonathansherwood5841]

I...33 years...I was six when...oh, man... Still, one of my first games that holds a special place in my heart 🐺🔧

[@jess648]

one thing I liked that the later games besides cd didn’t quite capture is the way that it rewards both skillful platforming and careful exploration. sure 2 and 3 have their fair share of secrets but usually their all on the main paths of the level

[@christopherg2347]

I think I still remember some of those. And I haven't had access to the game this entire millennium. Somehow those levels are just burned into my memory.

[@cmbaz1140]

I so glad i grew up with sega and sonic

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

Same

[@Badolo]

Wow, I have beat Sonic 1 a hundred times since 1991 and this is the first time I hear about the Labyrinth shortcut or that Scrap Brain teleporter! As for secrets and not well known stuff... mine is more of a glitch from Sonic 2, but a very cool one. I liked to go to Oil Ocean, put Sonic on one of those thingies that make you go in a straight line without being able to take control, and break/interrupt him free with debug mode before reaching destination. That kind of "supercharges" Sonic physics, making him faster and jumping way higher (with a faster gravity). If you go past certain speed, physics reset back to normal (as a kid I liked to think you "burned out" this "power", instead of just some max speed check on the code). Now, if you combine this with Super Sonic, you can achieve ludicrous speeds and jumps and even clip through stuff, but it's also very easy to get too fast and getting your speed accidentally reset back to normal (specially by spindashing).

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

If I recall correctly, speedrunners activate this supercharge without debug by lining up a projectile to hit Sonic out of the animation! It's very cool.

[@Monacomaverick]

There are some gnarly secrets in Starlight Zone that I didn't know about until much, much later.

[@michaelbullen3104]

I genuinely hope one day before I die that at least even a bit of FOOTAGE of the TTS build gets found. That is one of my dreams.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

Same

[@heronoverdose]

Magical... It's important not to lose that feeling

[@kaistudios5536]

I just realized you're that guy that made the "you should become a content creator now" video. _That freakin' explains why I liked this video so much._ The video is only 9 minutes long, but the discussions that come from it _(even when sharing the video to others)_ is mesmerizing, in a way. It felt slow enough to feel natural, while still keeping me entertained. *Huh.* Strange, _isn't it?_ I think I'll keep a close notification bell on you now.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

Hahaha I'm surprised at how OK I am with being "that" guy now 😄 glad you enjoyed

[@kaistudios5536]

@@NeatOnTheRocks I can't blame myself and others when it was such an inspirational video! 😅 Anywho, I'm excited to learn more about you and what you wish to talk about! I've been here when I can, but it'll be fun to stick around more often! 😄

[@boiled_walrus6960]

Awesome video! I go back to sonic 1 constantly, great breakdown on it

[@QueroJogarUmJogo]

Ok, I can safely say that I was here before this channel blowed up. Because it will in no time.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

Shiiit it kinda is! You think it will even more?

[@marquesgorham4226]

All these secrets I already know since I've played the classic sonic games what it feels like a million times I know these games like the back of my hand and can beat every classic entry beforehand the day ends

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

congrats

[@wisecrack4545]

One of the biggest old game secrets/easter eggs that blew my mind in recent times was Mech commander 1, The old battletech tactical PC game from late 90s. There is one level midway through the second operation of the campaign where you have a timed mission to blow up some HPG communication towers to stop a message being sent out. I have played this game over and over for 25 years, gone through the main campaign at least 50 times, and only ever failed this mission once (first time I ever did it, ran right into one of the ambush zones, got wrecked). There are a couple of routes you can take to get to the target (straight up through the city, or circle through forest around the back), both of which have pros and cons. General gist is though that in either route there are alarm posts scattered around and you want to blow them up/sneak around them to get up near the base and then snipe some barracks buildings on the edges to stop the heavier mech and vehicle crews among the base defenders from powering up their machines. At this point in the game, if you screw this up these units will power up and when combined with the base turrets, will easily do some crippling damage to you. Once you get past that and take over the base, you get a free run to take out all the communication towers. Thought I'd seen all there was to see in this map. One time I'd taken the base, decided to just let the timer run out. Turns out in the final 3-5 seconds of the countdown, the towers actually have a power up sprite where they light up blue, and the tops of the towers realign in a different direction to fire off their message. Blew my mind that the developers had put this little detail into the game, but the only way you'd ever see it is if you intentionally fail the mission through timeout and have the towers in your view when the timer runs out. And none of the other 3 missions across the base campaign or the expansion with these towers have this sprite effect either, its unique to this mission.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

I imagine it was designed that way so if you got to the objective but weren't quite sure what the towers you were supposed to destroy looked like, that animation would give you some indication as a last chance or something. Cool detail!

[@wisecrack4545]

​@@NeatOnTheRocks In this case I think it was just a super cool detail that the developers added in for a mission failure result. They might have planned to use the animation again as you need to capture and hold some of these towers in a later mission, but they either forgot or ran out of time during development. The towers are obvious, they're quite large and unlike any other building featured in the game, and there are objective markers on the mini map that tell you their location.

[@JallenMeodia]

Recently replayed the original titles, on Origins, and I remembered there was a way to skip a Labyrinth zone act but couldn't find it and just figured I must have confused with the quick skip at the end of Scrap Brain Act 3. That and I swear Sonic 1 got up updates if you play it through with Knuckles, so there are new routes. But anyway, thank you for proving my memory isn't quite that bad.

[@PhillipJr89]

Such a nice video! Definitely gotta describe. Hope to see more cool stuff!

[@0ttoRex]

We had no idea how good we had it in the 90s

[@LucasDanielCab5]

I've played this game so many times and I only knew about like a third of these

[@eliaskwola]

Never knew bout thw labyrinth act 1 and scarp brain act 2. Thanks !

[@STAXONDECK1]

Some of the last skips I found after 20 years are ones in Spring Yard, you can basically skip almost all those slow moving blocks with the speed shoes it’s great wish. Sonic 1 is the goat

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

I had figured that out on genesis, but for some reason thought they had patched that out of the remake. But nope! It's still there! 😁

[@gummiewormproduction]

Thanks for making this video. Never knew about any of these secrets

[@OCTAGRAM]

Prehistorik 2 has great opportunities for skipping levels. There is a video of less than 10 minutes full walkthrough. And on this video icy level was not skipped properly. There is a faster route for level 7, recorded separately. On another hand, this game has interesting findings for the ones who dig hard. The ultimate double axe weapon can be found quite early in the game, in level 4.

[@donniedamato]

I knew about the teleporter in SB2, but I'm pretty sure that was because an old game magazine reported it. But this was the first I saw the skip in Lab1.

[@tamerkoh]

What you just described is exactly why Kingdom Hearts 1 is still my favourite of that series (Chain of Memories is up there too, cause it's so easy to break that game and it's fun building broken decks XD). KH1 is the only game that has this sort of depth in its level design, cause it's also the only one that's more like a Metroidvania than the others. You get an ability like High Jump later, and come back to earlier areas to reach parts you couldn't before, for hidden chests and such. Or just the interactivity that isn't present in any of the later games in the worlds, like using the spells in Traverse Town, Deep Jungle and Hollow Bastion to trigger secrets and get chests. People were still discovering little details like that in KH1 decades later as well, like how the Clock Tower works in Neverland, giving multiple secret chests based on the system clock. To me, I'll always enjoy a game with this sort of depth in its level design far more than the extremely streamlined experience in something like KH2, where every area is basically just a hallway. I do think KH2 is still a fun game, but the poor level design stood out like a sore thumb to me after coming off the depth KH1 had in its worlds.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

I agree. I played KH1 & 2 for the first time last year, and while I initially didn't like the platforming in KH1 due to the "clunky" controls, I found myself missing it in KH2.

[@tamerkoh]

@@NeatOnTheRocks And that's my biggest problem with KH2, the worlds are really bland. Not thematically, but the actual level design, lol. The only place that has any worthwhile level design is the Cavern of Remembrance, and that wasn't even in the original release of the game, lol.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

@@tamerkoh YES Thank you, I LOVED the Cavern of Remembrance, it made me wonder why the rest of the game wasn't like that, and part of the problem was that they locked the cool movement options behind leveling the forms, which meant they had to make it optional. Biiiig missed opportunities there

[@beatziegraham6928]

While not a cool detail or secret, I’ve been looking at the sonic 1 special stage maps and they look very interesting. The arrangement of blocks are just pretty to me.

[@streamleazefishhouse]

There is certainly something special about the first sonic game. I also think the backgrounds in sonic 1 and 2 are better than sonic 3 & Knuckles.