Where it all began.

Once upon a time, in an alternate dimension, where everything in this dimension moved in the 2nd tense, there was a blue hedgehog who could run at the speed of sound, but was speed capped for about 80mph.  His name... was Sonic The Hedgehog.

Although Sonic was bestowed with the top speed of a Toyota Prius, like the Prius, Sonic's journey starting in the blue, green, brown, white, yellow and purple zone where the hills were most definitely green, sought out to stop the unenvironmentally friendly Dr. Eggman.

Nothing was going to stop Sonic in his quest to stop Sonic from preventing the evil doctor to prescribe trickery amongst his friends and the land.  Not even the rocky hills themselves would get in his way.

Not these spikes that grew through the plains.

Nor the doctor's underlings.

Sonic pushed on with the momentum of a pinball, the weight of a 3ft marble, and the sharpness of a blade sharpener. Always looking forward and with each step, each jump and each spin he was closer to signs that would point him towards his goal.

Sonic...

Nothing was ever so flawless as the beginning, and when you finished, you'd often return back to where you started to make sure you left it looking better than how it was at the jump.

But sometimes... things don't always remain that way.

After enough time passes, pollution eventually rears it's ugly head upon our lands again.

Things change.

You've changed.

And today, to make everything right, all you have to do is run, breaking the sound barrier at will if you must to set things straight again.

Someone... was nice enough to bestow you your true power, unaffected by 80mph speed caps and given a world where you can move more than just up, down, left and right.

Sonic...

Let us use that power...

So I can break my damn Green Hill Act 2 record!  OHHHHHH YEEEEEEEAH.

Okay, I'm done with the cut & paste dramatizations.  Yes, Green Hill Zone is definitely my favorite stage in Sonic games.  As a kid, I NEVER wanted to leave it and it still looks as profound and amazing to me 21 years later.  Gotta love the result of what Sega was scheming when they were starving for success and fame.  Green Hill in Generations was a pretty good reimagining of the stage and it really made me wish that the camera in the game was free like it was in Unleashed.  If it was, I'd probably find myself spending tons of time just staring at it like I did when I was a child.  What about the classic Sonic version, you say?  I think it's gorgeous.  Perhaps it could've felt like there were 3 levels of paths instead of just two like the original had (Acts 1 and 3), but for what it's worth, it's sheer beauty.  However, the 3D version really seems to just make you feel surrounded in it opposed to peering at it like a painting with the value of the property you sleep on.  I never ever once thought I'd see it.  Green hills, blue pools and rivers of water, pencil shaped mountains in the distance, and a blue sky... and a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog... in my most childish love for all that is Sonic...

... wouldn't ask for anything more.

Oh, am I going to talk about my speed run?  I left all that in the video description.

btw, Happy Birthday to my Dad today.  Fun fact - it was him who took me to Toys 'R Us and bought me the Sega Genesis with Sonic 1.  He hooked it up to the TV that day and as my mom told me (as I got older), he would just sit watch me play.  I love you, Dad.  If it weren't for you, I may not have been able to find the one thing that has had such a positive and profound effect on me to this day.  Thank you for providing me the opportunity to find things in life as a child that would simply make me happy for a very long time... seemingly a lifetime.  I only wish there were a way I could tell you these words as elegantly as they are typed.

(credit to: http://jasondoesjournalism.blogspot.com/ for the nice Sonic 1 screenshots I googled.)