Sonic the Hedgehog

The Good old days when Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo went head to head to be the king of home video game systems

Both systems had their own collection of video game titles that remain popular with those who love games.

One Game the Sega Genesis had that got people talking was Sonic The Hedgehog.

Perhaps the fastest video game character ever created as speed is Sonic's best skill as you pick up the game to play you'll going to see that Sonic can do a lot of things a normal character wouldn't do.

You can pick up the game on Sega Genesis as well as on the Sega Collection for Playstation 3 so this game is a must have for any video game fan

The game has you collecting rings to help with your lives, also you can collect power ups to help you in the level.

The game features some of the best graphics in any video and today it is still impressive the level designs are just superb and the attention to the 2D animation is impressive as well as good character art work.

The controls are easy to pick up and play so it is a good sign to the player that the game is simple to master but it takes time to get through the levels.

The Game Play remains fun as you try to prove yourself as the best in score.

However the game is not easy to beat as you must be prepare for anything that the game throws at you but if you are willing to go all the way then you're set.

The game is just a classic and remains one of the most popular games ever.

I give Sonic The Hedgehog an 8 out of 10

I loved playing Sonic the Hedgehog for the Megadrive, this game first came out in 1991, then came along Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, sonic spinball, sonic and knuckles, sonic 3d, dr robotnik's meanbeam etc: I think Sonic is cool and i remember playing the game when i was young.

You just knew from the first time you played it that SONIC THE HEDGEHOG would become a timeless classic. Sixteen years later, it's as much fun to run the blue blurball through castles and spaceships as it was back then!

Visually, this Sega Genesis effort is unmatched. It's one of those rare games that you didn't always mind watching your friend play. The gameplay is outstanding and exciting, which is amazing considering all you can do is run and jump. The music is second only to SUPER MARIO BROS. in terms of feel-good repeatability. It's virtually flawless in every respect.

What more can be said? SONIC THE HEDGEHOG is one of the greatest video games ever made. There have been plenty of incarnations of the spiky critter since, but none have matched the original.

This is obviously the best Sonic title yet. And that's saying something, considering his latest adventures have been nails in his coffin. Which means they sucked. But this game rocks! It introduced the revolution of the 16-bit era. Yet sometimes, it felt challenging. But this game makes up for it with incredible replay. You'll play this for hours to get everything. The only game with Sonic in it that was great was probably Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I can't imagine a better way to relive classic side scrolling action besides Super Mario Bros. So sit back, relax and enjoy the 16-bit era's domination. Sonic lives on forever!

Let me explain that "one-liner" first. Some quick video game history:

As a video game company, Sega had always been something of an also-ran when compared to mighty Nintendo during the 1980s. Nintendo's venerable 8-bit NES absolutely ruled the gaming world at that time, with the company using its incredibly powerful marketing department to tackle and eliminate all potential challengers. When Sega introduced its competing Master System in 1986 (after a trial run of sorts with a variety of arcade games), it was hard to look past Nintendo's immense library of game cartridges and see that Sega had actually crafted a more capable system.

But Nintendo had relied on the NES architecture for too long. This meant that the time was right by 1989 for a competitor to rise, like a cobra, from the mists. Sega took the chance and introduced its groundbreaking 16-bit Genesis system. Critics were impressed - the semi-3D graphics were a huge improvement over the NES' largely one-dimensional images, and the Genesis platform seemed to have been designed with the serious game-player in mind.

Sega's problem, however, was in Genesis games. Mainly, there were not enough of them - and of those, only a few were really very good (Sega relying mainly on lots of blood and gore to pull in older customers). Genesis was popular among gamers who simply wanted a change of pace, but the system needed what is now called the "killer app" - a game that was good enough to sell the systems on its own.

Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to Sonic the Hedgehog.

Introduced for 1991, Sonic was in most ways a typical action platform game - cruise through a variety of interesting places, collect power-ups and score points, and attempt to beat the evil bad guy and save the world at the end of the game. Most people at the time said, "So it's like Mario Bros., then?" Those people hadn't played Sonic yet. Sonic the Hedgehog was a feast for the eyes with beautiful graphics, well-designed levels and a main character (the titular blue Hedgehog) who had more attitude than any chubby Italian plumber could ever achieve.

But of course, Sonic was so named because it (and he) was fast. Faster than any video game most people had ever played on a home system, so fast that one could easily become overwhelmed by the rapidly shifting scenery. And herein lay the challenge: control Sonic's speed while completing the mission (the levels were timed, of course) and you would be rewarded with one of the finest gaming experiences ever digitized.

And graphics and gameplay are only part of the story. Great music, by MIDI master Yuzo Koshiro, both highlights the speed of the game and defines the unique character of each Zone. Replay value is enhanced by the challenge of finding eight Chaos Emeralds, hidden within special stages that get progressively harder to navigate through. Find all eight and there's a very special surprise...which I won't reveal. You figure it out!

The only drawbacks are that once you figure out the secrets of harnessing Sonic's speed, the game is not that tough to complete (aside from the aforementioned Chaos Emerald challenge, which is a bear). And modern gamers who've been spoiled by the ability to constantly save their progress will probably be disappointed at the prospect of (gasp!) starting over anew every time, though there is a continue feature allowing two more tries from the same Zone.

Overall, an excellent game and - as mentioned earlier - the true "killer app" for the Genesis. (Sega eventually figured this out and began to sell the game as the "pack-in" title with the Genesis hardware package.) Eleven years on, I still find it immensely entertaining to pop that cartridge into my dusty old Genesis system and wheel Sonic to glory once again.

Highly recommended.

hondaboy :-D