Guides
Platforming legend and Sega mascot, Sonic, has appeared in many a game.
Overview
Sega's flagship franchise was created by Yuji Naka to compete with the runaway success of Nintendo's mascot, Mario. The first game in the series, titled Sonic the Hedgehog, was released in 1991 and was a commerical and critical hit helping to sell many consoles. Since those heady days Sega has continued to develop and release a number of Sonic games to varying degrees of success. As console power increased so did the scope of the Sonic games, taking in 3D action platforming and racing games. Whilst a number of these titles have been successful in some respects, there is still a yearning nostalgia within the gaming community for the 2D platform games of old.
Early Games
Sonic was first introduced in 1991 with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive in Europe) and Sega Master system. The game was also ported to the Sega Game Gear. The game stood out owing to the sheer speed of the gameplay and the fluidity of the presentation. There was simply nothing like it upon release it and it helped to improve Sega's gaming credentials like no other title before or since. Owing to the success of the original it was not long until Sega released the inevitable sequel.
A year later in 1992 Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog 2. For the first time ever Sonic 2 had a world wide launch. The game introduced Sonic's first partner in crime (or platforming, Sonic don't break no laws) Miles "Tails" Prower, a fox with two tails who could fly for short distances. The game was heavily advertised for having blast processing which essentially just meant that the game was fast.
1994 saw the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The team that was working on this game decided to redraw sonic and give him a bit more of a catoonish look. The game saw the return of Tails and a brand new character named Knuckles Echidna. You would not be able to play as knuckles but you ran into him a lot in the game. This was because there was not enough cartridge space to fit knuckles in. When Sonic and Knuckles was released it included lock on technology, meaning you can put in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and you were able to access more of the game including Knuckles as a playable character. Sonic 2 was also compatable with this lock on technology and also introduced Knuckles as a playable character.
The Difficult Later Years
Although there were a few ill-fated attempts to bring Sonic into 3D towards the end of the 16-bit generation, Sonic's first true jump to 3D was Sonic Adventure, released in 2001 for the Dreamcast. The game was highly ambitious in its mix of Action Stages and Adventure Stages and saw the introduction of a number of new characters. Although it scored well with critics upon release, later attempts to develop on this formula such as Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut fared less well. Sonic went multiplatform with the release of Sonic Heroes, a game that bore some resemblance to the Adventure series but featured teams of characters which the player could switch between on the fly. This was followed by Shadow the Hedgehog, the first Sonic game to introduce weapon-based combat.
The leap to the next generation of consoles (360 and PS3) proved to be even more difficult than the previous one. Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog in 2007. The game was highly criticized for failing to pay attention to the problems of previous games and is generally considered a low-point for the series. But it isn't all bad. In November 2005 Sega released Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS. Like the 2D Sonic Advance games released for GBA, Rush played to the series' strength as a fast-paced 2D platformer, placing speed and reaction times over set-pieces and attempts at 'innovation'. Although the game features a trick system and another new character, the game was mostly noted for its sheer pace and creative level design. The music was also top-notch. A sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure, was released for the DS in 2007. Although it featured the word 'Adventure' - a warning sign for Sonic fans - the game recreated many of the originals strengths although it did receive criticism for the many bottomless pits in each of the levels.
Technological Issues
Sonic The Hedgehog games have always presented technological challenges to the development teams working on the main installments in the series because of the protagonist's reliance on sheer speed. This is due to programming-related issues pertaining to the graphical capabilities of each platform; without properly accounting for how fast the graphical data may need to load in each level, the games may encounter frame rate drops as they struggle to load the necessary information. While this was a hurdle on the Sega Genesis and its sprite usage alone, tackling the matter has become an increasingly important matter for Sonic the Hedgehog games with each successive generation due to the complexity of the respective systems' graphics. The mainstream usage of polygons and textures in videos has therefore made the matter more difficult. Some canonical games in the franchise, such as the Sonic Adventure subseries, attempt to sidestep the issue by placing more emphasis on exploration rather than exclusively speed, as a slower pace enables the console to keep up with the incoming flow of data more easily. For the Sonic games whose focus is primarily speed, however, the technology fueling it must be designed appropriately so the game can handle the protagonist's high-speed running without a hitch. In the upcoming Sonic Unleashed, a game whose "Hedgehog Engine" on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is designed to prevent the issue from becoming a problem for players by incorporating data streaming technology.
