The start of a big rivalry in video games
After SEGA saw the amount of success Nintendo was having just by the fact that they created a character in a game series, that became a mascot and the face of the platformer genre, they only have one way to go and that was making a mascot of their own to compete on the market.
They came up with the blue hedgehog wearing his red shoes and running as fast as a camera could possibly follow him (sometimes even breaking the game and going past it). Sonic the Hedgehog, at the time, had some really good visuals and sound. For a 1991 game, it was impressive to see the presentation play out. The game was also a platformer, but really different from the other in the genre, you basically felt the need to just run to the right as fast as you could, and that was the biggest problem of the game. The pace never felt as great as it should be, it always looked like you are going too fast or too slow, while in the areas that you should just walk and jump as a traditional platformer, it wasn't as clear or as well designed as the games from its rival Mario. I give the series alot of props for going toe to toe against the Mario franchise for a few years, but it always felt that the devs expected the game to feel a way that I could never achiev playing it. It's a game that is much better to watch then to play it. Still, a classic.
