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Submitted by Missy B
Sonic the Hedgehog brought competition to Nintendo’s dominance over the game console market. Suddenly, there was Nintendo AND Sega thanks to Sega’s highly-acrobatic, speedy new character. Sonic quickly became the better, faster, stronger Mario of the Sega world.
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Sonic was my hero growing up. Even though the games aren’t that great anymore, I still love him. I occasionally go and replay the old Genesis games on my Sega Saturn or emulator. Sonic 2’s my favorite. X3
how does an emulator work? where can i get one? i wanna play sonic too!!
It’s just a program you download that lets you play old console games on your computer- you get an emulator for each ‘console’ (eg, Sega Saturn, Nintendo, Atari, Gameboy) and then a file for each game you want to play.
Yeah, Sonic is kind of like an old family pet. He was a good friend for about 15 years but now he’s crapping on the carpet.
First to vote! Sonic rules!
Sonic WAS an epic win, but most of the 3D games seriously toned down the quality. The last really good one I remember playing was Adventure 2.
dude…seriously this game owns. Xbox live had them to download for not even $5. it’s amazing. reminds me of being 5 years old.
Seriously, in 2D, Sonic was the best. (Except for maybe Earthworm Jim, but that’s whole other story.)
Damn, I wish people would make 2D sidescrollers in HD again.
There is one coming out for WiiWare, sometime durin the summer
Epic ultimate win… I have every sonic game up to adventure 2. Sonic 2 with knuckles was the most fun I have ever had learning what the heck that sonic and knuckles thing was for
And then they mangled him beyond all recognition years later.
This, Mortal Kombat, and Road Rash 2 pretty much defined my Sega childhood.
I still have memorized all the cheats to Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles (along with all the lock-ons), and Sonic Spinball. And it has been about 5 years since I have seen them , even on an emulator!!!
Damn right – Sonic always will be Epic Win
. I can complete the first game (all emeralds) in about an hour. I can also obtain all 7 emeralds in the first zone of Sonic 2.
It is true that some of the 3D games are not as good (not AS good, but still great to play). Anyone who says that ALL 3D Sonic games suck have obviously never played the Sonic Adventure games which were exceptionally good at the time. Right now I’m starting Sonic Chronicles and it is quite good so far.
Anyone watched Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog or the Sonic SatAM series? They rocked (AoStH was hilarious and SatAM was scary as hell but I loved it
). Sonic X (the UNdubbed anime) was also brilliant to watch too.
Sonic was probably the first known video game I ever played. I do agree that the current developers need to change things, but I know for sure that Sonic is not going anywhere anytime soon
.
I agree with you on all points, my good man. Cheers!
So you learned the “reset cheat” of Sonic 2 as well, did you? I use that to this day
No actually!
it can be done without any cheats!
There are 3 checkpoints in the first act of Emerald Hill and 4 checkpoints in the second act
Enough for 7 Chaos Emeralds (and yes, I have never needed more than one try in one of the special stages now for a long time 
)
Anyone remember the Sonic cartoon? Blue streak, speed of light
“Blue streak, speeds by.
Sonic The Hedgehog, too fast for the naked eye,
sooooooooonic the hedgehog.
Sonic, he can really move,
sonic, he’s got an aaaaaattituuuuude sonic, he’s the fastest thing aliiiiive.
Don’t doubt, what he can do, Sonic the hedgehog,
look out, when he’s on the move,
soooooooonic the hedgehog!
Sonic, he can really move,
Sonic. He’s got an attituuuuuude, sonic,
he’s the fastest thing alive!
The fastest thing alive!”
That was my show back in the day. I totally made a DVD of the first two seasons.
I don’t know why, but I loved watching the end titles everytime. Maybe because Dr Robotnik made me laugh
Genesis Sonic games: Some of the best games of their time. (That’s the reason I still have my old Genesis hooked up. Works perfectly, except for the broken Reset button…)
3D Sonic games: All right to me, I think people hated them more because they weren’t like the old games.
Sonic Unleashed: Night stages are good if you’re looking for an adventure game, daytime stages are awesome. Good controls (unlike Sonic Heroes, I’ll admit!) and fun, fast-paced gameplay. (I’ve only played the Wii version, mind you…)
Sonic Advance series: Awesome. 2D like the old games, hardly anything new, but improved graphics and a bit more of a challenge to get into the special stages. (Plus, Sonic Advance’s tag-team system was fun.)
Sonic Rush series: Fun, 2D with 3D characters, took advantage of both screens by letting you play on both based on your height in the stage. (Not confusing, it flows well.)
-Sonic Rush extra details: Special stages were similar to Sonic 2, game was the first to feature the boost feature like it had. (Somewhat realistic that the characters wouldn’t ALWAYS run at full speed.)
-Sonic Rush Adventure extra details: Similar to Sonic Rush, special stages and finding new areas involve a different system using different boats. (Touchscreen feature.) Special stages were like traveling but you raced a computer character.
-Sonic Chronicles: Pretty fun, but different. Not really a Sonic game like any others, more of an RPG with Sonic characters squeezed in. (The makers pulled it off well, I think.)
Basically, my review of Sonic games is good to excellent, based on the game. I just play games to have fun, I’m not a big “if it doesn’t have this then I don’t like it” gamer in most cases.
As for the shows…
-AoStH: Funny, weird humor. Watched it when I was little.
-SatAM: Blech. Never liked it.
-Sonic Underground: Started watching this about 7 years ago and really liked it. I was disappointed that it ended.
-Sonic X: It was fun to watch while it lasted.
Anyway… I also have an old Knuckles figurine from Jack In The Box. Fun little item. (He was always my favorite character.)
Yeah, Sonic was a big part of my childhood and is still part of my gaming life. Mario helped, too, I never got into the rivalry… But Sonic 1 was the first Sonic game I ever truly owned, and Sonic 2’s my favorite Sonic game of all time.
When I was an older kid they made a Sonic and Tails TV series that came out on video. There used to be ‘morals’ to each episode about things like how you shouldn’t lock animals in the car, etc- a bit like the cheesy Captain Planet ‘lessons’.
That’s AoStH. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Cartoony and somewhat stupid, but fun to watch anyway.
Sonic 2 was the first video game I ever owned. I loved it (and the rest of the games) then and I still love it now. They are just so…awesome! And I agree with jameshogg, the Sonic series is definitely not going anywhere any time soon.
C’mon! Sing along if you know it people!
If you’re strong, you can fly,
You can reach the other side of the rainbooooow…
DAMN SKIPPY! I’ve been waiting for this to show up.
Don’t forget BLAST PROCESSING!
genesis was crap
I just died. This is my ghost typing. you killed me.
Sonic 2 + debug mode = best sleepovers ever!
LOVE all the Genesis games, have Adventure 1 + 2 for Dreamcast but never got into them. My 6 year old nephew LOVES the DC games and is way better at them than I am. I still have my Genesis hooked up and it still works awesome, except for a broken reset button (mentioned above by another poster) I used to have a Nomad but I traded it for a Master System… should have kept the Nomad.
I was the other poster. Good to see that it’s not just my reset button…
I have the Nomad (which was a battery eater, but it was fun on trips when I had the car adapter) and accidentally cracked the screen… Oops. A bit of dust got in, creating an orange spot, but it still plays fine! (I also have the battery pack and wall adapter.)
It’s a shame Sega’s whored him into such incredible crap after as soon as he went 3D. :-/
I think the biggest problem with the 3D Sonic games is that Sonic’s defining characteristic is speed and that just didn’t translate all that well into 3D. I played both Sonic Adventure games and it seemed like I was often putting on the breaks to avoid crashing into a wall or zooming off int the wrong direction instead of zooming around like a spikey blue just-fired cannonball. The concept worked fine in 2D when your choices of where to go basically amounted to forward, backward, up, or down. But if you’re roaming around a 3D environment where you might have to turn left or right from time to time, you’ve got to slow down a little. I haven’t played any of the other 3D Sonics. I’ve heard some are better than others and some are all but unplayable. According to the IGn podcasts, it’s now impossible to get a Sonic game made at Sega without coming up with a gimmick for it like “Sonic changes into a monster at night” or “Sonic has a sword.” But I still remember the 2D games fondly, from the original to Sonic and Knuckles. It’d be nice if Sega could really recapture what made those games work.
If they’d just go with the gameplay from the daytime stages in Sonic Unleashed… Come up with a decent story (doesn’t have to be great) and you have a good game! (I also liked the final battle, especially the last part of it. It reminded me of Doomsday Zone from S&K…)
I like a game with a good story as much as the next person, but for this type of game, I don’t think story is really a necessity. Dr. Robotnik/Eggman is bad and Sonic has to stop him. There you go. New Super Mario Bros was a great game and it only had the thinnest of plotlines. As long as the gameplay is solid and the story avoids romance between hedgehogs and human women, you’re pretty much golden.
I remember in Latchkey, there where two video games. One was the Oregon Trail, later in the year we got Sonic. Each kid had 15 minutes on each, the time increased as kids got picked up..I was always the last kid there >:D and it was awesome.
All the game-y goodness for myself.
I think I may still have my old Sega GameGear locked up in the attic with all my Sonic games (Sonic 2, Chaos, and Triple Trouble). I absolutely LOVED playing them… even though I sucked. :p lol I especially liked playing Tails cuz of the way you could make her tails spin like a helicopter.
btw Tails IS a she, right? I’m skeptical, cuz someone told me Tails was a he…
Is a he actually, but I get your point
I have the mega collection for my gamecube, but I remember playing this on my brother’s genesis, and it just isn’t the same.
Somewhere in the attic we have a beta-test disk. Sega used my dad’s work’s cafeteria as a test pool, and my dad broke in to the machine, got the disk and made a copy. I wish I knew where it was!
Did anyone ever figure out what “Up On CPU” in the Spring Yard Zone actually meant?
I still wonder that to this day. I’m glad someone else had a ‘why’ moment. One of them said “Cope” too… Maybe the Japanese people thought some graphics with English words in it would look cool. I don’t thing it’s supposed to mean anything.
Sonic the Hedgehog was the first game I would stay up all night for when I was a teenager. I bought the game when it was released for the PS2. I bought it for the kids, or at least that is what I told my husband!
Geez, I pretty much grew up on the Sonic games. I still have Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles, Knuckles Chaotix, and Sonic Spinball on the old Genesis! And it still works, but sometimes it likes to erase the files on Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
Also, Tails is a guy. But it’s hard to tell in some of the later games.
Oh man, these are awesome! I just got an old Sega Gen. and have all of the old Sonics for it!
Sonic was the absolute epic summit of 2D side-scrolling console games. The original series is dearly loved by many and well known by even more.
wow… i still have the game memorized! i totally loved the little mini games after each level! and HATED THOSE DAMN BEES!
oh god, it’s sonic. BEST. SIDE. SCROLLING. GAME. EVAR. i remember this and a lion king games on my genesis. loved him, though, yeah they DID kinda screw him up with 3D. but the adventure games were fum too. i think the hardest stages, for me, in sonic were the water ones, in the carnival and the fire pits. been too long, i need to find an emulator wanna play again.
Man I ruled at this game when I was 4 years old. Watching the video made me almost cry from taking me back, all those years ago.
God damnit, if only I still had that game…
omg! sonic the hedgehog was THE FIRST video game i’ve ever played! the farthest i got was to the labyrinth level. it sucked sooo bad when i lost all my lives because i couldn’t save it!
what a bitch, right?
*sigh* those good ol’ days.
Ugh, Labyrinth Zone… it was my bane as well. But even when the game got hard, it was still fun!
Wow, used to play this when I was really little, now it’s on the iPhone. Still as annoying as ever, but I still love it.
o_o they have sonic on the iphone? oh man…this was the jam when i was in high school. wow.
Sonic is so cool, scientists named a protein after him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog
Sonic has been my favorite character since I was 2! AWESOMENESS!
To this day, Sega Genesis remains the only game system I own/have ever owned.
I still have Sonic, and a working Sega Genesis. makes me want to play it.
I grew up on sonic. It wasn’t the same sonic most of you had, mind you. I was freshly five when we got a dreamcast for Christmas… I loved Sonic adventure, and occasionally revisit it, and think to myslef: ‘Holy Crap! That was fun, but sooo… bad.’ True, like all of you have said, Sonic went to crap as soon as he hit the third dimension, Yet oddly, I still love the games. It seems that as soon as our spiky blue friend became acquainted with a certain gelatinous blue blob and sparkly red light, it took on an obsession with being too serious and Final Fantasy like. An ancient god of destruction? Admittedly, I love that story, but ohhhh… I’ll cover the side of me that drives me away. And then sonic adventure two. What? An emo space-cyborg that wants to kill the world because he cant understand a simple sentence? And then he turns good in a spur-of-the-moment decision? I didn’t like the way this one was even set up. I HATED, I repeat, HAAAAAAAATED using tails in his little blue wagon. PLaying evil was good, though. Like the both sides of the fence approach. Sonic Heroes sucks. I’m sorry, It sucked all around, and from every angle. Never played secret rings, please refer to the Final Fantasy comment. That just sounds too outlandish and stupid. Wanted to play the new sonic the hedgehog, but I’m too afraid it would be bad. (could anyone tell me wether it was good or not? I really want to know so i could know wether or not to buy it.) Sonic rush was ok. And then, there it was. Sonic Unleashed. The most stupid, overdramatic, over the top final fantasy opening ever. What? I’m sorry, what? Ok… I gave it a chance, And I loooooooved the daytime levels, but the stretchy, slowly ambling where-hog with its Awful mechanics were too much. And the poor, stereotypical amnesiac Chip just made me want to go on a killing spree.
So in a nutshell-
Sonic the Hedgehog through Sonic 3D Blast
HOLY CRAP zOMG HACKIN AWESOME!
Sonic Adventure I & II
Great games. I love the stories, but like death and taxes, the awful,
drive-your-head-through-the-wall voice overs are unavoidable from here
on out. The stories were truly fantastic, and not too far-fetched yet, but it is slowly degrading. (Well, I take that back. The president and the government? Huh? No. No, no, no, no, no.)
Sonic Heroes
Wait, WHAT HAPPENED TO TAILS!!!!! Nooooo! I actually LIKED his voice!!! D=
I weep over this.
Sonic and the Secret Rings (or whatever the hell it is.)
Oh my gosh. I’m just going to put it down, and walk away.
Sonic the Hedgehog (new)
Should I play it? I totally want to, but I’m still worried about poor little Tails… plus Eggman died. You know, the voice actor. Help, please?
Sonic Unleashed
You know how they always said they were going to fix Sonic? Well, they ALMOST did, except for the…
Moon thingies,
Sun thingies,
The stupid doors those thingies open,
OMG, NIGHT LEVELS,
Chip (aren’t there enough annoying, unidentifiable animal friends?,
The whole running around talking to people thing,
Night Levels,
Night Levels,
Night Levels,
There’s some dark evil in the creamy center of the world? Sounds delicious!
And it induces a species-specific form of Lycanthropy!? Sounds totally original and fresh! Not at all like a washed up JRPG.
Night Levels,
voice acting,
The way night levels are set up (a la Mystic Heroes. Suck game. Don’t waste time.),
and, well, those damned Night levels.
It’s a shame. If there were nothing but day levels, Chip were a figment of my apparently overactive immagination, They found someone who sounded like the old Eggman, started making EGGMAN (not Chaos, Not Erazor Djinn, or that weid blck thing in the middle of the earth) be the bad guy like he was SUPPOSED to be, and just made a continuous stream of stages like the beautiful, precious, vibrant, Oh My GOD awesome daytime levels, they would come up with the most wonderful perfect sonic game.
Oh, and I didn’t count Shadow the Hedgehog due to the fact it was like A Final Fantasy knock-off and Grand Theft Auto had a love-child.
It was… bad.
Lol, Sonichu.
Sonic and Duck Hunt were the games of my early childhood.
Hell, I remember my mom driving me to a Toys R Us that was an hour and a half away from our house just so I could get Sonic’s “autograph” when I was little. I even still have the sonic and tales plushies I had when I was little
Also, it will always be Robotnik. I do not care that Eggman is the original name. You do not mess with nostalgia on that level.
I’ve never played a Sonic game- in my early childhood, I played Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot.
Played this earlier, beat it with all the emeralds and everything. Good stuff.
The Sonic Mega Collection for the XBox is the greatest complilation known to the video game world! Every single classic Sonic game for Sega and Game Gear all on one disc and a handy scroll-down library. Some of the games are locked so you still have some surprises waiting when you mastered the others! As a kid, me and my cousins had grudge matches on 2-player mode, let’s just say a lot of decisions were made based on who won those matches. Buying that was truly a nostalgic win for me, I can relive my Sonic glory days any time I want!