Sonic The Hedgehog Series

Sonic Spinball

Excerpt from Genesis Game Guide by The Scribe

NAME:             Sonic the Hedgehog series (8 titles)
AUTHOR/VENDOR:    Sonic Team/Sega
RELEASED:         various
TYPE:             various
LANGUAGE:         English

PREMISE:          Who would have thought that a fast-paced arcade game
                  about a smart-alecky blue hedgehog and his efforts at
                  preventing the evil Dr. Robotnik from mechanizing the
                  world would have turned into the hit series that it
                  became?  The original is a legend as far as arcade games
                  go, the sequels are for the most part just as good or
                  better, and the venture finally provided Sega with
                  something it desperately needed at the time - a new
                  mascot.  Every Sega plaform since has had at least one
                  Sonic game.

IMPRESSIONS:      Colorful graphics, catchy tunes, and fast gameplay are
                  the standard hallmarks of the Sonic series.  These
                  titles remain as popular as they ever were, with each
                  new entry adding its own particular twists.  The first
                  is a must, and so are most of the others.

VARIATIONS:       Sonic the Hedgehog (1991, the one and only original, and
                    the game that was most responsible for the popularity
                    of the platform - the Japanese version has scrolling
                    clouds in the background)
                  Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992, same idea as before but adds
                    a second player-controllable character in Tails the
                    Fox - this was the most successful G/MD title ever
                    produced, according to Video Gamers Online - the beta
                    version, which has been recently unearthed, includes
                    levels that didn't make it into the commercial release)
                  Sonic Spinball (1993, a pinball game designed around the
                    Sonic franchise that has all the visual appeal of the
                    platform games, but somehow just doesn't wash - there
                    are two different versions, with slight musical
                    variations being the only notable difference)
                  Sonic Crackers (1994, an in-house beta developed by Sega
                    to test several new concepts - only two stages are
                    playable, but this was the first Sonic game to employ
                    the "bungee attack mode" that would be more fully
                    realized in Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X - there are
                    also other elements that were later used in other Sonic
                    games, isometric perspective being a notable one)
                  Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994, the last in the commercially
                    released series of 2D platformers - not designed for
                    speed as before, you encounter a boss at the end of
                    every level, Sonic was redesigned to give him a more
                    fierce look, Knuckles puts in his second appearance
                    in a Sonic game, and has only six very large stages -
                    the MegaDrive release apparently has some different
                    music than the American release, such as when Knuckles
                    first appears)
                  Sonic and Knuckles (1994, Sonic squares off against Dr.
                    Robotnik's newest henchman, Knuckles the enchindia -
                    this employed a special "lock-on" pass-through design
                    that allowed you to plug in Sonic 2 or 3 and play them
                    as either Sonic or Knuckles - you're in for a bit of a
                    surprise if you try using Sonic 1 with it - this is
                    considered by some Sonic fans as the best of the
                    original 16-bit side scroller series)
                  Sonic 3D Blast (1996, also known as Flicky's Island in
                    Europe - Sonic travels to the island of the Flickies
                    to save them from Dr. Robotnik - in part inspired by
                    old Sega platform arcade game Flicky - the first
                    commercially released Sonic game to make use of
                    isometric perspective, which takes a lot of adjustment
                    for fans of the series)
                  Sonic Classics 3-in-1 (1996, combines the first two
                    Sonic Games and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine into
                    a single cart)

                  Also released around the same time was Kunckles Chaotix
                  for the 32X and Sonic CD for the Sega CD.  As a side
                  note, Dr. Robotnik is known as Dr. Eggman in Japan due to
                  his appearance, and the nickname has been quickly
                  accepted over on this side of "the pond."

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