There is much excitement over the recent announcement of a new Sonic the Hedgehog game that goes back to the old Mega Drive (Genesis if you are in the US!) format of fast, 2d platform games. The simple but very fun gameplay ended up the defining series of games of a whole generation of gamers and became legendary among people of all age groups.
The first place Sonic popped up was on the Master System, which was the first major Sega gaming system, and the Mega Drive followed on from this. Sonic became the mascot for all of Sega’s operations, with a huge merchandising campaign behind him. The games improved greatly each time, with the Mega Drive ones being a massive step up. Sonic 1 and 2 set the benchmark, and the second one especially was brilliant. Then they set themselves new high standards on Sonic 3, with some amazing gameplay and graphics with lots of extra features. The lock on technology introduced with Sonic and Knuckles bought even more value from the older Sonic games as it bought in new characters and levels for these games. However when the Mega Drive met its end Sonic games started to lose their quality.
They made Sonic into 3D after the Mega Drive. On systems like the Dreamcast all the way up to the latest consoles, however these games got very poor reviews, and did not at all live up to expectations, leaving a lot of people disappointed. After the launch title for the PS3 “Sonic the Hedgehog” changed things completely, putting Sonic on earth and making it into a role playing game, many had lost hope of ever seeing a good Sonic game again. It was always seen that the Sonic Mega Drive games were the best and that they would never be beaten.
But with the recent announcement of Sonic 4, a direct sequel to Sonic 3 on the Mega Drive from way back in 1994, it looks as though this disappointment is about to change. The game will have all of the old best features of a Sonic game – the bosses, the enemies, the music, the gameplay and so much more. It is essentially a Mega Drive game, but in HD.
The game will be episodic, so there is no real limit to the amount that can be released. Episode 1 is out in the summer, and is released as a downloadable game on the Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Wii. It will introduce a new generation of kids to Sonic, as some will have never played it before! As a precursor to the new game, the “Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection” was released on the 360 and PS3 last year, including most of the Sonic games, and on the Nintendo DS the “Classic Sonic Collection” is out, which has all of the major games from that era as well. A clever marketing move, generating interest in the games again before the new release.
But for anyone who used to play Sonic back in the 90s, it is a very exciting prospect to see a new game on the horizon!
Ian Collins has as website Techie Reviews where you can read more about technology.
