Sonic: A History - From South Island to Cosmic Eternity

Written by James Dauer  on March 20, 2006

Specials: Sonic runs a marathon...

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2001:

Ten years after the original Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA was attempting a total Sonic revival with mixed results. On one hand, the most die-hard fans were eating up Sonic Adventure and craving more, while on the other hand, the Dreamcast just wasn't selling as hot as SEGA would have liked. The writing was on the wall for the Dreamcast, if SEGA couldn't pull out something big, Sonic might not have another Sonic Adventure-sized comeback.

Working night and day, Sonic Team was busy putting together their piece de resistance, the Sonic game to end all Sonic games: Sonic Adventure 2. The Team even gave Sonic another makeover with the new complicated SOAP shoes, useful for grinding random rails and looking cool. The release day was an event every Sonic fan (who was there, anyway) will remember for years to come. SEGA was practically throwing a Sonic birthday party when they released the Special Birthday Edition of Sonic Adventure 2, only everyone else was getting the presents and they had to pay for them, which is kind of lame when you think about it, but at least the extra soundtrack and history book that came with Sonic Adventure 2 SE were cool. Unfortunately the game didn't fare so well. Sonic Adventure 2 was cleanly divided into three play styles with two separate stories. Players could now play as the good guys or the bad guys, each with their own perspective on the same tale. Sonic Adventure 2 was the first time players could play as Eggman in the series' history.

Also, Sonic Adventure 2 featured two new characters, Shadow the Hedgehog, and the creepy, УsexyФ Rouge the Bat. To this day I'll never understand why a Sonic game was trying to have sex appeal. Sonic Adventure 2 threw out the hub world of Sonic Adventure in favor of the old stage-based play the fans remembered. The problem was that while the Sonic/Shadow speed levels were tons of fun with the new ability to grind rails, the Tails/Eggman shooting levels were only moderately fun. All this left was the Knuckles/Rouge treasure search levels which didn't belong at all in any Sonic game. Instead of being based on speed, these search stages often took the full 10 minutes to complete. Imagine a video game about trying to find where you put your keys during the previous heavy night of drinking, complete with hangover, all while you're about to be late for work and you have the overall feel of the Knuckles/Rouge levels. Critically the game was a mild success, It suffered from the same camera issues of Sonic Adventure and too many people couldn't accept the level of mediocrity to which the shooting and searching stages took the game.

Sadly, Sonic Adventure would be the last time Sonic would appear on a SEGA-released system. The Dreamcast died soon after with the release of the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox. Sega, was forced to leave the console business and focus strictly on making only videogames for the new generation of consoles.

2002:

It was a new age for Sonic in 2002. With SEGA as we knew it being gone, Sonic was now an orphaned mascot with no single system to call home. Still, fans loved the blue hedgehog and his friends and wanted more, so SEGA, now a free 3rd party agent, was about to drop a bombshell: The next Sonic game was going to release its long-time competitor's system. In February of 2002, Sonic Advance released on the Game Boy Advance and it left fans quite a bit excited. The game took lesson from the originals by bringing the series back to the 2D run-fest that made Sonic so lovable in the first place.

Sonic Advance let players choose from the now familiar Sonic four, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose as playable characters. The game played like a traditional Sonic game in the vein of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where the entire point of the game was to just have fun and enjoy the rollercoaster ride through.

With Sonic Advance being the first new Sonic on a portable Nintendo system, the console Sonic series was about to make the same quantum leap. Just one week after Sonic Advance hit stores, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle appeared on the Nintendo GameCube. The game was basically a glorified port of The game with new 2 player vs. modes, and slightly better graphics.

Come November of the same year, Sonic Mega Collection was released, being the first time Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Sonic and Knuckles could be played on a Nintendo system. The game also featured some other SEGA classics such as Ristar, Flicky, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, a fun Sonic version of the terribly addictive Puyo Pop puzzle game. Sonic had found a new home on his rival neighbor's system and everything was starting to look up for the hedgehog.

2003:

The next year helped continue the series' good luck. With Sonic now being established on Nintendo, SEGA released another Sonic Advance on Nintendo's popular portable. Sonic Advance 2 gave the series a more stylish flare, while cranking the difficulty up to 11. The sequel marks the first time Cream the Rabbit appeared in a game. In a stroke of genius, the dev team behind Sonic Advance 2, Dimps, made the game even more about speed than before. Players now had more rails to grind, new ramps and mid-air tricks to pull, and all the speed and excitement of Sonic Advance in a longer more action-packed installment.

Later in the year Sonic had two more portable adventures. Sonic Pinball Party on the Game Boy Advance was a collection of Sonic Team based pinball boards ranging from Sonic the Hedgehog to their cult Dreamcast classic Samba De Amigo. Sonic also found his way to another portable system, the Nokia N-Gage in a lackluster port of Sonic Advance titled Sonic N.

On the console scene, SEGA released another remake, this time of the original Sonic Adventure. The remake, titled Sonic Adventure DX actually suffered from more problems than the original had. Still, it came complete with most of the Game Gear Sonic games as unlockable bonuses, as well as a playable Metal Sonic and a few extra side missions. Not too shabby if you've never played the original.

2004:

It had been two years since the last original Sonic console game, so in early January Sonic Team stepped up and presented Sonic Heroes, a spiritual successor to the Sonic Adventure series. The game first released on the GameCube and was then ported over to the PS2 and Xbox by the end of the month. Sonic Heroes was an attempt to bring the game back to its roots by throwing out the shooting and hunting elements of Sonic Adventure and sticking solely to the speed stages. Players could choose between four teams with four different storylines. The teams ranged from Team Sonic which featured Sonic, Tales, and Knuckles; Team Dark featuring Rouge, Shadow, and E123 Omega (essentially E-102 Gamma from Sonic Heroes with a slightly different character design); Team Rose featuring Amy Rose, Big the Cat, and in her first console debut, Cream the Rabbit; and lastly Team Chaotix featuring Vector the Crocodile, Charmy the Bee, and Espio the Chameleon, all three of whom had appeared in the spin off game Knuckles Chaotix on the 32X.

Each team had three sets of formations, speed, flight, and power. The player would have to switch between each formation to make it past the many traps and obstacles in order to complete each level. The game also brought back the special stages that had been gone from the console games since Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The special stages play out almost exactly like the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 stages, only instead of collecting a certain number of rings to get an emerald, players had to run as fast as possible down a tube to catch the emerald as it floats away.

Later in the year the PS2 and Xbox both got special editions of the GameCube's Sonic Mega Collection, titled Sonic Mega Collection Plus. Besides having all of the same games from the original collection, Plus featured almost every single Sonic Game Gear game as well as two unlockable SEGA classics, Comix Zone and The Ooze, both of which were removed from the original collection when it made its trip overseas.

On the portable front, the Sonic Advance series continued into Sonic Advance 3 which featured a new partnering system. This system let players select two characters from a possible five (the same five that were in Sonic Advance 2). Depending on the order they were picked, each character gave different types of aid, be it Knuckle's gliding ability, to Tail's ability to carry his partner.


2005:

2005 saw only one new Sonic game release. The pseudo 2D Sonic Rush for the new Nintendo DS brought two new faces to the scene. The first was Blaze the Cat, who's attitude is somewhere between Knuckles and Espio. The second is the evil Eggman Nega, who looks just like Eggman, but is supposedly from an alternate universe. The game also added a new move to Sonic's repertoire: the rush attack. This move would make Sonic break out into a super fast run, causing anything in his path to be destroyed from enemies to spikes. The game also brought back the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 special stages, but added the DS' touch screen capabilities to keep things new. Surprisingly, the special stages are just that much more fun when controlled with a stylus. It's a little easy to get bored with the strange tale of multi-dimensional travel, though.

Sonic fans got their wish for a port of Sonic CD when the Sonic Gems collection was released for the GameCube in August. The compilation primarily featured SEGA CD's Sonic CD, complete with the American soundtrack no thanks to licensing issues, the arcade brawler Sonic the Fighters, and the Sega Saturn's racing title Sonic R. The game also featured more unlockable Game Gear Sonic games including Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Triple Trouble.

One other notable release of 2005 was the spin-off game Shadow the Hedgehog which released simultaneously on the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox. The game showcased Sonic's moody friend Shadow the Hedgehog as he zoomed along Sonic-style levels with a gun. The game was a completely different take on the Sonic series and was the first ever T rated game from the Sonic universe.

Today:

15 years after Sonic the Hedgehog, things have certainly changed for the blue speedster. No one could have predicted that Sonic's entire works could be played not only on a Nintendo system, but every major console of this generation. Even PC gamers can log into Turner Broadcasting's Gametap.com and play any of Sonic's Genesis titles as well as a number of Sonic's Game Gear games. As was mentioned before Sonic will be expanding his racing career in the new hoverboard racer, Sonic Riders due later this month. Sonic Riders looks to expand the Sonic universe by adding a handful of new characters, sure to show up in later games. Also, there is an unnamed Sonic game in the works for the next-gen systems of tomorrow featuring awesome graphics and some amazing in game physics thanks to the Havoc system (a popular realistic physics system used in games such as Half Life 2).

Sonic certainly has been through a lot in the past decade and a half. From the initial fame and popularity that met him through Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3, to the bankruptcy of his home company and the change over to becoming a 3rd party icon. Sonic has managed to last even when the companies handling his franchise have suffered severe loss after severe loss, all while landing an endearing spot in the heart of every gamer around the world. I may not be psychic, but I think we'll be seeing Sonic for a long time to come, and it will be exciting to see the many changes made to the series as it grows and evolves alongside popular culture. And why not? After all, sometimes we could all use the help from a really fast blue hedgehog with an attitude and his rag-tag band of animal friends.

Thanks for reading the History of Sonic the Hedgehog. I'd like to thank the folks over at The Green Hill Zone for their very helpful Sonic Museum. Without it, I probably couldn't have kept the releases of all of the games in order. Good work, guys.