Page Two - The Career Continuim !!!
Sonic the Hedgehog entered the entire gaming world with his debut on Sega Genesis in June of 1991. His incredible speed and confident attitude became legendary as children from around the world fell in love with this blue dude with a 'tude. Created by Yuji Naka and the "Sonic Team" in Japan, "Sonic The Hedgehog" was a huge success which led to record-breaking sales not only in Japan, but in Europe and the United States as well. Not only did Sonic help make the name for genesis BUT Sonic made his debut in portable gaming as well with the launch of "Sonic The Hedgehog" on Game Gear in December of 1991.
Sonic's second video game, appropriately titled "Sonic The Hedgehog 2," released in November 1992 for both the Sega Genesis and Game Gear. The sequel delivered all the excitement of the first game and more and continues to remain as one of the best selling videogames of all time! For starters, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was twice the meg size of the first game, giving fans more levels with brighter, crisper and more detailed worlds. Best of all, Sonic introduced his new friend, Miles "Tails" Prower. Tails, a very special two-tailed fox with the ability to use his twin tails to fly, is always helps Sonic out and is adept at collecting rings.
By now Sonic's popularity was soaring - he even had a three story balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! With millions of fans around the world, his mega-success lead to his very own Sonic Comic book which released in July of 1993. There are two versions of the Sonic Comic that exist - one in England produced by Egmont Fleetway and one in America produced by Archie. HOWEVER it is the Archie Comic that is most noted as it CONTINUES to be one of the best selling comics today outselling many of the superhero books. In fact the Archie Sonic Comic is the ONLY Sonic product in America that's been marketed on a continuing basis for the past six years, exception being the games themselves. It was harder than ever to keep up with our hedgehog superstar in '93 because he also began starring in TWO television cartoon in September - Adventures Of Sonic the Hedgehog ( Aimed more towards the kiddies) and a Saturday Morning cartoon, Sonic The Hedgehog (Which is widely like by more fans than the latter). Sega also released two more games in November of that same year! November 1993 brought Sonic fans "Sonic Spinball" on Sega Genesis and "Sonic Chaos" on Game Gear. Sonic Spinball broke away from the traditional games in a video pinball style...with a Sonic twist. It propelled players through a series of great pinball worlds, packed with hidden rooms. Sonic and Tails teamed up yet again in "Sonic Chaos" on Game Gear. Pit against their arch-nemesis, Dr. Robotnik, they blazed through six different zones of three acts (and six Bonus areas) in their quest for the Chaos Emeralds.
1994 can easily be called THE MOST PRODUCTIVE YEAR in Sonic history!!! Next in the sonic series came Sonic 3 which introduced the well known Knuckles The Echidna to the family! "Sonic 3" was the most user-friendly Sonic game to date and with six huge zones each composed of two acts with Special Stages, Bonus Rounds and a new set of options. It was the newest Sonic game, graphics and gameplay had improved marginally and the Sonic games were on top again! By February 1994, fans equated Sonic games with the next level in exceptional gaming and "Sonic The Hedgehog 3" didn't disappoint. October of 1994 brought more excitement with the release of "Sonic & Knuckles" offering the same great gameplay as its predecessors in addition to new moves, new lands, new characters and new evil machines from the original bad egg, Dr. Robotnik. Best of all the two-player head-to-head competition mode offered players the choice of playing as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles as they competed against each other. "Sonic And Knuckles also set about the the conclusion of the 2-part storyline set about in Sonic 3. It even brought for the new Lock On Technology that allowed HUGE abouts of replay value from Sonic Spinball, Sonic 1, and Sonic 2! And Combined with Sonic 3 you could see the whole storyline unfold even more! On October 17, 1994 Sega teamed up with MTV to give the world its first glimpse of their revolutionary technology. A huge event, "Rock the Rock" was filmed at Alcatraz, the world-famous prison island near San Francisco, California. Fifty global gamers (culled from a field of more than 100,000) competed for the title of the World's Best Video Game Player and for a $25,000 grand prize. It was at this sensational event that the top-secret "Lock-On" technology in Sonic & Knuckles on Sega Genesis was unveiled. By plugging the Sonic & Knuckles game into the Sega Genesis along with either Sonic 2 or Sonic 3, Sega created Lock-On technology. This technology introduced Knuckles into the games! The technology meant new pathways, obstacles, power-ups, hidden areas and other goodies. 1994 also presented what fans call one of THE GREATEST Sonic games to date - Sonic CD. Even though it was hindered by the dismal failure of the Sega CD, Sonic CD had over 60 levels of adventure, as Sonic fans battled Robotnik and his henchmen as they traveled through the past, present and future. Introducing Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, and the Time Stones this is the first and only Sonic game to come out for Sega CD, with new characters, 3 endings, and anime entrances and closing! The future depends on whether you trash Robotnik's roboticizer in the past of each act; if you do, the future will be a good future where the animals are allowed to run free. If not, it will be a bad future where Robotnik is allowed to run amok. If you get the Roboticizers in the past of every act, you will see the good ending of the game. Otherwise, you'll see the bad ending...But the BEST part of this game was the race between Sonic and Metal Sonic - fast paced fun at its best! October also brought "Sonic The Hedgehog Triple Trouble" to Game Gear. Sonic and Tails faced three times the danger in this fast-paced Game Gear game. Knuckles was back along with Robotnik and an Emerald-grabbing treasure hunter named "Nack the Weasel." With 18 levels of fun and action, Sonic brought fans triple the adventure too!
On October 17, 1994 Sega teamed up with MTV to give the world its first glimpse of their revolutionary technology. A huge event, "Rock the Rock" was filmed at Alcatraz, the world-famous prison island near San Francisco, California. Fifty global gamers (culled from a field of more than 100,000) competed for the title of the World's Best Video Game Player and for a $25,000 grand prize. It was at this sensational event that the top-secret "Lock-On" technology in Sonic & Knuckles on Sega Genesis was unveiled. By plugging the Sonic & Knuckles game into the Sega Genesis along with either Sonic 2 or Sonic 3, Sega created Lock-On technology. This technology introduced Knuckles into the games! The technology meant new pathways, obstacles, power-ups, hidden areas and other goodies.
1994 also presented what fans call one of THE GREATEST Sonic games to date - Sonic CD. Even though it was hindered by the dismal failure of the Sega CD, Sonic CD had over 60 levels of adventure, as Sonic fans battled Robotnik and his henchmen as they traveled through the past, present and future. Introducing Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, and the Time Stones this is the first and only Sonic game to come out for Sega CD, with new characters, 3 endings, and anime entrances and closing! The future depends on whether you trash Robotnik's roboticizer in the past of each act; if you do, the future will be a good future where the animals are allowed to run free. If not, it will be a bad future where Robotnik is allowed to run amok. If you get the Roboticizers in the past of every act, you will see the good ending of the game. Otherwise, you'll see the bad ending...But the BEST part of this game was the race between Sonic and Metal Sonic - fast paced fun at its best! October also brought "Sonic The Hedgehog Triple Trouble" to Game Gear. Sonic and Tails faced three times the danger in this fast-paced Game Gear game. Knuckles was back along with Robotnik and an Emerald-grabbing treasure hunter named "Nack the Weasel." With 18 levels of fun and action, Sonic brought fans triple the adventure too!
Although he wasn't in it himself, in March 1995 Sonic's friends (and foes) appeared in another revolutionary game "Knuckles Chaotix" on the 32X. What made Chaotix revolutionary was the technology that allowed players to hook characters together in totally new ways. It tethered two characters together, giving players twice the talents of any one character. HOWEVER while this game in itself is pretty good and DEFINETELY worth playing it is also noted that this is the time that begins Sega's decline. And when Sega declines Sonic slowly goes with it...In November of 1995 came the introduction of Sonic's "Sonic Labyrinth" and "Sonic Drift 2" - two very different and challenging games. Sonic Drift 2 featured Sonic and six of his friends and enemies in their souped-up vehicles and included some super- fast action racing. However Sonic Labyrinth depicted a slowed down Sonic. In this game Dr. Robotnik tricked Sonic into wearing harmless-looking boots that slowed down any creature who wore them - of course Sonic was only slowed down temporarily!
1996 was probably the worst year for Sonic since his inception. Although things looked bright early on with the promise of Sonic X-Treme, the first real Sonic game on Sega Saturn, the cancellation of said game only to be replaced by the mediocre Sonic 3D Blast was the death blow for the Saturn. Sonic was the system's last chance, and since he'd been cancelled, there was no remaining hope. It was supposed to be the Saturn's major flagship game, but without the guidance of Yuji Naka and the Sonic Team (who were busy with NiGHTS at the time), X-Treme apparently wasn't shaping-up so hot, and some Japanese Sega execs pulled the plug on the game. It was being designed by Sega Technical Institute...an American team who also developed Spinball, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3, but had Sonic Team support on the latter two. Basically, the gameplay was going to be like Bug!, only without being confined to paths. The most disturbing yet almost astonishing feature was the "wrap-around" camera view, which looked like viewing through one of those peep-holes on doors. The idea was to give the player a full view at all times, but really made the game look weird. One of the more heartening features was Sonic's major list of new moves...The most noticable was the ability to throw Rings, which is VERY novel ! Each Zone was also like the Chaotix Special Stages...you could run up each wall because there was no center of gravity. Basically, each level was designed almost in a tubular aspect! Truly, STI took some innovative steps to moving to a 3D world, but it was all too left-field to attach the "Sonic" name to. It might've been a good game (it sure looked it, anyway), but apparently not good enough for the Sonic name....Still, 3D Blast's gameplay was solid, if not revolutionary, and Sonic Championship was a worthwhile fighter from AM2, the masters of that genre. Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polarbear were introduced into Sonicland in 1996, although Bean was heavily taken from the characters "Bin" and "Pin" in the early Sega arcade game Dynamite Dux.
HOWEVER there was one good thing to come out of this year as Sonic CD was released on the PC for those who did not get the failed Sega CD. Sonic Blast, also known as G-Sonic in Japan, on the Sega Game Gear was released in the USA and Europe. It was teh first game gear game to be FULLY rendered and featured a plot DIFFERENT from that of its Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn predecessors
1997 shedded a special new hope on Sonic's future, as the original Sonic Team (including Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima) have been given back their creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. Now that a great deal of the commercialism has been sapped out of the Blue Blur, he can return to what he was meant to be in the first place: a work of videogame art. Even Sonic R, which was programmed by Traveller's Tales, had a healthy dosage of Sonic Team influence in it. 1997 saw the introduction of two new Sonic characters...Metal Knuckles and the creepy Tails Doll, robot counterparts in the vein of Metal Sonic!!!! 1997 also saw the release of the Sonic And Knuckles Collection - Sonic 3 and Sonic And Knuckles released for the PC!
We are now knee deep into 1998, and for the longest time there was still no sign of any new Sonic games until 1999 (barring a PC conversion of popular Sonic R racing game). 1998 has had its vapor trails but it hasn't gone by completely fruitless. This is the first year in America that has gone by without a single NEW Sonic game, the first since the Blue Blur's debut in 1991 BUT it seems as if the Hedgehog has come out of his restful hibernation and is back in the hands of videogamers EVERYWHERE - Japan saw the first release of Sonic 3D: Flicky's Island, the Japanese Translation of European developer Travellers Tales Sonic 3D Blast as well as something completely brand new and OUT OF THIS WORLD. The Sega Dreamcast - a WHOPPING 128-BIT SYSTEM with modem capabilities!!! Starting off a bit slow even with a near ARCADE PERFECT Virtua Fighter 3tb (which got extremely high ratings among critics), a clunky Godzilla game, and a penguin racing game it seems that Sega has FINALLY gotten into its sometimes thick heads what the gaming populace wants as they released Sonic Adventure - Yuji Naka's masterpiece...And the Dreamcast hasn't been the same since. Sonic Adventure is one of the FEW titles to have gotten a PERFECT RATING from the highly regarded japanese magazine Famitsu, and while we Americans and Europeans may have to wait until September 1999 to see a new Sega system AS WELL AS a new Sonic Game AS WELL AS a new Sonic Team 'Nights 2' game AS WELL AS unfound rumors of other sonic games in the works it looks like the last year in the century is gonna turn out just fine...And believe us - it'll be well worth the wait !!!
Click below for our finale section - The Sonic Origins....
Page Three - The Origins Zone !!!
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