In today’s modern gaming world anything is possible, players no longer need to use their imagination to immerse themselves into the game when it looks as realistic as life. But being a 22 year old gamer Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 were not my introduction into games. I want to take you back to a pixelated world where soundtracks were midi files instead of orchestral scores and we fell in love with a fat moustachioed plumber and the fastest animal to don a pair of red sneakers.
I want to talk about my favourite game series of this time, Sonic the hedgehog on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive. Compared to its more recent instalments the old sonic games were simple side scrolling levels that can be completed in anything from 20 seconds to about 3 minutes. But the short playing time does not take anything away from it. Arguable the best game in the old Sonic series was Sonic 3.
The evil Dr Robotnic… that’s Robotnic not Eggman!!!! Has found a secret hidden floating island in the sky inhabited by a naive echidna named Knuckles, and corrupted this hot headed brawler that the blue streak on the horizon is an evil hedgehog that wants to steal the secret of the islands floating power, the mysterious Master emerald.
When our hero Sonic and his twin tailed companion Miles “Tails” Prower land they are ambushed by Knuckles and their own Chaos emeralds are stolen.
As you take control of sonic you must retrieve your chaos emeralds back by entering secret zones and fight Robotnics machines and the fat man himself while knocking back Knuckles when he attempts to stop you. While Robotnic uses the time that Knuckles is distracted to steal the islands power for himself.
The controls are simple and there’s no CG cutscenes but this is a beautifully bright, fast paced and entertaining game. This was one of the first games where progress was saved which was revolutionary at the time especially as it worked all the time! I have moaned many times in recent years after I have beaten a final boss and found my progress wasn’t saved and I know I’m not alone here.
To add to the fun this game could be combined to the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge and the story continued but to find out what happens you will have to play yourself on a re-release compilation. For others this is a great trip down memory lane and triggers floods of memories from other classic games of childhood some of which I intend to write about.
It has a completion time less than an hour but if you want to take yourself back to the time when you were 6 or if you would just like to enjoy a simple quick game that doesn’t cost £50 find a copy download from xbox live or dig that old console out from the attic and take a super sonic trip down memory lane.
