Why I Love Sonic

An article that tells about why I still love Sonic The Hedgehog to this day.
On
May 22, 2008
Hi, everybody. sonic64 here again with another great article for everyone to check out. I recently did one of the Blue Bomber (Mega Man), so now I decided to do an article of the Blue Blur himself...


Sonic The Hedgehog AKA "The Blue Blur"


Sonic the Hedgehog is (to me) the greatest video-game hero of all time! Even since he made his grand debut in 1991, he was easily recognized by millions and was the number one rival of Nintendo's trademark hero, Mario. And ever since, I just couldn't help but love him and any game he appeared in. Let me tell you about the how he played an important role in my life over the years..

I was seven years old when I first played a Sonic game. In 1993, I was at the house of a friend of my mom's and their son let me play his Sega Genesis. The first game I tried on it was "Sonic The Hedgehog", and after playing it, I was hooked! It was really easy to play; Sonic had to reach the end of each stage while collecting rings and destroying robots that had small animals inside them. At the end of each third Act, Sonic fought his arch-enemy, Dr. Robotnik (called Dr. Eggman to this day). He also had to collect powerful gems called "Chaos Emeralds" before Robotnik did in order to beat most of the games properly. Every time I hear the Green Hill Zone level theme play, I immediately think back to when I first played this game...


"Sonic The Hedgehog" on the Sega Genesis - The first Sonic gave I've played in my entire life.


Shortly after, I saw a couple pages of the Sonic comic-book series by Archie Comics. When I first read it, it seemed good at first; there was even a TV show based on the comics as well. I then realized that there was already a TV show based on the games called "Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog" and I enjoyed this show more than I did the other one, even though both cartoons had Jaleel White (known for playing Steve Urkel from "Family Matters") as the voice of the Blue Blur, which I thought was cool, especially since I know who he is.


Jaleel White, the original voice of the Blue Blur.


In 1994, I played "Sonic Spinball" on a Sega Genesis that I got from a rental store. It was really simple to play because it was a pinball game with a bit of platforming involved.


"Sonic Spinball" on the Sega Genesis - The game that came with the Genesis I rented.


A few weeks later, I rented "Sonic The Hedgehog 3", and I really enjoyed it from the start, even though I did poorly at the bonus stages at first. It was the first game I played where you get to play as Sonic's best friend, Tails; it was also the game that had the debut of Knuckles the Echidna, who at first was an enemy of Sonic and Tails until we found out he was duped by Dr. Eggman (He was like that in "Sonic Triple Trouble" on the Game Gear as well, which came out before "Sonic & Knuckles").


"Sonic The Hedgehog 3" on the Sega Genesis - The game that Knuckles debuted.


I kept the Sega Genesis until it was taken back. Luckily, another friend of my mom's had a Sega Game Gear and he let me play it. One of the games he had with it was "Sonic The Hedgehog 2", and it was hard yet fun to play. I thought it was the same one on Sega Genesis, even though I've never really played it before.


"Sonic The Hedgehog 2" on the Sega Game Gear - Not to be mistaken for the Genesis game.


In 1996, after I moved to a new house, I stayed at one of my friend's house and I finally had a chance to play the Sega Genesis version of "Sonic The Hedgehog 2". I really enjoyed that more than I did the Game Gear version, and it was the first Sonic game that I knew how to collect the Chaos Emeralds in.


"Sonic The Hedgehog 2" on the Sega Genesis - The first Sonic gave I've beaten.


In 1998, after Christmas was over, I bought myself a Sega Genesis and a couple of Sonic games with it as well. One of the games I bought was "Sonic Classics", which contained the first two Sonic games on the Genesis and a puzzle game called "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine", which was very fun and addictive; the other game I bought was "Sonic The Hedgehog 3". Shortly after, I rented another Sonic game called "Sonic 3-D Blast" and it is really fun to play (even though it wasn't really made by the people who made the other Sonic games). I kept my Sega Genesis until I got a Nintendo 64 in 2001 (Luckily for me, I was able to buy another one at a yard sale in the late summer of 2007).


"Sonic 3-D Blast " on the Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn - A Sonic game NOT developed by Sonic Team.


Ever since I got rid of my first Genesis, I hardly paid anymore attention to Sonic, even after seeing a new cartoon called "Sonic Underground", which had absolutely nothing to do with the games.


"Sonic Underground" - The only Sonic cartoon that was bad.
Before that time, in 1999, my cousin got a Sega Dreamcast for Christmas and it came with a demo disk that had the first level of a game called "Sonic Adventure". After trying it out, I thought Sonic was even cooler than he was before (or in this case, AS cool as he was before). In "Sonic Adventure", all the characters looked a lot cooler and there were plenty of new characters as well, including Big the Cat (whom I thought was cool because of the way he talked). It was also that game that I was introduced to Amy Rose, a cute pink hedgehog who's madly in love with Sonic ever since she debuted in the game "Sonic CD" (which I never played until later in my life). Around that time, Sega was almost out of business and the only way they could stay in business was to make games for other systems, including the Nintendo Gamecube.


Amy Rose and Big The Cat - Two Sonic characters I still like to this day.


One day, shortly after my birthday in 2002, I found and bought a pack of Sonic games for the PC. It contained: "Sonic & Knuckles Collection", "Sega Smash Pack 2", "Sonic CD", and "Sonic R". They were all very fun to play (except for the PC version of "Sonic CD", because it messed up the computer when you had to adjust the color setting when playing it). "Sonic & Knuckles Collection" contained three Sonic games on the Sega Genesis ("Sonic The Hedgehog 3", "Sonic & Knuckles", and "Sonic 3 & Knuckles"), "Sega Smash Pack 2" consisted of multiple games on the Sega Genesis to play ("Vectorman 2", "Sonic The Hedgehog 2", "Comix Zone", "Kid Chameleon", "Shining Force", "Super Hang-On", and "Flicky"), and "Sonic R" was a perfect port of the Sega Saturn game (I loved this game the most because of the music; of all my life, I've hardly ever played a game with actual singing heard).

For Christmas that year, I got a Nintendo Gamecube (I wanted one after "Sonic Mega Collection" was released, which was a collection of all the Sonic games on the Sega Genesis). I didn't get any games with it, so I rented some after I bought my first game for it. "Sonic Adventure 2 Battle" was one of the games I rented and I had a blast playing it. Not counting "Sonic Adventure 2" on the Sega Dreamcast, It had the debut of characters like Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, and the series then became a bit more serious than it did before, which I thought was cool. In the summer of 2003, I had my money saved up and I got the game myself.



Shadow The Hedgehog and Rouge The Bat - Two really cool Sonic characters.


Shortly after that, there was a new TV show called "Sonic X" that came on, and I enjoyed every minute of it ever since I saw the first episode. The show may not have had the original voice actors from the games, but I thought the actors who played them in the show really good. The show itself was based on the games a lot better that the other shows before it, and that's why I liked it in the first place.


"Sonic X" - The best Sonic cartoon since "Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog" (to me, anyway).


I then bought "Sonic Advance 2" on the Game Boy Advance when I got my first paycheck from my first job around that time as well. It's a really great game, and it had the debut of Cream the Rabbit and her Chao, Cheese.



Cream and Cheese - Two cute Sonic characters to debut in "Sonic Advance 2".


After New Year's Day passed, I bought a copy of "Sonic Adventure DX" on the Nintendo Gamecube and it was mainly a so-so remake of "Sonic Adventure" on the Sega Dreamcast. One thing that made it special, however, were the Game Gear games you could unlock as you played through the game, which I missed out on over the years (except for "Sonic Drift" and "Tails' Sky Patrol", which were two Sonic games that were never released in the US back then). Afterwards, I kept on buying every other Sonic game for every system I own that came out, including "Sonic Heroes" and "Sonic Rush".



"Sonic Drift" and "Tails' Sky Patrol" - Two Sonic games on the Game Gear that never came out in the US.


In 2004 (a few months after I bought "Sonic Advance 3"), I learned that the guy who did the voice of Dr. Eggman (Deem Bristow) in the games passed away. And for that reason, every new Sonic game has the voice actors from "Sonic X" playing the same characters they played in the show. The first Sonic game to have this happening was "Shadow The Hedgehog" (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox), the game that has Shadow as the hero (and the only character you play as well). After playing it, I was really stoked when I learned that what I heard was true.


"Shadow The Hedgehog" on the Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, and Xbox - A great game to play.


In 2007, Sega had released a game that had Sonic and Mario in it together. The game is "Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games", and it was released on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. It was about the Mario characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Wario, Waluigi, and Bowser) and the Sonic characters (Sonic The Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles The Echidna, Amy Rose, Dr. Eggman, Shadow The Hedgehog, Vector The Crocodile, and Blaze The Cat) competing each other in Olympic events based on those of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Depending on the system you play it on, it's worth getting. (BTW, in case you forgot, Mario and Sonic appear together again in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" on the Nintendo Wii.)


It's finally happened: Mario and Sonic appear in the same game together.


Even though every Sonic game is fun to play, not every game was perfect. In fact, there were only three Sonic games that weren't that fun to play because of sloppy controls and/or choppy graphics : the Game Gear version of "Sonic Spinball", the GBA remake of the first Sonic game (entitled "Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis"), and (of course) "Sonic The Hedgehog" on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The first two were ports that were best played on the original system they were on, and the third game was just a new kind of Sonic game that was released just in time for the 15th anniversary of Sega's beloved video-game hero; it had good graphics and sound, but lousy gameplay and slightly loose controls.


"Sonic Spinball" on the Sega Game Gear - One the worst games ever made.


Other than that, every other game Sonic and friends were in is really fun to play, no matter what anyone says about them. Sonic has always been a great video-game hero to me, and that's why I'll alway love him.

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