Retro|Spective 061R: Sonic the Hedgehog

[Neon Ignition]

I loved seeing it in arcades and bought the 360 port eventually but its shelf life was tiny

[Neon Ignition]

Game 51 - Sonic Athletics
An eight player threadmill arcade game, each player takes their station and has to physically out run their rivals in the guise of one of the games characters. Launched in Japan in 2013, the game isn't well known elsewhere







An arcade machine to run to?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 52 - Sonic Eraser
Three edutainment games were produced, one for PC and two for Pico, so skipping them along due to the stretch they represent as games we reach Sonic Eraser. Eraser was a puzzle game released in Japan via the MegaNet expansion. This was a downloadable game in Japan way back in 1991 and so very, very few downloads of it were ever made with the game only becoming available much later on as access to its rom emerged.







Safe to assume no-one played this one, right?

[Asura]

Game 51 - Sonic Athletics
An eight player threadmill arcade game, each player takes their station and has to physically out run their rivals in the guise of one of the games characters. Launched in Japan in 2013, the game isn't well known elsewhere







An arcade machine to run to?

They used to have this one on Brighton Pier so at least one machine visited the UK.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 53 - Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
Developed by Sega STI, Spinball became one of the most recognised spin-offs as it merged platforming with pinball gaming. Developed for three systems, across two generations in just two months time to fill in a schedule gap this quirky approach to the franchise has never spawned a sequel quite in the same vein but it has spawned its own fans.








Worth a Spin or a load of Ba...?

[Dogg Thang]

I think Sonic Spinball is a great idea but it's not a good game in my opinion. It felt sluggish and hard to control and it just wasn't fun for me.

[Asura]

Game 53 - Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
Developed by Sega STI, Spinball became one of the most recognised spin-offs as it merged platforming with pinball gaming. Developed for three systems, across two generations in just two months time to fill in a schedule gap this quirky approach to the franchise has never spawned a sequel quite in the same vein but it has spawned its own fans.

Worth a Spin or a load of Ba...?

One thing worth saying about Spinball, it isn't very optimised and tends to chug - but I recommend, if you've always disliked it, to make sure you try the NTSC version. I only tried that for the first time about a year ago, and it makes a big difference. It doesn't transform it into a fantastic game but I'd argue turns it into a pretty playable one.
@Dogg Thang, saw your comment; have you tried the NTSC version?

[Dogg Thang]

[MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION], saw your comment; have you tried the NTSC version?

I'm not sure. The last time I played it was on the Mega Drive Mini but that might still have been the PAL version.

[wakka]

Yeah, a missed opportunity of a game. Can’t believe it was developed in just 2 months. Goes some way to explaining why it isn’t great. A shame.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 54 - Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
The other super well known MD era spin-off, this Eggman themed puzzler used the incarnations of characters from the animated series and rebranded Puyo Puyo, This widened the game type's appeal and resulted in a well received release with only the games difficulty being called out.







One Mean Bean?

[Cassius_Smoke]

Spinball and MBM are OK. They just struggle on the mega drive. I don't know if they ever got a 32x, CD or saturn version but I feel it may have worked better on them.

[Neon Ignition]

Here's a bonus one for the weekend because I realised at some point I missed a day:


Game 55 - Tail's Skypatrol
Hitting Game Gear in 1995, this side shooter saw Tail's take the lead role and has seen two rereleases in the wake of its original launch but despite this the game was poorly received with both its gameplay and difficulty being cited as faults.








Any fun to be found or high-Tails it outta there?

[Asura]

I've played this and remember nothing. Should say it all really

[Dogg Thang]

Going back to the racers, they are currently stupidly cheap on Steam and so I got Sonic All Stars Racing and Transformed and they are both so much fun. I’m really enjoying playing them again.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 56 - Tails Adventure
A platformer for Tails to have to himself, the game played at a slower pace than the Sonic games making for a lighter adventure. It had non-linear levels but broadly matched the playstyle of the main games, though this led to mixed reviews as some felt it took away more than it added.







An Adventure worth having?