The Sonic The Hedgehog video game series has seen its fair share of highs (Sonic 1-3) and lows (most Sonic games in the 2000s and Sonic 4), but through all the successes and failures, Sonic The Hedgehog has remained a very popular character and video game series for the past 30 years now since it’s introduction to gamers in 1991.
I have a 25+ year history with The Sonic The Hedgehog character and video game series which actually started on my favorite birthday which was my 10th one where my grandma bought me a Sega Genesis for my birthday because I told her many months earlier that I wanted a Sega Genesis for my birthday.
When my 10th birthday had came, I remember being extremely happy and ecstatic that I got a Sega Genesis for my birthday and when I opened the box, there was the Sega Genesis console, power cord, manual, tv cable, and a rare Sega Genesis compilation cartridge called “6-Pak”. So I plugged the power cord to the back of the console, hooked up the tv cords, and blew the “6-Pak” cartridge which I absolutely hated doing back during my childhood years.
My love of The Sonic The Hedgehog character and video game series actually started with the 1st Sonic The Hedgehog game that was one of the six games on the “6-Pak” compilation cartridge and once I played Sonic The Hedgehog for the 1st time, I immediately fell in love with the game.
Even though I had heavily played The Original Super Mario Bros. Trilogy for the NES and had beaten all 3 of them, I was happy that I got to play a game in which the gameplay, graphics, character designs, and levels were different than those I saw during my days of playing The Original Super Mario Bros. Trilogy for the NES.
After the very first time that I played this game, I just couldn’t get enough of this game at all because of how fun and enjoyable that the game was because it was such good shit. I not only played this game after school, but I also played it during the summer vacations we had from school and today’s kids will never get to experience how hot The Original Sonic The Hedgehog Trilogy was in the 1990s.
In The Original Super Mario Trilogy, the goal to survive the levels especially the toughest ones was to power up into either a Super Mario/Luigi or lose the power up regressing back into Little Mario/Luigi and die. In Sonic The Hedgehog however, the goal to survive was very different as it required you to get as many brass rings as possible and if you get hit, you lose them all, but you still can get a few of them to survive and if not, you die.
In The Original Super Mario Bros Trilogy, the goal was for Mario/Luigi to rely on strength and power to defeat on-screen enemies where as in Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic relied only on agility and speed to defeat on-screen enemies.
The Conclusion - Sonic The Hedgehog is definitely one of the best video games to have ever been made because it introduced young gamers like myself back in the day to a different style of gameplay that wasn’t seen in The Original Super Mario Bros. Trilogy games for the NES.
By Kwame Shakir
