11 Aug 08
Sonic The Hedgehog Gaming
Up, Down, Left, Right, A + Start together. It was this magical code which when entered at the title screen, would result in a little bell ring sound effect and then you get to choose your level. I am of course referring to the dark days of the 90s, my beloved Sega Mega Drive and Sonic The Hedgehog. Sonic, was a bright blue hedgehog with the ability to run at super speed. His job was almost always the same, to save his world and the small fury woodland creatures who lived there from the evil overweight mad genius Dr. Robotnik.
One of the great features of the Wii, is the Virtual Console, an online service that allows you to buy, download and play a whole host of old classic games on the Wii. Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3 are all available for download on the Wii much to my delight. The unforgettable music, bombing your way through Green Hill Zone, past robotic monkeys that fling coconuts at you, bouncing over spikes, onto springs, tearing through loop-the-loops. The games were a phenomenal success and as of 2008, the franchise has allegedly sold more than 50 million copies of its individual games.
Dimensional Jump
The series worked as 2D side-on view perspective platform games, which allowed easy control of the high-speed protagonist. Unfortunately, following the original four main Sonic titles the series lost its way with the advent of 3D game play. Some games simply don't translate well from 2D to 3D.
From the Mario Bros in 1983 to Super Mario Galaxy in 2007, Mario the plumber has crossed the dimensional jump from a platform game to a full 3D world. The Legend of Zelda series has also managed to endure and evolve from its 2D origins. Some games are not so lucky, the Team17 Worms series worked great as a side scrolling invertebrate shoot 'em up from 1995 up until the awful Worms 3D released in 2003. Luckily Team17 understood what had gone wrong and in 2006 they returned to 2D games, albeit with higher res graphics.
Playing the original Sonic games on the Wii, has brought home just how good they really were. This reminds me of a proposal put forward by freelance gaming and technology journalist, James Woodcock:
So I put this to you all. How about a Sonic the Hedgehog game, using full high definition resolutions, but using mostly 2D and minor 3D elements. Imagine the power available in something like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that SEGA could harness, making for a really mesmerising Sonic experience. We have already had Sonic CD back in the day, would it be so hard to have Sonic HD!
The backgrounds could be full to the brim with details, with birds flocking in the distance, the wind rustling the trees and the sun beating down on the platform areas where Sonic will be running around like a bullet. Imagine full 5.1 surround music, online multiplayer races, achievements, controller vibration and all the other goodies we have today.
Sonic in HD would be perfect, a really great partnership between classic games and modern gaming platforms. The Wii Virtual Console has proved that people still hanker over older titles. According to a Nintendo press release dated June '07, more than 4.7 million Virtual Console games had been downloaded, at a rate of more than 1,000 titles an hour.
Currently I have a problem with playing Sonic, due to the fact that I am using the Wii Component Cable, and the games are refusing to load. The Mega Drive VC games run in 50Hz mode and in their original unoptimized state- fine if you are using the US telly standard NTSC, not the UK PAL standard. I'd appreciate any advice if you know how to get round this problem.