//Doc

As I sit at my laptop playing BS Zelda while listening to Koigokoro by Aikawa Nanase, I start to think about the new info about Sonic that have spewed in over the last weeks. As you all should know by now, Sonic Unleashed is set to be the next main series Sonic game, releasing late 2008. And ofcourse there’s Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood coming this fall, a RPG from BioWare.

Now, I’m not a big fan of BioWare’s games. I didn’t like Mass Effect, Jade Empire or KotOR 1/2. Altough I’m glad that a company that’s considered one of the best RPG makers ever take on the job to make a Sonic game. But really, what the hell is up with their art design? It’s not bad but… well It’s not good eitehr. It’s just confusing in some odd freaky way.

Oh well atleast they’re sticking to some classic J-RPG combat so it might turn out as a game even I can enjoy. I’m not that much for West RPG’s. I mean sure, I love Diablo and Elder Scrolls as much as the next person. But compared to games like Final Fantasy III, Dragon Quest IV or Lufia II they’re nothing… …except for maybe Morrowind, that game was awesome in every way.

The first Retrospective post arrived this week, with the next one coming the 23′rd. I’m not finished with the Sonic 2 draft yet, but it should be done in a day or two, so no delays are to be issued as far as I’m concerned. I havn’t gotten that many views yet, but I don’t mind really. I’m doing this for fun, and maybe more people will come as I move on throughout the series.

All of the Retrospective pages will be featured in the frame-menu to the right for easy navigation. That’s all for this week, now I’m off to listen to some more J-pop and watch some hentai.

Signed, Doc Robeatnix

Sonic The Hedgehog was released on June 23 1991. It was praised as a revolution for the platforming genre and is still today considered one of the best games ever made in its genre. I assume that everyone reading this have played this game at least once and know the basics of it.

Some of you might even have played it to the point where you can finish the first level, Green Hill Zone: Act 1, blindfolded on a faster time than anyone in your neighbourhood. Nevertheless, you have played it and chances are you enjoyed it. Now let’s take a sharp look at what that game was. In 1990, Sega decided that it was time to scrap their mascot “Alex Kidd” for something new to stand up against Nintendo’s fat old plumber. A contest was held internally to design the new mascot, and it didn’t take far until it was certain that it should at least be some form of animal.

Early artwork from Sega shows stuff like a purple rabbit, a bulldog and according to some sources he was once supposed to be a cat. Then came “Mr. Hedgehog” (Picture to the left) and he was the first concept for what then became Sonic The Hedgehog. His arch-nemesis Dr. Ivo Robotnik Picture to the right), or Eggman as his now more common nickname (as well as official name in Japan) is, was also decided upon through this contest evolving from a fat guy in pyjamas to the evil scientist whose name my nickname is based on.

When Sonic The Hedgehog was released for the Sega Megadrive (Sega Genesis in the US), players were presented with a wide colourful envirobment on their 16-bit machines as “Green Hill Zone: Act 1″ opened up with music so close to perfection in tune with the stage itself no one could hate what they saw. The blue little hedgehog that could run as fast as the speed of sound, hence his name, was easily manoeuvred thanks to smooth easy controls the game featured.

Every Zone in the game was unique in appearance and existed of 3 Acts, the third one being the act where you faced off with Dr. Robotnik in one of his machines. Enivronments changed from green fields to underground labyrinths and large metallic bases all shining with coluor and rich details. Spread across the Acts was also Robotnik’s evil robots called “Badniks” which served as the main enemies throughout the game, just as the environments these all had unique colour-schemes and designs.

There was also a lot of rings, rings served as Sonic’s health in the game and if you managed to collect over 50 you could get access to a special stage that could be your chance to get a Chaos Emerald, which was 6 secret stones that Robotnik was after, and if you got 100 rings you were granted 1 extra life. You had to be careful though, as one hit from one of Robotnik’s badniks or one small step on some spikes would have you lose all your rings and you only had a chance to gain back up to 20 of them, which could be quite a big loss.

And just like any game after the third generation of videogaming there was a story, and since a lot of people might not have cared for story back then, Sega made sure to not force it upon the player and throwing them right into the action of gameplay. The story forms out as the evil Dr. Robotnik want to control the world, he traps all the animals of South Island and turn them into robots to fight for him as he searches for the secret “Chaos Emeralds” which is said to hold secret power unlike anything else.

Sonic, a hedgehog born on Christmas Island known for being faster than anything else alive takes it as his own mission to stop the evil scientist. Sonic finds the 6 Chaos Emeralds and then enter the final room of Robotnik’s base to defeat him and setting the animals free. When done, Robotnik escapes and Sonic goes back to the Green Hills and uses the Chaos Emeralds to bring back life to South Island thus saving everyone.

Sonic The Hedgehog has been re-released on Cellphones, Xbox Live, Wii Virtual Console, Gameboy Advance (Wow, that was horrid), through collections and not to mention recreated through fangames. But nothing beats sitting down with an old Megadrive pad and playing the game as it was originally meant to be played. Sonic The Hedgehog was ahead of it’s time, and it set a high standard for the sequel which was set to come as early as the year after that.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Let’s rip apart that game on April 23′d, until then, goodbye.

-Torbjörn Karlsson

So, with the leaked media from Sonic Unleashed, the next official main-series Sonic game, I decided to look back upon the series and how it have evolved over the years. I’ll be going through each and every games development, storylines, designs and secrets to such detail hopefully even someone who has only seen a Sonic game can understand what I’m writing. It’s not about which Sonic game is the best or the worst, it’s about all the games as a series. And hopefully I’ll be able to end it all with a review and detailed entry on Sonic Unleashed itself, it all depends on when that game is intended to release.

And to avoid confusion, here’s a list of the games I’ll be going through and when I’ll be going through them, some main series games and some spinoff series and games. I’ll be doing 2 every coming month this year:

09 April: Sonic The Hedgehog (1991 – Mega Drive)
23 April: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (1992 – Mega Drive)
09 May: Sonic The Hedgehog CD (1993 – Mega CD)
23 May: Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (1994 – Mega Drive)
09 June: Sonic & Knuckles (1994 – Mega Drive)
23 June: The Sonic Handheld Series (1991-96 – GameGear)
09 July: Sonic Adventure (1998 – Dreamcast)
23 July: Sonic Adventure 2 (2001 – Dreamcast)
09 August: The Sonic Advance Series (2001-04 – GBA)
23 August: Sonic Heroes (2004 – Multi)
09 September: The Sonic Rush Series (2005-07 – DS)
23 September: Shadow The Hedgehog (2005 – Multi)
09 October: The Sonic Rivals Series (2006-07 – PSP)
23 October: Sonic The Hedgehog (2006 – Multi)
09 November: The Sonic Riders Series (2006-08 – Multi)
23 November: Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007 – Wii)
09 December: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (2008 – DS)
23 December: Sonic Unleashed (2008 – Multi)

Why two every month? Well it’s perfect for an entry on Sonic Unleashed and gives me time to really write everything you can write about the games. Don’t worry about the release dates though, I’m pretty much finished with the first one and they will all be written right away and not just in-between the dates.

Edit: Fixed Rivals Format.

Edit 2: Fixed Unleashed Date