When you've been in the games business a quarter of a century, chances are you're going to have served up the odd epic title or two in your time. For our friend Sonic the Hedgehog, who turns 25 on June 23rd, that's something of an understatement.
Since his original outing hit the Mega Drive back in 1991, he's featured in more games than you've had hot dinners. Well, presuming your microwave is occasionally on the blink, that is, meaning you're forced to buy a reduced sandwich from the local garage for your tea.
Either way, you get the picture - there have been a lot of Sonic games is the long and short of it. These days you can get your mitts on Sonic for the princely sum of nothing (on Amazon Underground App) and this has inspired us to run through our favourites from the franchise, right here, right now.
Oh, and before you get angry and throw hedgehogs at our office windows, we've listed them in chronological order, rather than in order of merit. Asking us to choose our favourite Sonic game is an impossible task and one we're quite frankly not prepared to undertake.
1. Sonic The Hedgehog (1991, Mega Drive)
This is the game that started it all. 25 years on, if you fire up the first Sonic now (which is fairly likely, given versions of it have popped up in every format from PC and mobile to your toaster and your fridge in recent years) you'll find it has somehow managed to stand the test of time.
It's still easy to pick up, it's still fast to play (running around those loops actually pushed Mega Drive hardware to its limits at the time) and it laid the foundations for all that followed. The super fast Sonic 2 may have stolen the limelight in the Mega Drive's latter years, but the original Sonic ultimately remains top dog.
2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles (1994, Mega Drive)
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Well, top dog apart from the especially awesome Sonic The Hedgehog 3, of course. Released in 1994, Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles The Echinda initially as a rival to Sonic, but later as a friend. His debut, however, actually split into two releases - Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles.
Released six months after Sonic 3, the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge featured "lock on technology", which basically allowed you to slot Sonic 3 into the top to unlock the full game. It may sound overly fussy now, but at the time it was genuinely revolutionary, even though it actually only came about because the game was too big to fit on one cartridge. Whoops. Nevertheless, in the view of most critics, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of the best 2D platformers ever released, even to this day. We certainly wouldn't disagree with that.
3. Sonic Adventure (1999, Dreamcast)
Five years and three SEGA consoles later, Sonic finally went fully 3D. Sonic Adventure was the flagship release for the Japanese giant's brand new machine, the utterly gorgeous Dreamcast. Ultimately Dreamcast would prove to be SEGA's last home console, but Sonic Adventure still managed to sell an estimated 2.5 million in its lifetime, and was compared by many to the sainted Mario 64 in terms of what it did for the series' transition into the world of 3D.
4. Sonic Heroes (2003, PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube)
The one benefit of Dreamcast disappeared into the ether was that, in 2003, Sonic was able to go multi-platform. Sonic Heroes saw you take charge of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all at the same time, guiding them through a 3D adventure where the idea was to switch characters as you sped through each stage.
As such, if it's remembered for one thing, it's the fact that it was the first Sonic release to truly make use of each hero's individual abilities. It was bright, it was colourful, and - most importantly - it sold an absolute stack load across all three platforms. In short, Sonic was very much back on everyone's radar.
5. Sonic The Hedgehog 4 (2010, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Wii/Mobile)
It may have taken SEGA more than 15 years to follow up the epic Sonic 3, but when it finally did, it did it with some style. Sonic The Hedgehog 4 - which launched on pretty much every platform on earth in 2010 - unashamedly took Sonic back to his 2D roots, offering the same run-from-left-to-right-at-high-speed approach that had made the blue spikey one such an international superstar in the first place. Spread across two separate episodes, Sonic 4 bought fans back into the fold who hadn't touched a Sonic release for a decade or more. A little bit like..
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6. Sonic Generations (2011, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Nintendo DS)
Yes, in a canny move by SEGA, Sonic Generations managed to appeal to both Sonic fans old and new, combining 2D stages inspired by some of Sonic's most memorable outings (most of which are featured in this very list) with brand new 3D spins on them.
In conjunction with the two Sonic 4 episodes, it was yet further evidence of the series embracing its past. Oh, and it perfectly coincided with Sonic's 20th anniversary celebrations. That's a slightly better birthday treat than a Big Mac and fries and a trip to your local bowling alley with your mates from school, no?
What do you buy a hedgehog for his 25th birthday? We'll leave you to contemplate that while playing Sonic Dash (which you can get here, if you want it) to celebrate this little blue lad's landmark anniversary.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Viral, GAMING, Interesting, Retro Games