Sonic the Hedgehog was something of a revolution for the games industry when he first hit the scene, taking the traditional platformer model and turning it into a furious, breakneck ride to the goal. It also kicked off the start of Sega’s new philosophy to fight rival Nintendo in the 16 bit console wars, by catering to slightly older gamers. Sonic after all was a character with some attitude and spunk, a complete contrast to the kid friendly persona Nintendo exemplified.

Years later, Sonic is still a major franchise with multiple entries each year, though nowhere near the system selling franchise it once was. While there are multiple Sonic games that could’ve made the transition to the iPhone (I personally would’ve loved to see Sonic CD get this treatment), Sega decided to go back to the beginning with the original adventure. Sega showed with Super Monkey Ball that they can effectively make use of the iPhone platform which boded well for this release. Unfortunately it didn’t quite turn out as well as one could’ve hoped for.

Sonic is a 2D platformer, and a game quite unique on the iPhone, despite its growing and diversifying library. Sonic blazes through the 20+ levels while collecting coins, negotiating numerous loops and jumps, and spinning into enemies. There are also plenty of bonus levels for him to speed through, and secrets to find.

While I’m not a big fan of the accelerometer, I thought this would be a perfect game to make use of it in some way, yet Sega ignored both the accelerometer and the touch screen in favour of a virtual d-pad. You control Sonic’s movement and spin attack with the up, left, down, and right arrows, while jumping with the A button off to the right. I have no problem with this control method, except in this instance the controls feel somewhat clunky and slow to react. Whether this is actually the fault of the controls or the often lagging framerate is debatable, but whatever the case, things are not nearly as tight or as enjoyable as they should be for such a classic game.

Yes, Sonic suffers from some Sonic-sized slowdown, which is a shame and somewhat puzzling given the wealth of more graphically intensive games we’ve seen on the platform. Yes Sonic moves quickly which puts strain on the hardware, but I have a hard time believing that the iPhone couldn’t have perfectly handled this 18 year old game with some extra tweaking by Sega.

Despite its age Sonic still looks good for a 2D game, with bright and pleasing visuals, and excellent animation. The music also makes the transition well. I was always a fan of Sonic’s music, and it’s just as enjoyable here, save for the occasions when the music noticeably slows down alongside the gameplay.

For those who missed Sonic oh-so-many years ago, or those looking to relive his first adventure, Sonic’s iPhone adventure is a decent pickup, though not without issues. The core gameplay though is as enjoyable as ever, and something wholly unique from anything else on the system. With some refinement this could’ve been a real winner. Let’s hope Sega gets it right with their next Sonic iPhone adventure, if indeed there is another.

Pros:

• Graphics still stand up well to other 2D games
• Excellent soundtrack
• Full featured game with plenty of levels and bonuses

Cons:

• Some severe slowdown
• Awkward controls
• No save feature

Score: 6.5/10

Price: $5.99

Sonic The Hedgehog on iTunes

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 4:07 am and is filed under iPhone Action Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.