Sonic 4

Anyone who knows me well enough, or has seen me in the street, knows that I'm a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. He's been my favourite character since I was a kid playing the 8-bit games on the Sega Master System (The first console I can remember having – Apparently we had an Atari?).

I remember the most frustrating level of Sonic the Hedgehog was the Jungle Zone, where you had to climb up the waterfall and if you fell, you had to start again. It was frustrating as a little kid going too far over a platform and plumetting to your death even though you knew that there was a platform that went from both sides of the screen that had JUST left view.

There was also the time playing Sonic 2, still on the SMS, and being so proud that I'd collected all six of the emeralds. Even the two really annoying ones, where you had to use a hang glider to grab the one in the sky and do something in particular (I think it was press left) to get in through a particular vent so that I could get it because I couldn't go back for it at all!

Actually you couldn't go back for any if you failed the first time, it was impossible unless you started the level again after dying, and it's difficult to justify that when extra lives are very few and far between. I think there's about 2 on every level, and 1 if you get 100 rings.

Anyway, I kept going and going, and became ridiculously good at finishing Sonic 3 and Knuckles on the Mega Drive. After that, came Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. That's pretty much where I stopped, mostly because of being unable to pick up a Dreamcast. So the era of Sonic ended. The next Sonic game I picked up was a compilation disc with all of the Mega Drive Sonics and a handful of the game gear ones (Apparently someone was a douche and forgot that they HAD a higher resolution)

After that, it was quite a few years before I invested in another Sonic game and that ended up being "Sonic the Hedgehog" on the Xbox. That was where I found myself disappointed. I loved the 2D side scroller platformer that was Sonic. then they had this series of free roaming games that only the die-hard fans really followed.

I'm sorry, but the controls of that game were just too out of whack for me. One Nudge to the left and you have him running straight into a wall, or off into oblivion. Things were pretty and all, but just too ridiculously crazy for me to handle.

And so it's 2010, and another Sonic game is coming out. BUT it's gone back to the old Roots, where it was side scroller platformer. They bumped it up to 2.5D, where it's still on a 2D playing field but is made of 3D graphics, but that's okay. It looks like the Sonic I know and Love. It comes out wednesday, so that night before I talk to jenny will be involving the downloading and playing of Sonic 4.

Game on.