Sonic The Killer App

Growing up as a kid when it came to gaming I always found that there was 4 types of "kid", the Nintendo owner.. which was the common breed, the Sega Master System owner... who was the guy who tried to be cool (and had a small right to be), the Atari kid who we all laughed at or admired for his taste/passed on console, and the P.C gamer who we all called nerd or buddy! Nintendo had Super Mario and Link, hell even the bikes on excite bike were recognizable by kids. What did the other giants really have? Sega had some recognition in Alex Kid, and their SMS ports of arcade sega hits but that's about it, Atari had many ports of arcade classic but uh the quality was iffy at best, the pc had many original and hardcore titles but no real name recognition, save maybe for some rpg's for older kids/teens.
By the 16bit era, a few other mascots would try to knock Super Mario from his throne some even making their home/debut on the N.E.S, (Capcom trying to jump start Captain Commando as a on paper mascot etc) and even Bonk took a shot at that throne! Bonk was a big head to tangle with but just did not have that much of an umph to really knock down the fat mustachio icon, out of the blue (pun) though came Sega to remind us that their Genesis console was here to FIGHT and not long before Mario would make a new smash re-debut in 16bit, Sega Gave us Sonic The Hedgehog. Honestly I will say I was not Sonic's first fan, but on a trip to TJ to see family, a cousin of mine brought his genesis with him, and after a few runs at sonic and hearing the awesome soundtrack, I decided that I needed to once again put my industrial side to work and amass a small mini jackpot for a Genesis, a few core games I had seen in Game Pro and mostly Importantly, Sonic The Hedgehog!

Sonic The Hedgehog
Mega Drive/Genesis,iPod, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Mobile phone, Microsoft Windows, Virtual Console, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS (Sonic Classic Collection), Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Android (Japan only)[1] Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable

From Sonic's somewhat eye catching pudgy design, to the at the time amazing (and even still) soundtrack, the smoother than silk (mostly lol) controls, and the speed at which a real dedicated player could play..Sonic quite frankly slapped Super Mario across the face like a upstart brash pimp. Let's not lie the Genesis had a strong line up with somewhat decent Arcade ports, some niche sports titles, and the core titles that the N.E.S lacked but something was missing, there was no real killer app, Columns was being touted as a killer app but mostly to compete with the Tetris affect of the Gameboy, Sega had nothing. Sonic was just a wonder of art for gaming at the time, even the small details like Sonic getting impatient to the facial expressions, to the level design/art was something to behold. The "Zones" each had a life of their own, even the less colorful but still awesomely done Industrial type zones just screamed out "YA We are here to rock your thumbs off!". Sonic The Hedgehog (the game) would go on to garner mass critical acclaim, and mass fan recognition and give Sega that image it needed..an attitude vs the Nintendo "Power". Soon though the SNES would arrive with an already successful and well documented Japanese pedigree via the Super Famicon and start a gaming generation war like no other....Sonic would be one of the many Generals to fight that war.

Sonic CD
Mega-CD, Windows 9x, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 (Japan and Europe only), Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, Steam

Two years after Sonic's first put up his white gloved dukes and the battle lines were well drawn, Nintendo delivers a major hit with the SNES and has a good share of attention but the Genesis has somewhat taken over as king in most fans and critics eyes, however the first party assault from Nintendo along with at times superior 3rd party ports are starting to catch up to Sega. Sega never afraid to try new things released it's CD-ROM add-on to the Genesis, the Sega-CD. However fan adoption was low, shitty full motion video powered games and a few decent ones were not really enough to feed fans in between the few awesome original Sega CD titles, Sega needed a Boom.....a Sonic Boom. Sonic CD was that boom, new animations for Sonic, a game play scheme with made every level re-playable with a twist, cool looking but awkward bonus level design (LOL), amazing soundtrack and that awesome art style all made a smashing re-debut for a add-on that had so much untapped potential. Personally I still remember trying out all the variations to each level before fully feeling I had beaten the game though I had done so a few times and every single time I still recall asking myself how can someone keep re-inventing this and always making it seem so fresh. Sadly Sonic CD was not enough of a big cannon shot to secure the Sega-CD a real place along the 16bit battle front lines the damage of both the price, and other shitty titles was done. Sales of Sonic CD were also under expectations and if I recall correctly when the Sega-CD was redesigned, Sonic CD was either included in the box or was offered via a voucher or something of that nature for free. IMHO this would be the last major major awesome Sonic game for the 16bit era, a war that Nintendo would win but never with the dominance it won the 8bit war.

Sega would never really bring the same sonic charm back in full swing for the 16 bit era, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was more than a deserving successor and was fresh enough but it was lacking a bit, Sonic 3 was a departure in many ways but not a bad departure just felt somewhat forced, Sonic And Knuckles would be the next title that put some welcome innovation into the series for this era and as a bonus would allow you to use the Knuckles Character in your older Sonic titles. Try as they may and by the time the dust settled in the 16bit war, and the countless Sonic sequels and so so to good spin off's came and went, Sega would not deliver us another good batch of Sonic goodness until 1999 with the Amazing Sonic Adventure which much like Super Mario 64 brought Sonic into the realm of 3d but unlike Super Mario 64 retained enough of it's grass roots in 2D, in which IMHO made it a better re-invention of the series. Sadly this formula would again last for a bit before it was ruined and would not see another decent addition to the franchise (not to say Sonic Adventure 2 was Crap)...this time for over 4 years with 2003's Sonic Heroes and even that was only a real teaser as to what could be if that same spark that lit up the genesis in 1991 were to light up again. From 2003 on, many more teases at another major revival for Sonic came and went and some were utter disasters 2006's "Sonic The Hedgehog" being the worst and 2010's Sonic Colors being the only one that made most real Sonic Fans Smile (NOTE I LOVED Sonic 4 Episode 1 but seems I'm in the minority) However in 2011 a chaos emerald would arise from the dust............

Sonic Generations
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS

We'll leave this one for the dlc shall we?










Until then, go play a Sonic game and tell me this...
who the hell is this croc?