Game Reviews

Sonic The Hedgehog

Star onStar onStar halfStar offStar off
Get
Sonic The Hedgehog

The chance to review the original Sonic The Hedgehog game is something not many journalists have the pleasure of doing these days, so when we heard that the game was set to arrive on the iPod there was a bit of a scrum round the Pocket Gamer office (and, as ever, somehow the skinny guy ended up on top of the pile - Ed).

Such competition is hardy surprising though - ask any twentysomething gamer about Sonic The Hedgehog (est 1991) and they're bound to eulogise about a simpler time when Sonic didn't have the voice of a cocky American teenager, the soundtrack of a pro wrestling TV marathon, hold a gun (gasp) or worse still, have a human girlfriend (double gasp).

The little blue speed devil, best remembered as a silent enigma and a genuine gaming icon of his age, has lost his way on the journey from the Sega Megadrive to the Xbox 360, with the whole series becoming something of a clownish parody of its former self in the process. Sadly, the same seems true for this iPod version too.

But it's not all bad news. This certainly looks better than we remember and from the generous array of animations to incidental details such as the constantly blooming flowers on Green Hill Zone or the pulsating lava in Marble Zone, Sonic The Hedgehog is a joy to look at. Similarly, the sound pumping through the iPod's reliable headphones is great and beats the crap out of the tinny TV speakers we were all using in the '90s.

All the levels are also present and correct, meaning that as far as serious gaming goes, this is about the least casual experience iTunes has to offer, presenting the sort of traditional meat-and-potatoes challenge that over the past decade has been largely lost in the explosion of concepts such as 'narrative arc' and 'photorealism'.

So what's the problem? Well, it seems that with Sonic The Hedgehog, the low point of iPod control has finally been reached.

It's not that the layout of an iPod precludes a platforming game - the right and left on the click wheel for running right and left and centre button for jump is reasonably elegant. The problem lies in a basic lack of responsiveness; often the jump button doesn't work consistently with quick, successive presses, which results in more than a few frustrating deaths.

This prompts a tendency to hammer on the iPod's centre button - a technique that yields only slightly more reliable results and feels like the sort of abuse the device wasn't designed to endure.

It is possible to play through the game by taking a measured approach, such as creeping up to each platform and avoiding any speedy situations that might require a split second button press. But to do this is to rob Sonic of his crowning characteristic - speed.

For that reason then, while Sonic The Hedgehog could be considered as being close to a solid port, its fundamentally-gimped control scheme sours the experience almost completely and considering how easy it would have been to fix, the disappointment is all the more difficult to bear. If you're a fan of the original, do yourself a favour and don't get close enough to this version to let it sully a fond memory.

Sonic The Hedgehog

It should have been an iPod contender but Sonic The Hedgehog suffers from unresponsive controls, which spell frustration at almost every turn.
Score