Sonic the Hedgehog spins on to iPhone

(Credit: Crave UK)

Get ready to buy Sonic the Hedgehog for the umpteenth time--the original Sega classic is now available on your iPhone, and for the measly price of $5.99.

The complete first adventure of Hirokazu Yasuhara's blue-haired speedfreak plays surprisingly well on the iPhone and iPod Touch. You only ever needed left, right, and jump controls, so that's all you're getting on the iPhone. And they come in the form of virtual onscreen buttons.

"O rly?" you snark, "onscreen buttons? Don't they, y'know, suck?" Well yeah, kind of. They lack any tactile feedback, so you never know by touch alone where your fingers are (if you see what we mean). It's not a Susan Boyle hairstyle-size obstacle, but for a game as fast-paced as Sonic, we found it takes a good half hour to acclimatize.

But the graphics are lush; the original soundtrack is intact, along with all the original sound effects; and gameplay is smooth. Very sporadic frame rate drops notwithstanding, the game plays admirably. Perhaps better than we were expecting.

Yes, Sega could have used the phone's accelerometer to allow you to roll Sonic around the screen--something which was never possible on the Game Gear back in the day--but no, that would've been too much to ask. As, apparently, would've been the ability to save and load more than just one instance of the game.

(Credit: Screenshot by Crave UK)

(Source: Crave UK)

[Waisyshah]

I've played it tooo many times to get it again. STOP IT SEGA. Make a proper new 3D Sonic game.

[maneeshpan1]

It is rather sad that the newer games being cranked out by Sonic Team of SEGA Japan to worldwide audiences are not as good as the original. In recent years the quality of Sonic games have been deteriorating. Most of the new Sonic games like Sonic Unleashed, Sonic & The Secret Rings, and Sonic & The Black Knight have very negative reviews. Gameplay is clearly not as good in Sonic games as they used to be. Buying new Sonic games aren't all that worthwhile but there is still a lot of interest and demand to keep playing the older classic Sonic titles which is why the original Sonic The Hedgehog is being ported to so many new platforms like Nintendo Wii via Virtual Console, Apple iPods (click wheel iPods) by being made available in the iPod Games section of the iTunes Store for purchase and download, Apple App Store for iPhone & iPod Touch users, and even PS3 and XBox via services like Microsoft's XBox Live and Home or Play Station Network (PSN) on Sony's PS3.

I understand some people don't want to repurchase the original game again for newer platforms (they either cannot afford to pay for the port or don't want to and would rather spend money on newer games) that is perfectly fine for them -- personally I am excited playing the original game again though and have Sonic The Hedgehog from Wii Virtual Console on my Nintendo Wii system, I have the click wheel iPod version from iTunes Store's iPod Games section, and now the iPhone/Touch version from Apple App Store.

It would be cool now if SEGA ported this game to work with the latest and greatest computers for all 3 major OSes Windows, Mac and Linux rather than restricting to Windows only.

[maneeshpan1]

Wow this is one great game -- its too bad the quality of the newer Sonic games has deteriorated. I find myself playing ports of the original Genesis game constantly on my Wii thanks to Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, my 5th generation video iPod (with click wheel) thanks to SEGA releasing it as an iPod Game in iPod Games section of iTunes Store, I've played it on my MOTOROLA RAZR Verizon VCast phone -- thanks SEGA Mobile and Verizon for making the game available on VCast and also on my iPod Touch as the game has been ported to the iPhone App Store by Apple.

Yes I own 4 copies of the original Sonic The Hedgehog game 3 of which are for mobile devices and the other a home console. I never owned the game for the original Genesis though. Nonetheless, I have it for a total of 4 platforms.

I guess I just love the game enough to have it on all of these platforms. I do think SEGA needs to still work on improving the quality of newer Sonic games. I can understand their desire to re-sell different ports of the original game for different platforms though.