Crave

(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)

WiiWare

• Bruiser and Scratch (Steel Penny Games, Inc., 1,000 Wii points): Help Bruiser and Scratch get out of a lost world by solving 48 puzzles in six areas. Meet up with friends and foes in this mind-bending adventure.
  
• Hockey Allstar Shootout (Big Blue Bubble Inc., 500 Wii points): It's the season for hockey so why not celebrate the coolest sport around? Participate in up to three challenges, all with varying difficulty.
  

Virtual Console

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992, Sega Master System, 500 Wii points): This version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was made exclusively for the Sega Master System featuring different gameplay and graphics.
  

Update: The Sonic game in this Virtual Console update is not the Sega Genesis version of the game but for the previous console, the Sega Master System.

What games do you think are missing from the Wii Virtual Console? Sound off here!

This week you can travel to the Wild West, go out for a spin with everyone's favorite hedgehog, or get terrorized in a mansion filled with horrifying enemies.

WiiWare

• Wild West Guns (Gameloft, 1,000 Wii points): Take on the old west in Wild West Guns. The game offers various shooting modes including the chance to take pair in an old-fashioned train heist. Enjoy it alone or with a friend!
  

• Sonic The Hedgehog (1991, Sega Master System, 500 Wii points): Sonic The Hedgehog was the first game to give Nintendo and Mario a run for their money. The game was lightning quick and featured a brand-new character that stole the hearts of gamers of all ages. Relive the 17-year-old classic now available on the Virtual Console.
  
• Splatterhouse 2 (1992, Sega Genesis, 800 Wii points): Splatterhouse 2 is the follow-up to the gory original and has you taking on the Terror Mask again in hopes of saving Jennifer from certain doom. Battle your way through the mansion's terrifying bosses with all kinds of weapons in this absolute bloodfest.
  

What games do you think are missing from the Wii Virtual Console? Sound off here!

Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog can now be found (legally) on your iPod. Don't keep him waiting.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Excuse our lack of productivity today--we've got a hedgehog in the office. Sonic the Hedgehog, that is. Sega's 16-bit classic has made its way onto the iPod games section of iTunes (link) this morning and can be had for a mere $4.99. In comparison, the Wii version of the title, which launched just a month ago runs nearly twice as much at 800 Wii points ($8).

The controls use the circular iPod touch wheel as a four-way d-pad, with the center button acting just like the original ABC buttons from the first Genesis controller. They take a little bit of time to get used to, but manage to do the job admirably, at least on the earlier levels. However, for the bonus levels and more platform intensive stages where jumping must be exact, you'll find yourself wishing for something with a little more finesse.

Despite the fudgy controls, the game's got some added goodies not found in the original. You can turn off the game's soundtrack in place of your own, while retaining some of the wonderful '90s-era sound effects. There's also a save anywhere system, and support for multiple player profiles in case you want to share the game with someone else without losing your progress.

We're still not sold on the controls, but for $5 it's got a lot going for it compared to some of the other iPod gaming titles.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. You probably could have figured that out yourself.

Sega and Nintendo working together still vaguely weirds me out. I grew up when children became bitter enemies or best friends depending on whether they thought the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis was the better system. To this day, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario working together just feels wrong, somehow.

That's not stopping Sega, chummier than ever with Nintendo, from showing off its upcoming Wii and DS titles at E3. We've heard about these games before, but E3 will bring more screenshots, more trailers, hands-on impressions, and harder release dates for all of these games.

First on deck is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii and DS. This will be the first video game ever to feature both Mario and Sonic together. The mascots will be bringing their entire crews along for the titles' various racing, swimming, and jumping minigames, so you'll be able to go for the gold with Yoshi, Tales, Luigi, and even Knuckles. The real Olympics won't be held until next year, but this Olympic clash of the gaming titans is headed for this year's holiday season.

Nights: Journey of Dreams

Also highly anticipated is the upcoming Wii title Nights: Journey of Dreams. This quirky, colorful game is the sequel to the cult Sega Saturn title Nights into Dreams, and has plenty of Sega fans waiting with bated breath. Even if you don't remember the original Nights, this new game's trippy aesthetics and unique gameplay make it worth a look when it comes out in the fall.

For more classic gameplay, Sega will be showing off Sonic Rush Adventure, the sequel to 2005's excellent Sonic Rush. Like its predecessor, Sonic Rush Adventure is a mostly 2D platform game in the vein of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, though 3D boss and water battles will offer an interesting twist when it ships this fall.

Two new games based on the anime series Bleach are heading to Nintendo's consoles as well. Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Wii and Bleach: The Blade of Fate for the DS offer tournament fighting action with giant swords. Bleach: Shattered Blade looks like the most interesting game of the pair, with dozens of selectable characters and Wiimote-based sword-swinging action. Both games will hit stores this fall.

Finally, light-gun fans will be be able to check out Ghost Squad, the Wii port of the 2005 arcade game. The antiterrorism shooter will use the Wiimote like a light gun, and hopefully bring the arcade game's fast-paced action to the Wii. It'll ship this holiday season.

I've said it here before: I'm not the most hard-core gamer. I've never owned a gaming console, and my only PlayStation-related experience thus far had been Lumines for PSP. (Don't play it. It's like crack.) But I'm willing to be open-minded about video games, especially since not knowing anything about them renders me clueless in many a conversation at our office. And who likes to be left out? Not me.

So this morning, despite the fact that I had never held a PlayStation controller before, I was pretty excited to go and try out Sony's much-anticipated PS3 at a promotional event in which gaming enthusiasts and members of the media were given an opportunity to test-drive the consoles, which hit stores on the 17th of the month. Sony rented out space in a building in Manhattan's chic SoHo neighborhood (for those of you who aren't New Yorkers, it's a post-industrial district known for sky-high ceilings and sky-higher rents) and filled it with PS3s, 40-inch Bravia TVs, and futuristic, uber-comfy pod-shaped chairs.

Basically, it was a couch potato's Valhalla.

I met with Sony public relations rep Sheila Bryson, who gave this non-gamer a lowdown on all the things you can do with the PS3 that don't actually involve playing games. The photo application was particularly cool: the console is equipped with five USB ports (four in the front, one in the back) as well as a memory card reader, so you can load the contents of your digital camera directly onto your PS3. It had one of the most impressive photo slideshow functions I'd ever seen, too. Unfortunately, there's no way to hook it up to a photo printing service, so you probably won't want to use your PS3 as the exclusive storage spot for your pictures. But aside from that drawback, I was pretty much astounded.

The Web browser also looks good: again, it's not a replacement for your computer, but it's high-end enough so that you can pause your game of "Motor Storm" in order to zip over to the browser and keep tabs on your fantasy football stats. The browser speed at today's event was pretty slow, but the Sony reps ensured me that it was because of the number of consoles in the room hogging the local connection. A consumer with a PlayStation 3, Bryson said, should expect its Internet functions to go about as quickly as those on a home PC.

Then I decided to actually try out the games. There were plenty of options: "NHL 2K7," "Resistance: Fall of Man," "Mobile Suit Gundam," "Genji: Days of Blade"...the list goes on. I watched a demo of EA's "Need for Speed: Carbon" and was more or less blown away by the graphics. With a decent speaker system, a game like that played on a high-end TV like the Bravia could really make you feel like you're in a theater.

"Need for Speed" was too daunting, though--I restricted my playing to something a bit cuter and fuzzier, "Sonic the Hedgehog." I'd been skeptical about how well a cartoony, old-school-style video game character like Sonic would translate to a next-generation console and HDTV, but the little blue hedgehog proved me wrong. The game was bright, loud, and fast. I had some trouble getting a hang of the controller at first (which button does barrel rolls?) because of the lightning-fast pace as well as the sensitivity of the joysticks--Sonic definitely plummeted to his death a few times while I was behind the controller. But once I caught onto it, which was sooner than I'd have expected, I was hooked. (See photo at right.) It's pretty much impossible not to like a game that looks this good.

My verdict? Even though I've never been one for video games, the PS3 intrigued me for sure. The digital entertainment functions seemed actually useful--remember, there's a Blu-ray player in there, too--and the quality of the games was tempting enough to lure me in. Is it worth the $599 price tag for a premium console? Yes and no. Yes, I think it's a fair price. But I'm keeping in mind the fact that the graphics will look far less impressive on my TV at home than they did on Sony's swanky Bravia. Then you have to factor in peripherals like speakers. And I definitely don't have a comfy pod chair in my living room.

It's really a toss-up. If you already have adequate TV and speaker equipment, or you're willing to forsake a bit of the "shock and awe" factor, then the $599 PS3 (or $499 for the lower-end model) is probably a worthwhile investment. But otherwise, if you want this sleek gaming console to be as impressive as possible, just remember that you'll probably end up spending more than $599. A lot more.

If you can't get enough of PS3 fever, keep your eyes peeled for Rich DeMuro's video recap of the event on CNET TV. It'll be up soon.

(Photos: Caroline McCarthy/Crave)

Last week at DigitalLife, a couple of reasonably important announcements were made. There was that new Treo that comes in pretty colors. And a few whispers about Vista. But there was also something that the gaming crowd might consider more important: the 15th birthday of Sega's classic video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. Yeah, his first game came out in 1991. Feel old yet?

Sonic was kind enough to pose with some hotshot reporters at a DigitalLife kickoff party. From left: CNET TV's Rich DeMuro, Sonic the Hedgehog, and yours truly.