Sunday, February 6, 2011

After Two Decades, Finally We Can All Play Sonic Games Online

By Simon Smith


Have you ever noticed that more fun something appears to be, the more likely it is to land on a list some expert compiles of things that are harmful? We must have a societal threshold for enjoyment that can not be exceeded, and when we get close, the excitement within the grumpy crowd increases. That may apply to all entertainment venues, but sonic games online is beyond their grasp.

What is astonishing about those that would portend that playing the exciting hedgehog game is in any way dangerous to the mind is comparing it with games that exude violence and blood and even sexual overtones. What could be more innocent than a speeding blue hog whose only desire is to help out his friends. Yet still almost every player has experienced the frustration of starting up the game only to be beleaguered by tasks and other annoying interruptions.

It has been two decades since our hero appeared to us in the world of Sega, and he was immediately beloved by all. His development was somewhat interesting in its own right, with necessity its driving force. Sega was lead into a fierce competition with Nintendo, thus needed a character for its games that could provide a challenge to the Mario character Nintendo was successfully developing.

The Sega CEO decided to hold a competition amongst his employees to develop a character that would provide a mascot to the company. In the end, with a number of interesting characters in the competition, the final two competitors were an armadillo and a hedgehog. The blue hedgehog was selected, though how he would appear in his final form turned out to be a work in progress. The problem was that each audience needed a different representation of the character.

One hurdle creative gaming programmers and creators must contend with is that the games are immensely popular and if a particular character and game is to survive, it needs to appeal to a world wide audience. The real challenge is that the worldwide audience is anything but homogeneous. A particular problem arose for Sonic as he headed to the United States for his North American debut.

The creators in Japan were not pleased in any way and did not want to allow the changes to be made. After the North American team came to Japan and explained the cultural problems, they finally relented. It was a good decision, as the new version of the hedgehog with his spiked hair and power sneakers was welcomed with open arms.

The story line behind the game pits a hedgehog with the capability of moving faster than the speed of sound against an evil Doctor. The Doctor is kidnapping the animals and turning them into evil Robots with designs to take over the world. Only a spirited sprite like our speedster had the ability to thwart him and his evil plan.

The hedgehog has done very well competing with the plumber for Super Mario fame, and the have been competing head to head for more than a decade. The exception was the introduction to three dimensional gaming, an arena Nintendo was much better suited for than Sega. There is still hope however, because now that everyone can play sonic games online, the differences in the gaming platforms is narrowing once again.




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