Game Design II

Sonic the Hedgehog is a platform game developed by Sega and published by for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis system. It is the inaugural game in Sega's flagship Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, and was the first title developed by Sonic Team. The game was released in 1991 in North America, Europe, and Japan. It is sometimes retrospectively referred to as Sonic the Hedgehog 1 or Sonic 1 to differentiate it from both its main character and sequels in the same series.

Gameplay
In the game, Sonic has to prevent Doctor Robotnik from collecting the six Chaos Emeralds in an attempt to rule South Island. The player controls Sonic as he traverses six zones, each of which is split into three "acts". At the end of the third act of each zone, the player faces Dr. Robotnik in one of his vehicles.

The gameplay centers around Sonic's ability to run, jump, and roll at high speeds. Levels include springs, slopes, high falls and loop-de-loops. Hazards the player experiences include a wide variety of "badniks" — animals trapped inside mechanical bodies, which are released the moment the player hits them with an attack. Each badnik takes one hit to destroy, but their movements and methods of attack vary greatly over the course of the game. The player must also avoid rows of sharp spikes, bottomless pits, and elaborate death traps.

Scattered around each level map are numerous gold rings, which became a signature item of the Sonic series. Collecting 100 rings rewards the player with an extra life. Rings act as a layer of protection against hazards — if Sonic possesses at least one ring, an enemy attack will not kill him instantly but will cause his rings to scatter outwards and bounce away from him. Shields and invincibility can also be collected in order to provide additional layers of protection — however, they do not prevent the player losing a life if Sonic is crushed (by a trap or between a wall and a moving platform), drowned, falls into a pit, or goes over each act's ten-minute time limit.

Why i like it?
I pretty much grew up on video games which are console driven such as Nintendo and Sega. For nintendo its clearly Mario, but for Sega it has to be Sonic the Hedgehog. The pure exhilaration from seeing Sonic spin so fast till he can practically slice off trees were a very awesome thing to pull when you were a kid. U just wish that you could run so fast like Sonic and rip things apart. It is from this that i got my running prowess from. Cause I would practically run up to my friend's house to play this game everyday for a brief stint till I completed the stages that is.