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The series began in 1991 with the release of '' Sonic The Hedgehog '' on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis . An 8-bit Version Of The Game was also released for the Master System and Game Gear formats. Yuji Naka (who would later become head of the Sonic Team division) was the main programmer for the first game. The "game planner" was Hirokazu Yasuhara . The music of the first two ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games on the Mega Drive and Genesis was composed by Masato Nakamura of the Japanese band Dreams Come True . STORY The premise of the games revolves around Doctor Eggman (called Doctor Ivo Robotnik in the earlier releases in North America , Europe , Australia and New Zealand ) trying to conquer the Earth by turning the animals into robots (often called Badniks , though this is an US/EUR term and hasn't been used since '' Sonic Adventure ''). Sonic is charged with saving them. In later games he is joined by Miles "Tails" Prower , Amy Rose , Knuckles The Echidna , Cream The Rabbit , Team Chaotix and A Host Of Other Characters . He usually collects the Chaos Emeralds (usually from the Special Stages ) in order to achieve the best ending in the game, as well as become his most powerful form, Super Sonic . In this state, he is completely immune to all enemies and obstacles (although he can still be killed by falling into pits, being crushed and drowning), gains the ability of flight in certain circumstances, and the unique skill of breathing in space. However, Sonic's quest does not necessitate collecting the Emeralds himself; he must only prevent Eggman from getting them and dooming the world with their power. Sonic also has to deal with numerous other foes, such as Metal Sonic , Chaos , Fang The Sniper and Black Doom . Two of the major characters in the series are the Anti-Heroes Shadow The Hedgehog , and Rouge The Bat , who usually oppose Sonic and his friends, but will aid them when the situation calls for it. MAIN CHARACTERS '''. Sonic cannot swim in the games. Dr. Eggman : Also known as Dr. Robotnik, Eggman is Sonic's arch nemesis and the series' main villain. He is egg-shaped and has a giant orange moustache. Eggman is an expert in robotics and wishes to conquer the world and build the Eggman Empire. However, Sonic and his friends always stand in his way. ''', and can fly for a limited time by spinning his tails rapidly. He is a skilled mechanic and has his own plane called the ''Tornado''. ''', where he guards the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald , the source of the island's ability to float in the sky. Knuckles is very strong, his spiked fists capable of smashing through boulders. He is hotheaded and gullible. He is a retired member of the Chaotix . ''''', Amy has been in love with Sonic and wants to marry him. Amy is a skilled fighter and smashes enemy forces down with her trusty Piko Piko Hammer. Cream The Rabbit : A naive young rabbit who lives with her mother, Vanilla. Cream's best friend is a Chao called Cheese. Cream has been brought up like a princess, so she does not like getting caught in other peoples' affairs. Cream can fly using her large rabbit ears. ''' on the Space Colony ARK almost fifty years ago. He recently suffered from amnesia but has regained all of his memories since. He can use Chaos Control to distort time and space. '''. ''', Espio The Chameleon , and Charmy Bee . Some rumors also put Mighty The Armadillo in the "CDA", but his disappearence from ''Sonic Heroes'' and ''Sonic X'' has testified against his involvement with them. ''''', Metal Sonic betrays Eggman to conquer the world for himself, but he is stopped by Super Sonic . GAMEPLAY 2D platform games ]] Most Sonic titles are Platform Games viewed from a side-on perspective. Their controls are basic and do not deviate much from the genre standard; the Selling Point of the series is the sheer speed of the playable characters, who usually have the ability to run on Slopes , Walls , and even Ceiling s. Roller Coaster -like Loops and Corkscrews are also common in Sonic games, as are giant Pinball machines with flippers and bumpers which knock Sonic around like a ball. The stages are also similar to roller coasters in that many sequences involve Sonic being thrown along pre-set paths with little input from the player, which has led to criticism that the player can complete a Sonic game merely by holding the pad in one direction. However, the games also feature numerous sections involving precise jumping between platforms and avoiding of hazards, although these sections do not require "pixel-perfect" judgement and are perhaps more lenient than most platform games of the era. In order to progress through his missions, Sonic must collect . Certain titles in the series often reward the collection of other quantities of rings; frequently, 50 must be collected in order to access the Special Stage s in which the Chaos Emerald s may be obtained. 3D platform games '''', an Isometric , Pseudo-3D (" 2.5D ") game, was released for the Mega Drive in 1996 . Sega Saturn and Windows PC conversions followed, which had enhanced graphics and a different sound track, composed by Richard Jacques . ''Sonic 3D'' was developed by Traveller's Tales , although Sonic Team worked on the Special Stages in the Saturn/PC version. In 1997 , a compilation entitled '' Sonic Jam '' was released for the Saturn. In addition to containing '' Sonic The Hedgehog '', '' Sonic 2 '', '' Sonic 3 '' and '' Sonic And Knuckles '', it also included a "Sonic World" mode. This allowed the player to control Sonic in a small 3D world similar to the Green Hill Zone from the original game; it contained no enemies and was mainly a means of accessing the disc's bonus features. The Sega Technical Institute tried to develop a "true" Sonic game for the Saturn called '' Sonic X-treme ''. However, due to time constraints and issues between STI and the Japanese division of Sega and Sonic Team, the project was cancelled. The full leap into 3D platforming was made with '''') when Sega dropped out of the hardware market. ''DX'' was also ported to Windows PCs. The first Sonic game always intended to be multiformat, '' Sonic Heroes '', was released on the GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox in December 2003 in Japan, with American and European releases following soon after, and a PC version the following November. The platforming was largely similar to that of the ''Adventure'' titles, although the player now controlled the lead character of a team of three themed characters, with the other two following closely behind. The player could switch to a new leader at any time, in order to make use of each character's special skills. It sold well, but opinions among both reviewers and fans of the ''Sonic'' series were mixed. '' Shadow The Hedgehog '' was no different. Released in the US in November 2005, it had received several good reviews, as countless negative reviews. X-Play, for instance, had given it a 1 out of 5, making it the lowest-scoring Sonic game reviewed on the show. But, despite the mixed opinions, ''Shadow the Hedgehog'' is still considered enjoyable. Also, like ''Sonic Heroes'', it was sort of an experiment. One of the greatest controversies revolving around this game is the gunplay; fans insisted that Shadow was the self-proclaimed "ultimate Life-form " and did not need a weapon. Two other controversies were the over-use of the Curse Word " Damn " and the fact that SEGA had decided to switch to the voice artists from the English version of '' Sonic X ''. While this was necessary for Eggman, many fans considered it an outrage how the original voice-overs were fired without being notified first. Other gameplay styles A few Sonic games focus on gameplay styles other than the standard platforming. The first of these was '' Sonic Spinball '' (released on the Mega Drive in 1993 and on the Master System and Game Gear in 1994). The concept of Sonic bouncing around as the ball in a giant Pinball table had been used in both ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' and ''Sonic the Hedeghog 2''; ''Sonic Spinball'' made a whole game around that premise. Several Racing Game s starring Sonic characters have been developed. In '' Sonic Drift '' and '' Sonic Drift 2 '', characters rode Go-karts (kart circuits were later included in the two ''Sonic Adventure'' games). In '' Sonic R '' (1998), most characters ran on foot, while in '' Sonic Riders '' (2006), they race on Hoverboard s. '' Sonic Shuffle '' was a '' Mario Party ''-style virtual Board Game / Party Game for the Sega Dreamcast, but it was not well-received. Edutainment videogames starring Sonic and Tails have also been released, such as '' Tails And The Music Maker '' for the Sega Pico , and the PC title '' Sonic's Schoolhouse ''. On the Game Boy Advance is a fighting/platform game hybrid called '' Sonic Battle ''. In 1993, '' Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine '' was released for the Sega Genesis . The game was basically a clone of a Japanese puzzle game named '' Puyo Puyo ''. This game was also ported to the Game Gear . COMMON FEATURES Chaos Emeralds and Special Stages The Chaos Emerald s are a recurring feature of Sonic games. They are the basis of most of the games' plots, and the player is frequently required to collect them all in order to fully defeat Eggman and achieve the games' "good endings". The method used to acquire the Emeralds differs between titles in the series. In some games, such as '' Sonic R '' and the 8-bit versions of '' Sonic The Hedgehog '' and '' Sonic The Hedgehog 2 '', they can be found in hidden locations within the main levels. In '' Sonic Spinball '' (in which the Emeralds were, unlike most Sonic games, an essential requirement for completing the game) they could be accessed by performing specific actions and solving minor puzzles on the Pinball tables that made up each level. More frequently, a Chaos Emerald may be earned in a ''''', '' Sonic 3-D Blast '', '' Sonic Heroes '' and '' Sonic Rush '' featured "in your face" segments with the hedgehog running along a long tunnel, with a slight variant involving falling down a long tube or riding the Tornado being used for '' Knuckles Chaotix '', '' Sonic Advance '', and '' Sonic Advance 3 ''; 3-D "collect items" levels, like in '' Sonic 3 '' and '' Sonic & Knuckles '', which used the same perspective but had Sonic collecting all the Blue-coloured Orbs on the surface of a giant sphere, and a different version, the 3-D ring-collecting Special Stage, used in '' Sonic Advance 2 ''. '' Sonic Chaos '' (''Sonic and Tails'' in Japan) utilised a variety of gimmicks for its levels. Some Sonic titles include Special Stages, but not as a means of collecting Chaos Emeralds. As the Emeralds of the 8-bit version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' were hidden in the main stages, the game's spring-filled Special Stages were merely used as a means of adding variety, and for a player to increase their Score . Similarly, ''Sonic 3'' and ''Sonic & Knuckles'', in addition to their main Special Stages, featured entirely optional bonus stages, one of which combined the rotating maze of the 16-bit ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' with the pinball gambling of ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'', and ''Sonic Heroes'' had an alternate Special Stage for earning lots of 1-UPS, very much like the one in which Chaos Emerals are collected, but with the objective being to get to the Goal Ring before time ran out, rather than catching up to the Chaos Emerald at the end of the tunnel. Just as the design of the Special Stages has changed, so has the means of accessing them. In ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'', giant rings were hidden in levels to take the player to the Stages, but most other titles involve the collection of a certain number of rings, usually 50. In both the 8- and 16-bit versions of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', they were reached by finishing a level with more then 50 rings; in the 16-bit ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'', reaching a Star Post when they held this number would create a warp of stars which would take a player to the Special Stage when jumped through. ''Sonic 3D'' required the player to deliver rings to Knuckles and Tails , who could be found within each level. ''Sonic Chaos'' changed the figure, with access to a Special Stage being the reward for collecting 100 rings. Super Sonic ''Main article: Super Sonic '' Since the 16-bit version of ''Sonic 2'', Sonic has had the ability to transform into the extremely fast and invulnerable Super Sonic once all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected. (''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'', with its greater emerald count, featured an even more powerful form known as '''Hyper Sonic'''.) After that, Super Sonic can be used in any of the following levels once 50 rings have been collected, although one ring is lost for every second Sonic remains in this form. In the ''Sonic Adventure'' titles, the Special Stages were omitted entirely and Chaos Emeralds were collected in non-interactive Cut-scene s as part of the story, with Super Sonic only appearing in the climactic final boss fights. This dismayed many fans, who appreciated the additional replay value offered by retrying a game's levels with Super Sonic's additional abilities. Despite several games since returning to the emerald-collecting of the 2D platform titles (including the ''Advance'' series, ''Heroes'', and ''Rush''), Super Sonic was again only playable at the end of the game in an extra zone. In ''Sonic R'', Super Sonic was the fastest racer in the game, a Secret Character again unlocked by collecting all the Chaos Emeralds. In "Sonic Riders", Super Sonic is also an unlockable character, playable outside the final level for the first time since the Sega Genesis games. As with previous games, Super Sonic consumes rings as you play, and you revert to standard Sonic when you run out of rings. He is playable by unlocking the Chaos Emerald gear. MUSIC The ''. REGIONAL VARIATIONS In the Japanese manuals it is said that the Mega Drive games are set on Earth, on South Island ('' Sonic The Hedgehog ''), Westside Island ('' Sonic The Hedgehog 2 '') and Angel Island ('' Sonic The Hedgehog 3 '' and '' Sonic And Knuckles ''). When these manuals were translated the stories were changed. According to the western Mega Drive manuals the games were set in a different worlds called Mobius . But beginning with ''Sonic Adventure'' the Japanese story became the international one. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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