Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

Game Boy Advance box art.
Game Boy Advance box art.

A version of the game, which was entitled Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis, was released for the Game Boy Advance in November 2006 as part of the celebrations of the original game's 15th anniversary. The game is a remake of the original game as opposed to a port. It includes a new save feature and a special "Anniversary Mode" featuring the Spin-Dash move that was added in later games. In addition, the view is slightly zoomed in and adapted for the GBA's widescreen aspect ratio, and the level select and debug codes have been left out, the former due to the fact that there is already a zone select screen.[5] The reception was negative, as many reviewers criticized the game for its slow frame rate, music, and glitches -- most called the game "unplayable."

See also: Video games notable for negative reception

Compilation releases

Compilations that include the game are Sonic Compilation (1995) and Sega 6-Pak (1996) for the Sega Genesis; Sonic Jam (1997) for the Sega Saturn; Sega Smash Pack (1999) for the Sega Dreamcast; Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for the GameCube; Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004) for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, and Sega Genesis Collection (2006) for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

The Sonic Jam version, like all of the four games included in the title, was given "easy" and "medium" options (as well as an "original" option, the game as it was) that removed acts, bosses, enemies, spikes, traps and pits. These "easy" and "medium" options were not included with any other versions of the game. In addition, the Spin-Dash, a move that did not debut until Sonic 2 the following year, was implemented in the first game. It is interesting to note that the spike bug from earlier versions of Sonic the Hedgehog can be triggered if Spin Dash is turned off.

Sonic Mega Collection and Mega Collection Plus feature all three revisions of the game. The GameCube PAL edition of Mega Collection for the GameCube supports a 60 Hz option, which not only allows the game to be played full-screen and at its original speed, but also allows either the US or Japanese version 2.0 iterations to be played via a cheat code (the first Japanese version is the default). If the 50 Hz option is selected, these cheat codes do not work and only the PAL edition of the game can be played.[6]

In Sega Genesis Collection, both the US and European releases of this collection contain the US version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Releases on other platforms

The original game was converted into a Famicom game called Somari by a group of software pirates in Hong Kong. The game, which is mostly playable, replaces Sonic with Mario wearing Tails's shoes.

A J2ME conversion for mobile phones running Java was released by I-Fone in 2006. This version, Sonic the Hedgehog Part 1, includes only the first three zones, with the remainder to be released as Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2 at a later date. This version mostly follows the Mega Drive version, but some features have been removed, most notably the Special Stage. There has also been a second, not as widely known version the game for Verizon phones, that has everything the original version did, although strangely removing all sound effects from the game. The mobile phone version also came bundled with some Panasonic cell phones in Europe and Japan.

In 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog became available for Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service from launch [7], and in 2007 entered Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade, under the title Sonic the Hedgehog Arcade.[8] The 360 version does not allow the use of cheats to prevent undue earning of Achievements. It also has options for graphic smoothing, saving and loading current progress in-game and to resize the gameplay window.

The game was also present on the Danger Hiptop's Sidekick 3, Real Arcade and GameTap (along with most classic Sonic games).

In 2007 the game was made available on the iTunes store as a game for the iPod nano with video, the iPod classic, and iPod with video.

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