Sonic [Edit: Giveaways over]

There are a large number of games. I recommend trying out the earliest games if you were a fan of 2D platformers. They were quite good for the time, and while you won't have nostalgia going for them, they are still quality games. From there, you could could at later games if you have fun.

Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are the best, I feel one could safely pass on the rest and not be missing out on much. It is hard to say how much of my affection is nostalgia, but I think they still stand up as solid 2D platformers.

Sonic the Hedgehog was my first ever videogame (on my first console: MegaDrive). The soundtrack was awesome, controls were responsive, graphics were pretty, and gameplay was addictive.

I played my first Sonic game in China on an old video game console. I stumbled across the multigame game cart at the shady market right below my building and exchanged my other cart for it. The game was called "Sound Speed Little Dude" and involved a dude that was sound speed and something about rings. I regret that cart exchange to this day.

I need more answers people! Four comments ain't gonna help me with the answers I want to know. Thanks!

Well for me my first ever console and game was the megadrive with sonic. Me and my dad spent hours playing and we ended up completing the game with all the chaos emeralds. From there ive spent a lot of time playing each sonic, completing them, replaying them and trying to 100% them, all of which ive failed to 100% (Unless you count the early ones of just getting the emeralds) that's why the sonic series is for me one of the best

Bump for answers then! :D
Happy holidays, man!

Sonic games are good
There are... a lot
Games are good, and Sonic is a nice character :)

I've only played one Sonic game, and it's the original. It's actually a good game, because it requires a certain amount of skill and challenge yet it's pretty fun, although there's no savegames.

Because Sanic gottagofast! :D

Nah, all his popularity can be attributed to the sound effect on his spin-up move, and that it loops when you slam the button :D

Hedgehogs are cute. That is all.

Because he just keeps going around and around and around! :D

Some of the games are good. Some aren't. Generations was pretty good and representative of a sampling of the styles.

Sonic has a nice cast of characters, and yes he is a cute little hedgehog with the unique power of going really fast. To be honest, I really found it hard to get into the old 2D sonic games, I was terrible at them and they got boring pretty quickly. When I was maybe 10 or 12 I rented Adventure 2: Battle from blockbuster which I later ended up begging for for my birthday. It was EXCELLENT. To this day, I would place it in my all time top 5. Why, you ask?

• You get to play through both the 'good' and 'evil' storylines getting the perspective of both sets of characters.
• There's three different gameplay types which help break it up a bit; levels played as Sonic/Shadow you do the whole going fast through loop-de-loops thing, Tails/Eggman levels you get to shoot stuff with their mech suits, and in Knuckles/Rouge levels you get a radar and dig around the level for gems.
• The music in the game is excellent, there's even raps about the characters.
• The difficulty curve is good but it still manages to be quite challenging.
• After you've beaten a level you can redo the level to earn more emblems for completing different challenges
• The Chao Garden! It's a sort of minigame where you hatch and raise Chaos. You bring them items you found while playing levels of the game which level up your Chao's stats, then you can breed them, race them or make them fight in Chao Karate.

I know the original Sonic Adventure is of course very similar, but I haven't really gotten to play much of it. If anyone could explain to me which is better, I'd be interested to hear it!

I remember seeing Sonic for the first time at a Mom and Pop VHS rental store. My and my brother's jaws dropped. We'd never seen anything like it (so fast and colorful). We begged for a Genesis that Christmas just for Sonic. We rented Knight Rider for NES (sucked) and my oldest brother rented Under Siege (VHS) that day and I wasn't allowed to watch it (still upset about that one and haven't watched the movie to this day).

as a fan of the 2d sonic games by dint of having every sega machine bar the the 32x that was released in the uk at various points sonic cd is the best imo, i keep meaning to get the steam version but seen as i have a cd rom of it knocking about its low priority :), as to why theyre fun theyre relatively easy platformers or at least the earlier ones are i cant speak to the 3d ones past sonic adventure which didnt grab me as any fun though millions disagree with me on that

When video games were going mainstream, Sonic & Mario were engaged in a battle for the king of the 16-bit era; Sonic (Sega Genesis) vs. Mario (Super Nintendo) were the talk of countless gamer evenings.At one point, Sonic became even more popular than Mario, because he appealed not only to small children, but also teenage adolescents & young adults.

Sonic had an image of 'coolness' that Mario couldn't obtain. Nintendo had a 'family-friendly' image and stuck to making games aimed at younger audiences, while on the other hand Sonic was marketed towards the 'cool, older kids'.

In the end, it came down to AAA titles (Super Nintendo) vs. the add-ons and upgrades for the aging Genesis (The Sega CD & 32x).....gamers were betrayed by Sega's flailing support for the doomed add-ons, while Nintendo cruised to an easy victory at the end. Sega couldn't produce quality titles, with so many consoles and handhelds to support: The Sega CD, 32x, Nomad, Game Gear, and the Master System (in 3rd world countries). Nintendo dominated the handheld market with its Game Boy, and had a massive cash influx that couldn't be bested by Sega themselves. It was an epic, one that produced memories gamers fondly recall nowadays.

I have a confession to make...I know I said I wanted my questions answered but lets be real here. I'm never gonna play any of the sonic games and if I ever bought any, I'd probably just give them away rather than let them rot in my library you know.

The truth is, I need attention and I seek validation. The more people dig deeper into my psyche and the more comments they leave, the more validation I receive. I...I...I'm sorry for deceiving you all with this thread. With Christmas so close, I feel I had to come clean and not live a lie. If I could find a chain anywhere nearby, I'd use it on myself as penance till Sunday, the day of forgiveness and attonement and when I can put this all behind me.

For those who took the time to answer my questions three, thank you. Hopefully you'll be rewarded by your maker when you come to the end, for being so kind to an attention-seeking steamgifter. Peace and joy come to you.

Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast is damn amazing.

The 2006 reboot last gen 3d game thingy was poo on toast.

I think I've only ever played two or three Sonic games and those only briefly so I can't really comment that much. They've been too many Sonic games. The franchise is popular because he was Sega's mascot, duh, though unlike with Mario, Sega kept putting out bad/mediocre games that tarnished it's reputation, though lately they released some good ones. I suppose they did that out of greed and shortsightedness, even if the games weren't that good and not much money went into their development they still sold well.

I can't really tell you why he's popular. Why is an Italian plumber one of the greatest video game heroes? Right place at the right time, I'm guessing. There are at least 20 games at this point. Sega loves milking hedgehogs, apparently. I like my Sonic games, as long as we exclude Shadow The Hedgehog.

Thanks to all who participated, and congrats to the winners - hope you all enjoy your new game!