![]() And they managed to avoid the fatigue issue Sega ran into, as well. It was too much Sonic all at once, with Sega releasing 11 - eleven! - Sonic and Friends platformers between 19, never mind Sonic-branded spinoffs in other genres: Nintendo’s decision to begin releasing one or two major games in a franchise per console generation can be frustrating, sure, but at least you can argue it leads to far better, more focused experiences in the end. The Game Gear, well, that was flooded with Sonic and Sonic-adjacent titles, and they are generally much less beloved than their console counterparts, though, there is certainly an exception or two in there. The Genesis featured Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic the Hedgehog CD, and Sonic 3D Blast, which were, for the most part, well-regarded releases. There was just one mainline Mario game on the Super Nintendo, with a “sequel” that was more of a spinoff and the launch of a new franchise than anything: Super Mario World, and Yoshi’s Island. Sega had a tendency to release as much as possible, be it games or hardware, and it would eventually devalue their brand in the eyes of everyone they couldn’t afford to lose the support of, be it gamers or developers or even retailers. If you imagine Sega’s handling of their console business to be like Sonic running through a level at top speed without any concern for the dangers in his path, repeatedly crashing into enemies and obstacles while losing all of his carefully collected rings in the process, you wouldn’t be too far off from reality. We can forgive Sega the timeline distortions, considering their entire business model, the one Sonic helped build in the first place with the success of his debut title, was crashing down around them at the time. It wouldn’t come out until June 18 in North America, and June 23 in Japan and PAL regions - a funny date selection, that, considering Sonic Adventure 2 was meant to celebrate Sonic’s 10-year anniversary, but North America got it five days before that date, and the rest of the world got it on the date of the North American anniversary, well before Sonic’s original adventure had released worldwide. Sonic Adventure 2, though, had yet to be released. Price drops become a frequent occurrence to move the remaining stock of that little gem of a console that deserved a better fate than it got, and then, it was all over. On January 31, 2001, Sega announced that they would be transitioning to become a third-party publisher, focused on multi-platform development, and just two months later, production of the Dreamcast stopped. Sonic Adventure 2, the blue hedgehog’s finest hour on the Dreamcast, released after Sega had already officially left the console business behind. ![]() First up was the original Sonic the Hedgehog, then the last Sonic game to appear on a Sega console, Sonic Adventure 2, and last, the best Sonic Game since his heyday, Sonic Colors. I’ve spent the week looking back at some of Sonic’s finest outings across those 30 years, one from each era of the anthropomorphic hedgehog’s existence. On June 23, 2021, Sonic the Hedgehog turned 30 years old.
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