The first time I played a Sonic game was at my friend Noah VanNotes birthday party. He got the original Mark I Genesis with the volume slider. It was a lot of fun to set up the system and launch into some classic games. That day we played Eternal Champions, Street Fighter 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Out of those three I had played SF II at the arcades and had no idea of the others even though I read into every video game magazine I could get my hands on. The game I had the most fun with was definitely Sonic. The speed was mind blowing and the music was fantastic even ignoring the usual Sega issue of "tinny" music.
I remember going home and wanting a Genesis more than anything. My Super Nintendo was collecting dust as I had played through Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past already as well as Super Mario Bros. I finally got the Genesis Mark II that came bundled with Sonic the Hedgehog 2! I was so excited I could not wait to play the game that I had waited sooo long for. I expected just about the same thing as the first time but low and behold my expectations were shattered as Sonic 2 seemed faster and a little more fluid with the movements. Sonic also got his sidekick Tails to join him for this version. I was floored and spent a good chunk of my sad little life playing that game. I eventually moved on to play the other Genesis "classics" but none of them ever held the magic that the first time playing Sonic did for me. Sega unfortunately was way ahead of it's time for too long and its next systems released never recaptured that magic that the Genesis had. That is not to say they did not have their share of excellent games but in the end after creating one of my favorite consoles of all time, the Dreamcast, Sega stepped out of making hardware but the did not stop Sonic from making appearances on other systems even going so far to appear on the Nintendo GameCube. Until next time I leave you with the opening and closing of Sonic CD featuring the song Sonic Boom. Thanks friends and see you again soon!
