Cube

She hasn't had any.

Star Trek: Judgement Rites Original Release: 1993 Developer: Interplay Publisher: Interplay Platform: DOS The sequel to the 25th Anniversary doesn’t get as much attention as the original, which is a shame as this is an improvement in every way. Judgement Rites features an arching storyline trying most of the plots of each “episode” together, which I think works well for a video game. Each episode still feels like a complete story with its own individual plot, mysteries and setting. The away team also varies, so it’s nice that the rest of the crew (other than Spock and McCoy) get to do more in this game. This game was also the last completed project that had all of the main cast in it. Combat returns, but now has an easier setting or can be disabled completely, although some dialogue is cut if you choose this. That said, some of the battles do just seem to be there for the sake of having a battle in each story, so it’s still good that you can turn off its weakest element. The point and click portions are great, and there are no timers to worry about each time so you can solve them at your own pace. I did find a few times that some elements you need can be difficult to notice, for one story I was wondering around for ages because I didn’t realise that one computer panel was actually two (you needed to interact with both) and sometimes you won’t realise that the bottom of the screen is a path, but for the most part it’s solvable without really obscure solutions and sometimes there are even a couple of ways to do something. Judgement Rites is a great game, and I highly recommend it. Star Trek: The Next Generation (NES) Original Release: 1993 Developer: Imagineering Publisher: Absolute Entertainment Platform: NES By far the most impressive thing about this game is how they’ve managed to fit so much stuff on just a D-pad, A, B, Select and Start. The controls aren’t good by any stretch, it’s just impressive that they could do so much with so few buttons. In this, you command the crew of the Enterprise D. Well, four of them at least. Worf will turn on/off shields and weapons. Data will set courses for systems and orbit planets. La Forge will boost power to some systems and sort out repairs. O’ Brian is the most involved with controlling the transporter. Riker tells you the time. You use the D-pad to select who you want to give a command to and A to confirm. Pressing the select button will put you in a mode where you fly the ship and shoot phasers/torpedoes. However, to change speed you have to go back to the command mode and press forward/back. The game itself is random missions that generally involve flying somewhere, shooting stuff and then transporting. It’s a fairly dull combat simulator and not much more. When you beam stuff up (cargo or hostages), you get a nice little minigame, but that’s all there is. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Game Boy) Original Release: 1993 Developer: Imagineering Publisher: Absolute Entertainment Platform: NES While it’s quite often the case that the Game Boy got completely different versions of the games than the NES (25th Anniversary being one example), this is the exact same game as on the NES, just in black an white. There’s not much more to cover with this version, other than it being really good for a Game Boy conversion of a game – it’s just a shame that the game isn’t a good one. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Tiger) Original Release: 1993 Developer: Tiger Publisher: Tiger Original Platform: Electronic Handheld Not played: Too expensive to get second hand. A very basic LCD game. You have to avoid asteroids while shooting at Romulans. These games are very rarely any good, and are almost impossible to see when playing. Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Klingon Challenge Original Release: 1994 Developer: Decipher Publisher: Decipher Original Platform: Board Game On the surface, this is another roll and move board game. The Enterprise has been taken over by a Klingon called Kavok. As the ship was undergoing upgrades, only a few unnamed crew are on board. It’s up to them to get access to the Enterprise computer and stop Kavok from starting a war between the Federation and the Klingons. Do do this, they need to collect 5 isolinear chips and a phaser and get to the bridge. To do this, you need to collect computer access card by landing on spaces and hopefully drawing a card that mentions a specific room (or, if you’re lucky, any room) – however, some of these cards are just bonuses. Once you get to the mentioned room, you earn your next chip. If the game was just rolling moving and doing what it says, it would be boring. But this is a VCR board game, which makes the experience a lot more fun (albeit a bit silly). While playing, you watch the footage and Kavok (played by Robert O’Reilly, known for playing Gowron) will pop up every now and then. He’ll address a player (usually the one currently moving, sometimes based on rank) who has to respond with “Yes Captain Kavok!” and then gets told what to do, which is usually getting trapped in a stasis field (so they can’t move), spinning the Klingon Dagger for a random chance or to EXPERIANCE BIJ! While Kavok gets more and more excited to say the words, it just means drawing a Bij card and doing what it says. This will usually be something negative. Sometimes a “Low Level Malfunction” will pop up on screen when you EXPERIANCE BIJ which means you get a reward instead. It’s a silly game, but fun. It’s easy to lose track of things, but the rules even expect this and say to quickly pick a random person and carry on playing because you’re against the clock. If time runs out, you’ll have to watch the Enterprise get destroyed. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Classic Games) Original Release: 1993 Developer: Classic Games Publisher: Classic Games Original Platform: Board Game This is similar to the previous board game from the same publisher: a board game where answering trivia questions gives you another clue. While the game is simple, there’s lots of different things that can happen so the host be referring to the rulebook a lot. One player is Starfleet Command and keeps track of what is going on, as well as reading questions for players to answer. The aim of the game sounds simple: There are planets hidden in the sector, find and scan them and report to Starfleet Command. I tried a scenario with one sector and two planets and it took forever for someone to find one planet (we agreed that they won the game at that point). The sensor range of ships is quite small so they have to get quite close to the planets to discover them. On top of that, each of the three other players have their routes hidden from each other, so could all be exploring similar areas. I can’t imagine trying to play this game with all four sectors. On a player’s turn, they pick a direction and speed and move in that direction. Starfleet Command then reads a question – the faster the ship is travelling, the more difficult the question it. Each question has consequences (damaging systems or getting teleported elsewhere by Q) and bonuses (mainly just taking another turn). It’s a shame because all the grids and drawing implements give the impression of a much more interesting game – once again it will just be better to ask each other the trivia questions. Star Trek: The Next Generation Game of the Galaxies Original Release: 1992 Developer: Cardinal Publisher: Cardinal Original Platform: Board Game Yet another roll and move Star Trek game, although at least this one has a nice board. The object of the game is to play as a character from The Next Generation (the game supports 6 players but there are 10 characters to choose from) to visit planets to collect treaties (you just land on the planet to get it). Landing on blue spaces will give you cards that will move you around, make you lose or gain treaties or make you lose a turn. you start off with a Photon Torpedo card which lets you take a shortcut through an asteroid field. Dabo Original Release: Seen on-screen in 1993 Developer: Cryptic Publisher: Perfect World Original Platform: Board Game Dabo! This is playable in Star Trek Online, so I was able to use that version for the purposes of this. There’s not really a lot to talk about, it’s just a large slot machine/roulette wheel combo. You pick a position on the outside of the board, then the three rings spin. When the stop, the three symbols that line up with the positions you bet on determine your reward (or lack of reward). Tongo Original Release: Seen on-screen in 1993 Developer: luminous1, Dean Jones Publisher: Self-Published Original Platform: Board Game I manged to find some rules form Tongo that someone made based on all mentions of the game in the script of Deep Space Nine. It’s a Poker-like game with lots of random stuff happening with round cards, square cards, dice and betting. The rules I found used standard cards, while I found some imagery of Tongo cards and edited them to create numbered cards in four ranks. The round cards are your personal hand, these are visible to only you. The square cards are placed on the floor (the spinner), mostly face down. Every single card is part of the game, and have have to move and manipulate them. However, they can only be moved when face down so you have to try and memorise where they are. On top of that, the board is then spun so people have to keep focused so they don’t lose track of which section the cards they need are on. The vertical cards are called the “floor” and are used in determining hand ranking while the horizontal ones are used for exchanging. Finally, the dice can be rolled if they are on the segment facing you. Everyone can use the dice, which count as any rank, but they can only be used to increase a hand and nor form one (for example, a dice can’t be used for a pair, but it can turn a pair into a three-of-a-kind). Instead of betting, you pay for actions into the pot. Frist you can alter the buy/sell/exchange values, then pay to buy (flip face up), sell (flip face down) or exchange (swap with a card in the vertical row on the same or other section of the board). There are two ways of challenging other players: confront or acquire. Confront means all players can use the cards in any of the floors, it doesn’t matter who they are facing. Acquire means everyone is forced to use the cards in the section in front of them. You score your hand based on the round cards you have, the card in the flop and the three dice. Tongo is a very complicated poker, with individual rounds taking a long time – with potentially only a single round in the game. There’s a lot of card manipulation and trying to keep track of what is going on. Unfortunately, the version I’ve made in Tabletop Simulator isn’t fully functional, but I’m trying to figure out the scripting to make it work. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Advanced Holodeck Tutorial Original Release: 1994 Developer: Imagineering Publisher: Absolute Entertainment Platform: Game Gear When I first saw the name, I though it was a strange way of downplaying a game to make it sound not so good. But after playing the NES and Game Boy versions of this game (which didn’t have the subtitle), it’s actually a pretty fair description for the game. The Game Gear version of this features a little splash screen explaining that it’s training missions on a holodeck at Starfleet Academy (that information was only in the manuals for the other versions), as well as some nice shots of the Enterprise D going to warp, with better use of colour throughout the game. While the game still isn’t good, the Game Gear version is definitely the version of it.

Some figures (well, they were bought for me). Got a couple left to collect.

They really need to announce Star Trek Legacy now.

Sonic's turn for some more sets There are some parts of each set that are nice, but they're mostly quite rubbish. Focusing more on being a toy, which is kind of understandable, but would have been nice to have some more recognisable things than the random "beach party" bits each set seems to have.

I think it allowed them to just go all out fighting without it being odd for the Federation (that said, there are games like that with Starfleet). Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Original Release: 1992 Developer: Interplay Publisher: Interplay Platform: DOS With very impressive production values, not only does this have a great visual style, but it’s also fully voiced with the full cast of The Original Series. It’s a point and click adventure game much closer to the likes of Monkey Island than previous games, which is a style that suits Star Trek extremely well 25th Anniversary comprises of 7 missions, which all feel like they could have been original episodes, with some interesting stories and some returning characters, and one is even a sort of prequel to Wrath of Khan. Although I did find that slightly odd because it starts with a Federation facility with a virus outbreak that only affected Romulans, with Spock saying it should be safe for everyone to beam over. I thought this was strange because of the link between Romulans and Vulcans and, sure enough, Spock gets ill, creating a timer for this mission (something I don’t like in games like this, I like slowly investigating everything). That said, the main parts of the mission are overall great. Throughout the game you also get involved in ship combat. These parts of the game are horrible to control and are frustrating. The game would be better off with a simpler system where you give commands to your crew. One particularly annoying one involves a cloaked ship and you just have to hope that they don’t cloak too much to recharge shields – some of these battles are overly long. Overall, 25th Anniversary is a really good Star Trek game, and it would be really nice to see a refreshed version that changes the ship combat and fixes some annoyances (like silencing repeated voice lines). Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (NES) Original Release: 1992 Developer: Interplay Publisher: Ultra Platform: DOS While this shares the same name as the MS DOS game, this is not a console port of the 25th Anniversary. This is a completely different game, with its own gameplay, levels and even story. The story is fairly simple: The Enterprise has fallen though gravitational anomaly and ended up in an unknown region of space. They have to find dilithium crystals and make their way back home. The game starts off pretty terribly. It feels like a shooter and exploring the first area you’ll be shot at by plants and probably killed by tiny worms. Once you figure out the game properly, there’s actually not that much shooting involved at all beyond the first level, instead the game is about exploring, finding items and working out how to use them. Once you finish the rather tedious first level, you’re given a lot of planets to explore. Most of these are ones you either can’t land on or are just empty worlds, but it still gives the impression of a bigger world – a lot of planets are just bits of rock, after all, only a few planets contain missions that further the game. One of these is a really fun level set on a planet of rogue traders. There’s even a time travel mission where you have to save a planet that was destroyed due to the actions of Dr. McCoy. While it has a very rough start, this surprisingly becomes quite enjoyable. Star Trek 25th Anniversary (Game Boy) Original Release: 1992 Developer: Visual Concepts Publisher: Ultra Platform: DOS Another game for the 25th Anniversary, and another one with its own story with its own version of the episode “The Doomsday Machine”. The Doomsday Machine is heading for Federation space. The Federation built a superweapon to destroy it, but the Klingons stole and split it into 12 parts on three planets. You have to find the pieces and destroy The Doomsday Machine. In the space sections of the game, you have a map of the area and you can essentially choose which obstacles you face: asteroids, Klingons, Romulans, Tholians or Space Amoebas. These take you into a 2D scrolling thing where they all function the same with minor differences. You move to the right, avoiding and blasting obstacles. The Tholians are the most difficult due to their “webs”. Repeat this for the area until you reach the planet. There are four sections like this. Once you reach a planet, you land on what looks like a randomly generated jumbled mess, but the layout is the same each time. You need to navigate these mazes, looking at your tricorder for directions, to collect four parts of the weapon. There are also enemies that are best avoided. You can shoot them, but if you run out of phaser energy you can soft-lock the game and have to die or restart the level. This is a pretty terrible game. The space sections are fine but get repetitive before you finish the first one, and the ground sections are just a horrible mess. Star Trek 25th Anniversary (LCD) Original Release: 1991 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Original Platform: Electronic Handheld Not played: Too expensive to get second hand. An electronic handheld game to celebrate the 25th anniversary. The goal of this one is to rescue people from a Klingon Bird of Prey. The game has two parts. In the first, you rotate a single slither of shield around the Enterprise as you build up energy to fire a torpedo, then you align with the gap in the BoP’s shield to beam people up. The Enterprise gets damage so you need to keep an eye out for Spock popping up in the corner to help you repair the ship. Pair Match Original Release: 1985 (Used as a game in Star Trek in 1992) Developer: Bandai Publisher: Bandai Original Platform: Electronic Handheld While this game was originally released in 1985, it originally had nothing to do with Star Trek. It’s a very cool-looking electronic handheld game. The game itself is quite simple: it’s a version of the card game pairs, but each block plays a sound that matches with another. It’s much, much harder to remember location compared to standard playing cards. The device was originally used as a “call waiter” prop in Ten Forward on the Enterprise D, however in the 1992 episode “Ethics”, Troi and Alexander use the device to play a game, thus turning Pair Match into a Star Trek game. Star Trek: The Game Original Release: 1992 Developer: Classic Games Publisher: Classic Games Original Platform: Board Game With a fancy looking game board, I expected a lot more from this game. The goal is simply to visit four planets and return to the starbase (the two close planets count as one). You roll the dice and move that many spaces. At the end of the turn another player draws a card (based on how far through the game you are) and asks you a question. If you get it right, you take another turn – if your knowledge of Star Trek (TOS and the movies) is exceptional, you can just keep taking turns until you win the game. Some spaces will make you move in certain ways or send you to specific spaces and others that slow you down. Some spaces will make you lose functions like warp and phasers. Phasers don’t do anything, but if you lose all engines you have to rely on another player to drag you back to starbase. They get tokens that can be used to repair their own ship functions. The rules also make a big deal that some questions can make you lose functions, but it relates to just two questions out of over 1000. The game would be more enjoyable if you ditch the board and asked each other questions. Star Trek: The Final Frontier (Board Game) Original Release: 1992 Developer: Toys & Games Limited Publisher: Toys & Games Limited Original Platform: Board Game A very basic and very random roll and move game. You get given four random planets that you have to travel to before returning to Earth. As a result, some players will need to travel longer distances than others. Each turn you roll the dice and move that many spaces. If you land on a starfleet icon, you draw a card for a random action like have another turn, move X spaces or miss two turns. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Brand Makers) Original Release: 1992 Developer: Brand Makers International Publisher: Brand Makers International Original Platform: Board Game A roll and write game where you have to go around the board to reach “docking ports”. Once there, you draw a character from a stack of cards. If it’s someone you already have, you put them back. If you land on another player, you can take one of their cards. Your goal is to collect the five main characters of The Next Generation: Picard, Beardless Riker, Worf, and Tasha Yar. Keep in mind that this game was produced during season 5 of The Next Generation, and Tasha doesn’t even appear in the promotional images used for the board and box – plus Riker has a beard in those. This game is also a carbon copy of a Robin Hood game made by the same people, right down to the board layout. This is easily the laziest Star Trek game. Terrace Original Release: 1992 Developer: Anton Dresden, Buzz Siler Publisher: Herbko Original Platform: Board Game An abstract board game that was popular on the USS Enterprise D. This came out in 1992 and was first seen in “Hero Worship”. The box for Terrace even got updated mentioning that it appears in The Next Generation, along with a Windows 3.1 video game that also mentions TNG. Terrace is a multi-level board game. Pieces can move as much as they want on the same level, can move up one space straight or diagonal but can only move down in a straight line. You take your own pieces by moving downwards onto an opponents piece, but your piece must be the same size or larger. The aim of the game is to either take your opponents “T” piece or to get yours to the opposite side of the board. There’s a lot of strategy to this.

Star Trek: Trivia Game Original Release: 1986 Developer: Scott Miller Publisher: Apogee Platform: DOS A fairly basic trivia game covering The Original Series. It comes in 10 volumes, each with 100 questions each. Volume 1 starts with logical questions, while volume 10 seems to have some more obscure stuff that requires you to remember specific numbers or which members of the crew were on the bridge at the start of certain episodes. The presentation is fairly basic, but effective. Star Trek: The Rebel Universe Original Release: 1987 Developer: Mike Singleton Publisher: Firebird Software Original Platform: Amiga ST The Rebel Universe certainly has ambition. It provides a large region of space to explore called the Quarantine Zone, where the Klingons have managed to mind control Federation crews using special dilithum. As a result, everyone in this area is hostile to you. There are multiple ways to win the game, such as destroying, components for the mind control system, jamming Klingon communications or finding and releasing a virus to keep Klingons peaceful. Unfortunately, the interface for the game is terrible. You swap between different panels to control different aspects of the ship, but it is extremely clunky and you have to often return to the “bridge” screen to select who you need. The smaller screens also don’t update with important information and some are just the same image that don’t reflect the right information, so you have to constantly move back and forth. There’s definitely a lot of ambition with The Rebel Universe, it’s tedious to play. Star Trek: First Contact Original Release: 1988 Developer: Micromosaics Publisher: Simon & Schuster Original Platform: Apple II Version Played: DOS Using similar systems to The Kobayashi Alternative, First Contact (not to be confused with the episode or film of the same name) refines some of its systems, making walking around much easier as it shows which rooms you’re heading to. It also displays who you are speaking to, so you aren’t constantly giving commands to the wrong people. The story involves taking some diplomats to a planet for negotiations, however this is just a ruse for a secret mission to make first contact with a new species who are sending out a signal (the Federation don’t want the Klingons to notice). But while the transportation of diplomats is just supposed to be a simple thing, a murder happens that you need to solve. The exploration element of The Kobayashi Alternative is gone, and this is a much more linear adventure. Events will progress at certain times, so you can miss important moments, so you need to prioritise what you want to look into. The story is a decent one, with a few locations and different problems at each, but doesn’t have the wonder of The Kobayashi Alternative. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (DOS) Original Release: 1985 Developer: Micromosaics Publisher: Simon & Schuster Original Platform: Apple II Version Played: DOS This is a collection of minigames loosely based on Star Trek V. Wormhole teaches you how to fly the ship, as you have to avoid debris in a wormhole while collecting crystals. In Minefield, it teaches you how to use the ship’s weapons as you have to destroy a circle of mines before they reach the Enterprise. Hand-to-hand combat is a simple Street Fighter-style fighting game where you block and punch. Finally, there is “BoP Simulator” where you fight a Klingon bird of prey. In “normal game”, you play through each one of these modes, connected via images that tell the story of Star Trek V. These are probably the best part of the game, with some lovely looking pictures showing the story. Another highlight is the copy protection mechanic, which requires you to use the manual to translate Klingon phrases. Because of this, I know that Ghaj Qab How Wani’ is spoken in every Star Wars film. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (NES) Original Release: N/A (In development 1989) Developer: Bandai Publisher: Bandai Original Platform: NES If you don’t remember a NES game based on The Final Frontier, you’re not going crazy: this game was cancelled and was never released. A four state prototype was discovered so we can see what the game would look like. Like a lot of movie-based games, this is a side scrolling shooter. You start off as Sulu as he fights his way through Paradise. It has the difficulty you would expect from a NES movie tie-in game, with lots of projectiles flying in arcs. That said, this isn’t as frustrating as most of them. This first level is a pretty basic kill enemies and move to the right level. Next you play as Scotty in a more open level. You need to find enemies that have bombs in order to collect them, the objective being blowing up a door to get to Kirk, Spock and McCoy. If you travel down the level, there’s a section you can’t get back up without the aid of rocket boots. The third level is an Enterprise level, and a terrible one due to the controls. You need to blow up asteroids and then a bird of prey. Finally, you play as Kirk on the creation planet. This is another liner level, but has basic platforming segments that work just fine (a lot of movie tie-in NES games have terrible platforming mechanics). The aim is to get to and defeat the entity that Sybok (Spock’s former classmate) believes to be “Got” (no, I haven’t made any mistakes, this is what the text of the game says) with a boss fight at the end. If this got finished, it would have been a decent (albeit frustrating) game. I think Bandai were aiming to create a level for each member of the crew. Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Transinium Challenge Original Release: 1989 Developer: TRANS Fiction Systems Publisher: Simon & Schuster Original Platform: DOS This one is pretty terrible. While previous DOS games have had nice graphics, this one wanted to have animation so much that it opted for extremely ugly graphics in order to do so. The animations are bizarre, too, mostly consisting of Riker looking around confused. Riker has been put in charge of the Enterprise. Picard is still there and the game would have been no different if you played as the Captain instead, so I’m not entirely sure why you play as Riker. None of the character’s personalities come out in the writing anyway. Riker’s mission is to stop some terrorist attacks. To get things done, you have to continuously talk to people waffle on about nothing important, wander around a bit and chase ships around by moving between planets and asteroids because their position is random. The game is mainly boring, repetitive tasks. While the text-based games have quite big stories, this one feels like it would just be the cold opening of an episode. This game also has combat with a turn-based mechanics where you can evade, shoot or alter position. It would be interesting to try it properly, but there’s only one fight in the game and the enemy ship keeps running away, requiring you to randomly check locations so you can fight it again. Klin Zha Original Release: 1989 Developer: John M. Ford, Len Loyd Publisher: Self Published Original Platform: Board Games A Klingon chess-like game that was described in the Star Trek book The Final Reflection by John M. Ford (who helped develop the three Star Trek III Solitaire Games) and then developed into a full game by fans. There are pieces with different movement rules, the most important of which is the “Goal”. This can’t move on its own, but can be moved by other pieces. The object of the game is to kill your opponent’s goal or to block them from being able to move. Each player sets up their pieces on one segment of the triangular board, with the third being empty space that can be moved into. The game encourages to play like a Klingon, flaunting your goal for honour and glory. There’s nothing but shame if you play like a P’takh and hide your goal behind the blockade’s shields. Star Trek: The Next Generation – Trivia Original Release: 1990 Developer: George Broussard Publisher: Micro F/X Software Platform: DOS Another basic trivia game, this time based on the first few seasons of The Next Generation. The latest episode I encountered a question for was the season 3 episode “The Price”. Visual Star Trek Original Release: 1990 Developer: Unknown (Possibly John Saxton) Publisher: Self-Published Platform: DOS A version of the 1971 Star Trek game that has very little information about it – the only reference to who made it is on Trek Core, where it lists John Saxon followed by a question mark. In terms of major versions of the first Star Trek game, this one seems very overlooked, which is unfortunate. This version boasts a more visual style along with mouse controls. Navigating is now as simple as dragging the mouse from the ship to where you need to go, and long range sensors are always active. On top of stars, there are also planets which can be mined for dilithium that can be turned into energy. There are also a few additional hazards: gravity wells from black holes, tribbles and supernovae. My ship got infested with tribbles and systems slowly stopped working, but I never figured out how to get rid of them. However, these can be turned on an off, along with other options such as choice in the length and difficulty of the game. Star Trek (Konami LCD) Original Release: 1991 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Original Platform: Electronic Handheld Not played: Too expensive to get second hand. This LCD game seems quite rare, with not much information on it. There is lots of information on Konami’s Star Trek 25th Anniversary LCD, but this one is mostly forgotten about. I did find a description which says that the goal is to blast your way through asteroids in order to fire a fusion control missile at the star to stop it exploding. The Alcor Trivia Pro Classic Star Trek Original Release: 1992 Developer: Unknown (Possibly John Saxton) Publisher: Self-Published Platform: DOS This trivia game has a lot more features than the previous ones. The major one is multiplayer, where people take turns answering questions to compete for a high score. There are quite a few options to choose from, such as number of players, number of questions, timers, if the game reveals the correct answer if you get it wrong and “casino rules” where you can bet a portion of points that you’ll get the next question right. The questions are all based on The Original Series. Some are about the episode, some are about the production (one was for the budget of The Cage, with four very similar numbers as options). I did notice one slight error: when asked about what division wears red shirts, Engineering was apparently wrong (it said security, which is also correct).

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock Original Release: 1984 Developer: William Cardwell, David F. Tepool Publisher: FASA Original Platform: Board Game Not played: Couldn’t find enough information online to recreate. Most of the information I can find on how this plays is from a review on BoardGameGeek. The object of the game is to find Spock and escape, but the planet is falling apart. Each player has their own secret beam up coordinates and they need to find Spock and take him there to win. From the sounds of it from the review, the rubble is a bit too aggressive and people don’t have enough movement points to complete their objective, which leads no no players winning. Star Trek III: Starship Duel Original Release: 1984 Developer: Jordan Weisman Publisher: FASA Original Platform: Board Game Not played: Couldn’t find enough information online to recreate. A quick tactical board game. This is all about both ships moving around each other, trying to target while avoiding the weapons of the other. It came in two versions: USS Enterprise Vs Klingon Bird of Prey and USS Reliant Vs Klingon L-9. The main component of the game is a three layer navigation wheel, one shows the enemy’s move, another is where you’re targeting and the top shows your position. You also have a control board where you chose the power level of each section of shield and what weapons you are using. Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative Original Release: 1985 Developer: Micromosaics Publisher: Simon & Schuster Original Platform: Apple II Version Played: DOS The manual is a very important requirement for playing this: There’s a big backstory, plus it lists the systems and planets you can visit. Even with the manual, it took a while to get used to playing the game. Unlike most text adventure games, the text you write isn’t your actions, instead you’re playing as Kirk and the text is what Kirk is saying to other people, giving them commands. Kirk’s actions are done via the Function buttons. The game starts with the Enterprise out of power and a quick jaunt on a planet to learn how the game works to reach a species called the Orna that can fix the Enterprise. From there on, you’re free to explore the systems mentioned in the manual (or put in your own coordinates) with the mission to find the USS Heinlein (a ship that Sulu is in command of). Some of the planets are side quests, while others will present you with clues and new information. The planets are varied, from a medieval planet where you have to kill a dragon to a Dyson sphere with communities in areas (I found out the hard way that travelling between locations requires a spacesuit. The way the game works reminded me a bit of The Outer Wilds, a time loop game where you have to learn how its universe functions. You can use knowledge from previous games to skip sections, although you do get a higher score if you do everything in one run. I had a lot of fun with this, there’s a lot to like about it. Star Trek: The Adventure Game Original Release: 1985 Developer: Greg Costikyan, Doug Kaufman Publisher: West End Games Original Platform: Board Games Not played: Couldn’t find enough information online to recreate. With a quick glance at the board, this looks like it could be another war game, but it’s the complete opposite: there is no direct confrontation happening. Instead, the Federation and Klingons are trying to recruit planets to their side. This is done via the story book, where you encounter a mini choose-your-own adventure story to determine what happens. The game is also asymmetrical, with the Klingon player playing as sleeper agents and write their position in secret. It sounds like it would be a very fun game. Star Trek III: Kobayashi Maru Original Release: 1985 Developer: Doug Kaufman Publisher: West End Games Original Platform: Board Game This is part of a pack of three solitaire games in one. I was expecting three very simplistic games, but was very wrong – these games are quite hefty indeed, to the point that I decided they were worth their own article each. Kobayashi Maru is – as the rules state it – a modified version of the Kobayashi Maru test that can be won (without cheating). You have to search through an area filled with gas clouds, trying to check between Klingons and trying to find buoys that lead to the Kobayashi Maru. Each turn you need to plan how your power is distributed, as well as assign your crew, and damage will slowly take its toll on what you can do. It’s a tough game, and really in depth, but also really well made. It’s available on both Vassal and Tabletop Simulator. Star Trek III: The Sherwood Syndrome Original Release: 1985 Developer: Greg Costikyan Publisher: West End Games Original Platform: Board Game The second game in the Star Trek III collection of solitaire games. A member of the Federation is messing about with a planet that oddly resembles the Sherwood forest during the tales of Robin Hood. He’s posing as their king, taking advantage of the people. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise need to rescue the population by having them overthrow their king, but without arousing suspicion. You control the crew of the Enterprise, trying to recruit units to your cause, by either freeing them from prison or convincing them to join you. You need to be careful how you act, as actions such as beaming to and form the Enterprise will cause the “witchcraft” levels to increase, and you’ll lose the game if you interfere with the people too much in ways they don’t understand. I found this game a bit fiddly, but I thought it was nice that a board game felt like an episode of the show. Star Trek III: Free Enterprise Original Release: 1985 Developer: Greg Costikyan Publisher: West End Games Original Platform: Board Game The final game that comes in the Star Trek III collection of solitaire games. This is a profit-driven game. The Klingons and Federation are trying to convince a new species to join their ranks, and they want to see who is best at making a profit. Certain planets want goods (in a certain colour) that are produced by other planets. To do this, you need to use your six shuttles to land on planets and manage cargo space to sell on other planets. Your shuttles can be damaged by the Klingons, potentially killing your crew. Named crew have one life, while you have an unlimited amount of unnamed redshirts. This one starts out fun, but the simplicity of it makes it drag on a bit due to the length of the game. Star Trek: The Enterprise⁴ Encounter Original Release: 1985 Developer: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka Publisher: West End Games Original Platform: Board Games Not played: Couldn’t find enough information online to recreate. A story-based board game. Trelane, the Squire of Gothos splits the Enterprise into four duplicates, with the crew split between them. Each team needs to find a member from each division in order to win, doing so by completing “Adventure Cards”. Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy Original Release: 1986 Developer: Trans Fiction Systems Publisher: Simon & Schuster Original Platform: DOS Compared to The Kobayashi Alternative, this is a much more standard text-based adventure game. After a brief battle with a Romulan Bird of Prey, which you can’t target unless you ask Spock for help (the only clue to needing Spock is that your new science officer is terrified), the Enterprise needs to make slow repairs, but is out of food. The nearest Federation ship is a few years away, so your only hope is the nearby planet. When you land, you find out about a prophecy that the Enterprise crew are supposed to be part of, so you have to solve this new mystery as well as food on this desert planet. While it’s nice to have a big of focus on one planet, the lack of exploring different places makes this feel more generic. You also need to often perform actions that the manual and help don’t specify, such as overloading a phaser. A large part of the game also involves trading, but the items you receive are random, so you need to repeat the action until you have what you need. This has an interesting story, but the game itself isn’t that good.

I have decided to set myself a challenge: try to play as many Sonic games as possible. This will be between different games and not non stop after each other. I will be playing the best versions of games rather then the very original ones, although vastly different versions will count separately (16 bit and 8 big Sonic the Hedgehog, Console and DS Colours and Generations for example). Some will require emulation as they haven't had releases since, or I have no platform to play them on. I have also added a few select ports as I think they deserve mentioning. Instead of release order, I have randomised the order I will play it in. However, Series of games will be played in order (So if Sonic 1 is #23 and Sonic 2 is #19 they get swapped around). There are some games which I may not be able to play. There seem to be some old mobile games which don't exist anywhere online, and Sonic Free Riders is probably a bit expensive to play considering it's quality (requiring a Kinect...I don't even know if my 360 is compatible with it or if it needs an update as it doesn't have WiFi). This will probably take ages, but I'll update this thread for each game. I may not be good enough to complete them all but I'll try my best, as long as I put a decent amount of playtime relevant to each game.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog Original Platform: PC Original release: 1st April 2023 Available to buy: Yes Announced as an April Fool’s Joke, this is an actual game…and surprisingly very entertaining. You play as an assistant on a train hosting a murder mystery party for Amy’s birthday, Sonic gets murdered and you have to help Tails figure it out. Except that Sonic seems seriously injured and everyone just think he’s acting really well. The game is a visual novel where you will click on items to collect evidence and then present them to work out smaller mysteries before working up to the main mystery (this has some interesting twists). After you present evidence you have to complete your train of thought by thinking of what Sonic would do – which involves an auto runner minigame where you collect rings. It’s simple, but a lot of fun (there are also lots of options to make it easier if you need it. While it’s short, its a lot of fun and completely free!

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator Original Release: 1983 Developer: Sam Palahnuk Publisher: Sega Original Platform: Arcade The first official Star Trek arcade game, developed by Sega with a release in two forms: a stand up cabinet and a sit down machine. The graphics are similar to the Vectrex game, using neat lines. The game gives you both a top down view and a first person view. The objective is to destroy all enemy ships in sa h area. You can recharge shield and restock on torpedoes at stsrbases, although some of these will be targeted by the Kllingons. It’s a fun little game. Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (C64) Original Release: 1984 Developer: Sam Palahnuk Publisher: Sega Original Platform: Commodore 64 Sega made multiple home ports of the arcade game Strategic Operations Simulator, so I decided to check one out. The Commodore 64 version looked the best graphically, so I went with that. It’s pretty much the same game, although now the first person view has a visible viewscreen border and the ships have a texture to them, with views from all angles. It’s a really nice version of the original arcade game. Star Trek Adventure Original Release: 1983 Developer: D. Birdi,J. Birdi Publisher: Superior Software Original Platform: BBC Micro The first Star Trek text-based adventure game. There’s not much story to this one: the Enterprise is disabled and Kirk is the only one left on the Ship. Spock is in the hands of Klingons and you need to find components to repair the ship. There’s very little dialogue throughout the course of the game, instead the focus is on items. Kirk can only carry a few things at a time, so most of the game is working out when you need the items and where you need to move them to in order to prepare. For one section, Kirk gets poisoned. However, to reach that point you need other items so can’t carry the medicine form sickbay with you. However, if you leave the item in sickbay, you will die before you can get there. You need to know what is going to happen ahead of time, so you can take the medicine a bit closer to where you need to be. It’s all entirely trial and error. Star Trek II Video Game Watch Original Release: 1983 (Possibly) Developer: Collins Publisher: Collins Original Platform: Electronic Handheld Not played: Too expensive to get second hand. I’ve found conflicting information on when this was released, with some places stating 1992. I think it was released in the early 80s in Hong Kong. Enemies orbit the Enterprise in a circle and you have to aim missiles to shoot them. The game also functions as a digital watch. Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator Original Release: 1983 Developer: Forest Brown, David F. Tepool, Wm. John Wheeler Publisher: FASA Original Platform: Board Game This is a very heavy and detailed tactical board game. I barely managed to scrape by with the tutorial scenario, and there are a lot more rules that get introduced afterwards. While it’s not something I look for in board games, the amount of detail is impeccable and great for people who want to manage every tiny aspect of their ship. Power distribution is important, as well as weapon arcs and your position. There are multiple types of phasers, torpedoes and all sorts. There’s an immense amount of depth, which is great for people who like it, and I suspect that this goes far beyond what any of the Star Trek video games will do. This game had multiple versions up until 1986. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Atari) Original Release: Cancelled (announced 1983) Developer: Milton Bradley Publisher: Milton Bradley Platform: Atari 2600 Not played: No prototypes known to exist. Milton Bradley announced a game based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture for Atari 2600, VCS and other home consoles. The goal was to destroy the Klingon mothership. It also features flying through black holes to face unknown dangers. Star Trek II: In Search of Spock Original Release: Cancelled Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Platform: Atari 2600 Not played: No prototypes known to exist. In 1983, Sega announced two Star Trek games for the Atari 2600: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Due to the video game crash, these games were never released. The only official information we have are the original announcement and a poster which has the wrong name. I did track down a thread on the Atari Age forums and found some information from someone who tested the Search for Spock game, and described a top down game similar to Asteroids, but this could have been Strategic Operations Simulator. It seems likely that instead of making new games, they instead ported their arcade game to different platforms. Struggle For The Throne: Star Trek III Original Release: 1984 Developer: David F. Tepool, Jordan Weisman Publisher: FASA Original Platform: Board Game Struggle for the Throne is a Klingon-themed board game. It’s a game about scheming and subterfuge to begin with, then turns into full on war. You start off with a small fleet and can request more from the Emperor (determined by playing influence cards and a dice roll). The other Klingon houses can also badmouth your name and cost you fleets. Your only goal is to get rid of all enemy fleets. While Klingons would claim that this has no honour and is what Romulans would do, it really does fit in well with how we see Klingons act in the show. At the start of the game, there are no ways to directly attack other Klingons – the Emperor keep things in line. At some point, a player can play the “Emperor is dead” card. Players then twist their action cards to the other side and an all out civil war breaks out, with the new actions being direct confrontations. It’s a really neat and unique concept, and fits well with the Klingons.

Bought another cat! We get her in three weeks. We're calling her Dax.

Star Trek Game (1974) Original Release: 1974 Developer: Unknown Publisher: Hasbro Platform: Board Game Luckily for me, this one had already been created on Tabletop Simulator, complete with working spinners. Unfortunately, there is very little “game” here. You spin the spinner and move. Sometimes a space will make you do something, but most times now. Each player is on their own section of the board and the first to get around wins. The game has two spinners: warp and impulse. For the path leading to/from the circle you need to use the warp one, for the circle you need to use the impulse one. Functionally, they’re no different (they both go form 1 to 8), but if you spin the wrong one, you miss a turn. The design and artwork is nice, but that’s all the game has going for it. Star Trek Game (1975) Original Release: 1974 Developer: Bob Brechin Publisher: Palitoy Bradgate Platform: Board Game Another roll and move Star Trek board game – this time from Palitoy Bradgate. In this, your quest is to capture two crystals from the surface of two planets and then blow up the Klingon ships. While this game has standees of Kirk and Spock, you play as nameless crew – Kirk and Spock simply protect you from harm. The game starts off similar to Ludo where you have to roll a specific number to stat moving, then transport down to a planet: an ice planet with a strange monster called a Bluug, or a fiery planet with a giant spider: if either catch you, you’ll have to go back to the start of the planet. Klingons are also chasing you, although they only take you back slightly. Other spaces will move you forwards, backwards or even send you back to the Enterprise to miss a turn and have to start again. Constantly restarting really feels like a drag. You can forfeit your turn to move Klingons instead if you want to slow down your opponents. The board itself is really nice, with lovely design and a fun layout, but the gameplay is very poor. Star Trek Phaser Battle Original Release: 1976 Developer: Mego Publisher: Mego Platform: Electronic Handheld Not played: Too expensive to get second hand. A basic game from Mego. This one keeps track of your score, and is very large and bulky. Stars will scroll past (the effect looks like the doctor Who opening) and sometimes enemies will appear. You need to line up your targeting and blast them. Star Trek: Phaser Strike Original Release: 1979 Developer: Milton Bradley Publisher: Milton Bradley Platform: Microvision The Microvision was the first handheld console that came with interchangeable cartridges – the whole front of the unit peeled off and could be replaced with a new game. With it being so early, the display was limited, boasting a whole 16×16 pixels. Although there is something satisfying about these big chunky pixels. In Star Trek: Phaser Strike, you destroy incoming ships by shooting from one of three different directions. Your shots are slow, so you have to time your shot based on where your enemy will be. It’s a very simple game, but for it’s format, it’s fun for a quick blast. Star Trek Game (1979) Original Release: 1979 Developer: Michael Gray Publisher: Milton Bradley Platform: Board Game This board game definitely has some interesting ideas. It’s another one I had to recreate in Tabletop Simulator, although it doesn’t have the nice Enterprise shaped player pieces or the artwork on the cards (I found the text for the cards, but not the artwork). The board itself is lovely, looking like a display console showing a galaxy map. There’s some lovely artwork of the Enterprise, too, but that gets covered up by tiles. The tiles feature warp paths in two colours. While in a sector, you can only swap between the two routes at your starbase or following the route to another sector. It creates a lot of thought when planning your route, especially later in the game as you need to land on explored systems exactly. The only downside is how movement is determined: rolling two dice and moving that amount. Movement is the major part of the game, too. You get dealt four mission cards and need to complete three of them. The cards will have flavour text like “defeat Klingons” or “deliver serum” along with other instructions, but these don’t actually mean anything in terms of the game. You just need to discover these on the map and head to them. As you move, you will reach unexplored stars. You can reach these without using your full movement. You draw a card to discover what is there. Three cards will send you back to your home base (something another player can do if they land directly on your space), but the rest are different kinds of stars, outposts or advanced civilisations. Once a system has explored, however, you can only land on it with an exact role – which makes it harder to complete a mission if you weren’t the one to discover it. If you roll a double, you can move an opponent instead of you, however this just hurts both of you and isn’t very useful, even as a player has finished three of their missions and is heading back to their base. Despite so much depending on the roll to move mechanic, this is a pretty decent board game. It would be interesting to build upon this with some different movement mechanics. Star Trek Make-A-Game Book Original Release: 1979 Developer: Bruce Nash, Greg Nash Publisher: Wanderer Books Platform: Board Game A board game that you make yourself from a book. This is more about the construction, as you’re following a pre-set design instead of developing your own board game. Someone has already done the hard work developing this for Tabletop Simulator. The game itself is a very basic roll and move. Spaces will earn you deflector shield components, others will make you lose them. Once you have all six, you can reach the bridge and need to get an exact roll – overshoot and you have to go all the way around the board again. It’s a pretty poor game. One curious thing is that the board itself is missing part of it. There is supposed to be a corridor to the bridge that is completely missing – so you just have to imagine a couple of spaces there. Star Trek Starfleet Game Original Release: 1979 Developer: McDonald’s Publisher: McDonald’s Platform: Board Game A tiny little roll and move game. This was part of the first ever themed McDonald’s Happy Meal, promoting the launch of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The game is obviously quite basic, but it’s short and sweet. There are multiple paths to choose from, so it’s slightly more involved than some games. Star Trek 3.5 Original Release: 1982 Developer: Lance Micklus, David H Summons Publisher: Adventure International Platform: Atari 8-Bit This is another version of the 1971 Star Trek game. This adds a lot more visualisation, a larger galaxy and more types of areas to encounter. The Enterprise and Klingons now look like ships, and the game displays a list of actions each time so you don’t have to jot them down separately. The galaxy is now much bigger, with quadrants in three dimensions. Navigation has been altered a lot. You can choose between impulse (moving within a sector) and warp (moving to different sectors). Within a sector, the speed determines how many squares you move. For warping, you enter the coordinates of the system you want to go to and the speed (which determines how many stardates pass). You also get a really nice animation. You also see torpedo paths animated out, making it clearer what is happening in battles. Another significant change is how damage works, as you can repair systems without navigating to a starbase, which is useful when sensors are completely down and you’re flying blind. Overall, this is a really nice version of Star Trek. Star Trek: The Motion Picture Original Release: 1982 Developer: GCE Publisher: GCE Platform: Vectrex Made for the very unique vector-based console called the Vectrex. This console is made up of white lines on a black background. In order to add colour and a HUD, you have to put plastic sheets on top of the screen. In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, you turn in a 360 degree angle, blasting enemy ships. Torpedoes will get fired towards you and you can either dodge by turning away so the torpedo is no longer on screen or by holding down the shield button to block them. Your shields have limited capabilities, so you’ll need to connect to a space station to recharge. The game is simple but a lot of fun. It’s not the most “Star Trek” game, something the developers also thought as it was sold in some regions under the names “Space Ship” or “Harmageddon”

Yup, GoldenEye is definitely the big one:

@Dcubed I'm classic those as costumes and camels. I may write about them on my blog, but they're not things I'm planning on playing. I'm leaning towards Bond or Trek for my next one.

Bonus update: games that Sonic is playable in. Fighting Vipers Original Platform: Arcade Original Release: November 1995 Available to buy: No This is only partially official. While this isn’t a mod, Sonic and Tails are only playable by modifying the code for the game – they were originally in the game, but were removed at some point (with the data being left in). The developers possibly didn’t have full authorisation from Sega to include the characters, but the creation of Sonic and Tails in Fighting Vipers likely led to the creation of Sonic the Fighters, using the same engine. Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams Original Platform: Saturn Original Release: 22nd November 1996 Available to buy: Yes, but without Sonic level. Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams is a promotional version of Nights released with various magazines. It features a single level with slight alterations for the characters Elliot and Claris. Most of the game is played as NiGHTS, who can fly around flying through rings and collecting spheres. The object is to collect these spheres and take them to a large Metroid-looking enemy. Do this multiple times and you’ll fight a boss. If you run out of time, you’ll turn back into the child character and have to run and jump to collect the orbs, following an arrow. If you complete the stages, you’ll be given rewards (which require a pairs-matching minigame to unlock). One of these is a Sonic version of the game. In this, Sonic controls much like the children. So there’s no flying around, but as Sonic’s jump is higher, he can access more orbs. The game is pretty much following an arrow, but you can explore a lot more in this mode. As this came out before Sonic Jam, this is actually the first time that Sonic was playable in a 3D platform environment. NiGHTS also appears in quite a lot of Sonic games, either as background elements or costumes. There’s a full NiGHTS themes level in Sonic Lost World Le Mans 24 Original Platform: Arcade Original Release: August 1997 Available to buy: No Le Mans 24 is an arcade racing game that only released in Japan. With a button combination, you can play as Sonic, who drives a buggy-like vehicle instead of a car. The game itself is a simple racing game. You need to complete laps in a simulated 24 hour period (it only lasts a few minutes). A timer counts down and you need to overtake racers to add to your time. If you make it to the end of the 24 hours, you’ll have a one on one race for one lap to add to your score. Throughout the game, you’ll need to refresh in the pit stop. Sonic actually has a second racer – a strange bunny like character – that replaces him after a pit stop. Virtua Striker 2002 Original Platform: Arcade Version Played: GameCube Original Release: 2002 Also Known as: Virtua Striker 3 ver. 2002 Available to buy: No A football game that was released in the arcades. For a football game on the GameCube, it seems pretty decent (although Mario Strikers and Red Card are still the best ones). In this one, you can unlock a Sonic team – FC Sonic. The team consists of Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, a bunch of Chao and Dr. Robotnik as the goalkeeper. It’s pretty fun to see Sonic and co running around playing football against international teams. Super Smash Bros Brawl. Original Platform: Wii Original Release: 31st Jan 2008 Available to buy: No This was a colossal thing when it was first announced, Sonic and Mario finally being able to battle it out. Smash Bros is a brilliant series of fighting games where the object is to throw your opponents out of the stage. The more damage a fighter has received, the easier it is to throw them. The games are a celebration of Nintendo Brawl was the first instance of non-Nintendo characters making an appearance, with Sonic being one of them, bringing Green Hill Zone with him and Shadow as an assist trophy. He also makes an appearance at the very end of the story mode. Samba De Amigo (Wii) Original Platform: Wii Original Release: 23rd September 2008 Available to buy: No Samba De Amigo is a rhythm game originally released on Arcade and Dreamcast using maracas as controllers. The Wii version on this game introduces Sonic’s Challenge, where Amigo and Sonic dance together in a Green Hill Zone stage. Instead of Sonic’s levels consisting of music from Sonic the Hedgehog, he has the songs “Mambo Number 5”, “Low Rider” and “Un Aguardiente” Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS Original Platform: Wii U & 3DS Original Release: 11th September 2014 Available to buy: No Following on after Brawl, this Smash Bros game adds a stage based on Sonic Lost World, along with Mii Costumes for Tails and Knuckles. An enemy from Sonic Generations also appears in the singleplayer mode on 3DS. Super Mario Maker Original Platform: Wii U Original Release: 10th September 2015 Available to buy: No Mario Maker was a level creator that let you make levels based on multiple different Mario games. In the settings for Super Mario Bros on NES, you could add power ups based on Amiibo, including one for Sonic. The power-up functions identical to Mario, but the animations are based on Sonic on the Mega Drive (but scaled down to 8-bit). If you hold the run button, Sonic will be in a spin dash animation, although this doesn’t hurt enemies. If you get hit, Sonic will revert back to Mario. LEGO Dimensions Original Platform: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U Original Release: 27th September 2015 (Sonic Pack 18th November 2016) Available to buy: No From the developers of Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R, LEGO Dimensions was a multi-franchise LEGO game utilising NFC toys to unlock content. One of these level packs was Sonic the Hedgehog. This level pack featured a story mode that lasts for just over an hour. It’s packed with references and humour. The game plays mostly like the LEGO games, but with movement mechanics based on Sonic like spin dash and homing attack. It’s a lot of fun. On top of the main story mode, there’s also an Adventure World. This is an explorable 3D world that is made up of multiple Sonic zones, including Chemical Plant, Lava Reef and Death Egg. There are lots of hidden things to find and quests to complete for different Sonic characters. I think it’s a complete shame that LEGO Dimensions didn’t get a release without the physical toy requirement. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Original Platform: Switch Original Release: 7th December 2018 Available to buy: No The biggest Smash game so far, featuring all previous character. All the Sonic stuff in this one is from previous Smash Bros. games, with the only addition of Knuckles as an Assist Trophy. Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD Original Platform: Xbox One, PS4, Switch Original Release: 29th October 2019 Available to buy: Yes A HD remake of the not-so-great Super Monkey Ball game. Once you have completed all stages, you unlock Sonic the Hedgehog to play as. He doesn’t really make any difference to how the game is played, but is nice, especially as it replaces the bananas with rings. I go into more detail into Super Monkey ball in my article about Banana Mania Minecraft Original Platform: Everything Original Release: 22 June 2021 (Sonic DLC) Available to buy: Yes Minecraft is a survival, mining and building game that uses a block-like graphical style for the environment. It’s great at what it does. The Sonic DLC removes the survival, mining and building elements from the game and instead gives us a few sonic levels – based on Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, Sky Sanctuary Zone and Labyrinth Zone, to play though with movement that was never built for platforming like this. Understandably, it’s very wonky. Some blocky versions of the levels look poor, while others look good – Labyrinth Zone in particular suits this graphical style really well. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania I've already posted this one before, so I'll just link to my previous article. I've very much enjoyed going through all the different Sonic games, and I definitely want to do more franchises. Some I'm considering are: Star Trek Zelda Star Wars Rare James Bond Mario

My full thoughts are in this thread: https://forum.n-europe.com/topic/39432-cube-tries-to-play-almost-every-sonic-game/?page=7 But in short, I did not like it at all. Rugby was decent. The 3DS version was better due to a really good Golf event.

Sonic Speed Simulator (Frist Version) Original Platform: Roblox Original release: 30th March 2022 Available to buy: No A Sonic game released inside the child labour and child abuse game Roblox. In this game, you start off as a custom avatar based on the knock-off LEGO figures you find in places like Poundland, with the unlock for Sonic hidden in the first level (thankfully, very easy to get). Other Sonic characters are available, but they’re just skins that don’t change anything. The game starts out super slow. It’s a game of grinding experience orbs. You just run around (or walk around at the beginning) and pick them up. You collect them and level up, which makes you faster so you can collect more to level up. You can find some time trials in the levels (which do set your speed to a certain level) and there are multiple levels to explore. You start off with Green Hill Zone and one level is unlocked by levelling up. The remaining ones are locked behind the “rebirth” system – once you reach max level, you can reset back to zero and gain a higher max level. The benefit (other than accessing new areas if you do it enough times) is that levelling up is quicker. The game features a few attractions. You can fly the Tornado for a mission – it’s very slow and the level lasts for way too long. You can have a race against Jet on “Extreme Gear” hoverboards (it’s nothing like Sonic Riders, though) and a race against Metal Sonic in Metal Madness. Once you level up, Sonic definitely feels very fast, but the controls are always a bit janky. The entire game is quite janky, some parts can look great visually, but have low quality stuff right next to it. It’s a mixture of random assets (plus advertising billboards). There are a lot of cosmetics to unlock, either from a massive amount of grinding, or by buying them with real money. This is a game with little to actually do other than run around in circles, and feels like it’s on the verge of falling apart at any moment. It feels like another game pretending to be a Sonic game. Note: This version of Sonic Speed Simulator was removed and replaced with a very different version in February 2023. Sonic Origins Original Platform: Xbox One/Series, PS4/PS5, Switch, PC Original release: 30th March 2022 Available to buy: Yes This compilation release features the following games: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Blue Spheres, New Blue Spheres These are the Retro Engine versions of the games, with Sonic 3 & Knuckles being available in this engine for the first time. This compilation also acknowledges that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a single game. The lives system has been removed and replaced with coins, which can be spent on retrying special stages or unlocking artwork and music. This also features a campaign mode where you play all the games in order (with CD being put before 2). Sonic 1, 2 and 3 also have new animated cutscenes, which look fantastic. Another addition is a mission mode. Each game has a bunch of missions which take place on unique mini stages, these are a lot of fun to complete, and the short stints even make Sonic CD more enjoyable. There’s a lot of variety and lots of different ways to play. New Blue Spheres Original Platform: Xbox One/Series, PS4/PS5, Switch, PC Original release: 30th March 2022 Available to buy: Yes The second Blue Spheres game, New Blue Spheres is an extra game bundled with Sonic Origins, although it’s quite easy to miss. This is another full Blue Spheres game with an impossible number of levels. This one takes elements from Sonic Mania‘s blue sphere stages. Green spheres turn into blue sphere when you run into them, so you need to run into them twice while pink spheres teleport you to another pink sphere. The new mechanics make for more dynamic levels and a bit more thought when dealing with areas with green, blue and red spheres. I did have issues distinguishing the blue spheres and pink spheres due to my colourblindness, which made some levels annoying. That said, it’s still a very fun game. Sonic Frontiers Original Platform: Xbox Series, PS5, Switch Original release: 8th November 2022 Version Played: Xbox Series S Available to buy: Yes While the focus on Sonic Frontiers is on the open world – or open zone as Sega call it – I think it’s worth taking a look at the more traditional levels first. The disappointing thing about these are the themes, they take a few level themes from older games (including the much repeated Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone) as a basis for the levels, I would have much preferred if they just used the theme of the current island instead. At the very least, each individual level has its own unique (and really solid) music. That said, the levels are still fun to play. They are a bit simple with only a few branching paths and don’t reach the height of Sonic Generations or Colours, but they’re still a ton of fun to play. Some levels focus on specific gimmicks while others are a bit more traditional. With these levels alone, Sonic Frontiers would be a pretty good game. But, the main bulk of the game is the open zone islands, something that sounded like it could easily go very wrong, especially if they don’t get Sonic’s movement’s right. Luckily, they did a great job. Sonic went where I wanted him to go, and turning was incredibly easy. Running around enemies is extremely easy, which ties into Sonic’s new power where he can draw a shape to hurt enemies or activate objects inside. I do wish that Sonic’s starting speed was much faster. Towards the end of the game (with my speed levelled up to around 25 out of 99), it felt amazing, but this really needed to be the starting point. Each island consists of collectables, challenges, levels, story missions and fishing. The collectibles are “memory tokens”, used to progress the story and unlock little side cutscenes. Most of these are found by completing mini levels on floating platforms (although some are nicely integrated into the world itself). There are a lot more than you need to unlock everything, so they’re more of something to find on the way between everything else and not something you have to painfully track down one by one. The floating platforms that these are made from do have major pop-in issues – although it does seem to be managed in a smart way where parts you need to work out a route to an object are visible. I feel like they could have added a “cyber” animation to these objects to make them seem like they’re being generated by cyberspace instead of just popping in, Challenges help unlock the map, some are little puzzles, some are timing challenges, some are time trials (which are like mini levels integrated into the world) and some make use of specific powers. They’re fun to discover and do. One kind I did find odd is one where you have to parry objects, as to parry you just need to hold down the button, there’s no timing, but these challenges were definitely designed with timing in mind, so I think they changed the parry system fairly late on in development. Story missions are…quite bad. They’re a bunch of mini games that involve herding, pinball and a hacking minigame which is a very simple Ikaruga-inspired 2D space shooter. These could have been missing and nobody would care. Fishing is an optional extra and is nice and relaxing, although it seems like way too much effort has gone into the rather detailed fish models – and there are a lot of different fish. Combat is a lot of fun. With the cyloop opening up enemies for attack and a lot of special moves to perform. There’s also an option to perform these automatically (at the cost of slightly reduced damage) if you prefer to button mash instead. Each enemy also has specific ways to deal with them and their design is a clue as to how to defeat them. In the open zone there are also “guardians” to fight – large bosses which feel like full on bosses from other Sonic games. These are an absolute delight and it’s very surprising that they work well in the open world as they feel like full on set pieces. The final boss of each island is also spectacular – although the final boss is downright awful, nothing more than a quick time event. There are some parts of the open world that feel like a mini level, parts like long underground tunnels or other small sections. These parts are brilliant, and I really hope the next game focuses more on this – having levels built into the open world itself is a great way to go about expanding on the formula. I really hope Sega builds upon Sonic Frontiers instead of their usual method of ditching something and trying something new. Overall, I absolutely loved Sonic Frontiers, and while the standard levels aren’t quite Sonic Generations, I do rate this as Sonic’s best 3D game. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Happy Meal Game Original platform: Browser Original Release: 2022 Available to play: Yes A Sonic game that was made accessible via a QR code from a McDonald’s Happy Meal. It was made to promote the second Sonic the Hedgehog film, so features the Sonic design from the film. Sonic runs forward on his own and when he approaches a junction, you press left or right to take that corner. The aim is to collect rings, emeralds and boosts. It feels very much like a modern version of the LCD Sonic games that McDonald’s used to give out in Happy Meals due to the simplicity of it. Even if you do absolutely nothing, you’ll still get a good score. One bonus feature is that you can use your camera and have it be the background of the stage. UNO: Sonic The Hedgehog Original Platform: Board game Original release: 2019 Where to get: Limited availability The classic game of Uno. Take turns getting rid of cards, matching the colour or number shown at the top of the pile on the table. The aim is to get rid of all your cards and special cards can force you to miss a turn or pick up cards. This version of Uno has pictures of Sonic characters on each card, each one matching a different number or special ability. This version of Uno has an additional special card: Victory Lap (featuring Super Sonic). This works similar to a wild card (where you pick which colour it turns to) but also makes all other players pick up a card. Aside for the additional card, this is regular Uno. Sonic Battle: The Search for the Chaos Emeralds Original Platform: Board game Original release: 2022 Where to get: Amazon UK Like Dice Rush, this is another board game with the “Classic Sonic the Hedgehog” brand, featuring the old artwork. This also feels like a classic board game, but not in a good way. Each turn you move one space, look at the token and do the action printed on it and then replace the token. There’s zero strategy or thought involved. The aim is to collect all 7 chaos emeralds then defeat Dr. Robotnik. The tiles will make you draw an emerald (of a certain colour), give you actions like steal emeralds from other players or it will force a battle with Dr. Robotnik – if you win, you gain an emerald, if you lose, then you have to put one back. To battle, you have a deck of cards numbered 1 to 6 (multiple of each number) and draw a hand of two. You play one of these and reveal one of Dr Robotnik’s cards. The highest umber wins. Due to losing/stealing emeralds and having to collect seven of them, this game is slow, boring and goes on and on. Sonic Super Teams Original Platform: Board game Original release: 2019 Where to get: Limited availability in Germany/UK The most striking thing about this is the absolutely gorgeous artwork. Our of all the Sonic board games, this has by far the nicest original art. In Sonic Super Teams, characters are paid into groups of two: Sonic & Tails, Knuckles & Amy, Shadow & Silver and Metal Sonic & Rouge – these pairings are a bit odd and feels like they picked the characters first and the teams second. Personally, I would have paired up Shadow & Rouge and replaced Silver with Dr. Robotnik to team up with Metal Sonic. Each team has a deck of movement cards (with movements of 1-6). However, the team playing as those characters doesn’t get their team’s cards. Instead, the cards are shuffled and each player gets six. You take turns playing a card and moving a character from that team, meaning you can send them into traps. As you select item cards, the team being moved can play a bonus card to influence their movement, such as moving one more space or protecting themselves from spikes. The game is very simple but there’s a lot of depth do it, you have to work out how to best use the cards in your hands to hamper enemies – you can use loops to waste some cards (if you end your turn mid-loop, you return to the start of it) while using bonus cards to push yourself onto better spaces. I also think a few variants could also be fun, such as a full four player mode (in the rules, players form teams of two) for more chaos. One let down is that there’s only one board, so the map will be the same every time. A bit more variety would be nice. Still, this game is pretty fast paced, is nice and short, easy to set up and is easy to understand. It’s the best choice for a Sonic game if you don’t want something as complicated (or expensive) as Sonic Battle Racers. Sonic Speed Simulator Reborn Original Platform: Roblox Original release: 11th Feb 2023 Available to buy: Yes The new version of Sonic Speed Simulator, called Sonic Speed Simulator Reborn, replaced the old one and boasted bigger environments and a boost feature. It also removes a lot of stuff that was previously available – the Tornado mission, Jet hoverboard race and Metal Sonic race are all gone, along with multiple areas such as Metal City, Chemical Plant and more. The remaining levels, Green Hill Zone, Lost Valley and Emerald Hill Zone have been reworked. The new Green Hill Zone is a complete mess. It seems like they weren’t planning on expanding this world until the last minute, you’ll go out of bounds just trying to explore and you can even see floating trees and the edges of the blocks of water by following the actual paths – there’s even a grind rail that shows off all this broken stuff. The new stuff seems poorly botched onto the old map. Surprisingly, the Lost Valley and Emerald Hill maps have been completely rebuilt from the ground up and are actually quite nice maps. At least, they would be if there was something to do in them. The core gameplay remains the same repetitive grind of running around in circles. Progression though levels is now quest based, but the quests are mostly just the same griding. Occasionally you’ll have to spend rings on chao. There’s one mission where you have to destroy 10 power generators, but they respawn so you just destroy the same ones a few times instead of properly exploring. It’s still by far the most interesting mission in the game – the rest are just grinding by running around in circles. This version of the game also desperately requires using codes to unlock promotional chao (these increase the rings and experience you collect). The grind is already miserable, but without these promotional chao, it would be a hundred times more tedious. The game even knows how tedious it is because they added an “auto run” feature, where the game plays itself for a bit so you can grind while doing other things. While the Lost Valley and Emerald Hill levels are nice, this version of the game pretty much removes the only fun parts of the game

Blue Spheres Original Platform: Mega Drive (Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On with Sonic the Hedgehog) Original Release: 18th October 1994 Version Played: Xbox Series S Available to buy: Yes Blue Spheres (or sometimes just Blue Sphere) is a full version of the special stages from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. You can access it by combining the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge with the Sonic 1 cartridge. You could also get access to single levels by combining Sonic & Knuckles with other catridges. In Blue Spheres, Sonic is automatically running forward. The aim is to turn all the blue spheres into red spheres by running into them – but running into red spheres will end the game. If you create a rectangle of red spheres, then they and all the spheres inside it will turn into coins. If you manage to collect all of these you get to skip levels. There are other kinds of speres, such as bumpers and bouncers to help or hinder your movement. As time progresses, the game will get quicker and quicker. It gets extremely manic. There are an immense amount of levels – 134,217,728 (or 128,016,000 distinct layouts) so it’s pretty much a “play until you get bored” kind of game. It’s a lot of fun for a quick blast, though. (I decided last minute that this counted as a game). Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Original Platform: Switch Original release: 1st November 2019 Available to buy: Yes While the Rio game seemed like it didn’t want to be a Mario & Sonic game, this one delves into it a lot more, making this game feel like a celebration of Mario, Sonic, Tokyo and the Olympics. This has a full story mode which involves Mario, Sonic, Dr. Robotnik and Bowser getting sucked into a video game made by Dr. Robotnik based o the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games. This is a pixelated game that features the famous classic looks of Mario and Sonic, with Sonic based on his Mega Drive games and Mario based on the original Super Mario Bros. The story switches back and forth between retro and current times, going through each Olympic event in the game, so no need to repeatedly do the same event or grind. It’s the best story more in the Olympic titles. Throughout the story you’ll also encounter minigames, both 2D and 3D which, for the most part are a lot of fun. There’s ones where Sonic is chasing a train or a taxi, Mario flying a plane in a side scrolling shooter, Mario sneaking through a museum, finding toads in a crowd and some more. These are a great addition and can be played on their own once you’ve gotten past them in the story. The 2D events are a lot of fun. They’re simple, but they’re supposed to be (apart from Volleyball, which I couldn’t figure out). Diving is surprisingly a lot of fun, Shooting is a bit like Duck Hunt and there’s just a lot of charm across all 10 of them. The 3D events, for the first time, contained none that I had trouble with or flat out hated. The standard events still have character powers, making returning games like Rugby Sevens even more fun. Skateboarding and Surfboarding are fun new trick-based ones and Karate has a surprising amount of depth to it. You have different controller options, with all except Discus having options that don’t involve motion controls. Dream events also return, although there are only three of them. Dream Racing is a lot of fun, and is essentially a simplified Sonic Riders as characters race downhill on hoverboards. Dream Shooting is also a target shooting third person shooter and very enjoyable. Karate is the weakest dream event, but still enjoyable. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics is easily the best one in the series, there is a lot of love and detail, right down to lots of trivia about the Olympics. Monopoly Gamer: Sonic the Hedgehog Original Platform: Board Game Original Release: 2019 Monopoly gamer is a quicker, simplified form of Monopoly, which is a huge improvement as it means you can stop playing quicker. Another improvement is no player elimination, so others aren’t waiting around for the game to finish. That said, it’s still very much a “roll and follow instructions” game. The most interesting part of this are the boss battles. You can select another player to be your sidekick. If you win (by rolling dice), you get a Chaos Emerald while they get bonus points. If you both lose, the boss escapes and Dr Robotnik is harder to defeat at the end as he will have more Chaos Emeralds. Sonic: The Card Game (2021) Original Platform: Board game Original release: 2021 Sonic The Card Game is a blatant rip off of a board game called Diamant or Incan Gold (It has been released under different publishers form the same designer). There’s are no credits credits to the original designers (Bruno Faidutti and Alan R. Moon) I’ve played Diamant a few times and it’s a very enjoyable push your luck game where you’re exploring a cavern. Before each card flips, you have to decide if you carry on or retreat (you have two cards representing this, you all decide in secret and then flip your choice over at the same time). Any players that retreat will share the gold (rings in this case) on all previous cards and are out of that round (there are five rounds in total). If two of the same trap type (or enemy type in this, with Dr Robotnik, Metal Sonic and….er Orbot and Cubot, who have never been much of a threat on their own and there could have been so many better choices, even just a Motobug and Buzz Bomber), then any player still racing end up collecting nothing. At the end of five rounds, the player with the most rings is the winner. There are also relic cards (bonus cars in this, depicting Cream, Charmy, Big, Cream and four Chao), which are worth 5 points, but can only be collected if only one player decides to retreat in a round. There are a couple of differences in this to Diamant. It only does six players, instead of eight, consisting of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Blaze. There are enough characters to pick to do two more. You also have three lives, if you get defeated by enemies you lose one. Lose all three and you’re out of the game. Frankly, this is a terrible addition to the game and you should just ignore it (not collecting anything is enough of a punishment). The tokens for lives are handy for putting one above the cards and removing it when you leave, so players can easily see who is in or out of the current round. The other change are special abilities for the relic/bonus cards. I quite like these. One lets you see the top card, one shuffles an enemy back in and one lets you change your card after players have revealed. The risk being that these are worth 5 points if you don’t use them. I like the aspect of sacrificing 5 points for a risk or a potentially higher reward. There’s one that counts as an extra life, which as said above, is a poor feature of the game. If you want a more portable version of Diamant, or very specifically the Sonic theme, it’s fine, and you can play with the original rules (ignore lives and you can just keep the bonus cards as being five points with no abilities), but overall it’s a worse version of Diamant. Sega Streaming Theater Sonic Edition Original Platform: PC Original release: 24th June 2021 Available to buy: No Not played: Only available to a small number of streamers in Japan This is a special version of Sonic the Hedgehog where the players have to collet 200 rings in three acts of Green Hill Zone, Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone. The level layout is completely controlled by commenters. Various words will add slopes, loops, rings, springs, enemies and item boxes, along with stickers that fly across the screen. The words can even act as platforms. As you can expect, it’s a bit of a mess, but definitely in a fun way.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (3DS) Original Platform: 3DS Original release: 18th March 2016 Available to buy: No The main story mode of this one – Road to Rio – is absolutely awful. It’s all about grinding stats by playing “training” games as your Mii instead of the main sports. These training events aren’t even original, they’re taken from the 3DS London Olympics game, although I do like the admission that the events in that game aren’t proper events. It makes the mode very tedious. Luckily, the individual events are much better, with this version being a lot more enjoyable than the Wii U version. It had 14 events and each one has a “plus” version, which is essentially the dream variant. Golf is a particular highlight. The main mode is a very good gold game, using the 3DS touch pad to hit the ball. The plus version adds lots of fun obstacles and features, such as ? blocks, ramps and boost pads. It’s an extremely fun mode. I would have loved to see this turned into its own game with more courses and it may by my favourite event in any of the Olympic games so far. The rest are all pretty good, some utilising the touchpad (like Javelin) and some using the buttons. Archery uses the gyro really well. There’s nothing overly annoying such as blowing into the microphone, so it created a nice variety of events. The plus versions are a lot of fun, except for Boxing which just made it much worse. Volleyball has an interesting bingo mechanic, while Long Jump adds a spring which you have to use as a right angle. While the main story is quite bad, the events more than make up for it, especially golf. Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Wii U) Original Platform: Wii U Original release: 24th June 2016 Available to buy: No This game does away with the Wii Remote requirements, allowing you to use any controller. It seems like it should benefit the game, but all the controls are massively simplified and there’s no motion control whatsoever – even when it would be useful. Games just use two buttons, catering to those who want to use a Wii Remote on its own. The progression of this game is even worse. First you have to play five single events to unlock tournaments, which is the main way to play the game. In tournaments, you play as your Mii against other Miis, playing three rounds of a sport. If you end in the top three you get a medal. It’s extremely tedious and you only get to pick from three sports at once. It also makes it feel like the developers didn’t want to make a Mario & Sonic game as the game seems to be almost entirely lacking in the aesthetic of either. After around 5 medals, you’ll unlock the Hero Showdown, which is a decent multiplayer mode, although takes far too long. At 25 medals you unlock the ability to use Mario and Sonic Amiibo to unlock the Mario League and Sonic League, which is just playing a few games with a texture swapped (like the table tennis table or volleyball ball) with a Mario or Sonic icon. The sports themselves are not good. The biggest highlight is rugby. It’s a fairly in depth sport and it’s all kept intact, and is a lot to fun. Rhythmic Gymnastics is another highlight, as it’s a decent rhythm game. Archery I had high hopes for it after the Biathlon in the Sochi game, but as it doesn’t use the gyro, it loses all appeal in this. There are only fourteen games, too, so not a big selection. Dream events are also gone, instead Football, Rugby and Volleyball have “dual” variants. These are all the same: attack opponents to build up your score, get a goal/try to bank them all. They’re not very creative and aren’t a lot of fun. This is a pretty poor game and just really annoying to play. Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice Original Platform: 3DS Original release: 27th September 2016 Available to buy: No The sequel to Shattered Crystal, this gives Sonic and team fire and ice powers. It’s mainly used for freezing and melting blocks of water, but I think the simplicity helps the game. However, the most significant change in this game is how the collectibles are handled. In Shattered Crystal, you had to go slow and explore every inch of the map in order to progress. In Fire & Ice, the collectables are still there with sections of the map to find and discover, but the collectables are all entirely optional. Although I think this game goes slightly too far as the rewards for doing so are quite meaningless. On the flip side, it does mean you can blast through all the levels as Sonic, and doing that is quite a lot of fun. Other than the first few levels, which introduce the different abilities of each character, the character abilities (other than a few Sonic-only racing levels) aren’t actually used in the “main path”, they’re only used for finding collectables. So if you aren’t bothered by them, then your choice of character makes no difference, which can be a good or bad thing. That said, with the jump, homing attack, grapple and switching between fire and ice powers, there’s a lot of abilities to play around with. The game is at its best when you get to string along these abilities, it feels almost like a rhythm game where you have to quickly press the correct buttons. The game will go from these sections that require precise timing to sections of the game where you don’t have to do anything at all for a bit. Overall, Sonic Boom Fire & Ice isn’t a bad game, but it’s also not terribly exciting. It’s fine for a quick blast through, ignoring all the collectables. Sonic Runners Adventure Original Platform: Android/iOS Original release: 10th June 2017 Available to buy: Yes While the Sonic Jump sequel when from a level-based game to an infinite grind, the Sonic Runners games have done the opposite. This one is no longer an endless runner, but is instead level-based. The gameplay is very similar to the first, which was the one thing the original game got right. Everything is fast and tapping to jump (or fly/glide as Tails and Knuckles) along the paths of rings, enemies and obstacles has a great rhythm to it. There are four different areas, each with 10 main levels plus an extra endless level as a bonus. Each level has three objectives which earn you stars for progression, although annoyingly some are tied to particular characters you need to unlock (the amount of grinding is quite minimal, though, and there are no microtransactions to skip). These are generally collecting X amount or rings or destroying X amount of enemies. Levels will have up and down paths, which have signs indicating if they’re better for rings or enemies. Some levels will also loop a couple of times. Badniks will respawn, but rings won’t, so you need to find the right paths to keep your targets. This is a really good Sonic mobile game. Sonic Runners Adventures (Java) Original Platform: Java Original release: 10th June 2017 Available to buy: No I had no idea that Java games were still being made in 2017, but I guess some areas are still mainly using cheaper phones, so this caters to them. This is based on the smartphone game of the same name, and is a much worse version of it. There are a lot fewer features: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are the only characters, there are no helpers and there are only six stages and a boss fight per area, four fewer per zone. Because of the lack of helpers, the game is much more difficulty as you only get one attempt per level – you also can’t spend rings to continue, either. The game feels very wonky. While you could chain together a lot of cool movements in the main version, in this everything feels just off. The movement doesn’t sync to the levels quite right and you’ll die a lot because of following the rings and coming up short for a jump. The game comes in touch and button versions, although the graphics and content are exactly the same. The touch version lets you see a lot more screen at once, even if the repeated background looks very odd. In the button version, you don’t get much of a chance to react to anything. I also found that there are no invincibility frames – if you ran into an enemy, you seem to just die instead of losing rings and moving on. If you have access to a smartphone, there’s no reason to play this version at all. It’s just a scaled down version that doesn’t work as well. Sonic Forces Original platform: PC, PS4, XBO, Switch Original release: 7th November 2017 Version played: PS4 Available to buy: Yes My first time playing this, I absolutely loved it. Playing it again and I still like it a lot, but can definitely see the flaws. First off is Classic Sonic. He doesn’t fit the same, he isn’t very important to the story and his levels are just really poor. The physics seem off and the level designs aren’t fun to play. I really think they could have had some fun Tails missions instead, as you can just have Tails do his role in the story. The other big addition is the avatar, a character you can create and customise. I really like this addition and the use of Wispons allows for a few different gameplay styles which open up different routes and change up the gameplay a bit. It does take most of the game to unlock enough stuff to customise them how you want, though. The Sonic levels I enjoy a lot and have some great moments of level design, but a lot of levels just feel like they stop half way though. They’re short and don’t seem to have any “climax”, they just unexpectedly end. I also don’t think it needed to use Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant again, as much as I love those levels. We didn’t even get remixes of the songs – although with that said, Sonic Forces does have a great soundtrack, especially with Fist Bump and the tune of it being used elsewhere (without playing the start of the song on every menu). Overall, I think Sonic Forces is just fine. It has some stunning looking levels, but also some bad aspects. It’s definitely not terrible, it’s just not great, either. Sega Slots Original Platform: Android/iOS Original release: 11th January 2018 Available to buy: No Not Played: Required servers have been shut down. I’m kind of glad I can’t play this one. You can install the game on your phone, but can’t get past the starting menu as it requires a connection to the now offline servers. This is an out-and-out gambling game, and even included the ability to buy coins with real money. This is not the kind of game that should have characters that children like in it. Sega Ages: Sonic the Hedgehog Original Platform: Switch Original release: 20th September 2018 Available to buy: Yes This is another emulated version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but has quite a few features that are worth mentioning. The most interesting thing about this version of Sonic is the inclusion of the Mega Play version of Sonic 1, which gives a time limit to beat on each level and gets rid of the slower levels – Marble Zone, Labyrinth Zone and the third act of Scrap Brain Zone. It’s an interesting way to play the game, and has a high score mode. Oddly, this is buried in the options rather than being a different mode. Another new feature is “Ring Keeper” mode (this was originally made for the 3D version of Sonic 2). In this, you start each level with 10 rings and only lose half of them when you get it, making it much easier. There are a couple of challenges: a time trial of Green Hill Zone and high score for the Mega Play with only one life, both with online leaderboards. The emulation is pretty good, with lots of visual options like scanlines, choosing different versions and letting you use the spin dash from Sonic 2 and the drop dash from Sonic Mania. I do think it is a shame that this is done on an emulated version, as the Retro Engine version of Sonic 1 was already out. It’s a shame we can’t have these features combined with the Retro Engine version. Sega Heroes Original Platform: Android/iOS Original release: 14th November 2018 Available to buy: No Not Played: Required servers have been shut down. A Bejewelled clone mixed with an RPG battler. Swap two neighbouring icons to form a match of three to make them vanish, which causes the other icons to drop down and hopefully create new sets of three to form combos. This features multiple Sonic characters including Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow along with an array of characters from other Sega games. They must defeat enemies, including Dr. Robotnik and badniks. While this game can still be installed, it requires a connection to the game’s server to function. As this is now offline, it’s impossible to play this game.

Sonic Athletics Original Platform: Arcade Original release: 24th April 2013 Available to buy: No Not played: Was only available to play at an arcade in Japan. An arcade game that comprises of eight screens, each with its own treadmill. It’s based on the Mario & Sonic Olympic series and features three events: 100m, Long Jump and 110m Hurdles. You control the game by running, the treadmill will move at your pace and measure your speed. It also features a jump button for the events that need it. Sonic the Hedgehog (Android) Original Platform: Android / iOS Original release: 16th May 2013 Versions Played: Android Available to buy: Yes The retro engine is the best way to play the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Originally only playable on mobile phones, then later on other platforms via Sonic Origins. This is a full port of Sonic the Hedgehog to a new game engine, built specifically so the game can work better at higher resolutions and without the need for emulation. All the sound is recorded so it plays perfectly based on the original sound from the Mega Drive. It also runs in widescreen or pretty much any size and shape you need to fit your screen. Options for the Spin Dash are added and you can unlock Tails and Knuckles to play as, with new parts added to the game to work with their different play styles. The main controls are a simulated touch screen analogue stick and button, which isn’t ideal, but these are still the best simulated controls I’ve seen. You can change size, opacity and location. The analogue stick functions a short distance away from it so you don’t have to worry about moving too far from it, while the jump button is mainly for show as any press in the bottom right of the screen will activate it. After a couple of levels, you should have no issues making them invisible and still using the touchscreen. Of course, it’s still better to connect a controller. This version of Sonic 1 is a brilliant port. Sonic Lost World Original Platform: Wii U Version played: Wii U & PC Original release: 29th October 2013 Available to buy: Yes Originally released on Wii U then ported to PC, this Sonic game has its own unique mechanics and style, ditching the “boost style” games. It didn’t perform well and future games went back to the boost formula, but I really do love Sonic Lost World. Sonic Lost World has a “parkour” system, which means running up and along walls. It can be a bit fiddly at times, but movement as a whole is very smooth and enjoyable. Out of all the 3D Sonic games (excluding the 2D classic levels from Sonic Generations), Lost World feels the most like the classic Mega Drive games, and even uses elements in ways that don’t feel forced – there are a lot of classic enemies that are implemented well into the game, rather than re-using level themes. Lost World isn’t afraid of having some slower paced platforming levels, which I’ve always felt are an important part of Sonic games. The visual style is very nice, too, with levels that still look gorgeous, helped by some really nice backgrounds. Sonic animations are also adorable, including the running animation, which I think is the best out of the 3D games. I also even like the basic story this game has. It doesn’t try anything emotional, but sometimes a simple story is all you need. The game does have some issues. Similar to Sonic Unleashed, the game doesn’t want you to progress too quickly. New areas are gates by how many animals you have collected, and you’ll have to replay previous levels to collect more, it really slows down the game in an unnecessary way. The game also has wisps which feel like an unnecessary addition, although unlike the DS version, the wisps are more for alternate routes and don’t have entire levels focused on using them. I think Sonic Lost World is a great game, and it’s a shame we never got to see this formula evolve at all. Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Original Platform: Wii U Original release: 8th November 2013 Available to buy: No No 3DS version this time, this Winter Olympics game only released on the Wii U. You also need a fair few accessories to play it: a Wii U gamepad, a Wii Remote Plus (optional nunchuck) and a Wii sensor bar. The games don’t feature many options for alternative control schemes. The main singleplayer move is “Legends Showdown”. There’s not much of a story: everyone is working together to win a trophy and has to compete against shadow versions of themselves. The game is split into groups of four characters (each with 2 Mario and 2 Sonic characters) and you go through a bunch of events as each. During this, you’ll play each game once. It’s simple, but I like it a lot. My only issue with it is that the instructions for the games don’t appear in this game, so you need to figure it out yourself. The games themselves are a bit mixed, partly due to the controls. The Wii Motion Plus really doesn’t work well in this game, often becoming misaligned. Skiing and Speed Skating were both horrible due to this, and I couldn’t get parts of the figure skating to work at all. Snowboarding used the Game Pad tilt instead and worked extremely well. As you play through the games, you’ll swap between the Wii Remote and Wii U Game Pad – including Curling and the Biathlon, which uses both for different parts of the event. The best use of the controllers was the shooting part of the Biathlon, using the gyro for aiming and giving a closer view on the Game Pad screen – it bodes well for archery in the next Olympic games. The dream events are a lot of fun, too, including a ball game that uses a snowball machine gun, a bobsleigh roller coaster race. The final event has competitors swapping between skis, skates, snowboard and bobsleigh as they have to take different routes to complete the course. This also features a great multiplayer mode called “Action and answer tour” which combines a quiz and minigames. For example, there’s one where a you have to feel the pattern of a rumble, proceed through numbered gates to hear different ones and match the one to the first rumble. The best thing about this mode is that these use the controls and mechanics from the standard sports, so it feels like an extension and not an unrelated minigame collection. This is is one of the better Mario & Sonic Olympic games. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog Original Platform: 3DS Original release: 29th October 2013 Available to buy: No While this is an emulated version of Sonic the Hedgehog, it does have additional features worth talking about. The biggest one being the 3D effect. Each layer has been separated out and given depth that can be seen on the 3DS screen, with the option of having it go into the screen or pop out. The effect is well done, yet also subtle. It doesn’t make a huge difference to the game, but is still a nice novelty. You also have additional options such as selecting the International or Japanese versions of the game (the Japanese version has extra graphical effects) and selecting which Mega Drive revision to emulate for the sound. Unfortunately, the emulation itself isn’t very good. There’s a lot of slowdown (especially when you get hit) and a lot of sprites that flicker in and out of existence. The 3D is an interesting novelty for a quick 3D Blast, but there’s no reason to play this version for more than a few minutes. Monopoly: Sonic the Hedgehog Collector’s Edition Original Platform: Board Game Original Release: 2013 Available to buy: No A Sonic themed version of Monopoly. These versions of Monopoly don’t do anything with the actual theme, it’s just the basic game with different pictures and player pieces. If you’ve played one licences Monopoly, you’ve played them all (other a small amount of special ones). Monopoly is a terrible roll-and-move trading game. The mechanics were originally designed with a runaway winner in mind to demonstrate how bad landlords are, only for the game to be stolen by someone else and mass produced. The game is also often made worse by people incorporating “house rules”, such as putting fine/tax money under “free parking” – something that just makes the game drag even longer. Almost everything you do is determined by rolling two dice. For the first few turns round the board, there is property you can either buy or send to auction (a rule most people forget) and the it’s the case of trying not to land on ren, although as it’s all dice based, there’s to tactics for doing so, other than not paying to leave jail early (it’s actually beneficial to stay in jail). There’s also a lot of negotiating and trading properties with other players to try and create sets. Due to being just a version of Monopoly, this is easily one of the worst Sonic games. Memory Challenge: Sonic the Hedgehog Edition Original Platform: Board Game Original Release: 2013 Available to buy: No This is an extremely basic game: turn over two cards. If they match, you win those card. If they don’t, you flip them back over. It’s the classic game of pairs. This version does include some bonus powers if you match the Chaos emeralds, so it at least does something with the Sonic theme. Sonic Runners Original Platform: Android/iOS Original release: 26th February 2015 Available to buy: No I had to play a fan restoration called “Revival”. This is an endless side scrolling runner game. Sonic will automatically run right and you tap the screen to jump. While the game is responsive and quite speedy…it’s just incredibly repetitive. There’s a “story” mode but it alternates between just getting points in the main mode and doing the same boss battle over and over. There are a lot of characters and costumes to unlock, but there’s an immense amount of grinding needed to do any of this. The core of the game is fine, but there’s really nothing to do at all with it. Monopoly: Sonic Boom Original Platform: Board Game Original Release: 2015 Available to buy: No The same terrible Monopoly board game as the previous one, this time with a Sonic Boom theme. There’s really not that much to talk about that wasn’t covered in the write-up for that, other than pointing out that the use of screenshots for all the places makes the board look cluttered and rather hideous. Sonic Boom: Link n Smash Original Platform: Flash Original Release: 2015 Available to buy: No This is the same kind of puzzle game as Sonic Heroes Puzzle. Icons come down as blocks of three, you can alter the order of the icons and place them. You need to match the character to the items they link to to make them score and disappear, hopefully making more combos. Having five types of items instead of three makes it much better, although it’s still quite easy. Each character also builds up a special ability meter which lets you get rid of all of their kind of symbol.

Sonic Free Riders Original Platform: 360 Kinect Original release: 4th November 2010 Available to buy: Yes I’ll be fully honest in saying that I didn’t fully complete this game. I played the overly long tutorial, a fair amount of missions and went though the different modes and tracks. Sonic Free Riders is the third in the Sonic Riders hoverboard racing series of games. The mechanics of this are somewhere in between the two games. Crouching for a jump and timing your jump now gets you air again, which can be used for boosting. Quarter pipes on turns can also be used for a quick boost of speed, encouraging you to do tricks instead of just turning. Collecting rings will upgrade your gear, giving you access to speed, fly and power shortcuts. Items also make their way to standard races, letting you attack other racers. The story mode features 43 missions, and will take a while to complete. The game itself actually seems to be pretty good, with some interesting track design and plenty to do and unlock. The main issue, however is the controller. This game exclusively uses the Kinect, which is a very fancy webcam with depth perception and infrared sensors. You have to stand in a hoverboard pose and tilt left and right to turn and jump and spin to do tricks. It sounds simple, but it really does not work well at all. I could never get tilting backwards to reliably make my character turn, often resorting to repeatedly switch sides so I was always tilting forward. Combined with spinning while jumping, it’s a very exhausting few hours. The game also repeatedly paused itself, I could never figure out not causing it – my only guess was Kinect not being able to detect me occasionally. It’s all round a frustrating experience, although me and my fiancée had a lot of fun laughing at the sheer absurdity of the controls and how bad they are. It really is a shame, as I think this would have been a good game with a regular controller. Sonic Tennis DX Original Platform: Sonic Cafe Original Release: 2010 Available to buy: No Not played: No ROMs known to exist. An improved version of Sonic Tennis with a lot more features. This time there are six characters you can play as (instead of just one), each with their own special ability. There are also four courts. This also features two control options, one where the character automatically runs to the ball and another where you have to do it yourself. Sonic Speed Spotter 2 Original Platform: Flash Original Release: 2010 Available to buy: No The second spot the difference game based on Sonic X. This one is much more creative in its differences, with full objects being added or removed or changes made to background elements. Other than that, it’s more of the same – click on the differences that you see. Sonic Speed Spotter 3 Original Platform: Flash Original Release: 2011 Available to buy: No The third and final Sonic X spot-the-difference game. This one is quite strange in that it almost entirely focuses on the human and robot characters of the show. Dr. Robotnik appears a few times, Sonic appears on one image and characters like Tails, Knuckles and Amy make no appearances. As for the game, it’s the same as the previous two, except the differences are much more obvious. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS) Original Platform: 3DS Original release: 10th February 2012 Available to buy: No This Mario & Sonic Olympic game is actually quite different to the previous ones. It doesn’t try to emulate the sports at all, instead simplifying them all into simple minigames, similar to the ones found in Mario Party. As a result, this game does feature a lot of sports, but none of them feel much like playing the actual spot. Badminton, for example, isn’t played directly against an opponent. Instead, there are shuttlecocks that repeatedly come at you and you have to either press A to hit it if the shot is “in” or dodge if the shot is “out”. All players do this individually. Hockey is more like an adaptation of Pong where you control both paddles, it’s all very strange. There is also massive variety in controls, via touchscreen, buttons, tilting and microphone and can involved holing the 3DS at awkward angles. Some even require you to put the 3DS on a table to play. All of the movement also makes the 3D effect in this completely useless, as your angle on the screen is constantly changing. This has a story mode like the previous game, which has also been simplified. The overworld has been completely removed and you just select missions from a menu. It’s fairly easy but the story is amusing and uses the large cast fairly well. Sonic x Vapor Original Platform: Flash Original Release: 2012 Available to buy: No A flash game promoting some trainers, based on the original Green Hill Zone. This is an auto runner where you have to collect rings and jump over badniks, occasionally having the chance of kicking a football through a bunch of enemies. There are a lot of adverts that Sonic runs past, and the amount of gaps increases the further along you get. It’s a decent auto runner.

@Dcubed a lot of the jank in that video seems to be either the emulator or recording software they're using. I quickly recorded a short amount of gameplay from my phone:

Sonic Dash Quiz Original Platform: Sonic Cafe Original Release: 28th April 2009 Available to buy: No Not played: No ROMs known to exist. A quiz game with some platforming included. The game will ask some questions, with all the players in a Green Hill Zone themed level. At opposite ends of the level are numbered rings which correspond to the answers of the question – once the question is asked, you have to hurry to the ring corresponding to the answer. This sounds like it would have been a really fun multiplayer minigame in another Sonic game (or even its own downloabable title). Sonic Unleashed (Java Buttons) Original Platform: Java Mobile Original release: 8th June 2009 Available to by: No A 2D version of Sonic Unleashed. I tested out the “touch” and “non-touch” versions of this for different levels of phones – they’re actually quite different, so will get separate write-ups. This version of Sonic Unleashed is heavily based on the gameplay form Sonic Rush, using boost and the checkpoint designs. There are four Sonic stages (plus two boss fights) covering Chun-nan, Apotos and Spagonia – although interestingly, the loading screens mention Athens, Greece for Apotos and Middle East for Spagonia. The Sonic stages have alright level layouts, but the controls are quite bad. Parts of the level also look badly copy and pasted and the graphics don’t quite line up. The Rush influence is clear from the boost rings and grind rails. There are also two Werehog stages, which are slower paced platformers and some combat sections, which tell you the number of enemies left like Rush. You just bash a button for a basic attack. There are no werehog bosses in this version. This version is functional, but as you can turn off the touch controls in the main version, stick to that one. Sonic Unleashed (Java Touch) Original Platform: Java Mobile Original release: 8th June 2009 Available to by: No This was made for fancier phones, but still pre-iOS and Android. While the touch controls are atrocious, this luckily also works with buttons – so turn of the on-screen joystick and use the buttons instead. This has much nicer graphics than the button version (including some lovely backgrounds), plus more stages. The gameplay is still heavily inspired by Sonic Rush, it’s just a bit clunkier. The levels themselves are really nice, too, with multiple routes and some interesting gimmicks. Some sections are pretty annoying as the controls aren’t as precise as they should be, but for the most part, they’re good. This time round the Werehog has more than one enemy type to beat, plus boss fights against Robotnik. He also has multiple moves, including a combo that destroys most enemies in one hit. The platforming can again feel a bit broken, but they’re still decent levels overall. It would have been nice to see something like this on the DS, with a bit more polish (and a few more levels), it could have been a good Sonic game. Sonic Bowling (2009) Original Platform: Sonic Cafe Original Release: 28th April 2009 Available to buy: No Not played: No ROMs known to exist. A bowling game in 3D. Each character (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy) has their own abilities. On top of regular 10-pin bowling, this also features a mission mode. This was part of the Puyo Puyo! Sega line of mobile games. Sonic the Hedgehog Golf Original Platform: Java Mobile Original release: 2009 Available to by: No A golf game mixed with a 2D platformer. This golf game takes assets from the Mega Drive Sonic 1 and builds a golf game out of it, with three courses (Green Hill, Marble and Spring Yard), each with nine holes each. Surprisingly, this game is a lot of fun. The levels have lots of platforms to navigate, jumps to make, bumpers to use to your advantage and even secret passages to skip parts of the levels, although these can only be broken through when you hit them at full power. The new assets merge with the original sprites really well, too. While it initially seems like a silly idea, it just works really well. It’s like one of those games that shouldn’t work, but just does. Sonic the Hedgehog Level Creator Original Platform: Flash Original Release: 2009 Available to buy: No Not played: No backups of the game can be found their own Sonic levels, mainly based on assets similar to Green Hill Zone, but with a different colour scheme. Levels could be played by other players. From the looks of it, the controls for playing the levels were quite good. Sonic Knight in Training Original Platform: Flash Original Release: 2009 Available to buy: No Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain and Sir Percival are firing apples at Sonic (I initially thought they were oddly anatomically correct hearts as they also make up hour health bar). You have to turn Sonic to point the right direction and he’ll automatically hit the apple. The controls are quite annoying. As the game is in an X shape, the directional buttons are slightly off – so pressing up faces Sonic up and left. It’s just a really bad flash game. Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Original Platform: iOS Original release: 29th January 2010 Available to buy: No I managed to get hold of an old iPod Touch for a coupe of old iOS games, such as this one. This is a game based on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, but with no Mario, similar to the java and more recent Android/iOS Sonic Olympic games. This game was originally only available on the Apple App Store for less than one week. This game features four events. Skeleton is the first event. You slide down a large slow and have to tilt the phone to steer, trying to keep to the racing line while hitting the boost pads. It controls well and there’s an extra course to unlock with a night-time setting. Curling is very different to regular curling, with its very own points system. You hit the pick and then brush to steer it into rings and power-ups, trying to get it into the middle of the target. The goal isn’t to be the closest, but to get the most within the targets for the most overall points. Figure Skating has you tapping and drawing shapes to classical tunes such as “I Am The Very Model of a Scientist Salarian”, with three to start with and one more to unlock. Snowboard Cross is a four placer race with power ups. You tilt to steer and have to align yourself in mid-air by tilting forwards/backwards. Get the position right and you’ll get a boost. It’s a really fun mode. The game also has both wireless and pass-and-pay multiplayer, with Snowboard Cross having people race against the ghost of the previous players. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Original Platform: 360 (with Banjo-Kazooie), PS3, PC Original release: 23rd February 2010 Version played: PC Available to buy: Yes Going through Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing again brought back some fun memories. I didn’t enjoy Mario Kart Wii, so for me this was the kart racing game that picked up the slack. It’s since been improved upon by Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, I still found the original a lot of fun to play. Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing (which I will just call Sonic Racing from now) is quite clearly a Mario Kart clone, with items and powerslides. It does feel different, with more focus on long, sweeping drifts. It’s hard to explain why exactly, but it does feel more like you’re using cars as opposed to karts. The items in Sonic Racing aren’t as exciting as in Mario Kart, but at the same time are a lot less frustrating. When you get hit, you slow down a little bit, but not to a standstill. You also have a brief invulnerability period, which means you won’t have moments where you are constantly pelted with weapons. Weapons do feel less tactical, as it’s a lot harder to use them defensively. If you’re lagging behind, you might get an All-Star, an extremely powerful move that lets you rain down destruction on your opponents, working differently for each character. There are 24 tracks in the game, which come in sets of three of the same theme (three Super Monkey Ball tracks, for example). Sonic gets three sets of tracks: Seaside Hill, Casino Park and Final Fortress. It seems strange to me that all nine Sonic tracks are from Sonic Heroes. On top of that, the Casino Park tracks just feels like a casino level, focusing more on the casino part than on Sonic gimmicks. If you’re playing on your own, there is also a mission mode, with 64 challenges. These can be driving through gates, winning races, collecting rings, bananas or chaos emeralds or even a couple of boss battles. They’re all good fun, and a few are tricky – although strangely the most difficult ones are the Big the Cat levels. Sonic Racing is a very fun kart racing game. I’m not sure there’s much reason to play it instead of the sequel, but there is still enjoyment to get out of this. Sonic & SEGA AllStars Racing (DS) Original Platform: DS Original Release: 23rd February 2010 Available to buy: No A handheld port of the first Sonic & SEGA racing game, and a really good one at that. The track designs have been altered to fit the DS more, ensuring it runs smoothly, but it still has the full array of tracks and characters. Even though there’s no analogue stick, the handling feels extremely solid, particularly drifting, perhaps even feeling tighter than Mario Kart DS. It’s much harder to defend yourself from items, so you’ll be hit a lot. The best defensive weapon is a Mega Horn, which sends out a shockwave of sounds that hits opponents and destroys incoming weapons (wait, that sounds familiar…). The DS version of the game features a completely different mission mode to the home console versions. Instead of getting rankings, you gain stars for how well you perform, and stars unlock more missions. These can be races, elimination races, shooting or avoiding obstacles, drifting or driving through rings (some of which I found difficult due to colour choices). It won’t take too long to complete them all, but getting 10 stars on all of them is definitely a big challenge. Sonic the Sketchhog Original Platform: Java Version played: iOS Original release: 1st July 2010 AKA: Sonic Freehand Available to buy: No A cute little auto running game. This adorable drawing of Sonic will run on his own and you tap the screen to jump, trying to collect rings, land on badniks and make it over jumps. Rings will help you survive, and the game starts off with spikes covering the pits until you get to the harder difficulties (where falling into the pits will be instant death). Accompanying the game is a really nice chilled out version of the Splash Hill Zone music. While it’s a very simple game, it’s just really, really charming.

I absolutely hated how the main story was blocked by the medal hunting (most were collected by slowly going through werehog stages), so the Wii version is definitely much better in that regard. On top of that, the medals in the Wii version are for ublockables and bonus missions, not the main game (although the extra lives are very useful).