 Ssss... That's drunk. Once again, it's time for another episode of Wait, This Existed? This was a thing? Yes, that's right. Sonic had an arcade game, and not just this one either. This was the first of 3 Sonic arcade games that were never officially released in North America. They either stayed in Japan or went to European countries like Spain. But I wanted to highlight this particular Sonic arcade game because... Well, it's kinda weird. First of all, you can see the oddball isometric viewpoint, And this was actually the first Sonic game to have this kind of presentation, and in addition to that, this game uses a trackball? Huh. Yeah, there's only one button, and it's to jump, and everything else is just Sonic running via the trackball. Well, Sonic and his two friends that were first introduced to the Sonic universe in this game. Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo. I'm sorry, but geez Louise, those names seriously sound like they were made up in like three seconds. Alright, let's roll with Rayman to the turquoise termite, and Larry the Christmas hyena, and have him team up with Manic Mailman. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that this game is up to three player compatible, and the story here, flimsy as it is, has the three characters trying to escape Eggman Island. Some of you may be familiar with Mighty, since he was in Knuckles' Chaotix for 32X, and Ray recently showed up after a long vacation in 2018's Sonic Heroes Plus. The way this game is structured is to have Sonic or his two friends navigate all sorts of traps, obstacles, and pitfalls through each of the seven levels, and what's weird here is there really aren't that many enemies at all. There's like one boss fight, and even the final boss is just you escaping Eggman's tower with the time limit. Rather than having regular old enemies you have to defeat, instead your main enemy is Sonic or Ray or Mighty themselves, since they cannot help but to run off every ledge they can find, like a drunk hamster trying to walk down the stairs. Get used to that sound if you play this one, because that will be all you hear. And yeah, this is the first Sonic game where the characters actually have voices, so if you're into Sonic history or whatever, that's here too. Ugh, seriously, I'm sure the trackball thing was a neat novelty at the time, but holy crap, the controls are ridiculously sensitive. And that leads me to each character's strengths and weaknesses. Ray has a little more health, Mighty has more speed, and Sonic is the balanced character, and yeah, you actually get a health meter in a Sonic game. Rings do count toward replenishing health to a certain extent, but they're mostly for high score and all that sort of stuff. As you can see, I totally suck, and that's playing as Ray, the most forgiving character. Do not ever pick Mighty. He is way too fast for his own good and takes off at 999 miles an hour, at even the slightest press of the joystick. And yeah, I should mention that you can play this game, no problem on Mame or FB Alpha or whatever. And I used an Xbox 360 controller and configured the Y and X access on the trackball settings, and it worked pretty well. Although it did take some getting used to. Just remember, like I said, do not pick Mighty, he sucks. Yeah, I'm sure it plays better with the trackball, but, uh, I'm not gonna be buying an arcade cab then anytime soon. So, what's with the name of this game? Why is it Sega Sonic the Hedgehog? What a goofy title. Well, Taito of all people sued Sega for the use of the Sonic name since they already trademarked Sonic Blastman, which hit arcades in 1990, and when eventually the dust settled, Sega could not use the word Sonic in arcades. That's why we also have Sega Sonic Cosmo Fighter Galaxy Patrol and Sega Sonic Popcorn Shop, and there was gonna be a fourth game, Sega Sonic Bros., but it was canceled. I should also mention that there was a 32s export of the game planned, but eventually it was scrapped simply because they had a hard time replicating the trackball controls on a D-pad, and I can kinda see their point, because the controls here are, like I said, insanely sensitive. And it's not only with how the characters move, you can't change directions in mid-air, you can't jump while you're teetering on an edge, it's pretty tough. One token gives you one life, after that, good frickin' luck. So yeah, I just thought Sega Sonic the Hedgehog was just kind of an interesting relic. I had no idea this one existed until recently, and it's never been re-released on any compilation or anything. While it's not the greatest game, it's certainly odd. It's almost like a parallel universe Sonic game with goofy new characters nobody's heard of and everything. What's funny is that way back in the day, Electronic Gaming Monthly gave this game a 10 out of 10, saying it shatters your perception of what a good game should be, and to me that's absurd, not only because of the controls, but because of how incredibly short this game is, each level is barely two minutes long, and there's only seven of them, get outta here with that. You know, a lot of people have asked me over the years, what are the best games to play drunk? Well, the answer to that is always gonna be your own personal preference, but I can say that Sega Sonic the Hedgehog is probably the absolute worst game to play drunk. It's an interesting game for what it is, but be prepared for a heck of a lot of frustration. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day!