According to Sega in the early 90s, Genesis does what Nintendon’t (proper past tense would be, Genesis did what Nintendidn’t, but it doesn’t flow nearly as nice). This statement especially held true for Sega’s famous blue blur, Sonic. He still was very much a typical video game hero like Mario, but the main difference was that his speed was out of this world. If Mario is all about platforming finesse, Sonic is all about zooming through a level and making split-second decisions while doing it. That thrill surely deserves to be acknowledged on this awesome list.
In today’s day and age the sense of speed seen in an old school Sonic level may not seem like much, but at the time the blast processing really ‘blasted’ our minds (see what my clever brain did there). Speeding through loops, across bridges, upside down, launching in the air with jump pads… all of this was unheard of at that rate. It was frantic and at times it seemed like total mayhem to the untrained eye, but it was tremendous fun and definitely unforgettable. And one can’t forget how beautiful everything looked, the whole thing remained colourful and sharp even at those death defying speeds.
Sonic as a character has not aged well at all as his recent outings have proven. Heck, I nearly hurt myself trying to wrap my brain around releases like Sonic Boom! or when he actually had the hots for a human woman. And who can forget all the lame characters that have been introduced over the years. But the main reason new Sonic fails is because it strays away from the formula that made him popular to begin with, going fast, really really really fast.
AWESOME!
1000awesomegamethings 
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