As Sonic is in the middle of celebrating his 30th anniversary, it is difficult not to look back to the legacy of what began as a bold attempt to rival Mario at the height of the wars of the console. Three decades in, 920 million games sold, more than six billion emerged only from the revenue of the franchise, and the Hedgehog Blue has solidified as one of the largest faces of video games.
The original Sonic trilogy was an ingenious playing feat: pushing the Sega Genesis to New Heights, something that the character continued to do with the procedure consoles. The Sonic Adventure duo in the Dreamcast showed the possibilities of speed in a 3D environment, however, it was not until the implementation of the “Boost” mechanic that Audiences really felt what it means to be the fastest creature.
‘Dinamic Running’
“Sonic Rush had a special characteristic of dynamic in the upper and lower screens, and the impulse was an instantaneous and explosive acceleration that fits very well with the design”, tells us Takahashi Iizuka of Sonic Team Takahashi Iizuka by email.
The idea behind this is that Sonic would run at a standard rhythm to be propelled forward in an explosive way, where the player would need to react to the approaching obstacles. Sonic Rush, an exclusive 2D Nintendo DS, was the first to introduce the mechanic in 2005 (originally known as the tension meter), before following it in its sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure.
