Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog is a platform video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis console. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia on June 23, 1991 and in Japan on July 26 of that year. The main protagonist of this game is Sonic The Hedgehog, while the main Antagonist is Dr.Eggman (named Robotnik at the time).

Background
In 1990, Sega had decided on having a game featuring a new character to be their mascot. That mascot had to be someone who could match up against Nintendo's mascot, Mario. Sega president Hayao Nakayama wanted a character as iconic as Mickey Mouse. Sega had competition from Nintendo and its mascot, Mario, in mind; Nintendo was dominant at the time, particularly after the release of the successful Super Mario Bros. 3, and Sega wanted a foothold in the industry. Originally, the spot for Sega's mascot was taken by Alex Kidd, but he was considered similar to Mario and was deemed unworthy. Designers had limited to animals that could roll up to a ball, which was their idea for an attack. They had thought of two animals, A Hedgehog and an Armadillo. The hedgehog character, first proposed by Naoto Ohshima, prevailed, although the armadillo would later become the basis for Mighty the Armadillo. Ohshima has admitted since that he created Sonic's basic design by combining Felix the Cat's head with Mickey Mouse's body.

Story
The main plot of this story is that an evil scientist by the name of Dr. Robotnik had captured little animals and turned them into his robot minions, called "badniks",and capsules. It turns out he did this so he could obtain the Six chaos emeralds and harness their power. It it up to Sonic to reclaim the Chaos Emeralds and free the helpless animals from their captivity while doing so. If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds and completes the game, a reward ending sequence is shown. If all the emeralds are not collected, Robotnik taunts the player instead.

Gameplay
The game is a side scrolling platformer, where, in this case, Sonic has to get to the level as fast as he can going through obstacles such as springs, loop dee loops, slopes, and high falls. There are hazards in the game in the form of Robotnik's robotic animal minions, and spikes. When Sonic jumps on an enemy, the robotic shell is destroyed, while the animal in the shell is free in the process. While there are hazards and obstacles, there are also powerups to help Sonic, such as Rings, where if you collect a hundred of them, you will gain an extra life. There are usually rings surrounding a hazard, and if Sonic has at least one ring, he will survive.There are also powerups in capsules, like shields, which can protect Sonic from hazards. There are six zones in the game, with each zone having two acts, and then a boss stage. The six zones are Green Hill, Marble, Spring Yard, Labyrinth, Star Light, and Scrap Brain. At the end of every level, there is a post with Robotnik's face on it, where when Sonic crosses it, It will change to his face. There will sometimes be a giant ring at the end of the level, and when you jump in it, you will reach a special stage, where you can collect the Chaos Emerald on that level.