SegaSonic the Hedgehog

SegaSonic the Hedgehog (セガソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ), also known by various names including Sonic Arcade, Sonic the Arcade and SEGASONIC Arcade is an arcade game developed by Sonic Team and Sega AM3. It was officially released in Japanese arcades in June 1993 by Sega. Versions of the arcade game appeared in limited quantities in arcades in Anglophone countries, such as London's Sega World.

The arcade music for the game are composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Keitaro Hanada and Naoki Tokiwa. The game was Sonic the Hedgehog's first major arcade outing, and featured Sega's mascot alongside two new characters: Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo.

Plot
Sonic, Ray and Mighty have been kidnapped by the evil Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik and takes them prisoner on Eggman Island: an island littered with traps and hazards that can be activated with the push of a button.

Sonic, Ray and Mighty team up to escape the island, as the trio must survive the various hazards of the island and reach Eggman's Tower. As they arrive at the control room, Eggman presses a button that triggers a self-destruct sequence that will destroy the entire island. The trio manage to flee the island before the explosion. The evil doctor also escapes, but suddenly falls into the sea due to his Eggmobile running out of fuel.

Gameplay
All three characters have identical controls and abilities. The characters are controlled by one action button, allowing the player to perform a spin jump, and a trackball is used to move around. Each of trackballs and corresponding action buttons are color-coded, as the blue is for Sonic, red for Mighty and yellow for Ray.

The premise of the game is to reach the end of an isometric course without dying. This objective is similar to other Sonic the Hedgehog series games. Yet it is also different in the sense that, instead of a typical platforming game, the game is entirely centered around running as fast as possible on a linear course from a never-ending barrage of threats, including giant boulders, lava flows, rogue gears, falling stalactites, and other traps. When the player is hit by a dangerous obstacle or hazard, he or she loses health from the health bar, which can be refilled with numerous rings found around the arena. Upon completing each level, the game tallies up how many rings were grabbed, and extra points are received if over half of the level's rings were found.

The game only has few enemies and one boss that appears midway through the game. At the end of the final level, the player is given 20 seconds to escape from the self-destructing tower. Failure results in an instant Game Over.

Stages
The game contains seven stages (or "traps") located on Eggman Island. Between stages, brief cutscenes show Robotnik panicking and plotting the player's demise as he tracks the progress of his enemies.
 * 1) Volcanic Vault
 * 2) Icy Isle
 * 3) Desert Dodge
 * 4) Trap Tower
 * 5) Landslide Limbo
 * 6) Wild Water Way
 * 7) Eggman's Tower

Pre-release version
Prototype of the arcade game is known to exist as "revision A" version. There are numerous differences, which are mostly featuring different level layouts, gimmicks and alternative level order. Differences included:
 * The title screen of this version is clearly white without moving background. The logo also doesn't feature Mighty and Ray with only Sonic posing.
 * There are no character select screen in the game, as the player automatically starts with three playable characters.
 * This pre-release version is only has only four playable levels, which some of them haven't yet given final names, including Volcanic Vault being unnamed, Icy Isle is titled simply as "Ice World" and Desert Dodge is called "Desert Zone".
 * The level order is also different, as Icy Isle being the 4th level, Desert Dodge the 5th level, Trap Tower the 2nd level and Landslide Limbo is the 3rd level. In the final game, they are listed as Icy Isle second, Desert Dodge third, Trap Tower fourth and Landslide Limbo as the fifth level.
 * When the player access to quicksand section at Desert Dodge, the ability to continue will be taken away.
 * After completing Desert Dodge, the game ends with "TO BE CONTINUED" and instant Game Over screen.

Trivia

 * Inside the game's code there can be found alternative, in-game sprites that resemble Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog animated series (or more precisely Dr. Robotnik from the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic books, judging by his color scheme).
 * The use of the trackball has subsequently led to great difficulty in both official and unofficial emulation efforts. Yuji Naka has stated that the reason it was not included in Sonic Gems Collection was because of this.
 * All three playable characters possess identical footwear.
 * SegaSonic the Hedgehog is the first Sonic game that contains profane language, as understood by the Japanese dialogue.
 * This game was the first in the series to feature an ice/snow-themed level.
 * Eggman's Tower is the only level within the game that prohibits continues should the player die.
 * Although Eggman is the main villain, this is first game in the series in which the player doesn't have a final confrontation with him.