SegaSonic the Hedgehog

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

The music for arcade 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, who uses his large tank vehicle to do so. He takes them prisoners 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 Egg Mobile running out of fuel.

Gameplay
SegaSonic the Hedgehog is an isometric platforming game with three characters who shares identical controls and abilities. The characters are controlled with one action button which lets the player perform a spin jump, and a trackball which is used to move the characters around. Each trackball and corresponding action button are color-coded, meaning the blue ones are for Sonic, red ones are for Mighty and yellow ones are for Ray.

The premise of the game is to reach the end of an isometric course without dying. This objective is similar to other video games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Yet, it is also different in the sense that instead of a typical platforming game, the game is centered entirely 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, they lose health from the Health Gauge, which can be refilled by collecting Rings that found around the arena. Upon completing each level, the game tallies up how many Rings were grabbed. Extra points are also received if over half of the level's Rings were found.

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

Objects

 * Rings

Characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Ray the Flying Squirrel
 * Mighty the Armadillo
 * Dr. Eggman (non-playable)

Enemies

 * Antlion bots
 * Centipede bots
 * Sea snake bots
 * Landslide Limbo miniboss

Stages
The game contains seven stages 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

Staff

 * Director: T.Tsuda
 * Program: H.Kawatake, T.Hasegawa, T.Kawauchi
 * Design: Manabu Kusunoki ("M.Kusunoki"), Kiyoshi Miyagi ("K.Miyagi"), Masahiro Hoshino ("M.Hoshino"), Satoshi Yamagata ("S.Yamagata")
 * Sound: Hiroshi Kawaguchi ("H.Miyauchi"), Keitaro Hanada ("K.Hanada") and Naoki Tokiwa ("N.Tokiwa")
 * Voice actor:
 * Sonic: Takeshi Kusao ("T.Kusao")
 * Ray: Hinako Yoshino ("H.Kanamaru")
 * Mighty: Yūsuke Numata ("Y.Numata")
 * Eggman: Masaharu Satō ("M.Satoh")
 * Special thanks: Naoto Ōshima ("N.Ohshima"), S.Burton, James Spahn ("J.Spahn"), M.Sasaki, E.Taki, Aoni Pro., Recording Studio Tavac

Trivia

 * 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.
 * 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 the first game in which the player doesn't have a final confrontation with him.
 * This game had a limited release in North America and Europe, except that there is no translation whatsoever.