The Many Faces Of Sonic The Hedgehog

The original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis has to be one of the most ported games of all time alongside arcade hits like Pac-Man. For what was meant at one time to be a console exclusive, Sega has sent Sonic out to as many devices as it can. Over at Fanbyte, De'Angelo Epps has chronicled many of those ports (the list stops short of appearances over the last decade; the article is dated December 1969 so I do not know when it was written) and denotes the little technical details that make them all different in their own...

The original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis has to be one of the most ported games of all time alongside arcade hits like Pac-Man.  For what was meant at one time to be a console exclusive, Sega has sent Sonic out to as many devices as it can.  Over at Fanbyte, De'Angelo Epps has chronicled many of those ports (the list stops short of appearances over the last decade; the article is dated December 1969 so I do not know when it was written) and denotes the little technical details that make them all different in their own unique way.  There's versions without sound effects, versions split into multiple parts, versions with broken physics... something for everyone!  Here's a bit on the Mega Play Arcade version (which is also now available on Nintendo Switch):

I bet a lot of you had no clue that Sonic the Hedgehog appeared in arcades. Well, back in 1991, Sega developed an arcade board capable of running Genesis/Mega Drive games in an odd attempt to bring the home console experience to arcades. Of course, Sega’s mascot had to make an appearance on such an artifact.

Mega Play Arcade Sonic the Hedgehog is just about the same exact game as its home console father. Besides the removing the continue system in favor of credits, the biggest change was the complete omission of Marble Zone and Special Stages, along with the removal of Act 3 from Labyrinth and Scrap Brain Zone’s . Funnily enough, these stages are some of the least-liked portions of the original game. Depending on how much of a purist you are, this might be the best version of Sonic the Hedgehog yet!

Notably missing from the list is Sonic's inclusion in the Sony PlayStation 3 version of Sonic Generations where the game is a bonus unlockable, Sonic Classic Collection for the Nintendo DS which takes a common ROM file and corrupts it just enough to work in the DS's weird little Genesis emulator, and of course Sonic Origins which includes the iOS version from Christian Whitehead with additional features.  For a totally complete list of all of the platforms on which you can play the game, check out Sonic Retro.  This game gets around!  You can get Sonic the Hedgehog just about everywhere and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of it.