Sonic and Shadow games are almost as old as Mario Brothers games, yet they remain some of the more popular games being played online and on gaming consoles. Introduced in the early 1990s, these games feature a speedy blue hedgehog named Sonic and his nemesis Shadow the Hedgehog. The concept of the game was originally to whip through large loops and spirals at top speeds, trying to collect gold rings without hitting things and having them scattered back across the screen.
Today, there are far more advanced video games on the market. The basic idea of racing around to collect rings doesn't sound nearly as exciting as the role playing and action thriller games now being offered on advanced video game consoles. So, why are Sonic and Shadow games so popular? There are three reasons that the hedgehog still rules the gaming world and will likely do so for at least a few more years to come:
1. There are an enormous variety of online Sonic and Shadow games that can be played free online.
Most games now coming out for the Wii, Xbox and Playstation are only available on those consoles. Sonic games are now all over the Internet and you can play them in flash for free. There are some games still coming out for gaming consoles, but you get the biggest variety when you play the online versions. Developers coming out with all of these newer games just for Internet play are keeping Sonic games alive.
The bigger the selection of games grows, the more people get into these games and want to spend their time exploring them. When you master one Sonic game, there are many others waiting for you to explore.
2. The basic concept of collecting rings has expanded, so the games are about so much more than that today.
The basic concept of racing around and collecting rings does sound boring, but that is not all there is to these games today. There are many side characters that have been introduced over the years, including the villain of Shadow the Hedgehog. Rather than just racing through oversized rings formed into obstacle courses, Sonic and his friends now fly in airplanes, race automobiles, and even find themselves trapped in Mario World.
Game developers have kept the Sonic fever alive by giving fans newer worlds and concepts to explore. You never know what you will find in the next Sonic game to be released online.
3. The gaming formats and graphics have changed over the years to keep up with the newer systems introduced.
If you can get your hands on one of the original Sonic games to be released, you would see a lot of differences in how the games were programmed compared to how they are programmed today. Some games were left in the dust of technology over time, but Sonic developers continually upgraded the technology and modified the game to fit with the newer gaming consoles being released. That is why we still have newer Sonic games coming out for the Wii today. When other consoles hit the market in the future, it's likely that there will be Sonic games released for those gaming systems as well.
The gaming industry changes quickly, so game developers have to move quickly as well if they want their games to be legends like Sonic.
