Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog, the video-gaming world's fastest little blue rodent in tennis shoes, has returned in style. After a string of games that have ranged from old hat to downright disappointing, "Sonic Advance 2" -- a new game created by Sega for Game Boy Advance -- serves as a good reminder of how Sonic became a star.
Sonic is a relic of the 1990s. Though Sega has published new games in which players guide a filled-out Sonic through 3-D worlds, the spiky little rodent started out as a two-dimensional character running across side-scrolling worlds. The key selling points to early Sonic games were speed and simplicity.
Conceived to compete with Nintendo mascot Mario, Sonic was a veritable blue streak running across screens at speeds many auto racing games could not match.