Gaming Then and Now


Recently I decided to go back into my collection of video games. I hooked up my Sega Genesis and plugged in Sonic the Hedgehog. This is one of my all time favorite video games. There is no doubt that Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis is a classic that every gamer should play. I realize there are a lot of games out there similar to Sonic the Hedgehog. One of the more famous ones is Super Mario Brothers for the NES.
These games were not the first games ever created but are defiantly Iconic. When a gamer hears the name Sonic or Mario they immediately know who they are. My question is though they know who they are; do they know what their original games were like? Most veteran gamers know the answer to this question. However for the younger generation of gamers who are growing up playing Wii or Xbox 360, this answer might not be the same. In this day in age technology has increased rapidly. Now we have hand free and motion games. We have games with 3D graphics. The thought of where the gaming industry will be in the years to come blows my mind. Although games are advancing, we should not forget the classics and what these games started out as. The Sonic the hedgehog series for the Sega Genesis is a good example of this. Even though these games are so basic, they are still great games to play. They did not need to be complex to be fun and addicting.
In Sonic the Hedgehog you have your basic controls for running, jumping, and spinning. The music and sound effects are simple and catchy. The art and animations are all 2D, detailed, colorful, and enjoyable to see. The story is about a giant blue hedgehog named Sonic who is after an evil master mind who is terrorizing the world with his mechanical monsters in seek of controlling the world with the Chaos Emeralds. All of these elements come together to create a strong but basic game that was very catchy and fun to play. The team that developed Sonic the Hedgehog was made up of less than ten people. Of course the technology back in the Sega Genesis days was nowhere near what we have today, but the game developers worked with what they had and created outstanding games.
I am not trying to say in anyway that today's video games are bad. We should not forget about the classic games that started and impacted the industry as we know it today and teach the younger gamers about these games that we grew up playing. Whether you are veteran or a new age gamer, dig up or find a classic game like Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario and relive its experience.

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