Sonic the Hedgehog (mobile)

Sonic the Hedgehog came to feature phones in 2005 in a version prepared for Java and Symbian by Sega Mobile, Sega's internal mobile division. The game takes over the basic principle of the speed platformer - collecting rings, destroying Robotnik's robots, and levels inspired by the classic Sega Genesis entries - but both the pace and the level design had to account for the limited response time of phones back then and the smaller display resolution.

Direction was handled by keys 4 and 6, jumping by button 5 or 0, which for a series built on smooth running and jumping meant a necessary slowdown and simplification compared to the console originals. Levels were shorter and more linear, with fewer alternate paths, so the player wouldn't have to deal with complex navigation without analog controls and without the ability to quickly change direction mid-jump. Even so, the game tried to keep Sonic's characteristic blue silhouette and the basic visual motifs of green hills and loops, just in much simpler graphics with coarser pixels.

It was a paid download through carrier stores, the usual way of selling mobile games before the arrival of the App Store and Google Play, and the license was among the more prestigious ones that made it to feature phones in the middle of the decade. Today the title is officially unavailable, because the platforms for feature phones have disappeared, and it remains available only through J2ME game archives or emulation.

Why play it: Interesting for Sonic fans who want to see how the speed platformer coped with numeric keypad controls and no joystick.