In 1989, a moustached plumber known only as Mario dominated the video gaming platforming genre. His mushroom-hopping antics were well known throughout the land, and it was believed that no-one would ever take his crown.

Enter 1991. Yuji Naka of SEGA develops a platformer that many would have considered worthy enough to take the platforming crown from Mario. Mr Naka developed a game so fast, so colourful, and so downright difficult; it looked as though Mario would have to hang up the ol? dungarees.

Mr Naka gave us Sonic the Hedgehog.

The game had so much going for it; it grabbed the attention of the masses, pleasing the casual gamers and the hardcorest of challengers alike. It gave the world a character with attitude, something the videogaming world had never had before. Sonic?s image and pixel-perfect platforming antics took the 90?s by storm like nothing else.

15 years have passed. Is the world still the same? Are we still pleased by plinky-plinky background music and 2-dimensional backgrounds? Unfortunately, many would answer no. In this day and age, the average gamer demands breathtaking 3-D graphics, brain-melting music and a control system that makes their oh-so-incredible imaginary world easy to navigate.

Unfortunately for Sonic and all of his fans across the world, the blue spiky one has fallen short in these departments over the past few years. Sonic?s 5 minute long success on the Dreamcast has been overshadowed by far too many console ports and attempts to re-create ?the good old days? on the next generation consoles. Games that try to bring back that old feeling of nostalgia of speeding through the Green Hill zone (remember the first time you plugged in your Mega Drive/Genesis?) on more than one occasion fell flat on their face, with poor control schemes, annoying camerawork and implementation of far too many new characters, most of which you would just want to drown in the labyrinth zone.

Sonic heroes, for example. Was pegged to ?bring that oh so familiar feeling back?, suffered horribly from what I like to call ?Freight train syndrome?. Essentially, freight train syndrome is what occurs when a character is believed to be moving too fast. For absolutely no reason, the fast moving character will stop dead in their tracks, usually because of some badly placed scenery or an incredibly glitchy code. That, and Tails sounded like an old woman. These problems, among other things, pulled down a game that could have otherwise re-vitalised that classic Sonic spark. I?m not even going to think about ?Shadow the Hedgehog?.

And so, Sonic Team brings us ?Sonic the Hedgehog?, named for its predecessor, the game that defined a generation, to bring back what the fans have been demanding for so long. Speed, precision, and enjoyment. Is this what we have been given? Read on?

The game is set in ?Soleanna?- The city of water, a place far away from any Labyrinth zones or Emerald hill zones that you may have heard of. The world is populated by people. As in, human beings. The world is resided over by ?Princess Elise?, a strong young woman with a hidden past.

One day, during an offering to their sun-god ?Solaris?, Elise is attacked by Dr Robotnik =cough= sorry, Dr Eggman, who claims he has arrived to revive ?The flames of disaster?, whatever the hell they are. Enter our blue spiky friend, looking sexier than ever on the Xbox 360, to save the day.

After a rather beautiful cutscene where Sonic destroys a mass of Eggman?s robots, the camera pans up to a mysterious looking white hedgehog, (as spiky as Sonic, if not more so) as he mouths, ?Finally, I have found the iblis Trigger!?

Calm down people, there are no spoilers here. All of these occur within the first five minutes of putting the game in the drive. The same five minutes in which you will be scratching your head going, ?What!??

Flames of disaster? Iblis Trigger? Eggman? Wasn?t this supposed to bring back the classic platforming format where storyline had no relevance and hedgehogs roamed the land? True, this was never going to be a re-make of the classic, but from just watching the opening movie, you will struggle to believe that this has anything to do with the hedgehog?s classic adventures.

To sidetrack slightly, I have followed the series since day 1 (Sonic was the first game I ever owned on the Genesis) and after being disappointed with Heroes and Shadow, I prayed that this would be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Put quite simply, I expected to be blown away within the first few minutes. And, if I?m being honest with you, I hated this. I sat with my hands around the controller wanting to tear it apart. I wondered what I had done, if anything to deserve such a travesty on part of Sonic?s ever-declining good name.

Now, please don?t take what I have said so far as an opinion of the game. I?m far from done.

The first few levels require Sonic to run through poorly designed levels collecting rings and beating bad guys a la the classics. However, the real fun factor should be in the speed at which Sonic is wrecking these levels, and to be truly honest, the first few levels are painfully slow. Sonic spends most of the first stage water skiing. Not very fast at all really. There are also a few instant-death situations just to test your nerve further. The only mild excitement came from a speed stage where Sonic ?speeds up? and runs forward automatically, whilst you control his left and right movements, plus jumping. Even this though, was dreadfully frustrating, as Sonic would frequently jump way too far or in the wrong direction into a bottomless pit and one would be shifted right back to the beginning all over again.

Add in a few pointless side-missions from the ?people? of Soleanna and some annoyingly-voiced new characters, and the first few hours of Sonic really do shape up to give any kind of experience other than a frustrating look at everything this game could have been.

However, (and this really is a big however) the game seemed to take an odd turn after the third level. Don?t ask me why, but the game actually became interesting, impressive and fun after the third stage.

Sonic and his friends are blasted into the future for some reason. A rather grim future. A future where buildings lie on their side and anywhere that isn?t infested by flames is infested with terrifying creatures ready to bite off your little hedgehoggy head. Now, if you were a lightning fast blue hedgehog in a video game, would would you do in this future that would be super awesome?

Grind down a building? Check.

Fly 300 feet in the air past exploding buildings? Check.

Smash enemies through brick walls? Check.

Jump into a tornado and use floating debris as platforms? Check

Dodge a barrage of flaming cars as they fall from the sky at breakneck speed? Check, check and double check.

For some reason that I am still struggling to believe, Sonic the Hedgehog goes from being a disappointing, frustrating experience to an incredibly eventful platforming romp that creates an air of tension and danger absolutely everywhere you go only after a few hours gameplay! A contrast in its entirety to the first three levels. In a strange twist of programming, it?s almost as if Sonic Team slowed down the first few levels to keep them easy for newcomers, and then sped the demon up halfway through to please the speed freaks! Put quite simply, this game requires a bit of perseverance on the gamer?s part before it can get really good.

Ever level subsequent to ?Crisis City? is fast paced, dangerous and incredibly challenging. It?s the hardest hedgehog adventure I?ve played in years, and it really pays off with a little bit of patience.

Ok, confusing part over. Time to focus on the really good stuff.

Sonic and all of his environments look absolutely gorgeous, and all of their animations run as smooth as a button. Environments such as ?Crisis City? and ?Radical Train? are presented very well and really give you an incredible sense of size and intensity as you rip through miles and miles of pathways. This Sonic is on a scale unlike everything I?ve ever seen. One particular standout section, visually, would be when Sonic has to run through a parted sea. That?s right, the sea parts, and Sonic must speed through it. It?s quite a sight to behold, and on a scale unlike anything in a Sonic game before.

Sonic?s spikes blow in the wind, his feet hit the ground as quickly as your eyes can keep up with them, and every single time his pose changes during a lengthy jump section, you will see every single intricate movement on his hedgehog body. It looks that tasty.

The voices have vastly improved from the past few games as well. The characters have bloody good voice actors, and there are few to no character voices that well have you reaching for the mute button (Tails in Sonic Heroes, anyone?)

Sonic the Hedgehog introduces a new character to the fray, Silver the Hedgehog. This spiky wonder is introduced early on in the game with the intention of killing Sonic with no real clear motive. Silver becomes a playable character once you defeat him as Sonic, and his storyline can be played as a separate ?Episode? from Sonic?s.

Silver has the stupidly cool power of telekinesis, and has the ability to manipulate objects around him to his advantage. With a quick tab of the right trigger, all of the nearby loose objects will circle around you with a beautiful green aura, and rather adorably float around you for a while. After a quick smash of the x button, these objects will be launched in the direction you are facing, possibly to thwack an enemy in the head or to clear a nearby path. It?s a gloriously simple control system and incredibly satisfying, especially when faced with a barrage of enemies. You can pickup multiple items and hurl them all in front of you, then lie back and watch the fireworks. Its great stuff.

The shortcomings in Silver?s episode lie in the fact that he is not as fast as Sonic, nor can he attack enemies himself, so you will find yourself going through levels at a bit of a snails pace, looking for boxes to lob at the baddies rather than using your own fists. It can get rather repetitive. However, if you are a little tired of Sonic?s non-stop running sections, Silver?s puzzle based antics are a welcome change of pace.

In some sections of Silver?s story, he is assisted by Blaze the Cat. She will show up without warning in a stage and you will be required to complete her section in order to advance to Silver?s section. Unlike Sonic Adventure 2 though, these sections were you are forced to play as another character are actually quite interesting and a change of pace for each level. Plus, Blaze is super fast and her attacks kick ass.

Another playable character is our good friend Shadow the Hedgehog, again, playable once you meet him in Sonic?s story. His ?episode? is however, very much different from the other two.

Shadows story essentially revolves around his antics when he comes across a mysterious artefact that releases a Shadow Demon that looks like, well, Shadow. Your mission as Shadow is to follow this guy around and seal him back from whence he came, on the odd occasion running into Sonic or Silver.

Shadows level?s are again, very much different from the other playable character?s. While Sonic is designated ?The Speed Demon? and Silver?s antics are mostly puzzle based, Shadow?s story seems to be, unsatisfyingly enough, destroy the living crap out of everything you see. You will be asked to go from A to B in a level, but many places will be blocked off unless you defeat every single enemy in that area. It can get incredibly tedious trying to kill every single bad guy, but Shadow is given some new attacks that make this little ordeal slightly more pleasing on the eyes. Shadow can now do combo strains, ranging from a punch flurry to firing a chaos strike from his very paws. When enough enemies have been killed, Shadow can go into a ?Chaos Trance? where he is faster, more agile and able to do kick ass attacks that he would otherwise be unable to do. It?s cool to watch. So, whilst Shadows levels are slightly slower than Sonic?s, you can mix it up a bit by pulling off super-long combos. It doesn?t? get you extra points, but it certainly looks very tasty.

On a few occasions, Shadow is able to ride vehicles to aid his attempts at getting from A to B whilst blowing everything up. These range from a jeep with a machine gun to a hovercraft with a machine gun to a hanglider with...you guessed it, a machine gun. You?d think Sonic Team would have wanted a bit of weaponry diversity? Anyway, these vehicle sections tend to handle pretty poorly, and most of the time you?d be better off going on foot. They tend to move rather slowly, and have poor handling. You may find yourself driving into many walls. In fact, Shadow is faster when he?s running.

On a few occasions, Shadow is aided by his good buddy Rouge the Bat. Rouge?s sections, much like the Dreamcast classic?s revolve around finding something in particular to aid the advancement of the story, giving you a large section of the level to explore rather than zooming from a to b. Although Rouge?s sections were a bit of a chore in SA2, they are a welcome change of pace in this adventure. One such event has you looking for three keys, a nice homage to Sonic Adventure 2.

In summation, Sonic the Hedgehog is a difficult one to call. The first few hours of the game had me completely in disgust, whilst everything afterwards has actually been entertaining. With a little bit of patience, it seems that the game actually does pay off as a rewarding Sonic Adventure, even if it has nothing to do with the classics besides rings and the spiky one himself.

Sonic the Hedgehog does have its faults, and there are still many problems that Sonic Team need to sort out if they are to bring Sonic back to his former glory. It is a definite improvement on the previous travesties, and at heart it is an entertaining romp with one or two particularly breathtaking sections. Whilst it may not be the ?Sonic Revolution? the fans were hoping for, it certainly is a step in the right direction.