Sonic the Hedgehog (2008)

This article is about the the 2008 Didj game. You may be looking for the the 1991 Sega Genesis game or the 2006 reboot.

Sonic the Hedgehog
The game that killed LeapFrog's interest in Sonic the Hedgehog.
Genre(s): Platform Educational Platform(s): LeapFrog Didj Release: August 22, 2008 Developer(s): Realtime Associates Publisher(s): Sega LeapFrog Series: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog (also known as Sonic Didj, or Sonic '08) is a 2008 educational game and a launch title of the Didj in the series of the same name. It is one of two Sonic games released for a LeapFrog system, the other being Sonic X for the Leapster.

Why It Sucks

1. The game doesn't have its own original music for the title card, instead lazily using the Emerald Hill Zone (really Mushroom Hill Zone) music.
2. Some sound effects are omitted, such as the 1-Up tune and the explosion sound for when a boss is defeated.
3. Why couldn't they just use the same logo between both the title card and the main menu?
4. Most of the songs don't match with the stages they originally came from.
   • Not to mention the Sandopolis Zone music is heard on both it and Hydrocity Zone, rather than composing a remix of the latter zone's music.
   • This also goes for Chemical Plant Zone and Scrap Brain Zone, although in this case, they use the Flying Battery Zone music.
5. The act clear music can be heard in an echo when clearing the first act of a zone.
6. Terrible physics.
7. One of the educational mini-games can crash the game itself when generating rings for the player to collect!
8. Due to the bad physics of the game, you can defeat the bosses in only a few seconds!
   • The same can be said for Death Egg/Egg Base Zone if you time it just right so that Sonic jumps on top of the boss, similar to Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis.
9. When you run into a giant ring in order to start an educational mini-game, the game seemingly lags while trying to load the loading screen.
   • Speaking of which, the loading screen for the mini-games is bland.
10. Metal Sonic is cut from Death Egg/Egg Base Zone, given that it was based off the version seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
11. This game apparently killed LeapFrog's interest in Sonic, as there have been no new Sonic games announced for any system after the Didj.
12. Death Egg Zone is unnecessarily renamed to Egg Base Zone.
    • Also, instead of having its own original music, it lazily uses the boss theme heard on every other zone.
13. It doesn't have a proper act system, instead having the number tell you how many total acts in the game you have progressed through.
14. Bad collision detection.
15. Unlike other Sonic games where you don't have to collect all the Chaos Emeralds to beat the game, this game essentially forces you to collect them all.
16. Sega's logo is featured nowhere on the packaging or in the game. However, there is a copyright for them, and special thanks are given to them at the end of the credits.
17. Unlike other Sonic games, you cannot spin into a monitor. Instead, you have to stop where you are and jump on it.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The educational value is helpful when it comes to learning new words for elementary school.
   • The fact the mini-games reward the player with rings to collect is also helpful as well.
2. The music selection consists of great remixes from other Sonic games.
3. At least the stages offered are faithful to their original counterparts in terms of layout.
4. Sandopolis Zone is luckily the only one that keeps its original music.
5. Unlike Sonic X, Sonic can lose rings and die, meaning there is a way to lose in this game.
6. The graphics are not bad for a Didj game, despite the fact that the graphics are reskined from both Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 for the most parts.

Trivia

• The problem mentioned in WIS#2 happens because the Mushroom Hill Zone theme was (presumably) the default title theme for some copies, the game is actually customizable, with a comment on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsI1_Ufek44 (Which has all the songs from the game) stating that you can change the music. (The video also had the Sonic and Knuckles title theme at the beginning, presumably for the title screen.)

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