Review: Sonic 1 on iPhone 3G

Well, after the success of Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone, we now find ourselves with yet another game from SEGA in the Appstore. This is not a new game - far from it. It's a very old game (almost 20 years old) on a very new device.

Control: Well, the iPhone is somewhat famed for only having one button on the front - and funnily enough it's not used when playing this game. Pressing it takes you back to the above screen in fact (it's the HOME button). Being as there are not physical buttons, we have to rely on touching the screen to control our favourite blue Erinaceinae (Hedgehog species apparently).

Going into the controls sub-menu, we see the following;

So, it's all touch screen as expected... how does the rest of the game shape up?

Graphics: As we all know, Sonic is getting on. Many think he's seen his best days. Maybe these were those. The 16-bit graphics look crisp on the iPhone's high resolution display, which is slightly letterboxed at the sides to allow the original 4:3 aspect ratio to be preserved. There is very little motion blur when Sonic is going full-tilt and overall the graphics are true to the original.

Gameplay: Well, this is essentially what you bought the game for, right? Many people don't like the iPhone due to the lack of buttons. When gaming, this becomes interesting. Many games on the iPhone make use of the accelerometer (SEGA's own Super Monkey Ball for one), but Sonic is a very simple affair involving only a Dpad, "A" button and Start/Options. The controls are actually pretty good. When one touches the screen, the button appears to be 'depressed' further into the screen which is quite useful early on when becoming familiar with the controls. You can't be the original pad though, nor the Saturn pad if playing Sonic Jam.

Sound: The sound is crisp and clear, though the game needs to be played with the home button to the left in order to not cover the single speaker with your own hand.

Options: There is only the ability to perform one game save at any time. One. That. Sucks. I'll touch on this in future reviews, but even the most basic emulators out there allow multiple save states. This is another case of the hackers giving the community what it really wants and corporations not giving a damn. It's a shame really.

Overall: I would advise getting this £3.49 game only if you have a commute in the morning, or are a die-hard Sonic fan. If you want to play this game properly, you either need a MegaDrive or a decent emulator, and physical controls. We all know how much we wanted to throw the controller at the screen when Dr. Robotnik killed Sonic - but throwing your phone across the room is more hassle than it's worth!