EDITOR’S CHOICE

Sonic The Hedgehog

There would be no Sonic without the Mega Drive, and the Mega Drive wouldn’t have been the success it was without Sonic. The game is expertly designed to highlight the strengths of the hardware – the high speed set Sonic apart from its more deliberately paced forebears, and the bold cartoonish graphics masked the system’s difficulties with colour.

Japanese pop icon Masato Nakamura’s compositions were expertly translated to the YM2612 sound chip, too. With millions of copies sold the game is easy to find on its own or on compilation cartridges, and it was the Mega Drive’s most iconic pack-in game.