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Sonic the Hedgehog (J2ME)

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  • Part One, Nokia/Sony Ericsson, 240x320.
  • Part One, Nokia/Sony Ericsson, 360x640.
  • Part One, Nokia (s40v1), 128x128.
  • Part Two, Sony Ericsson, 176x220.
SonicPart1 240x320 TitleScreen RH.png
SonicPart1 360x640 TitleScreen.png
SonicPart1 128x128 TitleScreen.png
SonicPart2 176x220 TitleScreen.png
Sonic the Hedgehog (J2ME)
System(s): J2ME
Publisher: iFone, Glu Mobile, Sega Mobile
Developer:
Genre: Action
Release Date RRP Code Rating
Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME)
US
2005-12-20 $? ?
Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME)
EU
2006-02-14 €? ?

Sonic the Hedgehog: Part One and Sonic the Hedgehog: Part Two are a port of Sonic the Hedgehog to the J2ME mobile environment for use on mobile devices. Part One only provides the first three Zones of the game and Part Two contains the rest. The game is a port of the 2005 i-mode 90x game that was simply named Sonic the Hedgehog.[1]

The J2ME versions of the game for various devices were developed and published in Europe by iFone, with additional work on the North American release by Sega Mobile being done by Brizo Interactive. Some versions of Part One and all European versions of Part Two were released by Glu Mobile upon their acquisition of iFone. Part One also came bundled with some Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson cell phones in Europe, either in demo form or as a full game.

General information

The J2ME release tries to stick close to the Mega Drive version, but some features have been removed, most notably the Special Stage and the sound effects. Some things were added to the game to make it easier, such as unlimited continues and a save feature. The game now saves the top 5 scores achieved by the player. Three levels of difficulty were also added: easy, normal and hard. Those are different in enemy placement and boss health, with easy mode only having hazards and bosses.

Graphics have also been resized depending on the screen size of a given phone, with some, such as the Green Hill Zone flowers and the Spring Yard Zone foreground lights, being based on prototype versions' graphics. Certain objects and events in the J2ME versions run at uncapped frame rate, such as Sonic's invincibility frames and moving platforms or spikes, although this is usually not an issue on actual hardware. In addition, Sonic can sometimes die from getting crushed in situations that might not seem fair, such as when jumping into a gap that is being opened as opposed to being closed. All music in the game is contained in standard MIDI files or Yamaha SMAF (.mmf) files depending on version, with the "Sega" speech being an AMR file or a WAV file. While the music renditions are mostly faithful, one noticeable omission in most revisions of the game is the beginning part of the Boss theme.

The mobile ports on J2ME, BREW and DoJa all share noticeable similarities with the infamous Game Boy Advance port, Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis. The redrawn title and act cards for smaller screens are the same between these versions, the (entirely new) HUD is rendered in a similar style to the GBA version's menus, and Sonic's movement mechanics in the mobile ports are noticeably similar to those of the GBA version, though one could describe those as less broken.

A lower-end version of Part One (described by developer Christopher Beckford as being more akin to the 8-bit Sonic games on the Game Gear[2]) was released instead for a few Nokia and Samsung phones for technical reasons. This version uses an entirely different gameplay engine that is less demanding. Only Green Hill Zone and Marble Zone are present in this release.

History

Sales data

Copies sold Date Platform(s) Regions Cumulative sales References Notes
8,000,000 2008-05-28
Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME)
US/EU 8,000,000 [3]

Hidden content

Sonic Retro emblem.svg Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog Mobile/Hidden content

Production credits

  • Music Composed: Masato Nakamura
  • Porting: Elliot Sumner, Steven O'Boyle, Ben Smith, Pete McWilliam, Christopher Beckford, TAG
  • Design & Production: Craig Howard, Jay Sharples, Phil Gaskell

Screenshots

Part 1 (176x208)

Part 2 (176x208)

External links

References


Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)
Sonic1 title.png

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