Autumn, 2006. Play samples Sonic The Hedgehog on the PS3, vomits into a dish, moves on with life. Seriously, if Play were to list every one of the Sonic games that have disappointed them over the past ten years, they would probably cry giant man-tears into their Mega Drive controllers. Unlike every other franchise on the PlayStation 3, Play want to see Sonic succeed, no matter how many times the franchise is soiled by stupidity. Play have seen him seduce women (well, kind of), race his way through two monotonous PSP titles (they were a waste) and they have had a black version of him shoot it up with dual pistols (racial irony intended). His CV makes for pretty depressing reading, and it seemed like the franchise had no hope in sight. Meanwhile, his close rival Mario had just about managed to perfect the platform genre on the Wii – it seemed like Sonic was never going to get back on track.
