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Were you too cool for school back in 1991? The sort of bad kid who thought Mario was a flabby has-been? Then Sonic The Hedgehog was the hero you were waiting for. A lightning-paced streak of blue tearing through garish landscapes, burning around loop-the-loops and living life like a roller coaster, Sonic was the perfect antidote to Mario's family-friendly action and the 16-bit equivalent of the Sex Pistols telling Bill Grundy to go f**k himself on live television. And while Sonic never matched the delirious thrills of his first outing, Sega's classic platformer still thoroughly deserves its place in the pantheon of gaming.

Memorable for...
Impatience. If you nipped off for a cup of tea and forgot to press pause, you returned to a scowling Sonic tapping his foot, anxious to get on with the action.

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