Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
In August 1999, SNK announced that they were collaborating with Sega to develop a "Sonic the Hedgehog" game for their Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld system. The game was developed by SNK, with supervision from Yuji Naka and Sonic Team at Sega. This marked the first time Sega was directly involved in the development of a "Sonic" game for a non-Sega platform. The team planned for "Sonic Pocket Adventure" to be a return to the classic 2D gameplay style found in the "Sonic" games on the Sega Genesis. In particular, many game design and visual elements are borrowed from "Sonic 2". The game's background music tracks are also 8-bit renditions of music from "Sonic 3". "Sonic Pocket Adventure" was released first in North America on December 4, 1999. SNK released a system bundle with the game included for the holiday season. The game was released in Japan two weeks later, and in Europe in February 2000.
List of Sonic the Hedgehog characters
The "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game franchise began in 1991 with the game "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the Sega Genesis, which pitted a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog named Sonic against a rotund male human villain named Doctor Eggman (or Doctor Ivo Robotnik). The sequel, "Sonic 2", gave Sonic a fox friend named Tails. Shortly afterward, "Sonic CD" introduced Amy Rose, a female hedgehog with a persistent crush on Sonic, and "Sonic 3" introduced Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic's rival and, later, friend. All five of these have remained major characters and appeared in dozens of games.