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.
Sonic the Hedgehog
While the prior game in the era continued the use of numerous playable characters and play styles, the following games would return to only have Sonic playable. "", an episodic high-definition 2D game akin to the 16-bit Sonic games, was developed for the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare. "" was released in 2012 for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Android, iOS, and Windows Phones. "Sonic Colors", a game for the Wii and Nintendo DS, was released in November 2010. It introduced a power-up system in the form of alien beings called "Wisps". "Sonic Generations" was developed by Sonic Team for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Dimps for Nintendo 3DS which was released in November 2011, featuring both modern and classic interpretations of Sonic.