If you grew up with Sega’s famous Blue Blur, you’re going to love Sonic Runners Adventure, an homage to the lightning-paced platformer that kicked off the series.
When Gameloft’s studio in Kharkiv, Ukraine, began development on the game a year and a half ago, the team had two goals in mind.
First, make it fast—Sonic and friends needed to blaze through the colorful locales that serve as the stages. And second, make the experience accessible to all players regardless of their familiarity with the franchise.
The result is a title that foregoes the behind-the-back viewpoint of many modern Hedgehog games for vintage 2D side-scrolling action and an emphasis on speed.
You control nine characters, from Sonic, Tails, and Shadow to Charmy, Vector, Omega, and Knuckles. Some of these mascots are incredibly fast, others fly, and still more are superpowerful. The levels themselves are often designed in such a way that using a particular character will let you collect rings you might not have been able to obtain otherwise.
“Everyone on the team has their own favorite character,” lead designer Vlad Glyanenko tells us.
“I like Vector because he’s just so massive, and at maximum speed his animation looks so impressive you can just feel his power. One of our developers is a die-hard fan of Sonic himself—he says it was his speed that inspired him to become a game dev in the first place.”
As the characters automatically sprint, you tap to jump between platforms, collect rings, zip through loop-de-loops and corkscrews, jettison out of canons, and much more. There’s plenty of depth to be had, as each stage features multiple paths to explore with different characters.
Look out for recognizable locations from previous Sonic games, including Green Hill, Desert Ruins, Lava Mountain, and Sky Sanctuary, all with the familiar soundtracks you know and love.
If you want a little Sonic nostalgia in your life, Runners—a premium title—might be just what the doctor ordered. And we don’t mean Dr. Eggman.