Artifacts from the Console Wars

Here I have an original booklet that accompanied the masterpiece Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This was not your typical "how to play" kind of manual (although all that was included of course), this booklet also gave a cute rundown of the zones along with awesome drawings of their respective enemies. And to think, each of the types of robots actually has a name too. If anything, all this is a testament to the Sonic Team's boundless creativity in the early years (something we can only pray for a return to).

I say this because I checked out the recent "spiritual sequel" to Sonic and Knuckles (strangely titled Sonic 4), and while it's not bad and certainly a step in the right direction for the series, one thing that struck me was how similar many of the enemies and levels are to the first three games. I think the one thing the game needed was a bit more originality (that, and perhaps a few more levels--you could beat it in a day).

These were all the pests you loved to hate as you were zipping through the levels. Spiker, Slicer, Shellcraker, and oh my word, Asteron, these guys were almost guaranteed to make Sonic lose his pimp rings!

Sonic 2 sure is a classic. Long live the Console Wars!