#49: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega, Mega Drive, 1991)

Part VI: Rage Against the Machine (Scrap Brain Zone)

The game’s excellent sequencing of levels gives rise to a semi-coherent thematic throughline. By and large, as you progress through the game, the setting of the world becomes more technologically advanced, moving from the natural beauty of Green Hill through the ancient ruins of Marble and Labyrinth to the cyberpunk of Starlight. And now, here in the Scrap Brain Zone, we reach the apex of technological progress, a fully automated factory designed from the top down to murder you.

Sonic the Hedgehog presents a profoundly negative opinion of technology, which is fascinating given its status as the flagship title of Sega, a company whose marketing was so focused on touting their technological superiority to their rivals that they infamously advertised their consoles with impressive and advanced-sounding features that were, in fact, completely meaningless buzzwords. Throughout this exploration of the game, we have come back, time and time again, to the ways in which Sonic is a game and a series at war with itself, and here we find that these are not just isolated incidents, but are in fact baked into the game’s overarching plot. Not only is it a game at war with itself, it is a game that is all about being a game at war with itself.