This June, Sonic fans will get to relive the series’ most iconic games.Sonic Originsfeatures newly remastered editions of the original Sega Genesis trilogy alongsideSonic CD. For video game historians, it’s an important collection that keeps some of gaming’s most fundamental building blocks properly preserved.
Though, it’s not like those games are hard to find. Games likeSonic the Hedgehog 2have been released and rereleased dozens of times since the 1990s, coming to seemingly every platform imaginable. The same can’t be said for other, less celebrated Sonic games. Case in point:Tails Adventure. When I was thinking about the Game Gear spinoff starring Miles “Tails” Prower recently, I remembered I had to dig up my Nintendo 3DS and rush to the eShop to make sure I downloaded it beforeit shuts down for good.
In researchingTails Adventure, I suddenly rediscovered a swath of Sonic games that haven’t gotten the same treatment as the classics. It’s a reminder that video game history is often selectively curated, leaving fascinating pieces of the past buried.
Fading into obscurity
If you’re a Sonic fan and have never heard ofTails Adventure, I don’t blame you. The 1995 platformer was Sega’s only real stab at turning Sonic’s sidekick into a solo hero. Rather than building on the hedgehog’s speedy formula, the more slow-paced platformer plays with Tails’ role as a tinkerer. Takingcues fromMetroid, the fox gets a series of tools that open up paths in its stages. He can even control a remote drone that fits into tight spaces, not unlike Samus’ morph ball ability.
For those who didn’t own a Game Gear, there have been three other chances to own it since then. The full game could be unlocked inSonic Adventure DXand was included in 2005’sSonic Gems Collection, which featured other rarities. Most recently, the game was available to purchase through the Nintendo 3DS eShop. However, with that digital marketplacecoming to a close soon, there won’t be a legal way to buy it anytime soon.
On one hand, it’s perfectly reasonable that Sega wouldn’t be enthusiastic about keeping it available on modern devices. It’s not a particularly memorable platformer and it didn’t give birth to a successful Tails series. If anything, it’s more of an internet curiosity for future Sonic fans to discover.
That’s exactly what makes it special too. It’s an odd relic from an era where Sega was starting to experiment with the Sonic IP. Games likeTails Adventureserve as some of the earliest indications that Sega was struggling to expand on the tried-and-true Sonic formula, an issue that would turn into a central narrative for the series in the 2000s. You can’t get a full picture of video game history without taking the good with the bad.
It’s not justTails Adventurethat’s been trimmed out of Sega’s carefully pruned historical records. None of Sonic’s Game Gear titles are easily available in 2022. That includes hidden gems likeSonic Triple Troubleand the somewhat disastrousSonic Blast, Sega’s final first-party Game Gear release. The more time goes on, the more we tend to lose curiosities like that as gaming “canon” is boiled down to its key points.
Carefully curated
That kind of industry curation was on full display when Nintendo celebratedMario’s 35th anniversary last year. The company paid tribute to the series’ biggest hits, even rereleasingSuper Mario 64,Super Mario Sunshine, andSuper Mario Galaxy on Nintendo Switch. However, several titles didn’t so much as cameo in a Nintendo Direct montage. You wouldn’t know they exist at all if not for the internet.
The PC titleMario’s Game Gallerywas my introduction to the character as a kid and the first game to feature Charles Martinet as Mario, yet it’s been virtually scrubbed from existence.Mario’s Time Machineonly remains in public consciousnessthanks to YouTube longplays. Worst of all, the absolutely bizarreI Am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater, an educational game that taught players how to knit, is so lost to time that it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia entry.
All of those games form a story. They paint a clearer picture of how Mario became the recognizable icon he is today. It wasn’t solely because of a few good platformers; it was because Nintendo played the IP fast and loose initially, plastering the plumber’s face across as many games as possible. I didn’t own an NES or SNES growing up, but I still played a Mario game, even though it felt like a bootleg.
When I play a game likeTails Adventure, I feel like I’ve discovered a lost puzzle piece buried in the couch cushions. It deepens my appreciation of a series I love and helps me better understand the full history behind it. With theresurgence of the Sonic franchisein recent years, perhaps Sega will be eager to resell it as part of a triple-dip hidden gems package, but I wish that wasn’t contingent on profitability.Tails Adventure, and games like it, deserve to be preserved and played just as much as the certified classics. Failure is just as informative as success.
