Since the anthropomorphic blue blur Sonic the Hedgehog first spun into the world as Sega's speedy mascot, we've seen him in a wide variety of gaming styles - your basic 2D, isometric, 3D, pinball, werehog-wolf...thing. But never have we seen things from his perspective (perhaps justifying once and for all why he keeps Tails around), the world ever whizzing on by in a constant blur. Until now that is.
The good people over at Machinima have utilized the truly impressive talents Pipoca Effects' Filipe Costa to show us what the blue blur has been seeing all these years. There's a good chance you've seen some of Costa's other work. For example, I distinctly remember his first-person Goomba video attracting a good amount of fanfare not too long ago.
This time around, Costa took the opening level of the 1991 Sega Genesis original Sonic the Hedgehog, Act 1 of the Green Hill Zone, and showed us just what the hedgehog sees while collecting as many rings and avoiding as many of Robotnik's baddies as possible.
An in-video screen in the lower right featuring Sonic running through the original game's level helps you keep track of things. Still, it's not quite accurate in keeping with the amount of spins the viewer would see had they kept everything truly in line with all of Sonic's various flip jumps and constant spin attacks. But who am I to complain? It's better than anything I could throw together. In the end, including it probably would've sent most viewers on a beeline to the nearest toilet with a bout of serious motion sickness. It's a wonder Sonic never let loose all those chilidogs. Still, the loop the loop was a nice touch, so props to Mr. Costa. Maybe a similar video showing his jaunt through the Labyrinth Zone would help us get ever worse anxiety whenever that damn "need air" music queues up.
I'd recommend that everyone check out his other works over at this YouTube channel, and make sure to see the video for yourself below. The next Sonic adventure, Sonic Lost World, is due out on Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS this October.