Remember that blue little spiky hedgehog from about ten years ago? Well, guess what? He’s back... again. Although there have been alterations to the Sonic universe such as the introduction of 3D versions, re-releases and sub-sequels; nothing comes close to the classics of the first three. Arguably the 2nd version of the trilogy was the best version and now here it is again on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Gameplay:

For those of you who haven’t played Sonic, basically you’re a little blue hedgehog hero with a sidekick called Tails. Your task is to free the planet's habitat from the evil Doctor Robotnik, who… guess what? Makes robots! Yes, there isn’t much of a story but it really isn’t needed as the addicting fast paced game play makes up for it completely. We start off with the typical Single player option; which includes the standard Sonic 2 story, then we have a multiplayer option which has the original local co-op and local versus, but an addition to Xbox live arcade, and something which makes it stick out from the others, is the Xbox live versus game. This, like most other multiplayer games on Xbox live, has the ability of Player match, which is just for the fun of it, and ranked match which pitches you against players who want to be on top of the leader board. You can then go through to choosing your type of game finding, quick match and custom game.

Graphics:

One thing I did notice when I started up the game is how Sega have tried to modernize what would now be a fifteen year old game. The startup menu has a blue water effect background and bold white text, with quite a lot of options for what was primarily a single-player game; plus ten different environment settings. I presume that all these little additions do make quite an impact on a small classic such as this. A nice supplement Sega have implemented is the choice of getting rid of those annoying, although well known, ‘jaggies’ by adding a smoothing option in the background which, to be honest, doesn’t make much of a difference, but hey what’s Sonic without its classic ‘jaggies’?

Sound:

Again, if you’ve played the original there is no difference in sound effects here. They may sound a little better due to an upgrade of technology since fifteen years ago, but it is exactly the same stereotypical basic music and sound effects, which suit the theme of this game fine.

Longevity:

If you haven’t played the original Sonic 2 then the versus just means you and a competitor must race it out to the end of the mission, these are the same missions as the single player game. The one who finishes with the least time wins the game. It's nothing unique really, but it’s fine if you like your classic multiplayer. The one problem with the online multiplayer though, is that sometimes it’s hard to find a game as it’s quite rare for people to come on Xbox live to play arcade games. I'd say this feature is really for the people who want to catch up on their classics every now and again, and that’s all people do, so I wouldn’t recommend you buy this if you’re thinking of replacing your online Gears of War. One thing I was disappointed with though was that there was no Xbox live co-op, this would have been a nice addition as it would have completely harnessed the advantages of the 360 version over any other re-release, I suppose we can’t have everything. There is, on the other hand, the plus of the infamous Xbox 360 achievements; which for all of you achievement lovers out there will be quite pleased about, as I know many people who buy arcade games just to get the easy boost in achievement points. But what we must remember here is that this isn’t a remake of Sonic 2, it is more of a ‘rehash’. There is nothing incredibly new here, as it is just the same game, but the designers have decided to add achievements and Xbox live compatibility to give it more of a 360 theme. But if you’re looking for a collection of arcade originals you can’t go wrong here, as this is one of the best.

Overall:

As a whole, this game is a complete classic that never really seems to bore. I say if you haven’t played this game already, then get off your Gears of War or Halo 3 for just ten minutes and play an original classic, which probably without them the games you play today wouldn’t exist. If you have played this game before, then bring back some memories and experience the new Xbox 360 version with its mini extras, 400 points of bliss.