Sonic the Hedgehog is the first game starring Sega's premier hedgehog, Sonic . It's a side-scrolling platform game with a difference: speed. Sonic rushes through levels with incredible speed, allowing him to traverse loops and jumps with ease. The plot of the game is simple. The evil Dr. Robotnik has captured many of Sonic's animal friends and trapped them inside robots. Fortunately, Sonic can free his friends by destroying the robots with his spin attack. Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik is trying to control the all-powerful chaos emeralds. Sonic must grab them before he does in the 3D rotating bonus levels.
The gameplay involves platforming through levels while controlling Sonic's speed and spin attack. Throughout the levels, Sonic collects numerous rings. If Sonic is hit by an enemy, all the rings he's carrying fall out and scatter around; Sonic can quickly grab the rings back before they disappear. If Sonic is hit while not carrying any rings, he dies.
The game is divided into several "zones", each of them containing three levels. At the end of each zone, Sonic confronts Dr. Robotnik in a boss fight.
Sonic the Hedgehog was released on the Xbox 360 console on December 21, 2006, and is an action & adventure game.