Proof the free market can properly respond to consumer demand: It took Sega fifteen years to realize people still want to play two-dimensional Sonic games.

Was curious how the company would make people forget about the Sonic games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.  Four seconds of in-game footage in a fifty-second trailer did the trick.

If you’re not old enough to remember Sonic’s prime, The Ultimate History of Video Games clears it up: As people awaited the Super Nintendo’s 1991 release, Sega replaced Altered Beast with Sonic The Hedgehog as the Genesis pack-in title.  Overnight, the Sega Genesis became the “edgy” system.  Sony marketing teams found teenagers wouldn’t admit to owning a Super Nintendo. The successor to the most dominant video game console in the history of the American game market became the “kiddy system”.  (Sony mingling with the 18-29 age demographic? Nintendo’s unwillingness to grow up?  Any of this sound familiar?)

That was the worst Sonic game of the early nineties.  And when it comes to the next four (Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic CD), you won’t find any consensus on which game is the best.

Nobody forgot about Sonic because he couldn’t hang with Mario.  They forgot about him because Sega fumbled their console gaming business that badly. Consider 1994: Sega announces an early surprise release of the Saturn in order to get a leg-up on Sony’s Playstation, leaving the Saturn with a dearth of titles and pissing off the Monstro-Marts who got left out of this chance to sell the console.  The Saturn was supposed to be a three-pronged approach in the Sega console business, where the Genesis and 32X add-on would be casual options and the Saturn would be the choice for hardcore gamers.

Yeah.  That’s why we’re lauding “Sonic 4″ as the continuation of the two-dimensional-platformer renaissance and not the return to a legendary franchise. Now all we need is for Sega to live up to that end of the bargain.

We’re screwed.