Sonic.exe part 1

Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA's staple franchise and one that keeps coming under flack in recent years! It seems our favourite blue hedgehog can't catch a break! Game disaster after game disaster, but also a few fun games sprinkled in. SEGA were pushing Sonic to new heights, heights that Sonic fans weren't ready for, nor wanted. It's a shame what happened to Sonic but his early games on the SEGA Mega Drive and SEGA Master System will forever be classics! With Sonic's history we find ourselves in 1991 in the game Sonic the Hedgehog, the gaming classic that turned Nintendo fans heads towards SEGA! And this is where our story begins, except it actaully begins much later but you'll see what I mean!

Our hero for this series is Sonic fan "Tom", presumably his real name and we meet him playing a bit of Sonic Unleashed, scary enough right? Anyhow, Tom was exploring the world of Sonic Unleashed when the postman came to his door and slipped through the letterbox a CD case with a note on it. Tom paused his game and picked up the CD case and saw the note was from his friend, the note read:

"Tom, I can't take it anymore, I had to get rid of this thing somehow before it was too late, and I was hoping you'd do it for me. I can't do it, he’s after me, and if you don't destroy this CD, he'll come after you too, he's too fast for me.... Please Tom, destroy this god-forsaken disc before he comes after you too, it's too late for me. Destroy the disc, and you'll destroy him, but do it quick otherwise he'll catch you. Don't even play the game, it's what he wants, just destroy it. Please... Kyle"

To make a small digression remember BEN Drowned? Alex, our hero of that story, kept the game to himself to stop the spread of the horror, it looks like Kyle didn't get the memo... Tom, being Kyle's best friend ignored the note when he saw the words "SONIC.EXE" on the disc. A Sonic game! He immeadiately went to his computer and installed the game, leaving the Werehog in Sonic Unleashed in a state of paused game limbo.

The game installed and booted up, and to Tom's surprise it was Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991! Awesome! The gaming classic that turned Nintendo fans heads was now at Tom's fingertips. He must have completely forgotten about Sonic Unleashed as now he started a game but he noticed something weird, the screen blipped and went black. The blip may have been short but Tom remembered what he saw, the bright blue sky darkened and the title looked rusted and in ruin. The "1991" on the title screen had turned to "666", it seems the we can't escape the Devil! The water turned red, blood red, with the blood aspect looking hyper-realistic with Sonic's eyes completely black save for two, glowing red dots. He had tears of blood running down his cheek and, perhaps worst of all, he was smiling. He was staring into Tom, then the screen faded to black and did so for 10 seconds.

There were three files as the background music played, except it was Bad Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD and not the regular music. As Tom looked at the files he noticed the part that shows progression through the game was just red static for the three files on the game. The music was now Caverns of Winter, from Eartbound, in reverse! Earthbound and Sonic together? That wouldn't happen until 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl! Tom claims he was creeped out by what he saw on the character select screen, what's more creepy is that there was a character select screen! He claims to have seen Tails and Knuckles but if we are to believe this was the original game, albeit slightl haunted and creepy, Tails and Knuckles wouldn't be here! Tails firsst appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Knuckles wouldn't appear until the title after that! But then there's the next character: Dr Robotnik!

Tom decided that the game was hacked, that had to be it! Tom chose Tails and jumped straight into the game, after hearing Kefka's laugh from Final Fantasy, we sure are getting through a lot of different games here! The level was also different, it was flat, nothing but trees for a full five minutes. However, the music eventually stopped and Tails came face to face with a dead little animal, stewing in a pool of its own blood! Tails, in the game, looked worried, so was Tom but he kept moving. He came across more and more dead animals, some hung from trees, others had their entrails all over them and tails looked more and more worried, or he did until he saw Sonic! Sonic stood there, his back to Tails. Tom lost control and could only watch as Tails slowly approached Sonic, he reached his arm out to touch him, inching closer and closer. Tom could tell this could only end badly and then Sonic opened his eyes, completely black save for two red dots! What happened? Did Sonic kill these woodland critters? Is Tails in danger from his best friend? Did the Werehog escape from gaming purgatory? Spoiler for the last one, no! But we're far from finished, maybe Tom should have listened to Kyle, for his own sanity...

#Sonicexe #festivalofhorror #SonictheHedgehog