Sonic the Hedgehog Game (Board Game)

Original Release: 1992
Developer: Milton Bradley
Publisher: Milton Bradley
Original Platform: Board Game

A Sonic board game from 1992. I didn’t think I was going to be able to play this, as it hasn’t be in print for a long time, and is very expensive second hand. Then I had an idea: I could try to recreate the game in Tabletop Simulator. I found an article about someone who had bought a second hand copy and contacted him for some photos of the board, as the images I found online were very low resolution. I then recreated the tokens using the art they were based on. Some were re-coloured, so I tried to match, and for some reason Moto Bug had angry eyes. For some of the badniks, I couldn’t find the same artwork, so they got replaced. Adding some anchor points so the Sonic figure and tokens “snap” to the board spaces and it was ready to play.

In this board game, players take turns controlling Sonic as he goes through Green Hill Zone, Marble Zone, Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone. You roll the dice and move that number of spaces. The goal is to collect as many rings as possible on your turn. When I was reading about the game from the vague descriptions (before I managed to find the rules), I dismissed it as a complete luck game. and presumed it would be absolutely awful. Playing it and, yes, it’s still mainly luck based, but it isn’t actually that bad.

The main interaction comes from the two token types you have. Spindash tokens, which allow you to double your move and badnik tokens, which serve as extra obstacles. You have three of each.

The spindash tokens can be used after you roll the dice and double your move. You can use them to get extra rings or avoid obstacles. You only have three, so make sure you use them at the right time.

You have to place Badnik tokens on your opponents turn before they roll their dice. You place it on a blank space ahead of them. This is the main form of tactics, as they force a player to stop and fight. They have a dice roll-off against the badnik (another player rolls for them) and the highest wins. Sonic gets 2 rings if he wins and loses 2 if he loses.

With careful placement, you can force other players to stop right before a large ring spot (the computers give you 10 rings), so there’s a surprising amount of thought in using them.

When Sonic reaches the end of a zone, the player currently moving him gets to play a special stage. Both dice are rolled onto the special stage board and they collect rings for each one the dice touch (or 10 rings if they touch the chaos emerald – or pink jewel as the rules originally called it). They get to do this a total of three times, so there’s a lot of potential rings from it, so using your tokens right can be vital.

The final zone, Scrap Brain, features a wheel segment where Sonic will go continuously round in a circle until he lands on an exact space (a bit like the end of Mouse Trap). Then he will face off against Dr Robotnik at the end of the game. It works the same as fighting badnkis, except you get 15 rings if you win. If you lose, the next player gets to try until someone wins.

Despite how bad it initially sounded to me, playing the actual game has made me realise that this isn’t actually that bad, and for a game aimed at young children, is kind of fun for what it is. I’m glad I made a Tabletop Simulator version of this.