Video game

Sonic's Edusoft

Sega exclusive

Scrapped educational Sonic game from early in the hedgehog's existence.

Released: —
Platforms: Sega Master System/Mark III
Genres: —
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Themes: Educational

About

As the Sonic the Hedgehog series of platform games has grown in popularity, its publisher Sega has expanded the franchise into multiple different genres. Among these are several educational video games designed to appeal to young children. The first attempt to create an educational Sonic game was Tiertex Design Studios' Sonic's Edusoft for the Master System in late 1991, which was canceled despite having been nearly finished. When Sega launched the Sega Pico in 1994, it released Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld and Tails and the Music Maker for it.

BAP Interactive and Orion Interactive also developed the 1996 Sega PC game Sonic's Schoolhouse, which used a 3D game engine and had an exceptionally large marketing budget. In the mid-2000s, LeapFrog Enterprises released educational Sonic games for its Leapster and LeapFrog Didj.

Keywords

canceled games

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the bestselling video game franchises ever, selling over 80 million units for the combined series as of 2011. The original game, a side-scrolling platform game, was developed by Sonic Team in Japan. Released by Sega in 1991, it greatly increased the popularity of the Sega Genesis in North America and established Sega as Nintendo's main rival in the console market. With the game's popularity, the series began to expand into other genres.

While Sonic the Hedgehog 2 began development in late 1991, the Manchester-based Tiertex Design Studios began to work on an educational video game set in the Sonic universe called Sonic's Edusoft for the Master System. Edusoft was made using sprites ripped from the original game. Despite having been nearly finished, it was canceled. S.

Reception

com regarded the educational Sonic games as obscure. According to the programmer who worked on Sonic's Edusoft, the game was tested at a primary school in Didsbury, Manchester and was well received. Retro Gamer expressed disappointment that it remained relatively unknown and offered praise for its "chunky" visual style. They also wondered "if the kids realised how lucky they were to get to play an unreleased and often forgotten Sonic game".

Reviewing Sonic's Schoolhouse, Hardcore Gaming 101 was strongly negative, calling it "a bare-bones edutainment title" that "offer[s] neither education or entertainment of any sort." They criticized its voice acting, visuals, lack of difficulty and educational value, and poor use of the Sonic license, deeming it a "rather cynical attempt from Sega to tie it in with their mascot" and urging readers to instead play the Leapster games. GamesRadar+ said Sonic's Schoolhouse was only "vaguely educational" and "a grade-schooler's nightmare."