Sonic the Hedgehog platforming of the main levels. The 16-bit "Sonic the Hedgehog " consisted of a giant rotating maze, which many considered a major technical achievement. The most common special stages, however, were segments with the character running through a long tunnel to collect certain items. 3D "collect item" levels, as in "Sonic 3" and "Sonic & Knuckles", used the same perspective but had Sonic collecting all the blue-colored orbs on the surface of a giant sphere. Finally, "Sonic Advance 2" employed a 3D ring-collecting stage, and "Sonic Chaos" ("Sonic and Tails" in Japan) used a variety of gimmicks for its levels.
Sonic the Hedgehog of the Mario and Sonic crossover games. The first, "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games", was released in late 2007, and featured characters from both series competing in Olympic-themed mini-games. Its sequel, "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games", was released in October 2009, and featured an emphasis on winter-based sports. "", a spin-off released in September 2008, was a turn-based role playing game developed by BioWare. During this timeframe, Sega took the franchise in a number of different directions. First was "Sonic the Hedgehog", which was released in November 2006 for the Xbox 360 and December 2006