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 (1991 video game) and toys. "Sonic the Hedgehog" is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, with over 150 million copies sold by May 2014. The game's first stage, Green Hill Zone, has been used in several games, such as "Sonic Adventure 2", "Sonic Generations", "Sonic Mania", "Sonic Forces", and the "Super Smash Bros." series. The game's popularity inspired a number of unofficial variants, including "Somari", a pirated Nintendo Entertainment System conversion of the game featuring Nintendo's Mario character in levels from the original "Sonic" game, "Sonic the Hedgehog Megamix", a total conversion mod of the original game, and "Sonic