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As someone who was completely engrossed in the console wars of the 16 bit era, I took great pride in boasting about all the things Sega did that Nintendon't. (Of course as soon as I discovered RPG's on the SNES I flip flopped, but I digress.) The original Sonic the Hedgehog was an amazing game, and the rest of the series on the Genesis was just as good, if not better as they introduced both Tails and Knuckles. Unfortunately, with the advent of 3D gaming came 3D Sonic, and since then Sonic games haven't really been the same. Sure, there have been some fantastic 2D Sonic games for handhelds (the Gameboy Advance ones were particularly good), but the flagship Sonic games have been bad for years. That is, until today.

Sonic 4 [$9.99] has likely been in development for quite some time now, but was only first announced in late 2009 as the cryptic "Project Needlemouse" which was later revealed to be a return to classic 2D Sonic gameplay. Since then, the Sega hype machine has been in full force releasing various mysterious updates to the Sonic 4 web site, teaser trailers, screenshots, and development delays. In other words, Sonic 4 has a lot to live up to.

Sonic 4 is being released in episodes, with today's release as the first installment. Episode 1 comes packed with four zones: Splash Hill Zone, Lost Labyrinth Zone, Casino Street Zone, and Mad Gear Zone. Each of these zones are flavored with themes from classic levels of Sonic's past, with Splash Hill and Casino Street by far being the most memorable. Each zone is host to three acts and a boss fight. After beating the zone's boss, you unlock Time Attack mode which switches the game in to what Sonic games are best at: Going as fast as possible. Also worth mentioning are the two levels that are exclusive to the iPhone, but until the other versions of the game come out it remains to be seen how much different these exclusive portions are.

Controls are surprisingly decent for a game series originally designed with a physical controller in mind. By default you use a virtual joystick of sorts and a single button which handles everything else. Alternatively, a tilt control mode is included, but I found touch controls to feel far more natural. Like previous Sonic games, you can spin dash, and Sonic 4 implements a new lock on system of sorts which targets enemies and obstacles you can jump on to. When the game targets something, tapping jump sends Sonic shooting that direction, allowing you to precisely bounce off multiple enemies with ease.

Since Sonic games are all about speed, performance is arguably just as important as gameplay. Because of this, I busted out my entire library of iOS devices to see just how good of a job Sega did at optimizing Sonic 4 for the iPhone. After syncing the device to everything from the original iPhone to the iPad and iPhone 4, I'm more than a little surprised by the results. Performance obviously suffers with older devices, but Sonic 4 is completely playable even on the original iPhone. Oddly enough, the 3rd generation iPod touch seems to boast the highest frame rate, followed by the iPad pixel doubled, then the iPhone 4.

The level design is classic Sonic, with tons of loops, corkscrews, rings, recognizable power ups, and bonus stages. While Sega seems to have succeeded in bringing back the classic Sonic feel, the content included in the first episode seems like a tease after so much waiting. Sonic 4 is a ton of fun, but it's over before you know it, and without online leaderboards of any kind, I'm not sure how much appeal there will be in replaying levels for higher scores or lower times.

While the performance is certainly good enough to be fun, it's nowhere near the solid 60 FPS I had hoped for– even on newer devices and to make things worse, Retina Display support is nowhere to be found. The first episode of Sonic 4 will also be available on the Wii via WiiWare, the Xbox 360 via XBOX Live Arcade, and the PS3 via PSN in the next couple days. So, if you own any of those systems, you can consider waiting to see how those versions of the game are reviewed, especially considering the fact that Sonic 4 will be in 1080p on both the PS3 and 360. Otherwise, if you're looking for a very fun taste of what a Sonic game should be like on the iPhone, we recommend Sonic 4… Just be fully aware that it will likely leave you unsatisfied with an intense longing for the release of the next episode, and I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing or not.

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Blast Off, Rocket Racing, and Echoes; these are a few of the games created thus far by Halfbrick Studios. By even taking the smallest glimpse at the Aussie-based developer's portfolio, you'll notice that the studio isn't married to a specific digital platform. Yet its latest title, a simple and entertaining slasher called Fruit Ninja [99¢], gives us the impression that the iPhone is as good of a place as any for Halfbrick's oftentimes irreverent titles.

But here are with monstrous iPads. To say we hunger for high-quality, visually stunning titles for the device is an understatement. Luckily, it looks like Halfbrick might fill our tummies with our own desires — and it could be with a title we're already familiar with, like Fruit Ninja.

"We certainly have," Halfbrick's Phil Larson told Touch Arcade when asked about the possibility of ever releasing Fruit Ninja — or Blast Off — on the iPad, "and at this stage it looks likely that we will be able to create iPad games once we are set up with the right hardware."

"There's already a significant number of Fruit Ninja players who are playing on iPad, so we'd definitely like to give them a nice HD version in the near future."

Halfbrick might not have the all the right pieces for full-on iPad development, but the studio does seem to have a creative direction in mind whenever it does decide to go full throttle with the iPad.

"The iPad is very good for games, as it has all the features of an iPhone except in a larger size with the potential for same screen multiplayer," Larsen says. "I don’t expect the scope of our games to change all that much from iPhone to iPad, but it will allow for a few extra features that we can squeeze in and give iPad players something unique.

On the other end of the "unique" spectrum — but not unwanted — giving App Store hawks a familiar game, like a re-release of the PSP Minis puzzle game Echoes, could be on the table. Just don't hold your breath for a Rocket Racing port.

"With Echoes there is definitely some unique gameplay there which we would like to explore. A few concepts could lend themselves very well to touch-screen mechanics, particularly with a puzzle or strategy focus."

"Rocket Racing may have reached the end of its run on this current generation of consoles/handhelds, but we have no aversion to racing games at all. When we develop the right concept we’ll absolutely bring racing back in the Halfbrick catalogue."

A lot of what we're asking Larsen has to do with ports or re-releases, but that doesn't mean the studio isn't working on something new. Larsen teases us, revealing that a brand new game is almost finished and will be announced soon.

"We have a brand new iPhone game which has never been seen before and is around 90% complete. It’s like Fruit Ninja — simple, fun and playable in short bursts. Of course, that means we focus on polish and making the game look as good as it possibly can. Look out for an announcement in the next few weeks!"

We will indeed.

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PAX East officially came to a close this evening, following three solid days of gaming insanity. The Penny Arcade Expo originally started as a small gaming convention on the west coast in 2004 has grown in to an unstoppable juggernaut that is by far the convention to go to if you're a gamer. The entire event actually has a fairly interesting history behind it, especially considering its meager beginnings with only a few thousand attendees. But, like most things Penny Arcade touches, (such as the Child's Play charity) it's not entirely surprising what a runaway success the event has become.

PAX East is a spinoff of the main west coast PAX (affectionally referred to as "PAX Prime") and as such, was a much more intimate event. This didn't stop anyone from having a great time, whether you're in to pen and paper RPG's, card games, board games, handhelds, or console and PC gaming, PAX East had something to offer. If you're an iPhone developer, there are much better events to go to such as GDC or WWDC, but if you're a gamer of any kind, you really owe it to yourself to at least give some serious consideration to attending the nearest PAX.

Attending the event with a media badge is a little awkward, since as someone who loves every subcategory of gaming, there's nothing I would have liked more than to spend the whole weekend playing Magic: The Gathering, D&D, and every pick up game of Settlers of Catan I can get my hands on… But, in the age old TouchArcade tradition of taking one for the team, I did everything I could to meet up with everyone who contacted me including fan favorites like Venan Entertainment as well as fans of the site who just wanted to talk iPhone and forum drama.

We're going to have more followup posts in the upcoming week as everyone gets back home and starts sending us assets for things from PAX, but in the time being, here are some things to look forward to:

Space Miner is getting a substantial update. We absolutely loved the game in our review, forum members are crazy about it, and it's one of the few iPhone video games I've played in a very long time that I enjoyed so much I immediately restarted on the next higher difficulty upon completing the game.

If you're like me, and have almost extracted everything possible out of Space Miner, you'll be happy to know that they're expanding the end-game to include more licenses, weapons to buy, new alien tech to find, and new Plus+ awards to earn. They're calling this a "HD update", as in addition to the gameplay tweaks, they've also implemented new shaders and other graphical effects to make the game look even better.

But wait, there's more. If the included difficulty modes weren't enough for you, they're also implementing a HardcORE perma-death mode. While there's no doubt that perma-death gameplay modes aren't for everyone, I really like the thrill that comes from the potential of losing everything from dying, and judging by the popularity of iPhone rogulikes, I doubt I'm alone on that.

But wait, there's even more. (I realize I'm starting to sound at Billy Mays at this point.) Space Miner Blast is in the works, a spinoff game that they hope to be done in a month or so. Venan is taking the basic framework of Space Miner, and turning it in to an arcade style action game where you fight an onslaught of robots and asteroids and get upgrades on the fly. Details are scarce right now, but I can't help but give a massive thumbs up to turning Space Miner in to a pick up and play action game.

Best of all, Space Miner 2 also apparently is currently on the whiteboard at Venan. Right now we know even less about the sequel than Space Miner Blast, but I've been assured it will be even more awesome in every way imaginable. Finally, Venan is looking forward to the iPad, but really want to get physical devices to test on before committing to anything.

Overall, PAX East was amazing, and as I mentioned earlier, you've really got to figure out a way to go to one regardless of what kind of gamer you are. If you have the choice, I'd attend the main PAX Prime, but if traveling across the country is an issue, PAX East is just as good. Stay tuned to TouchArcade, as we will have more details on the games I've mentioned in the PAX posts as soon as we get them.

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