Sonic Mobile First Look

Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega's fleet-footed mascot from the golden age of the company's Genesis console, has made it to a range of portable platforms over the years, from Sega's own Game Gear, to the GBA, and even to the N-Gage. The latter of those games, Sonic N, could be considered Sonic's first mobile manifestation, although it proved to be a disappointment to many of the series' fans. Right before E3 opened, Sega announced that Sonic will be making another appearance on select Panasonic mobile phones later this year, reigniting the mobile flame for one of the best platform games of all time.

According to Sega, Sonic Mobile will first be available as an embedded game in Panasonic's upcoming VS3 smart phone, which will be released across Europe this summer, with other Panasonic models to follow in both Europe and Japan. There's no word on the game's availability in the US, although it will apparently appear on many of Panasonic's next-generation GSM phones, which could theoretically work on the Cingular and T-Mobile networks.

Sonic Mobile will feature the same levels and controls as the original Genesis game, minus the bonus stages. Sega has also indicated the game will feature music from the first Sonic game. Screenshots of the game indicate a highly accurate reproduction in terms of graphical fidelity, although Sega has added bars to the top and bottom of the screens to preserve the original's aspect ratio.

We expect to play Sonic Mobile on the show floor, so we'll be bringing you a hands-on of the game just as soon as we can.