If you were a 90s or 2000s kid who grew up with internet access, spending the afternoon scrolling through a handful of websites playing whatever weird or interesting browser games caught your eye was likely a formative experience for you. As a ‘94 kid myself, I’m certainly no exception! Up to about, say, 2006 or so, there wasn’t a single Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon browser game I hadn’t played.
In truth, for just about as long as there’s been a World Wide Web, there have been browser games. While originally these were largely the works of independent developers, it didn’t take very long at all for businesses to catch on once they became mainstream. It’s really not much of an exaggeration to say that every company that could feasibly have at least one cheap advergame made went for it. Just have a look at this snapshot of Advergames.com, a now defunct website solely dedicated to them - Food Network Canada, United Airlines, Frito-Lay and Post-It barely even begin to scratch the surface here!
Sega, appropriately enough as a major video game company, was a relatively early adopter. There were already a few games available on Sega of America’s website as early as December of 1996, including tie-in games based on NiGHTS and Worldwide Soccer ‘97 as well as a few simple original games. Just few days after the beginning of the New Year, Sonic the Hedgehog would join them.
Sonic’s Bonus Game was the very first official Sonic browser game, a Shockwave title released on Sega of America’s “Rec Room” in January of 1997 as a promotion for the Saturn port of Sonic 3D Blast. A relatively close recreation of the Mega Drive version’s Special Stage, the game features Sonic running down a bomb-laden track trying to gather enough rings to collect a Chaos Emerald. Rinse and repeat for all seven Emeralds, and try to keep a hold of as many rings as you can along the way to hit the top of the leaderboard.
This all sounds simple enough, but in reality Sonic’s Bonus Game is a fair bit harder than you’d think. The game runs very quickly, and the controls are incredibly stiff, making the bombs difficult to avoid even at the best of times. As a result, your first few games will be incredibly short as you almost certainly won’t have retained enough rings to progress. This is almost certainly by design, as Sega was holding monthly high score contests for their Rec Room games at the time. Suffice it to say, trying to go the distance would have taken a fair bit of practice.
…Practice that ultimately would not have paid off, unfortunately! While more contests were intended to be held in 1997, no more would be announced after December of 1996. So if you were hoping to score a sweet new Sega Saturn by sharpening your sick cyberspace Sonic skills, you’d have been sadly mistaken.
