Sonic the Hedgehog has maintained its popularity , appearing on lists of the greatest video games of all time . Frank Provo of GameSpot described the game as " one of the best platformers of all time " , noting that despite technical issues in the Game Boy Advance port " after all these years , the underlying graphics , audio , and gameplay still hold up " . Lucas M. Thomas of IGN agreed that it stood the test of time : " You 'll be impressed by the clarity and color that come through ... Few people realize how difficult it was to create Sonic 's graphics engine , which allowed for the incredible rate of speed the game 's known for . But the technical achievement impressed back in ' 91 , and still does so today . " Mega ranked the game its third @-@ favorite Genesis title , and in 2001 Game Informer called it the 24th @-@ greatest game of all time . Sonic the Hedgehog has been a commercial success ; the original Genesis version sold over 15 million copies by February 2009 , and the mobile version had eight million paid downloads by 2008 .