You may be asking yourself, ‘what is this game, and why is Sonic wearing a police officer’s hat?’ Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car is an arcade game that was released in Japan in 1991 that was specifically targeted towards younger audiences. Players assume the role of Sonic who is a police officer in a city and you are tasked with keeping your animal friends safe from the evil Eggman.
Just watch.
I never said the game was good, just an oddball rarity from Sonic’s past that you can now play. This was however the first game in the franchise to feature voice acting of any kind.
Through the generous donations of anonymous patrons, YouTube user Will Medved was able to ship the machine back to his home in the US where he was kind enough to dump the board for us. What that means is that with the next released of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) you will be able to play this game right on your PC.
While it won’t be nearly as fun as sitting in one of these cabinets and feeling the car tilt as you turn, it’s still a cool little piece of history that you can get your hands on soon.
