The world's most famous hedgehog turned 20 this week.

No, not Espinete - the pink hedgehog giant from Barrio Sésamo, the Spanish version of Sesame Street - we're talking the former air freshener, Sonic, of course.

And despite not being as good as Mario, the blue-spiked anthropomorphic deserves our respect. So, without further ado, we induct Sonic (and his Sega pals) into our hallowed App of the Day hall of fame....

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

Format

iOS (iPhone and iPad compatible app)

Price

£1.19 intro / £2.99 after

Where

App Store

To celebrate Sonic's 20th birthday Sega has introduced this popular console convert into the App Store for a discounted £1.19 for a limited time. Very limited actually, the price goes up to £2.99 on 25 June - so act fast if you want to get hold of it.

The premise of the game is simple - you control Sonic or one of his pals (or foes) around a series of tracks, drifting boosting and weapon-using along the way. It's a bit like that other franchise karting came that you're probably already familiar with - you know, Shrek Kart.

You kick off proceedings by creating your Sega Driving License and choosing a game face, then you're off straight into the tutorial. It's all fairly straight forward if you've played this type of racing sim before - although the graphics are above and beyond what we've seen from its small screen rivals in the past.

After the tutorial you have a plethora of single player and multi-player options. In single player there are three GP stages to compete in (with three difficulty levels), speed trials, single races or missions, of which there are 25. These include coin chases, accuracy tests and the like - all the while you're collecting Sega Miles to unlock further characters and courses.

In terms of multiplayer, you can go one-on-one (battle of race) with your local pals using Bluetooth, or take on all comers from around the globe (4 players at a time) using your Wi-Fi connection.

For £1.19, or even the full price of £2.99 the game is ridiculously good value. The content is rich, the gameplay options are abundant and the graphics, especially on an iPhone 4 or an iPad are tremendous.

In short, this game is far superior to the racing game that Sonic first appeared in, back in 1991, and probably around the price of three or four goes on that arcade classic.