On the origins of the speedy: A quick Sonic the Hedgehog history
Amy Flower
STACK Senior Editor
With dozens of hit games and two massive movies to his name, everybody knows Sonic the Hedgehog. And now, as 16 of his greatest game outings collide in the history feast 'Sonic Origins Plus', we take a speedy look back at the birth of the Blue Blur.
Back in 1990, Nintendo were ruling the console roost. While SEGA had great hardware in their 16-bit Mega Drive, they were playing catch-up, and needed a secret weapon. They found it in Sonic the Hedgehog.
Intended to perform double duty as both the star of his own ultra-desirable, super-speedy platform action game that would show off the power of the Mega Drive, and as a mascot for SEGA that could go head-to-head with Mario, Sonic went through a few iterations before the form that we know – and love - was arrived at.
Two of SEGA’s top designers, Naoto Oshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara, were tasked with kicking off the Sonic project, and had many considerations to account for before arriving at that final form. Versatility was one – a hedgehog’s ability to roll in a ball being one potentially very useful feature. Another was to create a character that kids could draw. Those who’ve seen the “Sanic” meme may question whether they nailed that brief, but we’ve seen an abundance of passable Sonic likenesses drawn by kids, so we reckon they did OK.
The other big requirement was to create a character that oozed cool. An entire backstory involving an American WWII pilot with spiky hair and a hedgehog on his plane’s nose was created, from which the original history of Sonic the Hedgehog was spawned. Sonic also boasted increasingly important environmental cred with his care for other critters in his first Mega Drive outing, and who could deny that those red and white sneakers simply drip coolness?
Upon release, Sonic the Hedgehog – both the game and the character – represented SEGA’s then two-year-old Mega Drive against the shiny new Super Nintendo system. The new kid on the block did good, with SEGA taking the all-important 1991 Christmas sales honours.
In the decades since, Sonic has become the centre of a multimedia universe, with those previously mentioned movies joining the ranks of TV series, comic books, and masses of general merch that has even included a Hello Kitty crossover. SEGA may have lost the console “war” in the end, but in Sonic the Hedgehog they certainly succeeded at creating an enduring, mascot-worthy superstar.
Plus! Plus! Plus!
Sonic Origins Plus brings together 16 classic Sonic escapades, all in one neat little package. Newly remastered, this collection – which includes 12 outings from SEGA’s classic handheld Game Gear console – offers four Sonic classics in high definition, new playable characters, modes, and challenges, plus museum content and more surprises. It all comes in a fabulous, ultra-collectible physical release that all Sonic lovers will want to add to their collection. As well as the games, it also boasts a retro Mega Drive-inspired reversible cover insert, plus a very fancy 20-page colour artbook.
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