Sonic the Hedgehog Turns 20

After Nintendo had revived the North American video game market in 1985 with the NES and Super Mario Bros., they were king of the hill. The company was the undisputed champion of video games with an unfathomable 90% death grip on the gaming market. Other companies that tried to compete were crushed. Even Sega's 8-bit Master System just wasn't in the same league as the NES. Sega wanted a piece of the video game hardware pie and was fed up with settling for scraps. The 16-bit Genesis (named Mega Drive in Japan and Europe) made it's debut in 1989 and boasted graphics and sounds far above that of the NES but it still wasn't enough to topple Nintendo, who had their own 16-bit machine on the way. Sega needed an edge, something that would not only divert attention away from the upcoming SNES, but from Mario as well. Spanning 11 months, and the combined talents of Naoto Ōshima, Yuji Naka, and Hirokazu Yasuhara, Sonic Team was formed and a Sega mascot was produced to rival Mario and prove that Nintendo was not untouchable.

Our first in-game look at Sonic.

It's a hot summer day on June 23rd, 1991. You're giddy with delight because your parents just bought you a Sega Genesis. After all the connections are made, a cartridge is dropped into the console deck and the power switch is flipped on. The word "SEGA" is seen and heard on the TV screen. Shortly after that, a logo that reads "Sonic the Hedgehog" appears and the blue rodent himself pops out of the title with a smirk on his face, waving his index finger at you. Sonic wasn't like that nice boy Mario. He was different. Sonic had an attitude and very little patience.

Like many youths of the 1990s, I, too, was part of the great divide that took place when Sonic the Hedgehog came rushing onto the scene. Being a kid that had already invested 5 or so years into Nintendo hardware and games, I sided with the camp of Super Mario World. Anytime someone said Sonic was cooler, faster, or all around better than Mario, I would stand up and defend the plumber to death. Sonics, attitude, speed and arguably superior visuals didn't matter to me. Supporting a character thar rivaled Mario just seemed like treterchy in my mind.

The Japanese box art for the first Sonic
the Hedgehog.

Box art for the American release. 

European box art.

I remained fiercely loyal to Mario until one Sunday afternoon when I went to a friends house. My parents had gotten me the SNES for the 1991 Christmas season and my friend had recieved the Genesis. All the way to his house he was talking up Sonic the Hedgehog. Since my friend had good taste in games and we'd been friends since as long as I could remember, I was willing to go in with an open mind and give the Sonic a shot. As I watched my friend play through all three acts of Green Hill Zone, I realized that up until that point, Sonic was the only character that could match Mario when it came to pure platforming goodness. Commercials had often advertised Sonic's speed and attitude at the forefront of everything else that I never stopped to consider what the core gameplay of Sonic would be like. Sure it was much faster than that of Mario, but it was also undeniably entertaining and that was the best part about it. There was a remarkably fine tuned game underneath all that 'tude that Sega bragged about (something that Sonic's countless imitators would sadly overlook.) From that day forward I knew that it was perfectly fine to like Mario AND Sonic and Sega had won themselves another hedgehog fan.

Green Hill Zone, the first level of the game
and the first level of the very first Sonic game. It
has a memorable, distinct appearance and some
of the best first level music. Ever.

The competition that resulted from the SNES/Genesis 16-bit wars is still fondly remembered to this day. Despite the fact that Nintendo was a heavy contender, Sega belittled Nintendo and Mario at every opportunity. If Mario and the SNES were pimped out Huffy mountain bikes, Sonic and the Genesis were Harley Davidson motorcycles, at least that the way Sega portrayed them in magazine ads and TV commercials. But Sega's attitude towards the competition brought out some of the very best stuff from The Big N. Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart and many of Nintendo's first party SNES offerings are widely regarded as some of the finest games the company has ever made. With Nintendo being such a worthy adversary, Sega couldn't afford to slack and in turn, their games were also legendary, with Sonic leading the charge.

Going back to the little hedgehog that could, Sonic's first game was revolutionary for it's day. As mentioned before, speed was a core gameplay mechanic, tasking the player with running loop-the-loops (a staple of the series), running across collapsing platforms and smashing all sorts of killer robots with some of the most spectacular visuals and sounds a home console had to offer. Of course not everything was speed-based. While running fast was key, doing it all the time was a good way to get yourself killed. The first area could quite literally be breezed through. Areas such as Marble Zone and the devious Labyrinth Zone required the player to slow down, carefully time those jumps and in the case of the later zone, stop for air bubbles or suffer the terrible fate that is drowning. Rather than save a princess, Sonic had a whole planet to save from the awesomely named Dr. Robotnik, a mad scientist with a 300 IQ bent on world domination. To make him even more sinister, he's captured the planet's animals and imprisoned them in the robot foes Sonic encounters on his quest. If stuffing cute animals in killer robots isn't cause to make you want to tear a megalomaniac a new one, I don't know what is.

Pretty as Sonic the Hedgehog was, all the visual performance in the world wouldn't do a lick of good without solid level design. Thankfully, the people at Sonic Team knew this and didn't let Sonic coast along with just lovely colors. The first Sonic game has some of the most stylishly designed levels of the Genesis era. There are ancient ruins, underwater temples, metropolitan factories, things that are common in many games today but at the time, these environments had never been pulled off so well, nor had they looked this good on a home gaming system. As extraordinary as the games last five zones are, the most iconic area would have to be the first one, Green Hill Zone. Decorated with palm trees, a fantastic view of the ocean and huge loops, Green Hill Zone has gone on to become one of the most remembered first levels of any video game. It isn't just it's look that makes Green Hill Zone so iconic. Like Super Mario Bros. 1-1, Green Hill Zone is loved so much because of it's theme music. While Sega obviously couldn't get Koji Kondo to do the music for them, they did make the right move in getting Masato Nakamura to compose the game's music. A member of the Japanese pop band Dreams Come True, Nakamura gave Sonic the Hedgehog music that would stay with the player long after the power button on the Genesis had been shut off. There's not a person alive that will say bad things about Green Hill Zone's music. Even the sound effects of the first Sonic game are classic, so much so that many of them haven't changed since the first game.

Contrary to popular belief, Tails did not
make his debut in the console version of
Sonic 2. The Master System/Game Gear
version of Sonic 2 landed in Japan, Europe, and
the USA before the Genesis version in all
three regions, making it the first true
appearance of Sonic's faithful sidekick.

Japanese box art for Sonic 2. Sonic & Tails, represent!

The American and European Box art. Sonic 2 released
in America and Europe on Tuesday, November 24, 1992.
Sega dubbed that particular day "Sonic 2s day."  

Sonic & Tails in the first area in Sonic 2, Emerald Hill Zone.

The bonus stages in Sonic 2 take place on
insanely cool half-pipes.

The FMV opening to Sonic CD is still fantastic to watch.
Sing it with me now! "Toot too Sonic Warrior"/"Sonic Boom"

In the years that followed the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, he became arguably as popular as Mario. Sonic appeared in cartoons, comics, and nearly everything else that could be marketed and sold to children. At his core, Sonic was still a video game character and the sequels that followed the original were standout games. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for many fans is the best of the series, while for me, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is my all-time favorite Sonic game.

Japanese Sonic 3 box art.

American box art for Sonic 3.

Japanese box art for Sonic & Knuckles. Looks awesome but
those words about the sun under the logo are just odd. Really, was
that even needed?

The American box art for Sonic & Knuckles. Sports a stylish
black background and is thankfully
spared the babel about laughing suns.

It hasn't been a completely smooth ride for Sonic, though. The 3D era is rife with Sonic games that focus on gimmicks above all else. These have ranged from decent (Sonic Unleashed) to just plain awful (Sonic the Hedgehog 2006) but there are still fans who enjoy 3D Sonic action. I myself really liked Sonic Adventure and Sonic Colors is being hailed as the best modern Sonic game.

Even through his rough patches, Sonic has managed to endure and in a field where you can easily be tossed aside and forgotten, that says a lot. Sonic owes much of his success and staying power to his many fans. Sure, some of them can be an angry, fickle bunch, but without the fans, Sonic still wouldn't be around today. I may not have liked him from the beginning, but I feel honored to have been there when Sonic first stepped into the gaming world. Well, writing this piece was fun, but I've got a some Chaos Emeralds to collect and a mad doctor to foil.