The Fastest Thing Alive: A Look Back At Sonic The Hedgehog 30 Years Later

The Fastest Thing Alive: A Look Back At Sonic The Hedgehog 30 Years Later

August 6, 2021
By Ryan Porzl

Sega Genesis Cover

 

Sega Game Gear Cover

Sega Master System Cover

Over the decades, there have not only been many great video games but iconic characters that have stood the test of time. When talking about these characters, it's impossible not to bring up Sega's own mascot: Sonic The Hedgehog. Originally created as a mascot that could rival Mario's popularity, Sonic would burst on the scene in 1991 and quickly became a video game icon and like many, his popularity has spun off beyond video games including cartoons, movies, and merchandise. With the 30th Anniversary having come on June 23rd, it's time to look at the one that kickstarted Sega's biggest franchise. While I'll mostly focus on the Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive version, I'll also bring up the Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear version.

Characters-

Sonic The Hedgehog- The protagonist. Sonic is a blue hedgehog capable of running at supersonic speeds. Sonic journeys through South Island in attempt to stop Dr. Robotnik's scheme by collecting the six Chaos Emeralds before Robotnik and freeing his animal friends. Sonic is capable of attacking by either jumping on enemies in ball form (so long as they don't have spikes) and roll into them, again, in ball form. Along the way, Sonic can collect gold rings and break monitors that can give him an item to help him in his quest.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Dr. Eggman in Japan)- The antagonist. A mad scientist who seeks the six Chaos Emeralds with the hopes of using their true power. While attempting to acquire the Emeralds, Robotnik captures the animals of South Island and puts them in robots known as "badniks". Sonic now races to retrieve the Emeralds before the doctor does. Throughout the game, Robotnik tries to put a stop to Sonic's progress by battling him with his egg ship that usually contains a different weapon per zone.

Plot- Mad scientist Dr. Ivo Robonik seeks the Chaos Emeralds, six stones of incredible power with the desire to harness their power. While searching for the Emeralds, Robotnik captures the animal inhabitants of South Island and either traps them in enemy robots called "badniks" or in prison eggs. An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog named Sonic attempts to stop him by venturing through six different zones freeing the animals and defeating Robotnik in various confrontations all the while entering special stages in an attempt to collect the Emeralds before Robotnik.

Gameplay-

Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive in Japan and PAL regions)

Sonic The Hedgehog is a side scrolling/platforming game where the player controls Sonic and need to get him from the beginning of the level to the end without dying be it taking damage from enemies without rings, getting squashed, drowning in water, time running out, or falling into holes. The game features six zones in Green Hill Zone, Marble Zone, Spring Yard Zone, Labyrinth Zone, Star Light Zone, and Scrap Brain Zone as well as Final Zone which features the final battle with Robotnik. With the exception of Final Zone, each Zone has three acts. Throughout the levels, the player has the chance to acquire items to make their journey easier. Throughout each level or "act", gold rings are scattered throughout which allow the player to take damage from enemies so long as they have at least one. However, taking damage results in Sonic losing all his rings though the player can try to collect them again before they disappear. Like a lot of games, if the player gets 100 rings then they get an extra life. Along with rings, the player can also break monitors scattered throughout the acts which either give Sonic 10 rings or an extra life or a bubble which allows him to take an extra hit without dying or losing his rings or sneakers which make him even faster for a short period of time, or magic which briefly makes him invincible towards enemies for a short period of time. The magic is the equivalent of a star in the Super Mario Bros. games. Another thing are check points which are these post with a ball on top. If the player runs through them, then the ball goes from black to red indicating the checkpoint is activated so if the player dies, they will start at the recent checkpoint providing they still have lives left. If the player has at least 50 rings by the end of the first two acts of a zone then they will see a giant gold ring after running past the sign post (which signal the end of the act) which takes them to a special stage by jumping into it. The special stages are revolving mazes where the players controls Sonic in ball form. The object is to navigate Sonic through the revolving maze collecting rings and the Chaos Emerald without touching the "Goal" spots in certain corners. If the player touches them then the special stage is done and the player does not collect the Chaos Emerald. By collecting all the Chaos Emeralds, the player gets the best ending possible. If the player doesn't collect all the emeralds, then they get the "bad" ending where Sonic runs through Green Hill Zone before stopping and looking disappointed at the player before doing his pose while the post-credits show Robotnik juggling the emeralds the player did not collect while the player is told to try again. If they get all the emeralds, then they get the "good" ending where Sonic runs through Green Hill Zone and uses the emeralds the restore the area with more plants before posing while the post-credits show Robonik angrily stomping on the word "end". If the player gets 50 rings in the Special Stage then they earn a continue. At the end of every third act of every zone (except Scrap Brain Zone), the player will face Robotnik in his egg ship which is equipped with a different weapon each confrontation. After defeating Robotnik, the player finishes the act and the zone by releasing animals from a prison egg. Sonic's only attacks are either jumping on an enemy in ball form or rolling into them in ball form though he can run through enemies if he has magic from a magic monitor. Other features include the possibility of drowning in water levels. If Sonic is underwater, the player can go as normal for a number of seconds until numbers pop up on the screen giving the player five seconds to find a big bubble for Sonic to breathe into. If they succeed, they continue, if they don't, then Sonic drowns and the player loses a life. The player is also giving ten minutes to beat a level or lose a life if they run out of time. Along with running at a fast pace, Sonic can also bounce around using springs or flippers to get to unreachable areas while bumper balls and bumper pillars can be hinderances. 

Sega Master System/Game Gear

The SMS/Game Gear version plays the same as the Genesis/Mega Drive version. However, there are some differences. Like the Genesis/Mega Drive version, this version of Sonic features six zones with three acts each with some zones returning while other being new. The six zones are Green Hill Zone, Bridge Zone, Jungle Zone, Labyrinth Zone, Scrap Brain Zone, and Sky Base Zone with Green Hill, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain Zones returning from the Genesis/Mega Drive version though the formats are different as are the Robotnik boss fights. Collecting Chaos Emeralds is also different as they are hidden in the levels that the player must find instead of being in the Special Stage. The Special Stage is also different as it involves Sonic bouncing around collecting rings for extra lives and continues before the time limit expires. The game also is slower and not focused as much on speed as it allows for exploration which is crucial in finding the Chaos Emeralds. Another difference is the sign post at the end of each of the first two acts. Whereas in the Genesis/Mega Drive version, it's always on Robotnik and the player spins it to Sonic, here, the sign post starts at a question mark and randomly lands on something. If it lands on Robonik, the player gets nothing. If it lands on Sonic, then the player gets an extra life. If it lands on a ring, the player gets ten rings. If it lands on an exclamation point, the player is sent to the special stage (provided they have 50 rings or more).

Behind the Scenes-
Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive in Japan and PAL regions)

Sonic's origins go all the way back to the 1980s when Sega was attempting to rival Nintendo both in arcades and consoles but was struggling to do so. One of the things Sega also struggled with was finding a mascot that could rival Mario. At first, Sega tried characters like Opa Opa from the Fantasy Zone games and then Alex Kidd who starred in his own series but neither caught on the way Sega wanted. By 1988, Sega had an in-house competition to create a mascot that can rival Mario. Sega of Japan President Hayao Nakayama not only wanted someone as popular as Mario but also a character that could be as iconic as Mickey Mouse. When work began on the new mascot, so too, did a new game and it was there where the production team decided to focus on speed. As a result, they considered fast creatures like kangaroos and squirrels while eliminating animals not known for speed. Sega would consider the idea of a rabbit who could grab objects with it's prehensile ears but this was nixed due it being considered too complex for the Genesis/Mega Drive's hardware. Eventually, they settled on an animal that can turn into a ball as it could be used for an attack and it came down to either an armadillo or a hedgehog with the latter being proposed by artist and game designer Naoto Ohshima. Ohshima had worked for Sega since 1987 and previously was a designer on the first two Phantasy Star games and Tommy Lasorda Baseball. Along with the Sonic games, he later worked on the popular Sega Saturn game Nights Into Dreams. In the end, Ohshima's hedgehog idea won out with Ohshima later coming up with Sonic's design by drawing inspiration from Felix The Cat and Mickey Mouse with Felix's head inspiring the head while Mickey's body inspired the body. Originally, Sonic was going to be teal colored and then light blue before settling on dark blue so he would stand out from certain backgrounds as well as to match the Sega logo. Sonic's shoes were inspired by the boots worn by Michael Jackson on his Bad music video, specifically the buckles, while the red and white were inspired by Santa Claus since Ohshima considered him the most famous person in the world. Sonic's spikes were focused on to make him sleeker while being giving the ability to spin while jumping so attacking and jumping can both be used with one button. Originally, the plan was Sonic to be called "Mr. Hedgehog" but "Sonic" was eventually chosen because the name represented speed. The name Sonic would also be used by the production team who named themselves "Sonic Team". Other ideas for Sonic was to present him as being in a rock band, have a human girlfriend named Madonna, and vampire fangs but these were dropped as Sega of America wanted his identity to be simple. The main villain (who was inspired by Humpty Dumpty) received two names in "Dr. Eggman" in Japan and "Dr. Robotnik" everywhere else. This was done due to a dispute between the Japanese and North American divisions of Sega.

After Sonic was created, the next plan was to design the game. Sega would recruit Yuji Naka, who, like Ohshima previously worked on the first two Phantasy Star games while also working on the Ghost n' Goblins sequel Ghouls n' Ghost. Also, like Ohshima, Naka would also later work on the Nights Into Dreams game with the rest of Sonic Team. Naka was a fan of Super Mario Bros. but desired a faster game, so he would also focus on speed. This was mostly done because when he did Ghosts N' Goblins, he wanted to work on the movements but found them too slow. Originally, the game was created by a team of seven which included two programmers, three designers, and two sound engineers though more were eventually added to help development including Hirokazu Yasuhara, who later become the lead designer due to having more experience. Yasuhara was a designer and game planner who previously served as game planner for Sega's Altered Beast game while later working on not only Sonic games for Sega but the Jak and Daxter series for Naughty Dog. As if their intentions weren't clear enough, the project originally had the code name "Defeat Mario". One of Yasuhara's achievements was fulfilling Naka's desire to be playable with one button by having Sonic being able to attack while jumping.

Because of the popularity Mario had, Naka wanted Sonic to overtake the North American market. Sonic's default speed was designed to be that of Mario's running. While tests took place regarding the tool library of the Sega Genesis, it quickly became obvious that there were problems including shaky animation, flickering, and slow frame rates as well as animation problems every time they tried to increase Sonic's speed. Naka was able to correct this by developing an algorithm retained fluidity. Another issue was the debate among the designers for Sonic's speed. Eventually, they would decide to slow it down a little as some on the team thought Sonic went too fast. When it came to gameplay, Naka was inspired by Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto as he was a fan of Miyamoto's games and loved how simple the mechanics were despite complex environments. As a result, Naka decided to be able to move Sonic with the d-pad and a button to get him to jump. Despite the love of these games, Naka did want the levels to be able to be finished quicker.

The team of Naka, Yasuhara, and Ohshima worked 19 hours day for several months. While working on the game, it constantly went through extensive testing and redesign as they needed to demonstrate the Genesis' technological prowess with this process taking over six months to complete. Naka claimed Sonic The Hedgehog has the fastest ever character speed and the rotation effect in the special stages was originally thought to be impossible for the Genesis.

Several ideas were planned for Sonic The Hedgehog that didn't make it but would appear in future games. Originally, there were plans for a two player split screen mode but this wasn't to be due to Naka's programming knowledge being insufficient. Another idea was a sound test but this wasn't used due to time but the lack of it did allow Naka to put the "SE-GA!" opening in the game. In the end, both features would appear in the sequel Sonic The Hedgehog 2 the following year. Another idea was to have the sound test feature Sonic breakdancing to a band of anthropomorphic animals with one being a crocodile playing the keyboards. While this wouldn't come to pass, the idea of the crocodile would eventually be used years later in the form of Vector The Crocodile who first appeared in the game Knuckles Chaotix.

For the music, Sega brought in Masato Nakamura to compose the music. Nakamura is best known as the bass guitarist and songwriter for the J-Pop band Dreams Come True which formed in 1988. He later returned for the following year's Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Nakamura claims he decided to do the project due to being inspired by Sega's desire to beat Nintendo. After Nakamura finished, the soundtrack was digitized using an Atari ST computer and their Akon remixes.

The game wouldn't be revealed until January 1991 during the International Consumers Electronics Show as Sega wanted to wait for a chance to steal the show which proved successful as it was well-received and won a CES award for innovation. Before it's NA release, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske wanted to be assured that the game would be successful. As a result, Sega's global head of marketing, Al Nilsen would playtest the game across America with Mario fans and have the fans see Mario and then play Sonic with 80% preferring Sonic. Upon it's release, Sega of America packaged it with Sega Genesis consoles with Sonic replacing Altered Beast. If customers bought a Genesis before Sonic's release then they could get the game for free by mail. A marketing campaign followed, establishing Sonic as Sega's new mascot.

Sega Master System/Game Gear

This version of Sonic came about as work began on the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Sonic and the same time Sega released their handheld console the Sega Game Gear which was created in the hopes of Sega being able to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy in the handheld market. The person mostly behind these versions was a then 22 year old composer named Yuzo Koshiro who previously worked for Sega on their game The Revenge of Shinobi and would later help with Streets of Rage 2 and 3 for Sega. Koshiro would be placed in charge of the game gear version after telling a section chief he could develop games himself. From there, Koshiro founded Ancient to work on the game since Sega couldn't offer contracts to individuals. Originally, Ancient was only to develop an 8 bit Sonic for the Game Gear but then Sega asked for one for the Sega Master System as well since it not only was selling well but the hardware was similar.

Despite the Genesis/Mega Drive coming first, the SMS/Game Gear version was started from scratch since Ancient found it was impossible to port the 16 bit Genesis version to 8 bit hardware. Ancient decided to look at developing the game in three steps. First was developing the game with the Genesis/Mega Drive version in mind while the next two step would be incorporate their own ideas while Sega supervised the project. Koshiro considered working on the project challenging seeing as how he never developed a game before but giving his relationship with Sega, they had confidence in him. For the music, Koshiro converted Masato Nakamura's 16 bit soundtrack to an 8 bit programmer sound generator but would only use three of Nakamura's tracks (The intro theme, the stage clear song, and Green Hill Zone song) while composing the rest. While composing the songs, Koshiro was looking to keep the same feel that the Genesis/Mega Drive version had.

Release-

Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive in Japan and PAL regions)

Sonic the Hedgehog was released on June 23, 1991 on the Sega Genesis in North America, July 1991 on the Sega Mega Drive in PAL regions, July 26, 1991 in Japan on the Sega Mega Drive, and October 1991 in Arcades. The game received critical acclaim scoring a 925/1000 by ACE Magazine, 37/40 by Beep! Megadrive, Computer and Video Games (CVG) scored it a 94%, Dragon Magazine scored it a perfect 5 stars, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) scored it 36/40, GamePro scored it 24/25, Joystick Magazine scored it a 98%, Player One scored it 96%, Mean Machines scored it 92%, both HobbyConsolas and Raze magazine scored it 95%, Entertainment Weekly magazine scored if an A+, and finally, both Generation 4 and Sega Power would score it 97%. The biggest praise to come from reviewers was mostly the graphics and animation with critics calling them "lively", "eye-popping", and "gorgeous" while Generation 4 said the game was part of a new generation that proved the Sega Genesis was capable of beautiful things in the technical department. The music and sound effects were also giving positive reviews for the most part, specifically from Dragon Magazine, Gamezone, CVG and Mean Machines while Raze thought they were boring. The gameplay was also praised as the fast paced gameplay was considered ground breaking and innovative at the time while the level design was also giving positive reviews though CVG said losing all your rings in one hit was frustrating.

In the decades since, the game continues to receive positive reviews and has aged well with the few reviews for the 3DS, Wii, iOS, and X-Box 360 ports all getting solid to really good reviews while the Game Boy Advance version was the only one received poorly.

Sonic The Hedgehog also won two year end awards as it won The Golden Joystick Award for "Overall Game of the Year" and EGM's "Game of the Year". 

Sales were also through the roof as the game sold 1 million copies in the United States alone by Christmas 1991 and 2 million worldwide by the end of 1991. The game's sales would double a year later selling 4 million copies by the end of 1992 and more than that by 1993. By 1997, the game sold 14 million copies and grossed $400 million ($760 million counting inflation) which is more than a blockbuster movie would gross at the time which was $200 to $300 million. The game's success saw Sega Genesis outsell the Super Nintendo 2-to-1 and by early 1992 made up for 65% of the market for 16-bit consoles which marked the first time since December 1985 that Nintendo was not number one in consoles, though they did eventually reclaim the lead. In the decades since, the game continued to sell well as 15 million copies of the original Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive were sold by February 2009 while the mobile game got 8 million paid downloads by 2008. The X-Box 360 port sold 482,960 units by 2011, and between 2013 to 2016, 500,000 paid downloads on Android devices.

Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear

Like the Genesis version, The SMS/Game Gear version also received critical acclaim as CVG and Mean Machines scored the Master System version 90% while Mega Zone scored the Game Gear version also 90%, GamePro scored the Sega Master System version a 22/25 and the Game Gear a 24/25, ACE scored the Game Gear version a perfect 5 stars, and Go! scored the Game Gear version a 93%. The most notably praise went to the graphics, sound, level designs, and the gameplay. The biggest criticism was the easy difficulty and the game being short by most though CVG said the same problem was true for the Genesis/Mega Drive version while Go! actually considered the game more difficult than the Genesis/Mega Drive. Like the Genesis/Mega Drive version, later reviews were also positive, specifically, the Wii Virtual Console re-release. GamesRadar+ ranked it the fourth best Game Gear game while they along with Retro Gamer considered it one of the greatest games on the Sega Master System.

Aftermath-

Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive in Japan and PAL regions)

Since the initial release, Sonic the Hedgehog has been re-released many times both individually and in packaged form with other Sonic games most notably it was re-released on the Game Boy Advance in 2006, Windows in 2010, the Nintendo 3DS, iOS, and Android in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch in 2018. Along with these, the game has also been part of several packages including 1995's Sonic Compilation on the Genesis, 1997's Sonic Jam on the Sega Saturn, 2002's Sonic Mega Collection on the Nintendo Gamecube, 2004's Sonic Mega Collection Plus on the Playstation 2 and X-Box, 2006/2007's Sega Genesis Collection on the Playstation 2 and PSP, 2009's Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360, 2010's Sonic Classic Collection on the Nintendo DS, and 2018's Sega Genesis Classics for Windows, X-Box One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The game's success has also spawned a franchise which has included merchandise of all kinds, several cartoon shows, and a 2020 live action movie with a sequel on the way. While Sonic has continued to chug along these past 30 years, the franchise, like some, has had it's ups and downs in terms of quality but it continues to be one of the biggest franchises in video games.

Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear

The SMS/Game Gear version hasn't had as many re-releases but it's had some. The SMS version would actually make history as it proved to be the last licensed Sega game in North America for the Sega Master System due to the system never catching on in North America or Japan but the system would live on in Europe and especially, Brazil. As a result, the NA version of the Master System is a port of the European version and considered a collector's item. The game would be re-released on several platforms including 2003's Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the Gamecube and Windows as an unlockable game. The Game Gear version was re-released first for 2004's Sonic Mega Collection Plus and then in 2013 for the 3DS's virtual console while the Master System's version was re-released in 2008 on the Wii's Virtual Console.