Sonic The Hedgehog’s Humble Beginnings
By: Anthony Depace
Sonic the Hedgehog’s early years were regarded as the golden days of SEGA, as he was a rising star who rivaled the “Super Mario Bros.” franchise. “Sonic the Hedgehog” was a success, selling 1.5 billion copies after its release in 1991 for the SEGA Genesis. Sonic then became SEGA’s mascot, with him appearing in “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” (1992), “Sonic CD” (1993), “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” (1994), and Sonic and Knuckles (1994). “Sonic the Hedgehog 1” saw Sonic going through many diverse areas called “zones,” the most common of which being the Green Hill Zone.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” (1992) introduced Tails the Fox, the 7 Chaos Emeralds, the Death Egg (a derivative of the Death Star). The game also introduced the first Metal Sonic, also known as Silver Sonic or MK 1.
The game “Sonic CD” (1993) took a different direction, as it introduced time travel and new characters such as Amy Rose and the final design of Metal Sonic. “Sonic CD” followed the same formula of stages as “Sonic 1,” but with a surprise twist. The most popular part of this game was the race with Metal Sonic on Stardust Speedway, one of Sonic’s most exciting battles. This race went on to define Metal Sonic’s rivalry with the original Sonic.
“Sonic 3” and “Sonic and Knuckles” were originally meant to be one game. Due to limited space on the cartridges, which are plastic shells containing the game data, the games were made separately. SEGA was later able to combine the two games into the intended “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” (1994) titled “Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles”. While making this game, SEGA collaborated with Michael Jackson to compose the musical score. This game introduced Metal Sonic MK 2, known as Mecha Sonic, and this game’s exclusive form of them, Hyper Sonic. This also was the first classic Sonic game to have a secrete final boss after collecting all the Chaos/Super Emeralds.
After these games a new era of Sonic began called the Adventure Era. Sonic Adventure 1 was released in 1998 on the SEGA Dreamcast, and later for the GameCube, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (2010) as a deluxe edition. This was also the game in which Robotnik adopted the name “Eggman” to make sure SEGA’s Japan and US branches were consistent, as the US branch made up the name “Robotnik.”
“Sonic Adventure 2” was released in 2001 on the SEGA Dreamcast and later the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (2012) along with a deluxe edition. This game took the story in a new direction, introducing the popular character Shadow the Hedgehog, and Eggman’s grandfather, who worked together to cure diseases. Shadow was taken out of cryostasis by Eggman and tricked to work with him to bring justice to his friend Maria Robotnik. Maria was Eggman’s cousin who died at the hand of the human military faction called “G.U.N.” Shadow rivaled Sonic in both speed and power, and at the end of the game he would give up his life to protect Earth. This is because Maria wished for Shadow to protect it, not destroy it.
“Sonic Heroes” (2003) released on GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Original Xbox. It also brought back Shadow, and it re-introduced the “Chaotix,” a group comprising of Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy the Bee. Characters from the past games came back to work as a team to defeat their enemy and fight amongst each other based on gameplay rivalries. Shadow then later went on to have his own game in 2005 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox. While this game took the franchise in a darker direction, it expanded upon Shadow in doing so. This game was the last of which used the assets from Sonic’s earlier 3-dimensional games, as the next few games would use new updated models. This was Sonic’s final big title from the early 2000’s, as his future looks uncertain.
Sources: Who made Sonic the Hedgehog? – Games Learning Society