I will confess that I have never really been a Sonic the Hedgehog fan. I’ve played some of the earlier games, but I never took to them the way I did the Mario games. Nonetheless, I can certainly appreciate the legacy of Sega’s fast blue mascot. Sonic made his debut in 1991’s ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ for the Sega Genesis console, as Sega’s answer to Nintendo’s and Mario’s dominance of the market. Sonic was a swift (no pun intended!) success, propelling Sega to new heights. He would go on to appear in several games, and like Mario, made his way to 3D adventures, and all sorts of other shenanigans. Some of the 3D adventures were not greatly received, but the character has endured, even when Sega quite the console market in favour of making games for other companies.
Where Sonic has undoubtedly proven stronger than Mario is in other media. There have been a number of Sonic cartoon shows, but in recent years Sonic has also appeared on the big screen, with films that are highly entertaining (at least to me, and I’m not even a huge follower of the games!), and filled with lore from the franchise. The Sonic games also birthed the hugely popular characters of Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow.
The films also bring a unique legacy of their own. The first movie was due to be released in November 2019, but following a backlash to the character’s design in the trailer (it was something rather unholy, search for Ugly Sonic to see it), Paramount Pictures went back and changed it to, to something a lot closer to the classic game design. It is highly unusual to see a film studio take on fan reaction in such a manner, but it does Paramount credit, and it certainly saved the film from being a dud! The result is a trio of films, and a TV series, and who knows what else we’ll get in the coming years.
Who knows, I might even go and give the games a proper go!