Interesting Facts

As with any game, there were many elements that never made the final version. According to interviews, for the concept of the gameplay, originally, was intended that he would pick up objects and throw them but it was envisaged that this process would slow down gameplay so this attack was replaced with the rolling/spin move. There are no known shots of this however.

In the game, zone names and level layout were changed, objects re-located and some objects/graphics were not used at all.

Spring Yard Zone had the original name of Sparkling Zone

Scrap Brain Zone had the original name of Clockwork Zone

When Sonic completed an act he was to jump up and punch the air.

Sonic's colour was originally to be lighter but in development of Green Hill Zone he was difficult to see against the colours of that stage.

Over the years, people have probed and hacked the ROM has and many discoveries have been made. Some examples being: Sonic had a number of extra actions including floating, sliding and shrinking and he wore goggles when underwater when he broke open a goggles monitor and there sections where he entered a 'warp' in an act.

The first game featuring Sonic the Hedgehog was released to the world on 23rd June, 1991. Since then, Sonic the Hedgehog, affectionately known as the "Blue-Bur", has become one of the most famous video game characters in the world with more than 50 million copies of his series having been sold world over. In the year 2005, Sonic was among the first video game characters inductees into the Walk of Game.

Hiokazu Yasuhara, the main designer, Naoto Oshima, the great artist, and Yuji Naka, the chief programmer, are commonly believed to be the people behind the formation of the famous character, generally a blue skinned and haired hedgehog, who has the capability of running at supersonic speeds with the ability to transform itself into the a ball, mainly to attack the villains. This is the most interesting and key part of the game play of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

The appearance of Sonic often varies and changes according to the medium and theme of the different games and episodes. Sonic was quite small and round when originally designed by Oshima but with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, his proportions changed from 1:2 head to height ratio to 1:2.25. In the year 1998, designer Yuji Uekawa presented Sonic in a new look for the new game Sonic Adventure. Sonic appeared as a taller game character with long and thin legs and a lesser spherical body. Other minor changes in Sonic' appearance has been made in the following games over the period of time.

Several actors have lent their voices for Sonic the Hedgehog character over the years. The first among them was Takeshi Kusao for Sonic the Hedgehog. Later on Junichi Kanemaru started providing his voice with release of Sonic Adventure. Ryan Drummond was the first English game voice actor for the Sonic. He provided his voice for Sonic Adventure and continued to so till the year 2004. Jason Anthony Griffith took over from him after that.

After his first appearance in "Sonic the Hedgehog" and successfully fighting his nemesis "Dr. Eagman", Sonic has featured in number of subsequent games by Sega. "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" in 1992 witnessed his two tailed fox friend called Tails. "Sonic CD" 1993 introduced his girlfriend "Amy Rose" and "Metal Sonic". "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" and its sequel "Sonic & Knuckles" in 1994 saw the introduction of new character "Knuckles the Echidna". "Sonic Adventure" released in 1998-99, "Sonic Adventure 2" in 2001, Sonic Heroes in 2004, Sonic the Hedgehog in 2006 and "Sonic Unleashed" in 2008 are some of the successful games that are based on the world famous character Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sega also used Sonic the Hedgehog as a cameo in their other games too. Sonic has also been part of the many animation series and comics.

In October 2008, Sonic was voted the UK's favourite ever video games character with 24% of the vote and ahead of Mario who polled 21%. Lara Croft came in third. At the same time, MSN held a survey for the most iconic character of all time and, again, it was Sonic who took first prize. 2-0 to Sega.

When the Walk of Game opened in 2005 there were three original initiates. Mario and Link were two of them and, of course, Sonic was the other. He was also the first video game character to have a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in the US and even has a fruit fly gene named after him which happens to be responsible for fruit fly embryonic development - if you really wanted to know.

According to one piece of supporting material Sonic was once just a small brown hedgehog. The transformation to super stardom came when he was on a treadmill testing out Kinobor's speed trainers. The story goes that Sonic was hungry, Kinobor came back with the only thing he could find - a rotten egg - and accidentally tripped on a cable and threw it into the machine. There was an explosion and when everyone came to, Sonic had been fused with the trainers and turned blue while Kinobor had joined with the rotten egg, become evil and therefore flipped his name around to become Dr Robotnik/Eggman.

After initial ideas of an armadillo that later became Mighty the Armadillo, a dog look alike of Theodore Roosevelt in pyjamas that later became the design for Dr Robotnik and a rabbit that could pick things up with his ears which later became Ristar, Naoto Oshima came up with the idea of a 15-year-old anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run faster than the speed of sound.

He was initially referred to as Mr Needlemouse, which is the literal translation of the Japanese word for hedgehog, and was classed as a non-swimmer from the mistaken belief that hedgehogs can't swim. Sonic was painted the same colour as the Sega logo and given a pair of red and white trainers based on a pair of boots worn by Michael Jackson. The Japanese design team originally gave him a set of fangs, put him in a band and gave him a girlfriend called Madonna, but that was all later softened for American audiences.

Sonics motto is; "I don't look back, I've got no regrets, cause time don't wait for me I choose to go my own way."