Year of Release: 1991
Genre: Platformer
Sonic the Hedgehog is a 16-bit platformer released for the Sega Genesis. It was the first game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and also the first game developed by Sonic Team. It was released in 1991 in North America, Europe and Japan. It is one of the best selling video games of all time, and thus a giant money maker for Sega, creating a popular evergreen franchise and also propelled the Genesis to widespread popularity.
Trivia
- Sonic was originally a light shade of blue, however testers had a difficult time telling Sonic apart from the blue sky. One of the last changes made to the game before being shipped was to change Sonic’s palette to a much darker shade of cobalt in order to make him stand out better.
- Though the concept of a Rabbit that picks up and throws objects with his ears was rejected for Sonic, the concept was revisited by Sonic Team and eventually became Ristar: The Shooting Star.
- The Armadillo concept also resurfaced later in SegaSonic the Hedgehog for Arcades and Knuckles Chaotix on the 32X, as the character Mighty The Armadillo.
- The “Sonic the Hedgehog Rock & Roll Band” concept was initially supposed to be kept for the game’s fully-featured sound test mode, where Sonic and crew would play their instruments along with the game’s soundtrack. This animation had to be removed in order to make room for the iconic “SEGA!” voice chime when the game first starts up, which Yuji Naka reportedly felt was a more impressive technological feat.
- Members of Sonic the Hedgehog’s long lost Band include Sharps the Chicken on lead Guitar, Mach the Rabbit on Drums, Max the Monkey on Bass, and Vector the Crocodile on Keyboards. Vector the Crocodile would return as a character in Knuckles Chaotix, and later became a staple of the Sonic roster with games like Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.
- The Game Gear/Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog still features an animated image of Sonic standing at a microphone for its Sound Test.
- Much of this game’s art style was inspired by early 3D Graphics work. In the Sonic Jam Official Japanese Strategy Guide (written personally by Sonic Team), Yuji Naka recalls that the team had a difficult time recreating the angular, vectorized 3D graphics visual style using hand-drawn pixel artwork.
- According to designer Naoto Oshima in an interview with Gametap, Sonic the Hedgehog’s design was inspired by Michael Jackson’s cool sense of style and Bill Clinton’s no-nonsense, “Get it Done” attitude. The color scheme for Sonic’s trademark shoes were apparently inspired by Santa Claus’ red/white motif.
- In one of the first Japanese television commercials for this game, Sonic is shown to pilot a space ship where he drops a bomb on to what appears to be a parody of the Death Star, remade to look like Dr. Eggman’s face. This concept was later re-used for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where Dr. Eggman builds a nearly identical looking space station called the Death Egg.
Games for all game systems 