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Sonic the Hedgehog , for the unattained, is Segas controversial mascot. Back at the release of the
Megadrive the NES was the supreme console, due to sales of their flagship game series Super Mario.
Sega needed a new killer app for their Megadrive, and they came up with Sonic.
This was the birth of a new era for Sega. The Sonic the Hedgehog game
was met by warm reviews and copies of the game flew off the shelves. This was the start of Sega ruling the console wars.
Sonic played at blistering speed (at the time) and Mario was thereafter
seen as a fat, stupid plumber. However, the Megadrive faced a new and stronger threat from Nintendo.
The SNES was released in 1992 and was technically superior to the Megadrive, and the Super Mario World
game was very popular. Sega's answer to this was Sonic 2 and
this was the fastest selling game in Britain up to 1998. Sonic 2 was also a landmark game in the
series, as it introduced a new character to the Sonic universe, namely Miles
Prower, also known as Tails. Tails was also Sonic's
best friend and has appeared in nearly every Sonic game.
After this huge success, the Sonic series gradually became weaker, with Sonic
3 and Sonic & Knuckles coming short of the phenominal popularity of the original two.
This was mainly due to the gaming public getting hungry for the next-gen machines, namely the PlayStation, Saturn and Ultra
64 (later named the Nintendo 64).
During the Saturn era, Sonic Team were beavering away on the fantastic game Nights:
Into Dreams. This meant that Sonic had to take a back seat, and this caused Sega to hand
the baton of creating a killer Sonic game to Travellers' Tales. This was a move that shocked the
games industry, and although Travellers' Tales pulled off good games, namely Sonic 3D and Sonic R repectively, they were not up to the usual stellar quality that was expected of Sonic.
This factor, along with the Saturn's untimely demise, contributed to Sonic gaining less and less
support from the public, who in scores had opted to buy a PlayStation, rather than a Saturn. Sonic
was then only popular within a group of devoted, or 'hardcore', fans.
After this bad spout, Sega promptly tried to regain Sonic's popularity on the Dreamcast with
the fantastic Sonic Adventure. This, in many gamers' eyes, was the first real Sonic
game since the Megadrive games. A sequel was made, and a poor Mario Party rip-off, Sonic
Shuffle, was also created. The Dreamcast Sonic
games were slightly successful, but with Sega's past failures the Dreamcast ultimately sank, taking two great Sonic games, and one instantly forgettable one, with it.
However, despite all these past problems, Sonic
has bounced back and is stronger than ever. With Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle selling extremely well
on Game Boy Advance and Gamecube, and with Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic
Adventure DX on the horizon for Gamecube, Sonic looks
as though he's back to the former glory he once achieved.
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