Sonic the Hedgehog (character)

File:Sonic.png

File:Sonic 12.jpg

For either of the video games, see Sonic The Hedgehog (Genesis) or Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear). For the protein, see Sonic hedgehog.

Sonic the Hedgehog is the flagship character and mascot for the video and arcade game company Sega, which has released a series of video games in which he appears. Sonic was competing head-to-head with Nintendo's mascot Mario for over a decade until Sega left the console market. His games are now on various other consoles.

Sonic replaced Alex Kidd, who was Sega's mascot prior to 1990. Naoto Ohshima designed the character while Yuji Naka (who would later become head of the Sonic Team division) was the main programmer. The "game planner" was Hirokazu Yasuhara. The music of the first two Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Megadrive and Genesis was composed by Masato Nakamura of the Japanese band Dreams Come True.

Sonic was an early example of the "obscure anthropomorphic animal starring in a platform game" character archetype that was later seen in characters such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Blinx and Sly Cooper.

Sonic is a blue, 16-year-old hedgehog who lives on the Pacific Ocean (some American and European cartoons, comics, books and the English game manuals state that his home is the planet Mobius). He has the ability to run at supersonic speeds, hence his name. American sources often claim that Sonic's favourite food are chili dogs. In early artwork, Sonic had no visible irises; with the revamp he received for Sonic Adventure they were shown to be green, though his eyes are visibly red when he is in his "Super Sonic" form and in motion in earlier games.

His blue pigmentation has never been explained in the games. However, it was explained in an issue of gaming magazine GamePro as being the result of getting caught in an explosion involving cobalt, but this is likely not canonical. An alternative explanation was given in a promotional comic for the original game featured in Disney Adventures, which was later elaborated upon in Mike Pattenden's Stay Sonic, a book about the character published only in the UK. This later became the basic origin for all subsequent UK publications, and is covered in detail below.

Sonic is well known for his various abilities, however, none more so than his claim to the title of 'fastest creature on the planet'. One ability that he's had since the beginning is his rolling jump (also known as the "Kaiten Jump" or "Super Sonic Spin Attack"), which allows him to attack any enemy simply by jumping or rolling into it. The Spin-Dash introduced in Sonic 2 allows Sonic to accelerate quickly from a stopped position.

Sonic sinks in water and will drown in a short amount of time, even as Super Sonic (but not "Hyper Sonic"). In Sonic 3, a water shield allows Sonic to breathe underwater. In more recent games, landing in water is the equivalent of instant death.

In later installments of the series, his abilities include the Homing Attack, in which he propels himself towards the nearest enemy while jumping, and the Light Speed Dash, which allows him to run along a path of rings at light speed, even through the air. Three of his newest abilites, gained in Sonic Heroes, are the Rocket Accel, which allows Sonic to bounce off his teammates to accelerate (and can have the same effect as the Blue Tornado if done correctly), the Flying Kick, and the Blue Tornado, which sweeps enemies off their feet and is used to spin up poles.

File:Sonicrosesamy.jpg

In the video games, Amy Rose (also mistakenly called Princess Sally in the American Sonic CD instruction manual) believes she is Sonic's girlfriend. Although Sonic far from dislikes Amy, he is still quite repelled by her constant advances. However, in the anime series Sonic X, there is a mutual vibe between the two characters. In the SatAM cartoon, Sonic's love interest is Princess Sally Acorn. The Adventures of Sonic the hedgehog cartoon features a girlfriend named Breezie Hedgehog, while the Archie comics series featuring Sonic includes both Sally Acorn and Mina Mongoose and also contains Amy Rose and her repelling ways.

Sonic apparently has no relatives in the games or Sonic X. In several of the other continuities, however, Sonic does have family members, ranging from his parents and uncle from the Archie Comics version, his mother and siblings from Sonic Underground, to his uncle from SatAM.

• One of a class of genes involved in fruit fly embryonic development, called hedgehog genes, has been named "sonic hedgehog" after the character.
• The official US release date of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (November 24 1992) was dubbed "Sonic 2's day" as a pun on the fact that it was a Tuesday.
• Sonic was the first video game character to be seen in a Rose Parade in 1996.
• Sonic is also incredibly popular with the fangaming community, with possibly more fanmade games than any other video game star.
• When Sonic was just two years old, he had already surpassed Nintendo's Mario in popularity according to a June 1993 Q-Survey in Gameplayer's magazine.
  • His overwhelming popularity still rivals that of Mario's.

In all games after Sonic Adventure, Sonic is voiced by either Jun'ichi Kanemaru or Ryan Drummond. In the TV shows, he is voiced by five different actors (specific to each show): Jaleel White, Masami Kikuchi, Martin Burke, Jun'ichi Kanemaru and Jason Griffith.

Due to the many differences between universes, Sonic's history and world varies greatly. These are some of the backstories.

The player knows very little about Sonic's past; he was supposedly born on Christmas Island and has frequently visited South Island. In addition, he and Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik have a fierce rivalry. Beyond that, though, his past is a mystery. Sonic is something of a nomad; he travels from area to area of the Earth searching for new things to see and do, rarely stopping for anything or anyone unless he's needed, often times getting himself involved in stopping Eggman's schemes to take over the world.

The origin of Sonic's blue colouration and super speed was first featured in a promotional comic strip in the US Disney Adventures comic and later described in more detail in Mike Pattenden's Stay Sonic book. It was used in most subsequent UK publications (including Sonic the Comic and the "Martin Adams" series of Sonic novels published by Virgin). Although Stay Sonic and the others were official Sega books, it should not be taken as canon for anything else; neither the video games themselves nor their translated manuals make any mention of it, and since the Sonic Adventure games the Japanese backstories seem to have been officially adopted by all the regional divisions of Sega. This background has therefore not been officially in use since Sonic the Comic ended in 2002.

Sonic was originally an ordinary brown hedgehog with few remarkable qualities. But one day, he accidentally burrowed his way into the secret underground lab of Doctor Ovi Kintobor, a kindly scientist who wanted to make the world a true paradise by removing all evil from it using a machine he called the Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor. This device used many thousands of gold rings to transfer evil energy into six magnificent "Chaos Emeralds". Of course, Sonic found that a laudable goal, and helped Kintobor by searching Mobius for the seventh and final emerald that was required to completely stabilise all the negative energy contained in the other Chaos Emeralds. Kintobor also helped Sonic to increase his speed using a treadmill and special red shoes he designed himself. Sonic eventually ran so fast that he broke the sound barrier, the resultant shockwave fusing his quills together and turning his body cobalt blue.

Sonic failed to find the seventh emerald, but Kintobor apparently deduced a way to complete the transfer of the chaotic energy to the six emeralds without it. Before initiating the process, the pair planned to eat - but upon opening the fridge, they found it to contain only one rotten egg. Holding it in his hand and distracted by its smell, Kintobor walked back over to the ROCC, only to trip on a cable and fall, his hand slamming into the ROCC control panel. The machine overloaded and exploded, bathing Kintobor - and the egg - in chaos energy, and scattering the golden rings that comprised it across the planet. Doctor Ovi Kintobor had been transformed into the evil Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

Sonic the Comic's version is identical to the former US/UK Version, but it also later featured a story involving time travel that revealed that Sonic himself was responsible for Kintobor's accident. His foes, the Brotherhood of Metallix, had travelled back and removed the rotten egg from the fridge, preventing Robotnik from being created and leaving them free to dominate the planet. In order to prevent this future, Sonic had to replace the egg and pull the cable that tripped Kintobor - thereby making himself responsible for the creation of his greatest enemy (again).

The Archie comic series offers a Sonic universe very similar to the SatAM Cartoon version. The Freedom Fighters struggle to overthrow Dr. Robotnik and restore the soveriegn Kingdom of Acorn. Their hidden base of operations is Knothole Village, located deep in the Great Forest.

The Archie comic series offers another angle on the origins of the person who would become the dreaded Dr. Robotnik. On the planet Mobius, humans (known as "Overlanders") existed for a time in a state of hostilities with the anthropomorphic animal beings Sonic and his friends represented. Julian Ivo Kintobor and his nephew Snively fled from Overlander civilization after some transgression, and was subsequently taken in by King Acorn (Princess Sally Acorn's father) of Mobotropolis. Julian became an important advisor to the King, but ultimately staged a coup (with the help of his nephew, Collin Kintobor, Jr., known better as Snively) in which he seized power and renamed both himself (to Ivo Robotnik, Robotnik being a reversal of Kintobor) and the once beautiful city (to Robotropolis), capital of his near world-spanning empire.

Eventually, in issue 50, Sonic and his rebel friends finally succeeded in killing Dr. Robotnik and freeing Mobius from his tyrranical reign. They restored King Acorn to the throne, but in the process were forced to contend with a sorcerer named Ixis Naugus, who was formerly an advisor to the king's father.

Eventually, in issue 75, it was revealed that Robo-Robotnik, an alter-ego from another reality, had been plaguing Mobius with artificial satellites. After being defeated aboard a space station, he transferred his digital consciousness into another robotic body, reborn as Dr. Eggman. He attacked the newly restored Mobotropolis and forced everyone in the kingdom to take refuge in Knothole Village, the original headquarters of Sonic and his friends while fighting the original Robotnik. Since, he has been the main foe, although others (such as Shadow the Hedgehog) have made an appearance. It is still unknown to us if Shadow is a villain, since he has been involved in many controversial battles with Sonic, and his friends. As the comic progresses we discover more about Sonic's present, and future life. In a special series of comics set 25 years into the future, we see Sonic eventually becoming King of Mobius, but at the same time having a bad relationship with his previously good friend Knuckles the Echidna, whose right eye he blew off after thinking he was going to harm others around him with his chaos powers, which he somehow got back.

The Sonic comic does not hesitate to put others in the main light of the story. Examples are: Tails learning that he is the chosen one from Knuckles' Great-Grandfather, Athair, Shadow investigating his true origins after having many confusing memories in issue 145 and previous issues, Lara-su (Knuckles' daughter) going back in time to prevent her father's first death and a few others. It has also recently been implied in issue 148 that the original Robotnik might have had a relationship with Ivan Kintobor, who was born on Earth on June 6, 2006 and has been held in stasis ever since. He was heralded as a great scientist, but after using and killing an alien from another planet in an experiment, that planet's civilization asked the Xorda to use a Gene Bomb on Earth, with the intention of killing all of the humans. This destructive bomb killed around 98% of the humans on Earth and also accelerated the evolution of the animal kingdom, which formed its own civilization under the kingdom of Acorn many millennia later, after Robotnik came and the Freedom Fighters had fought against him. Yet Sonic is always there somewhere in the spotlight, to support or save his friends from dangerous forces.

In addition to Sonic's tale, Archie comics also has an extensive backstory concerning Knuckles. In these comics, Knuckles faces off against foes such as the insurmountable Enerjak and the evil Dark Legion. He also discovers his heritage, and struggles to control his growing Chaos powers. This is also the only series to feature Echidnas besides Knuckles, Tikal and her tribe, or Athair from Sonic Underground.

The premise of the games revolves around Doctor Eggman (Doctor Ivo Robotnik in the earlier releases in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) trying to take over the world by turning the animals into robots (often called Badniks, though this is an US/EUR term and hasn't been used since Sonic Adventure). Sonic is charged with saving them. In later games he is joined by Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Cream the Rabbit and a host of other characters. He usually collects the Chaos Emeralds (usually from the Special Stages) in order to become his most powerful form, Super Sonic. In this state, he is completely immune to all enemies and obstacles (although he can still be killed by falling into pits, being crushed and drowning), gains the ability of flight in certain circumstances, and the unique skill of breathing in space. However, Sonic's quest does not necessitate collecting the Emeralds himself; he must only prevent Eggman from getting them and dooming the world with their power, as well as deal with numerous other foes, such as Metal Sonic (Mecha Sonic), Void, Fang the Sniper (formerly Nack the Weasel in the West, still Nack in the comic books). Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat generally oppose Sonic, but will assist him if the situation calls for it.

Most Sonic titles are platform games viewed from a side-on perspective. Their controls are basic and do not deviate much from the genre standard; the USP of the series is the sheer speed of the playable characters, who usually have the ability to run on slopes, walls, and even ceilings. Roller coaster-like loops and corkscrews are also common in Sonic games, as are giant pinball machines with flippers and bumpers which knock sonic around like a ball. The stages are also similar to roller coasters in that many sequences involve Sonic being thrown along pre-set paths with little input from the player, which has led to criticism that the player can complete a Sonic game merely by holding the pad in one direction. However, the games also feature numerous sections involving precise jumping between platforms and avoiding of hazards, although these sections do not require "pixel-perfect" judgement and are perhaps more lenient than most platform games of the era.

In order to progress through his missions, Sonic must collect rings to protect himself from enemy robots and traps; as long as he has at least one ring he is invulnerable to dangers, although he will lose all of them if an attack does get through. Most Sonic games allow him to recover many of these scattered rings during a brief "invulnerable" period. However, rings do not protect against all hazards: he can still drown, be crushed or fall to his death. In line with many platform games, collecting 100 of these common collectables will reward Sonic with an extra life.

Often a certain number of rings (usually 50) are required to access the Special Stages, where the Chaos Emeralds required to fully defeat Eggman and achieve the games' "good endings" can be earned. Special Stages usually take place in surreal environments and feature alternate gameplay mechanics to the standard platforming of the main levels: the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog consisted of a giant rotating maze (which many considered a major technical achievement); the 8-bit versions favoured a spring-filled environment; Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 3D featured "in your face" segments with the hedgehog running along a long tunnel; Sonic 3 and Knuckles used the same perspective but had Sonic collecting all the blue-coloured orbs on the surface of a giant sphere; and Sonic Heroes is the same as Sonic The Hedgehog 2 except that the tunnel is afull transparent tube and bubbles are collected instead of rings. Sonic Chaos (Sonic and Tails in Japan) featured a variety of gimmicks for its levels. However, in the later Sonic Adventure titles, the Special Stages were omitted and Chaos Emeralds were collected in non-interactive cut-scenes as part of the story.

Since the 16-bit version of Sonic 2, Sonic has had the ability to transform into the extremely fast and invulnerable Super Sonic once all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected. (Sonic 3 and Knuckles, with its greater emerald count, featured an even more powerful form known as Hyper Sonic.) After that, Super Sonic can be used in any of the following levels once 50 rings have been collected, although one ring is lost for every second Sonic remains in this form. Again, this was changed for the Adventure series, where Super Sonic only appeared in the climactic final boss fights, much to the dismay of many fans, who appreciated the additional replay value offered by retrying the game's early levels with Super Sonic's additional abilities.

A few Sonic games focus on gameplay styles other than the standard side-on 2D platforming, including isometric platforming (Sonic 3D), racing (Sonic Drift, Sonic R), board gaming (Sonic Shuffle) 3D with a 3D card ("Sonic Heroes") and even educational gaming.

The music of the Sonic series is considered one of its strongest aspects. Sonic games have featured tunes composed by a variety of people; Masato Nakamura of J-pop band Dreams Come True was responsible for the music of the first two 16-bit games. Ys/Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro composed the music for the first 8-bit title, barring what was taken from the Genesis title. Sega's in-house music company, Wave Master, did the majority of the music in later titles. One Wave Master employee, Jun Senoue, is part of the band Crush 40, and through his ties to the band they have played the main theme tunes of the two Sonic Adventure games, Sonic Heroes, and the upcoming Shadow the Hedgehog game. Heroes also featured other bands, such as Julien-K. Richard Jacques, a frequent composer of music for Sega's games, contributed to the soundtracks of Sonic R and the Saturn/PC version of Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island.

File:SonicXSTH.jpg

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (AoStH, US) - Sonic voiced by Jaleel White, Robotnik voiced by Long John Baldry
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM, US) - Sonic voiced by Jaleel White), Robotnik voiced by Jim Cummings
• Sonic Underground (US, France) - Sonic voiced by Jaleel White
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Anime, Japan) - Sonic voiced by Masami Kikuchi and Martin Burke
• Sonic X (Anime, Japan) - Sonic voiced by Jun'ichi Kanemaru and Jason Griffith

Others

• A short cameo appearance in Marge Be Not Proud, a Christmas episode of The Simpsons. Voiced by Dan Castallaneta

Comic books

• Sonic the Hedgehog (Shogakukan, Japan)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics, US)
• Sonic the Comic (Fleetway, UK)

Sonic fan-made dōjinshi have also been released in Japan.

Game books

A series of six Sonic Adventures gamebooks were published in the UK by Puffin:

• Book 1 - Metal City Mayhem, James Wallis
• Book 2 - Zone Rangers, James Wallis
• Book 3 - Sonic v Zonik, Nigel Gross and Jon Sutherland
• Book 4 - The Zone Zapper, Nigel Gross and Jon Sutherland
• Book 5 - Theme Park Panic, Marc Gascoigne and Jonathan Green
• Book 6 - Stormin' Sonic, Marc Gascoigne and Jonathan Green

Novels

• Stay Sonic, Mike Pattenden. Developed the "Kintobor origin" (first introduced in the Disney Adventures comic) in more detail. This background was used as the basis of most subsequent UK Sonic stories.

James Wallis, Marc Gascoigne and Carl Sargent (under the pseudonym of Martin Adams) wrote four Sonic the Hedgehog novels based on the origin established in Stay Sonic. They were published in the UK by Virgin Publishing.

• Book 1 - Sonic the Hedgehog in Robotnik's Laboratory
• Book 2 - Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension
• Book 3 - Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors
• Book 4 - Sonic the Hedgehog in Castle Robotnik

Michael Teitelbaum also wrote a series of Sonic novels:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Robotnik's Revenge
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Fortress of Fear
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Friend or Foe?
• Sonic & Knuckles
• Sonic X-Treme

Others

• Where's Sonic? Using a similar idea to the Where's Wally? / Where's Waldo? books, each page presented the reader with a different puzzle, each one inspired by a different level from Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis / Sega Megadrive. Published by Ladybird Books Ltd.
• Where's Sonic Now?

• List of games featuring Sonic the Hedgehog
• Anthropomorphic Superheroes

• Sonic Central - Official Occidental website.
• Sonic Channel - Official Japanese website.
• The Green Hill Zone - A website dedicated to chronicling every Sonic game designed to date. This was previously a website devoted to general Sonic Team.
• Sonic Verse team - A website dedecated to sonic fanfics/comics. It also has a very good roleplaying section on it's forum.
• Shadow of a Hedgehog - General fansite
• Sonic Classic Cooperative - An online hub of Sonic fans, news, articles and information.
• Sonic the Hedgehog Information Treasury - The first Sonic community-driven MediaWiki, now with over 900 articles!
• Sonic the Hedgehog Wiki - A wiki on Sonic the Hedgehog, run on MediaWiki software
• Sonic CulT - A Sonic game research site.

True Blue Sonic - A Sonic website currently under construction, but contains lots of content on Sonic games.

• Simon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta Page - Game research site, focusing on Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Megadrive/Genesis)
• Sonic Stuff Research Group - Research site including guides.
• Sonicology - Mainly a game research site
• Sonic Stadium - A popular fansite.
• The Sonic Center - Time attack competition for the series
• Sonic Fan Games HQ - A site containing downloadable Sonic the Hedgehog fangames and tutorials about how doing them.
• Sonic Team Speaks - Interviews with Sonic Team and Sega staff over the years.
• The Sonic Art Archive - High resolution artwork.
• The Sonic Foundation - Abandoned since 2003. Contains pictures, fan art, fan fiction, articles and news.
• TSFM Radio - An online radio station playing music from Sonic games old and new.
• SEGA SONIC Radio - Another online radio featuring music from Sonic and other Sonic Team games.
• The Sonic Zone - Popular Sonic fansite with game information and resources.
• Spacecolony ARK - Sonic fansite with mainly game information, screenshots and lots of video clips.
• Fans United for SatAM - A SatAM only fansite devoted to all things Sonic and SatAM.