We look back at over 25 years of Hedgehog highs and lows.
Until Sonic The Hedgehog debuted on the SEGA Genesis, a fat plumber somewhat inexplicably served as the game industry’s most recognizable icon. All of that changed when gamers saw SEGA’s blue blur careening off springs, zipping through loops and wagging his finger disapprovingly at people still playing “baby games” on Super Nintendo.
After several failed mascots (Alex Kidd, we hardly knew ye!) SEGA scored a major hit with Sonic, and he has remained the company’s spokes-hedgehog for nearly three decades, appearing in dozens of titles across SEGA platforms. Even after the failure of the Dreamcast, Sonic endured, finding new life on Microsoft, Sony and even — gasp — Nintendo consoles. After the most recent reveal of Sonic in the upcoming live-action film, we thought we’d take a look at this Visual History of the blue hedgehog to celebrate over 25 years of ramps, rings and Robotnik.
Sonic The Hedgehog comes out in 2019, hitting theaters on November 8th in the US, November 28th in Australia and December 26th in the UK.
Michael Koczwara is IGN’s Weekend Web Producer, follow him on Twitter and YouTube. Samuel Claiborn is IGN’s Managing Editor, follow him @Samuel_IGN on Twitter.
