Sonic the Hedgehog (series)

Not to be confused with Sonic the Hedgehog, the main character of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a franchise of video games released by Sega starring their mascot character Sonic the Hedgehog. The series began in 1991 with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Mega Drive. Sonic the Hedgehog was also released for the Master System and Game Gear formats. Sonic was responsible for turning Sega into a leading video game company during early in the 16-bit era, and his first game soon replaced Altered Beast as the default pack-in game for the Genesis in North America and Europe.[1] games such as Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World and Sonic Frontiers only fearure sonic as the playable character. As of September 2009, the franchise has sold more than 50 million units.[2]

Games in the series are developed by Sonic Team, with the exception of some spinoffs that were independently developed by Sega of America. The main programmer for the first game was Yuji Naka, who would later become head of the Sonic Team division, and the game planner was Hirokazu Yasuhara. The music of the first two Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Mega Drive/Genesis were composed by Masato Nakamura of the Japanese band Dreams Come True.

Overview
Nearly all games in the series[3] feature a 15 years old hedgehog named Sonic as the central player character and protagonist. The games feature Sonic's attempts to save his planet from various threats, primarily the evil genius Dr. Ivo Robotnik, presently referred to on occasion as Dr. Eggman. The main antagonist throughout the series, Robotnik's aim is to rule the planet and establish Robotnikland;[4] to achieve this, he usually attempts to eliminate Sonic and acquire the powerful Chaos Emeralds.

History
Most two dimensional Sonic titles are platform games viewed from a side-on perspective. Their controls are fairly basic and do not deviate much from the genre standard; the selling point of the series is the incredible speed of the playable characters, who usually have the ability to run uphill, 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" judgment and are perhaps more lenient than most platform games of the era. Three-dimensional Sonic titles feature more free movement, and controls are slightly more advanced.

The Sega Technical Institute tried to develop a "true" Sonic game for the Saturn called Sonic X-treme. This game was intended to compete with Nintendo's Super Mario 64. However, due to time constraints and issues between STI and the Japanese division of Sega and Sonic Team, the project was canceled in the last months of 1996.

Sonic 3D Blast, an isometric, pseudo-3D ("2.5D") game, was released for the Mega Drive in 1996. Sega Saturn and Windows PC conversions followed to cover the hole of the cancellation of Sonic X-treme. They had enhanced graphics and a different sound track, composed by Richard Jacques. Sonic 3D was developed by Traveler's Tales, although Sonic Team worked on the Special Stages in the Saturn/PC version.

In 1997, a compilation entitled Sonic Jam was released for the Saturn. In addition to containing Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, it also included a "Sonic World" mode. This allowed the player to control Sonic in a small 3D world similar to the Green Hill Zone from the original game; it contained no enemies and was mainly a means of accessing the disc's multimedia features such as BGM's, illustrations and even commercials. Sonic being chased by a giant orca in Emerald Coast, as seen in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure DX: Director's CutAlthough Sonic R was the first 3D Sonic game, the full leap into 3D platforming was made with Sonic Adventure, a launch title for the Dreamcast console. On June 23, 2001, Sonic Adventure 2 was launched. Both of the Adventure titles were later ported to the Nintendo GameCube (under the titles of Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle) when Sega dropped out of the hardware market. DX was also ported to Windows PCs.

The first Sonic game to release simultaneously on multiple consoles, Sonic Heroes, was released on the GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox in December 2003 in Japan, with American and European releases following soon after, and a PC version the following November. The platforming was largely similar to that of the Adventure titles, although the player now controlled the lead character of a team of three themed characters, with the other two following closely behind. The player could switch to a new leader at any time, in order to make use of each character's special skills. It sold well, but opinions among both reviewers and fans of the Sonic series were mixed.

Shadow the Hedgehog was also had mixed views. Released in the US in November 2005, it received mixed reviews from reviewers such as X-Play, for instance, who had given it a 1 out of 5, making it the lowest-scoring Sonic game reviewed on the show. Other game sites such as IGN and GameSpot similarly panned the game. One of the greatest controversies revolving around this game is the gunplay; some fans insisted that Shadow was the self-proclaimed "ultimate life-form" and did not need a weapon. Nintendo Power and Gametrailers, however, both rated it above 8 out of 10, praising the replay value. Two other controversies were the over-use of minor profanity and the fact that Sega had decided to switch to the voice artists from the English version of Sonic X.

A highly faithful two-part port of Sonic the Hedgehog made for mobile phones has been a huge hit in Europe, introducing the game to a new generation of pre-teen gamers, with respected handheld specialist Pocket Gamer awarding Sonic the Hedgehog Part Two a 9 out of 10 review score.[5]

Other gameplay styles
A few Sonic games focus on gameplay styles other than the standard platforming. The first of these was Sonic Spinball (released on the Mega Drive in 1993 and on the Master System and Game Gear in 1994). The concept of Sonic bouncing around as the ball in a giant pinball table had been used in both Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2; Sonic Spinball was designed around that premise.

Several racing games starring Sonic characters have been developed. In Sonic Drift and Sonic Drift 2, characters drive go-karts (kart circuits were later included in the two Sonic Adventure games). In Sonic R, most characters ran on foot (with Eggman riding his Eggmobile and Amy driving a car), while in the Sonic Riders series, they race on hoverboards.

Sonic Shuffle was a Mario Party-style virtual board game/party game for the Sega Dreamcast.

Edutainment video games starring Sonic and Tails have also been released, such as Sonic the Hedgehog Gameworld and Tails and the Music Maker for the Sega Pico, and the PC title Sonic's Schoolhouse.

A fighting game named Sonic the Fighters existed as an arcade game, and later a fighting/platform game hybrid called Sonic Battle was released for the Game Boy Advance.

In 1993, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was released for the Sega Mega Drive. The game was a clone the Japanese puzzle game Puyo Puyo. This game was also ported to the Game Gear.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood brought Sonic into the world of RPGs for the first time, mixing turn-based combat and story telling with traditional Sonic elements.

Music
The music of the Sonic series is considered one of the aspects that make the series popular. 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 16-bit title. Sega's in-house music company, Wavemaster, 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 Shadow the Hedgehog (video game). Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog 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.

Games

 * See also Sonic games

Characters

 * See also Sonic characters

Since Sonic's first appearance in 1991, many more characters have appeared, and most of them have been added to main cast. Many of these characters have garnered steady fanbases since their inclusion into the franchise, while other longtime fans have criticized them for allegedly taking the gameplay focus off Sonic.

Regional variations
To create distinctive Sonic products in various markets, Sega initially developed two different back-stories for the instruction booklets; the Japanese version (which is considered the "true" canon by most fans), and the version for all other regions, which was the version built upon by the comics, cartoons, and other media. (This version was retconned in 1999, when Sonic Adventure came out, which continued the Japanese storyline in all regions.)

Differences between regional storylines include the setting of the game (while the non-Japanese version had the game set on a fictional planet called Mobius, the Japanese version had the games set on Earth from the very beginning), as well as Dr. Eggman's name, which was Dr. Robotnik in the American version. (Although now, Robotnik is his official last name while Eggman is a nickname made up by Sonic and his friends for him which he has since adopted and is hardly ever referred to as Robotnik anymore).

Spin-offs
The Sonic video game franchise has led to a large number of spin-offs starring Sonic. Each spin-off incorporates aspects from the games to varying degrees.

Animations
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (or AoStH for short) is an American animated television series that was first broadcast in September, 1993, and has been running in cartoon syndication ever since. It follows the escapades of Sonic and Tails as they stop the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his array of vicious robots from taking over the planet Mobius. The plots very loosely followed the storyline of the video games series; at the time the Sonic games were still quite new, and lacking much plot or character development, which was in turn filled in by the show's writers.

The animated television series simply called Sonic the Hedgehog originally aired from September 1993 to June 1995. While Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is known for its bright colors and whimsical humor, Sonic the Hedgehog featured darker stories which constituted a departure from the tone of the Sonic games of the time. To distinguish between the two series, fans typically refer to this series as SatAM because it was a Saturday morning cartoon while Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog aired on weekdays in syndication, and using the show's full title would cause confusion in many situations because the show's title is the same as the character's name.

A two-episode OVA film series based upon the game Sonic CD and the video game series as a whole, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie was made in Japan in 1996 and released as a dub in North America in 2000. Unlike the games, the film takes place on a world named Planet Freedom that, as with many anime series, appears to be a crossbreed of a fairytale land and Earth. At the time of its creation, the anime did not differ as far from official canon as it does today; at this point, it could be considered to take place in an a different continuity than the games, just like other versions of Sonic from other media.

The cartoon Sonic Underground ran for only one season, 1998 to 1999; it bears little relation to other entries featuring Sonic (including previous games, comics and animated series), and shares few established characters. 65 episodes were originally produced, and of those, only 40 were released. Unlike its predecessor, SatAM, the heroes do not remain in a sanctuary-like refuge but instead travel around Mobius to battle Robotnik's forces on a global scale. The Mobian civilization featured in the series includes multiple cities, a poor underclass and an aristocracy for the heroes to interact with. Sonic Underground is the only animated series based on Sonic where Tails has not made an appearance.

The anime Sonic X is the longest-running and most successful animated series based on Sonic to date. Originally planned as a 52 episode series that would be inspired by the story lines of the Sonic Adventure series, Sonic X has now expanded to 78 episodes with the latest 26 episodes set primarily in outer space.

Comics
The Sonic the Hedgehog manga series, published in Shogakukan's Shogaku Yonensei (literally "fourth-year student") was written by Kenji Terada and it was illustrated by Sango Norimoto. The manga, which started in 1992, was about a hedgehog boy named Nicky who can turn into Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic fights Dr. Robotnik, with Tails tagging along to help him.

Sonic the Comic, known to its many readers as STC, was a UK children's comic published by Fleetway Editions between 1993 and 2002. Although it was the UK's official Sega comic, Sonic the Comic established its identity and ongoing storyline and setting when Sonic, Tails and their friends were sent forward in time six months. During their absence, Doctor Robotnik successfully conquered the entire planet of Mobius, and Sonic's group were forced underground, operating as "freedom fighters" attempting to bring down Robotnik's rule of the planet. Due to an aggressive series of budget cuts on the part of Fleetway, the series went into full reprint by issue 184; the final story ended with a number of loose ends left untied. An online fan based comic, called STC-Online, has been set up to continue the STC story starting from where the original STC story left off and beginning with issue 224, due to STC being reprints from issues 185 to 223. It has received positive feedback from both fans and writers of the original STC.

Sonic the Hedgehog is an ongoing series of American comic books published by Archie Comics. All of Archie's Sonic-related series, miniseries and specials take place in the same fictional universe. This universe features a mixture of characters, settings and situations from the video games, the SatAM cartoon, the various other incarnations of Sonic, and many elements unique to the comic universe. The current status quo of the comic deals with a full-scale war between the Eggman Empire, ruled by Robotnik, and the restored Kingdom of Acorn, currently ruled by King Elias Acorn.

Sonic X is the title of an ongoing comic book series that exists to supplement the stories from the animated series of the same name. It began in September 2005 and was originally meant to be a four-part series; due to the positive reaction to the series' announcement, it was extended to ongoing status before the first issue premiered. The comic is unique in that it is not directly based on the games; the comic is based on the television show and takes place in its expanded fictional universe. The comic borrows elements from the series first two seasons of the show, including Eggman's fort, destroyed in Season One on the cartoon, and characters from the Sonic Adventure storyline.