The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a franchise of video games released by Sega starring and named after its mascot character Sonic the Hedgehog. The series began in 1991 with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, in addition to an 8-bit version of the game for the Master System and Game Gear formats. Sonic was responsible for turning Sega into a leading video game company during the 16-bit era, and his first game soon replaced Altered Beast as the default pack-in game for the Mega Drive in North America and Europe.^[1] As of March 2007, the franchise has sold more than 45 million copies of its individual games.

The Sega division responsible for the first game in the series was called Sonic Team, and the group has since developed many titles in the franchise. Prominent members of its initial staff included programmer Yuji Naka, designer Naoto Ohshima and game planner Hirokazu Yasuhara. Other developers of Sonic games have included Sega Technical Institute, Dimps, BioWare, and Traveller's Tales.

Overview

Nearly all games in the series^[2] feature a teenage hedgehog named "Sonic the Hedgehog" 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 "Eggman" Robotnik. The main antagonist throughout the series, Robotnik's aim is to rule the Earth and establish the Eggman Empire;^[3] to achieve this, he usually attempts to eliminate Sonic and acquire the powerful Chaos Emeralds. Many English-language Sonic products give Sonic's home as a fictional planet called Mobius, although this is believed to stem from a mistranslated interview with Yuji Naka mentioning the use of Möbius strips in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.^[4]

1991 - 1994

The original four main Sonic titles for the Mega Drive/Genesis, released between 1991 and 1994, were Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. These 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 high-speed gameplay. The series' game engines allow characters to run up walls and ceilings, and roller coaster-like loops and corkscrews are common, 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 more precise jumping to traverse platforms and avoid hazards.

In 1993, the spin-off game Sonic CD was released on the Mega Drive/Genesis add-on device, the Sega Mega-CD. In 1996 the game was ported to PC CD-ROM.

1996 - 2001

The Sega Technical Institute tried to develop a Sonic game for the Saturn called Sonic X-treme. This game was intended to compete with Nintendo's Super Mario 64 and Sony's Crash Bandicoot. 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: Flickies' Island, 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 Traveller'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 2, Sonic 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.

The full leap into 3D platforming was made with Sonic Adventure, a launch title for the Sega Dreamcast console. This was also the first game in the series to feature voice-acting. On 19 June 2001 in North America (23 June in Japan and Europe; the 10th anniversary of the US release of Sonic the Hedgehog), Sonic Adventure 2 was launched. In late 2001, first being released in Japan, then in Europe and America in early 2002, Sonic Adventure 2 was ported to the Nintendo GameCube under the title of (Sonic Adventure 2: Battle). Sega dropped out of the hardware market in 2001 making Sonic Adventure 2 the last Sonic game to be released on a Sega video game console.

2003 - present

In 2003 Sonic Adventure was ported to the Nintendo GameCube and Windows PC under the title of (Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut), featuring some enhancements to the Dreamcast version. The first multiplatform game in the Sonic series, Sonic Heroes, was released on the GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox on December 30 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 that character's special skills.

In 2005, the Sonic series was given a star on the Walk of Game. That same year, Sega released Shadow the Hedgehog. It is the first game in the series that utilizes weapons as a part of the core gameplay.

In November 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog, the first Sonic game for the seventh console generation, was released for the Xbox 360, with a PlayStation 3 version in January 2007. Soon after, in spring of 2007, Sonic and the Secret Rings, the first Sonic game to feature only Sonic as a playable character since Sonic 3D, was released for the Wii.

In November 2007 Sonic was teamed with Nintendo's rival mascot Mario for a co-branded game licensed for the Beijing Olympic Games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Characters

List of all game characters from Sonic the Hedgehog

Common features

Rings

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One distinctive and recurring feature of Sonic games are the collectible golden Rings (sometimes referred to as Power Rings) spread throughout the levels. This gameplay device allows players possessing at least one ring to survive upon sustaining damage from an enemy or hazardous object. Instead of dying, the player's rings are scattered; in most Sonic games, a hit will cause the player to lose all of his rings, although in certain situations and in certain games, a hit only costs a set number of rings rather than the entire collection.

Some causes of death cannot be prevented by holding a ring, including being crushed, falling into a bottomless pit, and drowning.

In line with many platform games, collecting 100 rings will usually reward Sonic with an extra life. Certain titles in the series often reward the collection of other quantities of rings, often in conjunction with the Chaos Emeralds; usually, at least fifty Rings are required to access the Special Stages in which the Chaos Emerald's may be obtained, or to utilize a character's super transformation.

Emeralds

The Chaos Emeralds are seven emeralds with mystical powers, and a recurring feature of Sonic games. They are the basis of most of the games' plots, and the player is frequently required to collect them all in order to fully defeat Eggman and achieve the games' "good endings", super forms, or both. The method used to acquire the Emeralds differs between titles in the series. Most early games require the player to find the emeralds in Special Stages. In some games, such as Sonic R and the 8-bit versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the emeralds can be found in hidden locations within the main levels. In most later games, the Chaos Emeralds are found by the characters throughout the games' story modes, and do not need to be "found" by the player.

The Master Emerald resides in a shrine on Angel Island and is guarded by Knuckles the Echidna; it contains an unknown amount of power, possibly equal to or greater than all seven Chaos Emeralds, and is used to keep the Angel Island afloat in the sky. In Sonic Adventure, the Master Emerald is shattered, and Knuckles must collect the shards as part of his individual story. The Emerald also has the power to fully control everything that the Chaos Emeralds do, including the ability to negate the energy of the Chaos Emeralds, as seen in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, or empower them, as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. The Master Emerald can also be used to power mechanical devices, and has been coveted by Dr. Eggman since his discovery of it. During Knuckles' final boss fight in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Mecha Sonic powers up using the Master Emerald into a Super form.

Special Stages

Usually, a Chaos Emerald may be earned in a Special Stage or Special Zone. 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);^[5] Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3-D Blast, Sonic Heroes and Sonic Rush featured "in your face" segments with the hedgehog running along a long tunnel, with a variant of this used for Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic Advance, and Sonic Advance 3; 3-D "collect items" levels, as in Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, which used the same perspective but had Sonic collecting all the blue-colored orbs on the surface of a giant sphere, and a different version, the 3-D ring-collecting Special Stage, used in Sonic Advance 2. Sonic Chaos (Sonic and Tails in Japan) utilized a variety of gimmicks for its levels.

Some Sonic titles include Special Stages, but not as a means of collecting Chaos Emeralds. As the Emeralds of the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog were hidden in the main stages, the game's spring-filled Special Stages were merely used as a means of adding variety, and for a player to increase their score. Similarly, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, in addition to their main Special Stages, featured entirely optional bonus stages, one of which combined the rotating maze of the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog with the pinball gambling of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic Heroes had an alternate Special Stage for earning lots of 1-ups.

Just as the design of the Special Stages has changed, so has the means of accessing them. In Sonic 1, the player needed 50 Rings to reveal and jump through a Giant Rings by the end of the stage, Sonic 2 required the player to touch a Star Post with 50 Rings, and Sonic 3 had Giant Rings hidden throughout the stages. Most games have radically different ways to access the stages.

Super Transformation

Super transformations are a staple for the series where collecting all Chaos Emeralds allows the character to transform into a more powerful version of himself or herself. Super transformations made their first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Since then, Sonic has had the ability to transform into the extremely fast and nearly invulnerable Super Sonic once all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected. After attaining all Emeralds, 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. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Heroes, Tails and Knuckles were also shown to have this ability.

In the Sonic Adventure titles, the Special Stages were omitted entirely and Chaos Emeralds were collected in non-interactive cut-scenes as part of the story, with Super Sonic and other super characters only appearing in the final boss fights. Despite several games since returning to the emerald-collecting of the 2D platform titles (including the Advance series, Heroes, and Rush), Super Sonic has remained unplayable in the games proper, appearing only at game's end in an extra zone. Other characters including Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat are shown to have super transformations, but as with Sonic, they only appear in final battles. Additionally, Sonic can transform in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as his Final Smash.

Item Boxes

Item Boxes are containers that hold power-ups and appear frequently in the games. An icon on each box indicates what it contains, and the player releases the item by destroying the box. In the early games, item boxes resembled television sets and could only be destroyed with an attack; in later titles they became transparent, capsule-like objects easily destroyed with one touch. The most common items in boxes include rings, a barrier (or shield), invincibility, high speed (or power sneakers) and 1-ups.

Ring boxes give the player the number of rings shown on the box. They come in 5, 10, 15, 20 and randomly-determined amounts between 1 and 40 Ring varieties. In games prior to Sonic Adventure, these boxes were known as "Super Ring" and always gave 10 Rings.

The barrier is a spherical energy shield which surrounds and protects the player's character from one attack; when hit, the barrier is lost instead of rings or a life. In Sonic 3 and later games, additional barriers were introduced which give the player special abilities for as long as the shield is active. These include the ability to magnetically attract rings or breathe underwater.

Invincibility temporarily covers the player character in small flashing stars that protect against damage done by enemies and obstacles, and lets the player destroy enemies by touching them. Typically, the game's background music is replaced by a game-specific "invincibility theme" for the duration of the invincibility.

High speed boxes give the player character enhanced speed for a limited time. In the earlier games, the background music increases in tempo for the duration of the power up, while in later games a jingle plays during the speed-up.

1-up boxes display the face of the player's character and give the player one extra life. This lets the player restart the level either at the starting point, or, if one has been passed, by the last checkpoint in the event the player loses on a stage. Multiple lives can be collected, generally up to 99.

Item boxes are generally overlooked in Sonic fiction, save for the UK Fleetway continuity - the guidebook Stay Sonic explains that they were part of a worldwide communications network set up by Doctor Kintobor, to gather information on the location of the Chaos Emeralds.

Giant Rings

So-called "Giant Rings" were hidden in the stages and designed to be jumped through, which would transport the character to a Special Stage, where they could collect one of the Chaos Emeralds or, in certain circumstances, Super Emeralds. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, if all the Emeralds had already been found, these rings could be collected for fifty rings each, allowing the characters to easily tap into the power of the Chaos Emeralds (usually becoming Super, or Hyper in Sonic 3 & Knuckles if the player has collected all the Super Emeralds as well). In most of the newer games since Sonic Adventure 2, these giant rings have been renamed Goal Rings and have taken the place of the old signposts as the end level marker, which ends the level upon touching it.

Checkpoints

Checkpoints, originally called Lamp Posts and Star Posts, are items placed throughout the stages in Sonic games. If the player runs through one, their game is "saved", and if the player dies on the same stage, they will start over at the last checkpoint passed, although one life is lost and all score points are reset. Checkpoints also serve other uses in various games, such as entering Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 3, and leveling up in Sonic Heroes.

Goals

Levels in most 2D Sonic games are referred to as "Zones", each of which is split into one or more smaller "Acts". The far end of each minor Act is marked by a sign post showing the face of Dr. Eggman, and passing this causes it to spin round and display a different image, such as the face of the player's chosen character. Upon defeating the boss at the end of each Zone, the player is presented with a large capsule containing small animals imprisoned by Eggman; hitting a button on the cage will free the animals and clear that Zone. This basic concept of two types of goals is present in most 2D Sonic games, although some use variations such as rewarding the player depending on which picture is finally shown on the spinning sign post.

Sonic Adventure continued the trend of having a cage filled with animals as the ultimate goal in each level, although more recent Sonic games from Sonic Adventure 2 have a goal ring at the end of each act, which ends the stage when touched and gives the player a rank based on their time and score.

Springs

Through every game springs are found throughout the map. They will catapult the player at high speeds in a certain direction. They are mostly used to allow the player to proceed but some are used to hinder the player, by either sending them back towards a dangerous area or by creating a loop between to springs. Some are also hidden and are used to access special areas with either a powerup, a cache of powerups, or to access special stages. Hidden ones may also send the player on an alternate route, which is normally shorter but more difficult than the main route. Springs also serve as Sonic's Special Jump move in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Music

Numerous composers have worked on the music of games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. 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 tunes for the first 8-bit title, barring what was retained from the 16-bit version.

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 both of the Sonic Adventure games, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog. Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog also featured other bands, such as Julien-K. For the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, Senoue and Crush 40 performed a remix of "All Hail Shadow" to play as Shadow the Hedgehog's theme for the game.

Richard Jacques, a frequent composer of music for Sega games, contributed to the soundtracks of Sonic R and the Saturn/PC version of Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island. Runblebee has done songs for Sonic games such as Sonic Riders, the title theme and the Babylon theme, and the Sonic and the Secret Rings main theme, "Seven Rings In Hand".

Cartoons and comics

Animations

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (or AoStH for short) is an American animated television series that was first broadcast in September 1993, and ran in cartoon syndication for a number of years afterwards. 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. In order to distinguish this cartoon from the character and video games with which it shares a name, fans typically refer to the series as SatAM, because it was a Saturday morning cartoon while Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog aired on weekdays in syndication.

A two-episode OVA series based upon the game Sonic CD and the video game series as a whole, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie was released in Japan in 1996 and released as an English 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.

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. Forty episodes were produced and released.^[6] 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 a 52 episode series that would be inspired by the storylines of the Sonic Adventure series, Sonic X has since expanded to 78 episodes with the latest 26 episodes set primarily in outer space. The series borrows more from the games than any other Sonic cartoon before it; with the exception of Blaze the Cat, E-123 Omega, Babylon Rogues, Silver the Hedgehog, and Metal Sonic, every significant and playable video game character has made an appearance in the series. Sonic X is also the only animated series to include Super Sonic.

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 Eggman, with Tails tagging along to help him.

Sonic the Comic, was a UK children's comic published by Fleetway Editions between 1993 and 2002. Labelled "The UK's official Sega comic", Sonic the Comic was one of few pieces of Sonic fiction to faithfully replicate the world of the 16-bit era video games: elements and terms from the games such as zones, rings, item boxes and star posts were incorporated into the comic. The publication's own identity and ongoing storyline and setting were established with a story in which Sonic, Tails and their friends were sent forward in time six months. During their absence, Doctor Robotnik conquered the entire planet 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.

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.

Sonic X is the title of an ongoing comic book series also published by Archie Comics 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 and characters from the Sonic Adventure storyline.

References

External links

Official

• Sonic Central Official American website
• Sonic City Official Europe website
• Sonic Channel Official Japanese website

Commercial

• Sonic the Hedgehog series at MobyGames
• GameSpot: The History of Sonic
• Gaming Target: Sonic: A History - From South Island to Cosmic Eternity

Template:Sonic characters (other media)