Sonic the Hedgehog first appeared in 1991, in Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog. Created by Yuji Naka and
Naoto Ohshima who were artists assigned to the task of creating Sega's Next Big Thing as opposition
against Nintendo's pudgy plumber, Mario. The idea was to create an instantly likable and controllable
character . Naka and Ohshima came up with Sonic the Hedgehog, who used gymnastics and the spikes
of his body to destroy enemy robots and free the animals trapped inside them. Naka and Ohshima
formed Sonic Team, the development team of the Sonic games. And when you first see Sonic in his
waiting animation, you know he is cool.

In this first game, Sonic begins the ever-going battle against Doctor Ivo Robotnik, who is the dominate
villain throughout the whole series of Sonic games. On American release in June 1991 on the Sega
Genesis, Sonic The Hedgehog was well received and exceeded expected sales.

Fans found Sonic The Hedgehog to easy. But their cries were silenced with the release of Sonic The
Hedgehog 2. This was a true history making game having a worldwide release date, which was in
November 1992 on the Sega Genesis. It had a split-screen two player mode, bigger and more levels,
more vivid colors, and a new character.

His name was Miles "Tails" Prower and he was a two tailed fox that used his disfigurement to fly.
In this game, you could also play as Tails. Plus, the Chaos Emeralds you collect through the game
actually do something. When all seven are collected Sonic can turn into Super Sonic, a yellow,
superfast, and invincible version of Sonic.

Sonic The Hedgehog CD released onto the Sega CD. Being the first Sonic game on a CD-Rom, there
were more longer levels. With a soundtrack that beats the Sonic games of that time, some fans
say that Sonic CD has one of best game soundtracks ever. Featuring an animated opening intro with
music. A new concept was given to this game that pervious games could never handle, time travel. This
game featured parts of the game where you can change the future of a level, thus each level has four
different versions, past, present, bad future, and good future. Also, two new characters first appear in
this game, Amy Rose and Metal Sonic. Amy Rose is a pink hedgehog tries to capture Sonic's heart but
ends up getting captured by Dr. Robotnik.

Metal Sonic is the robotic counterpart of Sonic and proves to be a worthy opponent to him.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 was released Groundhog's Day in February 3,1994, thus dubbed Hedgehog's
Day. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is one of the most beautiful 16-bit games ever. Having big colorful levels,
each with different themed environments. In this game, players were given the ability to make Tails fly!
This was unavailable in the pervious game featuring Tails. Once again, Sonic and Tails are after the the
Chaos Emeralds but this time, a new character works against them in this quest. This character was
Knuckles the Echidna.

Sonic & Knuckles was released in November 1994. This game was not a sequel to Sonic The
Hedgehog 3 but a continuation of it. Sonic & Knuckles allowed you to play as both Sonic and
Knuckles. Each character having a different course throughout the level, the gamplay was great. The
most amazing feature of this game was the Lock-on feature in which the top of the Sonic & Knuckles
cartridge would open up and allow you to insert other games. With this Lock-on feature, players could
insert Sonic The Hedgehog 2 or Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and play each game in a different way.
Connected with Sonic The Hedgehog 2 enabled you to play as Knuckles in Sonic The Hedgehog 2.

Connected with Sonic The Hedgehog 3 combined both games, thus creating the game with over 16 huge
levels, 3 playable characters each with their own signature moves, and 14 Chaos Emeralds to collect!
This game was dubbed Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

After Sonic & Knuckles, it was a bad time for Sonic and company. On the Sega Saturn, only three
Sonic games hit the system and two of them were great. Sonic Jam was a compilation of Sonic The
Hedgehog 1 through 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Sonic Jam also had extras, like a 3D romp through
a history lesson about Sonic, which featured audio and visual media. This media was the music
throughout the game and Sonic movies, such as the Sonic The Hedgehog CD opening and closing,
Japanese Commercials, a Sonic Anime trailer, and a Sonic Animated Short. Then, there was Sonic
R. It was a Sonic 3D racing game. Featuring 5 3D race tracks, 10 playable characters (most secret),
and an excellent soundtrack.

A few years later, the Sega Dreamcast is released on September 9 , 1999. And with it is a new
Sonic game. This one is different from the others. For one it is Sonic's first 3D platform and it
revived Sonic fan's faith in Sonic Team. This game was Sonic Adventure! Sonic Adventure
featured 6 playable character, each with different controls and objectives, an A-Life system,
huge fully 3D colorful dynamic levels, and an awesome story.

In this game, Sonic Team made changes to the appearances of the characters. For one, the
characters were given eye color. Two, the characters' hair styles changed. And three,
they spoke. The new characters included, Big the Cat, E-102 Gamma, Tikal the Echidna,
and Chaos, the God of Destruction. Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma were playable. Big
the Cat is a large overweight cat that is out to rescue his friend, Froggy the Frog. E-102
"Gamma" is a robot created by Dr. Robotnik but he turns against his programming and
joins the quest for good. Tikal the Echidna and Chaos, the God of Destruction are unplayable
characters and are important to the story. Tikal is a ghost from the past that gives the playable
characters visions from the past. Chaos is a water creature that is teamed up with Dr. Robotnik
to get all the Chaos Emeralds. Once, Dr. Robotnik has an Emeralds he feeds it to Chaos and
Chaos evolves into a more powerful creature. Sonic Adventure has sold millions of copies and
today is considered to be the best Sonic game ever.

In June of 2001 on the day the first Sonic The Hedgehog was released, Sonic Adventure 2 was released.
Sonic Adventure 2 celebrated the tenth anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic Adventure 2 was complete with two new characters, new character moves, a better A-Life system,
and a 2 player mode. One of the most noticeable things about Sonic Adventure 2 was the gameplay.

Sonic had a new grinding move which allowed him to slide on rails. Tails piloted a robotic vehicle
and had gameplay like E-102 Gamma's from Sonic Adventure 1. Knuckles had the same gameplay
from the last game, except he had the ability to swim this time. In Sonic Adventure 2, you could not
only play as the heroes, but also the villains. Each villain acts as a mirrored rival to the heroes, thus a
villain's gameplay was the same as his hero counterpart. Dr. Robotnik acted as Tails' rival and for the
first time in a platform game, Dr. Robotnik is a playable character.

New characters were Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat. Shadow the Hedgehog
acted as Sonic's rival. Shadow steals Chaos Emeralds from the bank and the military
mistakes him for Sonic, thus the military captures Sonic. Rouge the Bat acts as Knuckles'
rival. Rouge is a jewel thief who secretly works for the President as a spy to get information
from Shadow and Dr. Robotnik.

Now that Sega quit in the hardware business, Sonic is on other systems now. His first game
to be on another system is Sonic Advance. This Nintendo Game Boy Advance game goes
back to the 2D roots. It features 4 characters and big long colorful levels. Each character
features appearances and moves from the Sonic Adventure series. Also, Sonic Advance
has a small A-Life system.

And so, the fast rhythmic beat of Sonic the Hedgehog continues. Being on other game systems now,
Sonic can go further than ever before. With 10 years under his belt, it is very possible he will be
around for 10 more years.

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