When you think of Sega, your mind instantly goes to Sonic the Hedgehog, with th⛎e character quickly developing himself into the mascot of the brand in a simil🥃ar way to how Mario worked for Nintendo.
Since the original game, Sonic has gone from strength to strength with countꦏless games and merchandise and now even his own movie (eventually) being released, the entire world knows about the character.
However, the success of the entire franchise is all down to the original Sonic the Hedgehog video game, which was released back in 1991, and within 🌠this article, we will list 10 things about the original game that you may not be aware of.
Updated March 24th, 2020 by Stephen LaGioia: With Sonic Mania bringing us back to the glory days of the Genesis, along with the recent release of the hit film, the blue hedgehog is taking off and gathering momentum once again. Thus, now would seem like a fitting time to update our list with some juicy Sonic 1 facts, especially since there are so many to choose from. So let's hit the ground running and dive right in!
15 Dr. Robotnik's Odd History 🐟
As 🌌it happens, the odd design of Dr. Robotnik can partly be traced back to Sega's decision to blend 2 🎃distinct designs. This can be traced back to a call by Sega in 1990 to their research and development team to conceptualize what they hoped would be the "Mario killer."
One of these designs sported a look that was meant to resemble Theodore Roosevelt in pajamas. The other concept - which was actually a final contender in being the Sega hero rather than Sonic - was an egg-like character. The result was a blend of the 2, featuring a round man sporting a large early 20🌱th-century mustache.
14 Blue
When you think about Sonic as a character, it is impossible to think of him in any other color than blue, despite the fact that no real-life hedgehogs are that col🐟or in real life, with Sega making that decision themselves.
The company had faith in the character and the game to be a big hit ൩and knowing that he was going to become the mascot of the game, the company pushed to ensure that he woಞuld be blue.
The reason for that was because Sega wanted ꦫthe mascot of the company to have the same color as its logo, which makes sense, and therefore blue was the only color they h🏅ad to pick.
13 ♉ Sonic Wasn't The Original "Mario🌜 Killer" For Sega
Sonic managed to strike a nerve with older kids and teenagers who sought to "go fast" in a somewhat edgier, more exciting platformer. Before this though, there was Sega's less-inspiring "Alex Kidd," a monkey-like martial artist who was meant to displace Nintendo's plumber mascot as the platforming icon.
The handful of Alex Kidd titles for the Master System and Genesis received a decent reception and moderate success. Still, it was nothing compared to the sonic-boom of Sega's faster, flashier Sonic games that burst onto the scene a few y𝔍ears later.
12 ꦦ The Curious Case Of 8-Bit Sonic 𝕴
Though Sega flaunted Sonic as the flashy new manifestation of platforming in the 16-bit realm, there did exist a tamer 8-bit version. In fact, the property was handed off to a studio called Ancient for this rendition. This would be the final game made for Sega's Master System, and was also released for the handheld Game Gear. It's additionally made appearances on various Sonic compilations and Nintendo's Virtual Console.
The game received mixed reviews for its slower, simpler gameplay and short length, though it contained much of that same Sonic 1 vibe. Its premise and gameplay were largely the same, with recycled themes and stages liဣke Green Hil🐎l Zone.
Yet, it also had some original content, along with a different musical composer. Vertical lo♋ops were ditched in favor of a focus on exploration, ꧋and Sonic couldn't re-collect rings once he's lost them.
11 👍 Propelled Sega To Success Over Nintendo In 1991
Though Nintendo's SNES eventually topped the Genesis, the "little hedgehog that could" reignited Genesis sales in late '91. Not only did it have a successful Christmas that year, but it managed to move twice the amount of systems the SNES had that season. By January of '91, Sonic had helped Gene💞👍sis reach 65% of the market for 16-bit machines.
This was significant in that it marked the first time since the early days of the NES in the W⛄est (December '85) which the Big N was not top dog.
10 Took Months Of Hard Work And 19 Ho𒁃ur Work Days
Though it may not sound like much in an era where modern software can take years to crank out, a game taking several months to develop was far from standard 30 years ago. A trio of game developers for Sega had spent many months developing the original Sonic, and worked heavily for 19 hours a day on this ambitious project.
Given the relatively new technology at the time, extensive testing and redesign was needed, which also took over 6 months. Its sheer speed, and many of its effects, were truly pushing t🍌he Genesis to its limits.
The team even wanted to add a two-player mode, but the limitations in proꦉgramming knowl🏅edge and technology at the time didn't permit it.
9 ꦛ Whﷺy He Can't Swim
Sonic the Hedgehog not swimming is just something that everybody has accepted and un𒆙derstood, after all, he is a made-up video game character. Howevཧer, when you think about the animal he is portraying, a hedgehog can actually swim.
However, one of the game's original programmers, Yuki Naka (more on him later), wrongly presumed that hedgehogs cannot swim, when in reality, the animal is moreཧ than capable in the water.
While a hedgehog isn't goi🃏ng to be speeding around in the water anytime soon, they can actually swim, so the fact that Sonic doesn't is a strange one.
8 15 Million ✱ ♔
That is the number of copies that the original Sonic the Hedgehog ended up selling over time, with of the game finding their w🌱ay into people's homes, helping this become an instant hit.
This is the main reason that Sonic ended up becoming Sega's mascot as the game was just so popular, with the character being beloved by those who played the game, helping to establish it as somet💜hing everyone should experience.
This remains one of Sega's most popular title🐈s of all time, which shows just how popular the game was, with Sonic breakiꦆng down barriers to be an instant hit.
7 🤡 Pop Art Was Use🔜d
The Sonic the Hedgehog video game has a very unique and distinct look and feel, and one of the reasons for that is the illustrations used pop art as a reference for the color scheme🌃 and design of the game.
Pop art is an incredibly popular and vibrant form of art, and illustrator, E🦩izin Suzuki, in particular, was used as a reference, trying to get the game design as similar to pop art as they possibly could.
That is why Sonic is so brightly colored and vibrant with lots to see and do, and that i🌳s one of the reasons that the game was so popular in the first place.
6 Dr Eggꦅman/Robo▨tnik Name Changes
When any video game is created, choosing the character names isn't an easy decision as once they are made official there is no turning back, and while the names of the characters in Sonic may now be iconic, at one point Sega was🍎 not 🧸convinced by many.
While Dr Ivo Robotnik is a name all gamers are very familiar with, that wasn't the original name, with Sega's U.S. and Japanese headquarters strug🉐gling to ag❀ree on a universal moniker for him.
In Japan, Robotnik was known as Dr Eggman, which𝔍 created some confusion, with American gamers knowing him as Dr. Ivo Robotnik ins🍸tead, with other names such as Badwrench and Bad Year being floated around.