Sonic the Hedgehog: a 30-Year Retrospective

November 2021 marks a milestone anniversary for four games in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, which has been mostly developed by Sega-owned studio Sonic Team. Everyone’s* favourite mascot has been spinning around our screens since 1991, accompanied by a gradually increasing pool of allies and enemies, and in an ever-increasing array of environments. Today, we’ll cover the anniversary games in chronological release order, as well as some of the overall progression of the winner of “World’s Bestest Blue Spiky Boi” award.
*may or may not include plumbers of the Italian variety.

Sonic first hit screens in October 1990 in Japan, in the game Rad Mobile. “Wait just a second,” I hear you say. “Sonic surely appeared first in his own game, Sonic the Hedgehog!” Well, today you have learned something! Sonic the Hedgehog released in June 1991; to be fair to you though, his appearance in Rad Mobile was limited to being a simple decorative ornament.

Sonic the Hedgehog was released on the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive; it was also subsequently re-released for the Sega Master System later that same year, with a simpler engine that the 8-bit console could support. Both versions have Sonic collecting the Chaos Emeralds and thwarting Doctor Robotnik’s attempts to take over the world, a theme that continues to be the basic case for almost every entry in the franchise to date. Another theme that has persisted is the collection of gold rings, which serve as both a counter towards extra lives as well as one-time protection from damage.

The next couple of games introduced new allies and enemies. The most prominent in the early games were Miles “Tails” Prower, an orange two-tailed fox who can fly for a limited time by spinning his tails like a helicopter; and Knuckles the Echidna, a red echidna (shocker, I know) with spiky fists who can glide and likes to punch things. Knuckles starts off as the designated guardian of the Emeralds and is tricked by Robotnik into thinking Sonic is the main threat, and as such is an antagonist to begin with; when he learns the truth however, he and Sonic form a friendship, albeit one still fuelled by some rivalry.

Sonic 3D: Flickies’ Island: 25th Anniversary (Release date 7th November 1996)

Also known as Sonic 3D Blast outside of Japan and Europe, this entry sees Sonic go off on a mission to save the Flickies — bird creatures that have been enslaved by Doctor Robotnik. Despite the name, it isn’t a truly 3D game as you might expect; rather, it has an isometric perspective similar to those of ARPG games such as Diablo and Torchlight. It retains the core gameplay elements of platforming as the previous Sonic games, but whilst also adding a simple objective to each level beyond simply reaching the end; in this case, that objective is freeing all of the Flickies within the level and safely delivering them to the goal. The Chaos Emeralds make their customary appearance in this game, and collecting all of them will allow Sonic to fight the true final boss and get the good ending.

Developed mostly by British studio Traveller’s Tales, Flickies’ Island performed reasonably well, particularly for being such a departure from the previous games camera-wise. It was also the last Sonic game to be released on the Mega Drive, although it was later released on the Sega Saturn as well after the cancellation of Sonic X-treme.

In 1998, a true attempt was made at a 3D game, X-treme having been well and truly written off by this point. With the Saturn’s overall failure as a console, focus moved to the newer Sega Dreamcast, and the end game result was Sonic Adventure. With a main storyline, multiple new and returning characters (also each with their own motivations and stories), and a new villain under the control of Doctor Robotnik — now going by the nickname Doctor Eggman to match his Japanese name — known as Chaos, Adventure received high praise for the direction it helped the Sonic franchise to take thereafter. Three years later, Sonic Adventure 2 was released, introducing more new characters and an opportunity to play as primo bad guy Eggman himself. Whilst Adventure 2 was also successful — albeit less so than Adventure — the franchise was unable to cover the poor performance of Sega’s console sales, and the company announced it would focus on third-party development of games rather than also being a console developer.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): 15th Anniversary (Release date 14th November 2006)

Commonly referred to as Sonic ’06 to easily identify which of the increasing number of Sonic the Hedgehog games was being talked about, this title was released as a commemoration of the Sonic series, as well as celebrating the then 15th anniversary of the original. Players control the hedgehogs Sonic and Shadow (from Adventure 2) as well as new ‘hog from the future Silver, as they work against Eggman’s latest maniacal plan. This entry in the franchise took a stab at new genre types, including RPG-style town hubs. Each character has their own playstyle; Sonic is the classic speedy platformer, Shadow is more combat- and tech-oriented, whilst Silver focuses on his telekinesis and some puzzling. Each character can tackle the same levels as each other, although their different abilities means that all three experiences of a given level are different. Each hedgehog also has their own friend characters to help them out in certain situations.

Initially previewed to high acclaim, the game was ultimately a huge flop, with large numbers of issues noted by critics. The incredible disappointment of Sonic ’06 led to hard thought about the direction of Sonic’s future, and eventually led to Sega delisting several poorer-performing Sonic games from retailers.

Sonic Rivals: 15th Anniversary (Release date 16th November 2006)

Released exclusively on the PlayStation Portable, Sonic Rivals returns to the side-scrolling gameplay of the series’ early predecessors, only with a focus now on being a racing game. Each level is a race to the finish line against one of the other characters — that is, your rival for that level. The available characters one can choose to play as are the three hedgehogs from Sonic ’06 along with Knuckles, although gameplay is exactly the same for all of them. As ever, Eggman is up to no good, having now found a way to imprison people and objects inside cards using a particularly nefarious camera; before the gameplay even begins, both Amy Rose (Sonic’s self-proclaimed girlfriend with appearances throughout many games so far) and the Master Emerald have been carded, and Tails is captured during the story’s early stages.

Developed by Backbone Entertainment, Rivals received mixed reviews, but was popular enough to spawn a sequel one year later, on the same platform.

The 15th Anniversary year was not a good one for the franchise; even outside of the huge let-down of Sonic ’06, none of the games performed particularly well. As a result, the popularity of Sonic and friends declined for a good few years, and although several attempts were made to revive it, nothing really had much impact. However, in 2010, Sonic Team got a new head man: Takashi Iizuka. Feeling that the reason Sonic was struggling was because it “lacked unified direction”, he decided to refocus once more on the most traditional aspects of the series; those of side-scrolling elements and fast-paced gameplay. Going back almost to square one, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 came into being, retracing the aspects of the first few games and even going back to be set just after the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sonic 4 was split into two different episodes — although a third was originally planned, it was later scrapped — and was met with generally positive (Episode I) to mixed (Episode II) reviews, at last marking an upwards turning point in Sonic’s popularity.

Sonic Generations: 10th Anniversary (Release date 1st November 2011)

Released to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary, Generations follows Sonic and Tails as they form an alliance with their past selves in order to save the world. It features two modes, symbolising classic Sonic with side-scrolling levels, and modern Sonic with 3D perspectives and expanded movesets. In a shocking twist, the story revolves around Eggman’s latest attempt to take over the world, with Sonic and Tails collecting the Chaos Emeralds as they work to stop him. Modern Sonic and Tails go to the past and meet their Classic selves, and form an alliance, thus representing the two sides of the gameplay. Each level represents an older game in the franchise; for example, Green Hill is the famous first level of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, whilst City Escape originates from Sonic Adventure 2. Many other characters, friends and foes alike, are encountered as the two pairs of heroes traverse time to stop the modern and classic Eggmen.

Generations performed reasonably well on release, and has continued to do well since.

There have been many Sonic projects since then, and Sega even teamed up with their former arch-rival Nintendo to bring the world’s bestest blue spiky boi to the Wii U and 3DS — and, perhaps surprisingly, to crossover endeavours including several Mario & Sonic games as well as the incredibly well-known Super Smash Bros. series. Not to mention, of course, further forays into the racing genre with Sonic & All-Stars Racing and Team Sonic Racing, as well as the highly-memed movie from 2020.

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is now 30 years old, and the anniversary celebrations are already in swing and are set to continue through to 2022; the freshly-dressed Sonic Colours: Ultimate released in September, and next year will see a compilation arriving in the form of Sonic Origins, as well as an all-new game titled Sonic Rangers.