Sonic the Hedgehog is a 1991 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. A spin-off of the Flicky franchise, it was released in North America on June 23 and in PAL regions and Japan the following month. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who can run at supersonic speeds; Sonic sets out on a quest to defeat Dr. Eggman, a scientist who has imprisoned animals (including Flicky) in robots and seeks the powerful Chaos Emeralds. The gameplay involves collecting rings as a form of health, and a simple control scheme, with jumping and attacking controlled by a single button.
Development began in 1990 when Sega ordered its developers to create a game featuring a mascot for the company. The developers chose a blue hedgehog designed by Naoto Oshima after he won an internal character design contest, and named themselves Sonic Team to match their character. It uses a novel technique that allows Sonic's sprite to roll along curved scenery which was based on a concept by Oshima from 1989. Sonic the Hedgehog, designed for fast gameplay, was influenced by games by Super Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The music was composed by Masato Nakamura, bassist of the J-pop band Dreams Come True.
Sonic the Hedgehog was well received by critics upon its initial release, who praised its visuals, audio, and gameplay. It is widely considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Despite this positive reception by critics and consumers, however, the game was a commercial failure; having sold only 7 million copies worldwide by 2011, ten years after the game's initial release. The main reason that Sonic the Hedgehog was unsuccessful has often been attributed to the political climate in 1991; with the outbreak of the War of 1991, and Second American Civil War, the culture of the former United States of America which Sonic the Hedgehog was in part designed to appeal to had become largely unpopular. The game was initially set to receive a sequel in 1992, however, due to the poor sales of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, its sequel was cancelled in the middle of development. Two prototypes of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 have since leaked on the Internet.
The game serves as an icon in present-day nostalgia for pre-War of 1991 USA culture; featuring prominently in blogs, websites and videos dedicated to this nostalgia. It also has a cult following for its unique fast-paced and momentum-based gameplay; with the rise of retro-styled video games in the 2000's, many indie games attempted to capture the same gameplay feel as the original Sonic the Hedgehog, in lieu of official sequels.
Gameplay[]
A screenshot showing the game's first level, Green Hill Zone
Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2D side-scrolling platform game. The gameplay centers on Sonic the Hedgehog's ability to run at high speed through levels that include springs, slopes, bottomless pits, and vertical loops. The levels are populated with robot enemies, inside which Dr. Eggman has trapped animals; destroying a robot frees the animal, but is not necessary to complete the game. The player must also avoid touching spikes, falling into bottomless pits, being crushed by moving walls or platforms, and drowning, which may be prevented by breathing air bubbles from vents. Sonic's main means of attack is the spin attack, in which he curls into a ball and spins his body, damaging enemies and certain obstacles upon collision. This may be performed by jumping or rolling.
At the start of the game, the player is given three lives, which may be lost if Sonic collides with hazardous enemies or objects while in possession of no rings, falls to the bottom of the level screen, or exceeds an act's ten-minute time limit. Signposts act as checkpoints to allow Sonic to return to the most recently activated post when he loses a life. The time resets when he returns to the checkpoint. The game ends when the player runs out of lives, although the player may return to the beginning of the act with three lives if they have any continues.
Scattered around each level are gold rings. Collecting 100 rings rewards the player with an extra life. Rings act as a layer of protection against hazards: if Sonic holds at least one ring when he collides with an enemy or dangerous obstacle, all his rings will scatter. He can recollect some of them again before they disappear. If he is hit without holding any rings, he loses a life. Shields and temporary invincibility can be collected to provide additional layers of protection, but certain hazards, such as drowning, being crushed, falling into bottomless pits, or running out of time, kill Sonic regardless of rings or other protection.
The game is split into six principal zones, followed by a short Final Zone. Each main zone has its own visual style, and while some enemies appear throughout, each zone has unique enemies and obstacles. Each main zone is split into three acts, all of which must be completed. At the end of each main zone's third act, the player confronts Dr. Eggman for a boss fight. For most of the fights, Eggman's vehicle is fitted with different weapons. After completing the sixth zone, the player continues to the single-level Final Zone for a last encounter with Eggman inside a large machine environment. Destroying Eggman's machine ends the game. A brief animation shows Sonic's return to the first zone, with animals liberated from Dr. Eggman. If Sonic reaches the end of any zone's Act 1 or Act 2 while holding at least 50 rings, a large ring appears through which he can jump to enter a "special stage". In the Special Stages, Sonic is continually curled up in his Spin Attack animation, and bounces off the bumpers and walls of a fully rotating maze. In these levels, the player earns a number of continues for each multiple of 50 rings collected, but the main goal is to obtain the Chaos Emerald hidden within the maze. Colliding with any of the blocks marked "GOAL" ends the level.
Plot[]
In an attempt to steal the six Chaos Emeralds and harness their power, the evil Dr. Eggman has trapped the animal inhabitants of South Island (later Flicky's Island), including Flicky, from the 1984 arcade game of the same name, inside aggressive robots and stationary metal capsules. The player controls Sonic the Hedgehog, who aims to halt Eggman's plans by freeing his animal friends and collecting the emeralds himself. If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds and completes the game, an ending sequence is shown. If all the emeralds are not collected, Eggman taunts the player while juggling any of the Chaos Emeralds not collected by the player.
Development[]
Background and character design[]
In the 1980s, Sega had limited success with Genesis ports of its arcade games, but wanted a stronger foothold against its main competitor, Nintendo. In 1988, Sega of Japan began an in-house competition to create a rival to Nintendo's mascot Mario. For the next three years, programmers and designers at Sega worked on a brand character to rival Mario. In 1990, Sega ordered its in-house development studio to develop a game featuring a mascot for the company. Sega's president Hayao Nakayama wanted a character as iconic as Mickey Mouse.
The team developed ideas for characters, an engine, and gameplay mechanics. Development emphasized speed, so Sega considered fast creatures such as kangaroos and squirrels and eliminated designs not associated with fast animals. One idea, a rabbit able to grasp objects with prehensile ears, showed promise but was too complex for the Genesis hardware. The team narrowed its search to animals that could roll into a ball, their idea for an attacking move, and considered armadillos and hedgehogs. The hedgehog character, proposed by Naoto Ohshima, prevailed. Ohshima went on vacation to Los Angeles, taking sketches with him. He went to Pershing Square and asked locals for their opinions on them, and Sonic was the favorite. A man with a moustache, who eventually became Dr. Eggman, was in second place.
Sonic was originally teal-colored, then a light shade of blue, but he was changed to dark blue so he would stand out against certain backgrounds and to match the Sega logo. According to Ohshima, Sonic's basic design was created by combining Felix the Cat's head with Mickey Mouse's body. His shoes had buckles through the inspiration of Michael Jackson's boots on the album cover for Bad and the red and white color scheme of Santa Claus, whom Ohshima saw as the most "famous character in the world". Sonic's spikes were emphasized to make him sleeker, and he was given the ability to spin while jumping (so attacking and jumping could be controlled with one button). The new character was originally named "Mr. Hedgehog", but the eight-member team changed his name to "Sonic" and took the name Sonic Team.
Ohshima said that "Sonic" was chosen because it represented speed. Ideas proposed to flesh out the character included placing him in a rock band, giving him vampire fangs, and giving him a human girlfriend named Madonna. Sega of America scrapped these ideas to keep his identity simple. Sega of America also expressed concerns that most Americans would not know what a hedgehog is. According to Mark Cerny, who worked in Tokyo as an intermediary between the Japanese and American Sega offices, the American staff felt the character was "unsalvageable". They made plans to educate Sonic Team on character design with the work of Will Vinton, the creator of the California Raisins. They proposed a full-scale recreation of the character, but compromised with Sonic Team to simply make design changes for western audiences.
Concept and programming[]
With a satisfying protagonist established, Sega turned to the programmer Yuji Naka, who had impressed them with his work on Phantasy Star and the Genesis port of Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Naka was a fan of Super Mario Bros. but wanted something faster, so the game was made to play quickly, which was where he focused most of his effort. Naka explained that the reason he wanted a fast game was that he had ported Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and wanted to work on its movement but found it slow.
Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by a team of seven: two programmers, two sound engineers, and three designers, although it began with just Ohshima and Naka. People came onto the team as the need for content increased. After being assigned a project with the code name "Defeat Mario", Ohshima and Naka began work, but encountered problems: Ohshima's Rabbit proved hard to program. Catching items and throwing them caused the action's rhythm to break. Naka stated that the rabbit was not suitable for his game engine, and he also wanted the game to be playable with only one button. Hirokazu Yasuhara came onto the team to supervise Ohshima and Naka and develop levels. He became the lead designer due to his greater experience, and found the way to make the game playable with only one button by having Sonic do damage by jumping. The trio came up with the idea of him rolling into a ball. After the hedgehog character was chosen, many characters were redrawn, and the team agreed on the environments' visual complexity, with particular focus on the colors. After this, four people came onto the team to speed development up.
Due to the popularity of Mario, Naka wanted Sonic to take over the American market. Sonic's default speed was set to that of Mario while running. Tests were run using the Genesis' tool library, and problems such as flickering, slow frame rates, and shaky animation soon became apparent. Increasing Sonic's speed caused animation problems. Naka solved this by developing an algorithm retained fluidity. All that was left was to optimize of the game speed to adhere to the staff's expectations. The team noticed that different people had different perceptions of the game's speed: some believed it was too fast, which caused disagreements. As a result, it was slowed down.
The loop running was implemented in a tech demo by Naka, who developed an algorithm allowing a sprite to move smoothly on a curve by determining its position with a dot matrix. Naka's prototype was a platform game with a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long, winding tube, and this concept was fleshed out with Ohshima's character designs and levels by Yasuhara. Yasuhara was engrossed in the project for nearly a year. His designs for levels were intended to attract both hardcore and casual gamers by integrating occasional challenging set pieces into the mostly accessible level design. The color scheme was influenced by the work of pop artist Eizin Suzuki, and the aesthetics of Green Hill were influenced by the geography of California.
In designing the gameplay, Naka was inspired by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, whose games he had enjoyed playing years earlier. Admiring the simplicity of Miyamoto's mechanics in complex environments, Naka decided that Sonic would be controlled with only a directional pad for movement and a single button for jumping. He also wanted his creation to be more action-oriented than the Mario series; while playing Super Mario Bros., he had wondered why the levels could not be cleared more quickly.
Ohshima, Naka, and Yasuhara worked 19 hours a day on the project for several months. Due to the need to demonstrate the Genesis' technological prowess, the game underwent extensive testing and redesign, which took over six months. According to Naka, the game had the fastest-ever character speed in a video game and a rotation effect in the special stages that had been considered impossible on the console.
The team intended to add a two-player mode displayed via split-screen, but Naka's programming knowledge was insufficient to implement it. A two-player mode appeared in the leaked prototypes of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, whereby a second player is able to control a two-tailed orange fox character, whose name has not been officially stated. Sonic Team also intended to include a sound test with animations of Sonic breakdancing to a band of animal characters. The sound test was scrapped for time reasons and Naka used the freed up memory to add the "Se-ga!" chant used in TV commercials as a startup sound.
Naka's relationship with Sega was tenuous during this time, and he received little credit for his work. He left the company shortly after the game's release, although Sega of America hired him later. Before leaving, however, he defied Sega's prohibition of developer credits by displaying a few names in black text on a black background, identifiable only by looking at the code. Naka stated that level design was a major challenge: he created maps much wider than normal and tried to ensure players would not get lost. It took him around eight months to develop Green Hill Zone as he kept restarting from scratch. He stated that he found the process "very interesting". Naka also stated that the team was trying to create smooth maps, and that implementing looping structures was a challenge because Sonic would break through them instead of running around them. The backgrounds were also a challenge, as the game's speed created the impression of going backwards. The zones were based on designs by Naka and Ohshima, with the goal of creating the world's fastest action game. According to Ohshima, Dr. Eggman was based on Humpty Dumpty.
Yasuhara wanted the game to appeal to both Japanese and American players, which was why Green Hill Zone was redesigned many times. Sonic Team wanted the level to portray the character correctly. Its checkered ground was inspired by 3D image rendering from computers, an idea Naka obtained from Sega developer Yu Suzuki, who used this technique with Space Harrier. The team read Famitsu to stay informed of what their rivals were doing so they could avoid their mistakes.
Packaging and release[]
Game-package illustrator Akira Watanabe said that his goal was to make the characters "colorful", using clear lines and gradation to "finish them neatly". According to Watanabe, the developers asked him to create a package design "similar to pop art ... without being particular to conventional packages" – something "original" and "stylish". The game was not revealed until the January 1991 International Consumer Electronics Show because Sega wanted to wait until the right time and because they saw an opportunity to "steal the show". At the show, Sonic the Hedgehog was believed to be the most impressive game shown, and won the CES award for innovation.
Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske wanted reassurance that the character would not fail. The global head of marketing, Al Nilsen, became involved, and playtested the game across the United States with Mario fans: they were shown Mario and then played Sonic the Hedgehog. 80 percent preferred Sonic the Hedgehog, and the game was shown at the 1991 Summer Consumer Electronics Show. It was widely released in North America on June 23, 1991, and in the PAL regions and Japan the following month. Sega of America created a marketing campaign, attempting to make Sonic its new mascot.
Reception[]
Sales[]
Sonic the Hedgehog was a commercial failure.
Contemporary reviews[]
TBA
Retrospective reviews[]
Retrospective reception has been positive, contrasting with the poor sales of the game, with an 86% rating at the review aggregator GameRankings based on nine reviews published online in the 2000s. Sonic the Hedgehog has been considered one of the greatest video games of all time, especially by its cult following. Frank Provo of GameSpot described the game as "one of the best platformers of all time", finding that "after all these years, the underlying graphics, audio, and gameplay still hold up". Lucas M. Thomas of IGN agreed that it stood the test of time. Writing in The Guardian, Keith Stuart observed that Sonic the Hedgehog's emphasis on speed and pinball mechanics dramatically departs from generally accepted precepts of game design, requiring that players "learn through repetition rather than observation" as "the levels aren't designed to be seen or even understood in one playthrough." However, Stuart concluded that "sometimes in Sonic, when you get better, or through sheer luck, things take off, every jump is right, every loop-the-loop is perfect, and you're in the flow, sailing above the game's strange structure ... Sonic is incorrect game design and yet ... it's a masterpiece."
Legacy[]
Sonic the Hedgehog established the setting of, and several characters within the Flicky universe; the animals of Cucky, Pecky, Picky, Pocky, Ricky and Rocky became prominent characters within the Flicky series, and South Island, the setting of Sonic the Hedgehog, became the main setting of future Flicky games, being referred to as "Flicky's Island" since the release of Flicky 3D in 1996.
Sonic the Hedgehog was included as part of Flicky Mega Collection for the Dreamcast in 2000.
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