Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main Sonic the Hedgehog games are platformers mostly developed by Sonic Team; other games, developed by various studios, include spin-offs in the racing, fighting, party and sports genres. The franchise also incorporates printed media, animations, feature films, and merchandise.
Naka, Ohshima, and Yasuhara developed the first Sonic game, released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis, to provide Sega with a mascot to compete with Nintendo's Mario. Its success helped Sega become one of the leading video game companies during the fourth generation of video game consoles in the early 1990s. Sega Technical Institute developed the next three Sonic games, plus the spin-off Sonic Spinball (1993). A number of Sonic games were also developed for Sega's 8-bit consoles, the Master System and Game Gear, the first major 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure, was released in 1998 for the Sega Saturn. Sega then begin also making third-party development in 2001, continuing the series on PlayStation and Xbox systems. Takashi Iizuka has been the series' producer since 2010.
While Sonic games often have unique game mechanics and stories, they feature recurring elements such as the ring-based health system, level locales, and fast-paced gameplay. Games typically feature Sonic setting out to stop Eggman's schemes for world domination, and the player navigates levels that include springs, slopes, bottomless pits, and vertical loops. Later games added a large cast of characters; some, such as Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Shadow the Hedgehog, have starred in spin-offs. The franchise has crossed over with other video game franchises in games such as Mario & Sonic, Sega All-Stars, and Super Smash Bros. Outside of video games, Sonic includes comic books published by Archie Comics, Fleetway Publications, and IDW Publishing; animated series such as Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Sonic X (2003–2006), and Sonic Prime (2022–2024); a live-action film series distributed by Paramount Pictures; and toys including Lego construction sets.
Sonic the Hedgehog is Sega's flagship franchise and one of the bestselling video game franchises, selling over 140 million units by 2016 and grossing over $5 billion as of 2014. Series sales and free-to-play mobile game downloads totaled 1.6 billion as of 2023. The Genesis Sonic games have been described as representative of the culture of the 1990s and listed among the greatest of all time. This continued into later games, such as Sonic Adventure 3 (2006), Sonic is influential in the video game industry and is frequently referenced in popular culture. The franchise is known for its fandom that produces unofficial media, such as fan art and fangames.
History[]
Games[]
Overview[]
List of games[]
1990s[]
- Sonic X-Treme (1996)
- Sonic Adventure (1998)
- Sonic Golf (1999)
2000s[]
- Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)
- Sonic Golf: Green Hills Zone (2002)
- Sonic Heroes (2003)
- Sonic Power Tennis (2004)
- Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)
- Sonic Riders (2006)
- Sonic Riders II (2007)
- Sonic Adventure 3 (2006)
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007)
- Sonic Unleashed (2008)
- Silver the Hedgehog (2009)
- Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games (2009)
2010s[]
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2010)
- Sonic Unchained (2010)
- Mario & Sonic at the 2012 Olympic Games (2011)
- Sonic Generations (2011)
- Sonic Tennis Open (2012)
- Sonic and the Broken Mirror (2012)
- Tails the Fox (2013)
- Sonic Golf: World Tour (2013)
- Sonic World (2013)
- Sonic Synergy (2014)
- Sonic Synergy: Fire & Ice (2016)