One day in the early 1990s, I came home from university for the weekend and found that my dad had bought himself a Sega Mega Drive, along with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Of course, I already knew about Sega’s mascot. When the original Sonic the Hedgehog game came out in 1991, it was a huge moment for the company. It really boosted sales of their 16-bit console in the West and took market share away from the dominant Super Nintendo. While Mario was the family favorite, Sonic—with his speed, attitude, and bold visual style—captured the edgy spirit of early 1990s MTV culture. That weekend, Dad and I spent almost all our time teaming up for long Sonic sessions. The game’s two-player mode let us play together, racing through those dense, beautiful levels.
Thirty-five years later, I’m still a Sonic fan. There have been plenty of rough patches (Sonic 06, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic Free Riders—sorry, I can’t go on), but there have been plenty of good times too (Rush, Mania, and Colors, and I have a soft spot for Sonic R, a racing game made by Traveller’s Tales, who later created the Lego games). Few people know this rollercoaster better than Takashi Iizuka, who worked on Sonic 3 as a designer and has been the series producer for almost 20 years. When he joined Sega in 1992, he wanted to work in the arcade division, but after playing the original Sonic—especially Sonic 2—he was won over.
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Speed, attitude, and bold visual energy … Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Photograph: Sega
“I do believe that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is one of the best of the classic series, and the introduction of two-player gaming helped make it so special,” he says. “The team had been thinking about a two-player mode for Sonic the Hedgehog that we weren’t able to include at the time, so achieving this in the sequel was vitally important. It was a challenge, because the development time for Sonic 2 was very tight; but Sega is always willing to try something new and take a risk, and it really paid off.”
In 1993, Iizuka moved to the Sega Technical Institute in California, a studio set up by industry veteran Mark Cerny (who would later design the PlayStation 4 and 5). There, he began the next phase of Sonic’s journey, starting with Sonic 3. “I knew almost nothing about countries outside Japan,” he says. “I still vividly remember being amazed by Sonic’s popularity when I arrived in the US. At the time, the TV animated series was airing, comic books were being published, and the franchise was regularly covered in newspaper articles. It was in that moment that I truly grasped the reality that a game created in Japan had captured the hearts of players around the world.”
Ivo Gerscovich, chief business and brand officer for Sonic the Hedgehog, sees this presence across different media as vitally important. “What’s perhaps most telling of Sonic’s cultural staying power is what we’ve accomplished beyond gaming,” he says. “The Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise has been extraordinary, collectively grossing more than $1bn at the global box office and introducing Sonic to an entirely new generation of fans […] Partnerships like our ongoing collaboration with McLaren Racing speak to the breadth of audiences that Sonic can connect with.”
I was too old to connect with the cartoons at the time, but when my sons were five and seven, they managed to find re-runs of the classic Sonic Underground cartoon on TV and were hooked—mostly by its crazed, over-dramatic pop punk theme tune. I took the opportunity to set up my dad’s Mega Drive so they could play Sonic 2 together. The fact that this happened 10 years after my dad’s death added a strange, sad poetry to the moment. It was my first real understanding of the fact that we pass our heroes down to our children, sometimes without meaning to, sometimes with strong intention.
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Fond memories … Sonic AdvIt’s hard now to explain just how big an impact Sonic had on the gaming world in the 90s. The game’s unique design—led by Naoto Ohshima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and programming genius Yuji Naka—was all about speed and impatience. Sonic was a bit of a rebel, crossing his arms and tapping his foot if you weren’t moving fast enough. Then came Sonic 2sday on 24 November 1992, which perfected the idea of a worldwide simultaneous game launch—a trick repeated a year later with Mortal Monday for the console release of Mortal Kombat. Both Sonic and Mortal Kombat really connected with teens who grew up on Animaniacs, WWE, and Green Day.
Gerscovich agrees that keeping Sonic’s sharp, defiant personality has been key. “At the heart of it is his strong, personality-driven identity, which has always been bigger than any single game or story,” he says. “Sonic has always stood for freedom and a bold attitude in the face of challenges, and that resonates across generations. That core DNA has stayed consistent even as we’ve grown the franchise.”
In the late 90s, Iizuka took creative charge of what might be the most important game in modernising Sonic: the brilliant, flawed, and ambitious Dreamcast open-world platformer Sonic Adventure. “Right after finishing Nights into Dreams, ‘Sonic RPG’ started forming in my mind,” he recalls. “The idea was a 3D action RPG where players would explore the world on foot, finding items and hidden paths along the way. That vision never quite came together, but it laid the groundwork for what became Sonic Adventure. Moving to 3D was necessary, but the biggest challenge was creating a system that let players run around comfortably in a 3D space, just like in the original games. I don’t think Sonic would have reached the success it did if we hadn’t brought his 3D world to life back then.”
His favourite part of that experience? Introducing the dark antagonist Shadow the Hedgehog. “I love seeing fans connect with Shadow and his more emotional backstory,” he says. “He’s basically the opposite of Sonic.”
Over the past 20 years, Sonic developers have had to balance respecting the original games with exploring new trends and tech—with mixed results. Iizuka loves Sonic Colors, Sonic Mania, and Sonic Forces; Gerscovich highlights Sonic Frontiers (“it brought an open-zone gameplay style that showed Sonic can evolve and meet modern gamers where they are”). What I’ve enjoyed is the sometimes experimental approach Sega has taken, which echoes the company’s scrappy underdog spirit: Sonic Mania was made by a small team of indie developers and turned out wonderfully, while The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was a visual novel inspired by Agatha Christie, released in 2023 as an April Fools’ joke. I can’t really see Nintendo temporarily killing off Mario just for a laugh.
Sonic, I think, is the ultimate gamer mascot—at least he was for my generation. When I worked on games magazines in the 90s, he was a natural cover star with his bright colours and sly smile, giving a thumbs up to the camera. He inspired the edgy vibe of the dedicated Sega mags back then—Sega Power, Mean Machines Sega, Sega Pro—and the design of the games themselves, with their twisty, demanding, and unforgiving levels, gave clearer inspiration to modern indie developers than Super Mario did, especially in the “masocore” platformer genre.
But I’d say that because I grew up with Sonic, I stuck with the games through good times and bad. Iizuka knows what I mean—I’ll lLeave the final words to him. “I’ve spent so much time with Sonic, and it’s been amazing to watch the franchise grow and expand,” he says. “Seeing Shadow appear in theaters in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was a full-circle moment—I have such great memories of working on Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow’s debut. I’ve been really fortunate to keep working and creating for the franchise. I’m excited for the next 35 years!”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about Sonic the Hedgehog turning 35 covering his evolution from pixels to the big screen
General History
Q Wait Sonic is really 35 years old I feel old
A Yes Sonic the Hedgehog first zoomed onto the Sega Genesis console on June 23 1991 That makes 2026 his 35th anniversary
Q What was Sonics very first game like
A It was a 2D sidescrolling platformer The goal was simple get from the start of the level to the end as fast as possible collecting golden rings dodging robots and defeating Dr Eggman at the end of each zone
Q Why is he so fast Whats his backstory
A In the games Sonic is naturally gifted with supersonic speed Hes a freespirited hedgehog who loves adventure and hates injustice He uses his speed to thwart Dr Eggmans plans to conquer the world and roboticize animals
Q Who is Dr Eggman
A Hes Sonics archnemesis a mad scientist with a gigantic mustache and a geniuslevel IQ Hes constantly building elaborate machines and robots to try and defeat Sonic but he almost always fails in a spectacularly funny way
The Games 2D to 3D
Q Whats the difference between Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic
A Classic Sonic refers to his original 2D designhes shorter rounder and has a more simplistic moveset Modern Sonic is his taller lankier design used in 3D games He has more complex moves like the Homing Attack Boost and Stomp
Q How did the jump to 3D work out Was it a disaster
