A world renowned video game character called Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by Sega for their gaming system, Genesis, to counter the growing popularity of Mario, the video game mascot of Nintendo. The first game featuring Sonic the Hedgehog was released to the world on 23rd June, 1991. Since then, Sonic the Hedgehog, affectionately known as the "Blue-Bur", has become one of the most famous video game characters in the world with more than 50 million copies of his series having been sold world over. In the year 2005, Sonic was among the first video game characters inductees into the Walk of Game.



Hiokazu Yasuhara, the main designer, Naoto ?shima, the great artist, and Yuji Naka, the chief programmer, are commonly believed to be the people behind the formation of the famous character, generally a blue skinned and haired hedgehog, who has the capability of running at supersonic speeds with the ability to transform itself into the a ball, mainly to attack the villains. This is the most interesting and key part of the game play of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

The appearance of Sonic often varies and changes according to the medium and theme of the different games and episodes. Sonic was quite small and round when originally designed by ?shima but with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, his proportions changed from 1:2 head to height ratio to 1:2.25. In the year 1998, designer Yuji Uekawa presented Sonic in a new look for the new game Sonic Adventure. Sonic appeared as a taller game character with long and thin legs and a lesser spherical body. Other minor changes in Sonic' appearance has been made in the following games over the period of time.

Several actors have lent their voices for Sonic the Hedgehog character over the years. The first among them was Takeshi Kusao for Sonic the Hedgehog. Later on Junichi Kanemaru started providing his voice with release of Sonic Adventure. Ryan Drummond was the first English game voice actor for the Sonic. He provided his voice for Sonic Adventure and continued to so till the year 2004. Jason Anthony Griffith took over from him after that.

After his first appearance in "Sonic the Hedgehog" and successfully fighting his nemesis "Dr. Eagman", Sonic has featured in number of subsequent games by Sega. "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" in 1992 witnessed his two tailed fox friend called Tails. "Sonic CD" 1993 introduced his girlfriend "Amy Rose" and "Metal Sonic". "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" and its sequel "Sonic & Knuckles" in 1994 saw the introduction of new character "Knuckles the Echidna". "Sonic Adventure" released in 1998-99, "Sonic Adventure 2" in 2001, Sonic Heroes in 2004, Sonic the Hedgehog in 2006 and "Sonic Unleashed" in 2008 are some of the successful games that are based on the world famous character Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sega also used Sonic the Hedgehog as a cameo in their other games too. Sonic has also been part of the many animation series and comics.