Sonic The Hedgehog, as well as many of its characters, have become authentic references in popular culture. from its origins in the early 90’s Until today, the saga of the blue hedgehog has been expanding through different means.
from their early 8 bit games until his latest appearances in games like Sonic Frontiers or in his live action movies; Sonic’s universe has been expanding and evolving throughout its more than 25 years of history. It is for these reasons that the Sonic The Hedgehog saga has a large amount of data and material unknown to the majority of the general public.
In this article, we will introduce you 10 curiosities and facts that you surely did not know about the most emblematic saga of SEGA.
1. The Sonic Original Design Controversy
Creating a character from scratch is not an easy task. It consists of a long process of collecting references, presenting sketches and many, many, discarding ideas that remain unanswered.
The creation of the SEGA mascot was no exception. As you already know, SEGA wanted to have its own Mario, who was the visible face of the company. In this way, they got down to work and put several concepts on the table.
The mascot had to represent not only the company, but also had to fit in with the game they were designing for their console. The character they will create had to be fast and flashy.
That’s why before it came out, Sonic The Hedgehog had some previous designs that portrayed him as a rabbit, or even an armadillo. Despite being discarded, this last idea would be used by SEGA to create Mighty the Armadillo.
As a last point of this curiosity, we have to emphasize that Sonic wasn’t always blue. When the final concept for the comic that narrated his origins was presented, this was orange in color. However, finally, the managers decided that it would be best to put the same company colors on it. From then on, Sonic would always be depicted as blue and white, regardless of the medium in which he was portrayed.
2. Sega’s Mickey Mouse
The next curiosity also has to do with the character design. Naoto Ohshima -the creator of the first Sonic designs – I take Mickey Mouse, the famous Disney mascot, as the main reference.
And it is that, if we stop to think about it, both have quite a few characteristics in common in terms of their designs. Apart from the fact that one is a mouse and the other a hedgehog, both are represented as humanoid shaped animals. Both have large eyes and elongated limbs.
Also, what is most striking is that both wear quite striking shoes and white gloves. Chance? I don’t believe it…
3. Sonic and the Thanksgiving Crash
sonic was the first video game character to debut in the famous thanksgiving parade which is held every year in New York. However, this is not really interesting… Curiosity has to do with the disaster that surrounded this debut, and that ended up with several people injured.
in the parade of 1993– where the SEGA mascot made its debut – the balloon representing the hedgehog ended up crashing into a lamppost due to strong air currents. This caused it to uncinch and two people from the public ended up injured.
Remember when Sonic just popped at that Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and ended up harming a cop and a little girl?
I wonder how they’re doing. https://t.co/PmV5kaHzPd pic.twitter.com/MfzaAsFqDB
— JOLLY J✨ (@DynamoSuperX) November 25, 2021
4. Sonic the rock star
Originally, Sonic was going to have his own rock bandcall Sonic The Hedgehog Band . This was to be composed of Sonic as the group’s vocalist, Max the Monkey as the bassist, Mach the Rabbit as the drummer, Sharps the Parakeet as the guitarist, and Vector the Crocodile on keyboard.
The idea was discarded by SEGA managers and all the members of the band were forgotten. Well… Not all of them. Vector would appear later in Knuckles’ Chaotix gamewith an improved design.
5. Sonic on the walk of fame
The video game industry has been growing to gain great importance at an economic and cultural level. Today it is recognized as one more field within the arts and audiovisual media. Despite this, I bet you haven’t heard of the Walk of Game.
This is, jumping the differences, the walk of fame dedicated to the most iconic characters in the video game industry. The Walk of Game is located in the Sony Metreon, a shopping mall in San Francisco.
How could it be otherwise, Sonic The Hedgehog have his own star inside this. A recognition also given to other characters like Mario, who have transcended the video game industry to become part of popular culture.
6. Sonic and his love affairs
Sonic does not have a formal partner, that is, officially no information has come out that tells us that the blue hedgehog has clear girlfriend or love interest. However, fans have always theorized and released their own fanarts.
One of his most recurring pairings is with the character of Amy Rose. This is an anthropomorphic hedgehog, just like Sonic. Amy has clearly had a crush on Sonic ever since he saved her from Dr. Eggman’s clutches. However, Sonic has never shown any real interest in this one of hers. At least not from one explicit way.
However, at first Sonic was going to have an official girlfriend. She is she was going to be human and she was going to be called Madonna. His design was that of a woman tall, blonde and thin, with a Red dress stunning. However, this idea was scrapped like many others. And luckily… Can you imagine what kind of “furry fantasy” would have become the Sonic saga, if this had been carried out?
7. Sonic y Michael Jackson
We will all agree that Sonic The Hedgehog 3 It has one of the best soundtracks in the series. What not many people know is that this BSO has an interesting story behind it.
During the development of this Michael Jackson collaborated in the composition process of some songs. However, the final version of the game replaced many of these songs. In addition, Michael Jackson did not appear in the credits, nor was he officially mentioned by SEGA. The same fans were the ones who saw the similarities between some songs from Sonic 3 and the so characteristic style of the then “King of Pop”.
As if that were not enough, there is evidence that Michael Jackson was at the SEGA offices and that he intended to collaborate in one of his games.
The reasons why this collaboration did not go ahead are a mystery today. Some say that SEGA backed down after the various scandals involving child molestation became public. Others simply explain that Michael Jackson was not satisfied with the final result, so he asked to be excluded from the project. What do you think was the real reason?
8. Sonic CD, the rarest Sonic game
Sonic CD was originally released for the SEGA CD in 1993. It is one of the most disturbing games and with the most Eastereggs in the saga starring the hedgehog. However, in this post we will focus on two of the curiosities most interesting of this title and that have given a lot to talk about.
Let’s start talking about the game over screen. When the player lost all lives, the typical screen that specified that the game was over would jump. However, in the American version, this was accompanied by a sudden change in music and a set of distorted laughs that made your hair stand on end.
The second curiosity is related to the first. If at any level we stood still for a long time, Sonic would stare at the screen and wave goodbye to the player, before jumping into the void. There are many theories regarding this, but one of the most popular – and disturbing – is that it ends committing suicide. And it is that, after our character jumps, the Game Over screen appears instantly.
Knowing this… Can you imagine your nine year old self playing this game?
9. The cost of success
We have already talked other times about latest sonic movies and the controversy that surrounded the original character design for the first movie. However, this had quite negative consequences for some of the studies involved.
To begin with, you should know that the redesign of the character cost the producers more than 5 million dollars. In addition, they had to delay the film for a few months, which usually entails quite significant losses for the studios and the producers.
As if that were not enough, this fact also caused the closure of one of the most important studies of the VFX Moving Picture Company. This company has been mired in animation and special effects for movies like the lion king remake o Top Gun Maverick.
10. Sonic’s voice
Let’s finish this top of curiosities, with another section dedicated to the first sonic movie. The voice of this character was finally interpreted by Ben Schwartz. However, some other well-known names were considered before.
Prominent among these were those of Andy Samberg, Tom Holland y Chris Pratt. It’s funny, because these last two have played other video game characters. More specifically, to Nathan Drake y Mario Brosrespectively.
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