Sonic the Hedgehog 30th anniversary ---------------------------------------------- Video games giant Sega is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its plucky little mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, originally conceived as a high-speed rival to Nintendo’s Mario ---------------------------------------------- Green Hill Zone: Lush, grassy opening section – one of gaming’s most fun and instantly recognisable environments --------------------------------------------- Sonic sprite (around 40 pixels high) ---------------------------------------------- Oct 29, 1988: Sega launches Mega Drive games console (renamed Genesis in U.S.), but struggles against competition from Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Mario games ---------------------------------------------- Game’s title screen ---------------------------------------------- June 23, 1991: Sega releases Sonic the Hedgehog, designed expressly to compete with SNES and Mario. Becomes huge success, selling 22.20 million copies on Mega Drive – pushing its console sales to briefly outsell Nintendo’s Game has since been ported to numerous other systems, selling more than 44m copies ---------------------------------------------- SONIC THE HEDGEHOG GAMES* 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog Mega Drive/Genesis 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Mega Drive/Genesis 1993 Sonic CD Mega Drive/Genesis + Sega CD 1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Mega Drive/Genesis 1994 Sonic & Knuckles Mega Drive/Genesis 1998 Sonic Adventure Dreamcast 2001 Sonic Adventure 2 Dreamcast 2003 Sonic Heroes GameCube 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog GameCube 2006 Sonic ’06 PS3/XBox 360 2007 Sonic and the Secret Rings Wii 2008 Sonic Unleashed PS2/Wii/XBox 360/PS3 2009 Sonic and the Black Knight Wii 2010 Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I Wii/PS3/Xbox 360 2010 Sonic Colors Wii 2011 Sonic Generations PS3/XBox 360 2012 Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II PS3/Xbox 360 2013 Sonic Lost World Wii U 2017 Sonic Mania Switch/PS4/XBox One 2017 Sonic Forces Switch/PS4/XBox One 2018 Sonic Mania Plus Switch/PS4/XBox One Total games sold: 1.14bn ---------------------------------------------- Yuji Naka (above): Gifted student who skips university in 1984, in favour of taking up entry level coding job at Sega. Quickly climbs ranks to become lead programmer on Sonic at age of 23. Creates concept of hedgehog rolling into ball to slam into enemies ---------------------------------------------- Sonic the Hedgehog movie (2020) box office: $319.72m worldwide ---------------------------------------------- ANNIVERSARY HIGHLIGHTS 2022: Sonic Prime animated Netflix show 2022: New unnamed flagship Sonic game 2022: Sonic Origins will bundle Mega Drive games together for new consoles Apr 8, 2022: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie 2022: LEGO Ideas Sonic Mania building set Sep 7, 2021: Sonic Colors Ultimate – rerelease of critically acclaimed title for newer consoles and PCs ---------------------------------------------- Released for Sega’s own consoles before losses incurred from Dreamcast failure cause company to exit console business and focus on making games for others ---------------------------------------------- *Main console canon – does not include handheld versions, conversions to other systems (including PC), arcade games, Meganet downloadable games (1990s online service only available in Japan and Brazil), racing games, compilations, mobile phone games and other spin-offs ---------------------------------------------- Sources: Sega, Red Bull, Sonic News Network, Video Game Sales Wiki Pictures: Sega, Getty Images, Paramount, Creative Commons © GRAPHIC NEWS