Sonic the Hedgehog | |
---|---|
Genres | |
Developers | |
Publishers | Sega |
Creators |
Yuji Naka Naoto Ohshima Hirokazu Yasuhara |
Artists |
Naoto Ohshima Akira Watanabe Yuji Uekawa |
Platform of origin | Sega Genesis |
First release |
Sonic the Hedgehog June 23, 1991 |
Latest release |
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice September 27, 2016 |
Spin-offs | Sonic Boom |
Sonic the Hedgehog (Japanese: ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ Hepburn: Sonikku za Hejjihoggu?) is a video game franchise created and produced by Sega. The franchise centers on a series of speed-based platform games. The protagonist of the series is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog named Sonic, whose peaceful life is often interrupted by the series' main antagonist, Doctor Eggman. Typically, Sonic—usually along with some of his friends, such as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles—must stop Eggman and foil any plans of world domination. The first game in the series, released in 1991, was conceived by Sega's Sonic Team division after Sega requested a mascot character; the title was a success and spawned sequels, and transformed Sega into a leading video game company during the 16-bit era in the early to mid-1990s.
While the first games in the series were side-scrolling platform games, later games expanded the series into various other genre and sub-series, notably the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Sonic Boom series. By 2016, the series had sold over 350 million units worldwide. Outside of video games, the franchise has also been spun out into other media, including cartoons, anime, and a long-running comic book series, recognized as the longest running based on a video game by Guinness World Records.