15 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Sonic The Hedgehog
Oh, you mean Mr. Needlemouse, the guy with a human girlfriend who plays in a rock band?
What is it about Sonic that makes him so endlessly endearing, regardless of how many shaky recent releases there have been?
Maybe it's down to his ultra-cool, Mario-slaying 90s attitude, perhaps that kickass TV show many gamers will remember as the very reason you leapt out of bed on a saturday - or perhaps it's because his own personal brand of blisteringly-fast gameplay left one hell of a mark so memorable, it'll never go away.
It's all the above and more, as despite the only good Sonic game in decades being Generations, his original trilogy is one of the most replayable and instantly enjoyable of all time. Sure, 2015 may be seeing an ongoing console war between the titanic forces of Sony and Microsoft, but back in the 90s it was firmly Sega vs. Nintendo on the battlefield, the latter's plump plumber taking on the blue blur at every opportunity.
There was no wiggle room to support both sides, Sonic's hugely appealing aesthetic and core gameplay feel was leagues ahead of Mario in terms of speed and processing power - and the fact that at heart, gamers love a good bit of brand competition - it all helped to elevate the iconic 'Hog into a bonafide pop culture phenomenon.
It's been almost 25 years since he first sprinted onto our screens, and between Sonic, Sega and all those involved bringing him to life, they've got some incredible stories to tell.
15. There Are Hidden Team Credits In The First Game
Apparently Sega's higher ups had a real problem with credit sequences once a game had booted up - something both they and coder Yuji Naka butted heads over multiple times.
In the end, Naka decided to include a credits sequence naming all those involved anyway - presenting the text as black on a black background to keep it hidden to all who he didn't want to know. To make them appear, you had to either scour the game's code to find the text files themselves, or on certain versions of the game set the region to 'Japan' and input a unique code to made the original 'Sonic Team Presents' animation turn white, revealing the names as they should've been from the start.