10 Great Video Games That Almost Never Happened At All

3. Sonic The Hedgehog

These are tough times for Sega's spiky blue mascot: where he once stood as Mario's fiercest rival, he now stands as a relic of a bygone era. In a way, he's a victim of circumstance: trapped on the doomed Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, Sonic fell badly during the switch to 3D, and he's been running with a limp ever since. Then again, Sonic has been playing fast and loose with good fortune from the offset. The finger-wagging hedgehog was conceived while Sega were seeking to replace their original mascot Alex Kidd, in the hope of competing with the smiling moustachioed juggernaut of fun that is Mario. But it's not all that hard to see Sega's reasoning there: Alex Kidd might be fun to play, but the guy was lame - he wore this weird Logan's Run style jumpsuit with a little elfin haircut and big ears. They needed someone smooth, someone hip, someone ready to party like it's 1991. They needed funkadelic aliens ToeJam & Earl... Wait, what? According to Sega president Hayao Nakayama, the two were very nearly selected, even going so far as having their game greenlit for development, and it was only down to the last minute entry of 'Needlemouse' and the consensus that the alien duo were "too laid back" that they made the call for Sonic instead.