8 Things Sega Wants You To Forget About Sonic The Hedgehog
5. He Can't Swim Because Yuiji Naka Doesn't Know Biology
If we're being honest, the biological makeup of Sonic The Hedgehog is one that is at complete odds with that of a real-life Erinaceinae.
For a start, pretty sure they're not blue, and of course they can't run at speeds breaking the 700 miles per hour barrier, but there is one thing that real-life hedgehogs certainly can do that Sonic can't, and that's swim.
Everyone is aware of how terrifying it is to see Sonic gasping for breath in the underwater sections of the franchise, and that horrible sound effect signaling your impending doom might well be the alarm clock buzzer of Satan himself.
Still, it turns out that the reason that Sonic sinks rather than swims like other mascots of the time, is because Yuji Naka just out and out thought that hedgehogs couldn't swim.
Imagine creating a character as off the wall as Sonic and grounding yourself in this one very specific piece of reality. Still as tense and horrible as the underwater sections are, as a result, they are at least memorable, which in this industry goes a long way.