8 Things Sega Wants You To Forget About Sonic The Hedgehog
4. He's Actually Bill Clinton
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Sonic is in fact Bill Clinton, merely that the former US President was indeed an inspiration point for the character.
It might be hard to spot seeing as the Sax-loving Clinton looks nothing like a hedgehog last time I checked, but it was his attitude, and more specifically a campaign slogan that Team Sonic took note of.
The concept of approaching things head-on was very much the focus of Clinton's campaign, with him promising hard solutions to harder problems, winning him a tonne of support as a person who actually looked prepared to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in.
These were exactly the characteristics that the Sonic design team were looking for and so adapted this "can do, will do" attitude for their protagonist.
Still, despite Sonic's direct approach, SEGA was suitably less keen to attach his name to the impeached Bill Clinton going forward, and the less said about the connotations of Tails popping up from underneath Sonic in the sequel the better.