Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game franchise produced by Sega centering on a series of high-speed platform games. Sonic, the protagonist, is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog with supersonic speed. Typically, Sonic must stop antagonist Doctor Eggman's plans for world domination, often helped by his friends, such as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. The first "Sonic the Hedgehog" game, released in 1991, was conceived by Sega's Sonic Team division after Sega requested a mascot character to compete with Nintendo's mascot Mario. Its success spawned many sequels and helped Sega become one of the leading video game companies during
Sonic the Hedgehog player to control him in a limited fashion. This game also introduced Sonic's "spin dash" maneuver, an ability which allows Sonic to burst forwards quickly from a complete standstill, unlike the previous game, where Sonic could only gain speed with momentum. "Sonic 2" was followed in 1993 by an arcade game, "SegaSonic the Hedgehog", featuring new characters Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. The next console game, "Sonic the Hedgehog 3", was released in 1994. The game introduced a temporary shield maneuver, often called the "insta-shield", added new shield types to the series, and allowed Tails to be