Sonic the Hedgepig is 15 years old!

Originally created on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, Sonic the Hedgehog forged a new path in videogames. The short blue hedgehog, adorned with white gloves and shoes, lined with spikes across his back, sported a blazing speed and a clear attitude shown off in his idling animations, breaking the fifth wall and speaking directly to videogame players worldwide. Taking the beloved platform format created by Nintendo, Team Sonic (led by Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima) fashioned a creative and loveable style of platforming all its own.

The first game set the tone for many more Sonic games to come. Sonic’s next game quickly appeared on Game Gear in the same year, followed by Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Genesis in 1992, SegaSonic in the arcades and Sonic CD on SEGA CD, feeding demand for the loveable character that eventually become a more widely recognized character than Disney’s Mickey Mouse by the mid 1990s.