Sonic

See also: Development of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) While several people were involved in Sonic's creation, the artist Naoto Ohshima, programmer Yuji Naka, and designer Hirokazu Yasuhara are generally credited as the character's co-creators.[1] Prior to Sonic's creation, this rabbit character would have been Sega's mascot, but was discarded because his movement would break the gameplay flow.[16][17] In April 1990, Sega sought a new mascot to rival Nintendo's Mario.[18][19][20] The company had previously used Alex Kidd as their mascot, but that character was considered too similar to Mario.[18] Sega's AM8 R&D department submitted several designs, including a wolf, bulldog, robot, and warrior character. An early idea by Ohshima was a rabbit who could grab objects with his ears, but was found too slow and complex for the Sega Mega Drive's hardware.[21][18][20][22][23] Naka, who had joined Ohshima as a programmer, wanted a fast-paced yet simple game. Conceptualizing a rolling attack, the duo, supervised by Yasuhara, researched animals that could naturally roll, arriving at a shortlist of an armadillo and a hedgehog. The latter was chosen due to the spikes' visual appeal.[17][16] Around the same time, Ohshima took a trip to New York City and conducted an informal survey in Central Park, where he showed people sketches of various character designs, including a hedgehog, a dog, and a character that would later become Doctor Eggman. The hedgehog design proved the most popular, reinforcing the team's choice.[23] Sketches of "Mr. Hedgehog", the character that would become Sonic. Sonic's base design was based off an originally discarded sketch of a character named "Mr. Hedgehog",[note 1][24] by Ohshima. The team settled on Sonic's final name to represent speed and took the name Sonic Team.[25][26] Sonic was designed to be easy for children to draw.[23] His pigment of blue was adjusted several times during development to match Sega's logo and for higher contrast against backgrounds.[19][27][28] Ohshima combined Felix the Cat's head with Doraemon's body for Sonic's design,[29] with inspiration from the cover for Michael Jackson's album Bad and Santa Claus's costume for Sonic's shoes.[30][19] Sonic was created without the ability to swim because of Naka's mistaken assumption that hedgehogs could not do so.[31] Sonic's personality was defined by three pillars that aligned with Sega's image: "cool", "challenger", and a backstory.[23] He was made to appeal to American audiences, under the belief that success in the US would attract Japanese consumers. He was made impulsive, which Ohshima saw as representative of Americans, and influenced by Bill Clinton's "get it done" attitude.[32][33][34] Ohshima and Yasuhara wrote a backstory, influenced by World War II-era aviation imagery, that featured a jet pilot nicknamed "Hedgehog" due to his spiked hair, who had Sonic's likeness emblazoned on his flight jacket and plane as nose art. According to this story, the games were set in a children's story written by the pilot's wife.[23] Early concepts gave Sonic fangs and put him in a band with a human girlfriend named Madonna, ideas scrapped by Sega of America to keep his identity simple. After disputes between Sega's American and Japanese branches, Sonic's backstory was infused with environmental themes, contrasting his personification of nature with the antagonist, Dr. Eggman, representing industry and science.[17][35][19] Sonic's very first appearance was in Rad Mobile, released for arcades in October 1990, as an ornament hanging on the rear view mirror. Sonic's first major video game appearance was in Sonic the Hedgehog, released in summer 1991. However, as anticipation for that game grew within Sega, the character had also made cameos in a few other games, particularly in Rad Mobile–regarded as Sonic's earliest game appearance–as a car ornament, and in Puzzle Construction alongside Dr. Eggman.[36] Sonic's proportions were adjusted for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with the original head-to-height ratio changed from 1:2 to 1:2.5.[37] During the series' early years, Western material did some modifications to his design, such as sharper eyes and a mohawk-like hairstyle, but these were slowly phased out as the Japanese canon became the standard. Advertisement Redesign Sonic Team redesigned Sonic and the other characters during the development of Sonic Adventure to make them look more suitable for 3D environments.[38][39][17][40] A contest was held at Sega to determine who would be in charge of the redesigns, with Yuji Uekawa emerging as the winner. Uekawa drew influence from various styles, including other Sega artists, Akira Toriyama, Susumu Matsushita, Looney Tunes, and Walt Disney.[41][42] For the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog, the character's design was further modified to look more adult and taller, with visible fur and a lankier body to fit better with the game's human characters.[43] Voice Roger Craig Smith has been Sonic's English voice in most media since 2010. Sonic had a few voice samples in Sonic CD provided by designer Masato Nishimura.[44] In Japanese arcade games, including SegaSonic the Hedgehog, Sonic was voiced by Takeshi Kusao. Jun'ichi Kanemaru voiced Sonic in Sonic Adventure; he was chosen because of his juvenile voice and frequent use of English.[45][46] Kanemaru has continually voiced Sonic in the games since. In Sonic Unleashed, the character's Werehog form was voiced by Tomokazu Seki. Sonic first spoke in the games in English in Sonic's Schoolhouse, where he was voiced by Meg Inglima. Sonic was voiced by an unknown voice actor in SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter's English translation in Sega World Sydney. Starting from Sonic Adventure, Sonic was voiced by Ryan Drummond. Jason Griffith, who voiced the character in Sonic X, replaced Drummond from 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog. Griffith was later replaced by Roger Craig Smith from 2010's Sonic Free Riders onwards. Smith stated in January 2021 that he would no longer voice Sonic,[47] but he reversed course later in May.[48] Smith continues to voice the character as of January 2025. In Sonic Prime, Sonic was voiced by Canadian Deven Mack.