Today is the anniversary of Sonic The Hedgehog's release, which sped into stores and into our hearts back in 1991!
It's hard to imagine but long before werehogs, inter-species romance, and Zebrahead fronted theme songs, Sonic was a name associated with words worth being associated with, like "revolutionary". It's release almost single-handedly led to the Megadrive out-selling the SNES two-to-one, marking the first time in history that Nintendo didn't have a choke hold on the console market.
Sonic also inspired game developers to create their own animal mascots with attitude, leading to the conception of Earthworm Jim, Crash Bandicoot, James Pond, and many more.
In early plans for the game, Sonic was almost a wolf who wore an American flag t-shirt, and almost a chicken with attitude. His arch nemesis was imagined as president Theodore Roosevelt wearing pyjamas, a look that is still very apparent in the design of Dr. Robotnik.
Sonic's buckled boots were based off of Michael Jackson's boots on the cover of Bad, and in later years Sega would get Jackson to work with them on the soundtrack to Sonic 3, though as rumours of what Jackson was up to at Neverland Ranch began to surface Sega decided to wipe his name from the game to save face.
Sonic the Hedgehog - you have yourself a great birthday.
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