Sonic the Hedgehog – Save the planet from disaster!
Blue, spiky, and with an attitude… today Sonic the Hedgehog celebrates his birthday!
Appearing in 1991 for Sega Genesis; Sonic the Hedgehog marked a real breakpoint not only compared with all the game mascots that appeared until that day but also because he’s one of the most important pop icons that gave the origin to the aesthetic of the 90s.
In a decade dominated by techno music, anti-design, and Tamagotchi; Yuji Naka has anticipated and shown the way to the future of gaming by creating a character filled with energy, movement, and expressive presence; a character that won hands down the difficult challenge to become THE most popular mascot in the game industry (and not only). Spinning, running, and jumping at a (super)-sonic speed; the blue hedgehog accomplished the SEGA’s “blasting” promotion for its 16-bit console emphasizing the coolness of Sega games compared to Nintendo ones. Showing a spiky blue hedgehog instead of a pot-bellied plumber; in the series, Dr. Eggman is portrayed as a rounded, mustached human… does he recall somebody famous?
Sonic… I choose you!
Contrary to big N, during the decades SEGA has had many mascots before Sonic; maybe names like Professor Asobin, Opa-Opa, Tom-Tom, or Alex Kidd are quite obscure to the new generations, but if you travel in the 80s and the 90s with us for a while, you can see that titles like Fantasy Zone, Galactic Protector, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Alex Kidd BMX Trial, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and many other ones were hugely beloved by hundreds of thousands of gamers helping to create what we now call video game culture.
But despite all these remarkable characters, Sonic is very different from any other one; while “uncle” Mario leads us in fairy worlds in which children can play safely, Sonic’s mission is to capture the attention of all those who are looking for something faster ‘n rebellious, presenting an actual enfant terrible created to appeal huge crowds of teenagers at the four corners of the world. Obviously, a so cool character can’t be confined to the digital world, since his first appearance Sonic explored our dimension through dozens of clothes, books, movies, music albums, and much more… these gadgets surely help us to immerse ourselves in the Sonic’s Earth also to keep steady our connection between us and our favorite characters.
Bigger, cooler, faster, he going to make a Super Sonic man outta you!
But it’s not only a question of popularity, in the Sonic the Hedgehog series we may find many philosophical themes; for example, Dr. Eggman aims to bend nature to his will (Anthropocentrism), and Sonic’s mission is to keep safe the normal working of the laws of nature from the human threats (Natural philosophy); while side characters like Knuckles is a sort of mystic guardian that maintain the balance between the metaphysical order and chaos laws protecting the Master Emerald.
During his long and successful career, Sonic has touched the hearts of many generations; leaving in all of us many indelible memories that inspired people to fight for what is right. Sonic has had a special place in our hearts from the early years of gaming, and luckily for us; his heritage gets richer and richer every year. Creating new contemporary mythology, with Sonic the Hedgehog Yuji Naka shows extensively the ideas of bravery & hope, helping all the fans of the series to understand better the dangers of massive industrialization and how the protection of the environment is good for all the beings who live on this planet.
Conveying tons of positive energy; with Sonic we can have many deeply emotional and insanely cool experiences!
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