Sonic is now in his twenties, roughly three times the lifespan of actual hedgehogs. And what a life he’s lived. The Sonic the Hedgehog series not only spans what seems like a million different video games, but spills over into TV shows and comic books as well.
Nintendo has Mario; Sega has Sonic. Mario collects coins; Sonic collects rings. But Sonic can also tuck himself into a ball and whip through loop-de-loop levels at breakneck speed.
The first of the many versions of the game, aptly titled Sonic the Hedgehog, hit the scene in mid-1991 on the Sega Genesis before going on to become one of the best-selling video game franchises in the world.