onic the Hedgehog (Japanese: ă˝ăăăŻăťăśăťăăă¸ăăă°Â Hepburn: Sonikku za Hejjihoggu?), trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog,[2] is the title character and protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog series released by Sega, as well as numerous spin-off comics, fouranimated shows, and an animated OVA. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rivalNintendo's flagship character Mario (see 1991 in video gaming).[3][4] Since then, Sonic has become one of the world's best-known video game characters, with his series selling more than 80 million copies.[5] In 2005, Sonic was one of the first game character inductees into the Walk of Game, alongside Mario and Link.[6]
While many individuals at Sega had a hand in Sonic's creation, programmer Yuji Naka and artist Naoto Ĺshima are generally credited with the creation of the character.[7] Sonic is a blue 15-year-old anthropomorphic hedgehog, who has the ability to run at supersonicspeeds and the ability to curl into a ball, primarily to attack enemies. Throughout the course of his video games, Sonic most commonly has to race through levels, collect power up rings and surviving against a host of natural obstacles and minions to achieve his goal.