Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic The Hedgehog is a video game character developed by Sega Enterprises Ltd in 1990, appearing in his first game with the same name in 1991. Ever since then he has been regarded as Sega's mascot, replacing Alex Kidd from the Master System days.
Sonic is Sega's answer to Mario, attempting to be "cooler" and better than Mario in every possible way (besides swimming). He was a huge success in the early 90s, carrying the Mega Drive/Genesis's sales up until about 1995 where it was replaced by the Sega Saturn. In later years Sonic has been considered to deteriorate, having design changes and being placed in games that are only there to make money, rather than giving the gamer an enjoyable experience. Examples include Sonic for the Xbox 360, which has received poor reviews due to it's frustrating glitchy gameplay, poor story elements and rubbish characters.
There have been many complaint topics on MFGG about Sonic's new games, style and the constant spawn of new characters, mainly by Thunder (who also tends to hype them). This has been shown especially with the next generation Sonic Games; Sonic '2006' for the Xbox360/PS3, Sonic & The Secret Rings (Formerly the better titled, "Wild Fire") for the Wii, and Sonic Rivals for the Sony PSP. Strangely Sonic's 2D titles have been praised more, the latest decent game being Sonic Rush Adventure for the Nintendo DS. Even though the 2D games are generally better than the 3D ones, they still do not receive the same amount of praise as the originals.
Many have considered the Sonic series to be ruined by the death and return of Shadow the Hedghog. Shadow appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and died at the end as a sacrifice to his beloved "Maria", however he has been revived several times since for no particular reason, most times with severe cases of amnesia, and not knowing his "purpose". He has also stared in his own game "Shadow the Hedgehog" where it is mainly focused on these problems (And strangely arms him with a gun and the ability to ride bikes). Sonic 2006 marked the creation of "Silver the hedgehog", which has also been frowned upon because it is largely the same story. Other characters such as Elise have also been said to contribute to the Sonic series' downfall.
"Classic" Sonic is still loved throughout the MFGG community, despite it being a Mario based forum, and he has his own similar fangaming site, SFGHQ. Many great fangames have been made using Sonic also, although not as many as Mario as the character is not as "flexible". There have been some great fangames including Sonic: Time Attacked, Sonic: Project Metrixx and Retro Sonic (Which includes Dreamcast support).
Sonic's latest appearance is Mario & Sonic and the London 2012 Olympic Games. Around the time of his announcement many topics were made at MFGG about him, both for and against his inclusion into the series. He also stars with Mario in an Olympic Games series, essentially putting an end to the decade where he and Mario were mortal enemies.
