A 25 Year Sonic Adventure

Featuring interviews with Nigel Kitching (script writer for Sonic the Comic) and Stealth (co-creator of Sonic Mania)

Sonic the Hedgehog is ingrained in most gamers’ minds; just as much as other iconic video game characters like Mario or Crash Bandicoot. He definitely occupies a permanent place in mine, in large part because Sonic the Hedgehog kicked off my interest in games as a whole. It also influenced where I am today.

I can still remember the exact date: 25th December 1994.

I couldn’t believe it as I unwrapped a box that revealed a Sega MegaDrive (Genesis in North America), MegaGames 1, EA Sports Double Header (containing EA Hockey and John Madden Football), and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (a huge step up for me after playing the first Sonic game on a neighbours’ Sega Master System).

There’s even a picture of me playing it for the first time.

This is the story of how Sonic has helped me form a career, and why I’m hopeful for what the series can bring as it enters its 29th year on June 23rd.

The mid-nineties was all about Sonic. I’d watch the cartoons on Channel 4 on Sunday mornings (there was another cartoon on ITV1 as well); I’d even read the comics.

Back then, there was no internet, no way of reading magazines at 5 years old; just the playgrounds and the vague of rumours for what other people were doing on their own saves of Sonic 3, or the games that preceded it.

I was obsessed. The ‘blue blur’ wanted to save people, because it seemed like the right thing to do. Coincidentally, this was also when I was discovering Superman, through the Lois and Clark show that starred Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. To note, those two will always be my Superman and Lois Lane, regardless of how politically-focused Dean Cain has become in recent times.

Looking back, it was a great time for new heroes. If I was born in any other decade, I may have grown up loving Doctor Who, but the early-nineties was an enigma; it had been off-air since 1989, and a TV Movie…