Sonic HQ

1990 - Making Of A Mascot
The year is 1990. After moderate success with the Master System, Service Games (Known as SEGA) has just released its first 16-bit platform. Unbeknownst to them at the time, this 16-bit machine, known as "Mega Drive" in Asia and Europe and "Genesis" in the Americas, was destined to become a household name, establish SEGA for a time as the top console maker in the industry, and feature a blue furred animal that - at one time - was rivaled only by Mickey Mouse in popularity.
SEGA realized that they needed a character whom the public could identify with the console. Their artists designed a wide array of cute characters, including both animals and humans. Quite a few of the designs were hopping animals like rabbits and kangaroos.

To quote Yuji Naka: "At first we used a character that looked like a rabbit with ears that could extend and pick up objects. As the game got faster and faster, we needed to come up with a special characteristic to give our character some power over his enemies. I remembered a character I had thought about years ago who could roll himself into a ball and slam into enemies. Hedgehogs can roll themselves into a ball, so we decided to go from a rabbit to a hedgehog."

Eventually SEGA narrowed the choices down to an armadillo or a hedgehog, due to each animal's ability to roll into a ball - a skill convenient for a high-speed gameplay that would show off the console's power. Of course, we know which they picked. ;) The hedgehog was drawn with blue fur to represent trust and the blue SEGA logo. It was decided that he would be given an "imperfect" personality to create a contrast with other video game characters and endear him to the American audience. Sonic's enemy, Eggman, was based on another of the mascot designs, and made into a polluter so that the game would have a contemporary "naturalist vs. developer" theme.

Later that year, Sonic was announced to the public at a concert featuring the popular Japanese band "Dreams Come True." Little did they know the speedy phenomenon they would unleash on the populace....