Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of one of gaming's longest running mascots and protagonists: Sonic the Hedgehog. The little blue erinaceinae first graced Mega Drive/Genesis consoles on 23rd June 1991, with the release of Sonic The Hedgehog, which saw players battling through classic levels like Green Hill Zone and Marble Zone, taking on the likes of Dr Robotnik and his army of imprisoned robotic rabbits and birds.
Since then he's starred in more than 30 games, though few have captured the essence of the original trilogy. Perhaps many people's favourite titles in the history of the character were the Sonic Adventure games, which drew wild acclaim during the last few years of Sega's hardware production days.
Most recently Sonic Boom and Sonic Lost World failed to do much to recapture the magic of yesteryear and right now Sonic is not a popular character. Indeed it's been interesting to watch developers try and figure out how to make that fast paced, blistering gameplay of the originals into something that you can enjoy in a world where draw distances are far further and platformers are not a popular genre.
Still, a Sonic movie is said to be in the works, so perhaps he'll make a comeback in cartoon form. Here's hoping it's more Sonic the Hedgehog, rather than Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
We don't need a monkey with a think New York accent slinging chilli dogs around.