When you think about the early days of video games, you typically think of three things. First, you think about the arcade boom, where there were billions of quarters spent to enjoy video games. You think of the crash of 1983 because the “bubble burst” and people in parts of the world didn’t want to “waste their money” on video games anymore, and finally, think of the return of the industry thanks to Nintendo. However, the console war between Nintendo and SEGA would be right after that. The two had a fierce rivalry in console/software battles, and their mascot rivalry between Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.
SEGA specifically designed Sonic the Hedgehog to be everything that Mario was not. While Mario was human, Sonic was an animal. Mario was slow; Sonic was fast. Mario was “kind and understanding,” while Sonic was impulsive and not afraid to ditch you if you didn’t use him for a while in the game. The point is, the rivalry worked, and for a few generations, Sonic and SEGA were the ultimate rivals to Nintendo.
But what might surprise you is that the origins of Sonic go beyond “trying to stick it to Nintendo.” That might have been the final goal, but it wasn’t the starting point. SEGA character designer Naoto Ohshima went onto Twitter to reveal the story behind Sonic’s origins. As noted on Twitter, he made a draft of a game where two brothers were trying to save a dream world from the realm of nightmares and their boss “Thirteen.” It was from that which Sonic eventually came to exist. You can even see some of the characters from the dream world image in the one with Sonic:
Things would evolve greatly, if not apparent, until the Sonic games we know and love were born. It goes to show you how far both Mario and Sonic have come from their “points of origin.”
It should be noted, though, that not only did Nintendo win the console wars against SEGA, but Mario has trounced Sonic over the years in terms of their software titles. It wasn’t until Sonic Frontiers that fans got hope in the series again, and that game had a series of issues that haven’t been solved yet. But it did sell millions, and it’ll receive many forms of DLC this year, so fans will likely put the issues aside and enjoy the title.
But all eyes are on the Blue Blur to see what he does next.
Source: Twitter
