Sonic turns 18

Sonic turns 18

Eighteen years ago today, on June 23rd 1991, a blue ball spindashed its way onto TV screens all over the US and Europe - in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.

Despite troubling times (and some games that are frankly bad), the Sonic franchise has managed to sell over 50 million copies in total.

Happy birthday Sonic. The official Sega website is also doing a big giveaway to celebrate the event:

If you're interested in winning some of this merch, check out the rules.

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Rob Jones

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GQ said:

Sonic went from one of the two best platformers (along with mario obv.) to being one of the worst Wii concepts with confusing controls and lame levels that you finish in like 2 minutes. But hey sonic and the dark knight and sonic unleashed made good trade ins for me on another sega game (The Conduit).

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Nova said:

I think it's finally time for sonic to leave his mother's basement and emerge into the real world. Then get run over by a bus.

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Captain Jamesman said:

Well, even though Sonic games suck nowadays, they have been improving a little bit. And I DO mean, a little bit. I mean come on guys, Unleashed was one of Sega's better Sonic games as of late. Despite the Werehog engine of course, at least the daytime stages were fun. So maybe next time Sega can get it right, hopefully.

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YoshLee said:

If sonic wants to come back they need to go back to how it was BEFORE! Forget giving him a sword and turning him into a werewolf, Sonic Adventure 2 battle PWNED both those games combined, make a Sonic game like that.

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Mischief Shadow said:

REEEBOOOOT! He really needs it. However Sonic unleashed wasn't THAT bad, I actually enjoyed it. On the other hand, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic and the Black Knight and especially Sonic Heroes were GOD AWFUL. What we need is SONIC ADVENTURE 3 or a Retro Sonic (Megaman 9). Possibly even a Sonic Unleashed 2 with no werehogs and more diverse bosses.

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GQ said:

I don't agree. All the "shake the controller like this" to make him climb and "shake the controller like that" to make him stomp the ground is dumb. Either make him in a game where it is open world like zelda or do what new super mario bros is doing and go back to 2d platform. Stop trying to be cute and inventive. That was never what sega was good at, they always copied off of nintendo's mechanics.

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B Darius said:

Sega Superstars Racing & Olympic Winter Games look good. Let's just hope Sega does things right this time.

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Darunia said:

Mischief Shadow: I really hope that they do more old school games like mega man 9. I really want a zelda 3 (for the wait until st or z wii), a super mario bros 4, or even sonic 3.

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guy said:

@Daurina you do realize those games exist right? Zelda 3 is pretty much link to the past, smb 4 is super mario world, and sonic 3 is also a real game. Just saying though. Please don't flame me.

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J dude said:

True the recent Sonic games have been off, but they're not all that bad. Like take Unleashed for example, the daytime controls are the best so far, even better than Sonic and the black knight.

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Lay-Z Boy said:

Happy birthday, Sonic. You sure have given me some great gaming entertainment. Let's hope your games get back on track.

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