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The Fall of Sonic: Sega’s Last Breath – Part 1

Written by Lance Lasheras

Young readers might wonder why the internet is stuffed with a lot lament over the fallen blue hero. Sonic The Hedgehog is just about the mascot equivalent of Val Kilmer, depressing us together with his bloated antics. Dozens of failed games, countless reboots, and today the Sonic Boom atrocity have all but killed this once great franchise. Sega has even announced they’ll no longer be making console games and be focusing only on mobile and PC markets.

It wasn’t always such as this. Sonic was once the crowned king of video games. He even came coming close to de-mantling the plumber himself.

Part 1: The Rise

The year was 1991, and Sega and Nintendo were battling head to head for console supremacy. The Sega Genesis have been out for two years and had a lot of Nintendo’s market. It boasted better graphics, more processing power, and a more adult attitude than the NES. When Sonic the Hedgehog was launched on June 23rd the Super Nintendo was still being a few months away. Time seemed perfect for Sega to create a strong mascot of their own.

Sonic The Hedgehog involved not only great platforming. It had become the center of a mantra Sega would force down kids throats for many years. He was faster than Mario, jumped greater than Mario, and more importantly was cooler than Mario. The core of Sega’s marketing became about being better than Nintendo. It was epitomized with their slogan ‘Genesis does what Ninten-don’t’.?

Attitude aside, Sonic was a classic great game. It differentiated itself from Mario with its incredible speed. He challenging players to make it towards the end of a level as fast as they might. Sega lied that it was only possible because of their ‘blast processing’ technology, which inevitably turned out to be nothing more than a catch phrase.?

In November 1992 Sega released Sonic The Hedgehog 2, which went on to become the second best selling game of the console. It improved greatly on the original and introduced Miles Tails Prower like a playable second character. Once again the duo were given the job of taking down the evil Dr.Robotnik and collecting the chaos emeralds along the way.

This was the height of Sega’s power. They overtook Nintendo in console sales (covering 65% of the market). For the first (and only) time had become the worlds dominant video game company. Genesis was outselling Super Nintendo for a price of two to 1 during the holiday season.?

By time Sonic 3 rolled around i felt like Sega was unstoppable. They even convinced the King of Pop (Michael Jackson) to create the soundtrack for Sonic 3. This became a secret that would remain hidden until very recently. Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles towards the family, and stays one of the greatest 2D platformers of its generation. With Sega CD coming promising to alter video game forever, it looked like nothing could stop Sega’s domination of the market.?

Next week partly 2: The Beginning of the finish.

*Please observe that it is possible to play many of the great games mentioned within this list in your Android device. Sonic 1, 2, and much more are all available on the Google Play store*