In the early '90s, Sega faced the daunting task of wrestling the hearts and minds of avid gamers away from Nintendo, who for all intents and purposes controlled the entire industry at the time. It wasn't enough to have powerful (for the time) 16-bit hardware and lots of advertising money. The company needed a mascot.

Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima were the two artists put in charge of creating Sega's Next Big Thing. The objective was to make a character that was not only instantly likable but also controllable - first-time gamers traditionally stuck to pressing just one button repeatedly. While the original design for Sonic called for him to be able to throw objects at enemies, this turned out to be difficult to implement into a single-button design. His spiky back made for a good weapon, so jumping was combined with attacking to create the famous spin attack. Add a face that looks eerily like Felix The Cat, a good dose of attitude, and enough energy in his system to equal one hundred caffeine addicts, and you have Sonic The Hedgehog. Onward to adventure!

Special thanks to Sabrina Russell, for invaluable support, and to Ravi Hiranand, Bob Byrne, Mark McDonald, Charles Schulz, and Peter Bartholow.