When Sega and Nintendo battled for dominance in the video game market in the early days of the 16-bit console era, Naoto Oshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara were tasked with creating a character that could take on Mario the plumber. Sonic the Hedgehog was born from the desire to create a cool, company-defining mascot for Sega, an icon that could be sold to millions of Nintendo fans on the Sega Mega Drive.
Much of Sonic’s history is known, but Oshima and Yasuhara have recently shared lesser-known anecdotes about the creation of Sega’s famous hedgehog. Oshima, responsible for Sonic’s visual design, now works at Arzest Corporation, a developer that works closely with Nintendo. Yasuhara, who worked on the maps and game design for Sonic the Hedgehog, is now at Unity Technologies Japan.
The two explained how, in 1990, Sega wanted to create a character that could stand up to the NES and Mario. Sega had its own set of characters, Alex Kidd, Flicky, but none of them could compete in the 8-bit console market.
At the time, Sega didn’t value the characters very much in terms of how commercial they could be, Yasuhara said. Instead, the company treated the characters as if they were throwaway.
That idea changed a bit with the arrival of Sega’s Mega Drive, Yasuhara said, and Sega wanted something that could be representative of the company, something that was iconic and had a long lifespan.
Sega and the Sonic the Hedgehog development team settled on a hedgehog mascot, in part, due to its shape. A hedgehog in a video game could curl up into a ball, roll, and do damage with its tips. But previously, Sega tried other ideas, including an armadillo, a porcupine, a dog, and “an old guy with a mustache” (who eventually became Eggman) while looking for a pet.
“The hedgehog was the most popular,” Oshima said. This choice was probably because the hedgehog’s characteristics would transcend race, gender, and different types of people …
