Games

Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive.

The Sonic the Hedgehog series primarily consists of video games published by Sega, starring its corporate mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. The series began with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive in 1991, whose success led to numerous further video games in the following decades. Games in the Sonic series are often made with the purpose of appearing cool and trendy while being enjoyable for video game players of all ages, although some games are more mature in their contents than others. Usually the games start easy and get progressively more difficult. This was done in an attempt to compete with Nintendo's Super Mario series.

The series typically focuses on the titular blue hedgehog's exploits to thwart the villainous Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik's evil schemes, which typically involve building armies of robots and searching for the mystical Chaos Emeralds in an effort to conquer the world. In his fight against Eggman, Sonic is often joined by friends such as Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose and Knuckles the Echidna, among others.

Sonic games are typically action platformers and were initally only 2D, but the series has since leaped into the third dimension due to the progress of technology in the 1990s. The character has also appeared in games of many other genres, including puzzle, racing and role-playing games. Games in the series have been released on numerous different platforms from 1991 to the present day and more than 250 million units have been sold, making Sonic one of the best selling video game franchises of all time.