Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)

Background

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game franchise created and owned by Sega starring its mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. The series started in 1991 with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Sonic was responsible for turning Sega into a leading video game company early in the 16-bit era, and his first game soon replaced Altered Beast as the default pack-in game for the Genesis in North America and Europe.

While sale estimates vary (see Reception below), the Sonic franchise has undoubtedly become a huge commercial success since its inception: as of 2013, the franchise had sold more than 140 million units, making the series the 5th best-selling videogame franchise of all time. As of 2020, over one billion cumulative units have been sold.

Most games in the series are developed by Sonic Team, with the exceptions being various spin-offs by other Sega divisions or other video game companies. The chief programmer for the first game was Yuji Naka, who would later become head of Sonic Team. The game designer was Hirokazu Yasuhara, and character designer was Naoto Ohshima. The music of the first two Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Mega Drive / Genesis were composed by Masato Nakamura of the Japanese band Dreams Come True.

By 2006, Yuji Naka, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Naoto Ohshima had all left Sega. Currently, Takashi Iizuka is the head of Sonic Team, who has been involved with the series since 1994. Most of the series' music is done by Sega's internal sound team.

Regarding Ian Flynn

Ian Flynn is currently the head writer for Sonic, being the one in charge of writing the Encyclo-speed-ia and is apart of the lore management team. Though Ian Flynn has come in pretty late into the series, he has noted to have played pretty much every Sonic game and uses the internet for any information he potentially missed. Thus Ian's word is usable for the most part, obvious contradictions should fall under discussion.

Explanations

• A blog explaining the timelines of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
• A blog explaining the canoncity of rings and why they do act as an extra form of damage.

Knowledgeable Members

• GiverOfThePeace
• SuperSaiyan2Link

Characters

Main Timeline

Heroes

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  Sonic the Hedgehog

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  Shadow the Hedgehog

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  Silver the Hedgehog

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  Amy Rose

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  Blaze the Cat

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  Rookie

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  Big the Cat

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  Mighty the Armadillo

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  Ray the Flying Squirrel

Villains

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  Shadow the Hedgehog

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  Iblis

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  Mephiles the Dark

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  Solaris

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  Time Eater

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  Infinite

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  Surge the Tenrec

Enemies

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  Mecha Sonic

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  Silver Sonic

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  Mecha Sonic Mk. II

Other

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  Fang the Sniper

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  Froggy

Chronicles

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  Amy Rose

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  Big the Cat

Special Items

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  Chaos Emeralds

Paramount

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  Sonic the Hedgehog

SatAM

Archie

Fleetway

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  Sonic the Hedgehog

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  Dr. Ivo Robotnik