Top Ten First-Hand Nostalgia Sega Genesis Characters (2)

So far, I have covered numbers 10 through 3 of my Top Ten First-Hand Nostalgia Sega Genesis Characters. Many of them have been in-game depictions of real-life athletes or celebrities, but a few have been genuine Sega characters, like Ecco and the dweebs from Gunstar Heroes. Going back to picking "real" characters, my number 2 doesn't need much introduction: Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic made his debut with the eponymously-titled game Sonic

the Hedgehog, which most Genesis owners acquired by sending away for it along with a cutout of the UPC barcode on the Genesis retail box. Upon inserting and activating the game, players were treated with the exhilarating tones of the Green Hill Zone theme, which has been indelibly etched in the minds of gamers everywhere. Sonic the Hedgehog would prove to be only the beginning of a franchise that would not only spawn multiple titles on the Sega

Genesis, but also on the Saturn, Dreamcast, and now on the Wii and PlayStation - consoles from Nintendo and Sony, which used to be Sega's competitors before Sega fell out of the hardware business.

As a character, Sonic is well-known for brash youthfulness and speed... lots of

speed. But, as one plays any of Sonic's titles on the Genesis, one may find that Sonic is about much more than running fast and liberating forest creatures; Sonic games were based on patient platforming that sometimes required accurate, well-timed jumps and careful navigation through some tricky and frustrating zones. That said, Sonic games were also about kinetic fun, as any fan of the Casino Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 may attest.

Over time, Sonic was joined by numerous characters, the two most notable of

which are Tails and Knuckles. Tails is the two-tailed fox with the uncanny ability of using his tails as helicopter-like rotors to fly; and Knuckles is a red-haired echidna with spiky knuckles and the ability to glide. There are also a host of other characters that I won't mention here, but I must give a shout-out to Dr. Robotnik, who was often responsible for all the mayhem in the Sonic games.

To date, Sonic has endured Sega's cessation of hardware production and has gone on to even co-exist with his erstwhile rival Mario in such games as Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii. It's kind of odd seeing Sonic in the same games as Mario, seeing how they were once mascots pitted against each other. In a way, it was a sad day for Sega when production on the Dreamcast was halted -- it was the end of an age...

You might be asking, "How could Sonic be number 2?" Wait for the final installment to find out!