Sonic the Hedgehog is the title character and protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series released by Sega, as well as numerous spin-off comics, animations, and other media.
History[]
Sonic is a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds and curl into a ball, primarily to attack enemies. In most games, Sonic must race through levels, collecting power-up rings and avoiding obstacles and enemies.
While many individuals at Sega had a hand in Sonic's creation, programmer Yuji Naka and artist Naoto Ohshima are generally credited with his creation. The original Sonic the Hedgehog was released to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's flagship character Mario on June 1991. Sonic was redesigned by Yuji Uekawa for Sonic Adventure (1998), with a more mature look designed to appeal to older players.
Sonic has become one of the world's best-known video game characters and a gaming icon. His series had sold more than 80 million copies by the early 2010s. In 2005, Sonic was one of the first game character inductees into the Walk of Game alongside Mario and Link.
Main Themes[]
Since the release of Sonic CD in 1993, many games has an unique theme song.
| Song name | Singer(s) | Game | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonic Boom | Pastiche | Sonic CD | 1993 |
| You Can Do Anything | Casey Rankin Keiko Utoku | ||
| Super Sonic Racing | TJ Davis | Sonic R | 1997 |
| Open Your Heart | Crush 40 | Sonic Adventure | 1998 |
| Live and Learn | Sonic Adventure 2 | 2001 | |
| Sonic Heroes | Sonic Heroes | 2003 | |
| I Am... All of Me | Shadow the Hedgehog | 2005 | |
| Speed Riders | Runblebee | Sonic Riders | 2006 |
| His World | Zebrahead | Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) | |
| Seven Rings In Hand | Steve Conte | Sonic and the Secret Rings | 2007 |
| Un-Gravitify | Cashell | Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity | 2008 |
| Endless Possibilities | Jaret Reddick | Sonic Unleashed | |
| Knight of the Wind | Crush 40 | Sonic and the Black Knight | 2009 |
| Free | Chris Madin | Sonic Free Riders | 2010 |
| Reach for the Stars | Cash Cash | Sonic Colors | |
| Fist Bump | Douglas Robb | Sonic Forces | 2017 |
| Green Light Ride | Crush 40 | Team Sonic Racing | 2019 |
| I'm Here | Merry Kirk-Holmes | Sonic Frontiers | 2022 |
| Kellin Quinn (Revisited) |
Cast[]
Since the launch of Sonic Adventure, the Sonic games have begun to have voice acting in San Diego. The original Sonic voice cast lasted until Sonic Advance 3. However, they kept the Japanese Sonic voice cast.
In 2005 since the launch of Shadow the Hedgehog until Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, the Sonic voice cast were from 4Kids in New York who also voiced them in Sonic X (2003-2005). However, in 2016 with LEGO Dimensions, Oliver Wyman reprises his role as Big, despite the fact that Kyle Hebert is Big's current voice actor, making him the only 4Kids voice actor to reprise his role.
In 2010 since the launch of Sonic Free Riders, the Sonic games are now voiced in Studiopolis, located in Los Angeles (except Eggman who still has his 4Kids voice actor). In 2019 since the launch of Team Sonic Racing, Travis Willingham (Knuckles and Zavok), Vic Mignogna (Omega), Quinton Flynn (Silver) and Laura Bailey (Blaze and Omochao) were replaced due to 3 out of 4 voice actors having controversial behavior. However, when Sonic Colors: Ultimate got released, Kate Higgins returned to voice Tails instead of Colleen O'Shaughnessey redubbing Tails lines, not even Colleen voiced Tails in Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps, making Kate Higgins the only voice actor from 2010 to return to voice a Sonic character that left.
On January and February 2021, Roger Craig Smith and Cindy Robinson confirmed on Twitter that they were no longer voicing Sonic and Amy respectively. However, on May and December 2021, they confirmed that they returned to voice their characters. Making them the only voice actors to stop voicing a character temporarily and return without getting their characters a voice change.
In the second season of TailsTube as well as Sonic X Shadow Generations, Omega's voice actor from Team Sonic Racing was replaced by the same voice actor who voices Sonic. In the same game, the story was rewritten and their lines had to be re-recorded.
| Character | Japanese voice actor | English voice actor | Years (Japanese) |
Years (English) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Jun'ichi Kanemaru | Roger Craig Smith | 1998-present | 2010-present |
| Amy Rose | Taeko Kawata | Cindy Robinson | ||
| Sticks the Badger | Aoi Yūki | Nika Futterman | 2014-present | 2014-present |
| Miles "Tails" Prower | Ryō Hirohashi | Colleen O'Shaughnessey | 2003-present | |
| Charmy Bee | Yōko Teppōzuka | 2010-present | ||
| Wave the Swallow | Chie Nakamura | Kate Higgins | 2006-present | |
| Dr. Eggman | Kotaro Nakamura | Mike Pollock | 2016-present | 2005-present |
| Dr. Eggman Nega | 2019-present | |||
| Gerald Robotnik | 2024-present | |||
| Knuckles the Echidna | Nobutoshi Canna | Dave B. Mitchell | 1998-present | 2019-present |
| Shadow the Hedgehog | Kōji Yusa | Kirk Thornton | 2001-present | 2010-present |
| Orbot | Mitsuo Iwata | 2010-present | ||
| Master Zik | Mugihito | 2013-present | ||
| Rouge the Bat | Rumi Ochiai | Karen Strassman | 2001-present | 2010-present |
| Cream the Rabbit | Sayaka Aoki | Michelle Ruff | 2003-present | |
| Vector the Crocodile | Kenta Miyake | Keith Silverstein | ||
| Espio the Chameleon | Yūki Masuda | Matthew Mercer | 2016-present | |
| Black Doom | Ryūzaburō Ōtomo | Ben Diskin | 2005-present | 2024-present |
| Blaze the Cat | Nao Takamori | Erica Lindbeck | 2019-present | |
| Omochao | Etsuko Kozakura | 2001-present | ||
| Silver the Hedgehog | Daisuke Ono | Bryce Papenbrook | 2006-present | |
| Mephiles the Dark | Takayuki Sakazume | Robbie Daymond | 2024-present | |
| Jet the Hawk | Daisuke Kishio | Michael Yurchak | 2010-present | |
| Cubot | Wataru Takagi | Wally Wingert | 2010-present | |
| E-123 Omega | Taiten Kusunoki | Roger Craig Smith | 2003-present | 2023-present |
| Metal Sonic/Metal Overlord | Jun'ichi Kanemaru | Ray Chase | 2024-present | |
| Big the Cat | Takashi Nagasako | Kyle Hebert | 2010, 2019-present | |
| Dodon Pa | Katsuhisa Hōki | 2019-present | ||
| Zazz | Yutaka Aoyama | Liam O'Brien | 2013-present | |
| Infinite | Takashi Kondō | 2017-present | ||
| Maria Robotnik | Yuri Shiratori | Stephanie Sheh | 2001-present | 2024-present |
| Zeena | Yumi Tōma | 2013-present | ||
| Zomom | Chafūrin | Patrick Seitz | ||
| Lyric the Last Ancient | Jūrōta Kosugi | 2014-present | ||
| Zavok | Jōji Nakata | 2013-present | 2019-present | |
| Zor | Yūki Tai | Sam Riegel | 2013-present | |
| Sage | Megumi Hayashibara | Ryan Bartley | 2022-present | |
Subscriber milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
- 500,000 subscribers: August 20, 2018
- 600,000 subscribers: December 22, 2018
- 700,000 subscribers: April 7, 2019
- 800,000 subscribers: August 15, 2019
- 900,000 subscribers: March 7, 2020
- 1 million subscribers: May 29, 2020
Trivia[]
- Ever since the release date of Sonic Generations, Sonic games are dubbed in French, Italian, German and Spanish aside from Japanese and English.
- Sonic's co-creator, Yuji Naka is mentioned in the Shadow the Hedgehog videogame.
- Originally, he was gonna make a cameo in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2020 movie but it was scrapped.
