I woke up extra early to watch the Sonic cartoon on Saturday mornings and even owned his comics. I tangoed with Sonic on my friends’ Genesis and Game Gear even though my family was a Nintendo household.
Mario was my homeboy (especially Tanooki Mario), but Sonic was the rad new kid on the block. Here was a character who had more attitude than Mario in every way. Sonic’s debut in 1991 on the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive in Japan) brought terror to Nintendo’s dominion. After Mario dethroned Pac-Man as the face of video games, Sega tried to kick the plumber’s ass with a cooler, edger, literally faster, mascot of its own: Sonic the Hedgehog. Every main character is a space marine with a crew cut wearing Master Chief-ish armor and a big ol’ blaster who’s off to an alien planet to shoot the face off monsters.
