Sonic the Hedgehog

The Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games are a collection of platforming games (a variety of video game in which a player-controlled character navigates through environments, typically while avoiding or destroying harmful enemies and obstacles)created and published by SEGA. The games center on the anthropomorphic blue hedgehog, Sonic, who must always strive to thwart the plans of the evil Dr. Eggman, a human mad scientist who desires to take over Sonic's world with his robotic creations. In his adventures, Sonic is assisted by numerous friends, including Miles "Tails" Prower, a young fox who can fly by spinning his two tails like helicopter blades, Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of some of the powerful artifacts of Sonic's world, and Amy Rose, a female hedgehog smitten by the titular hero. Other characters usually act as adversaries to Sonic, including Metal Sonic, a robot built by Dr. Eggman that matches Sonic's speed, and Shadow the Hedgehog, a character who can utilize powerful techniques such as "Chaos Control".

Since its first game "Sonic the Hedgehog" was released in 1991, the series has differentiated itself from other platforming games with the high speeds at which Sonic and other characters navigate themselves through environments. Doing so is aided and hindered by loop-de-loops, slopes, half-pipes, and other features that utilize a character's speed and momentum. Jumping, spinning, and other techniques are also utilized to make it to the end of an area. Characters also gather golden rings, which serve as protection against enemies and other threats. When Sonic or another playable character is harmed, he or she usually loses all the rings they have accumulated so far, although it may be possible to recover some of them. Take damage without any rings, however, and the player will lose one life, or attempt to complete the game. Dr. Eggman's harmful robotic enemies can typically be destroyed by jumping or spinning into them. In earlier games, Dr. Eggman is usually confronted in one of his dangerous contraptions at the end of differently-themed areas, almost always taking multiple attacks to repel. Another prominent element are the Chaos Emeralds, powerful objects that typically be collected to access additional game features or to advance a game's story.

Originally created to help SEGA challenge Nintendo's dominance of the video game market at the beginning of the 1990's, the series continues to this day and has created large amounts of Sonic the Hedgehog-related merchandise, including multiple comic-book series and animated television shows.