Happy 20th Anniversary, Sonic The Hedgehog

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Happy 20th Anniversary, Sonic The Hedgehog

S20A_Still_Unstoppable

I’m sure you’re all already aware of this, but today marks a very special occasion for us here at SEGA: Sonic the Hedgehog – the world’s fastest spinning hero – is celebrating 20 unstoppable years.

Back in 1991 you would have probably been sat there in your stone-washed jeans and LA Gear trainers listening to the Jazzy Jeff/Fresh Prince classic ‘Summertime’ (if you were cool enough that is), wondering if life could have gotten any better. Little did you know that you were about to meet a true gaming icon, and hero for a generation, in the shape of a blue hedgehog; a certain Sonic the Hedgehog.

From the day Sonic the Hedgehog was released on the SEGA Mega Drive back in June 1991, Sonic has celebrated some major milestones. Defined by his startling super-fast speed, in the twenty years since Sonic first graced our consoles, Sonic has starred in more than 65 games and notched up over 70 million sales worldwide – becoming a global phenomenon in the process. That’s quite some achievement and one that the team here at SEGA are all extremely proud of.

S20A_Poster_Image

To help celebrate this momentous occasion we have released a celebratory Sonic 20th Anniversary Bundle on PlayStation Store. This bundle collects the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic Adventure (and the DX Upgrade pack), Sonic 4: Episode 1 and a beautiful dynamic theme taken from the world of Sonic 4. This bundle will only be available for 20 days and represents a 50% saving against buying all these titles individually. Pricing for this time-limited bundle is £13.99/€17.99/AU$27.95 and, like Sonic, you’ve got to be quick to take advantage of this offer.

That’s not the only thing we have available to celebrate though – from today we have the Sonic Generations demo available for download, and as this blog post is sponsored by the number twenty, you can probably guess how long this demo will be available for. Once we hit July 12th this demo will no longer be available, so to experience the next step in Sonic’s evolution visit PlayStation Store to download and experience the 2D mode of Green Hill Zone today.

We have also created three free static themes to celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary and these should be available for you to download next week; there’s nothing like eeking out the moment out for as long as possible, is there?

To end, I thought I’d leave you on a slightly educational note, and help fill in some of the gaps in your ‘history of gaming’ knowledge. Did you know the origins of our blue friend? He was actually born from a contest to create a new SEGA mascot and Sonic’s first humble appearance was as a toy hanging from the rear-view mirror in the little-known arcade racing game Rad Mobile. It’s been a meteoric rise to global superstardom since though!

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So, here’s to twenty years of our blue friend, and here’s to another twenty more.

Over at eu.playstation.com we’ve asked a group of game developers and industry figures to share their first memories of Sonic; join in and let us know in the comments where you first saw him flash before your eyes.

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