Sonic the Hedgehog would be a truly great franchise if not for the games

How blessed we are to have Sonic the Hedgehog. Not for his games, mind you, which have ranged from awful to occasionally decent over the past three decades. For the culture. Sonic the Hedgehog, as a video game series, I would happily give up forever — but not at the cost of its enduring impact.

In broad, sweeping terms, I love everything about Sonic the Hedgehog: his character design (courtesy of Naoto Ohshima); his blue-sky worlds bursting with primary colors, checkerboard landscapes, and pinball parts; his reticence to show feet; and every piece of clumsy, earnest fan art that Sonic fans have composed in MS Paint. That includes every fetishized Sonic, Tails, and Amy atrocity lurking in the depths of DeviantArt.

But Sonic the Hedgehog’s games? With very few exceptions, I believe we’d be better off without them.

I didn’t always think this way. I was a Sonic fan from the very beginning. I may have even committed some light thievery to get my hands on the original Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis. As a desperate and unscrupulous young teen completely fascinated by Sonic, I “borrowed” my mom’s credit card to acquire a brand-new copy of Sonic the Hedgehog for $49.99 — that’s $115 in 2024 dollars. I had no idea how I’d eventually pay it back, and I didn’t care. I had to experience the magic of Blast Processing and the edgy attitude of a blue hedgehog for myself.

I was dazzled by Sonic the Hedgehog’s graphics and catchy music. Sonic’s attitude underscored just how devoid of personality his game-mascot rivals were. But shortly after slamming that cartridge into my Genesis, I realized: I hated the way that Sonic the Hedgehog played. Sonic’s floaty jumps, overemphasis on speed, and rings-based health system are anathema to me, a player raised on the tight platforming of Super Mario Bros.

Over the following decades, generation to generation, this cycle of disappointment repeated itself. I felt optimistic about Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Adventure, the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and so on and so on, only to be left deflated by the results every time. The same gameplay issues that plagued the original Sonic were repeated, and attempts to reinvent Sonic as a medieval knight, a werewolf, and time-traveling resistance fighter were failures. I’m not the only one to experience this repeated disappointment; the Sonic Cycle is a broadly shared experience.

Disliking Sonic’s games clearly puts me in the minority. Otherwise, Sega would not continue to invest in a new Sonic the Hedgehog game, or some spinoff or remake, every few years. I am happy for Sonic’s continued financial success, and for fans of Sonic games where players get to yet again sprint through a variation of Green Hill Zone. I honestly wish you well.

To my pleasant surprise, I have never been let down by the culture that surrounds Sonic. I am an avowed fan of his friends — Big the Cat, Mighty the Armadillo, and every other furry weirdo — who have given us so much. From smart and funny animated series to decently enjoyable live-action films, and the jokes at Sonic’s expense born of those movies, Sega’s blue hedgehog has grown from Mario also-ran to a rich vein of comedy and personality. We’re living in a world with multiple Sonic the Hedgehog realities, spanning comics, TV series, and (against all odds) blockbuster films, all built on the foundation that Sonic is a sassy, spiny mammal who can save the world by running. Hell, Sonic the Hedgehog may be the only good corporate social media account, a testament to the character’s early-’90s edgy vibes.

While I don’t personally vibe with furry culture or fan art that explores sexual fetishes through the lens of Sonic the Hedgehog, I am happy for the people who express themselves this way. If it weren’t for Sonic fans, would we have SonicFox, the most enjoyable fighting-game player to ever exist? Would we have an internet meme game that lets us search for our names + “the Hedgehog” to find our Sonic-sona? Likely not, and these are wins for Sonic the Hedgehog and lowbrow culture. I’m currently reading through former Sonic the Hedgehog comics artist Ken Penders’ extremely bizarre alt-world Sonic saga, The Lara-Su Chronicles, which stars K’Nox, a cyber-cowboy echidna who is definitely not Sega’s Knuckles.

So I will continue to love Sonic from afar, occasionally playing his games and reminding myself, This is not good. And I will continue to root for Sonic the Hedgehog fans who enjoy them, so that we will never live in a world without Sonic and his furry friends.