It’s incredible how time flies, isn’t it? One moment, you’re seven years old, sitting on your living room floor with eyes glued to the screen as a speedy blue ball bounces around to the tune of Green Hill Zone. The next, you’re replaying those golden oldies as an adult, celebrating 25 years of epic platforming fun.
Happy Anniversary, Sonic the Hedgehog. We know SEGA has plenty of plans in store for you, but we at the Sonic Stadium have some plans of our own too.
As you will have probably noticed by now, we recently changed our entire site design. I like to think it nicely sets an atmosphere that celebrates both the classic games and the modern approach to Sonic platforming. It’s also a hell of a lot easier to find and read content, right? But part of that redesign is to make it easier to find content related to everything we’ve written in the past related to the Sonic franchise.
Check out the INFO tab in the menu – click that button to see a complete introduction of the sections we currently have live on the new-look Sonic Stadium. From Games, to Comics, Cartoons and Merchandise, you can filter through our collection of post tags to find a wealth of content from our archives.
For example, you can check out everything to do with Sonic Adventure 2 (the first new game that Sonic Stadium ever covered, back when we launched in 2000) by adding the url ‘/tag/sonic-adventure-2‘ to the end of the domain name url. You can also drill down deeper if you want something specific, by adding a plus (+) sign (so, for example, http://www.sonicstadium.org/tag/sonic-adventure-2+screenshots will find screenshots related to SA2).
(Bear in mind that we’re still re-tagging a bunch of our legacy material, but we wanted you to be aware of these pages now so you can refer to them later)
Soon, we’ll also be revisiting all of the major Sonic the Hedgehog video games to celebrate the 25th Anniversary! All of the Sonic Stadium staff will be picking a number of games to cover, and we will be taking you all on a trip down memory lane. We hope you’ll enjoy it – I’ll be starting the series with the game that kicked it all off, Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive. You can expect the feature sometime this weekend.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a series that has endured because it is still a franchise that connects with game players, young and old, around the world. You only need to go to events like Summer of Sonic to see that, in real life. And whether you’re a 25-year veteran of the blue blur, whether your first taste of speed was on the Dreamcast or Gamecube, or if you’re just now starting to get into the series with Sonic Boom, there’s plenty to like and enjoy about the series.
Except for Sonic snogging Elise that one time. We don’t talk about that.
We hope you’ll enjoy what we have planned, and that you’ll celebrate Sonic’s 25th with us! Let us know your favourite Sonic memories in the comments below – we’ll be thinking of our favourite memories here at TSS, which we’ll collate and share with you shortly…
Happy 25th Birthday sonic the hedgehog you should keep on running my friend in to a new adventures.
my favorite sonic memories are sonic R and sonic heroes and sonic adventure those are one of the best games that i ever played back in the day. 😀
Wasn’t it Elise snogging Sonic? Lol oops, I talked about it…
Happy birthday, Sonic. I’ve been with you for almost your entire journey, and I haven’t regretted it a little bit. 🙂
Happy birthday Sonic!!!
I have great moments with the Sonic series, like playing Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), playing SA2, and trying to get the best times on Generations, so much fun 😀
Happy birthday Sonic the Hedgehog! We all will continue to be by your side no matter what! And hopefully, whatever SEGA has planned, I hope it’ll be great!
Happy Birthday, Sonic. :’)
I’ve been with this series since (say it with me now) Sonic Adventure 2. Since then, no other video game series really could permanently take this spot in my heart that Sonic resides in. No other series has these awesome characters, or the amazing music, or the always colorful graphics… No other series has lasted this long and still held my interest to its highest point every single year. No other series has made me so eagle-eyed with news and projects…. well, okay, maybe Pokemon does that to me too. But Sonic has, and probably always will be, my favorite original series. I hope that this year, I get to see a game that surpasses the greatness of Sonic Generations, and more of my favorite characters, like E-123 Omega. I hope to see everything I love about Sonic flourish in the future.
Oh, and I hope the movie and Sonic Boom TV show push forward, strongly.
Yay! Happy Birthday!
Now I feel old. I remember the classic days well. I had Sonic 1 for my 5th birthday which was little over a week after the release date. Mum, Dad, this is your fault and I don’t regret it one bit!
It’s wonderful to see so many positive people still in the fandom after all these years.
Happy Birthday, Sonic! Hard to believe that it has been so long since you showed up and changed the gaming world!
Happy Birthday Sonic, you’re only 4 years older than me!
Happy birthday sonic. If it wasn’t for sonic adventure 2 I would have never fallen in love with fast action gaming
Happy birthday, Sonic!
Happy Birthday Sonic!!
My first Sonic game was Sonic the hedgehog 2 though I reckon I became a true fan after playing Sonic Adventure 2 and had stick with Sonic ever since, here is hoping for a brighter future full of new possibilities and adventures, at the same time let’s not allow any bad experience with the franchise mud our best memories with Sonic as they will live forever!
Happy Birthday Sonic! I remember playing the original Megadrive classics when I was 5/6 years old, the Game Gear Sonic 1 and then jumping right back in to the fandom 13 years ago with Sonic Heroes.
Generations reignited my love for Sonic five years ago and from then until now I’m still passionate about the series, always checking TSS and Sonic Retro for any new (or old) info regarding the series.
Keep on speedin’, blue blur <3
Happy Birthday Sonic! Getting into this series has been one of the better accomplishments of my life, as it has not only helped broaden my horizons and push my comfort zones, but it has also really gotten me into running as well! I just ran along my town’s coast to, what else, the tunes of Emerald Coast (Generations ver.), and I’ve been doing little Generations stage-inspired runs around various areas all year in celebration and anticipation of Sonic’s big 25. The series is not only fun to play but fun and healthy to run as well…despite my newly acquired taste for chili dogs. X)”
Anyway, I got into the series around what was considered to be the lowest point of Sonic’s career, around 2006-2008 or so. My first few games were, ironically enough, Sonic Advance 2, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 1 on a smartphone, and Sonic The Hedgehog 2006. To be honest, with the Shadow and 2006 games, I didn’t really notice anything off about them when I was playing them in those early days. It wasn’t until I got more involved and familiar with the fan base that I really became more aware of people’s distaste towards them…and even later for the reasons why. Prior to that my only other exposure to Sonic was any kind of merchandise or advertising and the Sonic X anime. Imagine my confusion playing games like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog for the first time only to discover that they shared the same plot points as Sonic X! Ah, such a gullible boy I am-er, was!
Anyway, by the time I played Sonic Unleashed, the series had entirely won me over. It is often for that reason that I usually cite Unleashed as my most favorite Sonic game ever. It introduced what would come to be known as one of the most preferable styles of modern Sonic gameplay, had a superb plot with a nice balanced tone between drama and humor, had a great art style that would later define most of the modern Sonic image to this day, it quite possibly had the best voice work of the 4-Kids cast up to that point, and I believe that it had the best depiction of Sonic’s character that we’ve ever seen in a long time. It was a great game to really get hooked on with too, having built itself from it’s years and years of legacy up to that point. It’s a shame that Sega went in favor of wiping the board clean instead of continuing to add more and more to it, but what’s done is done, and different things can appeal to different people.
Whatever lies in store for Sonic and for us this 25th year of speeding and jumping, I’m sure it’s going to capture the heart and spirit of what has kept the Blue Blur running all these years. And I’m even more sure that that same drive and passion will keep this series running even longer, all the way past even the 50th anniversary!
Stay cool Sonic, and keep on running.
I can relate. I first got into the games around when Sonic the Hedgehog (06) came out. I first played Sonic 1 but after adventure was when I really started to get more interested with the series. To me 06 was not that bad of a game (except for the romance scenes). Sonic Unleashed was an amazing game and I really wished they had added more instead of changing the whole concept. Anyway Sonic HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONIC!!!
Happy 25th Anniversary Sonic! You’ve been a huge inspiration throughout my life and I wouldn’t be the passionate gamer that I am today if it weren’t for you. I can’t wait to see the new anniversary game that we have all been speculating about. ^_^ Oh and coincidentally, today marks the 20th anniversary of the Nintendo 64, but no one cares about that. :p Long live the blue blur! 😀
Happy 25th Anniversary Sonic The Hedgehog you are my favorite main character 99 percent I can’t wait for House Of The Blues Sonic The Hedgehog 25th Anniversary event party at San Diego Comic Con 2016, for your new game announce this year! I’m so super hype to see it of your old design characters back where they were!!!
My first video game ever was Sonic 1. Later on I learned about many of the other sonic games released. So I decided to try out Sonic Adventure and I feel in love with the game. I would have to say that is when I truly became a sonic fan. Happy Birthday Sonic!!!
I’m still waiting for the Sonic Stadium celebration tshirt to be announced!!
Happy Birthday! The last six years I’ve spent being invested in Sonic have been all over the place, but its been a fun ride nonetheless and I still love Sonic just as much as I did all those years before.
I am cautiously optimistic for the 25th anniversary game as things seem to be moving in the right direction. You gut dis, Sonic! 🙂
First Sonic I played was Sonic & Knuckles, but I didn’t know at the time… It was a small screen at a Best Buy and I was playing as Knuckles. The Best Buy had a big Sonic Statue too! It was awesome. Wish I had a picture of it when it existed.
First game I played that I knew was Sonic at the time was Sonic 2. Such good memories. Then I just had to get everything Sonic related I could.
I’m not as big a fan as I used to be, but I still love Sonic, even if there have been a lot of rough patches.
Here’s hoping for a Generations 2 or a proper SA3 that isn’t Sonic ’06.
I’m hoping for the best for Sonic this year, I’m surprised we haven’t had any game details leak. That’s more serious than I was expecting. Also, the new layout looks great, it’s definitely easier to navigate than the old one!
For a kissing scene that “we don’t talk about”, people sure to seem to like bringing it up all the time and blowing it out of proportion. It’s an awkward scene in a bad game…but it’s been 10 years since Sonic 06. There’s Sonic porn that’s objectively worse than that scene. Maybe actually not talking about it would be the best move from now on.
Happy Anniversary Sonic! Been with you since it started and not giving up on you yet. You can still be one of the best platformers out there. Sega just needs their head screwed back into place. A great future awaits you soon!
The new layout is fantastic.
much better 🙂