The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a franchise of video games released by Sega starring their mascot character, Sonic the Hedgehog. The series began in 1991 with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. An 8-bit version of the game was also released for the Master System and Game Gear formats. Sonic was responsible for turning Sega into a leading video game company early in the 16-bit era, and his first game soon replaced Altered Beast as the default pack-in game for the Genesis in North America and Europe.^[1]

As of 2012, the franchise had sold more than 116 million units, making the series the 5th best-selling video game franchise of all time.

Games in the series are developed by Sonic Team, with the exception of some spin-offs that were independently developed by Sega of America. The main programmer for the first game was Yuji Naka, who would later become head of the Sonic Team division, and the game planner was Hirokazu Yasuhara but stopped producing games for the franchise. The music of the first two Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Mega Drive/Genesis were composed by Masato Nakamura of the Japanese band Dreams Come True.

Yuji Naka, Hirokazu Yasuhara and Naoto Oshima stopped producing games for Sonic. Yuji Naka became the head of his own franchise, Prope and Yasuhara moved to Namco a gaming company. As of current, Takashi Iizuka is the head of Sonic Team and has been involved in several current Sonic games. Most of his involvement was/is in Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, he took very little involvement in the Storybook series. Currently, most of the music is done by SEGA Sound Team or Crush 40.

Sonic Games Edit

• Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis) - 1991
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear & Master System) - 1991
• Sonic Eraser (Genesis/Toshokan) -1991 (Jap. Only)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Game Gear) - 1992
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis) - 1992
• SEGASonic the Hedgehog (Arcade) - 1993 (Jap. Only)
• Sonic CD (Sega CD) - 1993
• Sonic Chaos (Game Gear & Master System) - 1993
• Sonic Spinball (Genesis) - 1993
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Genesis, Game Gear, & Master System) - 1993
• Sonic Drift - 1994 (Jap. Only)
• Sonic Spinball (Game Gear) -1994
• Sonic The Hedgehog 3 + Sonic & Knuckles + Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis) - 1994
• Sonic Triple Trouble (Game Gear) - 1994
• Sonic Classics/aka.Compilation (Genesis) - 1995
• Sonic Drift 2 (Game Gear) - 1995
• Tails Sky Patrol (Game Gear) - 1995
• Knuckles' Chaotix (Sega 32X) - 1995
• Tails Adventure (Game Gear) - 1995
• Sonic Labyrinth (Game Gear) - 1995
• Sonic the Fighters (Arcade) - 1996
• Sonic Blast (Game Gear) - 1996
• Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn) - 1996
• Sonic Jam (Computer Game) - 1997
• Sonic Jam - 1997
• Sonic R (Saturn) - 1998
• Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast) - 1998
• Sonic Pocket Adventure (Neo Geo Pocket Color) - 1999
• Sonic Shuffle (Dreamcast) - 2001
• Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) - 2001
• Sonic Advance (Gameboy Advance) - 2002
• Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (Game Cube) - 2002
• Sonic Mega Collection - 2003
• Sonic Advance 2 (Gameboy Advance) - 2003
• Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (Game Cube) -2003
• Sonic Pinball Party (Gameboy Advance) - 2003
• Sonic Heroes (PS2, GameCube, & Xbox) - 2004
• Sonic Battle|Sonic Battle (Gameboy Advance) - 2004
• Sonic Advance 3(Gameboy Advance) - 2004
• Sega Superstars - 2004
• Sonic Gems Collection - 2005
• Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2, Game Cube, & Xbox) - 2005
• Sonic Rush (DS) - 2005
• Sonic Riders (PS2, Gamcube, & Xbox) - 2005
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Playstation 3, Xbox 360) - 2006
• Sonic Rivals (PSP) - 2006
• Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis (Gameboy Advance) - 2006
• Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii) - 2007
• Sonic Rush Adventure (DS) - 2007
• Sonic Rivals 2 (PSP) - 2007
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) - 2007
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) - 2008
• Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (PS2 & Wii) - 2008
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 2008
• Sega Superstars Tennis - 2008
• Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (Wii & DS) - 2008
• Sonic Unleashed (PS2, PS3, Wii, & Xbox 360) - 2008
• Sonic & the Black Knight (Wii) - 2009
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii, DS) - 2009
• Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (DS, Wii, PS3, & Xbox 360) - 2010
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Wii Ware) - 2010
• Sonic Colors (Wii & DS) - 2010
• Sonic Free Riders (Xbox 360) - 2010
• Sonic Generations (3DS, PS3, & Xbox 360) - 2011
• Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic games (Wii, 3DS) - 2011
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (PlayStation Network & Xbox Live) - 2012
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Xbox 360, PS3, PSVITA, Wii U, 3DS & PC) - 2012

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