To a certain extent, the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
I've probably told this story on GAF before, but Christmas 1991 my brother got a Model 1 Sega Genesis. I wasn't really well educated on gaming at that point in time - I grew up in my toddler years with the family having an Atari 2600, then in 89 we upgraded to a NES with Super Mario Bros. I enjoyed games but they were an ancillary part of my life. Though at this point I've most likely played a Sega Genesis in store demo kiosks, I never put 2 and 2 together - I think what my Brother got was just a piece of stereo equipment.
New Years Eve rolls around and we have some relatives in from out of town. They're watching Citizen Kane and since I'm 8 years old or whatever, I'm told that I probably won't like the movie and since I'll only be a distraction I'm sent to my room to play. That doesn't last long, so I'm trotted in to the forbidden zone: my brother's room.
My brother is a whopping 14 years older than I am. He is a working adult of 22 years old. You can imagine why I'm not allowed in to his room. This, however, is a special exception, and I'm sat down in front of his TV and handed a black game controller with three buttons. Sonic the Hedgehog begins to play.
To an 8 year old in 1991 who still doesn't even own Super Mario Bros. 3, Sonic the Hedgehog is probably the most amazing thing ever. Fast, unique, and absolutely gorgeous, graphically. Even though I struggle to make it past Marble Zone, I am absolutely enamored with the game, and after the movie is over and the night winds down, I can't stop talking about it to my family.
I never play my brother's copy of Sonic ever again. Not only because I never go in to his room, but because within the next 6 months or so, my brother moves out. A fire is stoked within me: I need to play more Sonic. Every opportunity I get, I sit on store demo kiosks playing Sonic 1, until the game was eventually rotated off for whatever other games Sega was pushing.
I ask for a Sega Genesis for my birthday in 92 and am rebuffed. For Christmas, I am presented with a Super Nintendo instead. Sonic 2 has just come out. I do that thing where I'm trying not to seem ungrateful for the $200 gift I've been given, but I wanted to play more Sonic. I think this denial is a key aspect to establishing why I ended up so connected to Sonic as a franchise. Ahab hunted his white whale, I wanted a blue hedgehog. It was turning in to an obsession. And it was made worse by the fact that when I did get a chance to play the game, it was never for more than 10 minutes tops.
I made the best of my SNES. Super Mario World was a great game. I loved Super Mario All-Stars - it was my first opportunity to play SMB3. The SNES was a great system. At the same time, though, I was constantly trying to find Nintendo equivalents to Sonic. Aero the Acrobat, Bubsy, Rocky Rodent, Konami's Tiny Toons game, even tangential stuff like Alfred Chicken were all catching my eye. But, as I immersed myself in the "Mascots with Attitude" fad, none of them even came close to replicating Sonic the Hedgehog.
This went on for nearly two years - until 1994 rolls around. I pick up my first videogame magazine ever, an issue of Gamepro with Hulk on the cover, because they proudly proclaim they have a full color strategy guide for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. That issue of Gamepro is the first magazine I ever buy. I pour over the strategy guide, memorizing every inch of the game. By the time I go play Sonic 3 on store demo kiosks, I know every stage inside and out, backwards and forwards. My Mother, finally taking notice that maybe this Sonic the Hedgehog "thing" isn't going away, awards me a Sega Genesis for Christmas that year with my very own copy of Sonic 3.
...Of course, by now, Sonic & Knuckles is out. Sonic 1 may have been what sparked all of this, but it was the might of Sonic 3 & Knuckles that really solidified the whole thing.
Summer 1995 was a beautiful thing. Me and one of my best friends took turns renting Sonic & Knuckles from the local video store, as we both owned copies of Sonic 3. When one of us took it back, the other would head out and rent it. From there, it was a simple matter of going over to the other's house and playing it. We did that for weeks - beat the game with every character in every possible way. Sonic with all Super Emeralds. Sonic with just Chaos Emeralds. Sonic with no emeralds at all. What would the ending look like this time? We indulged ourselves.
And wouldn't you know it? I finally get a Sega Genesis right as the last "major" Sonic game comes out. The cycle of denial was about to begin again. I waited for Sonic X-Treme. Even bought a Sega Saturn with my own money -
the first console I'd ever done that with - and the game was canceled. It would be nearly four years until the next "real" Sonic game.
But I was hooked. I was inexorably linked not only to Sonic, but gaming as a whole. It had become a major part of my life. Now, I write for one of the biggest Sega news blogs on the internet as their lead reviews editor. I get all the Sonic games I have consoles for. Sure, Sonic may not be anywhere near as good as he was back in the mid 90's, but at least I'm not being denied anything anymore.
