The Old Mascots of SEGA
Yeah, I know this has nothing to do with Sonic, but I think Sonic fans should know about the seeds that led to the growth of the Sonic tree.
<<<--OPA-OPA
Opa-Opa is the first mascot, I believe. He's the star of a game called Fantasy Zone, where you control him and press the button to make Opa-Opa shoot any enemies that come at you(bro). Apparently, Opa-Opa is a spaceship. Opa-Opa has only been a playable character in the Fantasy Zone series and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing.
<<<--ALEX KIDD
Shortly after Opa-Opa's creation, SEGA created Alex Kidd. Alex Kidd became slightly popular, so SEGA replaced Opa-Opa with Alex, making him the new mascot. But he was only their mascot for 5 years. SEGA wasn't pleased with how terribly Alex was faring against Nintendo's mascot, Mario, which led to the conception of a new character that would take the world by storm: Sonic the Hedgehog. Alex has only been a playable character in the Alex Kidd series and in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing.
So that's how the Sonic truly originated. Just think...if Fantasy Zone or Alex Kidd was as popular a character as Sonic is now, Sonic would have never been thought of...
DR. ROBOTNIK/EGGMAN
Some think that Eggman and Robotnik are two different characters. If you think that, then you, my friend, are incorrect. Eggman is just the upgraded version of Dr. Robotnik, as shown in Sonic Generations. At the very end, in the cutscene before facing the menacing Time Eater, it shows Eggman and Robotnik discussing their "brilliant" plan, and Eggman calls Robotnik his "past self" or somethin' like that. Hence Robotnik and Eggman are the same person.
The doctor's real name is, in fact, Ovi Kintobor, which if reversed, spells Ivo Robotnik, the name we all know Dr. R by now. Dr. Robotnik first became Dr. Eggman in America in the Sega Dreamcast game, Sonic Adventure. The Japanese manuals refer to him as Eggman ever since Sonic the Hedghog(1991).
The evil villian we all know as Dr. Eggman originally looked even more rediculous than he does now. Early concept for SEGA's new mascot's villian shows a wizard or clown like character that strongly resembles classic Robotnik...in the weight and face anyways.
Note how he wears old lady slippers lol.
Sonic CDTime to write pointless info on my fav classic game, Sonic CD!Sonic CD is an important game, because it introduced two important characters: Metal Sonic and Rosy the Rascal, or as we now know her, Amy Rose. The basic storyline to the game: Robotnik's up to no good again, so Sonic goes to stop him. Then in the second zone, we meet Rosy the Rascal, the Sonic-obsessed hedgehog. If you walk up to her, she clings worse than a magnet, so you have to run to shake her off. Then you keep proceeding, and Metal Sonic breaks some blocks. clearing your path, but also kidnaps Rosy. So you have to go find and defeat both Robotnik and Metal Sonic to save Rosy.METAL SONICMetal Sonic is basically just Sonic's metal doppleganger. He became rather important after CD, appearing in 18 different games. He has different forms, such as Metal Sonic Kai, the final boss in Knuckles' Chaotix, Neo Metal Sonic, the main antagonist of Sonic Heroes, & Metal Overlord, the final form in Sonic Heroes.ROSY THE RASCAL
Rosy the Rascal, or Amy Rose, as she's known now, is the Sonic-obsessed character. As stated before, she clings to you if you get to close. CD, Sonic Drift, and Sonic Drift 2 are Rosy/Amy's only appearances in the classic era. After CD, the next appearance(excluding the cheat to get her dancing in Chaotix) is Sonic Adventure, when they redesigned every character. Out of all the redesigns, Rosy/Amy's is the most drastic.
Classic Amy ^^^
Modern Amy ^^^^Big differenceSo the big breakdown on all of this shizz is that Sonic CD has really good graphix, sound, and gameplay. If you wanna get the ROM for it, make sure its Japanese!!! It's music sounds moar better :3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRKh5qGJv3Y best song in the classic Sonic era :3
Mighty the Armadillo
I thought I'd stick with the "forgotten characters" dealy, so here's Mighty. Mighty has only been in 2 not-so-popular games, Knuckles Chaotix on the Sega 32x, and SegaSonic Arcade, a Japanese Arcade game. People think that Mighty is sort of linked to Sonic in some way or another. Before explaining why, background information must be given.
Knuckles Chaotix is a game where you pick one character, and then pick another using "the Combi Catcher", which is basically a giant claw machine, and similar to the claw machine mini-game in Kirby's Adventure. The gameplay itself is what most players don't like. The ring dipicted above^in Mighty's pic is what tethers you to your combi, the second player(which is a COM player if you don't play with another living being). So if you move, the other character has to move too, unless you press the hold button making the other character hold his ground, preventing you from running.
Now, there's a failed game that's the exact same as Chaotix, called Sonic Crackers. The difference? Instead of Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, Knuckles the Echidna, & Mighty the Armadillio, its just Sonic and Tails. The weird thing is, if you look at Sonic's sprites for Sonic Crackers, and Mighty's for Chaotix, they match up, as shown below.
"The absence of Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character in Chaotix resulted in a lot of speculation from various members of the community, which often resulted in questioning whether Sonic was ever planned for Chaotix. Furthermore, the speculation is fueled with the presence of leaked games such as Sonic Crackers, which offers a similar gameplay engine to Chaotix, except with Sonic and Tails as the only playable characters. However, careful observation proves that Sonic may not be entirely absent from this game. Mighty the Armadillo is one of the available characters in Chaotix, who shares a lot of the behavior of Sonic in Sonic Crackers.As the sprite sheet above demonstrates, nearly all of Mighty's poses match up with Sonic's poses from Sonic Crackers, and occasionally Sonic the Hedgehog CD. Likewise, some of the unused poses in Sonic Crackers match up with Sonic."
That is a direct quote from Sonic Retro, my favorite site for news on Sonic games and Sonic Information. Just look at the falling Sonic/Mighty and the standing still Sonic/Mighty. You don't even have to strain your eye to see that Mighty's sprite look the exact same as Sonic's in the classic 2D Sonic games. Remember Labyrinth zone in Sonic 1? Remember sliding down the waterfalls? Mighty's sprite's the EXACT same. Coinkydink? I think not.
Ray the Flying Squirrel
I think that Ray is the most forgotten character in the history of Sonic. I mean, he's only been in one game, SegsSonic Arcade, a Japanese arcade game. And seeing as this was in the 90's, arcade games were dying out, cause home consoles were replacing them, which means that only the Japanese kids with no NES, SNES, Genesis, Master System, ETC, could/would play it. So that's not too many people =/ The only reason I've played it is because I got a MAME(arcade system) emulator and downloaded the ROM.
There's not too much info about Ray, which is normal for one-timers, or characters that are only in one game. He's just the long lost character, dying to be put into a game again....
Tails first appeared in one of the greatest Genesis games of all time, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. On the Game Gear/Master System version, its Sonic's job to save him from Dr. Robotnik, as Sonic's shown chasing Robotnik as he flies away in his Eggmobile, holding Tails by his tails on the pre-start screen of the game. From there he appears in almost every other game as Sonic's sidekick. He's even had 3 of his own games. Tails' Adventure(Game Gear), Tails' Sky Patrol(Game Gear), and Tails and the Music Maker(SEGA Pico).
Heck, without Tails, Sonic would've never repaired the Earth in Sonic Unleashed, seeing as it was broken up into 6 or 7 pieces. 2 acts of the game involved the Tornado 1.
All in all, Tails is the best sidekick in the games. We can all agree that he's less annoying than Slippy Toad in Starfox. :3
The Old Mascots of SEGA
