Sonic the Hedgehog

A side-scrolling platform game released by Sega for the Mega Drive in 1991. Players control Sonic, a blue hedgehog, racing at high speed through its stages. The music was composed by Masato Nakamura.

Production officially began in April 1990 and lasted about 14 months, with a team of seven at Sega: two programmers, two sound engineers and three designers.

Developer

Sonic Team

Publisher

Sega

Using only the D-pad and a single jump button, players run through six zones of three acts each, collecting rings for protection and seeking the Chaos Emeralds.

Platform

Mega Drive

CPU

Motorola 68000 @ 7.6 MHz + Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz (sound)

Media

ROM cartridge

Bits (period term)

16-bit

Platform specifications are sourced on the console page.

Japan

26 Jul 1991[1]

North America — Genesis

23 Jun 1991[2]

Designer

Hirokazu Yasuhara

Composer

Masato Nakamura

Credits are limited to what the sources state.

• GAME1990

  Super Famicom

  F-Zero

  F-ZERO

  Release

  JP 1990.11.21

  Dev

  Nintendo EAD

  Genre

  Racing

• GAME1990

  Super Famicom

  Super Mario World

  スーパーマリオワールド

  Release

  JP 1990.11.21

  Dev

  Nintendo EAD

  Genre

  Platformer / Action

• GAME1992

  Super Famicom

  Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

  ストリートファイターII

  Release

  JP 1992.06.10

  Dev

  Capcom

  Genre

  Fighting

The Genesis/Mega Drive version sold over 15 million copies, making it the platform's best-selling game (English Wikipedia).

Series: Sonic the Hedgehog

This page uses no box art or screenshots, because their rights cannot be individually verified. The background artwork is an abstract pattern generated from the title's data. Credits for the platform photograph are on the console page.