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According to Al Nelson, former marketing director of Sega Corporation, there was a time in the United States in the early 1990s when Sonic the hedgehog was more popular than Mickey Mouse. His conclusions are based on a score called a "Q score" or "quotient score." The score is defined by a company called Marketing Evaluations, which measures and ranks consumers' love and familiarity with a brand.
Of course, Sega also targeted Nintendo and its mascot Mario at that time: the contrast and competition between the consoles and game characters of the two companies has been around for decades. However, Alan Beth Van Busck Nap, former director of marketing services at Sega in the United States, said that Mickey Mouse was the "golden figure" that everyone sought after at that time. She said that in that era, Mario was not too far behind Disney's Mickey Mouse, and was generally the second most popular and recognizable character.
"The higher an item or person's Q score, the more respected it is." "We tried very hard to improve our Q scores, and at first it meant we had to win over traditional marketers," Knapp said. I remember at a Coca-Cola company meeting where their chief marketing director took 10 minutes to listen to our proposal. The project didn't work out, but when we put Sonic on cereal boxes and children's meal boxes, his fame began to soar."
At the time when Sonic was the most popular, it had reached the top spot. Sonic is everywhere: games are unquestionably blockbusters; he stars cartoons, mcDonald's happy children's meals are his toys; his face is decorated on cereal boxes; his huge blue body flies high over the Thanksgiving parade.
However, he did not last long in the top position. Sega gradually struggled to maintain the quality level and consistency of Sonic-related content, and gradually lost the competitiveness of hardware manufacturers, which further hit Sonic's reputation. At the same time, Nintendo has achieved one success after another with Mario.
Nintendo has a clear and concise vision of Mario, and his story is as solid as a rock. But Sega took a very different approach to its role, trying whatever it wanted to see which would work, but unfortunately many of the attempts did not come to fruition.
But the chaos of Sonic's IP and Sega's innovative attempts at Sonic — including multimedia collaborations, movies, and TV shows — have left the blue hedgehog with a unique reputation. Mario may have "won" the console war, but Sonic gained something even more important: our hearts.
Sonic the Hedgehog was created by Naoto Oshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara in the early 90s, when Sega and Nintendo were vying for supremacy in the gaming market. Sega wanted to have a mascot like Mario to help boost sales of games and consoles. Sonic's origin story has long been spread: according to Tom Karinsk, the CEO of Sega, the original character version had a "plump girlfriend", with fangs on her face, and was also a member of a rock band.
The marketing team at the time persuaded Sega to get rid of his girlfriend, rock band and fangs to create a more friendly and still cool character. The game prototype showed how quickly Sonic could collect the Gold Ring, so the character's setting was finalized. Karinsk said: "I remember that he was called Sonic at this time, and we basically fell in love with the character and decided that he was the main game character of the company."
Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 conquered the market at the time. And Sega launched these two games in fact to compete with Nintendo. The two works have unique, colorful, and challenging advantages, but Sega fights Nintendo with Sonic's "cool elements" - if Mario is a cute and low brother, then Sonic is a cool kid. Sega's marketing team pushed the idea, directly advertising Nintendo as a toy for kids who aren't cool enough in advertising and mall tours, and in its infamous mall tour, Sega directly compared Sega Genesis's Sonic the Hedgehog to SNES's Super Mario World.
"Sonic shows speed and color like never before in a video game, and Super Mario looks a bit more conservative, so this juxtaposition isn't a level playing field." Knapp said, "Sonic is certainly better."
Knapp said she also wore Sonic's doll outfit during the then mall tour — small kids wanted to hug Sonic and teenagers wanted to celebrate with him.
"These kids see me as companions." "Actually, I was also warmly welcomed by teenagers," she said. So I got the first-hand feedback to Sega to drive IP. Although I didn't know how far we could go, I had a real vision."
The game was a success, and the marketing approach helped even more. Soon, Sonic was everywhere — on TV, McDonald's Happy Kids' Meals, shirts and shoes. Of course, he also became the first game character to take part in the Thanksgiving Parade at Macy's in New York in the form of a giant balloon, despite his bad reputation.
"Sonic's personality is cool, humorous and a little rebellious... It resonates in the Western world." Sega co-chief operating officer Shuji Uchikai told Reuters in February.
In the years that followed, though, the Sonic brand, along with Sega Saturn, was dragged down by bad games. Taking a step back, Sonic's transition from the previously beloved 2D platformer jump gameplay is challenging. While not all of the series' games were of poor quality, that was the beginning of the downward spiral of the Sonic brand. Everyone knows that Sonic is a 2D character who runs extremely fast, but his speed has not kept up with the replacement of the console.
Sonic X-treme was Sega's first attempt at the Sonic 3D game project, which was later canceled. It was supposed to be a game that transitioned between different generations of consoles.
"Sega's goal was to make Sonic 3D and take advantage of the opportunity to release new hardware." Sonic X-treme developer Christiansen told Polygon, "At the time, Sonic 3 and Sonic and Nacros were buzzing, both of which were hugely sought after and successful by fans."
Both Sega and Nintendo wanted to showcase their new hardware and advanced technology. Sonic's side didn't go as smoothly as expected, and after two years of development, the game was eventually cancelled in 1996. Sen, who later worked on Sonic Blast: Rising Poems, said the overall process of making a 3D version of Sonic was very difficult. Sonic's success lies in its robust 2D operation, which feels good to play.
"This key element is the cornerstone of the 2D game and its sequels." Sen said, "The introduction of a third dimension in the game has revolutionized the 2D control scheme. In particular, it is impossible to move easily when moving fast; players have to see far enough distances not to be stuck by obstacles, and it is very difficult to try to maintain that sense of free speed."
Of course, Sonic Adventure, which debuted in 3D on the Sega Dreamcast platform in 1998, is comparable to Nintendo's Mario Racing 64. It also had a similar success to Mario Racing: Sonic Adventure was a success for both Sega and Sonic characters. Even so, it didn't surpass Mario 64. Sonic was officially defeated.
Sega stopped producing consoles in 2001 and later merged with Marbles slot company Sammy Corporation. Sega still needs its main mascot, but it's no longer used to market consoles, so it tries some new ideas on Sonic, such as Sonic Pinball and Sonic 3D Big Bang, but its main game has begun to deviate from Sonic's original characteristics. In addition, Sega also encountered some technical problems when designing for third-party platforms.
After 2001, while Sega's Sonic games were somewhat successful, not all of the reasons for its fame were positive: Sonic played skateboarding in Microsoft Kinect's Sonic Free Race, or Sega replaced Sonic with the more avant-garde character Shatt the Hedgehog in Shadow of the Hedgehog. There's even the bad reviews of the 2006 version of Sonic the Hedgehog, in which Sonic kisses his human girlfriend (played by Lacey Chabert). There's also Sonic Blast: Rising Poem, a Wii U exclusive game sometimes called the worst Sonic game of all time. (The developer of Sonic Blast, who asked for anonymity in an interview, joked that he regarded Sonic's worst game developer as a badge of honor.) ）
A further game that unravels the character's image is Sonic World Adventures, in which Sonic transforms from a hedgehog into a werewolf-like animal called "Wolf Rope". Sega and the Sonic team tried everything, and while the game had some problems, they weren't all bad for Sega, because lessons were always learned. "The 2006 release of Sonic the Hedgehog tries to modernize the game." Justin Lambros, producer of Sonic the Hedgehog, told Polygon, "Studio Aaa was doing that [at the time]. We learned some lessons from these failures, including the strange reactions that caused by saving Sonic's kiss."
People don't want to see Sonic kissing human women, they want to see his speed. At the very least, they want to play a game that has no problems. The 2006 version of Sonic the Hedgehog, in addition to its unclear theme, is one of the few games in the history of the series that has underperformed. It's not impossible to play, but in 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog was criticized several times for its awkward camera angles and a series of bugs. When people talk about Sonic's failure, they always mention the 2006 version of Sonic the Hedgehog, which has become a consensus. Lambrose also witnessed this. He told Polygon that once he was giving a speech at his child's school, and a student asked him which of the worst games he had ever made, Lambrose didn't come up with an answer, while the other kid replied, "Is it Sonic the Hedgehog?"
David Corless, vice president of publishing at nDreams and director of global branding at Past Life, told Polygon that some of the games were really creative and might have helped Sonic save some face. Sonic World Adventures is one of them. While it's definitely not a success, it's brilliant — like the gorgeous graphics and gameplay, at least where Sonic isn't a wolf. Even the 2006 version of Sonic the Hedgehog has something remarkable about it — at least the soundtrack is pretty good, and the dark storyline is fun.
When Klees joined the team in 2010, he found that Sega's problem was that it needed to be clear about how to use the role, but not to let the IP go down by taking a wrong step.
The problem, Klees thinks, is that the character has been used to sell new peripherals or consoles, such as Wii U exclusives or Sonic Liberty Race on Kinect. "[Sonic] is a good character, but he's just using IP to sell peripherals," Corless said, "and what kind of Sonic games can you make to fit that peripheral?". We'll pay for you to do it." That's where Sonic was."
Kleis says that when he first joined the company, Sega did a year of research on the character of Sonic — who the audience was and how they saw it. Sonic is still beloved, it's just that he's been involved in too many projects.
"It did have an impact on the series," Lambrose said, "and I mean, while there have been some less popular games in the Mario series, they're not technically inferior or fall short of Nintendo standards." That's the interesting difference between developing a game for one platform."
Sega has admitted that Sonic is in some trouble. In 2015, Sega Games CEO Haruki Rimi said some titles "partially betrayed" the trust of players.
"We try our best to build a relationship of mutual trust with Sega's old fans," Satomi said, "but looking back, there have been some works over the past 10 years that have partially betrayed that trust."
Sonic: Carnival, which has been praised for its classic Sonic style, looks like one of the strategies to win back its fan base. But after all, Sonic is now more than just a video game mascot. He's a movie star: Sonic the Hedgehog, released in 2020 and starring Ben Schwartz, is the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2020. It's an interesting movie that is reminiscent of the original Sonic games and productions. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is expected to be released in April this year. After the success of the first film, there are already plans for a third film, as is the "Nacruz" spin-off starring Idris Elba.
Last year was the 30th anniversary of Sonic and his collections, and it was bound to catch up with this nostalgic wind. Mario, of course, has been celebrating his birthday, but Nintendo hasn't adopted similar marketing: he's still just Mario. But what about Sonic? He returned to Macy's Thanksgiving parade as an oversized balloon. He's also trying to become a virtual anchor and has a very funky Twitter account.
"That's the essence of Sonic: his speed, his attitude, his personality. We should keep this in mind as we look ahead and build new ideas in the future." Sonic team character designer Yuji Uekawa told Polygon in 2016.
Sonic's tortuous experiences weren't all bad for his image. He is now the underdog and is loved by many for his tortuous journey. The cultural impact he brings, even the bad parts, is at the heart of his story. To be precise, he withstood all the negative news of the past. Even if there weren't gaming masterpieces for a long time, people still loved Sonic: he had a brand new set of LEGO toys, Netflix series, and a new game! Sonic is thriving today. And what does Mario have now? "Star Lord" Chris Palat?
Translation: Yv
Edit: Tonkotsu ramen