The Birth of Sonic the Hedgehog as we know him (though sadly, not as we know him today) basicly started in 1989. Though it is best to start a little earlier to fully understand what was going on. In 1933, Americans, Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedasc wrote a movie that would use state of the art model work combined with live action. It featured a classic story, which while not 100% original, earned it's own right as an original story and has since been copied. It also featured a number of the big names of the day which helped it not only get good ratings at the time, but stand up to the test of time itself and has since been remade a number of times. This film was about a giant ape named King Kong and was how the American ideal would take a natural wonder and there greed would end up destroying it. Years later, in 1981, recently-hired Nintendo employee Shigeru Miyamoto was commissioned to make an arcade game based on the popular cartoon version of 'Popeye the Sailor Man'. The Licensing deal fell through and Miyamoto was allowed to carry on the game in his own direction. Miyamoto created the villain character 'Donkey Kong', taking the name 'Kong' from King Kong and 'Donkey' from, in fact, a mule for being stubborn.
Donkey Kong Arcade Screenshot
The Game took many themes from the original film in the way that A Big ape (with the name 'Kong') captured the lovely girl Pauline (who did seam to look a little like King Kong Star Fray Wray). Jumpman had to save her by climbing up a hazardous construction site and jump over, and hammer any problems in his way. For Nintendo, this was there first Arcade hit and allowed them to take a large lead over Sega. The game was also the first to feature more then the simple run and jump style game, but had platforms that you climbed up. When the game was being made ready for the US market, names like 'Jumpman' didn't translate well so they decided to call him 'Mario'.
In 1982 Universal studios sent a letter to Nintendo telling them that the character of Donkey Kong and the theme of the game was copying there 1933 Horror film 'King Kong'. They demanded the immediate discontinuation of the game and character of Donkey Kong and Royalties from past sales. Nintendo Refused and Universal filed a lawsuit against Nintendo of American on 29th of June, 1982. Almost all the company's that where marketing the Donkey Kong characters quickly ended their contacts with Nintendo. In the resulting trial, Nintendo was found not guilty as the copyright had expired and was now legally in the public domain, thus Universal could have no claim on the King Kong character of the themes from the movie. In 1985, Nintendo Sued Universal for scaring away there clients and Universal was ordered to pay Nintendo $1.8 Million Dollars to make up for lost revenues. As a Result of his performance, Leading Nintendo Defence Lawyer Howard Lincoln, was made President of Nintendo America.
After the hit work on Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr was made. Maybe based partly on the 1933 sequel 'Son of Kong', This game carried on from where the last one ended. Mario had defeated and captured the 'Evil' Donkey Kong and now it was up to Kongs Son 'Donkey Kong Jr' to save him. More then the platform game the first one had created, this game had moving platforms for DKJR to stand on, as well as Vines to climb and swing from. This game had done well, but not quite as well as the original. So Nintendo decide to make one more, Donkey Kong 3. Donkey Kong was back into being the bad guy and Stanley (information is a bit hazy on if it was new character Stanley, how looked difference from Mario, or a partly remade Mario) had to stop him. Unlike the last two game,s this was more of a shooter in which you had to shoot Donkey Kong, forcing him up and more to beat him. This game didn't do well at all and it was decided to forget about the character and look at Mario. Apart from small guest roles by DKJR, Donkey Kong didn't reappear in Nintendo until 1994.
Now Mario was the star, the game returned to the style of the first, however Mario was now a Plumber. In 1983, Something had gone wrong with the Sewers of Brookyln, New York, and odd-looking monsters started to appear. It was up to Expert Plumbers, Mario and his Brother Luigi to save there home town. Very much like Donkey Kong, This game had a few levels that you could climb and you had to defeat monsters that came down at you (much like the Barrels in Donkey Kong), There were however a number of changes. The game style changed yet again in 1985, when Super Mario Brothers came out. Mario had found out the source of the monsters and travelled to the Mushroom kingdom to find out that Bowser, King of the Koopas, had invaded and turned everyone into stone.
Japanese Arcade Flyer for Fantasy Zone
At this point, Sega were starting to get a little worried. To fight back and hope to regain control of the Arcade Market, they created Fantasy Zone, which was then ported to there 'better' Version of the NES, the Master System. In Fantasy Zone, you took control of a Sentient Spaceship named Opa-Opa how had to fight invading enemies in a scrolling shooter style game. unlike Mario, which tried for Bright colours, this game had much more pastel like shades. This game did well, and Opa-Opa was made Sega Mascot, as well as being popular enought to be ported to a wide range of consoles, including the NES, and it have it's own sequel, but it still couldn't take the market away that was being held by Mario. In 1986, Sega tried again with a more Mario like character, a young boy with big ears called Alex Kidd. Alex Kidd fought though colourful scrolling levels, full of platforms and smashable blocks, much like Mario. One of the main points in the game was the Janken boss Fights. Janken (more commonly known as Rock-Paper-Scissors) was how Alex Kidd fought and defeated the 3 henchmen of Janken the Great, and then Janken himself. Outside of Japan, Alex Kidd became the unofficial Sega Mascot but it wasn't enough to beat Mario, how was still in the lead. The Sega Mark III (Known outside of Japan as the Sega Master System) was doing well but couldn't beat the Famicon (NES) and support in Japan (as well as new game) ended in 1989.
Alex kidd from The Enchanted Castle
Alex Kidd Was created by Sega Staff member Kotaro Hayashida (more commonly known as Ossale Kohta) how had joined the R&D department of Sega in 1983. Alex Kidd lived on the planet Aries and since a young age, had been studing the ancient art of Shellcore. Shellcore could give it's uses the ability to break rocks into pieces with there bare hands. As the Manual tells you, the story is set many centuries ago and for seven years, Alex had been living on Mt. Eternal studying Shellcore. One day, he was leaving on a trip to his spiritual homeland when he found an old man dying. The man told him that thte peaceful City of Radactian was in grave danger and gave Alex a piece of a map and a medallion made of Sun Stone. To understand the importances of these items and to save Radactian, Alex had to travel all though the miracle world of Aries. After Miracle world became a small hit (not as big as mario, however, due to limited success of the Master System) they created other games for him to star in. In 1987 was Alex Kidd: BMX Trial, in 1988 was Alex Kidd: the Lost stars, in 1989 was Alex Kidd in High Tech World and Alex Kidd in The Enchanted Castle, and finally, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World in 1990. Though most of his games were Arcade or Master System, he did have the Enchanted Castle released for MegaDrive. This, mixed with the lack of story following from one game to the next, created problems and Alex Kidd never made it quite as big as Mario had. Kotaro Hayashida himself, had gone on to have better success though working on and sometimes creating hit games such as Phantasy Star, Zillion, Space Harrier, Shining Force and Grandia.
With things not quite making it to beat Mario and Nintendo, Sega decide there was only one thing left. Instead of doing another Arcade game and then porting it to the Console, the decided to create a New Mascot and Début him on there well doing New console, the Sega MegaDrive. In 1989, Sega had an In-house contest to create and pick a new mascot. Many designers and artists of Sega entered numerous characters for the job. Later, the finalists where put onto a Demo Tape showing off them and their moves. Out of this, three characters appeared to have been picked. The New Mascot and Hero of Sega was reviled on the 7th of November, 1990 on the Dreams Come True Band tour for the album 'Wonder 3'. Composer Masato Nakamura was set to compose the music for the game and so there tour was the perfect place to show off the new Character. At first, the game seamed to follow Mario fairly closely. Sonic the Hedgehog would have to save his human Girlfriend Madonna from the Evil Doctor Eggman by fighting though levels of nightmare monsters. As things more on, Many factors of this game were dropped and Sonic move away and beyond that of Mario. Sonic wouldn't have a human girlfriend to save, he would be there just to save the world, Where Mario was slow, Sonic was fast, where Mario had to collect many power ups to help him, Sonic just needed to use his quick wits and skills. A idea that again showed how different Sonic was, was that Sonic wouldn't just defeat this enemies, like Mario did, but his Enemies would be the animals and creatures of the planet, trapped by the Evil Doctor Robotnik, and for each one he stopped, another of his friends would be freed. There were, of course, a number of factors the same. Mario Collected Gold Coins, but this only helped boost the game score, Sonic had to Collect Golden Rings which, not only helped for the score, but would protect him from an enemy attack. The game made sure to one-up almost everything that Mario had done.
Sonic The Hedgehog From Sonic The Hedgehog (MD)
In 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog was released on the Sega MegaDrive and was a big hit, taking back the game market from Nintendo and putting it safely in the hands of Sega. However, during the years, Mario and Sonic would fight it out, as Nintendo and Sega would never have major control of the markets and would keep shifting control. In 1992, Sonic was giving a side-kick to work with, Miles 'Tails' Prower, that would rival Luigi in many ways. Not only was he NOT Sonic's Brother, but unlike the mostly useless Luigi, Tails would have a special skill that would forever help Sonic, his ability to Fly. Over the years, more friends and enemies would join them and Sonic would show how much of a rival he really was. Mario had a number of TV Cartoons that did fairly well, So to did Sonic, but unlike Mario, he wouldn't have to share his Cartoon Fame with another.
Report writen by Manic Man.
For more information on Changes to Sonic 1, see the Sonic the Hedgehog game page for the Sega MegaDrive. For More information on the Other characters for the Concept art contest, see the Article 'Concept Art Sonic' in the Games Articles section.
