Sonic The Hedgehog Speeds Through 25 Years

If you were on the cusp of your teenage years in 1991, chances are you were listening to grunge, playing Sonic the Hedgehog with school buddies on the SEGA Genesis, or maybe doing both at the same time! Millions of us raced the 16-bit hedgehog at supersonic speeds through six zones - plus special stages - giving Dr. Robotnik (before he was known as Eggman) a run for his money.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the first-ever Sonic the Hedgehog video game. Each zone came with new challenges of bottomless pits, high-speed chicanes, and the jangle of scattered rings if you ran into buzz bombers! Our fondness for the blue blur grew with more games and new characters like Tails, Knuckles and Shadow the Hedgehog.

These days, Sonic’s success is played out on a variety of platforms, such as smartphones, handhelds, and consoles. On mobile, SEGA partners with AdMob to help monetize hugely popular titles such as Sonic Dash, balancing gameplay with our ad formats to provide a fantastic user experience. AdMob is used by more than 1 million apps to monetize, and you can learn more about how it could help your game with our guide to in-app advertising.

Now’s your chance to test your Sonic knowledge by taking a spin through our infographic. It’s part of a series, Game Stars (#AdMobGameStars), taking a look at classic video game titles through a Google lens. How fast does he run? What was his original name? Find out below!