sonic the hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog Sonikku za Hejjihoggu trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega as well as in numerous spin off comics cartoons and a feature film The first game was released on June 23 1991 to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo s flagship character Mario see 1991 in video gaming 3 4 Since then Sonic has become one of the world s best known video game characters with his series having sold more than 80 million copies 5 In 2005 many individuals at Sega had a hand in Sonic s creation programmer Yuji Naka and artist Naoto shima are generally credited with the creation of the character 7 a blue 15 year old anthropomorphic hedgehog who has the ability to run at supersonic speeds and the ability to curl into a ball primarily to attack enemies This is a major part of the gameplay of the series