literature

Sonic's 20th - My Story

Deviation Actions

berrywhitesnow's avatar
Published:
1.7K Views

Literature Text

It all started back in 1991. To be more precise, the summer of 1991. It was June 23rd that marked the birth of Sonic the Hedgehog, a little blue short-spiked hedgehog that ran fast, destroyed robots, rescued his friends and stopped the evil nemesis Dr Robotnik. Sonic became a gaming icon very quickly, and with his success, SEGA continued to make more and more games starring their mascot.


... I really don't need to say that, any Sonic fan knows it already.

Basically... this is my story of how Sonic influenced my life. He changed me as a person, he made me who I am. And with Sonic Generations coming out next week, the official 20th anniversary celebration, I thought: "Why not make a text-written tribute this time, and really put your heart into it, Ami?" So here I am.

Let's start over.

Sonic the Hedgehog was created in 1991, 5 years before I was born. And after I was born and grew older, I definitely became aware of him. My childhood friends were always running around with Sonic items, and at the time, I didn't think much of it. When I grew older, about 8, I was playing by myself one day and then the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series appeared on the screen. All I could think at the time was: "Does Sonic still look like that? I swear he had green eyes..." At this point, bear in mind that Sonic was not a huge influence. But there was definitely an interest. This interest grew when my sister received Sonic Heroes - the first Sonic game we ever had, and I loved watching her play it. Everything seemed so... bright and different than the other games (I don't know whether this will be shocking or not, but one of the first video games series I was introduced to was Tomb Raider) I'd known, and next to Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Croc, Sonic gained a place in my favourite video game series.

This was before I actually came to love the character himself.

Years on, when I was about 11, Sonic Underground snapped onto the screen. Again, my thoughts were blunt and short: "Are they still showing this? People must still love it..."
But again, that interest grew.

The complete change took place in 2009.

Whilst skimming through various YouTube videos for anime, I noticed a Sonic X video. I never noticed that they'd made an anime. So after watching it, I remember giggling and thinking: "It's a shame I didn't watch this when I was younger. But at least everything makes sense now that I'm older!" And then, that was pretty much it. I went through the cutscenes in the games (and then became a die-hard Modern fan), and I learnt the stories. I learnt who the characters were - Shadow, Amy, Knuckles, Big, Blaze, Silver, Eggman, Espio, Rouge, and all the side and one-time characters too: Jet, Wave, Storm, Omega, Chip, Shahra, Merlina, Erazor, the Black Knight, Caliburn, Tikal, Yacker and the Wisps, etc.

But the one guy who stood out the most was Sonic himself.

I'm aware of the fact that most video game protagonists are portrayed with deep, considerate personalities, that look out for the injured and never stop at anything. But Sonic was different.

I became obsessed after that - Sonic had changed my life.

Just before I'd got into Sonic, I was kinda reclusive on dA, which I think some of you may remember. I complained, I didn't really think, I didn't try.

But after my reunion with the Blue Blur, I became who I am now - hopefully an energetic, considerate girl who wants the best for people. I realised how important life was because of Sonic, and I've met so many fantastic people too. Most of my friends on here stemmed from being a fan of Sonic, my dearest friends like:

- Rainbowgal (Actually THE first friend I made who was a Sonic fan)
- MagicBats (My new sister on here, who loves Sonic as much as I do. We have endless conversations about him)
- HafuInuyasha (Probably the one guy who relates to Sonic the most - trust me, he acts just like him, which I think is just AMAZING.)
- SonicRocksMySocks (Her art inspires me and encourages me to carry on. It was because of Sonic that I was able to find out about this amazing girl)

I apologise if I've left anyone out, but I'm honestly so lucky to have met you guys. I love you all so much.




And as the years go, things change, sadly.

Actually, one of the first things I had to learn about, and am actually pretty disappointed with - the Sonic fanbase.

Guys, we are disgraceful. What fans are we, if we yell at SEGA every time they release a Sonic game? In my opinion, if you don't like it, just ignore the game and focus on the ones you enjoyed! You can hardly call yourself a fan if you hated every single one of them! Do bear in mind that I'm not talking about every Sonic fan - there are people I know and believe in who support both Sonic and SEGA no matter what, even if his eyes are green. (Which I don't have a problem - I have a thing for green eyes XD)

But in terms of change, there was a point for me where even I, who pledged my loyalty, considered my future as a Sonic fan. It was in 2009 still - and SEGA had announced Sonic 4. "Hang on, he's going 2D again? I'm alright with that, but... Is SEGA just giving into the fans? Are they not happy anymore?" I also considered our poor Sonic. If he existed in our world, how would he deal with this? I noticed that SEGA had not been that happy. I felt so incredibly sorry for them.

But nevertheless, Sonic 4 was released, and things were still okay. Sonic 4 appeared to be successful, so things were fine for now.

And THEN came the fantastic year of 2010 - And the BEAUTIFUL Sonic Colours was announced. I couldn't help but cheer at it's arrival. "SEGA haven't given up - Sonic lives on!" During the summer, I was pumped up and jumping up and down for Sonic Colours - surely this meant things were okay?

And then came the announcement - Sonic's voice actors were changing. That made my heart stop slightly. I had fallen in love with Sonic's voice actors of that time - Jason Griffith was just fantastic, as were the others. I loved listening to his voice - it was one of the things that made Sonic unique. So to hear this was quite shocking, and once again made me wonder about how much longer this "pledge" was gonna last.

"... Get over it, Amilyn. Think of Sonic."

So I smiled and wished Jason and the others good luck with their future careers. I knew I was gonna miss them, but in the end, I couldn't do anything about it. My heart still thumped with hope for Sonic Colours.

November drew round, and I was ever-the-more excited. And when the first cutscene was released, I clicked "Play", trembling. What was Roger gonna sound like? Is Tails the same? I couldn't look.

"I did a little shopping, grabbed a bite to eat, and trashed a giant killer robot!"

... What? Whose voice was THAT?

I looked at the screen - it was Sonic. And his voice was MAGNIFICENT. At that moment a smile appeared on my face and my worries had vanished. I smiled throughout the whole cutscene - and Sonic smiled back when he broke the fourth wall.
When Colours was released, I LOVED IT. It was PERFECT - the cutscenes were funny, the story was light-hearted, the whole atmosphere was just so lovely. It was everything I'd hoped for. And it was as if nothing had changed at all.

Sonic was still Sonic.

Spinning round to the now, Sonic Generations was announced at the beginning of summer. I was quite curious as to what SEGA would do - would they release another main-story game, would they redo Sonic 1, would they change Sonic completely...?

...Oh my God, it's CLASSIC SONIC! Where did you come from?

But don't make the mistake of thinking I was horrified! Seeing Modern and Classic Sonic together brought it all forward for me - this is what it's all about.

Classic Sonic - the first, the adorable, the brave little hero that everyone knew back then!

Modern Sonic - the beautiful, the cocky, the loyal, the honest, faithful saviour. The Sonic of nowadays, the Sonic I love.

And I fell in love instantly when I saw the trailer for Generations - I thought about it all Summer.

And now that I'm a year away from college, it made me think: "Wow, time has FLOWN. It's Sonic's 20th, and I'm 16 in February."

"... Why am I suddenly 16? I swear I was only just 13 a little while ago..."

Anyway, as more and more Sonic Generations updates came, I've just been endlessly jumping for joy. Rejoicing Modern and Classic - it's perfect! I seriously cannot WAIT.






... I'm not what others would call a Sonic fan. I don't own the games or the merchandise. I DO love the Classic games - but Modern was the era I fell in love with to begin with.


And yes, I love Sonic with green eyes.


But does that matter? To me, a fan is someone who sticks by their idol no matter what, through the good and the bad. Sonic's had ups and downs, he's had falls and get-ups. But haven't we all?

He isn't the same as his past - but none of us are.
He's not perfect - but no one is.
Yes, sometimes things change - that's just life.

Main point I'm trying to get across - Sonic is just like us. You can't expect him to be perfect because none of us are perfect. I appreciate the fact that people have their own opinions, but we shouldn't be causing wars over them.

So here's to you, Sonic. You're different, but you're also the same as us. You've changed a lot of us, you inspire us, you make us smile. You cheer us up when we're down, you're there for us no matter what.

And hey, I'm just a 15-year-old girl, and I don't appear to be the huge fan that I am - you wouldn't know if you've just met me. But hopefully my affection is enough to class me as a "fan".

This is your year, Blue Boy.

Have a great 20th, Sonic the Hedgehog.

<3
LONG ESSAY, pretty self-explanatory.

I'm sorry guys, I just really needed to get this out of my system.

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY, SONIC. :love:
© 2011 - 2024 berrywhitesnow
Comments44
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In