Fast Facts For “Adventures of Sonic”
by Emily Nagle
Happy 29th anniversary to “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog”! On this day in 1993, the first-ever television series based on SEGA’s flagship franchise had its first broadcast on ABC, where it would air for two years before showing reruns on other channels, including USA Network and Toon Disney. Now, all episodes of the show are available to watch for free on Galxy!
To celebrate nearly three decades since Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s television debut, here are 3 fast facts about the nostalgic series starring the speedy blue hedgehog!
It originated Sonic’s love for chili dogs
Fans of the Sonic franchise probably know by now that the hedgehog is a sucker for a good chili dog – the food been featured in several games as a power-up item, and Sonic can be spotted enjoying the dish in other media, including Cartoon Network’s Sonic Boom series and the comic adaptations. But did you know this trait was first introduced not with the first video game in 1991, but two years later, in one of the earliest episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog?
At the end of the second episode of the series, Subterranean Sonic, Spelunk the mole buys Sonic and Tails chili dogs after the three of them escape an underground cave. The food makes appearances in several other later episodes, including in “Robotnikland”, where Tails gives Sonic a chili dog with a candle in it for his birthday.
It’s a niche Internet meme
In the early 2000s, years after “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” ended, viewers began to find enjoyment in it for an unusual reason. The series became one of the earliest sources for Internet memes and YouTube mashups, most likely due to its familiar characters being placed in absurd situations. Users love heavily editing clips of the show, piling on wacky effects and throwing in assets from other media. Even over a decade later, memes based on the show continue to be uploaded to YouTube.
These videos are an art form. Some of the spins on the trend are pretty creative – a few people have even made original songs with instrumentals created entirely from episode clips! My personal favorite song I’ve heard is probably “Getaway Submarine”.
It received a spin-off video game
However, it was nothing like the platform-style games the franchise is best known for. Instead, it was more like “Tetris” with characters from the Sonic series.
Titled “Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine”, the game is an alternate version of the Japanese puzzle game “Puyo Puyo”, which is another game series by Sega. The company was concerned the concept wouldn’t be as popular with Western audiences, so they inserted characters from “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog”, hoping the familiar characters would attract people to the game.
Sega even created a story for the relatively simple game of colorful beans falling from above: Dr. Robotnik has kidnapped and enslaved the citizens of Beanville, and it’s up to the player to free them. It was originally released for the Sega Genesis in 1993, but has since been ported to Steam, where it can now be played on MacOS, Windows, or Linux.