Sonic Generations

Guess what chaps? You're old!

Yeah, so are we. It hurts right? Sonic the Hedgehog officially turns 20 this year. Many of us will remember his first appearances in the 8 and 16bit days, unless you're a hipster in which case that's still happened for you right now.

Originally created by Japanese programmers Yuji Naka and artist Naoto Ōshima, after they had been tasked to come up with a mascot to rival everybody's favourite plumber. Cue lots of drawings being sent to games magazines of old with Sonic killing Mario and vice versa! Ahh... memories.

To commemorate us all getting on a bit, discussing how things were different back in our day and being another year closer to getting our Freedom Pass, Sega are releasing Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. We've also been given some factoids on Sonic, to blow our tiny minds away.

1. Sonic is fifteen years old and has never aged
2. Sonic runs faster than the speed of light and is officially the fastest videogame character of all time (Guinness Book of Records)
3. Over 70 million games have been sold worldwide
4. "Project Needlemouse" was the name given to the Sonic project
5. An estimated 60 million people have played at least one Sonic game
6. Sonic was voted number one video gaming icon of all time* (msn poll 2009)
7. Sonic’s shoes were inspired by Santa Claus’ shoes and the colour red for speed and fire
8. Sonic originally had a girlfriend called Madonna and was in a rock band
9. Sonic's first ever appearance was a humble one - as a toy hanging from the rear-view mirror in the little-known arcade racing game Rad Mobile
10. Eight million Sonic boxed products sold in 2010
11. Five million Sonic titles sold digitally over the last four years
12. Sonic has starred in his own line of comics and in four animated TV series
13. Sega sponsored the Williams Grand Prix team, and the team's lead driver, Alain Prost during the 1993 Formula One championship
14. Sonic fans have collected over 70 billion rings between them
15. Sonic was the first video game character to have a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
16. Sonic has made cameos in various games including, The Simpsons Game, The Incredible Hulk, and Tom and Jerry: The Movie. He also featured in The Simpsons show
17. Sonic has appeared in over 65 games
18. Sonic has his own Rollercoaster ( the number one family friendly ride at Alton Towers)
19. Sonic’s favourite food is chilli dogs
20. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games sold 3.7 million units in the UK

Still with us? Good stuff. It's hard to believe that two decades later, Sonic is still flinging himself around on our screens, with no regard whatsoever for his own personal safety. We're all looking forward to his return in Sonic Generations, coming out later this year.

For more info, keep your eyes directed in our general direction, or check out the official Sonic Generations website, right here!

Follow @IBringTheFunk