Going Loco in Tokyo

Oringally Printed in Bad Influcene! Issue 2 (1992)
Click Here to View Oringal (Scanned by James Osborne and cleaned by Manic Man) (Extracts Featuring Sonic related information Only)

The first visit was to the research and development divison of Sega in the Tokyo suburb of Haneda where they met head of the Sonic project team, Mr. Kanari.

Meeting Mr Needle Mouse

There Richard and Violet saw the original drawings of Sonic The Hedgehog or "Mr.Needle Mouse" as he is known in Japanese (see below).
They also stumbled over a possible future Sega character when they noticed drawings of a female hedgehog, but that was where the secrecy surrounding Sega developments took over. When they later asked to see the drawings again, they were not available.
So who knows? Sonic 3 may be getting a girlfriend!


Sonic socks it to 'em...
Everyone who plays video games knows Sonic - one of the most popular game characters of the decade. But how was Sonic born?
Bad Influence! magazine tells all. Sega held a company-wide contest for all its employees who were asked to submit ideas for characters that would star in a new game and also become a new company mascot. They received 100 entries and the winner was produced by a 20-year-old graphic designer from Sega's Consumer Products Research and Development department. It was a blue hedgehog called Sonic.
Sonic was created to knock out Nintendo's top character Mario. Key points about him were that he was fast while Mario was slow; he was cheeky where Mario was a dodgy old man; he was cute enough to appeal to women and younger players but had a cheeky style and disrespect for authority that men and older players would like. And, of course, he was Sega Blue.
Sure that Sonic would be a success, Sega chose a special team of their best people to work on the project.
The response to Sonic was so great that a special international team was put together to work on Sonic 2. Japanese staff from the original team worked with staff from the Sega Technological Institue in California and most of the actual programming and design was done in the United States. The main goals for the Sonic 2 teamwere to make a game that two players could enjoy together and afterwards to add more characters to what is planned to become a Sonic family.
The result was Sonic's new friend, the two-tailed fox nicknamed Tails.

How it all began... These are the very first sketches of "Mr Needle Mouse". When colour was added (right) he became Sonic - the cute hedgehog we all know and love ... and how he is today

Manic Man's Notes Bad Influence was a great UK show and pretty much the first gaming show that was designed to inform kids of the new games and hardware either out or out soon, much unlike 'The Gamesmasters' which mostly was a gameshow. The Magazine, however, didn't last very long and i think we can see a couple of reasons why here. Comment about Sonic being known as 'Mr.Needle Mouse' is wrong, was a name used by Bigisland when coming up with the character, but then isn't a hedgehog basicly a 'needle mouse'? though i don't think the text on the image does say Hedgehog. The Future character that is a female Hedgehog? Amy Rose! no doubt there. BUT this is another problem. around this time Sonic the Comic had started up and had said a little about Sonic CD and the first apperance of Amy Rose so they are a little behind on there Sonic knowledge.
Alot of information is cut to give a very short history of Sonic and they don't tell you that the 20-year-old graphic designer was in fact, Big Island himself, Naoto Ohshima. Other then that, it's a good little article..