The history of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has been a peculiar one. Unlike his former rival Mario, who was created as a replacement for an already famous character after Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo lost the Popeye license, Sonic was specifically created to challenge Nintendo’s dominance over the video game industry. The idea was worth it for the first couple of years, but ever since the original Genesis trilogy ended, Sonic the Hedgehog has been through strange creative cycles. Between Sonic 3’s release and now, Sonic has been through at least three “dark ages.