/vr/ - Retro Games

>>9130830
>While Sega was seeking a flagship series to compete with Nintendo's Mario series, several character designs were submitted by its research and development department. Many results came forth from their experiments with character design, including an armadillo, a dog, a Theodore Roosevelt look-alike in pajamas (who would later be the basis of Doctor Eggman's design), and a rabbit (who would use its extendable ears to collect objects, an aspect later incorporated in Ristar).[16][17] Naoto Ohshima took some of these internal designs with him on a trip to New York City and sought feedback by asking random passersby at Central Park their opinions; of the designs, the spiky teal hedgehog, initially codenamed "Mr. Hedgehog" (Mr.ハリネズミ, Mr. Harinezumi),[18] led this informal poll, followed by Eggman and the dog character. Ohshima felt that people selected it because it "transcends race and gender and things like that".[19] On return to Japan, Ohshima pitched this to the department, and the hedgehog was ultimately selected as the new mascot.

The detailed design of Sonic was aimed to be something that could be easily drawn by children and be familiar, as well as exhibit a "cool" attitude, representative of the United States at the time.[19] Sonic's blue pigmentation was chosen to match Sega's cobalt blue logo, and his shoes evolved from a design inspired by both Santa Claus[20] and Michael Jackson's boots with the addition of the color red, which was inspired by the contrast of those colors on Jackson's 1987 album Bad; his personality was based on then-presidential candidate and later President of the United States Bill Clinton's "Get it done" attitude during the 1992 presidential campaign.[16][21][22][23]
Sega themselves are extremely open about it, retard.

>>4353753