A personal video on what I love about the classic era of Sonic, and why I have made peace with the fact that it will forever remain in the past.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
4:07 Creating an Icon
11:09 Sonic the Hedgehog
25:25 Development of Sonic 2
34:42 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
50:28 Sonic 3 & Knuckles
1:12:59 Interlude Memories with Classic Sonic
1:17:23 End of an Era
1:21:29 Sonic CD
1:31:49 Conclusion

Thumbnail by Tripplejaz:   / tripplejaz  

Time Travel Overhaul Mod for Sonic CD (2011): https://gamebanana.com/mods/50080
OVA Knuckles in Sonic Mania: https://gamebanana.com/mods/244309

Special thanks to Sonic Retro for being a fantastic resource on all things Sonic. Used for a lot of my research.

Also big thanks to KingK for helping me with the script!

Video Sources

Ghouls ‘n Ghosts Footage from NintendoComplete    • Ghouls 'n Ghosts  (Genesis) Playthrou...  
Yuji Naka & The Sonic Team Interview    • Game Masters: Yuji Naka & The Sonic T...  
Sonic: Birth of an Icon    • Video  
Eurogamer Miyamoto on World 11    • Miyamoto on World 11: How Nintendo m...  
Sonic Archives Official 1990 Sonic and Madonna Tech Demo    • 東京おもちゃショーローテーションデモ1990  
Synthetic Frost Skip the bath in Chemical Plant Zone    • Sonic 2  Chemical Plant Zone Alterna...  
Sonic Panic    • Video  
Sonic 2 Japanese Commercial    • Japanese Sonic 2 Commercial from Soni...  
Espyo The Pit in Sonic 2    • THE hole in Mystic Cave Zone Act 2  ...  
Ashman792 The Pit Animation    • That Stupid Pit  
Sonic 3 McDonald’s Commercial    • 199402 McDonald's Sonic the Hedgehog...  
Sonic at Macy’s Day Parade in 1993    • Sonic the Hedgehog balloon busted at ...  
saburoinc3 Sonic CD Wacky Workbench Generators    • [Sonic the Hedgehog CD] Robot Generat...  

Online Sources

Gamerant Sega Admits it “Betrayed” Fans https://gamerant.com/segabetrayedfa...
Sonic Producer Admits That Rise of Lyric’s Main Priority Was to be Shipped https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/so...
Gamerant Sonic Frontiers' Focus on Quality Over Timeliness is a Good Sign for the Future https://gamerant.com/sonicfrontiers...
Sonic the Hedgehog’s rocky history https://www.polygon.com/2016/2/8/1075...
Yuji Naka Sonic Interview February 1995 https://mdshock.com/2018/07/19/yujin...
FreeGameTips Mark Cerny https://freegametips.com/markcernyw...
Sega16 Sega Technical Institute https://www.sega16.com/2007/06/devel...
Sega16 Interview with Mark Cerny https://www.sega16.com/2006/12/inter...
Interview with Brenda Ross, 2001 https://info.sonicretro.org/Brenda_Ro...)
Sonic 2’s scrapped time travel, courtesy of Yasuharasan   / 866702759357292544  
GDC Classic Sonic Postmortem https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024928...

Written Sources

“The open sky is blue forever” quote from Naoto Ohshima pg. 328 of Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/s...
Retro Gamer, Issues 45, 175
Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation

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