Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992)

Sonic was to the the Sega Genesis what Mario was to the original Nintendo Entertainment System. He was the company mascot and easily identified with that system. While Mario has been identifiable as the mascot for every Nintendo system, Sonic kind of faded away after the Genesis. There were Sonic games for other Sega systems but they just never quite matched the popularity of Sonic on the Genesis.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which introduced the characters of Tails, was released in November 1992, just a little over a year after the original Sonic and near the height of that character's popularity. While the first two Sonic games were excellent platformers, I never though they had the depth of the Mario games, particularly when you compare them to Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island which were released during the same time period. Sonic definitely had the speed and the "cool" factor though!