<P> The first game was released to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's flagship character Mario in June 1991 . Since then, Sonic has become one of the world's best - known video game characters, with his series selling more than 80 million copies . In 2005, Sonic was one of the first game character inductees into the Walk of Game alongside Mario and Link . </P> <P> While Sega was seeking a flagship series to compete with Nintendo's Mario series with a character to replace Alex Kidd as the company's mascot, several character designs were submitted by its research and development department . Many results came forth from their experiments with character design, including an armadillo (who was later developed into Mighty the Armadillo), a dog, a Theodore Roosevelt look - alike in pajamas (who would later be the basis of Dr. Robotnik / Eggman's design), and a rabbit (who would use its extendable ears to collect objects, an aspect later incorporated in Ristar). Naoto Ohshima took some of these internal designs with him on a trip to New York City and sought feedback by asking random passerbyers at Central Park their opinions; of the designs, the spiky teal hedgehog, initially codenamed "Mr. Needlemouse", 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". On return to Japan, Ohshima pitched this to the department, and the hedgehog was ultimately selected as the new mascot . </P> <P> 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 . Sonic's blue pigmentation was chosen to match Sega's cobalt blue logo, and his shoes evolved from a design inspired by Michael Jackson's boots with the addition of the color red, which was inspired by both Santa Claus and 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 . To help sell the idea to Sega's higher - ups, Ohshima pitched the concept framed by a fictional fighter pilot that had earned the named "Hedgehog" due to his spiky hair, and had decorated his plane with images of Sonic . When this pilot retired, he married a childrens' book author, who wrote stories about the Sonic character, the first which became the plot for the first Sonic game; Ohshima stated that this influence can be seen in the logo of the game, which features Sonic in a pilot's wing emblem . </P> <P> The origins of Sonic can be traced farther back to a tech demo created by Yuji Naka, who had developed an algorithm that allowed a sprite to move smoothly on a curve by determining its position with a dot matrix . Naka's original prototype was a platform game that involved a fast - moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube, and this concept was subsequently fleshed out with Oshima's character design and levels conceived by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara . </P>

Who did the voice of sonic the hedgehog