Sega
Sonic the Hedgehog’s first appearance wasn’t actually in its own game but as a curious easter egg
Sega’s unmistakable mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, is known for his speed. But he was so fast that he even predated his own games, as he first appeared somewhere else.
If you ask someone who knows anything about video games “In what game did Sonic first appear?”, they will most likely answer that it was in the first Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis, right? Well, they would be wrong. Sonic, interestingly, did not debut in his own game, but instead as a cameo in a very peculiar way in Rad Mobile, an arcade game also from Sega.
This was Sonic’s peculiar first appearance in video games: as an ornament on the rearview mirror
The popular blue hedgehog that would later become the de facto mascot for Sega did not first appear in Sonic the Hedgehog, but in Rad Mobile. And he wasn’t even a controllable character: Rad Mobile is a racing game seen from the cabin inside your vehicle, and Sonic appears as an ornament hanging from the rearview mirror.
Rad Mobile hit arcades for the first time on October 3, 1990 in Japan, while the first Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog was released on June 23, 1991 in the United States. Rad Mobile, developed by Sega AM3, was Sonic’s first official appearance in video games., even before the game he starred in and which was the beginning of his own franchise.
This peculiar first official appearance was Sega’s way of generating excitement for Sonic and its own video game., which would be released on the Sega Genesis eight months later. Sonic the Hedgehog was a huge success., and came to sell more than 15 million units not counting the versions re-released on other systems. It was, on its own merits, one of the best Sega Genesis games.
Sonic as a villain? This was the first unofficial appearance of Sonic on consoles
But it doesn’t end here; while Rad Mobile was the first time Sonic appeared in video games, there was another console game before the first Sonic the Hedgehog in which we could see the hedgehog unofficially as an enemy. The title in question is The Adventures of Quik & Silva, an Amiga and Atari ST game released on May 10, 1991, more than a month before the first Sonic the Hedgehog.
Therefore,Sonic’s first appearance on consoles was in The Adventures of Quik & Silva, although it was not official. In this peculiar game we can see Sonic as one of the enemies to be eliminated, and he is not the only character there; we can also see Bub from Bubble Bobble (1986) as another of the enemies.
There is no evidence that Sega or the Sonic Team initiated legal action against those responsible for The Adventures of Quik & Silva due to improper use of the image, so it is possible that they never knew of the existence of this Sonic cameo without his consent at the time.