This may explain why there are about 30 different origin stories for Sonic The Hedgehog and his assorted hangers-on - appearing across a variety of media - and why so many Sonic The Hedgehog games are terrible. And why there's a film coming out featuring a creepy, buff, version of Sonic who looks like he could crack a bull's sternum with his bare hands.
Here are 10 examples of how Sega allowed others to run rampant with what remains its most valuable franchise.
Notably, Ogilvie syndrome is a medical condition characterized by massive dilatation of the colon.
Honked the lawsuit: “The Infringing Game bears a substantial similarity to the Works, because the total concept and feel is similar, if not identical, between the story and characters in the Infringing Game and the Penders’ Works, and because Sega has created a genuine documented confusion in the marketplace as to Penders’ actual involvement with the Infringing Game."
Unfortunately for the writer, the case was dismissed by a judge, but to be on the safe side, any characters and concepts created by Penders were removed from the Archie Comics series. So abrupt was the rewriting that new dialogue was replaced - sometimes mid-sentence - in a completely different font.
Borag thungg!
Apparently, they had a plastic concavity in the middle of the sole, which would allow the wearer to grind on objects such as pipes, ledges and handrails - much as Sonic has been depicted doing so in many of his games. So ubiquitous among "grinders" did the sneakers become, that the act has become known as "soaping", and people who do it are "soapers".
Thus, it will come as a surprise to nobody that Sonic is a "soaper"...
Unfortunately, the room was redecorated following the rebranding of the park's Sonic Spinball Whizzer ride in 2016. Its new theme? Diarrhoea.
The attraction featured several zones, including the Cyberpop Zone, Speed Zone and Redemption Zone (which was an area featuring the largest section of redemption games in Dubai, rather than somewhere you'd go to atone for your sins).
The license expired in 2017, and Sega Republic became a VR-themed attraction.
In the manga Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Volume 1 Sonic is shown performing a rock concert, where his security detail - Sonic's Bodyguard Platoon - is comprised of several young women wearing animal ears and skimpy swimsuits.
He is taught the gift of human speech by the friendly Doctor Ovi Kintobor, using a machine called the "Lingua Scrambler'Um" (not a typo). Originally, Sonny and Kintobor were allies, searching for Chaos Emeralds that they hoped to use to reverse the effects of greenhouse gasses and "evil".
Tragically, a series of science experiments backfired, turning Sonny blue, and transforming Kintobor into the cruel Ivo Robotnik, when a "wave of radiation" washed over the earth, merging Kintobor with an egg he was eating.
Also, we learn that Sonic's dad is dead.