However, was Sonic the Hedgehog really the best mascot Sega could've come up with? Unfortunately, as shall shortly be demonstrated, he doesn't really stand up to scrutiny...
There is some historical medical precedent for this phenomena. Pupula duplex is a medical condition whereby a person is born with two pupils in one eye. However, actual documented evidence of this occurring is almost non-existent. A similar condition, polycoria, is where the eye has two pupillary openings in the iris.
However, Sonic clearly has two irises, making him something of a freak of nature, and - the more you think about it - disgusting and gross.
Given that there is no obvious practical application for this (other than, perhaps, keeping his shoes on), we can only conclude that they are either an affectation, or concealing some sort of injury. Given their placement on his wrists, it is possible to speculate that Sonic is self-harming.
That's not a judgement, but should such behaviour really be normalised in populist entertainment?
Sega also alleges that his running speed can exceed Mach 1: transonic speeds. This should, in theory, kill him. At the very least, the strain on his heart alone would be immense - not to mention that his lungs would burst. When US Air Force pilot Captain Dennis White ejected from his plane at Mach 1, having lost control during a turn, he claims that "all of the blood vessels burst in my head. My head was the size of a basketball, and my lips were the size of cucumbers."
Captain White was only exposed to Mach 1 speeds for less than a second. Anything longer, and the drag forces at the speed of sound would rip an adult human apart. The damage it would do to a teenage hedgehog can scarcely be considered.
This is the sort of imitative behaviour Sega should not be encouraging.
This further underlines that Sonic is nothing short of a genetic aberration, and a perversion of Darwin's Law.
Why should we assume Sonic would behave any differently? Why aren't we being told that Sonic licks poo, foams up, and smears the spume all over his body? Why do we never see this? Are Sega ashamed of what they hath wrought?
Studies have proven that people who are body-shamed for their size are more likely to suffer from depression, eating disorders, and may even attempt suicide.
Should we really be holding Sonic aloft as some sort of folk hero given that he so casually refers to his enemy as an "egg"?
This behaviour is known today as "manscaping". It is entirely cultural, rather than serving any real health benefit. As recently as the 1970s, male body hair was viewed as a sign of virility, power and attractiveness, but nowadays as many as 25% of 16 - 24 year-old British men regularly remove their body hair. You can see this changing of the cultural winds by comparing the thick, bushy chest hair of 1960s James Bond Sean Connery to that scene where a hairless Daniel Craig walks out of the sea in Casino Royale in those tight trunks, leaving audiences both shaken and stirred.
It goes through cycles; like certain Hollywood directors, the Ancient Greeks favoured young, hairless men (as can be seen in their statues), but by the 19th Century hair removal was frowned upon. The 1990s saw a rise in male grooming, and the dawn of the "Metrosexual". There is an argument that Sonic removes his hair to reduce wind resistance as he runs at speeds in excess of Mach 1, but the specific nature of Sonic's bald spots suggests grooming, no doubt for the purposes of appearing more attractive.
Ironically, if Sonic wishes to attract a mate, he'd be better off leaving the hair alone, as its evolutionary purpose is to trap and amplify pheromones.
Ironically, while researching a cure for human baldness, scientists discovered a gene with the potential to regrow hair, which they nicknamed - yes - Sonic The Hedgehog...
Now think about that next time you're playing Sonic 3...