Sonic the Hedgehog · Sega Mega Drive / Genesis · Build: early 1990 · Discovered: 2009 · Developer Archive
Before Sonic had a name, Sega's team called him "Mr. Needlemouse" — the working name used while Naoto Ohshima's hedgehog beat a rabbit, an armadillo and other candidates to become Sega's new mascot.
In 1990 Sega ran an internal search for a mascot to rival Mario. Naoto Ohshima's hedgehog competed against concepts including a rabbit that grabbed objects with its ears, an armadillo, a dog and a moustached man. The hedgehog — working name "Mr. Needlemouse", from the Japanese word for hedgehog, harinezumi — won partly because a spiky creature that curled into a ball suited the speed-focused gameplay Yuji Naka was programming. Several of the rejected ideas were reused: the moustached man became Dr. Robotnik (Eggman), the armadillo resurfaced as Mighty, and the rabbit's grabbing ears fed into Ristar. Sonic's blue matched Sega's logo, and his red-and-white shoes were inspired by the boots on Michael Jackson's Bad album cover combined with Santa Claus's colours.
Sega wanted a character who could stand against Mario and suit a fast-moving game. Yuji Naka's programming emphasised speed and momentum, and a hedgehog that could roll into a spiky ball turned that speed into an attack — a neat fit between design and gameplay that helped Ohshima's concept win.
Sega reused several of the losing ideas. The moustached man became Sonic's nemesis, Dr. Robotnik; the armadillo appeared as Mighty in SegaSonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles' Chaotix; and the rabbit's stretching ears evolved into the stretching arms of Ristar.