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The History of Sonic the Hedgehog [Hardcover]

Udon Entertainment Corp. , Les Editions Pix'n Love
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

List Price: $49.99
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Book Description

January 1, 2013
Celebrating over 20 years as SEGA's official mascot, The History of Sonic the Hedgehog is the ultimate guide to SEGA's spiky blue speedster! This hefty 300-page hardcover volume covers in detail every 2D and 3D Sonic game, plus spinoffs and crossovers. You'll also find character profiles, promotional artwork, rare concept art, and a detailed look at the origins of the "Blue Blur".

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 300 pages
  • Publisher: Udon Entertainment (January 1, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1926778561
  • ISBN-13: 978-1926778563
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
(37)
4.8 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story of SEGA and Sonic January 8, 2013
Format:Hardcover
Length: 1:25 Mins
More than 20 years have passed since Sonic made its first appearance in 1991. I still remember fondly how much I enjoyed playing the first three series of the game.

The History of Sonic Hedgehog is a befitting book that celebrates Sonic's 20th anniversary. It was originally published by Pix'N Love Editions in French and this English edition is published by Udon. It's a handsome 300-page hardcover with a nice cover. I really like the cute 2D art of Sonic on the cover as compared to the 3D version on the back cover.

The book covers roughly three main parts. The first looks at the history, the second on the games and the last part on characters and extras.

The history of Sonic is intermingled with the story of SEGA, before it was even known as SEGA (it was called "Service Games"). It's an interesting flashback to the creation of the Sonic through the accounts of the developers, and to the rise and fall of SEGA as a console maker, and the transformation into a multi-platform publisher.

The pages are beautifully laid out with wonderful photos and screenshots. There are photos of consoles I never knew existed. Three lengthy interviews included are with the creators Yuji Naka the programmer, graphic designer Naoto Oshima and producer Takashi Iizuka of Sonic Generations (2011).

The second part focuses on the games. There are eight 2D games, ten 3D games, sixteen handheld ones and 23 spin-offs over the span of two decades. I only played the first three games so I'm reading about the rest for the first time. Each game has a short but informative writeup. The screenshots are a bit small though. I wished there were more and bigger. Stage designs for the games are gorgeous.

The last section has all the main characters and their profiles.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Must buy for Sonic fans! January 4, 2013
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I think every Sonic fan should add this book to their collection. I've been a Sonic fan for over 15 years and when I first heard about this coming out I immediately pre-ordered it. Warning: There's ALOT of pages so expect this book to take up a large portion of your spare time. It tells you everything and I mean EVERYTHING about what you need to know about Sonic. It tells you the history before and how Sonic was created, the rivalry between Sonic/SEGA and Mario/Nintendo, interviews with the creators (Sonic Team), what goes on during development, talks about all the 2D, 3D, handheld and spin-off games, Sonic ups and downs, cameos, all the characters from the games, never before seen artwork and sketches, etc There's a lot of reading but I'm going to enjoy every last page of it. I'm thinking about buying my 8 year old nephew this book cause he loves Sonic, too.

Highly recommend if you're a longtime Sonic fan like me or you're a new Sonic fan and you want to know all about Sonic and some of SEGA's history then you should pick this up.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic, high quality history book for Sonic fans January 13, 2013
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
For the past several months that I've had this book on pre-order, I've often wondered just what sort of book would it be when it finally arrived. Would this be an in-depth look at Sonic's real-life history as a video gaming mascot and the champion of Sega? Would this be an in-universe encyclopedia with entries on the characters, locales, and events in the Sonic series? Would it be more of a concept art book with cool commentary from some of the main people behind the Blue Blur? Turns out, it's all of these. As one who has been a massive fan of Sonic since his childhood, I think it's safe to say I am super happy with this book.

The book is broken down into several big sections with quite different focuses for each one. The first hundred pages or so goes into great detail about Sonic's real life history. Starting all the way back in the 1960's when Sega Enterprises was formed, to Sonic's inception as a character, all the way until the present, the book goes into great detail. It's a really fascinating read that gives a lot of insight into Sonic's history in the context of the bigger Sega picture, and the even bigger picture of the video gaming industry as a whole. Sonic is a trailblazer in many ways, and the history section of this book really makes you appreciate that. To end the history section are a series of really interesting interviews with some of the most important people behind Sonic, such as the ingenious Yuji Naka, arguably the father of Sonic, Naoto Oshima, the man who gave him his iconic look, and Takashi Iizuka, who has been his artistic director since Sonic Adventure. I love these kinds of interviews in books of this nature, and the quality of writing and information in this book is fantastic. I love it all. Great start.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good for fans January 27, 2013
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Two things I was disappointed in was that they didn't mention much about the shows or anime, only one tiny section for "Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog" & A few mistakes here and there (For one, Cream The Rabbit's height is way off)

Being a huge fan girl of all things Sonic I mostly wanted this book for collection and display. Lots of neat little tidbits and great for any Sonic fan.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for Long-Time Sonic Fans! January 26, 2013
Format:Hardcover
I heard about this book back in Summer 2012 and had wanted since it was finally released (after some push-backs). When I got my hands on it, I quickly read about some of the best games in the series - the original Mega Drive series, the Sonic Adventure Series, and the more recent games I own. I was amazed by the plethora of information; it was great! The very next day, I was telling my friends all of the cool trivia I learned, like how Shadow was originally intended to only appear in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Colors evolved from Mario Galaxy and the Olympic Games series.

Here you have almost everything you might ever want to know about the Blue Blur. I enjoy reading the background information about the development of the games. My personal favorite section (so far) is the "Bonus Zone" of the history section. It features interviews with three of the developers of Sonic, including his designer who says "Dragon Ball" and Akira Toriyama were big inspirations in his life. If you quickly flip through the pages, you'll even notice it's like a flip book and Sonic does some of his signature moves!

Boasting aside, there are some setbacks. I have come across some minor punctuation errors (missing periods, etc.), but that can happen in any book. I'm a little disappointed that the first two games feature some screenshots at the top of their respective pages with the zones of the games, but this stops after Sonic 2. I know it would be troublesome to fit them in, since games like "Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing" only have half a page of information, but an index of some sort in the back with all of the levels would have been nice. Lastly, this being a translation of a French book, it says nothing about the American comics or television series.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Like a giant magazine!
The Book is smaller than I thought it would be, but it is very interesting.
It feels like Reading a giant magazine about sonic's history! Read more
Published 2 days ago by Murilo Meira
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent gift for any Sonic Fan!
Everything about this book was perfect. I purchased it as a gift for someone, and he enjoyed it very much. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Shen
3.0 out of 5 stars Lacking some history but makes up for it in other ways
Amazing art work and brilliant history of sonic the hedgehog recommended for any sonic the hedghog fan. Well done. good book
Published 1 month ago by Trevor Haagsma
5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks!!!
Thank you for sonic the Hedgehog in 1990 I Remember my Teenage is high school are Integrate That is Sega video game on Teenage your home!
Published 1 month ago by adam kyle
5.0 out of 5 stars Gerat
Loved this book, covered all the major sonic history plus many of the minor characters. The graphics are great as well.
Published 1 month ago by Eric Sheridan
5.0 out of 5 stars Great item for collectors and fans!
Great information, high-quality paper, lots of high definition images... That's about everything a Sonic fan would want from a book like this!
Published 1 month ago by Marcel Carlos dos Santos
4.0 out of 5 stars Really great content for the Sonic fan.
Just want to note, it is smaller than I expected. And the type is exceedingly tiny. Very difficult to read to your child at bedtime. Read more
Published 2 months ago by MSC
5.0 out of 5 stars my friend loved it!
She got it for her brother and it was in great condition and he loved the entirety of the book!
Published 2 months ago by TeresaKh
5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for sonic fan old school and new.
This book reveals the history of the franchise and even though I am not the biggest fan of the new games as most of us are this is still a good book that'll take ya back to the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Aaron
5.0 out of 5 stars Sonic's history
Wow. Bought this for my daughter since she is really really GEEKED out on Sonic. Just like everything in life, you think you know something about something until you get all the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mojojojoe
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Topic From this Discussion
10 Minute Preview of "The History of Sonic the Hedgehog"
Thanks for the Link. I really want to get it now
Aug 24, 2012 by Carlos Diaz |  See all 3 posts
Delayed :(
I just found out the reason: http://www.udonentertainment.com/blog/udon/the-history-of-sonic-the-hedgehog-project-update-preview/

Apparently UDON had some translation issues and went back, page by page and made sure everything is perfect. Expect a release sometime around December.
Oct 3, 2012 by Bryant Rengifo |  See all 11 posts
December release likely Be the first to reply
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