Sonic the Hedgehog is a burned-out millennial like me

polygon.com:

Everyone seems to forget this, so I’ll take this moment to remind you: Sonic the Hedgehog is a millennial. A child of the ’90s, he was told from the very beginning that he’s “gotta go fast,” and for a moment, it seemed like he could: Fueled by the attitude of the ’90s and a booming ring- and emerald-fueled economy, Sonic blazed through the Clinton years with a radical ’tude and a pair of signature kicks.

The good times, however, wouldn’t last, and the Blue Blur would soon find himself with the rest of his generation: burned out, overworked (he has starred in over 30 games, not including dozens of spinoffs) and forever falling short of the success befitting a corporate mascot.

Like all victims of Millennial Burnout, Sonic is finding solace in ’90s nostalgia. Sonic Origins is the latest of several compilations gathering games from the hedgehog’s 16-bit heyday, namely Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. A cynical soul would see this as a shallow attempt to extract $40 (or more!) off perennially available games and the surprise success of a burgeoning film franchise.

A more charitable way of looking at Sonic Origins, with its inclusion of both classic and “Anniversary” (HD, in other words) versions of the classic platformers, is simply Sega making sure a vital part of its history is available on the latest platforms, performing to modern standards. But is that something anyone really wants? Should the average person revisit Sonic’s early games, or is the mascot better off thriving as the chaos god of memetic strangeness he’s become, even as every new game seems primed to disappoint?

Let’s flash back. (This is where the soundtrack would cue up Beastie Boys, or perhaps Fugees, to let