Sonic The Hedgehog, who celebrated his 20th birthday earlier this week, "was the Call of Duty of its day," SEGA West CEO Mike Hayes has suggested, claiming that it was the game every "cool gamer was playing"."When Sonic was launched 20 years ago, it was the Call of Duty of its day," said Hayes speaking to London newspaper Metro earlier this week. "It was what the cool gamer was playing. It was fast, it was anarchic, it was irreverent, it was different."There's no doubt the modern core gamer is looking for a great deal of realism in terms of the graphics, the performance and the theme," he continued, "which is why war games in particular have done very, very well.
"But Mario and Sonic are just as big and relative to Call of Duty. They're just spread over more games or, in the case of Mario, restricted to just one or two formats."20 years ago, of course, Mario and Sonic were the two biggest names in the industry, with both Nintendo and SEGA using the mascots to help shift their respective consoles.These days, however, guns seem more favourable, with Activision's Call of Duty series having established itself as the most important title in the market.We'll soon find out whether Sonic still has what it takes to compete in the current market: both Sonic Generations and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are due to go on sale this November.Sonic The Hedgehog celebrated his 20th Anniversary on Thursday. A special Summer of Sonic event is taking place in London today to commemorate the mascot's history.
The next Sonic game, Sonic Generations, launches on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and 3DS this November. A playable demo is on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network now
