Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ Sonikku za Hejjihoggu) mostly known simply as Sonic, is the video game company Sega's mascot and the main protagonist of the video game series he is named after.

A blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with plenty of attitude and personality, he lives up to his name by being able to run at supersonic speeds.

Why He Rocks

 * 1) Just like other popular video game characters, He is one of the most famous mascots in video game history.
 * 2) Unlike most other video game mascots, Sonic actually has a personality that can actually be integrated into interesting stories. Thanks to this, Sonic has not only interesting stories in his video games, but he has a bunch of good stories in comic books, cartoons and more!
 * 3) His famous rivalry/friendship with Super Mario. Which was famous enough that Mario and Sonic started to appear in a crossover game together since 2007's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
 * 4) When there is a crisis, he intensely focuses on the task at hand.
 * 5) He is an unpredictable thrill-seeker and sees his heroics as an opportunity to have fun.
 * 6) He always manages to remain cool under pressure. Being the perfect foil towards Eggman.
 * 7) Often jokes around to lighten the mood and has the tendency to hilariously taunt his opponents.
 * 8) He never forgets about his friends and believes in working as a team or, as he put it, the power of teamwork.
 * 9) Following his free-spirited nature, he does not dwell on the past or allow painful experiences to weigh him down. Instead, he lives in the present and always looks forward to new adventures, which is a good moral for anyone.
 * 10) He is always ready to risks his life for his friends, with little regard for his own safety.
 * 11) Has shown to have a habit for forgiving, like how he forgave Silver for trying to kill him. Twice.
 * 12) He is shown to be good at swordsmanship, like in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * 13) He earned not only 5 animated shows (AoSTH, Sonic SatAM, Sonic Underground, Sonic X, Sonic Boom), 2 web cartoons (Sonic Mania Adventures, Team Sonic Racing Overdrive) and an animated movie (Sonic the Hedgehog OVA), but also an exceptionally successful live-action/computer animated movie in 2020 with an upcoming sequel.
 * 14) He also spawned some great memes, such as "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!".

Bad Qualities

 * 1) He can sometimes be too narcissistic, impatient and prideful to be likable.
 * 2) Most of the time he says very cheesy quotes, such as "Nothing starts before you take action".
 * 3) Tends to overreact when someone misjudges his species.
 * 4) He was a jerk in Sonic Lost World, where Sonic is portrayed as having a kind of one-track, arrogant mind that manages to do some very impulsive, foolhardy stuff.
 * 5) Most of the time makes absolutely terrible puns that no one can enjoy. Not even unironically.
 * 6) He was one of the reasons why Super Smash Bros. Brawl took so long to release.
 * 7) * Not only that, but he has a very poor moveset in all the Smash Bros. games, As most of his moves simply consist of him attacking in his ball form and his down aerial is poorly-executed as the Sonic rocket leads him to death when meteor-spiking out opponents and edge-guarding the platforms to prevent them from getting back on the field.
 * 8) In spite of having a great and iconic character design, he barely looks like a hedgehog and more like a blue-furred, mutated rat or cat.
 * 9) His English voice in the Sonic OVA isn't that good, At times it sounds like he has a southern accent.
 * 10) He was Flanderized in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

Trivia

 * For his cameos, Sonic has proven to be an extremely popular character and he is also a fighter in the Super Smash Bros. games since Brawl in 2008.
 * After having been around only three years, he had already surpassed Nintendo's Mario in popularity according to a June 1993 Q-Survey in Gameplayers magazine.
 * Even after Sega settled on the hedgehog, an idea proposed by designer Naoto Ohshima, the company tried out a taxonomically confusing name for the character: Mr. Needlemouse.
 * In keeping with the spirit of the above, Sonic was scored entirely by the Japanese pop group Dreams Come True, formed as a trio in 1988.