Sonic the Hedgehog is 20 Today

Time to face reality readers. Sonic the Hedgehog is 20 years old today. Personally I remember the little blue hog landing on a desk in the Sega Power magazine office in time for the mag's "Sonic Boom! Game of the Decade or hyped Hogwash' front cover back in 1991.

Of course, given it was a SEGA mag, the hard decision was made... Sonic was going to be smash and was going to take on the more sedate Mario and Nintendo.

Well, 20 years on, the Blue Blur is not only still with us, he's also being celebrated in many ways.

First up is the Summer of Sonic festival - sure it's being run by our very own Svend so we're a little biased. But it's still worth checking out this weekend.

Then we have the PlayStation store offering Sonic the Hedgehog 20th Anniversary Bundle for £13.99/€17.99.

Which is a little hard to take if you're a real Sega and Sonic fan... but still, that's all water under the bridge.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Sonic.

And talking of Svend...

"Sonic the Hedgehog on the Master System was the first game I ever played! I had seen the colourful Mega Drive version being played at a friend's house, and just became obsessed with how cool he was. A cartoon character with such a recognisable design, oozing attitude and confidence - Sonic was inspirational to many kids in the 1990s.

"20 years is a good time to have a celebration - and a horde of Sonic fanatics will be doing so at the 2011 Summer of Sonic convention in London in Saturday 25th June. It's a bumper 11-hour event where fans can meet up and make friends with one another, enjoy playing the vast history of Sonic titles and meet their gaming heroes.

"Original programmer Yuji Naka and Sonic Team leader Takashi Iizuka will be there, as well as series sound director Jun Senoue - it's going to be every fan's dream come true to finally meet these three legends in the flesh."