Educational games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the bestselling video game franchises ever, selling over 80 million units for the combined series as of 2011. The original game, a side-scrolling platform game, was developed by Sonic Team in Japan. Released by Sega in 1991, it greatly increased the popularity of the Sega Genesis in North America and established Sega as Nintendo's main rival in the console market. With the game's popularity, the series began to expand into other genres. While Sonic the Hedgehog 2 began development in late 1991, the Manchester-based Tiertex Design Studios began to work on an educational video game set in the Sonic universe called ''Sonic's Edusoft for the Master System. Edusoft'' was made using sprites ripped from the original game. Despite having been nearly finished, it was canceled. The game was not licensed by Sega, but the company did express interest in it and could have potentially published it jointly with US Gold. In 1994, Sega released the Sega Pico, an "edutainment" device powered by the same hardware used by the Genesis. The system was designed to appear similar to a laptop, with a stylus called the "Magic Pen", and a pad to draw on. As Sonic had become Sega's mascot, Sega released two educational games featuring characters from the Sonic franchise, ''Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld and Tails and the Music Maker. Gameworld was developed by Aspect Co., the studio that produced the majority of the Game Gear Sonic games. Another educational game, Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio, was released for the Genesis in 1994. Though it is not a Sonic'' game, Sonic does feature in it. In 1996, Sega and Orion Interactive collaborated to produce ''Sonic's Schoolhouse, an educational game in the Sega PC brand for Microsoft Windows. It was developed using a game engine similar to Wolfenstein 3D''s and ten educators and psychologists helped create the game's challenges. The game was originally in development as a non-Sonic game titled Answer Hunt which started a cartoon clock, but was replaced with Sonic once Sega saw it and thought that it would do well as an educational Sonic game. Thus, ''Sonic's Schoolhouse'' is only tenuously connected to the rest of the franchise. The game was released as part of Sega's "Blue is Back" marketing campaign to promote six Sonic games releasing in the holiday shopping season; advertisements for the game were run in magazines and it was promoted in store displays. ''Sonic's Schoolhouse also came bundled coupons worth in discounts for Sonic'' merchandise, including comics and plush toys. In the mid-2000s, LeapFrog Enterprises published two educational Sonic platformers: Torus Games' Sonic X and Realtime Associates' Sonic the Hedgehog, for the Leapster and LeapFrog Didj, respectively. ==Games==

''Sonic's Edusoft'' • Release date: Unreleased (developed in 1991) • Developer: Tiertex Design Studios • Planned publishers: • Platform: Master System ''Sonic's Edusoft would have been the first educational Sonic'' game, the series' third entry overall, and the first Sonic game that was not developed in Japan. The game was aimed at five-year-olds and centers around a series of minigames that feature math and spelling questions. Minigames are accessed from an isometric hub world and more non-educational games can be unlocked after a certain number of educational ones are beaten. The game was virtually unknown until one of the game's programmers created a Wikipedia page about it, which was deleted after being deemed a hoax. The programmer later emailed screenshots to Sonic fansites but was unable to prove it was real. Edusoft was confirmed to be real after its ROM image was eventually leaked. ''Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld'' • Release date: • Developer: Aspect Co. • Publisher: Sega • Platform: Sega Pico ''Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld was the first of two Sonic games to be released for the Sega Pico. The game takes the form of a picture book and changes the set of tasks the player must accomplish when a page is turned. Aimed at children ages four to seven, Gameworld'' stars Sonic, Tails, and Amy and features 13 minigames that are designed to teach the player problem solving. Tails and the Music Maker • Release date: • Developer: Realtime Associates • Publisher: Sega • Platform: Sega Pico Tails and the Music Maker was the second Sonic game to be released for the Sega Pico. It features Tails and is designed to teach children ages three to seven about making music. Tails and the Music Maker uses the same picture book form that Gameworld uses. The game features several minigames, including "Travels with Tails" (in which the player guides Tails through three levels) and "Percussion Pinball" (in which Tails is placed in a pinball environment). ''Sonic's Schoolhouse'' • Release date: • Developer: BAP Interactive, Orion Interactive • Publisher: Sega Entertainment • Platform: Microsoft Windows ''Sonic's Schoolhouse is aimed at children aged four to nine and takes place in a 3D environment viewed from a first-person perspective. The gameplay has been likened to Doom'' (1993), but the primary difference is that players must solve spelling, math, and reading questions in several difficulty levels based on age group. Sonic is not playable, acting instead as a guide. Sonic X • Release date: • Developer: Torus Games • Publisher: LeapFrog Enterprises • Platform: Leapster Sonic X is based on the anime series of the same name and was released by LeapFrog Enterprises for the Leapster handheld game console. It stars Sonic and Chris Thorndyke, a character created for the anime series, who must save Tails, Amy, and Knuckles from Doctor Eggman. The player must guide Sonic through three levels, periodically stopping to answer math questions. The three levels, Station Square, Angel Island, and Eggman's base feature sequences, addition, and subtraction respectively. Sonic the Hedgehog (LeapFrog Didj) • Release date: • Developer: Realtime Associates • Publisher: LeapFrog Enterprises • Platform: LeapFrog Didj The Didj version of Sonic the Hedgehog is a side-scrolling platformer similar to the original Genesis Sonic games, but has numerous minigames that are designed to teach spelling. It is aimed at children ages seven to ten. ==Reception==

Jeuxvideo.com regarded the educational Sonic games as obscure. made for the Meta Game Jam in 2018. ==Notes==