Sonic Races Out of a Burning City

About this drawing

Sonic city escape stages mark the era when the hedgehog swapped grassy hills for busy streets. In the late 1990s his games moved into 3D and started filling levels with skyscrapers, highways and traffic.

One of the best-loved examples sends Sonic down the steep streets of a city modeled on San Francisco. He snowboards downhill on a makeshift board while a massive truck chases him and crushes everything in its path. Fans still name it among the most exciting openings in the series.

Running through a city brings new problems. Sonic has to grind along rails, bounce between rooftops and dodge cars and robots, all at top speed. That blend of momentum and obstacles gave the 3D games their own flavor.

In most of these stories the mess comes from Doctor Eggman, who sends giant machines to wreck the city. Around the same time, Sonic got a more modern look with longer legs and green eyes, but his job never changed: get there fast and stop the robots before they do more damage. Fans still replay that downhill chase just to beat their best time.

• sonic
• city
• skyscrapers
• fire
• video games