That Persistent Hedgehog

I think I have found that whatever games I find myself enjoying I can't help but think of how I would have liked to make it, or how I would have done things differently. Or at the very least, how it has inspired me to want to make a game of a similar type. This has been true since I owned my very first console. In my parents' house, and my current collection, there are stacks and stacks of notebooks and doodles of the games I wanted to make. And I think I have it all to blame on a persistent, little blue rodent on the Sega Genesis named Sonic.
To say that I liked Sonic would probably be a bit of an understatement. After first getting the Genesis with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 it's probably safe to say that my childhood was taken over. I had the bedspread, the comics, the t-shirts, the McDonalds toys, the strategy guides, and of course just about all of the core games. No other character was probably ever doodled in the margins of loose leaf notebook paper more than this guy. I would spend whole bus rides home silent, looking out the window, thinking up new levels for the next Genesis title that I was going to make. My friend on the bus and I would make up new sonic characters every day.
My addiction over the years may have waned but it's never completely faded. In fact, recently it's only been reinvigorated. Last Christmas I got a copy of this: