Did you know that Sonic the Hedgehog's boots were inspired by Michael Jackson? You will after watching all four parts of GameTap's exhaustive retrospective on everybody's favorite spiny blue mammal.

From his birth as a desperate attempt to steal some of Nintendo's thunder by artist Naoto Ōshima and programmer Yuji Naka, to his latest rash of sub-par console titles, GameTap's Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospective covers it all. Thankfully, however, the first three episodes of the 24-minute special are dedicated to the 2D Sonic classics, only delving into the 3D games during the last segment. This basically means you get a lovely chunk of Sonic at his best, with only a brief mention of the dark days that were to come. Someone give GameTap's editor a cookie!

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