Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis, 1991)

Sega is a company that built their whole reputation by being braggarts.  When they released their second home console, the Genesis, in 1989, they immediately began a marketing campaign attacking Nintendo.  "Genesis does what Nintendon't!" the ads proudly proclaimed.  The argument, for Sega fans, was that the Genesis had better graphics and sound (a 16 bit processor) than the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The argument, for Nintendo fans, was "So what?  Nintendo has better games."  This was certainly true.  Nintendo had Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and a plethora of other great titles, with mascots to give the company a friendly face, not unlike how Disney uses its mascots.  What did Sega have?  Michael Jackson's Moonwalker?
So Sega decided it needed to create a mascot and put him in a great game.  They held a contest at their headquarters in Japan to design him.  Many submissions were entered and considered, but the one they eventually decided on was a cartoon of a black hedgehog, originally named Mr. Needlemouse.  Adding a few tweaks to the design, like making him blue to match the Sega logo and renaming him Sonic, they had their character.
Now they had to make the game.  The first Sonic the Hedgehog game is noteworthy just for how much thought went into its design.  They wanted Sonic to run to show off how fast the Genesis's processor was (which they later called blast processing), but that level of speed would leave you blind-sighted when an enemy appeared on screen.  To eliminate this problem, they gave Sonic the ability to roll into a ball to defeat foes.  Sonic controls perfectly, and he would only improve in each sequel.  Levels have multiple paths and many sections that cater to the speed mechanics.  Speaking of which, it is strange that a game mostly remembered for speed features two levels that require much patience.  There are five levels, each broken up into three acts, and levels two and four stick out as the slow ones.  Level two has Sonic crossing lakes of lava, often having to ride on slow moving platforms and carefully hopping across stones.  Level four is mostly underwater, which slows Sonic down considerably (and drowning is an inevitability).
The story is simple:  Sonic must stop the evil Dr. Robotnik, who is planning to use the 6 chaos emeralds to take over the world, and captures animals to make into his robot cronies.  This was still a time when story took a backseat to gameplay, and Sonic the Hedgehog is all the better for it.  Playing it now, it still feels as fresh and fun as it did back in 1991.  Twenty years on, and the blue blur's early outings are still regarded well, more highly in fact than his recent titles.  Sega finally had something that was worth bragging about.