Sega and the Sonic the Hedgehog development team settled on a hedgehog mascot, in part, because of its form.
The original Sonic, with its cool furry mascot and friendly woodland creatures battling robots, was based on the idea of “nature” versus “environmental development.”
He went to his superiors with a background story about Sonic the Hedgehog, a character he “discovered” in some old documents about planes.
The two explained how, in 1990, Sega wanted to create a next-generation character that could stand up to the NES and Mario.