Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonikku za Hejiihoggu), trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a video game character and the hero of a video game series released by Sega, as well as numerous spin-off comics, cartoons and books. The first game in the franchise was released on June 23, 1991 in order to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's flagship character Mario (see 1991 in video gaming). Since then, Sonic has become one of the world's best-known video game characters, with his series having sold over 45 million copies. In 2005, Sonic was one of the first game character inductees into the Walk of Game, alongside Mario and Link.

Artist Naoto Oshima, designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and programmer Yuji Naka are generally credited with the creation of the character, a blue, anthropomorphic hedgehog, whose ability to run faster than the speed of sound is a major part of the gameplay of the series.

Eggman Nega

Eggman Nega (Egguman Negau) is a video game character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a human scientist and is either Doctor Eggman's dimensional counterpart or his descendant from the future. His clothes are somewhat reminiscent of Eggman's original outfit. Eggman Nega is the third most featured villain in the series, behind Metal Sonic and Dr. Eggman himself. He has been the main villain in every game he has appeared in, and is fought as the final boss in three of them. His character designer is Yuji Uekawa.

E-Series

The E-Series is a fictional group of robots in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. They are created by the games' antagonist, Doctor Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik in the early western version) who uses them in his quest to conquer the world. They are higher tier enemies than normal badniks, and are used by Eggman as a kind of elite trooper. The E-Series is the last series of Eggman's robots to use captured animals as a power source (with some exceptions, see below) - with more recent efforts such as the mass-produced Egg-Pawn series, Flickies are no longer used.The E-Series' first appearance was in Sonic Adventure in which E-102 Gamma is a playable character.

Babylon Rogues

The Babylon Rogues are a fictitious group of avian thieves in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. The known members of the group consists of Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross. Their first playable appearance is in Sonic Riders, though they do make small cameo appearances in Sonic Rivals as collectable cards and Sonic and the Secret Rings in the gallery. They are set to appear in the upcoming sequel to their debut game, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

Chaotix

The Chaotix are a group of fictional characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. They debuted in the game Knuckles' Chaotix (simply called Chaotix in Japan). The group, or individual members in it, has since appeared in Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Rivals 2, and are also scheduled to appear in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The character Mighty actually made his debut appearance prior to Knuckles' Chaotix, in SegaSonic the Hedgehog.

They have also appeared in many other Sonic continuties, including several Japanese Sonic manga, the American Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, the British Sonic the Comic comic series and the Sonic X anime series and tie-in comic.

Flicky

Flicky is a fictional bluebird who debuted in the arcade game Flicky as the main character and has since become a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series as a species commonly used for "organic batteries" in the evil Doctor Eggman's robots, also known as Badniks. They also play integral parts in Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic Adventure. Flicky's original designer was Yoji Ishii, a member of Sonic Team until August 1999.

Chao

A Chao (chow", singular and plural form Chao) is an artificially intelligent, virtually generated lifeform from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Their role in the games is to be raised by the player in mini-games, similar to Tamagotchi. Chao are somewhat complex, responding to stimuli; they have moods, they require food, and they can be loving or fearful. The word Chao is a pun on Chaos, a word commonly used in the Sonic series.

Making their first appearance in Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast (both in the plot and in a Chao-raising aspect of the game), later in Sonic Adventure 2, and further enhanced in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Sonic Advance, Chao have recently come to be a large part of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The A-life system used for the Chao was introduced in Nights into Dreams... as the Artificial Intelligence in the Nightopians.

Chao-raising and the main Sonic games tie together in a number of ways: items which you encounter in the main game can be used to raise your Chao, collected Rings can be used to buy things for them, and several unlockable features are related to Chao.

During raising, Chao have statistics: Swimming, Flying, Running, Power, and Stamina, as well as luck and intelligence, which aren't quite as obvious. These statistics can be raised through proper Chao raising, and will enable a Chao to do better in their competitions: racing and karate.