

If you look carefully you can see how Sonic's running skills have straightened out his feet too. Sonic's shoes, perversely, seemed to get cleaner as time went on - by the third game they were gleaming, and they seemed to be much rounder. The first Sonic had very skinny arms and legs, but by Sonic 3 they were quite a bit more muscular in appearance. There was a steady progression in Sonic's limbs. Sonic was initially a less vivid shade of blue, something that changed in Sonic 2 to help Sonic stand out against the background, and stayed that way for the rest of the series. The Sonic sprites below show a clear progression, and it's easy to see how Sega's artists refined their mascot's image. There were only five Sonic games on the MegaDrive, ignoring games that re-used sprites (Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles' Chaotix & Sonic CD).
