The 1994 Sonic Super Hedgehog Russian TV Quiz Show

[Badnik Mechanic]

We did have a topic on this, but it seemed to have died during one of the last few database crashes, so this was originally going to be a reply to that but might as well now make it anew.

This video is mine, but it's a full visual summary of the topic and some additional info and observations.

 

Anyway, details.

The show was broadcast on Russian and Ukrainian TV via channel RTR (now known as Russia 1). The title of the show translates to "Sonic Super Hedgehog" and it seems to have been a mixture of a kids game show and what we would consider in the west to be a 'magazine' or videogame show.

Whilst teams made up of a child and adult would take part in a quiz and then competition in a 'game of the week' the show had other features too.

News & Reviews: These covered any Sega console title from 94. They also did news and segments on games, consoles and even various Sega arcades (one of which might even be a Sega World in Japan but the video is too degraded for me to tell).

Letters to the show: In one of the videos, the show reads out letters sent to the TV station, they also show some fan art from the viewers. 

 

For nearly 20 years, it was considered "lost media" before someone uploaded footage from it to YouTube back in 2014, however the earliest discussions I can find about the show date back even further preceding 2008 in one case. 

The show was hosted by Yevgeny Stychkin, who has since gone on to be quite a well known actor in Russia, having lots of roles across TV, Film and Theatre. In fact if you check out his website (Just be aware his site tries to force download a SWF file to your system.) He still lists the show on it under his TV history

From what I've been able to tell, the show only ran for one season in 1994. Whist it seems kinda cheap and low effort, they were giving away between £500-£1000 worth of prizes per episode, and they made a lot of effort to theme the show around the 'game of the week'.

 

So how did it work? Well there were 3 teams, made up of a kid and guardian, the first round they would answer questions based on the game of the week, however it wouldn't necessarily be about the game. For example in the Aladdin episode, the questions are all on the Disney movie and not the game. 

Round 2 was the competitive mode which would be a challenge in game, like a 2 player vs mode or beat the first level the fastest. 

There was also a bonus round in the event of a tie. 

 

During the show there is an animated Sonic who appears and reacts to what's going on, he's got several animation states that I've noticed so far.

• Standing still/looking
• pointing.
• cheering (Jumps up and down, waves his arms)
• Laughing.
• Crying  (yes he cries in one episode).

He was also given a voice in the show, a very high pitched squeaky voice, I've only found two cases though where he speaks in the shows (one is included in the video at around 10:40). 

But I was quite impressed with this, because not only are the animations quite varied. The design is spot on! I can't see any errors and normally with this like this there's normally one thing like the shoes or the arms being blue, in this show they are all 100% right.

 

So what could you win from this? 

3rd Place: Posters, T-Shirts and Sega watches.

2nd Place: The above + a lower end console (Master System/Game Gear)

1st Place: 3rd place prizes + Mega Drive & games.

 

And of course there is that intro... that crazy intro... Which isn't complete. It seems that there is actually more to this intro. During one of the videos there is a cut to part of the intro which is unseen in all the videos uploaded. 

 

Special thanks to @Bobnik & @Woun for their help with translations.

And here's the uploaded videos themselves for you to check out again.

 

 

[Myst]

Man, how do you even find this stuff?

[batson]

I'm not surprised this exists. Sonic was a PHENOMENON back in the day, all over the world. As someone who was around back then (born in 86) I honestly find it difficult to express to younger fans just how big a deal Sonic was at the time.