 How do you solve a problem like Mario? It was a challenge that was weighing heavily on the mind of Sega designer Yuji Naka. His company needed a new mascot, and fast, what they got, went on to become one of the most iconic characters of the decade. Yuji Naka was stuck. The higher ups Sega had tasked him with replacing their old mascot. Alex Kidd was fun and had a dedicated following, but he just wasn't nearly as popular as Nintendo's mascot. It didn't help that, with his unusual facial hair and focus on platforming, he did feel a little bit like a Mario copycat. So how could Yuji Naka come up with the perfect Mario killer? After a lot of thought, he decided he couldn't do it alone. He threw things open to all Sega employees by running a contest to design a new mascot. For one employee, Neoto Oshima, this was a dream come true. Neoto had worked on a few Sega games, providing art designs for Fantasy Star and Space Harrier among others. But this contest was a chance to create a character that would be the face of the entire company. He was incredibly excited, and set to work creating as many designs as he could think of. Coming up with one potential character wasn't enough. If he wanted to win this contest, he needed to throw everything he had at Sega. Neoto wasn't the only person submitting ideas to the contest though. Yuji Naka had to go through almost 200 entries as he sought out the perfect mascot design. One of Neoto's characters looked like a lot of fun. Yuji liked his cute design, but there was something about him that was just a little too familiar. He bared more than a passing resemblance to Mario. It was decided. Characters with moustaches couldn't be used. Sega's mascot couldn't have a moustache, and ideally, wasn't a human. Yuji began searching through the animal designs to find something that would work. He settled on a rabbit design that Neoto had created. The character was cute and fun, but could show off the technical capability of Sega's new console, the Mega Drive. A prototype was made that saw the rabbit character picking up and throwing items with his ears. Again though, this wasn't quite right. The gameplay was too complicated and slow. Sega needed a mascot that communicated speed and excitement to reflect the power of their console. Yuji was exhausted. He'd gone through all of the ideas and hadn't found a single thing that worked. Except, what was this character? Half-scrawled on a piece of paper from Neoto. It wasn't even a finished design, and hedgehogs are hardly known for their speed, which must be why Yuji hadn't noticed it sooner. The more he thought about it though, the more Yuji liked the irony of the character. If Sega used this mascot, they'd be saying that even the slowest of creatures is a speed demon on the Mega Drive. Excitedly, Yuji told Neoto that he thought he had something with this design. The team began refining the design of the character. He'd be blue to match Sega's logo and to make him stand out from Nintendo's red mascot. But what else? What things did kids like that they could reference in the character's design? Michael Jackson was popular at the time, so they gave the character boots that matched the pop star's famous look. They borrowed the boot colour scheme from Santa Claus, because what kid doesn't love Jolly Old St Nick? For the character's personality, they looked to American politics. A US senator by the name of Bill Clinton was gaining popularity at the time for his slightly irreverent yet efficient attitude, so the team copied his general demeanour. And so, Sonic the Hedgehog was born. What about his nemesis? A game character is only as good as their villain. Yuji Naka had an idea. Reaching back to one of Neoto's old designs, he suggested that they use the dreamy character with a moustache. It seemed fitting. Sonic's main enemy was a thinly veiled stand-in for Mario himself. The team's hard work paid off. Soon after his game's launch, Sonic wasn't just more popular than Mario. At one point, he even scored higher on audience recognition surveys than any other character, including Mickey Mouse. For a brief time in the 1990s, Neoto Oshima's little sketch of a hedgehog became the most famous character in all the world. The moral of this story is simple. Sometimes things don't work out first time, but you should never let that stop you. Just as Yuji Naka had to go through hundreds of designs, and just as Neoto Oshima saw several of his ideas passed over, sometimes we find ourselves running into difficulty while we're trying to succeed. Never give up. You only fail if you stop trying, and if you keep at things and give it enough attempts, eventually you'll be able to succeed.