A lot of folks complain about Tails from the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series. They say he’s annoying, gets in the way, and has hardly any AI besides following Sonic. People also hate playing as him because he easily gets left behind and doesn’t add to the overall gameplay experience. I agree with all of these points, except the latter. While Sonic is the lead character, and the games focus solely on what he does, the option of playing as Tails created one of the strongest friendships in my life.

August 8, 1996

I’m turning eight! It’s my first birthday after moving into my new house, and I have been anxiously waiting all morning for my party to begin. I didn’t have many new friends yet, so I asked my dad who he had invited.

“I thought this would be a good chance for you to hang out with your new neighbor!”

My neighbor? Ridiculous! He was much older than me. Why would he want to hang out with a small fry like me?

The party began and we met. Chris was his name, and he was 3 years older than me. We tried playing sports, but he was much better than me. I mentioned I received a 3DO (game console) as a gift, and that night we tried it out. To our disappointment, the games were bad, and we couldn’t even figure out how to connect the second controller.

After the party, we tried to hang out some more, but a three-year gap at that age was quite a difference. He was too strong for me to play sports with. Also, I hated dying in games, so when we played them, I sat idly by and watched him go through Megaman 6 and Super Mario Bros. It seemed like our friendship wasn’t going to last long at all.

Then he invited me over to play Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

A game with co-op? Big deal. I hated playing co-op games because I would always lose all of our lives. Wait what? Tails can’t die? You mean that I can play as Tails and help Chris out, but I don’t have to worry about dying?

...Yes.

I bet you can guess where it went from here. As I started playing as Tails, I never had to worry about death. I loved it. I started getting experience as a gamer. I started getting better. With Chris as Sonic and me as Tails, we blasted our way through Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic and Knuckles. After a year or so, I was already playing games on my own, and I was able to hold my ground in other co-op games such as Battletoads and Streets of Rage 2.

When I watch my friends play as unrelenting Sonics leaving the other player behind, it’s no wonder why so many people don’t enjoy playing as Tails. Chris happened to be a very kind Sonic; he always waited up for me and let me take out the bosses. He understood that I was inexperienced and didn’t ruin my experience by leaving me behind. Because I was able to keep up with Chris in games, we had a much better time when we visited each other. After nearly 15 years, Chris is one of my greatest friends and the strongest influence behind why I’m here writing this story. We both live in different parts of the country, and I haven’t seen him in years, but our bond is still strong.

My cousin visited me last Christmas. She was only 8 years old, but she really wanted to play a game with me. I looked at the Wii sitting on the shelf thinking about what co-op games we could play.

Wii Sports? Mario Party 8? Mario Kart Wii? These games had too much going on and she was just mashing buttons more than anything. I took out my Sega Genesis, dusty and still with the Sonic 2 cartridge inserted, as if the past 15 years had never happened.

I’m not Tails anymore. I’ve grown up to be Sonic.