Sonic the Hedgehog The Screen Saver, also known as Sonic the Screen Saver, is a 1996 program for Windows. It's a stand-alone product in Japan but was bundled with Sonic & Knuckles Collection internationally.
As the name implies, it's a Sonic the Hedgehog themed screen saver program. The program features Sonic artwork from the Sega internal magazine/news-letter Harmony alongside music from the Sonic the Hedgehog. There are also little sprite-based animations that occur between images.
The artworks consists mostly of mundane depictions of Sonic, Tails, and the "animal critters" hanging out. The art shown in Sonic the Hedgehog The Screen Saver has been reused in several other compilation games such as Sonic Jam.
Sonic the Hedgehog The Screen Saver provides examples of:
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Quite a few artworks depict Sonic completely dressed up.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: They're not show clearly, however the artwork features some of the first non-Eggman humans in the games. This was also seen in Sonic the Animation and would later be expanded upon in Sonic Adventure.
- Partially Civilized Animal: The animal friends can drive cars and act like people, but they don't wear clothes, they live as Woodland Creatures, and they don't talk.
- Toast of Tardiness: One artwork depicts Sonic running somewhere with toast in his mouth, carrying a suitcase and wearing a hat.
