What made Sonic cool and appealing

Style: Sonic on a turntable, which is commonly used in hip-hop and for break dancing music. Sonic himself has done break dances a few times in the series, even using the windmill as the last attack in Sonic battle(Common break dance move and fighting move Eddy Gordo from Tekkan, as well as other capoeira fighters)
Break dance music video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdEQrf…
Eddy and Christie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hhmsd…

Overwhelming odds: The Death Star and Space Colony Arc with the Eclipse Canon.

Big Monsters: Godzilla is one and has fought many, just like Sonic many years after.

Anti Heroes: A lot of the shit people complained about Shadow for, was many of the things Spawn has done, and the two are a lot alike. Red and Black colors, super powers(Shadow's chaos powers are green in the comics, just like Spawn's Necroplasm, who appeared in a crossover comic that Sonic, Knuckles, and the freedom fighters were in). They even have something else in common: Both have powers yet still used weapons and vehicles. Most of you guys already know about Shadow's game, but here's a clip from Spawn movie where that picture came from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEi7ED…