During first contact it's revealed that somehow the blue blur is a universal constant and every species in the galaxy has a pivotal point in their development where they must invent Sonic the Hedgehog or they will never survive to explore the heavens.
The secondary twist is that extinction events arrive early for a pre-spaceflight civilization if the concept of Sonic is artificially acquired from outside interference. Several habitable planets in our galaxy are quarantined graveyards, their only intact remains being a different civilization's equivalent of the Voyager Golden Records sent in ignorance of the consequences.
