Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is the protagonist of the SEGA video game franchise of the same name, and is the star of many other games made by SEGA as well as their mascot. Both are a onetime major competitor with Nintendo in the video game console wars of the 1990s.
Sonic is often viewed as the SEGA counterpart to Mario, each representing their respective rival company in the video game market, though because of the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series hasn't been proven to be canon or non-canon yet, no one can say for sure that the two great heroes have met yet. Because of his new position as a freelancer, with connections to Nintendo, Sonic finally made his long-awaited first appearance alongside Mario in the Wii game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
==Profile==
===Powers and abilities===
*Superhuman Speed: Sonic's main ability is his trademark running speed. Sonic has shown that he can easily surpass the speed of sound. Though his top speed is unknown, he has an average of 760-765 mph.
*Superhuman Agility: Sonic has shown that he is very agile. In most games, by preforming amazing feats that would require Superhuman Agility.
*Superhuman Reflexes: Granted by his superhuman speed, Sonic has shown that he possess superhuman reflexes. He is able to dodge gunfire from enemies robots and strikes from beings with Superhuman Speed.
*Superhuman Durability: Sonic has an incredible durability rate. He has withstood being dropped from great heights, struck by beings with superhuman strength, and even blasted with large amounts of energy and has come out with mild damage.
His incredible speed and agility make him faster than 10x the speed-of-sound itself (Mach 10>). His Spin Jump has him curl into a ball, and is able to destroy many objects, especially robots.
*Spin Dash: Sonic can curl up and rev in place, giving him a tremendous speed boost and making him invulnerable to enemies.
*Homing Attack: Sonic can lock-on to a target and strike them from midair
*Super Peel Out: Sonic can run in place until his legs start forming a red figure-8, akin to a car revving up before taking off at full speed.
*Light Speed Dash: Sonic can follow a trail of rings to both collect them and reach the location the rings lead to.
===Role in the console wars===
Although Mario took the gaming industry, Sega was eager to compete. Having seeing the profit a successful video game system could be, they had internal competitions on who would be the new mascot, to replace Alex Kidd. A drawing of a hedgehog on a piece of napkin, dubbed "Mr. Needlemouse" at the time, was the winner. Fleshing out his color to blue to match the Sega logo (Mario is red due to Nintendo's original logo color, red), giving him Michael Jackson-esque shoes, and asserting an "attitude" like Bill Clinton's "let's get it done" attitude to streamline his character, Sonic the Hedgehog, introduced to the world in 1991, marked the first time someone besides Mario was the best seller. The Sonic series soon took over the top slot for best selling franchise, with a combined total of sales throughout the era at a minimum of 24.26 million units sold, toppling Mario's count. This led to Sega overtaking Nintendo for the fourth generation of consoles with a 65% lead being the climax, leading Mario to earn himself a rival greater than Bowser. This led to the popular image of Mario vs. Sonic, a fierce rivalry that is generally seen to last until the end. However, Sega would lose its edge when they cut support for the Sega Genesis in 1996, the same year that was released.
Sonic would remain absent throughout the Sega Saturn's lifespans, albeit several side-adventures. This is often cited as one of the reasons the Sega Saturn failed. Sega realized this, and attempted to mend the lack of Sonic the Hedgehog games by launching their final system, the Dreamcast, with the first mainstream fully 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure. It soon would be followed by Sonic's last game released on a Sega console, Sonic Adventure 2. Since then, after the death of the Dreamcast, Sonic has been a free-lance franchise, feeling notably comfortable on Nintendo systems, finally putting an end to Sonic and Mario's rivalry. Sonic has since then had the most exclusives on Nintendo systems.
==In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest==
The first time Sonic was referenced in a Mario-related game is in Cranky's Video Game Heroes. Here, Sonic's shoes and Earthworm Jim's plasma gun can be seen next to a trash can, along with a sign saying "No Hopers", jabbing at Nintendo’s opponent Sega for being “hopers”. This detail was removed for the Game Boy Advance remake, which released a few years after Sega became a third-party developer.
==In ==
===Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)===
Sonic is one of eight playable Sonic the Hedgehog characters. Sonic is a Speed character, meaning he has great speed but low power.
Because he cannot usually swim, Sonic wears a yellow life jacket during the swimming Olympic events, although he moves quite fast in water as well as out of it.
Like the other characters, Sonic has six of his own missions, and clearing the first five unlocks the sixth one:
# Long Jump: - Sonic must run at maximum speed and perform the best jump right before the foul line one time.
# High Jump: Sonic has to clear the bar using jumps only, i.e. not moving the Nunchuk upward.
# Dream Race: Sonic has to win in exactly second place.
# Dream Platform: Reach a speed of 170m per second and enter the water first.
# 400m Hurdles: Have Sonic stagger to the finish line with his stamina used up and come in first place.
# 100m: Sonic must perform a super starting dash by building up meter power and running right when "GO!" appears, and then win in first place.
Upon completing all of Sonic's missions, the player unlocks the Sonic Emblem. In addition, earning gold medals in all events with Sonic earns the player the Sonic Crown.
===Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS)===
Sonic the Hedgehog plays similarly to his appearance in the Wii version, right down to also retaining his Sonic Emblem and Sonic Crown unlockables. However, like with the other characters, Sonic has a different set of six missions, but the sixth one is still unlockable:
# 100m: Perform a successful starting dash and finish in first place.
# Triple Jump: Sonic has to jump at least 15m with a jump angle of at least 50 degrees.
# 400m Hurdles: Sonic must perform seven sprint jumps.
# Dream Boxing: Sonic has to perform a successful sway nine times.
# Dream Fencing: Knock your opponent out of the ring three times to win the match.
# 400m: Win against Mario while he is in top condition.
===Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)===
Sonic returns as a playable character of the Speed type. His special skill is the Spin Dash, which he can use in certain events to gain speed.
A Mii costume based on Sonic can be unlocked after winning five gold medals in any Olympic/Dream Events with Sonic and then buying the costume at the Boutique.
===Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Nintendo DS)===
As a playable character, Sonic has a similar role as before, but he now has another special skill, Jump Dash.
====Adventure Tours====
Sonic is one of the mode's two protagonists, along with Mario. The player can choose either Sonic or Mario to control around the world map, and can switch between them. This is sometimes required, as Sonic is the only character who can jump onto Springs, knock down bridges, and destroy cracked walls with the Spin Dash and Homing Attack to break open passages. For the mode, Mario and Sonic are the only two playable characters at first.
During the story, Sonic and Mario learned that Dr. Eggman and Bowser had kidnapped the Snow Spirits and caused the snow to melt on Winter Island, thus disrupting the Olympic Games, as the two villains wanted to replace the Olympic Winter Games with a different one of their own. Soon after, Sonic and Mario united and embarked on a journey through the different lands of the Olympic park. On the way, they met their many friends and enemies, and saved the individual Snow Spirits
In the end, Sonic and Mario defeated Dr. Eggman and Bowser and finally brought the snow back to all six areas of Winter Island, thus allowing the Olympic Winter Games to occur. After completing the main plot, the heroes can also complete the challenges that Metal Sonic and Bowser Jr. have left for them. After beating the challenges Metal Sonic and Bowser Jr. decide to follow Mario and Sonic around to get better which the heroes seem okay with. After beating Eggman and Bowser for the second time, they decide to follow Mario and Sonic as well to improve their skills, so the heroes permit both of them to join.
===Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii)===
Sonic is once again a playable character of the Speed type, and he also retains his Spin Dash for his special skill.
In the opening cinematic, Sonic is seen at the start with the other athletes. He is also seen in 110m Hurdles, Dream Hurdles and Dream Uneven Bars, as well as with Mario on top of the Clock Tower.
In London Party mode, Sonic is a character who can be spoken to to play minigames and earn stickers. Mii outfits based on Sonic and his Super Sonic form can be unlocked.
===Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Nintendo 3DS)===
Like in the Wii version, Sonic is a playable character, although he is instead a part of the Heroes group, meaning that he is only playable in certain events. However, he still retains Spin Dash as his special skill. There is an obtainable badge of Sonic from the badge machine.
====Story Mode====
Sonic arrives in London with Tails, where they find and clear up the red Phantasmal Fog at the Tower of London, concluding that Bowser is involved. The next day, Sonic and Tails head to Tower Bridge, where they find more Phantasmal Fog, and clear it up with the help of Yoshi, Shadow, Silver and Jet, finding out from Bowser Jr. that Dr. Eggman is also partially responsible for the fog in the process. Sonic and Tails then move on to the British Museum, where they team up with Mario, Luigi and Toad to clear the fog from the area and find out more about the fog.
After gaining some more information, the group splits up, and Sonic heads to Horse Guards Parade, where he finds Knuckles and Vector, who help him fend off Bowser and clear the area of fog. Sonic then returns to the Main Stadium to meet up with the others, and helps save Cream and Cheese from some imposters when the fog returns.
Sonic then heads to Stonehenge with Mario, Luigi, Toad, Tails and Omega, where he defeats Magikoopa in an Event, and after Omega recovers some memory, the group head to Big Ben to confront Bowser and Dr. Eggman.
Toad and Omega head back to the Main Stadium, and the remaining four confront Bowser and Dr. Eggman, with Mario and Sonic challenging the pair. When they are defeated, Sonic helps Mario seal away the Phantasmal Fog, and then accompanies Bowser and Dr. Eggman to the Main Stadium so that they can sign up for the games, and later appears at the opening ceremony.
===Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games===
Sonic returns as a playable character, once again being of the Speed type. He retains his Spin Dash ability.
In Legends Showdown, Sonic is on the first team, along with Tails, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. A Mii costume based on Sonic can be unlocked by completing the last area in Legends Showdown.
===Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Nintendo 3DS)===
Sonic is one of the playable characters, and he can be played as in every event.
In Road to Rio mode, like with Mario, Sonic has his own gym. The player's Mii can choose to join either Team Sonic or Team Mario to prepare for the Olympics. During the mode's story, Sonic and Mario disappeared after their Olympic medals went missing from the museum and their gyms were accused of having stolen them, creating a disagreement between the gyms. What had actually occurred is Sonic and Mario went into hiding to investigate the thefts. With the help of the Mii, the heroes discovered that Dr. Eggman and Bowser were behind the scheme, and they eventually both defeated and recovered the stolen medals from the two villains.
===Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Wii U)===
Sonic returns as a playable character of the Speed type. Like in the Nintendo 3DS version, Sonic is available from the start, and he is playable in every event. A Mii costume set based on Sonic can be unlocked by completing Sonic's Carnival Challenge. However, it must be collected in two separate parts, each with their own stat changes.
===Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020===
Sonic returns as a playable character of the Speed type. He is one of the playable characters whose outfits differ depending on the event. In addition to being playable in the Tokyo 2020 events, he is one of the eight characters that are playable in the Tokyo 1964 events, using his appearance from Sonic the Hedgehog.
In the Story Mode, Sonic is one of the main protagonists. He gets sucked into the Tokyo '64 game system along with Mario, Toad, Bowser, and Dr. Eggman, and his focus during the story is not only competing in the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games but also escaping from the game system with the other characters.
===Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Arcade Edition===
Sonic is a Speed-type playable character in both the Tokyo 2020 and Tokyo 1964 events. Here, Sonic has a speed statistic of 10, better than the other characters, but he has an average technique of 5 and a low power of 3.
==In ==
===Super Smash Bros. Brawl===
Sonic was originally confirmed on October 10, 2007 by Masahiro Sakurai on Smash Bros. DOJO!!, being the second third-party fighter to appear in a Super Smash Bros. game, the other one being Solid Snake. Sonic is one of the unlockable playable characters. The player can unlock Sonic by either playing 300 Brawl matches, completing Classic with ten characters, playing ten hours of Brawl matches, or by having Sonic join the party in Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary. Sonic's unlock match takes place on Green Hill Zone. In the "Sonic Joins The Brawl" trailer, Sonic can be seen fighting the Subspace Army with Mario. Oddly, this never happens in the actual storyline; it is only possible to play as Sonic and Mario if one replays a level with Sonic and Mario. Sonic only appears in the Subspace Emissary once, when he attacks Tabuu, the leader of the Subspace Army and weakens him. This is most likely due to Sonic's late inclusion in the game and most of the Subspace Emissary being completed at that time.
Sonic is the fastest-moving character, both in movement and while attacking. Sonic's special moves are based on those from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sonic's standard special is the Homing Attack, in which he homes in onto an opponent and charges into them. Sonic's down special and side special are Spin Dash and Spin Charge, respectively, both of which involve him curling into a ball and ramming into opponents. Sonic up special is Spring Jump, which involves him bouncing off of a Spring to launch upward. For his Final Smash, Sonic turns into Super Sonic, in which he uses the Chaos Emeralds to take on this form, powering up his attacks and allowing him fly for a short period of time.
In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, Sonic only appears until the very end, after The Great Maze. As every fighter makes it to where Tabuu resides, Tabuu prepares his Off Waves, which would have turned every character into a trophy. As soon as Tabuu is about to release the attack, a blue blur dashes past the fighters, and rams into both of Tabuu's wings, causing the Off-Wave attack to fail. The blue blur jumps up on a peak and reveals himself to be Sonic. While Sonic performs his taunt, Tabuu's wings break apart, and then six fighters are selected to fight Tabuu in the final battle.
Like with the other fighters, Sonic has a trophy of his own, as well as one for his Final Smash, Super Sonic. There are also four stickers of Sonic, one of which is of him in his Super Sonic form.
===Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U===
Sonic returns as a playable character. His moveset is almost completely unchanged from Super Smash Bros. Brawl; the only real changes are that his down smash from the previous game (a back-and-forth Spin Dash) has been replaced with a split-kick, while his dash attack (a Spin Dash) has him perform a lunging kick afterwards. Sonic's overall damage output is lowered, but many of his attacks deal more knockback. Sonic's air speed and fast-falling speeds are both faster, while his walking speed is slightly slower. One of Sonic's alternate colors appears to be based on Silver the Hedgehog.
In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Sonic retains Green Hill Zone as his home stage. For Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Sonic instead receives a different stage of his own, Windy Hill Zone, based on the Sonic Lost World location of the same name.
===Super Smash Bros. Ultimate===
Sonic returns as a playable character, now being unlockable like in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Sonic's basic moveset is mostly unchanged aside from his dash attack, which is now solely a lunge kick. His Final Smash, Super Sonic, remains mostly unchanged, except Sonic moves back and forth automatically at a much faster speed, but his up and down movements are still controllable. Like with several other returning characters, Sonic's victory theme has been slightly shortened than in previous appearances. Sonic now takes damage from swimming in water, similarly to Charizard, Inkling, Incineroar, but in Sonic's case, this is because he cannot swim in the Sonic the Hedgehog platforming games. Sonic retains both of his stages from previous installments, Green Hill Zone and Windy Hill Zone.
In Adventure Mode: World of Light, during the opening scene, Sonic tries to run away from Galeem's large laser attack, but slows down in an attempt to save Pikachu. However, Sonic is unsuccessful, as both of them are captured by Galeem and used to create puppet fighters. On the map itself, Sonic is encountered in the Sacred Land sub-area of the Dark Realm, and he is one of the fighters whom the player's team has to defeat in order to progress.
==In ==
===Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe===
The artwork of Sonic from Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is seen on the Mii Racing Suits screen of Mario Kart 8 (from version 4.0 onward) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Upon scanning the Sonic amiibo onto the NFC touchpoint, a racing suit stylized after him will be accessible to the player; this suit can be used on the Mii.
===Super Mario Maker===
Sonic appears as one of the Mystery Mushroom costumes, which can be unlocked by either clearing 100 Mario Challenge on Expert difficulty or by tapping Sonic's amiibo onto the Wii U GamePad. Like all of the other Mystery Mushroom costumes, Sonic's is exclusive to the Super Mario Bros. style.
The costume is mainly based on Sonic's appearance in the original 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog game, and Sonic's sprites are designed after his appearance from said game, from which most of his sound effects are also taken from. The sound effect that plays when obtaining a Mystery Mushroom with the Sonic costume is the 1-Up tune from the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog. Pressing causes Sonic to look up while playing the Ring-collecting sound. When running, Sonic curls up into a ball instead of spinning his feet like a wheel. Sonic's "course clear" and "lose a life" themes are taken from Sonic the Hedgehog 3s course clear and Game Over themes, respectively.
==In Yoshi's Woolly World / Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World==
The player can tap Sonic's amiibo into the game to unlock a design pattern for Yoshi based on Sonic, giving Yoshi blue skin with a flesh-colored chest and arms, Sonic's shoes and gloves, and green eyes. Tapping in the amiibo causes Yoshi to take on this design instantly, although the player can switch to it at the amiibo Hut as long as they have already used it.
==Statistics==
==Flavor text==
==Trivia==
*Sonic is one of six characters to not appear as trophies in Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, the other five being Jigglypuff, Squirtle, Toon Link, Wolf O'Donnell, and Zero Suit Samus.
*To acknowledge Mario's 20th anniversary, Sega released an illustration on the Sonic Channel of Sonic wearing Mario's Cap with the text "20th HAPPY MARIO!".
==Gallery==
==External links==
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