Sonic (SSBB)

Sonic (, Sonic) is a character from SEGA who appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as one of the two third-party characters (the other being from Konami). Sonic was the first unlockable character to be playable prior to the game's release, first playable in Nintendo Media Summit in October 2007, shortly after he was confirmed to be in the game on October 10. A swift character, Sonic runs at an extremely fast pace that surpasses even . Nintendo Power states that since Sonic is not well known for his fighting skills, some of his fighting moves were influenced by SEGA's fighting property, Virtua Fighter. A majority of Sonic's moves are also influenced by SEGA's Sonic the Fighters and (to a much lesser extent) Sonic Battle. Sonic is voiced by Jason Griffith in English, reprising his role from both the Sonic X anime and in the games from Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Rush up to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and by Jun'ichi Kanemaru in Japanese, reprising his role from Sonic Adventure onward.
Sonic is placed at 22nd on the Brawl tier list in the middle tier, which is his worst placement in the series. Sonic is most known for his incredible movement speed, possessing by far the fastest dashing speed, as well as among the fastest walking and air speeds. His movement is boosted farther by his Spin Dash and Spin Charge moves, which allow him to rip across the stage at incredible speed while simultaneously attacking and/or jumping. The aforementioned Spin moves give Sonic a plethora of options to attack and confound the opponent, which can make it incredibly difficult to hit Sonic, while also aiding Sonic's ability to time out opponents. Additionally, Sonic possesses one of the best recoveries, which contains many options, while gaining great distance and generally making it difficult to edgeguard Sonic. Sonic also possesses an effective grab and throw game, and generally great damage racking abilities from his Spin moves, up throw, and effective combos.
Sonic is nearly crippled regarding his KOing ability, though, being arguably one of the weakest characters and having few finishers, none of which are particularly effective. Sonic possesses what is considered one of the worst movesets, which, outside his special moves, consists almost entirely of weak moves that either possess little utility or are outclassed by similar moves of other characters. While Sonic's forward smash and back air are fairly strong, those moves, along with the character in general, suffer from generally poor reach, which combined with his lack of a proper projectile gives him a rather linear approach. Overall, Sonic has average matchups, and his tournament results have been above average.
==How to unlock==
Players can unlock Sonic by doing one of the methods listed below. With the exception of the fourth method, Sonic must then be defeated on Green Hill Zone.
*Play 300 VS. matches to completion. If Sonic is skipped for fighters with higher VS. match quotas, he will not be accessible until those other fighters are unlocked.
*Complete with 10 different characters. If the player fails to defeat Sonic, they can re-fight him by completing Classic Mode again. If this method is used and , , , and/or have not been unlocked yet, then none of them can appear through Classic Mode until Sonic is unlocked.
*Play 10 hours of VS. matches. The time is reduced by the number of human players in said matches; 1 player requires 10 total hours, 2 players require 5 total hours, 3 players require 3 hours and 20 minutes, and 4 players require 2 hours and 30 minutes. The time can be further reduced by playing Special Brawl with Speed set to Fast. If the player fails to defeat Sonic, they can re-fight him by playing another VS. match to completion.
*Have Sonic join the player's party in The Subspace Emissary by completing The Great Maze.
Note: both the Shadow the Hedgehog assist trophy and the Green Hill Zone stage will also be unlocked alongside Sonic.
==Attributes==
Sonic is the fastest character in the game, in regards to movement speed (fastest dash speed by far, third fastest walking speed, sixth fastest air speed, and very fast rolls). However, only about half of his moveset has speed to match, none of them being KO moves. Sonic's relatively small hitboxes and lack of a projectile (excluding his Spring jump which can only be used in the air, travels downward, and can be used by opponents if used on the ground) mean that he must stay close to the opponent in order to attack, but his aforementioned speed mitigates this problem. His ability to spinshot (holding Spin Dash and releasing as one pushes the C-Stick downwards) allows him to quickly bypass the effects of most projectile campers, and his side special can clank and cancel out the effects of certain projectiles, such as 's C4. His tremendous running speed, his Spin Charge and Spring Jump and specials, and down air give him excellent follow up ability on practically every character.
Even though Sonic can easily rack up damage, he arguably has the hardest time landing a KO move, as all of his KO moves are unreliable, he has no guaranteed setups to them, and he lacks an early KO move. Sonic has only four ways to reliably KO the opponent (back and up aerial, and forward/down smash), all of which have weaknesses that prevent them from being reliable KO moves. All of Sonic's smash attacks have too much start-up time to be reliable finishers.
Sonic is one of the more difficult characters to gimp in the game, given his tremendous vertical recovery, as well as his theoretically limitless horizontal recovery (Homing Attack) should an opponent be off the stage with him. Sonic has the ability to wall jump, however; should an opponent be in place at all, invincible or not, Sonic will not have enough time to both attack and successfully grab the edge. Sonic also has surprisingly good survivability despite being a middleweight by nature. His down and side specials serve as excellent momentum canceling attacks, which, when coupled with his ability to recover, can allow him to survive until very high percentages, although they are still incomparable to the survivability of characters heavier than him.
Sonic's attacks are primarily offensive in nature, and his air game and air speed are good enough to accommodate attacking in the sky as well. Sonic can remain in the air indefinitely with careful use of his neutral special, Homing Attack, and with proper placement can either stage spike or gimp in this manner. Stage spiking in general is an excellent offensive strategy for Sonic; by running off the edge and immediately using back air, many characters or opponents who focus on ledge-camping (such as ) can be caught off guard for either a KO or a tactical advantage. Sonic's speedy and long-lasting dash attack is another move that can catch opponents unexpectedly, and its traveling distance usually prevents significant retaliation, such as shield-grabbing.
Sonic has good punishment options. Many of Sonic's moves use the same spinning ball animation, making him a very difficult character to predict. Unlike some characters however, practice is required to fully unlock Sonic's punishment potential. Sonic has one of the best shields in the game, because of how quickly it pops out and the multiple ways he can go into it. Sonic can cancel any of his Spin Dashes/Charges into a shield, Spin Dash from the ground, and Spin Charge from the air. This allows Sonic to "fake-out" his opponents, causing them to make hasty moves on which Sonic can capitalize on. When an opponent goes into their knock down animation, Sonic's superior punishment comes into play. By moving closer to the opponent then stopping just outside their range, Sonic has the edge. Because of his speed, if they roll towards Sonic, away from Sonic or use their getup attack, Sonic can grab them as they finish their move. Sonic is surprisingly easy to grab out of his attacks, because many of his moves launch him straight at opponents, only to have Sonic finish the move next to the opponent.
Mastering Sonic's running game is crucial to Sonic's ability to perform at higher levels, and is one of the factors that makes him so difficult to play competitively. Sonic users take advantage of a variety of dash or dash-related techniques that are seldom used by other characters. Dash-dancing is much less useful in Brawl than it was in Melee, but it can be extremely useful for mindgames in Sonic's gameplay, such as by running in one direction and then quickly turning the other way around to bait an opponent or catch them off-guard. It is often regarded by Sonic players that it is better to run away from the opponent and run back than to use roll-dodges to avoid opponent. This allows the player to avoid damage, not be as easily punished, have more control over their actions, and be able to punish their opponent's attacks. Dash-dance pivots (consisting of fox-trotting away from the opponent, then quickly dash-dancing backwards) are particularly effective for this, as they can cause almost immediate turnarounds and then grabs can then be used to punish opponents.
Sonic's matchups are difficult to define, as they vary greatly from player to player, possibly moreso than for any other character. Sonic players to this day find it difficult to agree on which matchups are Sonic's worst. Depending on the play-style of the Sonic, he can have a decent matchup against almost any character in the game, even at competitive levels. Because of his prowess for mindgaming and switching up tactics, as well as the inherent strengths and weaknesses to each style of play, some Sonic mains argue that Sonic has no truly disadvantageous matchups as a character, and that his matchups are much more heavily influenced by playstyle than his actual attributes. However, most Sonic mains will agree that he does not have many, if any, truly advantageous matchups.
==Moveset==
For a gallery of Sonic's hitboxes, see here.
===Stats===
===Announcer call===
Sonic English Announcer SSBB.wav|English/Japanese
===Wii Remote selection sound===
===On-screen appearance===
===Taunts===
===Idle poses===
===Crowd cheer===
 	Cheer (English) 	Cheer (Japanese) 	Cheer (German) 	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	 	 	
Description	Go - Go - So - nic!	Go - Go - So - nic!	Hey! ho! So - nic! 	
 	Cheer (French) 	Cheer (Italian) 	Cheer (Spanish) 	
Cheer 	 	 	 	
Description	Allez So - nic ! 	Soooooo - nic! 	Ese Sonic, ese Sonic! Eh! - Eh!	Go gooo -- Sonic!
===Victory poses===
==In competitive play==
===Most historically significant players===
:See also: :Category:Sonic players (SSBB)
* - Widely considered the best Sonic player in Japan. While it is unknown how much he regularly competed, he placed 49th at the supermajor , the only documented case of a Sonic player placing top 64 at a major/supermajor outside of North America.
* - The best Sonic player of all-time. He placed 5th at with victories over and , which is considered the best Sonic performance in the history of Brawl. Outside of MLG Dallas, he notably placed 13th at and 17th at , and would commonly place top 8 in mid/low tier Brawl brackets. In 2014, he would retire from competition after a 9th place finish at and switched to Smash 4 shortly after the game's release, but still managed to rank 65th on the 2014 SSBBRank, which was the highest ranking of a Sonic player during the peak of Brawl.
* - The top Canadian Sonic player and was relatively active through most of Brawls lifespan. While mainly competed locally during Brawls prime, he also placed 7th at and 49th at , and placed 78th on the 2014 SSBBRank. In the post-Smash 4 era, he became the best Sonic player of the metagame, ranking 18th on the 2016-2017 SSBBRank due to his 4th place finish at and 13th place finish at . After 2017, he became less active and hasn't competed in a tournament since 2019.
* - While more known for his performances as a player in Smash 4. He notably competed in Brawl tournaments during the 2014 season and garnered some notable results at majors, including 17th at and 33rd at , defeating at the latter tournament. His Apex run allowed him to place 68th on the 2014 SSBBRank, being a few spots below and outplacing on the ranking.
* - The second best Sonic player of all-time. While not as active as Espy, he boasted similar peaks when he was most active, placing 5th at and 6th at defeating . While he saw a decline in performance and activity after MLG Dallas, he continued to place top 64 at majors such as and was ranked 72nd on the 2014 SSBBRank.
===Tier placement and history===
Around the beginning of Brawls competitive life, Sonic was considered a non-viable low tier by the majority of players, due to his terrible KOing power, poor moveset (with his attacks generally having low damage output, mediocre frame data, and having rather small and/or poor hitboxes), and perceived "low priority". At that time, he was ranked as low as 33rd on the first tier list (September 2008), and on the second tier list was viewed hardly any better, being ranked 31st and still in low tier (January 2009). However, dedicated Sonic players at the time were vocal about the community underrating Sonic, as Sonic possessed such an extreme mobility advantage over the rest of the cast, and both Spin Dash and Spin Charge allowed Sonic to control the neutral game against most of the cast, while abuse of those moves made it very difficult to land good hits on Sonic. Additionally, due to how effectively Sonic could run away from opponents and how difficult it was to hit him, Sonic players learned that camping for time out wins was a viable strategy. By abusing these strengths, Sonic players would end up proving the community perception wrong and started placing much more favorably in tournaments; this caused Sonic to jump up eight places to 23rd in mid tier on the third tier list (June 2009), which is the biggest tier list jump in the history of Brawl, tied with from the first to second lists.
While Sonic would drop mildly to 25th and 24th on the fourth (February 2010) and fifth tier lists (September 2010) respectively, near the end of 2010 Sonic players would achieve their best performance yet, with and placing 5th and 6th respectively at MLG Dallas 2010, the final MLG Brawl event. Besides being the best placings Sonic achieved at a Brawl major, it was one of the best performances of any player using a mid-tier tier character in Brawls history. As a result of these performances and other solid results, Sonic would rise to 22nd in solid mid tier on the sixth tier list (July 2011), where Sonic would remain for the rest of Brawls competitive life. The placings at MLG Dallas would prove to be an anomaly, as no Sonic player would ever again come close to top 8 at a Brawl major (other than X playing 5th at Winter Game Fest VI), with Sonic's aforementioned flaws keeping him from being truly viable at a top level, though a Sonic player or two making it into the top 64 at large majors and top 32 at smaller majors would remain a common sight for the rest of Brawls competitive life.
==In Solo Modes==
======
In Classic Mode, Sonic can appear as an opponent in Stage 10 if he has been unlocked on Green Hill Zone. Sonic can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if he hasn't appeared in Stage 10.
===All-Star Mode===
In All-Star Mode, Sonic is fought in Stage 14 on Green Hill Zone.
===Event Matches===
====Solo Events====
*Event 30: Sonic Boom: Sonic must defeat 15 other Sonics on the Green Hill Zone stage.
*Event 39: All-Star Battle x2: Sonic is one of the eight opponents fought in this event along with , , , , , , and .
*Event 41: The FINAL Final Battle: The player must defeat Sonic along with Snake and a giant on .
====Co-Op Events====
*Co-Op Event 17: Sonic and Mario: Sonic and Mario must defeat 3 other Sonics and 3 other Marios on the Green Hill Zone stage.
*Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and take on the entire roster on .
===Congratulations Screens===
Sonic Congratulations Screen Classic Mode Brawl.png|Classic Mode
Sonic Congratulations Screen All-Star Brawl.png|All-Star Mode
==Role in The Subspace Emissary==
Sonic does not appear in The Subspace Emissary until the final battle with Tabuu, but unlike the secret characters (, and ), Sonic can be chosen to fight Tabuu after The Great Maze.
When the fighters reach Tabuu, he prepares his Off Waves, which had already reduced most of them to trophy forms when they first opposed him. Just as he is about to release the attack, a blue blur rams into both of Tabuu's wings, shattering them. As the blue blur jumps up on a peak, it reveals itself to be Sonic. While he taunts, Tabuu's wings break apart as the fighters make their final stand against the villain.
It is commonly believed that Sonic's minor role in the mode is due to the fact that he was added to Brawls roster so late in development in 2007.
===Exclusive stickers===
The following stickers can only be used by Sonic:
* Amy Rose: [Leg] Attack +14
* Classic Sonic JP Ver.: [Arm] Attack +21
* Classic Sonic US Ver.: [Throwing] Attack +20
* Dr. Eggman: Launch Resistance +39
* Espio The Chameleon: [Body, Spin] Attack +12
* Jet The Hawk: [Leg] Attack +17
* Knuckles The Echidna: [Electric] Resistance +23
* Shadow The Hedgehog: [Specials: Direct] Attack +20
* Silver The Hedgehog: Launch Power +49
* Sonic The Hedgehog: [Body, Spin] Attack +32
* Super Sonic: [Electric] Resistance +27
* Wave The Swallow: [Arm] Attack +19
==Trophies==
Sonic's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Sonic.
==Alternate costumes==
				
				
==Reveal trailer==
==Gallery==
SSBBDojoSonic1.jpg|Using his forward smash near on Skyworld.
Sonic Shadow Moses Island.jpg|Taunting on Shadow Moses Island.
Sonic Brawl BOE.jpg|Posing on Bridge of Eldin.
SSBBDojoSonic4.jpg|Using his down aerial near on Lylat Cruise.
Spin Dash.jpg|Sonic using Spin Dash in Brawl.
Spin Dash2.jpg|Spin Dash being used to jump and attack .
Spring Jump SSBB.jpg|Sonic using Spring Jump in Brawl.
Spring Jump Mario SSBB.jpg| bouncing on Sonic's Spring.
Sonic charge.jpg|The Spin Charge in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Super Sonic.jpg|Super Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
==Trivia==
*Sonic dashes so fast that, when wearing a Bunny Hood, he can outrace both the Big Blue track and the water slope on Distant Planet to the point of self-destructing. Also, if Sonic has a Bunny Hood, Superspicy Curry and a pair of Super Mushrooms, he can even outrun the iceberg on Summit.
**He is also the only character that has faster dash speed than without any moves, as Wario-Man is a Final Smash.
*Along with , and , Sonic is one of the only characters to not be seen in trophy form during The Subspace Emissary, due to his late appearance.
**Sonic is the only one of the four who is not part of a transformation gimmick, making Sonic the only standalone character who is not seen as a trophy and the only one who can use his default costume in team battles.
*In the video game convention E for All, Sonic was the only unlockable character to be playable in the demo.
*Sonic is the only unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl who has four, rather than three, unlock methods.
*Sonic and Zero Suit Samus are the only characters not fought in any form in The Subspace Emissary.
*Sonic is the only non- character to have less than six palette swaps.
*Sonic is the first character to have his victory theme ripped directly from a non-Smash game. He would later be joined by , and in Ultimate.
*This is Sonic's only playable appearance in the series where he does not have Spanish, French, German or Italian voice acting.
*Sonic and 's fighter trophies are the only ones in Brawl to use the fighters' full names as the titles (Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake respectively).
==External links==
*Sonic's page on the Smash Bros. DOJO!!
*A video demonstration of Sonic against Link
*The Origin of Sonic's Moveset
*Sonic Character Guide on SmashBoards
*Sonic's hitbox size of each of his moves
 
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