Fang the Hunter

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**Fang the Hunter** (Fang the Sniper), or simply known as **Fang**, is an anthropomorphic Jerboa-wolf hybrid in the Classic Sonic's World who acts as a mercenary for hire.

## History

### Early Adventures

In the past, Sonic was acquainted with the mercenary and his minions, developing a rivalry of sorts.

### Seasons of Chaos

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Fang, Bark and Bean were hired by a mysterious employer, who was revealed top be Dr Eggman to acquire the Chaos Emeralds. (Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Special: Seasons of Chaos)

### Amy's New Hobby

Fang appeared as a cameo in Amy's comic book story, The Last Stand. He was in a queue for the hotdog stand. Although he wasn't present during the reveal of Amy's comics, both his minions, Bark and Bean were among those reading the comics. (FCDB: Amy's New Hobby)

## Personality

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## Abilities

True to his title “the sniper”, Fang is a skilled marksman. Fang also has a highly flexible yet powerful tail that he can use to propel himself high into the air and also as a weapon in close combat. He has a fair bit of mechanical knowledge and can repair and make modifications to his aerobike.

## Equipment

Fang's main weapon is his popgun which, while may not threatening, can be enough to temporarily stun someone for a moment.

Fang also makes use of the Marvelous Queen, a air bike that is used as a transport and features two sidecars for his two associates. It also features a range of other abilities.

## Relationships

### Friends/allies

* Bark the Polar Bear
* Bean the Dynamite

### Neutral

* Sonic the Hedgehog (Classic)
* Amy Rose (Classic)
* Knuckles the Echidna (Classic)
* Miles "Tails" Prower (Classic)
* Mighty the Armadillo
* Ray the Flying Squirrel

### Enemies

* Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (Classic)
* Metal Sonic (Classic)
* Metal Knuckles
* Heavy King

## Background Information

* Fang the Sniper first debuted in Sonic & Tails 2 for the Sega Gamegear in 1994, localized in the U.S. as Sonic Triple Trouble where he was renamed Nack the Weasel. The game is set after Sonic & Knuckles 3, but perhaps oddly involves Knuckles being tricked into working with Eggman once again. This makes him one of the earliest Sonic characters. Cut content shows that even in his first appearance, he was censored as his debut in the game would have originally involved him using a gun. The game manual stats that Dr. Robotnik/Eggman accidentally pulled him from another dimension using the chaos emeralds which then scattered themselves. Fang was then hired to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds. He serves as an optional boss you must fight to collect each of the Chaos Emeralds as the "special stages" in this game play roughly identical to the regular stages as opposed to a different game mode as in most Sonic games.
* Fang's second appearance was in Sonic Drift 2 for the Sega Gamegear in 1995 debuting in the series alongside Metal Sonic, once again riding his hover bike. In Sonic Drift he has high speed and acceleration but poor handling and uses oil balls as a weapon. The game has no story, but presumably he entered the race to try to get the chaos emeralds again.
* In Tail's Adventure for the Game Gear in 1995, he featured as a power-up that increased the chances of enemies dropping rings when defeated.
* Fang's third appearance was in Sonic the Fighters for the arcades in 1997, the game where Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Dynamite first created in order to round out the then small Sonic the Hedgehog cast with some more diverse fighting styles. This was the game where he first used a gun as was initially part of his concept, although in this game it was transformed into a pop gun. He was the only playable character who was explicitly known to be a villain, however he follows the same storyline as the hero characters where they compete to see who will fly to the Death Egg, fight Metal Sonic, and destroy Robotnik's base. Whether this indicated a "face turn" for the character or simply that the creators did not wish to program multiple endings is up for the player to decide.
* After Sonic the Fighters, Fang disappeared from the games entirely. In Sonic Adventure, Big the Cat was created from the same color scheme and retained a few of the same physical features, and in some ways effectively replaced Fang going forward. While Fang continued to appear in the comics and in fan art that might appear in the gallery sections of games for many years, he was not referenced within the games again until Sonic Generations where he appeared as a wanted poster in the background of one stage. Sonic Mania saw a more proper return of the character, but only as an illusion created by one of the robotic antagonists. Bark and Bean similarly appeared on wanted posters and as illusions in those games.
* The character's original name was Knack/Nack meaning "talent" or "skill", but this was an issue because "Knuckles" and "Knack" are almost identical names, particularly in Japanese where there is no difference between a short a and a short u. A contest in a Japanese magazine was held to decide the name of Sonic's new rival. The name "Jet" was adopted for the European port of Sonic Triple Trouble while the American released continued to use "Nack" and the Japanese game adopted the name Fang which was the name that won the contest. There is no in-game text referring to him, this issue with his name was limited to the game boxes and manuals. In Sonic the Fighters, his name appears in-game as "Fang" in all regions.
* The basic concept of Fang was inspired by antagonists of Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner such as Wile E. Coyote and Yosemite Sam.. The appearance of Fang was designed by Shinichi Higashi (Touma) and was the first professional character he designed. Fang was initially intended to simply be a Jerboa. Jerboa was chosen as it somewhat follows the naming conventions for Sonic and Knuckles. Sonic is a hedgehog, a "needle mouse" in Japanese, while Knuckles is an echnida, a "needle mole" in Japanese. Knack/Fang instead of keeping the "needle" part instead kept the "mouse" part and his species was "jumping mouse". Sega executives apparently felt this wasn't threatening enough for a villain so the Japanese manual said he was a "half wolf, half jerboa" making him the only hybrid animal character to appear within the Sonic games while the American side decided to call him a "weasel" as it is a natural predator of hedgehogs.
* In issue 3 of the main IDW Sonic, the *Hooligans* were implied to be Fang and his crew. This name was the name of the group in the old Archie Sonic. Although Fang had no connection with Bark or Bean in the game, because the three characters had last been used in that game the concept of the three being a team was adopted. They were considered as a possible team for Sonic Heroes and as they all had similar roles in Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania, this idea of them as a team should be considered canonical across all Sonic media.
* In the archie series, his character was a weasel. This is in line with how Sonic of America was describing him in the American releases of the games he appeared in.
* This counterpart of Fang is depicted with five fingers on each hand, whereas his game, based solely on the counterpart has only four. Despite persistent internet rumors that this had something to do with yakuza, his creator has stated that his having four fingers was an intentional element as Jerboas only have four fingers. While this is also true of other animals that appear in the series, Fang was created by a different individual than the other characters were and his creator uniquely decided to incorporate this element into the design.