Sonic the Hedgehog


 * For the universe, see Sonic the Hedgehog (universe). For the smasher, see Smasher:Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog (, Sonic the Hedgehog) is the titular character of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and the mascot of Sega. After making a cameo in 1990’s , Sonic debuted a few months later in his eponymous game. In addition to succeeding as Sega's mascot, Sonic was also the company's attempt at rivaling Nintendo's mascot, Mario, during the fourth and early sixth generations of video games.

Sonic made his  debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in which he and Solid Snake notably became the first third-party characters to appear in the Super Smash Bros. series. Sonic has since reappeared as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin
Sonic is a 15-year-old anthropomorphic hedgehog who, as his name suggests, is capable of running at supersonic speeds. He is 3 ft, 3 in (1 m) tall, weighs 77 lbs (35 kg), and has large quills, blue fur, and green eyes. Sonic also wears a pair of Power Sneakers alongside a pair of white gloves.

Before the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic debuted in the arcade racing game Rad Mobile as an ornament hanging on the driver's rearview mirror. Self-described as "The Fastest Thing Alive", Sonic is confident, quick-witted, carefree and virtuous, yet he can also be impulsive, hot-headed, snarky, and cocky. He is also adventurous to the point that he hates being constrained. On a related note, Sonic's love of freedom is a primary reason behind his campaigns to stop subjugation of any kind, most notably the plots concocted by his arch-nemesis, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

Sonic's most defining feature is his speed, as it was his main gimmick and driving force during his inception. Sonic is constantly seen outrunning traditionally fast objects like cars and trucks, rockets, fighter jets and even time and space itself. This even applies to gameplay, with players often finding ways to glitch and sequence break several games by simply going fast enough. Aside from his speed, his main ability is to curl up into a ball and effectively make himself a projectile that can damage enemies. His most iconic method of achieving this state is the Spin Dash, where Sonic curls up into a ball and spins around in place enough times to launch forward at high speeds. A variant of this technique called the Super Peel-Out exists, which has a similar effect except without curling into a ball. While Sonic initially could only jump and land on the heads of enemies, later games introduced the Homing Attack, where Sonic will lock on to the closest enemy for a near guaranteed hit. Later games also introduced a boosting technique, where Sonic can further increase his speed by using a resource that varies depending on the game.

Sonic gathers golden rings for his primary source of health and energy. If he takes damage, the rings will fly out of him, the amount fluctuating depending on the game, and he has a few seconds to get them back before they disappear. Sonic also collects power-ups such as Power Sneakers that increase his speed further, various elemental shields that let him interact with the level in unique ways and allow him to take a hit without losing rings, invincible boxes that temporarily turn him invincible, several permanent power-ups that let him perform new techniques and access new areas, and wisps that temporarily change Sonic's abilities.

Sonic's most iconic power-ups are the seven Chaos Emeralds, which appear in most games as either collectibles or plot devices. Sonic has been shown to know how to perform Chaos Control, which is using the energy of at least one emerald to warp the fabric of reality, usually resulting in time slowing to a crawl or stopping entirely. If Sonic collects all seven emeralds, he can transform into Super Sonic, which grants him flight and invincibility so long as he has a sufficient number of rings.

Initially, early Western profiles sometimes portrayed Sonic as being from the fictional planet Mobius. However, Japanese profiles (which Western territories would follow starting with ) and Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team, have since stated that his birthplace is (also known as Christmas Island), one of the numerous atolls that comprise the real world sovereign state of.

In Super Smash Bros.
Although Sonic does not make any sort of appearance in Super Smash Bros., the game's Japanese website included his results from a poll to gauge interest for potential playable characters in a sequel.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Even though Sega and Nintendo were hardware and software rivals at the time of the Nintendo GameCube's release, Yuji Naka stated that Sonic was strongly considered to be playable in Melee, but was ultimately not added due to time constraints. It was later revealed that both Shigeru Miyamoto and Masahiro Sakurai would have approved the idea of adding Sonic to Melee if there were no time constraints.

An infamous hoax claimed that Sonic and Tails were unlockable in Melee. Despite it being confirmed that the rumor wasn't true, the hoax still became well-known in both the Super Smash Bros. community and the wider world of gaming anyway.

As a playable character
Sonic makes his debut in the Super Smash Bros. series as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and was confirmed on October 10th, 2007. According to Super Smash Bros. series creator Masahiro Sakurai, Sonic's inclusion was not guaranteed; as a result of his last-minute inclusion, the delay of Brawl's release date was announced alongside his confirmation.

According to Sakurai, he played a number of both classic and modern Sonic the Hedgehog games in order to develop a basis for Sonic's appearance in Brawl. He was primarily focused on the classic games and based him on their gameplay style as one-button games. Aesthetically, Sonic's design is from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and his dashing animation is his Super Peel Out from Sonic the Hedgehog CD. Mechanically, his moveset largely consists of his attacks from Sonic the Fighters, although two of his special moves are the Homing Attack from Sonic Adventure and the Spin Dash from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Sonic's Final Smash, Super Sonic, functions almost identically to its appearances in his home series: he is rendered invincible and can fly, yet his transformation has a fairly short duration. Possibly as a result of his last-minute inclusion, Sonic also appears very late in Brawl's Adventure Mode, The Subspace Emissary. Ultimately, he plays a pivotal role in the defeat of the Subspace Army's leader, Tabuu, during the final battle.

Sonic fittingly possesses the fastest dashing speed in the game, as well as among the fastest walking and air speeds. His blisteringly fast mobility is further accentuated by Spin Dash and Spin Charge, which enable him to blitz an opponent and are integral to his solid combo game. Sonic also possesses an excellent recovery, courtesy of his aforementioned air speed and the considerable distance granted by Spring Jump. However, Sonic's strengths are almost completely offset by his severely unimpressive KO potential, and most of his moveset generally has minimal utility.

Despite his flaws and the general consensus that he lacks truly advantageous and disadvantageous matchups, Sonic has nevertheless managed to achieve decent tournament results, even at the national level. As a result, he is currently ranked 22nd out of 38 on the tier list; this places him in the D tier, and posits him as a mid tier character.

As a playable character
Sonic appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4, with his return being confirmed during a Nintendo Direct on October 1st, 2013. Unlike in Brawl, he is now a starter character, and his design is now based on his appearance as of . This is further reflected by him now being voiced by Roger Craig Smith, who succeeded Jason Griffith in 2010. On a related note, Sonic is now fully voiced in Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

Sonic has been heavily buffed in the transition from Brawl to SSB4. Sonic's previously abysmal KO potential has noticeably improved, and a number of his moves have improved utility. Outside of this, Sonic's outstanding speed and mobility have improved even further, thanks to his air and fast falling speeds becoming noticeably faster. Although Sonic's recovery was slightly weakened and some of his moves, particularly his KOing options, had their lag increased, these nerfs are largely outweighed by his aforementioned buffs.

Thanks to his improvements and consistent tournament success at all levels of play, Sonic is ranked 7th out of 55. This places him in the A tier, which ties him with and posits him as a top tier character.

As a playable character
Sonic appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with his return being confirmed during Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation on June 12. Due to being the first character in 's character unlock tree, Sonic can potentially be the first character unlocked in the game.

Sonic was nerfed slightly overall in the transition from SSB4, with the changes he received demanding a more aggressive playstyle. Most notably, Spin Dash and Spin Charge can no longer cross-up shields or be charged indefinitely, with Spin Dash also losing its ability to be shield-canceled. As a result, both moves have become noticeably less effective as both neutral and camping options. Up aerial's angle and knockback adjustments have worsened its hits' consistency when Sonic is ascending, as well as its KO potential. However, it remains a useful combo starter when SHFF'd, thanks to its noticeably lower landing lag and the retention of its excellent auto-cancel window.

Despite these nerfs, Sonic received some noticeable buffs. Homing Attack is faster and more controllable, giving it greater combo potential and neutral utility. Adjustments to Spin Charge's angles, knockback, hitlag and SDI have improved its consistency significantly, while Spring Jump is even more useful for recovering thanks to it regaining the vertical height it had in Brawl. Most of Sonic's standard attacks have also been strengthened or boast greater utility. Sonic has also been indirectly buffed by gameplay changes: he benefits from the expansion of dash-canceling's utility more so than the rest of the cast because of his unrivaled dashing speed, and the reintroduction of directional air dodging allows him to extend his already impressive recovery.

Trivia

 * Sonic has made the most Super Smash Bros. appearances out of any third-party fighter that has been playable in the series, having appeared in all games since his debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Sonic is the only third-party fighter to undergo a redesign between games. He uses a modified version of his model from Sonic and the Secret Rings, with much more detailed textures that have the colored shading of Yuji Uekawa's artwork, in Brawl. From SSB4 onwards, his design is his standard look as of Sonic Unleashed (previously used in pre-rendered cutscenes and promotional renders from other Sonic games) with elements from the Classic and Uekawa designs. Wii U uses a new model designed to fit the Brawl model's animation rig, while 3DS reuses the Brawl model with some modifications to better resemble the Wii U model. Ultimate uses a heavily remodeled version of the Wii U model. The 3DS model oddly enough retains the Uekawa-esque shading of the Brawl model that is gone from the models in Wii U and Ultimate.
 * Additionally, he is the only third-party fighter to have their voice actor changed between installments, switching from Jason Griffith to Roger Craig Smith in SSB4. However a few of Griffith's voice clips, such as Sonic's snoring and water surfacing sound, are still used in SSB4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
 * Although he is unable to do so in his home series, Sonic can swim in the Super Smash Bros. series. However, to reflect his adverse mobility in water in his home series, his very frantic swimming style makes him among the slowest swimmers in the series. In Ultimate, this trait is further accentuated, as Sonic receives damage while swimming.
 * Ironically, real-world hedgehogs can swim, but have difficulty getting out of water.
 * Sonic is the only fighter who debuted on a Sega console.
 * Sonic, Mewtwo, Joker, and Terry Bogard are the only fighters to have more than one reveal trailer.
 * Of those four, he is the only one who was not DLC at the time, and whose trailers contained actual gameplay (the latter three only had gameplay in their second trailer), were for two separate installments (being Brawl and SSB4), and did not have splash art.
 * Both trailers feature the ending segment of the song that is not included in-game for the Super Smash Bros. series.
 * Furthermore, in the case of SSB4, he was the first veteran in the series to have a dedicated reveal trailer, followed by, , and . Of those four, he is the only one who is not DLC and whose trailer lacked both splash art and a tagline.
 * Sonic and Wii Fit Trainer are the only two non-Pokémon fighters to have a voice actor for the French, Spanish, German, Italian versions of SSB4 and Ultimate.
 * On a related note, he was only voiced in English and Japanese in Brawl, making him the only fighter to start out voiced in two languages for their first Super Smash Bros. appearance, and then be voiced in more languages in their subsequent appearance.