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
Complete one of the following:
 * Play 300 VS. matches.
 * Complete with 10 different characters.
 * Play 10 hours of VS. matches.
 * Have Sonic join the player's party in The Subspace Emissary (The Great Maze).

With the exception of the fourth method, Sonic must then be defeated on Green Hill Zone.

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.

Notable players

 * See also: Category:Sonic players (SSBB)


 * - 3rd at Glitch 2
 * - Beat mikeHAZE, Rich Brown, and Falln
 * - Best Sonic in Japan, placed 49th at Sun Rise Tournament
 * - Best Sonic in the World
 * - Top Canadian Sonic main. 4th at GOML 2017
 * - Placed top 64 at Apex 2014, beat DEHF
 * - Beat ALSM, Illmatic, Denti, Xyro, Gnes, X, Razer, and Trela
 * - Best Sonic in Florida
 * - Best Mexican Sonic main
 * - 6th at MLG Dallas

Tier placement and history
Around the beginning of Brawl's 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 Brawl's 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 Brawl's 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 Brawl's competitive life.

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 every fighter reaches Tabuu, he prepares his Off Waves, which had already turned most characters into a trophy once earlier. Just as he's 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, he reveals himself to be Sonic. While he taunts, Tabuu's wings break apart, and then six fighters are selected to fight Tabuu in the final battle.

It is commonly believed that Sonic's minor role in the mode is due to the fact that he was added to Brawl's roster so late in development in 2007.

Exclusive stickers

 * 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

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.

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.

Trophies
Sonic's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Sonic.

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 two 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. Coincidentally, all four of these characters' names begin with the letter 'S' and they all wear blue by default
 * 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.