Sonic the Hedgehog is the iconic mascot of Sega, the long-standing gaming company that once rivaled Nintendo.
Similar to the company, Sonic the Hedgehog has undergone many changes to his design, game style, and even his abilities.
While Sonic is best known for his video games, he has been the star of multiple television series and popular movies.
Depending on where fans see Sonic, his capabilities vary wildly.
How Fast Is Sonic The Hedgehog?
Sonic the Hedgehog runs an average of 767 miles per hour and is capable of reaching a top speed of 186,000 miles per second, clocking the Blue Blur at the same speed as light.
Although Sonic can only run at the speed of light for a short period, he is frequently found running faster than the speed of sound.
Although Sonic has been known for being able to run at these unnaturally high speeds, the series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog believed that Sonic was only able to reach these speeds thanks to his iconic red hi-tops.
In the episode “The Mystery of the Missing Hi-Tops,” Sonic loses his shoes during a festival being held in appreciation for him and is no longer able to run at the same speed.
This forces Sonic and Tails to go around the town searching for a thief, leading to them accuse multiple innocent friends.
Eventually, Sonic deduces that it was Harry the Hawker who stole his shoes.
Harry ran the local Sonic souvenir shop and thought he could get a high price for the hedgehog’s iconic red hi-tops, not realizing that his shoes were the source of his powers.
While Sonic’s shoes have always helped him push his running abilities to the limit, Sonic has always had the ability to run fast.
His shoes are what allowed him to press himself further than any of the other animal citizens from his universe.
One of the oldest tales of how Sonic got his hi-tops is that he was given them as a reward from Dr. Ovi Kintobor after collecting the Chaos Emeralds.
Thanks to the sturdy material and perfect form of the shoe, Sonic is able to push himself further without fear of hurting himself and has been able to reach new heights ever since.
Who Is Mr. Needlemouse?
Mr. Needlemouse was one of the first few concepts for Sonic the Hedgehog and was meant to be a replacement mascot for Alex Kid and Fantasy Zone’s Opa-Opa.
It took Sonic’s original artist Naoto Oshima multiple drafts before finding the right design to become the cartoon face of their company.
Before Oshima decided to make Mr. Needlemouse a hedgehog, they bounced around the idea of having their new character be a rabbit, an armadillo, or even another human character like Alex Kid.
After Sonic became a hedgehog, he was donned in Sega’s shade of blue.
Sonic’s shoes are inspired by the shoes worn by Michael Jackson on the cover of his album Bad, and the red color was chosen to represent Santa Claus, who was considered to be the most “famous character in the world” by Oshima.
While designing Sonic, Sega was trying its best to appeal to American audiences.
Once his design was approved by Sega, Oshima was joined by Phantasy Star programmer Yuji Naka.
Naka was becoming a well-known programmer at Sega at the time, having impressed executives with his Mega Drive conversion of Ghosts ’n’ Goblins.
With support from the game planner and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara, Naka helped lead the charge in the creation of Sonic’s first game.
Yasuhara and Naka led a small team of AM8 game developers, who would later be better known as the Sonic Team.
The main goal that Naka had for the game was for it to be as fast as possible in order to show off the processing speed of the Mega Drive.
Yuji Naka looked to slow the frustration that he found while playing Super Mario Bros.
Whenever Naka would return to the game, he wondered why Nintendo didn’t program a way for him to beat it faster.
Why Is Dr. Robotnik Also Called Eggman?
Dr. Robotnik is also known as Dr. Eggman because of the early localization changes made to the Sonic games when Sega first began sending them around the world.
The main antagonist of the Sonic series has been known as Eggman in Japan and Dr. Robotnik across both North American and European copies of the game.
The decision to change Eggman’s name was made without the approval of the development team.
Because of how intensely popular Sonic became in the United States, the name Robotnik has stuck with the character for decades.
To unify the two identities that this villain had developed across the world, Sonic Adventures clarified that his full name is Doctor Ivo Robotnik and that Eggman is a nickname.
Sega has chosen to continue referring to him as Eggman, but this changes between local versions of games and the different generations.
When Eggman was first created, he was one of the human designs considered for the role of the lead protagonist of the upcoming game.
His first design resembled former president Theodore Roosevelt, sporting his bottle-cap glasses and bushy mustache.
Rather than wearing his iconic red coat, he wore spotted pajamas and a nightcap with matching slippers.
After this design was chosen to be the main antagonist of the game, he was given an all-red outfit that made him look like a meaner version of Nintendo’s mascot, Mario.
Over the years, Eggman has received vastly more noticeable design changes than Sonic has.
His design has also become more consistent across localization, solving the problem seen across Genesis and Game Gear art.
Dr. Robotnik has gone from a disheveled man in his pajamas to a genius in one of the most uniquely form-fitting jackets and pants combinations the world has ever seen.
Eggman’s design has changed multiple times for the better.
Has Sonic Ever Died?
Yes, Sonic the Hedgehog died in Sonic 06, which is considered to be the worst game in the entire franchise.
Fans felt that this game’s story was completely pointless and featured some of the strangest scenes in the franchise.
When most fans complain about Sonic’s death scene in Sonic 06, their biggest complaint is that it was completely narratively useless.
Shortly after Sonic dies, he is revived by the kiss from the human character, Elise.
Fans hated the relationship between Elise and Sonic, claiming that it was awkward to watch an overgrown blue hedgehog have intense romantic feelings for a full-grown human woman.
Elise is best known for being a stiff character who only cries when she watches Sonic die, despite having watched her father die at the beginning of the game.
Sonic 06 was supposed to be a soft reboot of the series, with Sega wanting to make the franchise a bit grittier in order to appeal to their aging fan base.
Instead of making Sonic a more mature character, most fans see Sonic 06 as the beginning of a dark time in Sonic’s history.
This game introduced the idea of time travel to the franchise in the form of Silver and Blaze.
Fans were upset that Sonic 06 claimed that Blaze was from the future and connected to Silver because Blaze was originally introduced as an alternative universe’s version of Sonic and had nothing to do with Silver previously.
The biggest problem that fans have with Sonic 06 is that nothing that happens in the story actually matters because the story ends with Sonic and friends resetting the timeline.
Although the player has sat through hours of gameplay, none of the plot points matter because they canonically never happened, unlike most other Sonic games.
What Game Is Sonic.Exe Based On?
Sonic.Exe was a modified version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog and was created by Adam Gavigan, who is better known within the Sonic community as “MY5Tcrimson.”
This fan game was originally released on August 13th of 2012 and became one of the best-known creepypasta games on the internet.
The original story behind this fan game was first released by the Creepypasta Wiki user “JC-the-Hyena” in August of 2011 and originally followed the story of a player who had received the game Sonic.Exe from a friend.
The player was handed a CD-ROM with the name “sonic.exe” written on the front, with the “.exe” part of the name coming from the file extension designating an executable file.
When the game was first booted up, something seemed off.
Rather than seeing the version of Sonic the Hedgehog that is known best, the player was given a murderous version of Sonic with bleeding black eyes and bright red pupils that glowed in the dark.
Sonic.exe is often credited with popularizing creepypastas and games based around creepypastas.
Since Sonic.Exe is a modified version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game, you are able to purchase physical copies of the game.
These games can run on the Sega Genesis just like any other Sonic the Hedgehog game.
Sonic.Exe is not an official game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and is not family-friendly like the rest of the franchise.
Although the gore is primitive due to the limitations of the Genesis game system’s technological capabilities, it is still unsuitable for small children and should be reserved for older children.
This fan game is an excellent example of how much of an influence Sonic fans have on the franchise and the history of the games.
Is Tails Faster Than Sonic?
No, Tails the Fox is either able to run at the same speed or slightly slower than Sonic the Hedgehog.
Tails can only reach a top speed of 768 miles per hour with his rotating tails, and he lacks the same endurance that Sonic has.
Yasushi Yamaguchi was the designer behind Tails, but Yamaguchi originally wanted Sonic to have a flying squirrel as a sidekick rather than a fox.
Within Sega, there was a contest to design Sonic’s sidekick, and Yamaguchi’s flying squirrel design was originally declined.
Sega felt that they couldn’t use a flying squirrel in their game due to Nintendo’s Mario having a flying squirrel power up.
As a second attempt to enter the contest, Yamaguchi created Miles Prower.
The Sonic Team loved the design but decided to change the character’s name, to Yamaguchi’s dismay. Yamaguchi was willing to compromise and make his character’s canonical full name Miles “Tails” Prower
From the beginning, Tails was designed to have a deep admiration for Sonic and would go on to be Sonic’s best friend and most iconic partner.
According to a Sonic Collection cutscene made for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Tails first began following Sonic around after Sonic saved him from a pair of bully foxes.
Similar to Sonic and Eggman, Tails’s design has changed over the years thanks to Yuji Uekawa.
One of Tails’s most notable design changes include his fur becoming more orange than yellow, gaining blue irises, and his physique becoming longer and slimmer.
As Tails has become a more popular character in the Sonic franchise, his personality has become more fleshed out and he is now more than Sonic’s most adoring fan.
Modern Tails is best known for his high level of intelligence that rivals the intelligence of Dr. Robotnik and his masterful mechanic skills.
How Is The Fastest Sonic Character After Sonic?
Metal Sonic is the second fastest character in the Sonic Universe, with Sonic the Hedgehog being the fastest character in his world.
This character was first introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog CD and is believed to be able to go faster than Sonic in some circumstances thanks to his technological advancement provided by Eggman.
If you were to exclude all the robot characters, the second fastest organic character is Shadow the Hedgehog.
Shadow first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 and is able to go around the same speed as Tails and Sonic.
What can give Shadow the speed advantage over Sonic in some scenarios are his specially crafted Air Shoes and his master-level control over the Chaos Emeralds, allowing him to teleport short distances.
Shadow was created by Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Sonic’s arch nemesis.
One of the fastest characters to come out of Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comics is Scourge the Hedgehog, a version of Sonic from a universe where everything was the complete opposite of the universe Sonic and his friends are from.
Scourge is from Sonic the Hedgehog #11 and is best known for his grittier look, including scars and a ripped leather jacket.
This character had his fur turned green when he absorbed Chaos energy into his body, resulting in the character becoming supercharged and a proper rival in power to Sonic.
Some fans argue that Infinite from Sonic Forces is faster than Sonic or any of his friends or forms.
However, the majority of Infinite’s power comes from the Phantom Ruby that he received from Eggman.
Most Sonic fans feel that comparing Sonic’s base form speed and Infinite’s in-game speed is unfair because Infinite is only shown with a power-up.
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