170 Fun Facts About Sonic the Hedgehog

What golden items does Sonic collect that act as his health in the games?

Rings serve as Sonic's health: take a hit while holding any and they scatter instead of costing a life, and collecting 100 rings earns an extra life.

What golden, faster form does the hedgehog take after collecting every Chaos Emerald?

Super Sonic, unlocked by collecting every Chaos Emerald, turns Sonic gold, faster and nearly invincible, but the power drains away second by second until he changes back.

What kind of animal is Sonic's sidekick Tails?

A fox with two tails, Tails spins them like a helicopter rotor to fly, and in Sonic 2 a second player could grab a controller and steer him alongside Sonic.

Knuckles is which kind of animal?

An echidna, Knuckles began as an enemy: in Sonic 3 (1994) Dr. Robotnik tricks him into believing Sonic has come to steal from his island.

On which console did the first Sonic the Hedgehog game launch in 1991?

Sega Genesis consoles came with the game in the box from 1991, a giveaway that helped Sega of America sell 15 million of the machines.

What is the famous first level of the original Sonic game, with its checkered hills and palm trees?

Green Hill Zone opens the 1991 original; its level designer modelled it on California, and it has been rebuilt in later games such as Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces.

From Sonic the Hedgehog 2 onward, how many Chaos Emeralds are there?

Seven Chaos Emeralds have been the standard since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992); the original 1991 game had only six.

What colour is Amy Rose, the hedgehog who calls herself Sonic's girlfriend?

Pink hedgehog Amy Rose chases Sonic with her giant Piko Piko Hammer; the US manual for her first game gave her the name of a princess from a Sonic cartoon.

Who voices Sonic in the live-action Paramount films?

Ben Schwartz voices Sonic in the films instead of the games' Roger Craig Smith, yet Tails kept his game voice: Colleen O'Shaughnessey plays him on screen too.

Which comedian plays Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic movies?

Jim Carrey plays Dr. Robotnik in the first three Sonic films; in 2022 he said he was fairly serious about retiring from acting, then came back for the third.

In the 2024 film Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which Hollywood star joined the cast to voice Sonic's rival Shadow?

Keanu Reeves voices Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024); the director called his John Wick films a perfect, if unconventional, audition for the brooding anti-hero.

Why did Paramount delay the first Sonic movie by three months?

Backlash over the hedgehog's realistic look in the first trailer, with human-like teeth and separate eyes, prompted a redesign that paid off with a record video-game-film opening.

What was Sonic's colour chosen to match?

Sega's cobalt blue logo set Sonic's colour, while his shoes went red partly because his designer felt the colour suited legs spinning at high speed.

Which US politician's get-it-done attitude inspired Sonic's personality?

Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, struck Sonic's designer as someone who acted on a problem at once, the American attitude he wanted his hero to have.

What animal was Sonic's protagonist originally going to be, before the team switched to a hedgehog?

Naka's early prototype starred a rabbit that grabbed objects with its long ears; that proved too complex, so the team chose an animal that could roll into a ball.

Why is Sonic unable to swim?

Yuji Naka admitted he wrongly assumed real hedgehogs can't swim, so Sonic was made to sink; real hedgehogs can swim, but the trait stuck.

Who wrote the music for the first two Sonic games?

Masato Nakamura's music was never Sega's to reuse: when Sonic Spinball was about to ship with his theme tune, the team had to write a replacement within two hours.

Which pop superstar reportedly composed music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

Michael Jackson worked on Sonic 3's music in 1993 but left the project and went uncredited; accounts differ on why, and on how much of his work stayed in the finished game.

The 24 November 1992 launch of the hedgehog's second game was marketed under what name?

Sega branded the 24 November 1992 launch 'Sonic 2sday', a Tuesday, air-shipping copies so the game went on sale across Western stores the same day.

In the 1992 sequel, what is Robotnik's space station that he wants the Chaos Emeralds to power?

The Death Egg is blown up at the end of Sonic 2 but not finished: it crash-lands on Angel Island, where Robotnik sets about repairing it in Sonic 3.

Sonic Team toured Machu Picchu and the Maya city of Tikal to design Sonic Adventure's ruins, visiting which two countries?

Peru and Guatemala gave Sonic Adventure its Mystic Ruins: the team photographed the sites for textures, and a character, Tikal, took her name from the Maya city.

Who created Shadow the Hedgehog within the story of the games?

Professor Gerald Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather, created Shadow aboard the Space Colony ARK in research he took on hoping to cure his granddaughter Maria's fatal illness.

Early concept art for Shadow the Hedgehog lists which Dragon Ball character as a keyword?

Vegeta is written as a keyword on Shadow's early concept art, though the head of Sonic Team has denied that Goku's proud rival was an inspiration.

Roughly how much did the first Sonic movie gross worldwide in 2020?

It set the record for the biggest opening weekend for a video game film in the US and Canada.

What is the name of the town where Sonic lives with the Wachowskis in the movies?

Green Hills, Montana, is where Sonic hides out alone in a cave for ten years before the local sheriff, Tom Wachowski, finds him in his shed.

The third live-action film's plot borrows from which video game about Shadow's origins?

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 adapts Sonic Adventure 2's backstory of Shadow, Maria and the Space Colony ARK, and its score even weaves in Crush 40's 'Live and Learn'.

What IQ is Doctor Eggman said to have?

300 is the IQ Sega's official profile gives Doctor Eggman; Sega of America renamed him Dr. Ivo Robotnik for the West, and later games made Eggman his nickname.

What are Eggman's brand of military robots called?

Badniks run on the small animals Eggman traps inside them as living batteries, so every robot Sonic smashes sets a captive free.

Which fantastical Japanese creature inspired Tails's design?

The kitsune of the anime Urusei Yatsura was the model the team was given for an endearing sidekick, but the designer says Tails's second tail came from Myau, a creature in Phantasy Star.

Sonic's first appearance, in the 1990 arcade racer Rad Mobile, was as an ornament hanging from what?

The rearview mirror of Rad Mobile's car carried a dangling Sonic months before his own game, in a race across America where players had to switch on the wipers in rain and the headlights at night.

Which power lets Shadow warp time and space by drawing on a Chaos Emerald?

Chaos Control bends time and space, letting Shadow freeze the clock or vanish and reappear elsewhere; in Sonic Adventure 2 Sonic copies the trick using a fake emerald.

Which 1990s sitcom star first voiced Sonic in English, in the DiC cartoons of 1993?

Jaleel White was still playing Steve Urkel on Family Matters when he became Sonic's first English voice, and he kept the role across three separate cartoon series.

In 1993 Sonic became the first video game character to have what?

Sonic was the first video game character to get a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloon, in 1993; that year it struck a lamppost at Columbus Circle, injuring two people.

The first Mario & Sonic crossover game, released in 2007, was themed on which sporting event?

The Beijing Olympics of 2008 gave the mascots of former console-war rivals Nintendo and Sega their first official game together, and the series ran on to Tokyo 2020.

Sonic first became a playable fighter in which Super Smash Bros. game?

Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii made Sonic playable, so the mascot of Nintendo's old rival Sega could fight Mario; he and Solid Snake were the series' first outside characters.

Sonic hedgehog belongs to a family of genes first identified in which insect?

The hedgehog gene was found in fruit flies in 1980 by Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus, whose mutant larvae grew spiky denticles; Robert Riddle later named a vertebrate relative Sonic hedgehog after the Sega character.

Which publisher's Sonic the Hedgehog series ran 290 issues, the longest of any comic based on a video game?

Archie Comics ran Sonic for 290 issues, a Guinness-recognised record, and in 2013 rebooted its whole world mid-run, dropping most of the cast it had built up.

Sega of America's early, unpublished backstory for Sonic had him growing up in which US state?

Nebraska was Sonic's home in an early draft of Sega of America's unpublished 'Sonic Bible', where his poor family lived beside a burger joint and ate its scraps.

How did Yuji Naka sneak developer credits into the first Sonic game, defying a Sega ban?

In black-on-black text: Naka put his team's names in black on a black screen, readable only in the code, because Sega then banned credits; he left the company soon after.

Which Netflix cartoon, launched in 2022, flings Sonic across a multiverse?

Sonic Prime, launched on Netflix in December 2022, sends Sonic across a multiverse after he shatters the Paradox Prism; it ran three seasons through January 2024.

What formula did the ill-fated 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic '06) try to bring to the series?

Sonic '06 aimed for a darker, more realistic tone, with the human city of Soleanna and a romance between Sonic and Princess Elise; its glitches made it a byword for the series' decline.

Which studio developed Sonic 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles plus Sonic Spinball?

Sega Technical Institute was Mark Cerny's California studio; he talked Yuji Naka into joining after Naka quit Sega's Japanese office, and the Sonic sequels followed.

Which two 8-bit Sega consoles received their own Sonic games?

Master System and Game Gear owners got Sonic games of their own rather than ports: the 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) was a separate game with several levels found nowhere else.

Sonic's designer says he gave his hedgehog the head of which cartoon cat?

Felix the Cat's head was the model for Sonic's, in a design deliberately kept simple enough for children to draw.

How did Naoto Ohshima's hedgehog become Sega's mascot?

He won an internal design contest held to find Sega a mascot; one rejected design, a moustached man in pyjamas resembling Theodore Roosevelt, was reworked into Dr. Eggman.

The composer of Sonic 1 and 2 was bassist of which J-pop band?

Dreams Come True's bassist scored Sonic 1 and 2, and the band reworked Sonic 2's ending theme into 'Sweet Sweet Sweet' on a 1992 album that sold over three million copies.

Sega of America made Sonic its 16-bit console's pack-in game in 1991, replacing which earlier Sega title?

Altered Beast came in the box until Sega of America swapped in Sonic, a giveaway that helped the console outsell its main rival two to one over the 1991 holidays.

Sonic 3 was first prototyped in which viewpoint, the one later used for Sonic 3D Blast?

Isometric: the team spent months on a prototype built around a new 3D graphics chip, then scrapped it and restarted Sonic 3 as a side-scrolling game.

Why were Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles split into two games?

Sonic 3 was split for time and cartridge costs: the full game could not fit an affordable cartridge by its February 1994 release, so the rest shipped as Sonic & Knuckles with lock-on technology.

Which game mechanic did Sonic CD introduce?

Sonic CD's time travel lets Sonic reach past and future versions of each Little Planet stage by hitting signposts and holding top speed.

Which two characters debuted in the 1993 Sega CD entry?

Amy Rose and Metal Sonic both debuted in Sonic CD (1993), Amy as a kidnapped admirer and Metal Sonic as Robotnik's robot double who races Sonic on Stardust Speedway.

Which virtual pet species debuted in Sonic Adventure?

Chao live in hidden gardens where players hatch and name them, then feed them the small animals freed from robots to raise their abilities.

Which composer, preferring rock, wrote most of Sonic Adventure's soundtrack?

Jun Senoue, a rock guitarist, wrote most of Sonic Adventure's soundtrack; with singer Johnny Gioeli he performed its theme 'Open Your Heart' in the band later known as Crush 40.

Which two American locations influenced the levels of Sonic Adventure 2?

Sonic Team USA, based in San Francisco, drew on the city for City Escape and on trips to Yosemite for Sonic Adventure 2's outdoor stages.

Which three gameplay styles split Sonic Adventure 2's stories?

Platforming, shooting, treasure hunting: Sonic races, Tails fires from a walking mech and Knuckles hunts for gem shards, and each hero is mirrored by a villain who plays the same way.

What is the name of the red biplane that carries Sonic and Tails into several adventures?

The Tornado brings Sonic and Tails to Angel Island at the start of Sonic 3, where Knuckles ambushes Sonic and steals his Chaos Emeralds.

What did the 2005 spin-off Shadow the Hedgehog add to traditional Sonic gameplay?

Guns and weapons of many kinds let Shadow blast through enemies, and the missions he chooses to complete steer the story towards one of ten different endings.

Which new character starred alongside Sonic and Shadow in Sonic '06?

Silver the Hedgehog, a telekinetic from the future, debuted in Sonic '06 as its third playable hero alongside Sonic and Shadow, hunting the so-called Iblis Trigger.

Which 2005 film did Sonic Team cite as a model for rebooting Sonic in Sonic '06?

Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2 were the models the project's first lead named: he wanted Sonic's 2006 relaunch to be a blockbuster that reached far beyond existing fans.

Which company did Yuji Naka found after leaving Sega in 2006?

Prope was founded by Yuji Naka when he left Sega in 2006, yet the split was friendly: Sega itself went on to publish the studio's first games, including the Wii rhythm game Let's Tap.

What is Sonic's night-time form in Sonic Unleashed?

The Werehog is Sonic's stretchy-armed night-time form in Sonic Unleashed (2008), caused by Dark Gaia's energy after Eggman shatters the planet.

Which alien power-ups were introduced in Sonic Colors?

Wisps are an alien race that Eggman has enslaved in Sonic Colors (2010); as Sonic frees them they lend him Color Powers such as the Cyan Laser and the Yellow Drill.

Which game marked Sonic's 20th anniversary?

Sonic Generations (2011) opens with a monster crashing Sonic's birthday party and flinging his friends through time; Eggman turns out to be steering it, having teamed up with his own younger self.

Who are the main antagonists of Sonic Lost World?

The Deadly Six obeyed Eggman only while he held a magic conch; when Sonic kicks it away, the Zeti turn on them both, forcing Sonic and Eggman into an uneasy alliance in Sonic Lost World (2013).

Which two characters were added as playable in Sonic Mania Plus (2018)?

Mighty and Ray debuted in the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog and had rarely appeared since, which is exactly why Sega picked them as the new playable characters for Sonic Mania Plus.

Who are Eggman's robotic henchmen in Sonic Mania?

The Hard-Boiled Heavies are elite Eggrobos that Eggman sends to dig up a mysterious gem; its power loosens their loyalty, and their leader, the Heavy King, ends up turning on him.

Which gem empowers Infinite, Eggman's lackey in Sonic Forces?

The Phantom Ruby, first seen in Sonic Mania, makes Infinite strong enough to beat Sonic in their first fight; with the hero held prisoner, Eggman conquers almost the whole world within six months.

Sonic Frontiers is set where?

Sonic Frontiers takes place on the Starfall Islands, open-zone islands such as Kronos and Ares, where Sonic must topple towering Titans to free his friends from Cyber Space.

Which studio founded by Naoto Ohshima co-developed Sonic Superstars?

Arzest, co-founded in 2010 by Sonic's original designer Naoto Ohshima, co-developed Sonic Superstars (2023); it was his first Sonic game since 1998, and he designed its new character, Trip, himself.

Which villain joins Eggman in Sonic Superstars?

Fang the Hunter, a bounty hunter from Sonic's 1990s handheld games, is hired by Eggman in Sonic Superstars (2023) to capture the islands' giant animals; his partner Trip ends up betraying him to help Sonic.

Which Sega artist created Tails for Sonic the Hedgehog 2?

Yasushi Yamaguchi created Tails as Sonic 2's sidekick and wanted him known by his full name; others at Sega pushed 'Tails' instead, and the compromise kept that as a nickname.

Tails' real name is a pun on which phrase?

Miles per hour is the pun hidden in his real name, Miles Prower; in most tellings he was a child bullied for his twin tails until he met Sonic, the hero he now tries to copy.

Which giant gemstone does Knuckles guard on Angel Island?

The Master Emerald keeps Angel Island floating in the sky and can rein in the Chaos Emeralds; when Eggman shatters it in Sonic Adventure, Knuckles has to recover every shard.

Shadow was created as a one-off character, but fan demand brought him back in which 2003 game?

Sonic Heroes (2003) revived Shadow after fans embraced him: he had plunged to Earth and was presumed dead at the end of his debut, and he returns remembering little beyond his own name.

Which Image Comics character was cited as an influence on Shadow the Hedgehog?

Spawn, Todd McFarlane's antihero, was the kind of dark hero the developers found popular when they moved to America; that pushed them to make Shadow a brooding antihero rather than a simple rival.

What does Rouge the Bat call herself?

Rouge the Bat styles herself the 'World's Greatest Treasure Hunter', a jewel thief who also spies for the military agency GUN and rivals Knuckles for gems.

The telekinetic hedgehog of Sonic '06 comes from how far in the future?

His main ability is telekinesis.

Big the Cat's Sonic Adventure stages are built around which item?

A fishing rod drives all of Big the Cat's Sonic Adventure stages: his pet frog Froggy swallows a Chaos Emerald and hops off, so Big has to hook him out of one pool after another.

Sonic's young rabbit friend and her tiny sidekick have names that combine into which food?

Cream cheese is the pun behind Cream the Rabbit and her companion Cheese; her designers felt a sweet girl shouldn't hit enemies herself, so Cheese does the attacking for her.

Blaze the Cat guards which gems in her dimension?

The Sol Emeralds are her world's answer to the Chaos Emeralds; in Sonic Rush (2005) Eggman steals them, and Blaze the Cat crosses into Sonic's world to win them back.

Which member of the Chaotix Detective Agency is a ninja chameleon?

Espio is the ninja of the Chaotix, alongside Vector and Charmy; in Sonic Heroes a mystery client hires the trio and turns out to be Eggman himself, who still owes them their fee.

Fang the Sniper was originally known as what in English localisations?

Nack the Weasel was his English name when he debuted in Sonic Triple Trouble (1994), hunting the Chaos Emeralds only to sell them; despite that name, official guides call him a jerboa.

What is Sage in Sonic Frontiers?

Sage is Eggman's AI creation; she starts out warning Sonic to leave the islands, comes to see Eggman as a father, and finally sacrifices herself to destroy The End.

Which city does Perfect Chaos flood in the finale of Sonic Adventure?

Station Square, the game's hub city, is drowned when Chaos absorbs the Chaos Emeralds and becomes Perfect Chaos; the monster rebels against Eggman too, shooting down the airship he sends to stop it.

Which zone in the original Sonic the Hedgehog is mostly underwater?

Labyrinth Zone is the original game's water stage: Sonic drowns after a countdown unless he grabs air bubbles, and Scrap Brain's third act reuses its flooded ruins.

Which non-Sonic classic did Sonic Team release in 1996?

Nights into Dreams (1996) occupied Sonic Team so fully that Sonic 3D Blast was farmed out to an outside studio and the Saturn's 3D Sonic went to an American team, whose Sonic X-treme was cancelled.

Which other ball-rolling animal did Sonic's creators weigh against the hedgehog for their mascot?

Armadillo and hedgehog were the last animals standing because the team wanted a hero who could curl into a ball and roll into enemies, the idea that became Sonic's spin attack.

Which Sonic Adventure director went on to head Sonic Team?

Takashi Iizuka directed Sonic Adventure, moved to America to make its sequel with a small crew, and returned to Japan in 2008 to head Sonic Team and produce its games.

Which human boy shelters Sonic on Earth in the anime Sonic X?

Chris Thorndyke, a lonely 12-year-old from a wealthy family, pulls Sonic out of his swimming pool after the heroes are warped to Earth in Sonic X (2003), then puts them all up at his mansion.

Which Sonic cartoon redesigned Knuckles as a towering, top-heavy strongman?

Sonic Boom (2014), the first Sonic cartoon made in CGI, bulked Knuckles up to mark him as the team's muscle, then played him for laughs as a brave but dim-witted bruiser, unlike his more reserved game self.

Which two bumbling robots serve Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog?

Scratch and Grounder, Robotnik's bungling robot henchmen, chase Sonic through all 65 episodes of the 1993 cartoon and keep falling for his disguises; Long John Baldry voiced their boss.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a reskin of which Japanese puzzle game?

Puyo Puyo, Compile's 1991 puzzle game, was reskinned for Western players with Robotnik and his robots from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon; Nintendo gave it the same treatment as Kirby's Avalanche.

Which princess leads the Freedom Fighters in the 1993 ABC Sonic series 'SatAM'?

Sally Acorn leads the Freedom Fighters from the hidden village of Knothole after Robotnik seizes her father's kingdom and turns most of its citizens into robots.

In Sonic Underground, Sonic's two siblings are named what?

Sonia and Manic, Sonic's sister and brother in Sonic Underground (1999), form a band with him while searching for their mother, Queen Aleena.

Sonic Prime was developed by Man of Action, the writers' collective behind which Cartoon Network hero?

Ben 10 was created by Man of Action, a group of comic-book writers who also dreamed up Big Hero 6 for Marvel, later a Disney film; on Sonic Prime they ran the show while WildBrain animated it.

Which studio held the Sonic film rights before Paramount took over in 2017?

Sony Pictures bought the rights in 2013 but let the project stall and put it in turnaround; in 2017 producer Neal Moritz moved his deal to Paramount, which picked the film up.

Who directed the first three Sonic films, making his feature debut on the first?

Jeff Fowler was Oscar-nominated for the 2004 short Gopher Broke and worked on the cutscenes of the 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog game; in 2020 the first Sonic film became his feature debut.

Which actor plays sheriff Tom Wachowski in the Sonic films?

James Marsden plays Tom Wachowski, the small-town sheriff who meets Sonic by shooting him with a tranquilliser dart, then drives him across the country to recover what he lost.

Who voices Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the Knuckles series?

Idris Elba voices Knuckles, who arrives in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) as Robotnik's ally until the doctor betrays him; the role carried on into the 2024 series Knuckles.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) was filmed in Vancouver and which other location?

Hawaii shared the 2021 shoot with Vancouver because the story goes there: Tom and Maddie fly out for her sister Rachel's wedding, leaving Sonic in charge of the house.

Which actress plays GUN's Director Rockwell in Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

Krysten Ritter plays Director Rockwell, the G.U.N. chief who recruits Team Sonic to catch Shadow, then turns on them when a keycard goes missing from her dying commander.

Whom does Knuckles train in the Paramount+ miniseries Knuckles?

Deputy Wade Whipple is taken on as Knuckles's apprentice and taught the ways of a warrior on a road trip to a bowling tournament in Reno, with rogue G.U.N. agents on their trail.

Why was Sonic Spinball rushed out for the 1993 holiday season?

The third game was running late, so Sega commissioned Sonic Spinball to fill the 1993 holiday gap; it was built in about nine months around the pinball feel of Sonic 2's popular Casino Night Zone.

Sonic 3D Blast was known outside North America by what subtitle?

Flickies' Island was the game's subtitle outside North America; the Flickies are birds that can cross between dimensions, so Robotnik turns them into robots and Sonic has to free them.

Which developer made Sonic R with Sonic Team for the Saturn?

Traveller's Tales, the British studio later famous for its Lego games, had just finished Sonic 3D Blast when Sega asked it for a racing game, which it built with Sonic Team's guidance as Sonic R (1997).

Sonic Riders has characters racing on what?

Hoverboards, called Extreme Gear, were chosen because the designers wanted racing full of tricks, which a car couldn't offer; the game also introduced the Babylon Rogues as rival riders.

Which studio led development of Sonic Advance, its first Sonic game?

Dimps was recruited to lead Sonic Advance (2001) once Sega stopped making consoles; the result put Sonic on a Nintendo handheld, hardware that had been the enemy for a decade.

Which Western studio, famous for sprawling role-playing games, made the 2008 DS title Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood?

BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, made Sonic Chronicles as its first handheld game; the story ends on a cliffhanger that was never resolved, because no sequel followed.

Which 2022 compilation remastered Sonic's 16-bit classics in widescreen?

Sonic Origins (2022) rebuilt the 16-bit classics for modern screens; shortly before launch, Sega pulled the older standalone versions of those games from most digital stores.

Which Fleetway title starring Sonic ran in Britain for 223 issues from 1993 to 2002?

Sonic the Comic ran new stories for 184 issues, then filled its last 39 with reprints until it closed in 2002; fans carried the story on themselves in an unofficial webcomic.

Which company's Sonic comic, launched in 2018, begins after the events of Sonic Forces?

IDW Publishing launched its Sonic comic in April 2018 as a clean break: the earlier Sonic comics ran in worlds of their own, while this one follows the games' continuity.

Who voiced Sonic in English games from 1998 to 2004?

Ryan Drummond voiced Sonic from Sonic Adventure onward; he even offered to move to New York to play him in the Sonic X dub, but that part went to Jason Griffith, who then took over in the games too.

Which Assassin's Creed hero is also voiced by Sonic actor Roger Craig Smith?

Ezio Auditore shares a voice with Sonic: Roger Craig Smith took over the hedgehog in 2010, announced in January 2021 that he was stepping away, then returned to the role a few months later.

Which snack is Sonic's favourite food, a running gag since his 1990s cartoons?

Chili dogs are nearly all Sonic eats in the 1993 cartoon Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which ran the joke constantly; the taste stuck, and later games such as Sonic Unleashed mention it too.

What is the signature mechanic of the 2025 kart racer Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?

Racers travel to other tracks mid-race in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (2025): after lap one the leader picks one of two portals, everyone races lap two in that other world, then returns for the finish.

Sonic Rush (2005) on the DS was the last mainline Sonic game produced by which Sega figure?

Co-developed with Dimps, it let players control Blaze the Cat and was the first Sonic game to use the English 4Kids voice cast.

Which company developed Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (1999) for its own handheld, the Neo Geo Pocket Color?

SNK built it under Sonic Team's supervision, borrowing its stage themes from Sonic 2; several of its developers later formed a studio that went on to make many of Sonic's handheld games.

The 1996 arcade brawler Sonic the Fighters reused the engine of which AM2 game?

Fighting Vipers supplied the engine after an AM2 programmer dropped a 3D Sonic model into that game as an experiment; the animation impressed Sonic Team enough to approve a full Sonic brawler.

Sonic Dream Team (2023) was released exclusively through which subscription service?

Apple Arcade got Sonic Dream Team as a December 2023 exclusive from Sega's Hardlight studio; in it Eggman seizes an ancient device that makes dreams real, and Sonic's crew must fight through his dreamworld.

Which Mario Party developer did Sega hire to help build the Dreamcast board game Sonic Shuffle?

Hudson Soft, maker of Mario Party, was contracted by Sega to help build Sonic Shuffle (2000), in which Sonic and friends are pulled into a dream world and cross its board maps to save it from a villain called Void.

Sonic's nemesis Dr. Eggman began as a rejected mascot sketch of which US president in pajamas?

Theodore Roosevelt in pajamas was Naoto Ohshima's pitch for Sega's hero, but the team liked the rejected drawing so much that they recast him as the villain.

In which Disney film does Sonic's enemy Dr. Eggman sit in a support group for video game villains?

Wreck-It Ralph gives Sonic a cameo too, and Sega returned the favour by making Ralph a guest driver in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

Which film held the opening-weekend record for game adaptations until Sonic's 2020 movie beat it?

Detective Pikachu lost its crown when Sonic took $58 million over three days, and a month later Sonic also passed it as the biggest game adaptation the US box office had seen to that point.

Which move, letting Sonic rev up on the spot for a burst of speed, debuted in Sonic the Hedgehog 2?

The spin dash was devised so players no longer had to backtrack to build momentum, a common complaint about the first game.

What kind of bird is Longclaw, the caregiver who raises young Sonic in the 2020 live-action film?

An owl named Longclaw sends the young hedgehog through a portal to Earth, then stays behind to hold off the tribe hunting him for his power.

Sonic and the Secret Rings drops Sega's hedgehog into the pages of which famous story collection?

Arabian Nights recasts the regulars: Tails turns up as Ali Baba, Knuckles as Sinbad the Sailor and Dr. Eggman as the ruler Shahryar.

What does Dr. Eggman open in outer space, claiming to have reformed, at the start of Sonic Colors?

An amusement park the size of several planets is his supposed apology for past misdeeds, but it hides a plan to enslave an alien species and build a mind-control laser.

Sonic Free Riders was a launch game for which motion-control device, the only way to play it?

Kinect had players steer with their whole bodies and no controller; Kotaku's reviewer called the result the most broken game he had played on the device.

Sonic and the Black Knight sends the hedgehog, sword in hand, into the legend of which ruler?

King Arthur turns out to be an illusion conjured by Merlin, and the talking sword Caliburn ends the story by naming Sonic the true monarch.

Which hero of 1986's Miracle World was Sega's mascot before Sonic the Hedgehog took the job?

Alex Kidd's debut was built into later models of Sega's 8-bit console, so buyers could play it without owning a single cartridge.

What did Sega call the Sonic & Knuckles feature that let a second cartridge plug into its top?

Lock-on technology let players insert Sonic 3 and play both games as one long adventure, while adding Sonic 2 made Knuckles playable in that game.

Which cancelled 1996 project left the Sega Saturn without an original platformer for its mascot?

Sonic X-treme was called off after its designer and programmer both fell ill under the pressure, and its absence is counted among the reasons the Saturn failed outside Japan.

Which buzzword did Sega coin in Sonic-era adverts to suggest its console outran the Super Nintendo?

Blast processing grew from a technical director's passing remark about blasting data into the hardware; the PR team loved the word and built a campaign on it.

Which real brand of grinding shoes replaces Sonic's usual footwear in Sonic Adventure 2?

Soap made shoes with a plastic groove in the sole for sliding along rails, and Sega's deal also scattered the brand's adverts through the game's stages.

Which Formula One team carried Sonic on its cars in 1993 under a Sega sponsorship deal?

Williams won both world titles that season with Alain Prost, and rivals McLaren answered by painting a squashed hedgehog on their car after beating them.

Which controller, unusual for a platformer, steers the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog?

A trackball sets each character's speed and direction, and the trouble of copying it on a gamepad got the game cut from a 2005 rarities compilation.

Which American company dubbed and heavily edited the anime Sonic X for English-speaking audiences?

4Kids Entertainment cut alcohol, coarse language and fourth-wall jokes from the series, and hired new voice actors rather than the cast of the games.

On which American channel did the animated comedy series Sonic Boom first air?

Cartoon Network launched the show, but the rest of its second season was moved to Boomerang while the main channel aired reruns.

Lacking Sonic's speed and strength, Amy Rose defends herself in the games with which weapon?

A hammer makes up for the speed she lacks, and her first playable role in a platformer came in Sonic Adventure, years after she was introduced as a kidnap victim.

What colour did Sonic's eyes become when artist Yuji Uekawa redesigned him for Sonic Adventure?

Green irises arrived with longer legs, a leaner body and drooping quills, a more mature look that was meant to appeal to older players.

Which headphone-wearing crocodile is the boss and brains of the Chaotix Detective Agency?

Vector will take most jobs for the right price, yet he so often works unpaid to help children that his agency is permanently short of money.

What is the name of the runaway pet that Big the Cat pursues throughout Sonic Adventure?

Froggy is worth the chase because he has swallowed a Chaos Emerald along with a piece of the tail of the game's villain.

Which devoted assistant to Dr. Robotnik is played by Lee Majdoub in the live-action Sonic films?

Agent Stone was written as a minor sounding board for the villain, but improvisation on set turned him into a fawning sidekick whose role grew in the sequels.

Which hovercraft does Dr. Eggman pilot in boss fights and escape in whenever Sonic defeats him?

The Egg Mobile is his getaway pod as much as his weapon: he fights in modified versions of it, then flies off in it whenever he is beaten.

Charmy, the scatter-brained youngster of the Chaotix Detective Agency, is what kind of insect?

A bee with a working stinger, Charmy uses it only on the rare occasions he loses his temper; otherwise he is treated as the agency's cute mascot.

What is the profession of Maddie Wachowski, played by Tika Sumpter in the live-action Sonic films?

A veterinarian married to the local sheriff, Maddie ends up helping her husband and a talking alien hedgehog stop Robotnik.

Which pair of robot assistants, one red and one yellow, have served Dr. Eggman since Sonic Colors?

Orbot and Cubot are a sarcastic know-it-all and a slow bungler; an early Orbot appeared in Sonic Unleashed as SA-55, a pun on his sass.

Which paranoid badger, who lived alone in the wilderness, joined Sonic's team in Sonic Boom?

Sticks fights with wooden boomerangs, and she later crossed from television into games outside her own sub-series, including Sonic Runners.

Which vengeful Eggman robot teams up with Shadow and Rouge as Team Dark in Sonic Heroes?

E-123 Omega wants revenge on his creator for sealing him inside an abandoned base, and sets out to prove himself the most powerful robot of all.

Which hawk, nicknamed the Legendary Wind Master, leads the thieving Babylon Rogues in Sonic Riders?

Jet earned the nickname through his mastery of Extreme Gear, and he owns a family heirloom said to unlock the secrets of his gang's ancient ancestors.

Which alien do Sonic and Tails need an invented translator to understand in Sonic Colors?

Yacker speaks no human language, so Tails invents a translator, and his message reveals that the rest of his kind have been enslaved.

Which villain of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) tricks survivors of a ruined future into hunting Sonic?

Mephiles is released by accident, then convinces the survivors that Sonic is the cause of their world's destruction and sends them to the present day to kill him.

Which human royal of Soleanna does Dr. Eggman kidnap in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)?

Princess Elise has carried a destructive power, the Flames of Disaster, sealed inside her since childhood, and her tears are what can set it loose.

What nickname does Sonic give the amnesiac creature who guides him through Sonic Unleashed?

Chip is really a benevolent spirit of light who lost his memory because he was awakened too early, and he ends the adventure by sending an exhausted Sonic safely back to the surface.

Which armoured newcomer, based by Naoto Ohshima on a sungazer lizard, debuted in Sonic Superstars?

Trip begins the story working for Dr. Eggman, and finishing the main game unlocks a harder campaign in which she is the only playable character.

Which energetic raccoon who longs to be a sailor do Sonic and Tails meet in Sonic Rush Adventure?

Marine builds a waterbike with Tails while Sonic gathers materials, and her house becomes the base where the game's later missions begin.

Which plant-like alien girl joins Sonic's crew against the Metarex in the third season of Sonic X?

Cosmo lost her home world to the Metarex, grows close to Tails during the voyage, and sacrifices herself to stop the robots in the finale.

Which playable robot in Sonic Adventure turns on Dr. Robotnik and destroys the rest of its series?

E-102 Gamma changes sides after Amy persuades him not to serve his maker, then helps her escape before hunting down his fellow machines.

What name did the 1990s American cartoons give the world Sonic fights to free from Dr. Robotnik?

Mobius has already fallen when the 1993 Saturday-morning series begins: the tyrant rules it as a polluted industrial dystopia and turns its citizens into robot slaves.

On which landmass does the original 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog unfold, its animals trapped in robots?

South Island's animals are sealed inside robots and metal capsules by the doctor, and the 1992 sequel repeated the scheme on West Side Island.

What appears over Never Lake for one month of every year in Sonic CD?

Little Planet shows up in the last month of every year, and Dr. Robotnik invades it to seize the magical stones hidden there.

What does Dr. Eggman destroy half of to prove the Eclipse Cannon's power in Sonic Adventure 2?

The Moon is hit during a global broadcast giving Earth a day to accept the doctor as ruler; Rock Paper Shotgun judged the scene more impactful than his later schemes.

Which girl from the distant past guides players with her voice throughout Sonic Adventure?

Tikal befriended the monster Chaos long ago and sealed herself away with it, and her flashbacks show Sonic that it has been in torment ever since.

Which ancient evil does Dr. Eggman's giant laser awaken, shattering the world, in Sonic Unleashed?

Dark Gaia was woken too early and broke apart, and the monsters born from it are the enemies Sonic brawls with in the night-time stages.

Which creature do two versions of Dr. Eggman pilot together in the final battle of Sonic Generations?

The Time Eater was found by the doctor while he was stranded among the stars after an earlier defeat, and he recruited his own younger self to help turn it into a weapon.

What does G.U.N., the name of the military force in Sonic Adventure 2, stand for?

Guardian Units of Nations agents later reached cinemas too, staging a fake wedding to trap Sonic and Tails in the second live-action film.

Which omnipotent god, split into two halves, reunites as the final foe of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)?

Solaris tries to consume time itself once its halves merge, and the heroes finally win by travelling to the past and putting out the deity's flame.

In which dimension are Tails, Amy and Knuckles trapped during Sonic Frontiers?

Cyber Space also holds the game's short traditional stages, reached through portals that open once Sonic wins gears from a giant boss.

Which 4,000-year-old Gizoid robot copies every fighting move it sees in the brawler Sonic Battle?

Emerl was named by Sonic for his ability to use the Chaos Emeralds, and he grows stronger and more self-aware with each one he obtains.

Which Sega Sammy subsidiary produced the 2003 anime Sonic X in partnership with Sonic Team?

TMS Entertainment made 52 episodes for TV Tokyo, then a further 26 that aired in North America, Europe and the Middle East.