Flicky


 * You may be looking for the arcade game with the same name.

Flicky (フリッキー) is a species in the Sonic the Hedgehog series which first appeared in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. It is a race of colorful bluebird Animals that live in large abundance in various regions across Sonic's world and are close friends of Sonic the Hedgehog and his allies. They are constantly targeted by Dr. Eggman who seeks to use them as energy sources for his various Badniks and often imprisons them in Capsules for later use.

Concept and creation
Several years earlier before Sonic the Hedgehog franchise Flicky was created as the main character starring on her own game Flicky, released for Sega arcades in 1984. At first the game's name was supposed to be "Flippy," until it was discovered being an overseas trademark issue. Flicky was the game's main character, and had to collect her children (all called Chirp), while avoiding enemies Tiger (a tabby cat) and Iggy (an iguana). The game was popular, and Flicky made subsequent cameo appearances in many Sega games in the late 80's, including TeddyBoy Blues, SDI, Flash Point, Super Monaco GP, and Bloxeed

Flicky's original designer was Yoji Ishii, a member of Sonic Team until August 1999. Yoji Ishii designed the original game with Yoshiki Kawasaki, who stated Flicky being his favorite character.

As the Flicky later gets introduced to the Sonic series in the original Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 as minor character, her appearance was altered by Naoto Ōshima to fit to the cast of animal friends. She was named Flicky in both the Japanese and Western backstories (as revealed in the Japanese game manual and Western documents such as the Sonic Bible), the only one of the animal friends to have the same name in both versions. In the second draft of Sonic Bible, Flicky the Bluebird is known for coming from a large family like other animal friends.

Anatomy
The general Flicky is a small and yet round-shaped bird with a sky blue plumage and orange three-toed feet. They have a round-shaped head with two large dark eyes, a soft orange beak and two upward-looking tuffs above the forehead. In terms of markings they have two pink cheeks, a dark blue patch across the eyes, and a white belly. Their wings are medium-sized compared to their body and their tail consists of three tail feathers. However, Flickies can as well have other colors for their plumages, lack their facial markings, and have directed hairs above their head.

Flicky Island hosts special Flickies which originate from a different dimension. These breeds of Flicky feature much more varied appearances, colorations, and even hairstyles from the general breed. These include:
 * Dark blue ones with orange cheek markings and belly, and brown eyes. They also got a tassel in their hair above the forehead.
 * Green, fat ones with a big bun in the middle of the head, orange belly and blue eyes.
 * Pink and purple ones with pony tails on both sides of the head and a strain of hair on their foreheads. They also got heart-shaped orange bellies and green eyes.
 * Red ones with blue eyes, mullets, and three strain of hair on their forehead.

Characteristics
Like actual birds, the Flickies can only speak in a language consisting of chirps and tweets (some Flickies were depicted as capable of speech early in the series though). While recognized as a part of the world's fauna, Flickies are remarkably intelligent and sociable, being capable of understanding normal language and establishing their own Animal communities. Flickies are generally good-hearted, helpful, friendly and playful, but their small statureleaves them defenseless on their own. They also have great respect and appreciation for nature, choosing to live in complete harmony with it.

Habitats
Flickies can be found inhabiting various natural environments like forests all around Earth and its unusual satellites, such as South Island, West Side Island, Angel Island, Little Planet, and the Lost Hex, where they have established their own small villages. The special Flickies on Flicky Island however, elusively inhabit an entirely different dimension referred to as the "Flicky dimension" which they only leave through Giant Rings to gather food on Flicky Island.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
The Flicky first appeared in the original 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. In this game, the Flickies were some of Sonic's friends on South Island whom Sonic went to rescue when the Animals were captured by Dr. Robotnik to be turned into power sources for his Badniks. They can be found in Green Hill Zone and Star Light Zone where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or the Capsule at the end of the third Act. They also appear in the ending cinematic if all Chaos Emeralds are collected.

Flickies also appear in 8-bit version of the game with same name. Here, they only appear from the capsule at the end of Green Hill Zone Act 3.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Flickies repeat their role from the first game. Here however, it is the Flickies of West Side Island who are captured by Dr. Robotnik. They can be found in Emerald Hill Zone, Aquatic Ruin Zone and Casino Night Zone where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or the Capsule at the end of the second Act. While playing as Super Sonic, Flickies turn yellowish due to pallet issues. Flickies also appear in the normal ending cinematic with Sonic, flying behind the Tornado in herd. If the player has gotten all the Chaos Emeralds as Sonic, the Flickies are replaced with Lockies, and if playing playing as Tails, they are replaced with Cuckies.

Flickies also appear in 8-bit version of the game with same name. Here, they only appear from the capsule at the end of the third Act for Under Ground Zone, Sky High Zone and Gimmick Mountain Zone.

Sonic the Hedgehog CD
In Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Flickies appear as an-game feature bonus. If the player destroys the Metal Sonic Projectors in each Round, Flickies and other Animals will appear and frolic around in the present time of each Round.

Flickes also appear in few rounds' good future. Palmtree Panic features regular blue Flickies, Collision Chaos and Stardust Speedway feature light-yellow Flickies, and Metallic Madness has light grey colored Flickies. Several regular Flickies can also be seen at background of the D.A. Garden feature.

Sonic Chaos
In Sonic Chaos, a picture of the Flicky is randomly displayed on the Goal Plate at the end of each Zone's first and second Act when passing it. If the Goal Plate shows the Flicky picture, the player will not receive any award, unlike the other pictures.

Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
In Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, red and blue Flickies can be found at all the levels, namely Toxic Caves, Lava Powerhouse, The Machine and Showdown, where they pop out from destroyed Badniks. They also appear in the first and third Bonus Stages where they are imprisoned alongside Tails, Wocky and characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its add-on continuation Sonic & Knuckles, the Flickies reprised their roles from the earlier main titles. In this game, it is the Flickies and other Animals of Angel Island who Dr. Robotnik are turning into Badniks for the purpose of forming a workforce to relaunch the Death Egg. They can be found in Angel Island Zone, Marble Garden Zone, Carnival Night Zone and Launch Base Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and in Flying Battery Zone and Lava Reef Zone in Sonic & Knuckles, where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or the Capsule at the end of the second Act.

Flickies also appear among the Animals frolicking in the Mushroom Hill Zone during the beginning of Knuckles the Echidna's story in Sonic & Knuckles. Also, while playing as Super Tails, four "Super Flickies" will surround him and attack enemies for him.

Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble
The picture of Flicky is once again seen and repeating its role at plates of signposts from Sonic Chaos in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, As signposts are at the end of each first and second acts of zones with different features, Flicky plate on it does give nothing.

Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld
Flicky appears in Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld, along with Sonic, Tails, Amy and animal friends. Flicky can be seen at background of Gameworld testing its equipments, Egg Switch (being inside of egg and player has to follow which one's inside she is), U.F.O. Catcher (as a toy) and the slot machine of Concentration Game.

Tails Adventure
Flickies appear briefly in Tails Adventure as they appear at the intro and the ending of the game. These flickies are blue and seems to be residents of game's setting, Cocoa Island. In Japanese instruction manual, one of Flickies told to Tails that Battle Bird Armada has appeared on island and its dictator leader has discovered the Chaos Emeralds on the island.

In the end credits, Flicky is seen looking a Tails who creates new model for Remote Robot, which after while working explodes, leaving Tails and Flicky wondering.

Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island
In Sonic 3D Blast (also known as Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island), Flickies are mysterious birds who live on Flickies' Island and can travel through very large rings; these rings are similar to the rings used to enter the Special Stages in many older Sonic games, and the 'Goal Rings' in more modern Sonic installments. Eggman learns of these creatures and decides to transform them into badniks and have them search for the Chaos Emeralds for him.

Sonic 3D Blast is Flicky's most well known appearance. However it is not Flicky who appears, but Flickies, a species. The 'classic' Flicky look is only one of four different kinds of Flickies; there are three others introduced: pink, red and green Flickies.

Sonic 3D and Flicky share similar traits, though collecting rings and Chaos Emeralds are still a part of the game, Sonic's main purpose is to collect Flickies (a bit of a turn around). Five Flickies are to be collected at a time and deposited in a giant ring. Flickies follow Sonic in a line like ducklings; if Sonic is hit the Flickies disperse (only blue and pink Flickies will make an attempt to find their way back to Sonic, the red ones bounce randomly and the green wander aimlessly) and must be re-collected. If they are clipped by an enemy the hit Flicky will break the chain and must be recollected, along with any Flicky behind it. Plus, if you deposit Flickies in the large ring in multiple numbers, your score per Flicky will increase. All of these traits are from the original Flicky game.

This game was ported to PC and to the Sega Saturn. The PC and Saturn versions featured dozens of graphical enhancements, including full animated backgrounds, that suggested that Flickies' Island was inhabited by other species, including construction worker moles. This port also featured a new soundtrack, and a new polygonal Special Stage that was, at the time, quite impressive.

Sonic R
Sonic R features a Flicky cameo (not surprising as it was made by Traveler's Tales, the same British company who made Sonic 3D Blast). Whole flocks of them, in all four of their Sonic 3D Blast colors, can be seen around the start/finish of the Resort Island track.

Sonic Adventure
The primary Flicky in Sonic Adventure appears at the beginning of Amy Rose's quest. It falls from the sky, apparently hurt. Immediately following this event, a robot known as E-100, or ZERO, began pursuing Amy and the Flicky bird nonstop. As Amy's game progressed, the Flicky showed her the picture in the large locket it was carrying around. The picture depicted two other Flickies. Amy assumed that the birds in the picture were family members, and that Dr. Eggman had captured them. These Flickies turned out to be inside the robots E-101 Beta and E-102 Gamma, with Gamma being another playable character in the game. In the end, the robots are destroyed, and the Flicky is reunited with the two other ones.

There seems to be dispute over these three birds and their gender. In the game, Amy referred to the bird as "Birdie," and is referred as a male. However, in the Sonic X anime adaption of Sonic Adventure, Amy and Cream the Rabbit name the bird "Lily" and refer to it as female. Gamma and Beta are always addressed as males (and have masculine voices), but many people think that the two birds were parents of the blue Flicky, and that Gamma's pink hue implied that he was in fact a female, but this would be the bird's gender not Gamma's gender. Sonic X ' s Amy said that they were the blue bird's brother and sister. It could also be that the two other birds are both male or female, maybe two siblings or simply friends.

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
Flicky along with Ricky are seen reprising their basic roles in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure as being found inside of Badniks or capsules. Flicky and Ricky can be found at every Zone of the game, while they do come in three, different color schemes: purple, light yellow and red. Animal friends including Flicky himself are seen one time in the game's perfect ending.

Sonic Advance games
Because Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush games started to use different animals as badnik's organic source, Flicky along with original animal friends are not seen doing their basic role. However, Flicky appears after the Moon Zone in Sonic Advance as watching the moon along with Tails, Knuckles, Amy and other animals.

In Sonic Advance 2, Flickies at appear during a cut scene after the final boss is defeated. The flickies break from a Capsule containing Vanilla and witness Sonic recuing her as she falls from the sky.

Flickies appear only at the both normal and true ending of Sonic Advance 3, flying around at Altar Emerald after the Master Emerald restored the world to its neutral and consistent state.

Sonic Pinball Party
Flicky appears briefly in Sonic Pinball Party. In the game Eggman puts the pinball contest against Sonic at Casinopolis, as he's threatening to turn all animals (possibly Flicky too) into his robots if Sonic loses. Flicky can be seen at bottom of several Sonic boards watching the player's actions.

Sonic Rush
Flickies make another exceptional appearances at Sonic Rush in a sense, as Flickies appear as part of background in Leaf Storm, having nests around the zone and at the ending scene of Sonic's story.

Mario & Sonic series
In every title in the Mario & Sonic series, Flicky appears in the audience of pretty much every event. These Flickies are based on the their design from original Sonic the Hedgehog rather than the updated designs in Sonic 3D Blast or Sonic Adventure.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4
Flickies return in all the episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, once again being rescued from Badniks or capsules. Along with the other old animal friends from the Genesis titles. Unlike other animals, Flickies fly away after being released from capsules in Episode II.

In Episode I, Flickies can be found at Splash Hill Zone and Lost Labyrinth Zone, while in Episode II she appears at Sylvania Castle Zone and Sky Fortress Zone. At the end of Episode Metal, she along others were scared away by Metal Sonic when the robot unleashed its fury over losing Sonic.

Sonic Generations
Flickies make appearance in Sonic Generations, playing their basic role this time in challenges, where you must find capsules around the challenge level and free animal friends from prison. Animal friends including Flicky also have a collectable trophy in the Statue Room.

Sonic Jump
Flicky appeared along with Pocky, Cucky and Picky in the 2012 remake of Sonic Jump. In the intro of game, Dr. Eggman kidnaps them and traps them in the prison unit of his Egg Mobile and flies away with them to the sky while Sonic, having discovered this act, decided to follow him to save them.

Sonic Lost World
Flickies along with other animal friends appeared in Sonic Lost World, where they are shown to inhabit the Lost Hex. During the events of the game, Dr. Eggman, with the assistance of Deadly Six, resumed kidnapping animals, the Flickies being among them, to use them as the energy source for his badnik army. The few group of animals and single Flicky that managed to escape capture remained behind with Knuckles and Amy while Sonic and Tails went out to save their friends, where some of them had fun at the expense of Knuckles and even carried him around.

Flickies, along with other animals in Sonic Lost World, are collectible content used to progress with the game. Once the player has collected a set amount of Flickies and other animals, the player gain access to the fourth Zone in each area. Sonic is able to free Flickies from badniks, smaller capsules and even regular large ones at the end of each Zone. Flickies and animals can also be collected from Circus tents of each Zone. The Flickies themselves are featured in Windy Hill, Desert Ruins, Tropical Coast and Silent Forest.

Other appearances

 * In Sonic Jam, the Sonic compilation released for the system, Flickies fly around the Game's bonus feature called Sonic World. Flicky is named in the Characters section for the first time since the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * Flicky makes several small cameos at several images as one of Sonic's friends in a PC program Sonic the Screen Saver.

Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic
Flicky along with other animal friends, appears in Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic manga. He appears in few panels in first two stories. In Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Volume 3' story Sonic Rampage!! he, Pecky and Rocky gets kidnapped by doctor Eggman who uses them as baits to get rid of Sonic. During the moment of truth, Eggman threatened to torture them to death if Sonic would not give up. Despite that, Sonic manages to free Filcky and others from device of Egg Mobile with the speed of sound and after that he finished Eggman.

Sonic the Comic
In the British comic book Sonic the Comic, the Flicky design made cameos often in earlier issues as random Mobians and victims, though as the series developed more anthropomorphic bird characters were used instead.

The Flicky species appeared in Sonic the Comic #104 to #106, in an adaptation of Sonic 3D called "Flickies' Island". They are depicted as much smaller than regular Mobians, and unable to speak regular language, instead communicating by a sort of tweeting that only Tails can understand (although he later says it's not exactly a language, and he only gets a feeling of what the Flickies mean, leading Sonic to mockingly refer to it as "a sort of telepathy" ).

In this story, Doctor Robotnik (having been overthrown as ruler of Mobius) makes his new base on Flickies' Island, intending to discover why the native Flicky birds are only ever seen for a few weeks every year. He eventually discovers that the Flickies come from another dimension, and travel to Mobius by means of a floating Mobius Ring. Robotnik catches several of these Flickies to use as organic batteries in his new Badniks. However, his plan was thwarted by the intervention of the Drakon Empire, who had built the ruins on Flickies' Island long ago and left the Mobius Rings as a way of knowing when the Mobians had developed to the point where they could be a potential threat to them. Robotnik was captured by a Drakon Prosecutor and taken through the Mobius Ring to the Drakon homeworld, and the Mobius Ring was deactivated.

Flickies' were later seen in their native habitat on the Drakon homeworld. After making a deal with the Drakon's Emperor Ko-Dorr, Robotnik ran his operations from Flickies' Island and continued to use Flickies to power his new model of Badniks. Robotnik's Flickies' Island base was destroyed in issue 132.

Archie Comics
The Archie-published Sonic the Hedgehog comic book also chose to adapt Sonic 3D Blast, but in its own separate one-shot called Sonic Blast (they had previously produced adaptations of Sonic & Knuckles and Knuckles' Chaotix in the same way).

In their story, a little closer from the original, Sonic responded to a distress call from an island called Flickies' Island. Robotnik had enslaved the island, roboticized the Flickies and was looking for Chaos Emeralds. Sonic soon found out that the Robot Flickies were weak to seawater, when hit by saltwater they reverted to their flesh and blood forms. Sonic raced through the Zones and defeated Robotnik, who fled.

The Flickies in this adaptation were only the game's four kinds but were not encased in robots instead roboticized: a method devised, in that universe, by Sonic's Uncle Chuck to patch up wounded Mobians during their Great War, but taken and twisted by Robotnik and used to transform the organic creatures of the planet into robotic slaves. Flickies are the only 'Robians' that have ever had a weakness to Sea Water, or water of any kind, mostly they required 'Deroboticizing' via the same machine that roboticized them, unsurprisingly called 'the Roboticizer', to change them back.

Sonic X
In Sonic X, the blue, pink and green Flickies from Sonic 3D Blast made a cameo in the Sonic X anime, when creatures from Sonic's world were taken to Earth. They can be spotted on the news in the episode "Defective Detectives". The blue and green Flicky also make a small appearance in the episode "Running Out of Time". The show confirms that their name is Flicky.

The Flickies from Sonic Adventure also appeared in the show during the Chaos Saga. They all played the same roles as they did in the game, but were addressed as differently. Amy's Flicky friend who she calls "Birdie" in the game was named "Lily" in the show.

On the cover of Sonic X #11 six blue flickies fly around Sonic in celebration of a victory. These flickies look a lot like Lily and the other flickies from Sonic Adventure because they all have the three spiked hairs in front.

Others
Flicky also appeared in a Sonic the Hedgehog series of novels made in 1992/3.

Early Sonic canon
Early on in the series, when all the Animals were renamed by Sega of America in Sonic Bible, Flicky was defined as a female and was renamed Flicky the Duck in the bible's first draft, which was changed to Flicky the Bluebird in the bible's second draft. According to the bible, Flicky comes from a large family like the other animals (which was intended to explain the appearance of multiple identical Flickies in the games) and helped raise an orphaned Sonic. Flicky in particular influenced Sonic with her happy fearless, approach to life. Flickly would later come to make a number of appearances in early Sonic media.

Trivia

 * At one point, DiC were considering using a character based Flicky, though it was red and male, in early animated cartoon production. This concept was scrapped and the character was never taken beyond his one promotional image, though he does bear a striking resemblance to the red Flicky in Sonic 3D Blast.
 * In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Flickies freed from a badnik or animal capsule will appear the same color as the player (red as Knuckles, yellow as Super Sonic, etc.) They will flash pink and red for Super/Hyper Knuckles, and will be multicolored for Hyper Sonic, with the only exception being Tails in regular form, in which they will turn out blue.
 * The red Flicky is the only one of four variations to not ever appear in Sonic X anime.
 * The red Flicky also looks similar to Woody Woodpecker.
 * Flicky was originally going to be playable character in Sonic Drift, but was later replaced by Amy Rose.
 * A Hero/Fly Chao can look similar to a Flicky.
 * The blue Flicky's design may have been based on, Warner Brother's, Looney Tunes, character, Tweety Bird.
 * The Flickies are the only Animal friends with a Super State.
 * Flicky appears in the Dreamcast game Shenmue as a gashapon toy the character can collect.
 * When Treasure released Gunstar Super Heroes on the Game Boy Advance in 2005, they paid tribute to Flicky in Pink's stage, where you run through a rotating jungle section rescuing little yellow chicks and guiding them to the exit door of the stage.