Team Sonic


 * Not to be confused with Sonic Team. For other uses of the term, see Team Sonic (disambiguation).

Team Sonic (チームソニック), also known as Team Heroes (チームヒーローズ), is a reoccurring group in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The team was founded by Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna to stop one of Dr. Eggman's plans for world domination, who later turned out to be Metal Sonic in disguise. With its primary members having at least one talent at which they are virtually perfect at, Team Sonic is a highly capable team who has overcome several threats to the world.

Sonic Heroes
Team Sonic made its first appearance in Sonic Heroes as one of four teams playable in the game. At the start of Team Sonic's story, Sonic is running through a desert when Tails and Knuckles arrive in a plane. Tails hands him a message from Dr. Eggman, saying that in three days, he will conquer the world. Up for a challenge, Sonic goes to stop him. Tails and Knuckles come along as well, forming Team Sonic.

This team's levels are for intermediate players of the game, and contain a variety of high speed sections. Their extra missions involve completing the stage in a certain time limit. Team Sonic's Team Blast is Sonic Overdrive. In the team "Super form", Team Super Sonic, the Team Blast is Super Sonic Power.

Team Sonic's theme is "We Can" by Ted Poley and Tony Harnell.

Sonic Riders series
In this series of games, the team is mainly referred to as Team Heroes, and appear as the protagonists in all three entries of the series.

Sonic Riders
The team returns in Sonic Riders. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles encounter the Babylon Rogues (a group of thieving birds who ride Extreme Gear) who steal an emerald that the team was tracking. The next day, the three watch an announcement made by Dr. Eggman advertising the EX World Grand Prix, when Sonic discovers that the Babylon Rogues have entered the race. The trio signs up as Team Sonic and serve as the playable characters in the hero's story alongside Amy Rose. The members of each team develop a rivalry against their respective character. During the course of Sonic Riders, Wave criticized the handling of Tails' Extreme Gear, but this later helped Tails beat her in a race. In a Grand Prix race sponsored by Dr. Eggman, Sonic was just about to win, but was unaware of a bomb on his board. Wave detonated the bomb, causing Sonic to wipe out and Jet to unfairly win. In the Babylon Garden, Team Sonic, the Babylon Rogues and Amy faced off against the Babylon Guardian, and later found out the treasure of Babylon was a Flying Carpet. Before the credits rolled, Sonic gave Jet his box back, seeing as the Rogues needed it more.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Tails received a news report of MeteorTech robots going berserk. One of the berserk robots attacks Sonic and company, who proceeds to chase it. The team later finds a circular stone which was later revealed to control gravity. The team arrives at ruins, and Knuckles proceeds to examine it. On closer inspection, Knuckles infers that the ruins spoke of a "lightless black". Later, as Team Heroes and Amy meet up, the Babylon Rogues arrive and demand Sonic to hand over the Ark of the Cosmos, which was the circular stone that Sonic, Tails and Knuckles found. The team then collects the Arks of the Cosmos and lets Jet keep them as Sonic has no need for them. However, a MeteorTech Robot steals the Arks, and Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues proceed to defeat the robot and retrieve the Arks before they get sucked into the massive black hole. Later, Tails talks about the ruins' message to Sonic and Knuckles, telling them that it was a warning about using the Arks. Jet then appears and has a friendly race with Sonic.

Sonic Free Riders
In Sonic Free Riders Sonic, Tails and Knuckles teamed up for the second World Grand Prix held by a disguised Dr. Eggman and competed against the Team Rose, Team Dark and Team Babylon for the title of the best Extreme Gear riding team in the world. Throughout the tournament, Team Heroes earned a fair share of wins and losses against their rivals but still retained good sportsmanship. At the end of their "final" races, Eggman announced that all teams had to compete in additional races: one with E-10000B and one with the doctor himself. When they both lost against Team Sonic and the other three teams in both races, E-10000B revealed itself to be Metal Sonic who then confidently challenged his organic doppelganger to one-on-one race. After Sonic won the race, Metal Sonic fled the scene and it was revealed that Eggman did not have any prizes to distribute, leaving no team the clear winner of the tournament but Team Sonic agreed that they had fun.

Mario & Sonic series
In the crossover series Mario & Sonic, Team Sonic is expanded out to every character who originated from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Dr. Eggman, Shadow, Vector and Blaze are all included in Team Sonic. In the sequel, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, two more members joined Team Sonic: Silver the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic. Jet, Rouge, Sticks, Espio, Omega, Dr. Eggman Nega, Wave, Cream, Zazz, and Zavok joined Team Sonic in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Sonic Runners
Team Sonic returns as the main protagonists of Sonic Runners, which revolves around their constant attempt to stop a series of plans set by Dr. Eggman and to discover what exactly his true plan is. Though all three members appear together from the very start of the story, only Sonic is playable by default within the gameplay, while Tails and Knuckles must be unlocked.

While Tails and Knuckles must be unlocked, they appear as the earliest playable characters (alongside Sonic by default) and also the only ones who can be unlocked through Story Mode. In this game, all three members are classified as Hero Type characters and retain their ability formation of Speed, Fly, and Power.

Sonic Runners Adventure
Team Sonic reprise their role as the main characters in the sequel, Sonic Runners Adventure, with its members joining forces to stop Dr. Eggman and his plans of world domination.

As he was wandering on his own, Sonic received a transmission from Tails, who told him that Dr. Eggman was up to no good on South Island. Going back to Green Hill to investigate, Sonic found Tails, who informed the hedgehog that Eggman caught him and had forced him to build a robot teleporter.

The duo proceeded to track the evil scientist and defeated him, but Eggman managed to escape. When they tried to follow him, Sonic got injured. Leaving Sonic to rest, Tails chased the doctor through Desert Ruins. After shutting down Eggman's latest facility, the fox cub reunited with Sonic, now recovered, and together they went after Eggman. Though the duo defeated Eggman again, they failed to catch the madman. Tracking Eggman to the hostile Lava Mountain, Knuckles joined Sonic and Tails on their adventure. With Team Sonic fully reunited and with the aid of Tails, Knuckles stopped the Extractor set up by Eggman and beat him, only for Eggman to retreat again.

The trio continue their chase to Sky Sanctuary, where Eggman, with nowhere to go now, used his Mind Control Ray on Sonic to distract him while he escaped. Tails and Knuckles soon after realized that Eggman's plan all along was to take control of the world with his mind control device powered by the Extractor and the latent energies in Sky Sanctuary. Resolving to keep Eggman from using his weapon, Team Sonic destroyed the Mind Control Ray. Sonic then stepped in and defeated Eggman for good, who retreated while swearing vengeance.

Unofficial appearances
Whilst Team Sonic did not officially appear until Sonic Heroes, there have been several instances throughout the series where all three characters have worked together or teamed up.

The first instance of this happening is in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, if the player chooses to play as Sonic and Tails. During the game's climax at Hidden Palace Zone, Dr. Robotnik reveals his true colors to Knuckles and steals the Master Emerald. After an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the Emerald from Eggman's clutches, Knuckles assists Sonic and Tails, leading them to a hidden room with a Warp Point to Sky Sanctuary Zone. Upon arrival, Knuckles, already weakened from his short bout with Robotnik, offers one last bit of assistance to the duo by opening a bridge to the rest of the Sanctuary. Upon recovering the Master Emerald, Sonic and Tails cement their friendship with Knuckles and leave Angel Island on good terms.

In Sonic Triple Trouble, while Knuckles is enemies with Sonic and Tails for most of the game (due to Dr. Robotnik's lies), at the very end, he is the only antagonist out of the main three (the others being Nack the Weasel and Robotnik himself) who decides to make peace with the heroic duo and befriend them as well, sharing a handshake, escaping together from Robotnik's base of operations, the Atomic Destroyer.

In Sonic Drift 2, Tails and Knuckles (plus Amy Rose) are considered allies to Sonic against Dr. Robotnik's team, composed by the doctor himself, Metal Sonic, and Fang the Sniper.

In Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles journey together to Flicky Island to visit their animal buddies. Finding only Badniks, Sonic sets out to defeat Dr. Robotnik, while Tails and Knuckles help the hedgehog in his quest to defeat the evil scientist by collecting the Chaos Emeralds, warping Sonic to the Special Stage.

In Sonic R, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, although motivated by different reasons to enter the competition, join together (alongside Amy) to prevent Dr. Robotnik and his group (Metal Sonic, Tails Doll, Mecha Knuckles, and Eggrobo) from gathering all the Chaos Emeralds in the new Grand Prix tournament.

In Sonic Adventure, Tails and Knuckles assist Sonic in the final battle against Perfect Chaos by bringing him the energy-drained Chaos Emeralds and are the first to arrive to the scene, aiding Sonic in going Super and convincing Sonic he could defeat the monster by harnessing the positive power of the gems. Cheering their friend during the fight, the trio is later seen standing together in a platform after Chaos' defeat.

For the majority of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles do not work together. However, after Knuckles has completed Aquatic Mine, he joins forces with Sonic and Tails, although when the group reaches outer space on their way to Space Colony ARK, Knuckles goes to find the pieces of the Master Emerald accidentally jettisoned from the shuttle the trio were piloting. All three characters are considered part of the same story in this game as well (that being the Hero story).

Through Sonic Battle, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles join forces as they share the Gizoid robot Emerl, giving each other clues about the mysterious mechanical being and working together to prevent it from falling in the wrong hands, such as when Rouge took it away from Sonic, with the three friends going against the bat theft to recover the robot.

In the Sonic Advance series, Tails and Knuckles are unlockable characters who join Sonic at different points during his adventures. In Sonic Advance 3, if Sonic is paired with either of them, they form a Speed Type team, being referred to as "Unbreakable Bond" (Tails) and "Fighting Buddies" (Knuckles).

In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Tails and Knuckles assist Sonic during his storyline. Occasionally during Sonic's levels, Tails or Knuckles may take over and become playable for a brief section of the stage, and at some points of the game, Tails and Knuckles also follow the hedgehog during the Town Stage areas in a similar fashion to Sonic Heroes, although the player can only control Sonic. In Town Mission 8: The Legend of the Three Musketeers, the player must play through three parts of the mission as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, each being a Speed, Flight, and Power test. In the last episode, both Tails and Knuckles gather the Chaos Emeralds to revive their fallen friend (who had been killed by Mephiles the Dark) alongside the rest of the characters and in the end are seen celebrating Sonic's victory against Solaris.

In Sonic Rivals, on the look for Dr. Eggman Nega, (who had plans to turn the world into a card) Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles headed together to the evil doctor's sky base in the Tornado, with the three reuniting to stop the madman as Sonic and Knuckles had been on opposing sides through most of the game.

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles appear as playable characters in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Sonic appears as the main character whilst Tails and Knuckles are recruited to the player's party later on. When Tails and Knuckles are in Sonic's party, the three can perform a special POW move called the Triple Tornado, and with the addition of Amy, the Hail Storm. Their team name is also said twice by Shadow.

Through Sonic Forces, the three members, as part of the Resistance, collaborate in an effort to take the world back from the Eggman Empire, each carrying different tasks to accomplish the mission.

Sonic Boom
Team Sonic are the main protagonists of the Sonic Boom franchise. In this media, the group is composed of Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose and Sticks the Badger. Together, they defend their tropical home of Seaside Island and the world at large from Dr. Eggman's robot hordes, and other threats like Lyric the Last Ancient.

Trivia

 * Team Sonic is the only team to have more than one victory stance (which includes their normal stance, the one used in Egg Fleet, and the one used as Team Super Sonic).
 * Team Sonic is the only team in Sonic Heroes where the Power Type character is not considerably larger than the other characters.
 * Team Sonic is the only team where the three characters are the same color as their ability type. (This is most likely because the colors of the ability types are based off the members of Team Sonic)
 * Team Sonic is one of two teams in Sonic Heroes that contain no female characters, the other being Team Chaotix.
 * Despite this, Amy Rose has occasionally worked with Team Sonic, such as in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, although she is not considered a member.
 * Team Sonic has been referenced a number of times throughout the series:
 * The team appears as a collectible card in Sonic Rivals.
 * The team is directly referenced in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as a sticker/achievement, although the picture shown is of Shadow's artwork from Sonic Channel; in that same game, it is implied Knuckles entered the competetion because Sonic and Tails had invited him.
 * Team Sonic was alluded to in the "News" feed during the Winter update of Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, with the artwork showing all three members together in a snowy background.
 * The team is also alluded to in the first issue of IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series
 * Of all the groups that debuted in Sonic Heroes, counting both official and unofficial appearances, Team Sonic has the most appearances through the series, having worked together in most Sonic media where all three characters appear, including video-games, cartoons, comics, and the 1996 OVA Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.