Flicky

Flicky is a fictional female bluebird who debuted as the main character in the arcade game Flicky, and has since become a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series as a species commonly used for "organic batteries" in the evil Doctor Eggman's robots, also known as badniks.

Flickies seem to be large abundance in Sonic's home planet, as they appear to live on South Island, Little Planet, Westside Island and Angel Island. They also play integral parts in Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic Adventure.

Concept and Creation
Several years earlier before Sonic the Hedgehog franchise Flicky was created as the main character starring on his own game. At first the game's name was supposed to be "Flippy," until it was discovered being an overseas trademark issue. 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, his appearance is little 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.

Early appearances
Flicky first appeared in the eponymous game Flicky, released for Sega arcades in 1984. 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 (in the Arcade version only, when the words "Game Over" are shuffling by letters, Flicky can be seen flying by)
 * Bloxeed

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Her first appearance at Sonic series was in the original 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Here she was one of Sonic's friends on South Island whom Sonic went to rescue as Flicky along the others are captured by Doctor Eggman in order to be power source for his badniks. Flickies can be found at Green Hill Zone, Star Light Zone and ending cinematic as the player have to free them from badniks and capsules of the ending of third act.

Flickies also appear in 8-bit version of the game with same name, as they only appear by freeing them from capsules at Green Hill Zone.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Flickies make next appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, as they repeat their role from first game, only this time in Westside Island. They can be found at Emerald Hill Zone, Aquatic Ruin Zone and Casino Night Zone.

While playing as Super Sonic, Flickies also turn yellowish due the palette issues. Flickies also appear in the normal ending cinematic with Sonic, flying behind the Tornado in herd. Getting to the ending with Chaos Emeralds Flickies are replaced with Lockies and while playing as Tails there are herd of Cuckies instead.

Flickies also appear in 8-bit version of the game with same name, as they can only be found from floating capsules at Underground Zone, Sky High Zone and Gimmick Mountain Zone.

Sonic CD
Flicky also makes an appearance in Sonic CD at Little Planet, even though flowers fall from the badniks there instead of animals. If you destroy the Metal Sonic holograms in each Round, animals will frolic in the present time, with one of them being Flicky. Flickes also appear in few rounds' good future, as certain rounds also have light-yellow colored Flickies. Several Flickies can also be seen at background of the D.A. Garden feature.

Sonic Spinball
Flickies also appeared in spin-off game Sonic Spinball as they can be found at all four levels Toxic Caves, Lava Powerhouse, The Machine and Showdown. Flicky also appears at first and third Bonus Stages being in prison with Tails, Wocky and familiar looking characters from the animated series.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Flickies repeat their roles from earlier games in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its add-on continuation Sonic & Knuckles. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, they can be found at Angel Island Zone, Marble Garden Zone, Carnival Night Zone and Launch Base Zone while in Sonic & Knuckles they can be found at Flying Battery Zone and Lava Reef Zone.

Flickies also appear as one of the animals seen frolicking the Mushroom Hill Zone during the beginning of Knuckles the Echidna's story in Sonic & Knuckles. Also when playing as Super Tails, four Flickies that appear to be "Super Flickies" surround him and destroys enemies for him. When Super Tails reverts to normal, the Flickies turn blue and fly away.

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 Kukku army has appeared on island and its dictator leader has discovered Chaos Emeralds from 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 Jam
Though Sonic 3D was not included on Sonic Jam, the Sonic compilation released for the system, Flickies fly around the Game's bonus material, the fully 3D Sonic World. Flicky is named in the Characters section for the first time since the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

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 Doctor 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 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 offscreen along with Vanilla the Rabbit were sucked and imprisoned to the Eggman's machine, that Super Sonic and the player has to face in True Area 53. After the fight, Flickies do got free and Sonic rescued Vanilla from falling down.

Flickies appear only at the both normal and real 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) to the 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 appearance at Sonic Rush in a sense, as Flickies appear as part of background in Leaf Storm, having nests around the zone.

Mario & Sonic series
In Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games she 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 both 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 flies away after 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 he appears at Sylvania Castle Zone and Sky Fortress Zone. In the end of Episode Metal, he along others gets shocked by Metal Sonic and runs away as they were around of it.

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 have also collectable trophy.

Sonic Jump
Flicky appears along with Pocky, Cucky and Picky in 2012 remake of Sonic Jump. As at the intro of game, Dr. Eggman kidnaps them to the prison unit of his Eggmobile and flies with them to the sky while Sonic discovered this, he decided to follow him to save them.

Cameo appearances

 * 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.
 * Flicky makes several small cameos at several images as one of Sonic's friends in a PC program Sonic the Screen Saver.
 * Flicky also appears in the Dreamcast game Shenmue as a gashapon toy the character can collect.

Physical Appearance
Flicky is small and yet round-shaped bird, whose plumage color is sky blue and her beak's and feet color generally is orange. Flicky has a round-shaped head, with two large eyes, soft beak and two upward-looking hairs above the forehead. She has two pink cheeks and between the eyes goes to the dark blue-colored, sharp cross-line. Her wings are medium-sized compared to her body and her tail has three soft heads. Flicky has small, white belly and three toes in each foot.

During Sonic 3D Blast and few other 3D games, her appearance got a little alteration, as her plumage color has become more darker, her cheeks are more orange-colored and belly color is more darker yellow. Instead of two hairs, Flicky has also got the tassel above the forehead and brown eye pupils. Other, different colored Flicky variations identified as follows: In Sonic Adventure, Flickies appearance is little bit square-shaped with zigzag looking wings and three, aft directed hairs above the head. In recent games such Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Flickies have returned their original, soft design.
 * Green, fat ones have big bun in the middle of the head and blue eye pupils.
 * Pink/Purple ones have pony tail on both side corners and one long, horizontal directed hair above the forehead. These ones also got the heart-shaped belly and green eye pupils.
 * Red ones have long mullet and tail. Red Flickies also have two upward-looking hairs above the forehead and blue eye pupils.

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 Eggmobile 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.

Sonic the Hedgehog (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
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 # 2.13 Episode 39: "Defective Detectives". The blue and green Flicky also make a small appearance in the episode # 2.24 Episode 50: "Running Out of Time". The show confirms that their name is Flicky.

The Flickies from Sonic Adventure also appeared in the show during the game's adaptation. 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.

Sonic X (comic series)
On the cover of Issue 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.

Trivia

 * At one point, DiC were considering using a character based Flicky, though it was red and male, in one of their cartoon series. This concept was scrapped (some say it was evolved into Sonic's "SatAM") so 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 3 and 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 gets later replaced by Amy Rose.
 * In Sonic Advance 2, a Badnik named Flickey looks actually lot like a Flicky, as both of them have a circular shape of head.
 * 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.