Big the Cat

"Froggy! Where are yooou?"

- Big the Cat, Sonic Heroes

Big the Cat (ビッグ ・ザ ・キャット) is a large, fictional anthropomorphic purple cat from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. His character designers may be either Yuji Uekawa, Takashi Iizuka or even Naoto Oshima. Though both physically strong and imposing of stature, Big is a gentle and easy-going, though somewhat dim-witted, person with a heart of gold.

Big resides deep within the Mystic Ruins, where he spends most of his time fishing in tranquility with his best friend Froggy. Big is not one for going on grand adventures, preferring his peaceful and quiet lifestyle in the jungle. However, should his friends be in danger or in need of his aid, Big will not hesitate to help out and protect them in any way he can.

Sonic Adventure
Big was sleeping peacefully in his hut one night, when he woke up and saw that his friend, Froggy, had swallowed his lucky charm; the yellow Chaos Emerald. As soon as he noticed that Froggy had grown a tail, Froggy ran off, causing Big to chase after him. Big followed Froggy all over Station Square, from Twinkle Park to Icecap. Big was able to catch Froggy at Emerald Coast, but E-102 Gamma, a robot made by Eggman, snatched him from Big and ran off. Seeing that, Big tried to convince the robot to give him Froggy back, but without any positive results.

Later, Big went on board the Egg Carrier to once again reunite with his pal. He had to fish him out of one of the many water tanks on the Hot Shelter. After finally catching Froggy, Big was teleported by Tikal into the past for a while, so she could pass him a message, just like she did to the other characters, about Chaos, the god of destruction. In Big's case, he was shown just how important his "lucky charm" really was. When he got back to the present, he decided to try to get out of the Egg Carrier, but was caught by Doctor Eggman and Chaos 4, which then evolved to Chaos 6 when he absorbed Froggy (whose tail and Chaos Emerald had now disappeared). Just then, Sonic appeared to the rescue. Big merely had to fish Froggy out of Chaos 6, leaving the rest to Sonic once he rescued his buddy. After leaving Chaos to Sonic, Big found the Tornado 2 and decided to fly home with it, but crashed it near his house. However, that made the Chaos Emerald inside the Tornado 2 an easy target to Chaos when he was on a vicious rampage to gather all seven by himself. When Perfect Chaos destroyed the city of Station Square Big gave one of the seven Chaos Emeralds to Sonic so he could go super and defeat Perfect Chaos.

Sonic Heroes
He has an important role in Sonic Heroes. In this game he is the Power Type member of Team Rose and teams up with Amy Rose and Cream the Rabbit to find Froggy and Chocola who had recently vanished, supposedly kidnapped. After defeating the Egg Emperor on the Egg Fleet, the Eggman clone piloting the Mech turns into a puddle of liquid, and Chocola and Froggy rise out of it. He later joins the other teams in defeating the true villain behind Froggy's and Chocola's capture, Metal Sonic, by buying Team Sonic enough time to use the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Big is also a character in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. He still maintains his somewhat slow and dim nature, but is an invaluable ally due to his ability to safely make it through harsh environments with his Invulnerability. He has a side-quest revolving around finding Froggy's friend Norton. In battle, he has superior strength, but slow speed, being granted only 1 turn per round.

Sonic Colors (DS)
Big makes an appearance in the DS version of Sonic Colors, yet again searching for Froggy. Having apparently followed Froggy into the Aquarium Park in Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park, Big tries to search for Froggy at one of the rides, but has to clear a mission to be allowed to enter. He soon after meet Sonic and Tails, and explains that he is looking for Froggy. Sonic then says that he would help looking for Froggy by taking the mission. Sonic soon returns, but says he could not find Froggy, much to Big's disappointment. Big then asks if Sonic and Tails are hungry and they admit they could go for a bite to eat. As they ask Big what kind of snack he was thinking about, Big says fish and shows them a Chopper, much to their displeasure.

Big is later joined in his search for Froggy by Amy who is also trying to find Sonic. They soon run into Sonic and Tails, and Amy asks Sonic to entertain them by clearing a mission. After Sonic clears it, Amy offers to make a picnic for them, which Big eagerly asks if he can join them. He is also inspired to run after seeing Sonic, but Amy says he has to lose some weight first.

Other Game Appearances
Big is playable in Sonic Shuffle for the Dreamcast as an unlockable character.

Big makes several cameo appearances in Sonic Adventure 2, where he can be found in most stages and boss fights, and even some cut-scenes if you look hard enough. He was also unlockable as a character in 2-Player Mech Battle mode. Perhaps as a reference to the fact he replaces the Eggman option, he's humorously seated in Eggman's mech. In the GameCube version, almost all these cameos were removed, and in 2-player mode, he was replaced by Dark Chao. Big still appears in the game a few times if the player hits the buttons repeatedly during cut-scenes. Notable ones include the scene after the battle between Knuckles and Rouge is over, when Amy begs Shadow to help the others in the last episode, or during the scene in the same episode where Eggman is puzzling over why the cannon won't fire. Strangely enough, the GameCube version omits some of his appearances in the Hero Side story, including one exclusive scene where he peaks out of the helicopter as Sonic is ready to jump off. Yet he does not play a role in the game's main storyline, he's just an "easter egg" for the game.

Big cameos in Sonic Battle as well. Players can choose to link four Game Boy Advances together using link cables to play multiplayer games with only one game cartridge. In one of these mini games, Big can sometimes be seen fishing as he sits on the platform where the other characters battle.

Big makes a cameo appearance in Sonic Rivals as two collectible cards. Froggy also has one.

He has a gallery section in Sonic and the Secret Rings. He appears in several missions in each level which usually mounts to two, if the player waits in the certain area for a few seconds Big will appear and a page will be unlocked. In each page it will feature him doing things will befriending a skeleton or lining up in a row of gargoyles and feeling out of place.

An item called the Big the Cat Mask appears in Sonic and the Black Knight. It has a 5-Star rarity.

Big has an appearance in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games acting as one of the referees.

Big returns in the Wii version of Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games as a VIP character and a collectible decal. Once Big has been found as a VIP, a Mii costume of him can be purchased at the Boutique. In the Nintendo DS version, Big plays a part in the Adventure Tours.

Big is one of the playable characters in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing.

Big has a couple of cameo appearances in Sonic Generations. He appears as a neon sign in the downloadable mini-game Casino Night in the console version. He also appears as a statue in the hidden Statue Room and in footage during the credits.

Big makes a cameo on the racecourse Ocean View in the video game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Strangely, Big is the only character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series that was playable in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing but is not playable in its sequel.

List of Big Cameos in Sonic Adventure 2
To see Big in cutscenes, simply press the basic buttons at a certain point (or simply button-mash until he shows up).

Big first appears in the intro for Hero Side, peeking out of the G.U.N helicopter when Sonic is talking outside. When Sonic and Shadow meet, Big will be found circling around the fallen Big Foot. In the cutscene when the Egg Golem first appears, Big will appear on the other side of the door. Big's last cutscene cameo in Hero or Dark Side is thrice during the final Knuckles and Rouge encounter, where he appears in the background. Big appears in two cutscenes in the Final Story - in the intro where he drops down confused with Eggman, and twice with Amy before she decides to contront Shadow. In addition to this, Big appeared in every level of the game (bar Route 101 and Route 280), and appears twice in White Jungle and for each of the five characters in Cannon's Core. On top of that, he appears trapped during the first Sonic vs. Shadow fight, and sometimes appears in other locations in an action stage's hard mode. He is also seen in some stages though it's very hard to find him.

In Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Big's cameos were drastically reduced. He no longer appears in the game's levels (sometimes being replaced by a ring), and does not ride the Egg Walker in multiplayer (he was instead replaced by Dark Chao Walker). He was also removed from the Hero Side cutscenes, but still appears in Dark Side and Final Story, as well as the occasional Chao drawing. The 2012 re-release returned most of Big's cameos except for Wild Canyon and Hero Side, and the Dark Chao Walker still replaces him.

Sonic X
Big has a minor role in the anime Sonic X. His most notable appearance was during the Chaos Saga adaption, where he played the same role as he did in the game. At the start of the series, he was apparently caught in the Chaos Control explosion that transported the main characters from their world to Earth. However, he did not make another appearance until a second Chaos Control event brought several locations from their world to Earth. It is unknown if Big somehow remained on his homeworld until the second event, or if he had been on Earth the entire time and nobody knew about his whereabouts.

Sonic the Comic
In Sonic the Comic, Big makes a single-panel appearance when Chaos, drained of power and restored to its original fish form, lands next to Big, who is fishing in those waters, prompting him to turn and mumble "Hmmm?"

Writer Nigel Kitching has said that he was determined to include Big in the comic. He felt that Big resembled a Miyazaki character and would have loved to build him up into a real personality, but the comic's cancellation prevented this.

Archie Comics
In Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Big makes an appearance during the Sonic Adventure adaptation. While he used to live in the Mysterious Cat Country, he now resides in Knothole as he appears in numerous crowd scenes and has also played the role of Eggman in a play for the children.

Sonic X (comic)
In the Sonic X comic series, Big appears in Paris, when Sonic and the rest of the gang are on the World Fair. He punches Doctor Eggman in the face when he recognizes him, and later he helped Sonic and the others defeat Eggman's robots who were on the loose.

As gentle and harmless as Big may appear to be, when Dr. Eggman was threatening to harm Froggy, or certain people Big cared about, Big can be incredibly strong and will use his strength to protect his friends.

Later, he appeared at a party in Chris's mansion, and when Chuck discovers the existence of a Chaos Emerald inside a meteor that crashes in the South Pole, and makes a team with Sonic and Knuckles, in a race.

Personality
Big is carefree and laid-back. He cares a lot for his friends, especially Froggy. He enjoys fishing and brings his rod with him wherever he goes. He is often giddy and optimistic, especially when with his friends. However, he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, and important things sometimes pass right through his mind; This does not mean Big is stupid however, but he is just a very slow thinker. Despite this, he's loyal and reliable to his friends, and cares for all of his friends deeply. He also dislikes how many people worry about so many little things and them hurrying about all the time, which is probably why he chose to live in the Mystic Ruins jungle without technology.

Big also encourages others and is not the selfish type. Big has an ability to stay calm in any situation, even when he has lost Froggy. Big also is amazed by a lot of things and is almost always upbeat, even when he is in danger. One of the only instances of the cat losing his upbeat nature comes in Sonic Heroes, when he momentarily loses hope of finding Froggy and sadly suggests going home before Amy rekindles his spirit.

Physical Abilities
Big is regarded as one of Sonic's strongest and toughest friends. As seen on many occasions, Big possesses a superhuman level of physical strength, enough to lift and throw entire cars and massive boulders larger than himself with little effort, shatter rocks and metal with brute strength, and even knock away objects with such force that he can make them ignite fire.

Due to his large size, Big does not possess any superhuman speed or agility. However, as demonstrated in Sonic Heroes, he does have some running speed, being able to run at rather high speeds by normal standards. He also has enough agility to grind on rails.

Big possesses extreme amounts of toughness and durability due to his bulk. When struck by attacks, Big's bulk will cause most strikes to just bounces right off him and he can in some cases, when giddy enough, not even feel being attacked at all, making Big nearly impossible to be taken down. Big's toughness also makes him impervious to conditions and substances that would otherwise be dangerous to normal people like poison gas, waters well below sub-zero temperatures, and harmful energy barriers.

Big is a very capable swimmer as seen in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure DX, being able to swim to far depths and through underwater grottos, and even walk on the bottom of pools like he walking on dry land.

Along with being the fastest ladder climber in Sonic Adventure, Big seems to have rather advanced climbing capabilities surpassing those of people like Sonic himself, given how Big is able to appear in high places where there is nearly no means of climbing up there.

Moves and Techniques
Most of Big's fighting moves and techniques involves the usage of his Fishing Rod. When using his Lure Attack, Big uses his Fishing Rod to hit opponents or throws his Fishing Rod's lure out and strikes opponents with it from afar. Other offensive moves involving Big's Fishing Rod is his Big Fishing technique, where Big swings his lure around so it forms large, lethal objects to knock opponents into submission, and his Lure Whip, where Big captures opponents in his Fishing Rod's treat and trips them. For traversing the environment, Big can use his Umbrella Descent to glide through mid-air by folding out his Fishing Rod's umbrella during a mid-fall.

When not using his Fishing Rod, Big can attack by using Body Press, where he drops his entire body down on enemies, crushing them. In Sonic Heroes, Big could also perform variants of the Spin Attack, such as the Spin Jump, where Big can leap into the air and curl into a spinning ball to deal damage to anything he lands on, and the Homing Attack, where Big jumps and home in on an enemy to attack. He can also use his Battering Ram to knock down opponents.

When not attacking opponents alone, Big can call upon Froggy to perform special moves, such as Froggy Rain, where Big has Froggy and his friend drop down upon enemies from above, and Froggy Poison, where Big has Froggy poison enemies.

Miscellaneous Skills
Due to spending most of his time fishing, Big is a highly experienced fisherman, being able to fish just about anything up from the waters with his Fishing Rod, ranging from regular fish of all sizes shapes, from hostile robotic Choppers, and even Froggy when under the influence of Chaos.

Big also has an excellent sense of smell. As seen in Sonic Heroes, Big was able to catch Froggy's sense while the frog was presumably held capture deep within Bullet Station, which was an impressive feat given the large amount of distance between them at the moment.

Big's main weakness, his low intelligence, is also a strength in certain situations, such as in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, where Big's simple way of thinking was the reason why he was immune to Voxai mind control.

Big also appears to have some skills with machinery despite his nonurban habitat, seeing as he flew Tails' Tornado 2 from Eggman's airship and managed to land it safely, and in his cameo appearance as a character in Sonic Adventure 2 in two player mode, when he is piloting Eggman's mech.

Friends

 * Froggy (best friend)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Amy Rose (close friend; acts like an older brother to her)
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Cream the Rabbit (close friend; acts like an older brother to her)
 * Cheese the Chao
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * E-123 Omega
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * Shade

Enemies

 * Doctor Eggman
 * Pir'Oth Ix
 * Shade (formerly)
 * Chaos (formerly)
 * Metal Sonic
 * Overmind
 * Thelxe
 * E-102 Gamma (when he stole Froggy)

Theme Songs

 * Sonic Adventure, Lazy Days (Livin' in Paradise) - Ted Poley
 * Sonic Heroes, Follow Me (This theme song is shared with Amy and Cream) - Kay Hanley

Trivia

 * Big is the heaviest and largest non-metal character in the series.
 * In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Big is the only non-optional character (besides Sonic) to not be affected by the Voxai Overmind's brainwashing. He is also the only Support-Class character who has a damaging POW move.
 * Big was apparently disliked by the editors of Nintendo Power, as he was constantly insulted in the magazine.
 * In Sonic and the Secret Rings, he is also the only character aside from Sonic himself that does not take the name of an Arabian Nights character. It was revealed in Big's journal that apparently Shahra transported him to the world of the Arabian Nights as well, most likely by accident.
 * Big the Cat is the only playable character in Sonic Heroes who does not appear in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * In Sonic and the Black Knight, you can unlock a Big the Cat mask item.
 * Big is one of the tallest non-metal Sonic characters as well as the heaviest.
 * In Sonic the Comic: Online, when "The Family" were trying to kill Big, he revealed a hidden ability to catch bullets in mid-air with very little effort.
 * In Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, Big the Cat is the only Sonic-character to have his name written out in full in the racing stands. It is written "Big the Cat" unlike the names of other characters such as "Tails" and "Shadow".
 * Without counting Shadow, Big is the second oldest hero (behind Vector) from new-generation games.
 * In Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, there is a big purple cat-like enemy that wears a brown belt, looking very similar to Big.
 * Big is one of the few characters who has not yet been playable in a 2D side-scrolling game.
 * Big appears in almost every level as a cameo appearance in SA2 for Dreamcast, but those cameos were removed in the GameCube version. He can still be viewed in some story sequences by rapidly pressing the A or B buttons throughout the scenes. Big's cameos in the levels of SA2 were put back in for the Xbox 360/PS3/PC re-release of the game.
 * To date, Big has only appeared in three main series console games (excluding cameos).
 * Big was voiced by Jon St. John (from 2000 to 2004), the same voice actor that voiced Duke Nukem.
 * It seems that whenever Team Rose appears in a Sonic game (after Sonic Heroes), TV show, or comic, Big is almost always replaced. In Sonic Free Riders, he is replaced by Vector. In Sonic Universe Arc #6, he is replaced by Blaze. In the Sonic X episode "Desperately Seeking Sonic," he is replaced by Cosmo.
 * Big the Cat's fur color has differed slightly from his game art. In his Sonic Adventure DX game art, his fur was bright purple. In his Sonic Adventure game art, it was violet-blue. In one of his Sonic Heroes game art, it was dark purple, and in another, it was hot pink. In a piece of Sonic X artwork, it was violet (his waistband was also orange instead of yellow). In all other games, his fur color was purple.
 * In Sonic Adventure, the Japanese trailer showed Froggy following Big. It is unknown what the point to Big's story was, or why Gamma would acquire the mission to capture Froggy.
 * Big is one of two Sonic Heroes characters to not appear in Sonic Generations. The other being E-123 Omega.
 * Despite finding a Chaos Emerald in the ruined Station Square, Big is not present when Sonic turns into Super Sonic in the Super Sonic story of Sonic Adventure.
 * Big's gameplay in Sonic Adventure is similar to SEGA Bass Fishing.
 * Big makes a cameo appearance in Ocean View from Sonic &amp; All-Stars Racing Transformed He can be seen fishing from a cliff if the player follows the giant chopper.
 * Big's current voice actor, Kyle Hebert, is credited in the voice credit of Sonic Generations. This suggests that Big was at one point going to be included in the game, probably as one of the friends Sonic had to rescue.