Ricky

Ricky (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 squirrel Animals that live across various regions all over Sonic's world, and are close friends of Sonic the Hedgehog and his allies. The Rickies 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.

Anatomy
The general Ricky resembles a brown-furred and round-shaped tree squirrel slightly less than half a meter tall. Although classified as animals, their anatomy is slightly humanoid. They have large round heads with a smaller round torso, arms with five-fingered hands, thick yet stubby legs with long feet, a long and curled bushy tails, dark eyes, and round ears on top of their head. Additionally, they have peach fur around their face and on their belly. Other features include cheek tuffs, a medium-long brown nose, and a hair bang on their forehead.

Characteristics
Like actual animals, the Rickies can only speak in a language consisting of small ook-sounding noises. Although considered a part of the world's fauna, Rickies are remarkably intelligent and sociable, being capable of understanding normal language and establishing their own Animal communities. All Rickies are generally good-hearted, helpful, friendly and playful, but their small stature leaves them rather defenseless on their own. They also have great respect and appreciation for nature, choosing to live in complete harmony with it.

Habitat
Rickies can be found inhabiting various natural environments like forests all around Earth and its unusual satellites, such as South Island, West Side Island, Little Planet, Angel Island and the Lost Hex, where they have established their own small villages, more often than not with other Animal species.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
The first appearance of the Rickies was in the 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. In this game, the Rickies were some of Sonic's animal friends on South Island whom Sonic went to rescue after Dr. Robotnik captured them and turned them into power sources for his Badniks - all as a part of a plot to collect the Chaos Emeralds. They can be found in Marble Zone where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or the opened Capsule at the end of the third Act. They also appear in the ending cinematic if all the Chaos Emeralds are collected.

Ricky also makes an appearance in the 8-bit version of the game with same name. Here, they only appear from the opened Capsule at the end of Jungle Zone Act 3.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Rickies repeat their role from the first title. In this game, they and the other Animals of the West Side Island were captured by Dr. Robotnik and used to power Badnik workers which Robotnik needed to finish the Death Egg. The Rickies can be found in Emerald Hill Zone where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or the opened Capsule at the end of the second Act.

In the 8-bit version of the game with same name, the Rickies only appear from the opened Capsule at the end of Green Hills Zone Act 3, much like in their earlier 8-bit appearance,

Sonic the Hedgehog CD
In Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Rickies are shown to inhabit Little Planet. In this game, Rickies will appear and happily prance around in the Zones of Palmtree Panic and Quartz Quadrant alongside other Animals after certain conditions are met. The players can either ensure a good future for these Rounds by collecting their Time Stone or destroying Eggman's Machines hosted there to make the Rickies appear in said timeframe, or they can destroy a Zone's Metal Sonic Projector to make the Rickies appear in every timeframe of said Zone.

Sonic & Knuckles
In Sonic & Knuckles, the Rickies reprise their role from the first main installments. In this game, the Rickies and other Animals of Angel Island are kidnapped and turned into Badniks by Dr. Robotnik as he moves on with his operations to relaunch the Death Egg. The Rickies can be found in the Mushroom Hill Zone, Flying Battery Zone and Death Egg Zone where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or opened Capsules at the end of the second Acts (excluding the Death Egg Zone which has no Capsules).

In the beginning of Knuckles' storyline, a herd of Rickies and Cuckies play around in the Mushroom Hill Zone where Knuckles is relaxing until an EggRobo scares them away by dropped a bomb down in front of Knuckles.

Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld
In Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld, Ricky is seen along with Sonic, Tails, Amy and other Animals. Here, Ricky appears on a pair of cards featured in the Concentration mini-game. The Japanese version of the game also features Ricky in the Poker Game and Bakudan Nuki mini-games.

Sonic the Hedgehog The Screen Saver
In Sonic the Hedgehog The Screen Saver, the Rickies make several small cameos in several of the game's artwork images as one of Sonic's friends.

Sonic Jam
In Sonic Jam, the game's Character House features conceptual sketches of Ricky and the other Animals.

Sonic Pocket Adventure
In Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, the Rickies reprise their role from the first main titles where they are captured by Dr. Eggman and used to power his Badniks. In this game, they have either light brown, red or light yellow fur.

Rickies can be found in every Zone in the game where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or opened Capsules at the end of the second Acts. Animals, including Ricky, are also seen in the game's perfect ending after clearing Chaotic Space Zone.

Sonic Lost World
In Sonic Lost World, the Rickies and other Animals are shown to inhabit the Lost Hex. During the events of the game, Dr. Eggman, with the assistance of the Deadly Six, resumed kidnapping Animals, the Flickies being among them, to create a new Badnik army. A single Ricky and a few other Animals who managed to escape capture, remained with Knuckles and Amy while Sonic and Tails went out to save their friends, where they had fun at the expense of Knuckles.

Rickies, along with other Animals in the game, serve as collectible content used to progress with the game. Once the players have collected a set amount of Animals, they gain access to the fourth Zone in each World. They player can collect Rickies by defeating Badniks, opening smaller Capsules in the Zones, and opening the larger Capsules at the end of most Zones. Rickies and other Animals can also be collected from Circus tents. The Rickies can be found in Windy Hill, Desert Ruins, Silent Forest and Sky Road.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a Ricky appears alongside other Animals as a part of one of the collectable trophies representing the Sonic the Hedgehog series:

Excluding the trophy, the Ricky also occasionally makes a cameo appearance in the background of the Windy Hill Zone.

Sonic Runners
In Sonic Runners, the Rickies play supporting roles to the main cast in the storyline. In this game, all the individual Rickies are referred to as "Ricky". Over the course of the game, Team Sonic comes across the Rickies several times, who request the team's help for different situations. This include either stopping Dr. Eggman from capturing them for his Badniks or terrorizing their homes and friends, or aiding them with more personal issues. Sometimes though, they will help Team Sonic as well, usually providing information or handling smaller tasks.

In gameplay, Rickies will pop out of destroyed Badniks and bounce a little further down the path before falling behind the player. If the players grab them as they pass by, they will earn 2,500 bonus points at the result screen for each Ricky.

Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)
In Sonic the Hedgehog television series, Ricky's design served as the inspiration for an anthropomorphic female chipmunk named Sally. In this media, Sally is the princess and heir to the kingdom of Mobotropolis, but was forced into hiding when Dr. Robotnik overthrew her father. Finding sanctuary in Knothole Village, she became the field leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters to reclaim their home. Over the years, she developed romantic feelings for her teammate Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic X
In the Sonic X anime, Ricky, much like in the games, is an animal species native to Sonic's world. Several of them got sent to earth by Chaos Control where they managed to coexist peacefully with humans until they were returned home.

Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic
Ricky along with other animal friends, appears in Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic manga. He appears in few panels in first and third stories. In Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Volume 2' story ''Clash!! South Island'' Picky tells to Sonic that Ricky and Cucky have become badniks. Later in "Sparkling Zone" Sonic destroys these badniks and rescues Ricky and Cucky, who then lead Sonic to the "Star Land Zone" where they saw animals getting imprisoned to the capsule. Sonic defeats Eggman and saves the animals from capsule.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the character Sally from the Sonic the Hedgehog television series which Ricky inspired was adapted as a part of the main cast named Sally Acorn. Much like in the animated series, she was the heir to the Kingdom of Acorn, although her brother Elias Acorn would take over the mantle for her. She was sent to the sanctuary of Knothole Village by her father Maximillian Acorn when the Great War was going badly for the Mobians, and led the Knothole Freedom Fighters on many field missions against Dr. Ivo Robotnik when he took power shortly after the Great War's end, and later his successor Dr. Eggman. Over the years, she formed a strong romantic relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog. On one mission though, she was turned into Mecha Sally and served Eggman until the timeline was rewritten by the Super Genesis Wave.

After the Super Genesis Wave, Sally's history remained basically the same, although with subtle differences and elements removed. After retaking Mobotropolis from Dr. Eggman after he seized power, Sally now leads the New Freedom Fighters against the Eggman Empire.

Sonic the Comic
In Sonic the Comic, Ricky was renamed Sally Acorn. In this media, she is an anthropomorphic female squirrel living alongside the Emerald Hill Folk. Before Dr. Robotnik's takeover, Sally would often be involved in Badnik businesses and would need Sonic's help with them. After Robotnik conquered Mobius, she would help the Freedom Fighters to protect their Zone, eventually becoming a news reporter.

Early Sonic canon
Early on in the series, when all the Animals were renamed by Sega of America in the Sonic Bible, Ricky's gender was defined as female and was named Squirrel in the bible's first draft for the western media. It would later be reimagined as Sally Acorn in the bible's second draft. According to the Sonic Bible, Sally Acorn comes from a large family like other Animals (which was intended to explain the appearance of multiple identical Rickies in the games) and helped raise an orphaned Sonic. In the bible's first draft, Sally Acorn taught Sonic how to lob acorns down from trees to pester the unsuspecting victims below. In the bible's second draft and in the guidebook Stay Sonic though, it is said Sally Acorn taught Sonic how to leap incredible instances.

Usually sporting a pink bow, Ricky made a number of appearances in early Western media for the franchise, including the promotional comic released alongside the first game.

Trivia

 * The Rickies were created by Naoto Ōshima, the character design on the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * When Ricky is featured on his own card in Sonic the Hedgehog Online Trading Cards, he has been misleadingly named as Pocky. Pocky is also the name of another Animal Friend, who has been misleadingly called as Picky in the same online trading card game.
 * In the American credits of Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld he is labeled with his Japanese name, "Ricky" instead of his western name Sally Acorn during that time.
 * Ricky is one of Animals in the series that has not make any appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 or any of the three episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4.