Sonic the Hedgehog

"What you see is what you get. Just a guy who loves adventure! I'm Sonic The Hedgehog!"

- Sonic while chasing Shadow on the ARK


 * For other uses, see Sonic the Hedgehog (disambiguation).

Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ) is the main protagonist of the series and is SEGA's mascot. He is a supersonic, blue, teenage hedgehog. He can move faster than the speed of sound (768 mph, which is faster than Mach 1), with lightning reflexes to match (hence the name Sonic). He is a laid-back and cool character. He is meant to symbolize peace. He is 15 years old, stands at 100 centimeters (3 ft 3 in), weighs 35 kilograms (77 lbs) and was born on Christmas Island. Artist Naoto Ōshima, designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and programmer Yuji Naka are generally credited with the creation of the character, a blue and-peach-skinned, green-eyed, anthropomorphic hedgehog, who has the ability to move faster than the speed of sound and possesses the ability to curl up into a ball (like a regular hedgehog), primarily to attack enemies. This is a major part of the gameplay of the series.

Concept and Creation
On April 1990, Sega requested a game capable of selling over 1,000,000 copies, a character who could compete against Nintendo's Super Mario, and a character to replace Alex Kidd as the company's mascot and Nintendo's link. Several character designs were submitted by its AM8 research & development department, including an armadillo (who was later developed into Mighty the Armadillo), a dog, an over-sized Theodore Roosevelt in pajamas (which would later be the basis of Doctor Eggman's design), and a rabbit (intended to use its extendable ears to collect objects; these aspects were later incorporated into Ristar, and were later incorporated into Sonic's Werehog transformation). Eventually, a hedgehog, whose color was based on the SEGA logo, his shoe buckles based on Michael Jackson, his shoe color based on Santa Claus and his personality, on the other hand, was directly inspired by future-President Bill Clinton, who Ohshima felt embodied a modern sensibility of wanting to get things done right away, righting wrongs as they presented themselves instead of letting them linger initially codenamed "Mr. Needlemouse", was chosen as the new mascot.

A group of fifteen started working on Sonic the Hedgehog and renamed themselves Sonic Team. The game's soundtrack was composed by Masato Nakamura of the band Dreams Come True. Sega sponsored the group's "Wonder 3" tour, painting Sonic on the tour bus, distributing pamphlets advertising the game, and having footage of the game broadcast above stage prior to its release.

Sonic's precise age, weight, height and other physical characteristics vary depending on the continuity in which he appears and the style in which he is drawn. In the video games, Sonic's original design by Naoto Ōshima was with short spiky hair, a round body, one spike in his back, and no visible irises. Artwork featuring this design and drawn by Akira Watanabe was displayed on the package artwork for Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), and most subsequent Sonic video games featured similar designs. Beginning with Sonic Adventure in 1998, Sonic was redesigned by Yuji Uekawa as a 15-year-old character, with longer legs and a less spherical body, longer and more drooping spiky hair, two spikes in his back, and emerald-green-colored eyes. Further subtle changes to the character's design have been made in subsequent games. Spin-off media such as comics and cartoons have featured variations on all these video game designs, with restrictions set by the standardized model sheets.

Color
Sonic is blue in color so that he can represent SEGA's logo, which is blue. Also, the color blue symbolizes "peace", which Yuji Naka felt that the word "peace" describes Sonic's hero like personallity.

Early life
Nothing is known about Sonic's early life. It is unknown who his family is or if he has one, neither is it known how Sonic gained his trademark speed. All that is known is that Sonic was born on Christmas Island. It is not even known how he and Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik became enemies, though it could very possibly be the fact that Eggman is always looking to get more power to be ruler of any land he finds.

Let The Games Begin
Sonic started his battle against his nemesis Dr. Ivo Robotnik in the 1991 platform game Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Robotnik wanted to take over the world but Sonic traveled through South Island freeing the animal residents who were transformed in huge numbers into Robotnik's Badnik slaves and prevented him from getting the Chaos Emeralds (although there were only six emeralds at the time). After Sonic defeated Robotnik, he became a well-known hero throughout the world.

Back With A Sidekick
In the 1992 sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic first performed his signature "Spin Dash" move. The game takes place some time after he met Miles "Tails" Prower, who quickly became Sonic's sidekick and idolizes him, trying to be just like him. Robotnik is at his old scheme again, turning the animal residents of West Side Island into his Badnik army while creating his ultimate weapon, the Death Egg. The Doctor is also after the Chaos Emeralds again so that they help him conquer the world. When Sonic got all seven of the Chaos Emeralds he discovered the powers of them can turn him into Super Sonic. Tails was at his side in most of the adventure, but was left behind when Sonic's plane, the Tornado, piloted by Tails, was shot down at the beginning of the Wing Fortress Zone, leaving Sonic by himself to fight Robotnik's secret weapon, Silver Sonic, on the Death Egg spaceship, followed by a gigantic robot in the image of the scientist himself. After Robotnik was defeated once again, Sonic escaped the exploding Death Egg and was caught by Tails in the repaired Tornado.

Escape from Eggman Island
In the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, Sonic was captured by Dr. Robotnik, along with Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Sonic teamed up with the other two and they traveled to escape Eggman Island, which was covered with traps.

In the end, Robotnik self-destructed the island, but Sonic, Ray and Mighty escaped just in time. However, the doctor escaped Sonic once again.

Time Traveling Hedgehog
Sonic was solo once again for Sonic CD (1993), in which he went to Little Planet while it was near Sonic's homeworld in order to explore it. However, his goals changed once he saw his arch-nemesis having taken over the entire planet, leaving Sonic to liberate it of the scientist's control.

Shortly after his arrival, Sonic met a female hedgehog named Amy Rose, who was on the planet in hopes of meeting him. However, only moments after she met him, she was captured by Metal Sonic, Sonic's second, robotic doppelgänger (whom, by the timeline, was made three years after the Video game was created).

Using his unrivaled speed, Sonic managed to travel through time and ensure a good future for the Little Planet.

Near the end of his adventure, Sonic encountered Metal Sonic and the doctor once again, having a race with the robot on the Stardust Speedway. In the ensuing victory of Sonic's, the Eggman managed to accidentally destroy his own creation.

Sonic went on to defeat the doctor in a final battle in the Metallic Madness, after which Sonic rescued Amy while the doctor's bases began exploding and were literally crumbling away. The Little Planet went on to show Sonic's face in a shower of light before seemingly warping away from Earth, while leaving many new flowers grow around the area it floated above.

Eggman, on the other hand, seemingly managed to sneak a Time Stone off the Little Planet, but Sonic spotted him and managed to put an end to his current schemes by using his Spin Dash to shoot a rock in the direction of his flying machine, causing it to explode.

It is not known what happened with the Time Stone in question. After that, Sonic went on his adventuring ways around the world.

South Island in Chaos
In Sonic Chaos (also known as "Sonic & Tails" in Japan) for the Game Gear and Master System, Sonic and Tails were facing the threat of Dr. Robotnik sinking South Island by improperly using the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and Tails collected the Emeralds before the doctor could, including the red one he already had in his possession and liberated the island of his control once more.

Spinball Time
In the spin-off Sonic Spinball, Sonic and Tails went to Mt. Mobius, which was taken over by Dr. Robotnik and made into his "Veg-o-Fortress". However, Sonic was knocked off of Tails' airplane on the way, causing him to travel through Mt. Mobius in a pinball styled way from bottom to top. On his adventure to the top, he collected Sixteen Chaos Emeralds and rescued Tails, along with characters from the Saturday Morning TV Series: Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot and Rotor Walrus.

In the end, Sonic defeated the doctor and his Veg-o-Fortress was destroyed while the speedy hedgehog made his escape together with Tails and his airplane.

The Floating Isle And The Legendary Master Emerald
In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its expansion Sonic & Knuckles, both released in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sonic and Tails landed on Angel Island. Shortly after their arrival, Sonic, at that moment in his super form, was ambushed by Knuckles the Echidna, somehow forcing the hedgehog out of his form. After the hero lost the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles was quick to snatch and hide them. Sonic and Tails were then forced to search the island for the Emeralds, all the while having to liberate it from the control of Dr. Robotnik's robots once more, who crashlanded with his Death Egg on the Island some time prior to the game. The spaceship kept the floating island on the ocean's surface preventing it from flying in the sky where it belonged.

After a long struggle, which included preventing the first relaunch of the Death Egg in the doctor's Launch Base, the heroic duo reached the Hidden Palace, where Sonic and Knuckles fought against each other for the first of many times to come. After his defeat at the hands of Sonic, the red Echidna went to check on the status of the powerful Master Emerald, which was kept here at the time. Too late, Knuckles realized he was being tricked by the mad scientist who told him that Sonic was the one after the Master Emerald, not Robotnik. After the doctor made his escape, Master Emerald in tow, Knuckles guided Sonic and Tails to a hidden teleportation device to the Sky Sanctuary, from which the trio could witness the successful launch of the Death Egg. However, the two had to leave Knuckles there as he was too exhausted from the previous two struggles. On their way through the Sanctuary, Sonic and Tails encountered two peculiar robots of the Eggman's: The Egg Robo, a robot in the image of Robotnik himself, and Mecha Sonic, the third robotic doppelgänger of Sonic, which, during the first two encounters with the heroes, copied the behavior of the doctor as witnessed on two previous occasions. On their third encounter, Mecha Sonic exhibited a fighting style loosely imitating many of Sonic's abilities in the process. However, the original still managed to defeat the copy. The resulting explosion managed to make a tall pillar nearby crumble, but Sonic managed to get on the Death Egg by running along the pillar as it was crumbling to pieces just in time.

There, the hero encountered Dr.Robotnik for the final showdown. He attacked him with a gigantic robot, loosely made in his own image, powered by the Master Emerald. Sonic managed to defeat the contraption which destroyed the Death Egg, but the doctor still had a trick up his sleeve, as he managed to steal the Master Emerald again using another battle suit. In order to pursuit him, Sonic transformed once again in his Super Form, chasing the evil genius' across an orbit around the planet. After a long battle, Sonic emerged victorious, descending to Earth with the Master Emerald. In mid-flight, he powered down to his regular form, however, but was rescued by Tails, piloting the Tornado. The two then brought the Emerald back to where it belonged, Angel Island, allowing the island to float into the sky before leaving Knuckles for the time being.

Some time after this, Sonic, piloting the Tornado personally, rescued Knuckles after the latter's fight against the recently-reactivated Mecha Sonic from falling into the ocean. The two brought the Master Emerald back to Angel Island and the Hedgehog and Echidna parted ways once more.

Tough Trouble Times Three!
In Sonic Triple Trouble (also known as "Sonic & Tails 2" in Japan), Sonic and Tails had to gather the Chaos Emeralds once more, before Dr. Robotnik could get his hands on them. However, this time, things got more difficult for the heroic duo when the doctor managed to trick Knuckles the Echidna into helping him once more. Furthermore, a dangerous treasure hunter by the name of Fang the Sniper also set his eyes on the mysterious gems, bend on stealing them for his own personal gain.

The heroes managed to race and battle their way through the world, getting the Emeralds before any of the others and confronted Fang in the mad scientist's base. However, the treasure hunter was scared away when the evil genius arrived with his newest contraption.

In the end, the machine was destroyed by the heroes, who then found Knuckles imprisoned by the doctor. They freed him and Sonic and Knuckles made up on good terms once more.

Slow Boots in the Labyrinth
In the 1995 game Sonic Labyrinth, Dr. Robotnik somehow replaced Sonic's shoes while the hero was sleeping. After Sonic awoke, he realized that his shoes were not the same, for they were considerably heavier, disabling him from jumping or running at higher speeds.

Around this time, the doctor also constructed some sort of labyrinth on the South Island as his new base.

Despite his new pair of slow-down shoes, Sonic made his way through the labyrinth, in the end defeating the mad scientist and regaining the Chaos Emeralds as well as his regular shoes.

The Fighting Tournament
In the 1996 game Sonic the Fighters (also known as Sonic Championship), Doctor Robotnik went on to build a second Death Egg, known as the Death Egg 2 and again announced plans for world conquest. Luckily, Tails' recently built a rocket that could fly it's pilot directly to the new Death Egg, however, it was only a one-seater and it needed Chaos Emeralds to take off. Therefore, they entered a battle tournament where the winner got to collect all the Chaos Emeralds, which was in the possession of all the participants.

In order to gather all of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic had to fight many friends and foes, old and new: Knuckles, Amy, Bark the Polar Bear, future Team Chaotix member Espio the Chameleon, his friend Tails, Bean the Dynamite and the treasure hunter previously encountered known as Fang.

Before Sonic could be off to launch the rocket, however, the doctor showed up once again in a peculiarly familiar-looking spaceship. An unusual ray hit Sonic that knocked him out for a few seconds. When he came back to his senses, the doctor was gone and before him stood a near-identical copy of himself, the only difference being that the copy was completely monochrome. The hedgehogs fought, but in the end, the original hedgehog was victorious over his copy.

Afterwards, Sonic headed back to Tails' workshop to launch the rocket, heading straight for the new Death Egg. Upon his arrival, he was "welcomed" by a new Metal Sonic. The two fought a tough battle, but Sonic could turn the tide in the middle of the fight by using the Emeralds' power to transform into Super Sonic once more, defeating his mechanical doppelganger again.

He was then facing the mad scientist himself, who built some sort of battle suit for himself in order to face Sonic. At the same time, it appeared that the station's self-destruct sequence had been initiated, leaving the two combatants under time-pressure. However, since Sonic was still in his super form, the mad scientist proved no match for him.

After having defeated Eggman, Super Sonic left the station in Tails' rocket, moments before it self-destructed.

Save the Flickies
On yet another adventure, Sonic visited Flickies' Island, the eponymous island that is the main point of action in Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island (also known as simply Sonic 3D and Sonic 3D Blast). Here, he discovered that Doctor Robotnik was at his evil schemes once more, establishing a base and trapping the helpless Flickies so they power his robots.

Sonic rescued all the Flickies on the island and, with the help of Tails and Knuckles, managed to gather all of the Chaos Emeralds before the doctor could do so himself.

With support from the rescued Flickies, Sonic managed to get to the secret lair of the mad scientist, where Sonic confronted him in a final, lengthy battle. Ultimately, Sonic emerged victorious and the island was liberated from the evil genius' control.

Super Sonic Racing
In the prelude to the 1997 Sega Saturn and Windows game Sonic R, Sonic and Tails were strolling around a city when they caught news about a racing competition. Despite Tails' urging, Sonic didn't seem to be initially interested in a race, however, once he glimpsed at the list of registered participants, he saw Dr. Robotnik's name on the list as well, causing a change of mind for him.

In the competition, Sonic had to face his friends Tails, Knuckles and Amy, as well as the scientist that was the reason for him joining in the first place. The evil genius also brought with him robots to participate, both old and new: Metal Sonic and EggRobo, as well as Metal Knuckles and the ominous Tails Doll.

In the end, however, Sonic outraced them all and Robotnik did not get his hands on the Chaos Emeralds, which were scattered around the race tracks.

An Ancient Prophecy is Fulfilled
In Sonic's first true 3D Adventure Sonic Adventure (1998) for the Dreamcast, Sonic was put up against an ancient water monster named Chaos who was under control of Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Now named Eggman from then on).

While enjoying himself, traveling through Station Square, Sonic sees human police forces fighting Chaos. Sonic then steps in and defeats Chaos, but it escapes through the drains, leaving Sonic without answers. The following day, Sonic wakes up to see Tails' newest plane crash. After finding Tails, he reveals to Sonic that his new plane is powered by a Chaos Emerald. They then travel to Tails' workshop, where Eggman shows up in the Egg Hornet, demanding the emerald, but they refuse. As Sonic and Tails repel the Egg Hornet, Eggman snatches the Chaos Emerald and reveals Chaos who he transforms into Chaos 1. As Sonic recognizing the creature, Dr. Eggman reveals to him that he plans to make Chaos invincible with all the Chaos Emeralds and then use it to build Robotnikland upon Station Square and escapes.

Sonic and Tails then begin collecting the Chaos Emeralds, before Dr. Eggman can give them to Chaos. After collecting the first two emeralds however, Dr. Eggman appears and steals one of them. As they cannot do anything about it, Sonic and Tails then go ahead and find the next one. However, they run into Knuckles, who had been tricked into believing Sonic has stolen parts of the Master Emerald and the two fight. During the fight Dr. Eggman steals Sonic's two Chaos Emeralds and gives them to Chaos 2, transforming it into Chaos 4. Despite its increase in power, Sonic and the others still beat it and Eggman escapes in the Egg Carrier. Sonic and Tails follow Dr. Eggman in the Tornado, but they are shot down. Sonic then lands in Station Square and hurries out to find Tails. He soon runs into Amy, who asks him to help her protect "Birdie". Sonic is then dragged along for while, until Amy is kidnapped by ZERO, and Sonic chases after it.

After a brief chase, ZERO and Amy is taken to the Egg Carrier. As Sonic's chase reaches a dead end, Tails appears in the Tornado 2, powered by another Chaos Emerald. Relieved to see Tails all right, they give chase and manages to land on the Egg Carrier. After searching the Egg Carrier Sonic finds Amy, only to see Eggman take a Chaos Emerald from "Birdie". Dr. Eggman then unleashes E-102 Gamma on Sonic while he escapes. Before Sonic can destroy Gamma, however, Amy stops him. Sonic then tells Tails to take Amy to safety, while he chases after Eggman on his own.

Sonic eventually finds Eggman, but also sees that Chaos had arrived too and had become Chaos 6. Big then arrives and points out that his friend Froggy was trapped inside Chaos, and Sonic says that he will help save him. After helping Big save Froggy and fending off Chaos, Knuckles appears. Then as Eggman tries to escape, Sonic leaves Chaos to Knuckles, while Sonic chases after Eggman. As Sonic ventures through the jungle, he comes across a ruin where he is taken back in time to when Tikal and the shrine are under attack. He is then returned to the present, before Sonic can understand what happened. He then finds Eggman and follows him into his main base, the Final Egg, and defeats him. As Eggman flies away, Sonic meets up with Tails again, having seemenly saved the day.

After resting from all these ordeals, Sonic learns from Tails that Angel Island had fallen. As he arrives there, Sonic learns from Knuckles and Eggman that Chaos still lives and has rebelled against Eggman, and now has six Chaos Emeralds. As Sonic and Tails head out to find the last Chaos Emerald, Sonic is drawn into the past again. There he sees the Knuckles Clan's attack on the Alter, Tikal futile attempt to stop her clan and the event that drove Chaos to destroy the world in the beginning. As Sonic comes to Tikals aid, he then witnesses as Tikal seals herself and Chaos inside the Master Emerald.

Sonic is returned to the present and heads out with Tails to find the last Chaos Emerald in the Tornado 2, but Chaos beats them to it and takes the Chaos Emerald before their eyes. Sonic then returns to Station Square which is being attacked by Perfect Chaos. As Perfect Chaos destroys the Egg Carrier 2, Tikal appears before Sonic, and explains that the sadness and anger Chaos felt from her clan's attack is the reason for its current destructive behavior. As Perfect Chaos releases the partially drained Chaos Emeralds, Tikal says they must seal Chaos again, but Sonic claims it would not work; Chaos would still be be full of rage if they just sealed it away again. Tails, Big, Amy and Knuckles then come to Sonic with all seven Chaos Emeralds, claiming that Sonic can still use their positive energies to stop Chaos. With everyone cheering him on, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and defeats Perfect Chaos, while cleansing it of evil, thus returning it to a benevolent creature once more.

With Chaos and Tikal taking their leave and everything returning to normal, Sonic heads off, seeking out his next adventure.

You've Got The Wrong Hedgehog!
Dreamcast's Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the series, introduced a new rival to Sonic, Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow was released by Dr. Eggman to help in his plans of world domination, and in order to achieve that, Shadow began hunting down the Chaos Emeralds.

As Shadow robbed a federal reserve bank and stole a Chaos Emerald, everyone else mistook him for Sonic and as result, Sonic became wanted by the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N). Sonic was eventually hunted down and captured by G.U.N. However, as they were transporting Sonic in a Military helicopter, he managed to escape.

After ecaping G.U.N and destroying a Bigfoot vehicle, Sonic meets Shadow who had just arrived at the scene with a Chaos Emerald. Realizing that he is the one behind the false accusations, Sonic demands a answer, but instead, Shadow demonstrates Chaos Control for Sonic and escapes his assult. Shadow then reveals his name and title to Sonic, before disappearing in flash of Chaos Control again and suddenly, Sonic finds himself surrounded by G.U.N soliders, and is arrested once more.

Sonic is brought to Prison Island where he is locked up. Luckily, the following day, Tails and Amy arrives to break him out. After Amy frees Sonic from his cell, he learns that Shadow is on the Island and that he is working with Dr. Eggman, which leads to him running off. After a while, Sonic finds Shadow and they have a brief battle, but is interupted then they learn that the Island is about to explode. Sonic manages to escape the Island with Tails and Amy just before it explodes.

Back on the main land, Sonic and the other sees Eggmans broadcast where he reveals the Space Colony ARK and displays the Eclipse Cannon by blowing up half of the moon, and demands total world control within 24 hours or he would fire the cannon on the Earth. Sonic realizes that had to be the reason that Eggman had been collecting Chaos Emeralds. Tails begins to plan how to track Eggman down, but the police arrives and Sonic leads them away. Sonic is then contacted by Tails who says he can use the President's limo to trace Eggmans signal. They two of them meet up there where Sonic tells the President that they got it covered and finds out that Eggman is onboard the ARK.

With the help from Knuckles, Sonic, Tails and Amy finds Eggmans base, hoping to find a space ship that can take them to the ARK. While they manage to enter the base, Eggman appears and unleashes the Egg Golem. Sonic manages to stop it and joins the others in a space ship, just before liftoff.

After a crash landing on the ARK, Sonic plans to destroy the Eclipse Cannon. Tails gives Sonic a fake Chaos Emerald that he can use to destroy the cannon from the inside out. Before Sonic can insert the fake emerald into the cannon however, he is contacted by Dr. Eggman. He demands that Sonic hands over the final Chaos Emerald, or he would kill Amy. Sonic thought he could trick Eggman into taking the fake emerald, but Eggman saw through this, captured Sonic in a capsule and ejected it into space. Before the capsule could explode however, Sonic managed to use Chaos Control with the fake emerald and sends himself back onboard the ARK. As Sonic heads to destroy the cannon with the fake emerald, he meets Shadow again and they shared a final battle. After Sonic wins, he managed to destroy the Eclipse Cannon just before it fired.

As Sonic returns to the ARK, he and all the others witneses a recording of Gerald Robotnik that tells the world that the ARK would crash into the planet, wiping out the human race as his revenge at the world for the death of his granddaughter, Maria. They then came up with plan of using Knuckles' Master Emerald to deactivate the cannon's core, powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds, to stop the Space Colony's crash course, which Sonic tells them to leave it to him.

With everyone working together, Sonic and Knuckles made it to the core, but are intercepted by the Biolizard. Suddenly, Shadow shows up and holds off the Biolizard while Sonic and Knuckles deactivates the Chaos Emeralds. Instead however, the Biolizard teleports outside the ARK and merges with the ARK, becoming the Finalhazard and keeps the ARK on its collision course. Determined to stop this catastrophe, Sonic and Shadow uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and Super Shadow, and together they defeat the Finalhazard. The duo then stops the ARK by sending it back into orbit with a massive Chaos Control, but Shadow runs out of energy from the effort and falls into the atmosphere, and was presumed dead, while Sonic survived. As Sonic came back onboard, he only brought them his Inhibitor Ring and assured them that Shadow was a great hero. As the rest of the gang returned to the Earth, Sonic bid farewell to his worthy opponent and team mate.

In the game he has many unlockable costumes for the multiplayer mode:

Deadly Enemies, Old and New
After the 1999 game Sonic Pocket Adventure, Sonic returned to the Handheld games with Sonic Advance (2002) where Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy went back to their adventures fighting Dr. Eggman in 2D side-scrolling levels. When Sonic Advance 2 (2003) came out, Sonic met Cream the Rabbit who he saved from Dr. Eggman. She would then join Sonic on his adventure as Eggman had kidnapped her mother, Vanilla the Rabbit, too and she wanted to save her. Shortly after, Sonic rescued Tails from Eggman too and confronted Knuckles who was tricked by Eggman again and joined them on their adventure fighting Dr. Eggman. After seemingly beating Eggman, Cream finds her mother, only to have her kidnapped by Eggman again. Seeing Cream cry at the loss of her mother, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and saves Vanilla. Soon after bringing Cream and her mother back together, Sonic runs off, looking for a new adventure.

The final Sonic Advance was Sonic Advance 3 (2004). While hanging out with Tails, Sonic witnesses Dr. Eggman spitting the Earth apart with Chaos Control. Sonic then immediately heads out with Tails to stop Dr. Eggman, restore the world and collect the Chaos Emeralds before Eggman can use them to build his empire. Along the way Sonic also faces Dr. Eggmans newest creation, Gemerl, a rebuilt version of Sonic's old friend Emerl, on several occasions. After beating Eggman and Gemerl at the Emerald Altar, Sonic and his friends uses the Master Emerald to restore the world. Shortly after their defeat, however, Gemerl betrays Eggman, takes the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic and transforms into a robot-like orb. Sonic then transforms into Super Sonic and is joined up by Eggman and together they defeat Gemerl. After the battle Sonic passes out, but wakes up and finds himself surrounded by his friends who had awaited his return. After seeing Eggman leaving, Sonic then heads out himself, searching for new adventures.

A third 3D action game, Sonic Heroes (2003) was the first multi platform release for Sonic. It featured four different teams made up by three characters in each, and marked the official return of supporting characters Team Chaotix as the teams battled Eggman. The story for Sonic begins with him running around on his own, until Tails and Knuckles comes flying in the Tornado. Tails reveals that Dr. Eggman had sent them a letter, where he claimed to have created "the ultimate weapon" and that he challenges Sonic, Tails and Knuckles to stop him within three days time. Sonic, confident as ever, sees this as an invitation to a "party", and says that he would not miss this challenge for anything. He then heads out with Tails and Knuckles right behind him, officially forming Team Sonic.

Sonic and the gang began tracking down Dr. Eggman, and encountered him on a few occasions, but along the way they came across Team Rose and Amy, much to Sonic's dismay. After fighting and escaping Team Rose, Team Sonic followed Dr. Eggman to the Bullet Station, where they fought him in the Egg Albatross, just before running out of their three day time limit. It was then revealed that the Eggman they had been chasing was a fake and that their challenge letter was merely a distraction, while Dr. Eggmam prepared his Egg Fleet for launch. Enraged, Sonic went off in hot pursuit of Dr. Eggman with Tails and Knuckles following behind.

Team Sonic eventually made it to the Egg Fleet. Along the way, they had a brief confrontation with Team Dark, where Sonic, Tails and Knuckles learned that Shadow was still alive. After traveling through the Egg Fleet, Team Sonic makes it to the Final Fortress where they fought Eggman in the Egg Emperor and won.

After heavily destroying the Egg Fleet, Knuckles mentioned it was a close one this time, but Sonic said otherwise. Knuckles then tries to tease Sonic with the fact that he would not have made this on his own, but to his amazement, Sonic agrees. As Sonic thanks them for their help, he sees Amy coming near, and immediately tries to run away. Shortly after the heroes witness the return of the Metal Sonic (In his Neo Metal Sonic form) who has been the one staging Team Sonic's and the other teams adventures and impersonating Eggman, so that he could follow each team and copy their data in a master plan to achieve world domination himself. Neo Metal Sonic then underwent a massive transformation into Metal Madness. After seeing that the teams had collected all the Chaos Emeralds, the real Dr. Eggman came up the risky plan of using them against Metal Sonic. Though their chances of wining was slim, Sonic volunteered to go up against Metal Sonic alone, but Tails, Knuckles insisted on going with him, while the other teams would buy them some time, which Sonic accepted. Team Rose, Team Chaotix and Team Dark then fought Metal Madness to give Sonic time to charge the Chaos Emeralds. Then they were ready, Metal Madness assumed his ultimate form, Metal Overlord and took off. Sonic then turned into Super Sonic while granting Tails and Knuckles Super Shields and they chased after Metal Overlord and defeated him, causing him to revert back to his original form. Metal Sonic questioned why he could never defeat Sonic who told his metallic counterpart that he'd be ready for a rematch anytime, before searching for his next adventure.

The sequel to this was Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), in which Sonic worked with most of the cast from Sonic Heroes and G.U.N forces to repel the Black Arms invasion of Earth. He was helpless however in the final showdown, but Shadow who had regained his memory persued the leader Black Doom and as Super Shadow managed to not only defeat the alien's devil transformation, but using Chaos Control, teleported the Black Comet into space and blew it to pieces with the fully charged Eclipse Cannon saving the world once again.

Ascending Without Wings
In the 2006 game Sonic Riders, Eggman creates an Extreme Gear competition called the EX World Grand Prix. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles enter the tournament to discover what plan Eggman is really up to. Along the way, Sonic and friends discover the legendary band of thieves called the Babylon Rogues.The Game Sonic Riders also had two sequels (Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Sonic Free Riders).

New Worlds and New Adventures
Sonic appears in Sonic Rush, the first Sonic game for the Nintendo DS, where Sonic must save the world from not only Doctor Eggman, but even from a new villain Eggman Nega as well. It also introduced the new female character Blaze the Cat. Sonic Rush also had a sequel called Sonic Rush Adventure where Sonic and Tails end up in Blaze's Dimension and help Blaze defeat Captain Whiskers and his band of Robot Pirates who had stolen the Sol Emeralds and the Jeweled Scepter.

Transcending Time and Space
Sonic the Hedgehog, which celebrated the 15th anniversary of the series, was released in 2006 and featured the first appearance of Blaze the Cat on a home console game and a new character called Silver the Hedgehog who possesses powerful psychic abilities. In the game, Sonic visits Soleanna and saves their monarch, Princess Elise, from Eggman, and the two develop a strong relationship. He works with many of his friends battling Silver and Eggman and obtaining the Chaos Emeralds. After defeating Eggman, Mephiles kills Sonic causing Elise to cry releasing the demonic Iblis. The two villains fuse to create Solaris. Sonic's friends gather the Chaos Emeralds to restore Sonic to life. With Elise's kiss, Sonic is revived as Super Sonic and he thanks her for bringing him back. He proceeds to turn Shadow and Silver into Super Shadow and Super Silver and they battle Solaris. After they stop it, Sonic and Elise travel back in time where Solaris was just a flame in a candle. Elise has to blow out the candle which will destroy Solaris. However, with Solaris gone, the events of the adventure will be negated and Elise will never meet Sonic. Elise initially chooses Sonic over the world but Sonic tells Elise to smile and she extinguishes the candle. Time is reverted but Sonic still travels to Soleanna and the wind created from his speed causes Elise's memory to trigger but she eventually ignores it, Sonic watches happily as one of Elise's feathers floats skyward, hinting that Sonic and Elise both remembered.

Racing with Rivals
Sonic Rivals was the first Sonic game for the PSP (Playstation Portable). Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver battle each other as they go after Doctor Eggman (actually Eggman Nega in disguise). Sonic Rivals also had a sequel called Sonic Rivals 2.

The Legendary Blue Hedgehog
In 2007, Sonic and the Secret Rings was released. After waking up from his nap, Sonic encounters the genie of the ring, Shahra from the world of the Arabian Nights. She reveals that an evil genie called Erazor Djinn is absorbing her world, the very power of the book itself and if he is not stopped, he would enter Sonic's world too. She also reveals that Sonic is the "Legendary Blue Hedgehog" foretold in legend, who can stop him. More than willing to help, Sonic agrees to help Shahra and she leads him into her world. While entering the Arabian Nights, Sonic encounters Erazor, who demands that Shahra gathers the seven World Rings, but she refuses. Trying to punish her with a curse, Sonic takes the blow for Shahra and is shot in the chest with a flaming arrow. Erazor then demands, before he leaves, that Sonic gathers all the World Rings before the arrow burns out, or he will die. Sonic then heads into the Arabian Nights, with Shahra at his side, intending to stop Erazor before it is too late.

On his adventures through the Arabian Nights, while stopping Erazor's plans along the way, Sonic collects all the World Rings and learns about a past relationship between Shahra and the Erazor Djinn. With the help of King Solomon, Sonic eventually faces the Erazor Djinn in his stronghold and defeats him, who then retreats under a sealed door in there. Using the Seven World Rings, Sonic opens it and finds Erazor waiting for him. Sonic then tells Erazor to remove the curse, but he does not keep his word. Instead, Erazor takes the World Rings by manipulating Shahra and tries to sacrifices Sonic to gain control of the rings, but Shahra saves Sonic at the cost of her own life. Erazor then uses the seven World Rings, hoping to gain total control over the Arabian Nights, but ends up transforming into the incomplete Alf-Layla-wa-Layla. Three of the World Rings is then absorbed by Sonic who transforms into Darkspine Sonic, which break the curse, and he defeats Alf-Layla-wa-Layla.

With Erazor defeated, Sonic decides to use Erazor's lamp, given to him by Shahra earlier, to make him grant three wishes: Revive Shahra, restore the Arabian Nights and seal Erazor himself away in his lamp forever. Having no choice, Erazor grants all of Sonic's wishes and the Arabian Nights are saved. Though Shahra cries over the faith of Erazor, Sonic wishes forth a mountain of handkerchiefs, allowing her to cry as much as she needs to.

Becoming A Knight
The sequel, Sonic & the Black Knight, came out in 2009. This time, Sonic was suddenly called into battle in the world of King Arthur by Merlina the Wizard, in order to defeat King Arthur, who had become the evil and tyrannical Black Knight through the power of the Scabbard of Excalibur, which made him immortal. After a brief retreat from King Arthur, Merlina leads Sonic to the Sacred Sword Caliburn, a sentient sword who would become Sonic's teacher in knighthood, hoping to give Sonic a better fighting chance.

After another brief confrontation with King Arthur (who left because he did not think Sonic was a treat), Sonic and Caliburn sought out Nimue, Lady of the Lake who knew how to stop the Scabbard of Excalibur. However, she would only give out the secret about the Scabbard to Sonic, if he passed a test of true knighthood, which he eventually did. He learned from her that he had to collect all of the Sacred Swords and that their united power would negate the Scabbard's power. Having already gathered two of them from his fights with the Knights of the Round Table along the way, Sonic went to get the last one from Percival and succeeded.

With all four Sacred Swords, Sonic faced King Arthur and defeats him. As Sonic gives the Scabbard of Excalibur to Merlina, she reveals that she had used Sonic all along so that she could use the scabbard for herself to prevent the grim fate that awaited the world of King Arthur, though at the cost of many lives.

Sonic eventually went and faced Merlina himself, with the help from Knights of the Round Table, but recieved a massive beating from Merlina, and got Caliburn cut in half. Nevertheless, Sonic refused to give up, which brought forth the power of all the Sacred Swords, transforming himself into Excalibur-Sonic and Caliburn into Excalibur. They defeated Merlina and Sonic convinced Merlina to let go of her driving sadness and live her life to the fullest, despite their world's fate. As the Knights of the Round Table thinks about disbanding now that they do not have a king, Caliburn reveals to them that he chooses the king, which meant that Sonic was the true King Arthur of this world, much to Sonic's surprise. Depite this, Sonic returned home, only to face Amy who claims that his story was just an excuse for forgetting their date.

Third Storybook Game
A third Storybook game was announced by SEGA of Mexico, saying that "the Storybook series is a trilogy, just wait".

Enter the Werehog
Sonic battles Eggman again in the 2008 game Sonic Unleashed, where Eggman shatters the planet with his Chaos Energy Cannon and Sonic must recharge the Chaos Emeralds to put it back together. Things are made more difficult by the fact that Sonic now transforms into a Werehog at night. Sonic battles another ancient evil, Dark Gaia with it's counterpart, Light Gaia in order to recover the latter's memories, forming a strong relationship. Along the way, Sonic and Light Gaia, whom Sonic had nicknamed "Chip", meet some old friends of Sonic's, Amy Rose and Miles "Tails" Prower. The four of them, along with Professor Pickle and his assistant, travel across the destroyed planet, restoring it with the Chaos Emeralds at the Gaia Temples. After Sonic defeats Eggman, Dark Gaia awakens and prepares to plunge the Earth into darkness and destruction, but is stopped but Light Gaia's Gaia Colossus. Sonic harnesses the Chaos Emeralds full power becoming Super Sonic in the core of the planet. The heroes slay the terrifying monster but Super Sonic was given a tough fight and falls unconscious in his normal form after defeating the beast. He is sent back to the surface as Light Gaia lays dormant again. Light Gaia leaves Sonic his necklace and the Hedgehog keeps it as a bracelet. Accompanied by Tails, he runs off in search of a new adventure. Near the end, Amy mentioned that she was going to throw Sonic a coming-home party. It is unknown if this ever took place, although based on one of the photos in the credits, it could have. A fun fact about the game is that you have the option to take Amy out on a date in the Xbox360 and Playstation3 version (fact from wiki)

Back To His 2D Roots
Sonic returns in an episodic downloadable title called Sonic the Hedgehog 4 as the sole playable character; this game takes place after the events of Sonic & Knuckles and takes place before the events of Sonic Adventure. Unlike its chronological predecessor, Sonic still retains his green eyes and Homing Attack in it. Sega has announced that Tails and Knuckles will appear in Episode 2. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II will be released sometime in 2012.

In Episode I, Sonic chases and fights Dr. Eggman while collecting Chaos Emeralds through the four main zones Splash Hill Zone, Lost Labyrinth Zone, Casino Street Zone, and Mad Gear Zone and not necessarily in that order. A short cutscene plays where the damaged genius hovers away from Sonic at a sunset background Splash Hill Zone; Robotnik ascends to the sky and Sonic jumps down rising with a rocket to chase Eggman all the towards the E.G.G. Station Zone, a hover base built by Robotnik. Here Sonic faces all of the past boss battle machines constructed by Eggman in past zones of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, after the fourth machine is destroyed, Eggman runs away to a slight depression in the floor; the mad genius rises to reveal his new creation. After defeating it, Sonic runs out of the base landing in Splash Hill where the ending plays and the adventure ends for now.

A Colorful Adventure
Sonic is the only playable character in Sonic Colors (2010). In the game he doesn't believe that Dr. Eggman has actually shown a remorse of his past misdeeds and checks out the amusement park along with Tails, however Tails did actually think that Eggman had a change of heart but Sonic kept telling him that it's impossible for Eggman to have a change of heart. While he was checking out the park, he found Orbot and Cubot trying to capture the two Wisps with nets. Sonic was not sure on what was going on but he that he had to save the two. When he does, the Cyan Wisp goes inside Sonic and turns Sonic into a laser and zapped away. He then reaches Tails who is with a white Wisp, and the cyan Wisp comes out of Sonic and goes away. Sonic tells Tails what happened, but Tails said that it is hard to believe. The white Wisp then tries to tell them by gestures that Sonic was telling the truth but the two couldn't understand him. Tails decides to build a translator to translate the white Wisp.

While Tails was busy fixing it, Sonic went to explore the Tropical Resort for some sight-seeing. Tails was finished with the translator when he came back, and they learned that his name is Yacker and he comes from a distant planet with aliens that have a powerful energy. Sonic then realizes that the cyan Wisp that possessed him had the same powerful energy. He then heads to Sweet Mountain (or Starlight Carnival, depending on the player's choice) and the moment he reaches there, he has to fight the boss. After destroying it, Tails and Yacker find him. Sonic then asks if Yacker gave any more information to Tails. Tails tells him that Yacker said that the power Sonic was possessing from the wisps is called Hyper-go-on power. Sonic then goes off to the next planet, the Starlight Carnival(or Sweet Mountain) where he is seen walking with Tails looking for Eggman. Eggman took them by surprise and brainwashed Tails to fight Sonic, but unfortunately for Eggman he was soon out of Hyper-go-on energy and Tails was no longer brainwashed. He warned Sonic that he will soon brainwash not only Tails but the entire world and sends the boss to defeat them, which Sonic destroys.

After the battle, Tails informs Sonic that Sonic has to break 5 generators to free the planets from the tractor beams holding them above Sonic's world. Sonic had already broken 2 without even knowing that he had to break them. Sonic then searches out at Aquarium Park where he fights Admiral Jelly and destroys it. Tails catches up to him and the two go to Planet Wisp, where Sonic finds and destroys the refreshinator and shuts down the generator. The two then go to the Asteroid Coaster where they work their way into the main center where all of the Wisps were made evil by turning them into purple Wisps called "Nega Wisps", a darker version of the Wisps. Tails felt sorry for them and worried that Yacker might have turned a Nega Wisp as well. Sonic then asks him to excuse him for awhile. Sonic then battles the Frigate Skullian and breaks the last generator which frees all of the planets and Wisps. They all celebrate at Tropical Resort with Sonic break-dancing thinking it was all over.

Unfortunately for Sonic, Eggman was ready to launch his mind-control weapon to the world but a broken robot piece that was unintentionally struck by Sonic into the cannon caused the whole cannon to explode. All of the Wisps ran with fear and Sonic and Tails headed to Eggman's space elevator to get back home. When they arrived there, Eggman showed up in the Egg Nega Wisp and decides to simply destroy Sonic due to the failure of his plan. Tails tells Sonic that he thinks that they can't beat Eggman, so Sonic decides to fight Eggman alone and he forcefully pushes Tails into the elevator for his safety and launches him to their planet. Sonic manages to defeat Eggman with the help of the Wisps and their special Final Color Blaster. Unfortunately, the destruction of the cannon creates a black hole, one that even Sonic is unable to outrun. The Wisps then gather together to carry Sonic to his planet, as well as stop the black hole. Sonic then gets up and notices that he's on his home planet. Tails finds him and tells him that he was worried about him and that his translator is now working perfectly. Yacker then appears and thanks them but tells them that he has to go home which saddens Tails. Yacker then gives both Sonic and Tails a high-five and goes back to Planet Wisp which, along with the other planets, sends them back to their original place in the universe.

Déjà Blue
Sonic is thrusted back in time in Sonic Generations while celebrating his birthday due to a mysterious unknown new power that is causing time rifts. Sonic is thrusted back in time to events from his past, as he meets his younger self and both of them set out for a brand new adventure. Both Sonics have to team up to defeat the new enemy, save their friends, and help fix the timeline. Throughout the game, Sonic and his younger form share the exact same gestures simultaneously.

In the past of Green Hill, Sonic's younger form is exploring when he hears a noise. Suddenly, a monster appears in the sky and he notices it as the screen goes white. In the present day Tails and his friends are having a surprise party for Sonic's birthday until the Time Eater appears in Sonic's time and sucks all of them back into different periods in Sonic's history. Sonic goes to attack but is instead attacked himself, he looks up before he passes out to see that Tails is the only one left struggling to resist the Time Eater's vortex. Sonic wakes from his unconsciousness in a white world and wonders what's going on.

Sonic agrees and tells Tails that he feels that he is experiencing déjà-vu. Later on, Sonic is in a black and white hall with a glass with his younger form at the other side of the glass. Sonic, mistaking it for a mirror, along with mistaking his younger form as his reflection looks at himself in the mirror. While setting his hair and looking at his teeth, concerned about his looks. When the two Sonics touch their bellies, Sonic noticed how his reflections belly is rounder and gets the feeling that the reflection is not him. The two then hear Dr. Eggman voice with Sonic shouting his name, the younger Sonic looks at his older self through the glass and realizes that it was not his reflection the whole time. The younger Sonic runs towards Eggman's voice while Sonic is locked in the room. Sonic was surprised to see his "reflection" running and realized that his "reflection" was actually another "Sonic".

After the younger Sonic destroys the Death Egg, he sees the same monster that appeared at the beginning of the game kidnapping Dr. Eggman with Dr. Eggman crying out Sonic to help him. Sonic then sees his younger self but does not find out that he actually is his younger self and asks why are there two Sonics. Tails and Tails' younger form tell Sonic that they are traveling through time and space which is why Sonic is experiencing all of his past encounters along with seeing him as he was younger. The two Sonics quickly get along and run towards the other places to bring them back to its color. The two realize that the faster they go through the areas the more time and color will be restored.

After beating the Egg Dragoon, Sonic gets confused to see Eggman inside of it as he thought that Eggman got kidnapped. However, strangely the monster comes again and kidnaps Eggman once again.

It was later revealed to the gang that Eggman and Robotnik are behind the happenings, the two Sonics get smashed by their machine. With the two Sonics all weak and passed out, they get support from all of their friends allowing the Chaos Emeralds to glow and activate, transforming them into Super Sonic. The two defeat the Eggmen, their robot and their plan and return back to where Sonic had his birthday party.

After a few conversations between the two Sonics, Sonic's younger form was able to do a little bit of Sonic's newer abilities (one which was a little bit of the Sonic Boost) but slightly fails to keep up. Sonic claps for his younger self saying that he will get better. Sonic's and Tails' younger forms go back to their time-line later.

Other Appearances
Sonic has also been featured in games of many genres other than 2D and 3D platform games. The first of these was a pinball game, Sonic Spinball (1993), which expanded upon the pinball sequences in the first two platform games. Sonic has also appeared in "2.5D" isometric platformers (Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic Battle and Sonic 3D Blast), racing games (Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic R, Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Sonic Free Riders, and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.) and fighting games (Sonic the Fighters ,Sonic Battle, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl ). He also, for the first time, teamed up with his video game rival, Mario, in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. They would also get together again in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and the yet-to-be-released Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Cameos
Video games such as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Tails Adventure, Knuckles Chaotix and Shadow the Hedgehog starred supporting characters of the Sonic series; in some of them Sonic had a cameo role. The hedgehog has also made cameo appearances in numerous other Sega games such as Daytona USA.

Personality
Sonic has been described as being "like the wind", and is noted for being free-spirited and adventurous. He mainly prefers to simply be called by his name and not any fancy title; in his encounters with Princess Elise and Cream the Rabbit (both called him "Mr. Sonic"), Shahra the Ring Genie (who called him "Master"), Caliburn the Sword (who called him "Knave", though Sonic was especially annoyed by this), and Erazor Djinn (who kept calling him "Filthy rat", though it might just be an insult), he insisted that they merely call him "Sonic". He is laid-back, cool and enjoys relaxation, but is never one to rest in the face of injustice. He is extremely benevolent though has been described as quick-tempered occasionally, loyal to his friends, always keeps his word and he willingly puts himself at risk to help others, taking on any challenge that confronts him without hesitation, though he usually sees his heroics and fighting evil as an opportunity to have fun, making him somewhat of a thrill-seeker. However, in times of crisis, he focuses entirely on the task at hand and sees it as truly serious with no real fun involved. Despite this, Sonic's cocky, upbeat demeanor will remain unchanged, being foregone in only the most dire of situations. Sonic is shown to have a remarkable capacity to forgive, as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog, when he quickly forgave Silver and accepted his help in saving Elise in their third encounter, despite that Silver tried to kill him, twice.

Following his free-spirited, adventurous and speedy nature, Sonic never dwells on the past, or whatever sad or hurtful things that has occurred on his adventures for too long and always takes them in stride, never allowing them to weight him down. Such instances is when Emerl died, the disappearance of Shadow or when he had to say goodbye to Chip who had to be sealed in the planets core; each time Sonic merely remains calm while paying his respects and response with a positive attitude afterwards. Instead, he choses to live in the present and always looks forward to his next adventure, while holding no regrets for whatever has transpired, as long as it turned out well.

A very noticeable trait of Sonic is for his fondness for the beauty of nature. Ever since the first Sonic game in 1991, Sonic has been shown to be a protector of nature. In several games like Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic 06, Sonic Colors shows Sonic appreciating scenic views. His love for nature is defined in Sonic Colors where Sonic appreciated Dr. Eggman for making Tropical Resort a beautiful view, and when Sonic reached Planet Wisp when Sonic showed an emotion of anger and rage when he found out that Eggman was polluting the planet which was filled with beautiful plants, this also marks the only time in which Sonic was shown serious and angry in Sonic Colors. His anger for Planet Wisp being polluted was put further when he said, "That's pretty low, even for a sleazeball like Eggman!" meaning that he thinks that Eggman polluting a scenic planet is even more evil than Eggman himself. In Sonic '06, Sonic is shown to have a fondness for locations that are filled with flowers, trees and other kinds of plants, this is also shown in Sonic X where Sonic spends most of his time in scenic places filled with flowers in his free time, looking at them happily and smelling them. Sonic appears to be an introvert, after spending time with his friends, he seeks some alone time and relaxation and then gets back to his friends.

Sonic Unleashed's booklet states that his personality is "A juxtaposition of kindness and ferocity, as, on one hand, he does all he can to snuff out evil, but he can't look away when someone is in trouble." Sonic Unleashed also has sidequests in which Sonic the Werehog is trying to convince the Elder Gregorios in Apotos that he is Sonic the Hedgehog. To prove it, Sonic undergoes a test of speed, which involves him getting a pair of glasses for the Elder in a certain time limit; a test of courage, by protecting the Elder from minions of Dark Gaia; and a test of selflessness and kindness, which involves Sonic obtaining a book for the Elder out of kindness. Despite being very proud and a world renowned showoff, he shows some form of modesty when taking compliments. This is shown in Sonic and the Secret Rings where Sonic prefers not to be called "Master", and where he is referred to as the "Legendary Hedgehog" ("Me? Legendary? You've gotta be kidding! You're gonna make me blush!").

In Sonic Colors Sonic remains cool and laid-back, not behaving seriously in any of the scenes. He is usually seen around cracking up jokes and talking to himself. Sonic shows a lot of sarcastic attitude through his gestures but then enjoys any challenge that passes him. He likes to talk to robots (the boss-fights in the games) usually teasing them and even acting like a waiter to one of the robots even though he knows that they can't talk. Talking to robots is something that has not been shown in any game and he can even talk to them if they are completely broken. He was also embarrassed when Tails found out that he talks to broken robots that "can't actually hear him".

Sonic's taunts and confidence easily portray that he is smug, he is also very stubborn, as shown in the end of Team Sonic's story in Sonic Heroes. After narrowly escaping Eggman's exploding ship, Knuckles exclaims, "Boy, talk about cutting close!" to which Sonic replies, "Not really..." this implies Sonic is too stubborn to admit a task is difficult for him, but after being teased by Knuckles, Sonic admits he needed Knuckles' and Tails' help, to Knuckles' obvious great surprise. In contrast however, Sonic can sometimes be overconfident in his abilities; for example, when Merlina stops him from attacking the Black Knight, he is irked and asked why she did so, positive that he could have defeated him.

Sonic is also known for indomitable will (which no doubt goes hand in hand with stubbornness), his absolute confidence and never-waving faith in himself and his will to keep on fighting surpasses his actual ability to keep on fighting. An example of this can be seen in Sonic and the Black Knight, where Sonic continues to try to fight Merlina despite being unable to reach her through her force field shield, being hit repeated times so he is badly hurt and exhausted, and having his sword broken as he attempted to parry Merlina's attack. Sonic's friends plead him to give up, but he refuses ("It was never about chivalry for me. I've just gotta do what I gotta do, that's all...").

It has also been shown that Sonic will try to hide pain, fear - unless Amy gets angry, during which Sonic will show obvious nervousness or even fear- or exhaustion. It is also shown that Sonic faints after some adventures(An example of this is in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors). It has been revealed that Sonic loves and takes great pride in his speed, and that he takes insults towards his speed rather personally.

It is to note that regardless of the countless foes he has fought throughout the series, he bears no noticeable ill will to any of them, but rather he admires how powerful some of them are and how much fun they have given to him. An example of this is seen when Metal Sonic is defeated and Sonic tells him that he is open for a rematch. Most notable towards Dr. Eggman, whom has constantly tried to destroy him to complete his schemes, however Sonic is satisfied with merely stopping him, also in occasions where Eggman helps Sonic and co. to save the world (although for his own interests, mainly because he couldn't take over the world, if it's destroyed) he never rejects his help.

Despite his thrill-seeking, hyperactive, and smug demeanor, Sonic has shown many times to be much more insightful than he usually lets on. In the earliest display of this insight would be in Sonic Adventure, where Sonic was able to understand how simply resealing Chaos in the Master Emerald while Chaos was still suffering from all of its rage would solve nothing in the end. Other instances include in Sonic '06, in which Sonic was able to give Elise valuable and comforting advice, and in the end of Sonic and the Black Knight, where he was able to give Merlina similar words of encouragement and comfort. This insight, combined with a charismatic personality, allows Sonic to get along with virtually anyone he meets, even if at one point they were his enemies.

The Japanese version of Sonic Advance 3 strategy guide, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic and the Black Knight states that, Sonic's favorite food is chili dogs. He displays an interest in rock music. Some official character art and a television commercial for Sonic Adventure suggests that he has a personal hobby as a Disc Jockey. Furthermore, it is displayed in Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS that Sonic also enjoys break dancing as it is one of his primary ways for filling up his Rush meter. His battle moves in Sonic Battle are also based on break dancing, as mentioned in the attack descriptions. He also breakdances in Sonic Advance 3 if he finishes a level in a short-enough time. Lastly, one of his taunts in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is him break dancing and saying, "C'mon, step it up!" He will also breakdance if he gets first place in the "Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games" (Similar to Luigi).

Television series
There have been several animated television series featuring Sonic.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was the first cartoon to featured Sonic, voiced by Jaleel White, and Robotnik, voiced by Long John Baldry. It had a very comical take on Sonic and Tails' adventures and battles with Robotnik.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), originally broadcast on Saturdays on ABC, was broadcast concurrently with the syndicated Adventures series in the United States. Sonic was voiced by Jaleel White, and Robotnik was voiced by Jim Cummings. The Archie Comics continuity was based heavily on this series; it was far more dark and brooding than Adventures showing Robotnik as a fearsome dictator controlling Mobius and Sonic and his Freedom Fighter friends battle to take back their planet.

Sonic Underground
Sonic Underground, a show in the US, United Kingdom and France, ignored the continuity of the previous series and games and instead introduced two siblings and Sonic's mother, named Sonia, Manic and Queen Aleena respectively. White returned to voice Sonic, with Samuel Vincent providing his singing voice, while Robotnik was voiced by Gary Chalk It showed Sonic and his siblings as royalty but they have to battle to take back their thrones from the evil dictator..

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
Additionally, there was a OVA that featured Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman and Metal Sonic.

Sonic X
The latest animated Sonic television series, Sonic X, is an anime in which a massive Chaos Control blast results in Sonic and his friends being transported from his world to the human world (however Season 3 mainly takes place in Sonic's own world). Like the other television series, it has an original storyline not present in any of the games, although it can be viewed as an elaboration upon the Sonic Adventure games' storylines. Music from the games is used during select key moments in the series, and several animation sequences strongly resemble cut-scenes from the console titles. In addition, the characters' designs are based upon the more recent Sonic games' character designs.

Books and comics
Sonic's first comic appearance was in a promotional comic printed in Disney Adventures magazine, which established an origin for Sonic involving the transformation of kindly scientist Doctor Ovi Kintobor into the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Numerous British publications, including "Sega handbook" Stay Sonic (1993), four novels published by Virgin Books (1993–1994) and the comic book Sonic the Comic (1993–2002) used this premise as their basis.

The American comics published by Archie Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog (1993—present), Sonic X (comics) (2005—2009) and Sonic Universe (2009-present) are based on the settings established by earlier animated TV series, the ABC Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) cartoon and the Sonic X anime respectively.

In Japan, Sonic manga have been published, and there is currently another one being published based on Sonic Unleashed featuring Chip.

There is also released comics, Sonic The Hedgehog Archives, which presents the rare comics with a premium format.

Apperances In Other Media
As mentioned above, Sonic has appeared in several different media (such as TV series and comics) outside of his mainstream games series. These series often take place in their own unique continuities, which differ greatly from the games in terms of plot, setting, and even Sonic's characterization. Some versions of Sonic from these alternate continuities are listed here.

Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series and Archie Comics series)
In the Archie comics, Sonic is the most famous hero on Mobius. He is best known for his defeat of Robotnik Prime and his heroic actions preventing the Xorda from destroying Mobius and its solar system. Raised in Mobotropolis before Robotnik Prime's coup, Sonic was an average child except for his abnormal speed. Sonic lost his parents to the roboticizer and was taken in by his Uncle Chuck until he too was roboticized. During Robotnik Prime's coup Sonic and a few others were herded to Knothole Village by the Original Freedom Fighters. It was from them that Sonic got the inspiration that would one day make him a hero.

As Sonic developed his incredible speed, his attitude became legendary. Irreverent, confident, impatient, and energetic, Sonic fought constantly to overthrow Robotnik Prime and continues the fight against his successor, Robo-Robotnik (later renamed Dr. Eggman).

In addition to his uncanny speed, Sonic has the ability to absorb Chaos Energy. Absorbing a great amount of this energy causes him to transform into Super Sonic. As Super Sonic, all of his natural abilities are enhanced and he gains the ability to fly, among other strange powers. His skin and eye colors change to yellow and red respectively, and he takes on an aura of yellow energy. It has happened also that Sonic has transformed even further into Ultra Sonic. Ultra Sonic is even more powerful and has the ability to adapt to his surroundings by taking on new forms.

After the Xorda attack, Sonic was teleported into space, where he spent a couple months trying to return to Mobius. But when he returned, a whole year had passed, and things were very different. Sonic is still not completely adapted to the changes he has seen.

Sonic the Comic
In Sonic the Comic, Sonic was once an ordinary brown (though still fast) hedgehog on the planet Mobius. He encountered a kindly scientist named Doctor Ovi Kintobor, who performed experiments on his speed. An explosion resulted in his spines fusing together and turning blue. A later experiment, involving Kintobor's attempts to rid Mobius of evil, transformed the good doctor into Ivo Robotnik. After several unsuccessful attempts to take over the world (as depicted in the first two Sonic games), Robotnik finally managed to conquer the planet by sending Sonic six months into the future. On his return, Sonic took it upon himself to form a group of Freedom Fighters to depose Robotnik, which they finally managed to do in the series' landmark 100th issue.

As in other continuities, Sonic is aided in his adventures by his loyal sidekick Tails, as well as Amy Rose and original characters Porker Lewis, Johnny Lightfoot, Tekno the Canary and others. He has a friendly, though still quite intense, rivalry with Knuckles the Echidna, who frequently accuses Sonic of bringing trouble onto his Floating Island.

Sonic can turn into Super Sonic in this continuity without exposure to the Chaos Emeralds (because of a dose of radiation he received when the Emeralds were first brought together), but in this form he is out-of-control, bordering on psychotic, and he attacks friends and enemies alike. The two were separated for an extended run, but re-united in the series' final story arc.

Reception and legacy
As Sega's mascot and one of the key reasons for the company's success during the 16-bit era of consoles, Sonic is one of the most recognizable video game characters in the world. In 1996, Sonic was the first video game character to be seen in a Rose Parade. Sonic is also the first of two video game characters to have a balloon in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (the other being Pikachu).

Sonic was one of the three game characters inducted on the inaugural Walk of Game class in 2005, along with rival Mario and Link. One of a class of genes involved in fruit fly embryonic development, called hedgehog genes, has been named "sonic hedgehog" after the character.

As Sega's mascot, Sonic has also been used as a symbol for the company's various sponsorships. Between 1993 and 1997, Sega sponsored the JEF United Ichihara Chiba football team, during which period Sonic appeared in the team's uniform. During the 1993 Formula One championship, Sega sponsored the Williams Grand Prix team, which won the Constructors' Championship that year, as well as the team's lead driver, Alain Prost, winning the Drivers' Championship. Sonic was featured in the cars, helmets, and rival McLaren used to paint a squashed hedgehog after winning races over Williams. The 1993 European Grand Prix featured a Sonic balloon and Sonic billboards, and the race's trophy was in the shape of a hedgehog. Sonic also appears on some versions of the willow video store logo. Sonic is more recognizable for people than Mickey Mouse according to a poll.

On the 21st October 2008, Sonic was voted the most popular video game character in the UK with a 24% vote. His old rival Mario came second with 21% of the vote.

Cameos/popularity
Sonic has proven to be an extremely popular character. After the first game, Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) came out, Sonic became a well-known and very familiar character, even at a time beating Mickey Mouse. After having been around only 2 years, he had already surpassed Nintendo's Mario in popularity according to a June 1993 Q-Survey in Gameplayers magazine. As a result of this popularity, he has been referred to in various parts of culture. One of a class of genes involved in fruit fly embryonic development, called hedgehog genes, has been named "sonic hedgehog" after the character.

Other references are present in television programs. In the show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, in the episode "Camp Capers", Ami is captured by Bigfoot. Yumi pretends she is in a video game, and she runs through a 16-bit forest area, jumps on a crab (thus killing it) then goes at sound-barrier-breaking speeds and runs over a checkered loop, obviously a reference to Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone. In the episode, "Thanksgiving Throwdown", of Megas XLR, there was a spoof of Sonic with a parade balloon called Auggie the Adorable Aardvark (that also spoofs Mickey Mouse by wearing the same clothes). It was mutated by an alien plant and could do attacks such as the Spin Dash. In the show 15/Love, in Adena and Tannis' dorm room, there is a poster with the cover of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game in it. Sonic also made a cameo appearance in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Marge Be Not Proud", voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He appears along with Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and fictional pro golfer Lee Carvallo, trying to convince Bart Simpson to steal a video game. As reported by famous UK fansite The Sonic Stadium, there is also a reference to the Sonic The Hedgehog universe in another Simpsons episode "Lisa gets an A", when she was playing a video game with a character (Crash Bandicoot Reference) who has to get the seven crystal babies, a reference to the seven Chaos Emeralds. He reappears in a 1990s themed episode on a billboard proposing to Amy saying "Sonic the Hedgehog says: Wait 'til marriage." On Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Space Ghost is seen playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the guest monitor.

Sonic has also made appearances in films. In the 1996 movie Jingle All The Way, in the scene where Jamie arrives at the parade, Sonic can be seen as a character marching in the parade. In the movie Hitch, on the side of an ice cream truck, there is a picture of a Sonic popsicle. Sonic has also appeared in Wayne's World.

Sonic has also made appearances as a character in parades. In 1996, Sonic was the first video game character to be seen in a Rose Parade. Sonic was also in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; the only other video game character to ever be in the parade was Pikachu. At one time during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, 20 mph winds blew the Sonic balloon into a streetlight and popped it. It was one of two balloons to be popped by a street light that day, the other being a dinosaur.

Sonic appeared at one point during an episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show, running out on stage, and giving Rosie a Sega Dreamcast and a Sonic plush.

In a commercial for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Sonic is seen in a hospital bed marked "Hedgehog", in a full body cast, and with a boomerang stuck in his foot.

Sonic has been a mascot for various sports teams as well. Between 1993 and 1997, Sega sponsored the JEF United Ichihara Chiba football (soccer) team. During this period, Sonic appeared on the team's uniform. During the 1993 Formula One championship, Sega sponsored WilliamsF1, which won the season. Sonic was featured in the cars, helmets, and rival Team McLaren used to paint a squashed hedgehog after winning races over Williams. The 1993 European Grand Prix featured a Sonic balloon and Sonic billboards. The trophy was a statue of the hedgehog.

Lately, things have seemed to patched up with Nintendo, as Sonic appears as a 3rd Party playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Panic the Hedgehog, a character from the Moron Comics parody series of Sonic the Hedgehog and The Amazing Spider-Man, is a parody of Sonic.

Sonic appears in a cameo in the game Crusader of Centy where he's sunbathing at a beach. If the player tries to talk to him he dispenses the odd bit of dialogue: "Tsk, tsk! I'm a gallant hedgehog! Don't mess or you'll get burned!"

Sonic made a cameo in the 2006 film, Journey to the End of the Night where he can be seen on a billboard where it says Sonic Rules.

A parody of Sonic was featured in The Simpsons Game, where he is heard saying such lines as: "I forgot why I hate Eggman so much" and "That shadow version of me? Nicest guy in the world, completely misunderstood." He also appears in one of the cut-scenes, as well as playing a small part in one section of the game. Sonic appears to be a bird as opposed to a hedgehog and has hair similar to Manic's as instead of spines.

Sonic also appeared in the TV show "Robot Chicken" in an episode called "Shoes" where Sonic is rolling through Green Hill Zone (Act 6, ironically) and is killed by rolling into a spike strip set up by two police officers to catch Sonic for speeding.

In the TV show "Malcolm in the Middle", Malcolm and Stevie are seen playing Sonic R once.

Sonic is also an unlockable character in Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams released for the SEGA Saturn.

In Donkey Kong Country 2, Sonic's shoes appear next to a trash bin in "Cranky's video game hero challenge" under the "No Hopers" section since Nintendo and SEGA were intense rivals at the time.

In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Sonic appeared in the form of an enemy known as "Harry Hedgehog". Much like Sonic, he's also very fast and will curl up into a ball when the player gets too close. Harry Hedgehog is also blue just like Sonic. This could be Nintendo's response to Sega's mocking gestures toward Nintendo.

In the Homestar Runner flash cartoon "Kick-a-Ball", Sonic and Tails are mentioned when Homestar flips a coin and says "Sonic! I mean, Tails!".

In Mad Tv series, a parody of Sonic appeared promoting his shoes called "Sonic The Hedgehog Brand Sneakers".

In Hocus Pocus, a kid dressed as Sonic is seen trick-or-treating.

Voice acting
The earliest voice of Sonic was Takeshi Kusao in the game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, a June 1993 arcade release starring Sonic the Hedgehog, Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Flying Squirrel.

In Sonic CD, Sonic actually had a few voice clips, who was voiced by Keiko Utoku at the time, in which he would say, among other things, I'm outta here! if the player stood still for 3 minutes, and Yes! if the player obtained a 1-up.

Starting with the 1998 game Sonic Adventure, all of Sonic's video games feature voice acting. Sonic was played by Junichi Kanemaru, who later went on to play Sonic in the Japanese version of Sonic X. Ryan Drummond performed the role of Sonic in Sonic Adventure and continued to play the role for several games. Information taken from the credits of both Sonic Adventure games, the Sonic Advance series, and Sonic Heroes. 4Kids Entertainment decided not to use Drummond's voice in their US/UK dub of Sonic X, instead choosing their own Jason Griffith. Despite this, Drummond continued to provide the voice of Sonic in the series until 2005, when Sega replaced all their Sonic voice actors with their 4Kids counterparts, in order to keep his voice the same in all media forms. Effectively, this meant that beginning with Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Rush, Jason Griffith became the official game voice actor for Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow the Hedgehog (and Jet the Hawk in Sonic Riders). This has been a controversial decision among fans of the Sonic Adventure voice cast.

As from 2010 SEGA had announced that they have changed the whole cast of the active characters of the franchise, replacing Jason Anthony Griffith with Roger Craig Smith.

Abilities
Sonic is known best for his speed, with the ability to run at speeds greater than Mach 1 (known from Sonic X), which is at the blistering speed of 768 miles per hour. This is evident in many games, where Sonic is recorded to run at speeds faster than 765 mph. In Sonic Unleashed, the checkpoint posts (Star Posts) also act as radars that clock Sonic's speed when he passes them. Due to the fact that his speed increases the longer he's boosting, it's possible for the checkpoint posts to show Sonic's max speed in-game, being able to clock him going at over 2,500 mph. It is also stated in the Sonic Adventure DX manual that "He's the world's fastest, hypersonic hedgehog" which is at a staggering speed of 3,840 mph. He is occasionally referred to as "the fastest thing alive," and can run backwards at full speed just as well as forwards, as shown in the Team Sonic opening cut-scene of Sonic Heroes, in an episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Underground, and near the end of the first episode in Sonic X. Due to such speed, he is able to scale right up the walls of buildings, or similar structures, and can also run right over water. Although there is no set clock on his speed, since Sonic had beaten Sam Speed in his newly developed "Super" Rocket powered car in Sonic X Eps. 21, it could be assumed that Sonic can accel at over 17,000 mph. (The conventional rocket moves at around 17,000 mph while in low-earth orbit)

In line with his speed, Sonic has displayed amazing feats of movement and has reaction time to match it. He possesses great acrobatic skills and agility, alongside with astonishing reflexes, making him able to avoid large and small obstacles with precise jumps and delicate movements, despite the speed they are incomming at, and when launched into the air, he can perform several airborn tricks before finally landing on ground. He has also shown on several occasions that he can jump incredible long distances, up to several hundred meters, possibly by applying his speed to his jumps.

It is unknown how much faster Sonic can run beyond Mach 1, although it is variously assumed he can. He can increase his speed futher by performing the Sonic Boost, a technique where he turns himself into projectile by moving at such high speeds that he destroys any enemy caught in his path. In Sonic Battle, it is shown that he can move several times the speed of sound. In Emerl's story, Sonic takes on and defeats the gizoid in under 30 seconds, before the Final Egg Blaster fires in that time. It is also believed that Sonic can move faster while in spinball form than running, possibly even reaching the speed of light due to the various proofs, such as in Sonic Adventures 1/2 and Sonic Heroes, where he could use the move Light Speed Attack which, stated by Tikal, attacks enemies at Light Speed. In Sonic X, he is shown to match speeds with a lightning bolt (140,000 mph) in spinball form, in the episode "Zelkova Strikes Back". As shown in Sonic Battle, Sonic possesses the ability to heal himself, presumably by vibrating his molecules.

Many of his abilities are variations on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection. Since his introduction in the first Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic's primary offensive maneuver is the basic Spin Attack (or "Sonic Spin Attack"). As Sonic jumps or runs, he curls up and spins into a spiky ball when in motion that can damage, destroy, mow down, or burrow through many obstacles or foes. Later games in the series expanded on this basic attack. Two of these enhancements are now basic moves: the Spin Dash was introduced in Sonic 2 and involves Sonic spinning on the spot before blasting off at full speed, and the Homing Attack, officially introduced in Sonic Adventure, although unnamed variations of it appeared in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast, in which Sonic dashes in midair toward a target. Since AoSTH and SatAM, Sonic can also execute a ‘triple spin’, where he curls up into a ball and spins around quickly, like a buzz saw, and can burrow through the ground or a wall, depending on what it’s made from.

The Super Peel Out, or Figure 8 Dash, made its debut in Sonic CD, but since has only had minor recurrences in the Archie Comic series and anime. In the Figure 8 Dash, Sonic stays pivoted in one place and his legs move fast enough to create the illusion of an infinity symbol (more correctly a Möbius strip) beneath him in red. He holds this and then blasts forward.

Another technique, the Blue Tornado (from Sonic Heroes) or Sonic Wind (from Sonic Adventure 2) is when Sonic jumps into the air, and creates a whirlwind by circling a particular spot at high speeds. A similar attack called "Whirlwind" appeared in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Other such special moves that Sonic has in this game are 'Axe Kick,' and combination attacks between Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. {C Sonic has also demonstrated the ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emerald for his own use. With one Chaos Emerald Sonic can warp time and space with Chaos Control, and occasionally gains a boost in power.

Sonic also possesses an indomitable force of will; even in situations where most others would give up and resign themselves to defeat or imprisonment, and in situations where he is severely outnumbered and outgunned, he always forges on, never loses faith in himself and never quits. This character trait is most noticeable in Sonic Unleashed, wherein, thanks to his will, he is one of the few people on the planet who is immune to the influence of Dark Gaia. This is also shown in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, where the Voxai Overmind attempts to use mind control on Sonic, and he resists when all other characters fail to do so. This may also be because he is in possession of a Chaos Emerald filled with the Overmind's power. It appears once more in Sonic and the Black Knight, where he continues to fight Merlina despite having Caliburn broken in half and beaten to the point where he could barely stand. He presumably performed a similar feat in Sonic Battle when facing Ultimate Emerl. Emerl was vastly superior to Sonic in every aspect: he has the abilities of every character, all 7 Chaos Emeralds and the power of a star system-busting cannon (Final Egg Blaster). Thanks to Sonic's indomitable force of will, he was able to perform the impossible: defeat an opponent who is superior to him in almost every way possible. The only time his will didn't work was in Sonic Rivals 2 when he got possessed by the Ifrit in Tails' story scenario. It's safe to assume that if he does get possessed, he does all he can to regain control.

It is assumed that Sonic can control the strength or hardness of his quills. They appear to be extremely hard like buzzsaw blades when he is in spinball form, capable of shredding through several layers of reinforced steel to just about anything with enough speed. When he is not in ball form, they appear soft and flimsy like rubber. In Sonic Heroes, his quills (and body) are durable enough to slice through battleships without even moving at the speed of sound. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he can temporarily increase the durability of his quills to hit opponents in his Up Throw. In this move, he throws up an enemy, goes into a push-up type pose, and flares up and hardens his quills for the enemy to land on.

Sonic has several times shown to have great resilience to physical damage. He can survive being caught in a crossfire from all angles by Eggman's robots and is only knocked out briefly by it and he can run through several robots with his fist in front without showing any sign of pain or injuries. It is also worth noting that for nearly all the battles Sonic has been through, he has never been crippled or displayed any seriuos injuries. It is also shown that he can survive numerous free-falls from space, in various Sonic games. In Sonic Adventure, he fell face first from a high point in the atmosphere and merely shook it off after the crash of the Tornado (although he luckily fell into soft sand), and near the end of his story fell once again from about the same height from the Egg Carrier into the Mystic Ruins jungle. In Sonic Unleashed, he (as the Werehog) survived atmospheric reentry unharmed; however, he was stopped in mid-air right before landing by a shield of light (most likely it was Chip) and was stuck in the ground for a few moments. He accomplished this feat in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as well as Sonic & Knuckles in his normal form at the end of both games (assuming the player didn't gather the Chaos Emeralds prior to beating the game).

It is possible that Sonic might actually have superhuman strength (though nothing in comparison to Knuckles'). Sonic's Spin Dash and other spin forms are strong enough to cut through enemies (though not all shields), burrow through the ground, or break down walls though it is debatable if the attack's main power is from his supersonic speed or superhuman strength or a combination of both. A lot of moves Sonic performs in fighting games has him use his feet and legs more than his hands which suggests that Sonic's legs are more powerful than his arms. Sonic's Back-Grab in Brawl has him backflip backwards (while holding the opponent), land on the ground, and kick the opponent at a decent knockback. His forward smash consists of Sonic swinging his arm around for a short time and then releasing a charged punch. This attack is one of his most powerful smash attacks in terms of knockback. Sonic is also seen in many of the Sonic X episodes to be able to punch Eggman's robots without any sign of pain, and he is also seen to be able to swing a large robot around in a circle in the episode "Shadow World".

It is safe to say that Sonic is far stronger, faster, and more skillful then he lets on. Only in truly bleak situations does he reveal his true power - his fight with Ultimate Emerl, the Ultimate Gizoid, and his temporary ruthlessness as Dark Sonic are prime examples of this. Sonic may be able to defeat practically any enemy if he was to fight seriously from the beginning - it would appear that his cockiness, overconfidence and unwillingness to fight at full power stop him from truly being considered the most powerful character in the series. This means as Super Sonic, he might have been able to defeat even Dark Oak - Sonic himself admits that he was not fighting at full strength from the beginning, as he said "He's tougher than I thought" and, "When I turned into Super Sonic, I thought it'd be a cinch, but boy, was I wrong". Also, Sonic is often reluctant to use his Chaos Powers, and relies on his speed more.

In Sonic Colors, Sonic is able to utilize a very powerful colorful energy called Hyper-go-on Energy, from which Sonic can absorb from the Wisps. This includes Sonic turning into a drill, a laser or even a fireball.

POW Moves
In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Sonc's POW moves is purly offensive attacks that involves using his speed to create wind currents that can damage the opponent or launch himself as a projectile while in spinball form. These are:
 * Axe Kick: Sonic spinballs into an enemy, then follows up with a powerful air-kick.
 * Whirlwind: Sonic performs a Tornado move, damaging everyone caught inside.
 * Blue Bomber: Tails lifts Sonic up, then throws him onto a target. Sonic then rebounds and hits the target a second time, leaving it weakened.
 * Fastball: Amy uses her hammer to hit a spinballing Sonic into a foe three times, rendering it sluggish.
 * Triple Tornado: In a variation of the aforementioned Whirlwind move, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails get propelled in the air in a Tornado move, then fall down and hit all enemies. This may leave targets Sluggish.
 * Hail Storm: Knuckles, Tails, and Amy smash a spinballing Sonic at a single target, potentially stunning the foe.

Transformations
During his adventures, Sonic has shown the ability to enter a number of different transformations (usually super transformations) to assist him in his toughest battles. This is usually done by using certain objects that possesses great power, or absorbing different varieties of energy. With these transformations, Sonic usually undergoes a physical alteration, gets his speed and strength increased and gains new abilities that match the theme of the transformation. While using these transformations, Sonic's personality and character usually remains the same, but some transformations has been known to affect his personality, giving him more darker traits

Super Sonic
By using all seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic can initiate a super transformation into Super Sonic. This is by far Sonic's most frequently used transformation. In this state he can fly, is faster, stronger and nearly invincible. He does, however, need rings to maintain this transformation or else he will revert to normal.

Hyper Sonic
Sonic also possesses an extended and more powerful form of Super Sonic, called Hyper Sonic, which he can assume with the seven Super Emeralds. This form basically shares the same powers and traits as Super Sonic, but they are all upgraded and are more powerful than Super Sonic's.

Darkspine Sonic
In addition, by harnessing the power of three of the World Rings in Sonic and the Secret Rings, it allows Sonic to become Darkspine Sonic, a powerful form powered by his negative emotions. In this state, Sonic can fly, have greater strength, unlimited use of the Soul Gauge powers and traits of fire-based attacks. Because of the negative emotions from this transformation, Sonic becomes slightly more sinister and violent.

Excalibur-Sonic
In Sonic and the Black Knight Sonic gains another super transformation: Excalibur-Sonic, by using the power of the Sacred Swords. This form grants him a golden armor with a red cape, the ability to fly, greater strength and the power to wield the legendary sword Excalibur.

Sonic the Werehog
In Sonic Unleashed, Sonic unwillingly gains the power to turn into a werewolf-like version of himself at night time by accidently absorbing the energies from Dark Gaia. In this state, he loses his trademark speed, but he gains super strength, the ability stretch his arms and limited energy manipulation. While Sonic's strong will prevents him from going crazy like the other people affected by Dark Gaia, he does gain some minor feral behaivor.

Ultra Sonic
In Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic is able to become Ultra Sonic by using massive amounts of power (such as a vast amount of Power Rings or a Super Emerald). In this form Sonic is able to fly and can control non-living matter on an atomic level, allowing him to manipulate the elements. He can also adapt his physical form and powers to the environment, allowing him assume forms such as Polar Sonic, Solar Sonic and Eco Sonic.

Dark Sonic
In the episode Teasing Time in Sonic X, after witnessing Chris's injuries and Cosmo's fright, Sonic is blinded by rage and absorbs the negative energies from a nearby pile of fake Chaos Emeralds, becoming Dark Sonic. In this form Sonic becomes more angry and brutal than seen in the series before. He displays the same powers as Super Sonic, but in a more extreme, violent and intense way, such as when he brutally ripped apart the two prototype Metarex soldiers.

Weaknesses
Sonic is incapable of swimming, which causes him to sink like a stone in water, probably mainly due to his great body weight for his size and narrow limbs or possibly due to his presumed aquaphobia (or he just does not know how to swim). Although, if hitting the water while running, he can dash across the water's surface, completely bypassing the hazard (an exception being in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in which all characters are able to swim, but he can only swim for a brief period of time before drowning). In most media, he is shown completely avoiding water. In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, when Sonic competes in Aquatics events, he is the only character who wears a life preserver. However, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Sonic can swim without a life preserver, though he seems to be flopping like a fish when swimming, unlike the other characters. Although an exception of Sonic's poor aquatic abilities is in Sonic the Hedgehog [1991], where he is capable of swallowing bubbles for extra breathing time in water. Further 2-Dimension games allow for underwater breathing through the use of air bubbles. In most of the 3-Dimension games, landing in water often results in an instant death and is, alongside bottomless pits, probably the most dangerous obstacle in the newer games. An interview with Yuji Naka states that, Sonic is scared of water because previously Yuji Naka thought that hedgehogs couldn't swim, but then he saw a picture of a hedgehog swimming but he couldn't get out of the water, so the hedgehog needed a tree to get out. This explains that Sonic can go in water, but he thinks he can't get out and that no one would be able to help him, this is the reason he is scared of water.

Sonic also fears Amy when she gets angry, which usually gives him a strong desire to run as far away from her and make it harder to speak to her; this fear increases when he is the one who angers Amy (this is even considering that she can do what Dr. Eggman and his robot army, ancient creatures and entities fail to do). This has happened at least two times, in Sonic Riders and in Sonic and the Black Knight (although for the latter, it wasn't his fault). Though its very likely that Sonic always escapes from Amy since Sonic is faster than Amy and she even admits that she cannot run as fast as Sonic. So when Sonic successfully gets away from Amy, Amy then continues to find Sonic like she usually does. According to Amy's profile in Sonic Channel, it is translated that Sonic acts in a "cringe" when Amy shows her "Iikio", Iikio means "strong power" in Japanese.

There is also reason to believe Sonic reacts terribly to being held captive and may find it mentally and perhaps even physically painful. He seems to act absurd if he doesn't run for a long time, which might mean that he is very much addicted to running, and gets frustrated when something is slow. Like what he told to Elise, ''"If you have time to worry, then run." ''An interview with Yuji Naka states that if Sonic doesn't get to sleep for 8 hours during the night, it would spoil his running.

Relationships
This section is for Sonic's relationships in the games continuity only. For relationships specific to versions of the character in alternate continuities, see those versions' respective pages: In the games, Sonic has encountered many people, he has many friends and foes. Sonic is well-known with his brotherly relationship with Tails and his friendly rivalry with Knuckles and Shadow. Sonic's great enemy is Dr. Eggman and sometimes Metal Sonic.
 * For the SatAM and Archie Comics continuities, see Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie character)
 * For the Sonic the Comic continuity, see Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Comic)
 * For the Sonic X continuity, see Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic X)
 * For the Sonic Underground continuity, see Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Underground)
 * For the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog continuity, see Sonic the Hedgehog (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)

Miles "Tails" Prower
Tails is Sonic's best friend and sidekick. The two have been with each other since Sonic 2. They both have been best friends for a really long time, they share a brotherly relationship. Sonic and Tails first met in Westside Island, when Tails was being teased by the other children. He found Sonic running at a high speed, Tails was impressed by this and thought he was "cool" and went after him. Tails found his biplane and got so fond of it and slept under it, Sonic found Tails and they both had a short meeting. When Sonic went, Tails went after him until Sonic stopped, Sonic was impressed by how he could keep up and the two became close friends.

After their meeting, Sonic and Tails were always there to help each other, their friendship grew and grew until they had a more brotherly relationship. It is often that Tails invents machines for Sonic in his help and also made him three Extreme Gears. In Sonic Advance 3, they are known as the "Unbreakable Bond" when they team up. In Sonic Rivals 2 it is shown that Sonic trains Tails to learn how to run and fight in their free time. Whenever Sonic has an adventure to explore, he always comes to Tails and asks him to come along and Tails is always ready to help.

Sonic also seems to care Tails a lot, like in the opening of Sonic Riders, when Tails got hurt by Storm during a race, although Sonic was leading first place in the race, he went all the way back to help Tails and cheered him up by giving him a thumbs-up. Tails was also very persistent by making Sonic's Extreme Gear the best Extreme Gear in the world, when Wave had insulted Sonic's Blue Star.

Tails also used to depend on Sonic a lot, but later realized that he can't depend on him forever, as displayed in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood when he says: "I guess without you around I kinda had to grow up a little." Sonic is also an idol and role-model to Tails and Tails just wants to be as heroic as he is.

In Sonic Unleashed, their bond seems to be closer, like when Sonic was in the form of a Werehog, Tails was the only one in the whole game to recognize him on sight.

In Sonic Colors, they are seen together throughout the whole game. It is noticeable that Sonic and Tails seem to be a lot more friendly and seemingly looking like saving the day is an everyday job which has not been seen in games in a long time. Not to mention, Tails' esteem about Sonic's heroics seems to have dwindled, seeing as Tails cares more about inventing then Sonic's heroic deeds, not even noticing when Sonic does something. When Tails was mind-controlled by Dr. Eggman, Sonic refused to fight Tails and started telling him to get back to his senses. Tails has also embarrassed Sonic when he was talking to a broken robot that can't actually hear him, Sonic told him to forget about the whole thing and it was between him and the robot. In the end of the game, just for Tails' safety he pushed him to Eggman's elevator so that he doesn't get hurt, though Tails was completely unaware in the first place that Sonic was ready to push him and unwillingly went down to the planet. (However, in the DS version, Tails willingly leaves.)

Dr. Eggman
"Aw, I'm sorry! I didn't get that memo. I beat you every time! No seriously, we beat this guy every time. It's like it's our job or something!"

- Sonic's response to Eggman when Eggman says that he thought he was close to defeating Sonic

Dr. Eggman and Sonic have been enemies even before Sonic met Tails. The doctor always tries to conquer the world and the hedgehog always thwarts his plans. It is also shown that Sonic can be more frank or taunting towards Eggman in various games, and also shows full confidence that he can spoil his plans no matter what. Sonic, overall, sometimes doesn't take Eggman's plans seriously and will almost always seize the opportunity to tease him. (Such as calling Eggman "Baldy McNosehair" after learning that the Wisps call Eggman "Baldy Nosehair" in Sonic Colors .) It's unknown how they became enemies, in a scrapped storyline, it was said the were once friends.

Dr. Eggman's real name is Ivo Robotnik, but in Sonic Adventure when Sonic finally encounters him, he teasingly says, "Hey look! A giant talking egg!" Ivo tells him to stop fooling around, then Sonic replies, "Whatever Eggman!", after that Sonic has been constantly calling him Eggman so much that even his friends started calling him Eggman. Even Ivo calls himself Eggman and doesn't bother when anybody else calls him that anymore. It is stated by Yuji Naka that Sonic uses the nickname "Eggman" affectionately.

Sonic also seems to fall for Eggman's tricks, as shown in Sonic Unleashed, causing him to fall for the doctor's trap and transforming into a Werehog. However, Eggman's plan for turning Sonic into a Werehog was unintentional.

In Sonic Rivals 2. Eggman also teases Sonic by saying, "Well, if it isn't my favorite blue hedgehog!" and "Why nothing my dear hedgehog.". In Sonic's view, the most worst creation Eggman has ever made is Metal Sonic, who is really devastating and causes a lot of trouble for Sonic. In Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog Dr. Eggman seems to take Sonic's side to fight Biolizard or Black Doom (mainly because Black Doom is a worse threat than Sonic as Black Doom wanted to destroy everyone on Earth and the worst that Sonic would do is humilate him).

In Sonic Colors, Sonic often out-smarts Eggman with his jokes and sarcasm. This is shown in the scene when Eggman was constantly trying to pull off puns about his amusement park. When Eggman comes up with a clever pun before the Final Boss Fight, Sonic embarrassed him by saying, "Look, I know you're trying to be 'cool' with this 'Amusement Park pun thing' but it's kinda coming off a little lame! Just say you're going to destroy us and stop embarrassing yourself!" which angered Eggman but he listened to him.

Knuckles the Echidna
Ever since Knuckles' introduction, there was recurring and unfinished battle between Sonic and Knuckles. Because of their differences and morals, the two are constantly getting into a crossroads, which then devolve into outright fisticuffs. However, they finish the battle tied, or something serves to interrupt the battle before its end.

The battle has appeared in the games. It occurs in many games featuring Knuckles since his debut in Sonic 3. With Sonic's speed paralleling Knuckles' strength in every way, their fights are always climactic.

It should also be noted that in various games, Sonic teases Knuckles whenever Knuckles falls for Eggman's tricks by making a pun out of his name; "Knuckle-head". In Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic says to Gawain, "Hey! You look like that Knuckle-head I know!" even without having Gawain making a mistake and when Gawain accused him of wanting to steal the dragon's treasure, he remarked "Ugh, you SOUND just like that Knuckle-head too!", noticing the similarity between Knuckles and Gawain in personality. In Sonic Rivals 2 Sonic teases Knuckles when he sees Knuckles and Rouge together by saying, "Well look who it is... Knuckles and Rouge! You two on a date or something?" Knuckles tells him to stop fooling around and get back to what was important.

The rivalry has all but disappeared in some continuities, and in others, it is a sort of game between the two, actually serving as the plot for the game Sonic Rivals 2, when Knuckles tells Sonic that he needs to find Eggman, Sonic taunts him by saying that he'll beat Knuckles to Eggman, causing them to fight.

Overall, they are great friends and make a great teamwork, next to Tails, Knuckles is also Sonic's best friend.

In the DS version of Sonic Colors when Sonic heard that Rocket Wisps are easy to anger and easy to be happy. Sonic compares them to Knuckles. Later in the game, Sonic meets Knuckles at Starlight Carnival. Sonic and Knuckles still retain their rivalry but do not really argue. Instead, Sonic tries consoling Knuckles in getting angry when he was not accepting on getting tricked by Eggman, Knuckles keeps on yelling that he did not get tricked Sonic replies, "Alright! Alright! You didn't!". Tails also comment that Sonic and Knuckles are "funny" together. When Rouge tells Knuckles that the invitation was actually written by her and not her, Knuckles becomes restless realizing that he did get tricked. While Sonic tries cooling Knuckles down by saying that atleast Eggman didn't trick him but Tails doubted that would make Knuckles feel better

Amy Rose
Amy and Sonic first met when Sonic had to save her from Metal Sonic in Sonic CD. After that Amy has been madly in-love with Sonic, and chases him down wherever he goes, however Sonic seems reluctant towards her affection and tries to run away or avoid her most of the times. However, when Amy is in trouble, Sonic is always present to save her and are shown to be good friends. It is very much common in games, whenever Amy comes to Sonic and tries to be romantic with him, Sonic feels uncomfortable and runs away from her.

Sonic seems to have a fear of Amy's anger (in fact it's the only thing so far that can bring Sonic true fear) and runs away with fear when she pulls out her Piko Piko Hammer.

In Sonic Advance 3, before unlocking Amy she comes to Sonic and says, "Sonic! Are you going to ask me out?" Sonic replies no, then Amy says, "Don't you know that we're always meant..." Sonic hesitates and says, "...Together? No! No such thing!" then she pulls out her hammer and says, "Why won't you admit it!?" then Sonic says, "Er... let's not use that hammer, shall we?".

Also in Sonic Adventure 2 when Sonic was in jail and asked Amy to help him get out, she jokingly replies that she'll help him if he'd marry her, to which Sonic replies "No way!". Sonic also seems to find her weird or a pain to him at times such as in Sonic Adventure when Amy wanted to go out with Sonic in Twinkle Park. Out of embarrassment and exasperation he says to himself, "I give up! She's so weird!", though he follows after her regardless of complaint.

In Sonic Adventure 2 he is concerned for her when he finds out Eggman has kidnapped her on the Ark. When he's about to be jettisoned into Earth's atmosphere, he tells her to take care of herself.

In Sonic Unleashed, Amy encounters Sonic in his Werehog form. But she doesnt recognize him and runs off to countinue searching for him. Chip then accidently hurts Sonic's feelings by reminding him that people can't recognize him because of his scary new look. Sonic walks away downheaded as Chip tries to apologise and make him feel better, and seems depressed that she didn't recognize him. After Sonic saves her from a pack of Dark Gaia creatures who posesses a group of people to have a night party in the streets, he runs away from her. Amy took in a glimpse of him, and was left wondering if that was Sonic. When Amy asks Sonic to go out with her after he saves the world, the player can choose whether Sonic agrees or not.

In Sonic and the Black Knight, it was revealed that the two of them arranged a date prior to the events of the game. After Sonic finishes retelling the exploits of his latest adventure, Amy erroneously believes that it was a lie that he concocted to hide the fact that he had forgotten about their date, and proceeds to chase him with her hammer.

In Sonic Free Riders, Sonic seems to be more annoyed with Amy when she constantly tells him that they have to go out and even tells him that she should take it easy on her in the race. He doesn't seem to reply to her by words or sentences showing her that he is annoyed. He also tries changing a romantic subject like in the Babylon Story, when Amy runs after him and talks about a date after the Grand Prix, Sonic tries to change the subject by simply saying, "Hi Amy!" suddenly and quickly. In the end of the Team Rose story, Amy forces Sonic to go out with her because she won, but Sonic, not wanting to go, just gives an annoyed look and says "Ugh!". When Amy asks Sonic if she is cute, Sonic tries changing the subject by saying "Ugh... we all had a great time in the Grand Prix, right?"

In Sonic Generations Amy is excited to attend Sonic's birthday. However Sonic keeps Amy away from getting too close to him (such as hugging him) by placing his hand over her face. When Sonic's younger form rescues Amy, Amy mistakened him for the present form of Sonic and questioned on how he looks so young whereas when the present Sonic saves Amy, Amy tells Sonic that she was afraid that she will never be able to flirt him again, Sonic responds to this by looking back, slapping his palm on his face with a negative nod.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow is the dark doppelgänger of Sonic. They look alike (to the extent that many characters got them confused in Sonic Adventure 2), they are both super fast, and they can both use Chaos Control. Because of these similarities, they have become great rivals and they frequently call each other "faker" as an insult.

It was the result of Shadow's actions that sent Sonic to jail, even when Sonic wasn't guilty, in Sonic Adventure 2. In the end, however, Sonic realizes that Shadow was on Earth for a purpose, to fulfill his promise to Maria, that is the reason why Sonic realized that Shadow is actually a great hero. After defeating the Biolizard and Shadow's apparent "death", Sonic recalls that Shadow is a great hero and he'll never forget a great person like him.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, when co-operating with Sonic, Sonic is the most friendly and helpful towards Shadow. Unlike the rest of the characters, he is also very much concerned on Shadow's loss of memory and constantly asks him if he can remember anything. But it seems that Shadow maybe disturbed by the hedgehog's hyper and friendly attitude, like when Sonic comes in an air-ship towards Shadow, Shadow unenthusiastically said "Not you again!". Sonic, noticing that Shadow wasn't really happy to see him, sarcastically states "Nice to see you too!". Despite that, Sonic still seems to support Shadow and also tries to have a friendly competition with him.

Out of all the rivals and opponents Sonic faces, Shadow is the one whom he has the most fun with and the most time with struggling. Shown in all the clashes between the two, although this has lessened for gameplay purposes in the future, they are nearly equal or as strong as the other with both sides proving to be neither lacking in any category that seperates them from skill in their respective prowess. Later on it is shown that Sonic is getting faster and more honed than Shadow, and Shadow is getting more destructive and and powerful than Sonic, both having different skill sets from each game while retaining their inital basic attacks and speed.

Their battle is almost always a competition now, from snowboarding, to fighting, to even racing. In some extant Sonic and Shadow can compete in 'brother-like' competitions. Sonic and Shadow have a rivalry based on a need to showcase their growth and improvement for each and every encounter they have. Though this is through Shadow's eyes more than Sonic whom he wants to race more than fight.

In Sonic Generations they still share a fierce competition, but this time Shadow displays a more friendly interest in Sonic. In the begining Shadow is not present at the begining of Sonic's birthday party. However, they do encounter each other in the White Space where Shadow is determined to beat Sonic; so much in fact that he does not care where he has been brought to. He also appears at Classic and Modern Sonic's final fight with the Time Eater, where he is encouraging the Sonics to win, which is something Shadow rarely does. After the battle and returning to their own time, Shadow decides to stay at Sonic's birthday party, although he remains in the background.

Metal Sonic
Sonic and Metal Sonic have a violent rival/enemy relationship. Eggman created Metal Sonic in order to defeat the real Sonic knowing that something as powerful as Sonic would be able to succeed. Since Metal Sonic contains most of Sonic's abilities, they are almost always fighting with each other. Metal Sonic has a strong dislike towards Sonic, always trying to prove that he is better that him in every way and even calls Sonic "My loathsome copy". as well as believing that he is the real Sonic. In Sonic Heroes, when Metal Sonic took control of Eggman's fleet, his intentions were to kill Sonic and then build a robot empire, but Sonic and his allies ended up defeating him, and afterwards Metal Sonic asked Sonic why he couldn't beat him and shut down. Also in this game, Metal Sonic's real emotions towards Sonic were released.

Metal Sonic's hatred for Sonic went on after that, even after Eggman restored him to his robotic slave. He later broke free from Dr. Eggman's control once again in Sonic Free Riders in order to face Sonic, this time in Extreme Gear, but he was defeated once more in a one-on-one race.

Silver the Hedgehog
Sonic and Silver first met during the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). The two were enemies and first because Silver had travelled though time and was intending to kill Sonic believing that he was responsible for destroying his time by releasing Iblis onto the world and was bent on saving the future. But Silver befriended Sonic when he discovered that Sonic was not the Iblis trigger and that Mephiles the Dark had lied to him. The two worked together to save Princess Elise and when Sonic was killed by Mephiles, Silver realized that they could save Sonic with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Afterwards Silver teamed up with Sonic and Shadow to defeat Solaris. But since the events of the game were erased from history, Sonic and Silver never met. They don't actually meet until Sonic Rivals where Silver has travelled to the past to bring Eggman Nega back to the future, but Silver seems to be more competitive to Sonic as they raced each other see who would get to Eggman Nega first but later they teamed up with each other at the end to defeat Eggman Nega and also in Sonic Rivals 2 to defeat the Ifrit. It appears that Sonic and Silver don't remember each other from their past adventure since the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) were erased.

Silver seems to have a bit of a disliking towards Sonic moslty because he thinks that he is cheeky and foolish much the same how Shadow thinks of Sonic at times, Silver's attitude tends to annoy Sonic at times as well as seen in Sonic Rivals when he says "Yo Silver, you've got an attitude". But they will work together and lay aside their differences whenever the time is right. An example is in Sonic Colors after Silver challenges Sonic to a mission, he asks if Sonic if he needs any help. Silver is one of the characters that Sonic would like to challenge as seen in Sonic Rivals, when Silver said to him that he had to get to Eggman Nega first before Sonic did, Sonic said "Okay Silver bring it on, I like a challenge!". Their relationship is very similar to Sonic and Knuckles.

Classic Sonic
Sonic meets his Classic self from the Genesis after being thrusted back in time, while celebrating his birthday, in Sonic Generations. At first Sonic could not recognize his Classic form by just calling him "another Sonic" and by mistaking him for his reflection when the glass was just glass and not just a mirror. Sonic teams up with himself and travels through time (again) to save the world. They seem to have great teamwork and share the same gestures simultaneously in every scenes, this is due to them being the same person. Classic form begins to learn from the skills of Modern Sonic in the end of the game as well.

Friends/Allies

 * Miles "Tails" Prower (Best friend close as brothers)
 * Knuckles the Echidna (Best friend and rival)
 * Amy Rose (Self-proclaimed girlfriend)
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Ally and arch rival)
 * Blaze the Cat (Close friend)
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Vector the Crocodile
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Charmy Bee
 * Silver the Hedgehog (Friendly rival)
 * Cream the Rabbit (Good friend)
 * Cheese the Chao
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * Big the Cat
 * Mighty the Armadillo
 * Marine the Raccoon
 * Ray the Flying Squirrel
 * Chip (Sonic Unleashed, really good friends)
 * Emerl
 * Tikal the Echidna
 * Shade the Echidna (Sonic Chronicles)
 * Professor Pickle (Sonic Unleashed)
 * Princess Elise (Never met due to events of Sonic '06)
 * Shahra the Ring Genie (Sonic and the Secret Rings)
 * Merlina the Sorceress (Sonic and the Black Knight)
 * Caliburn the Sword (Sonic and the Black Knight)
 * The Commander
 * E-123 Omega
 * Chaos (After Sonic Adventure)
 * Chao
 * Samba de Amigo
 * NiGHTS
 * Billy Hatcher
 * Banjo & Kazooie (Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing XBOX 360 Version Only)
 * E-102 Gamma (Sonic Adventure)
 * Mario (Friendly rival & great friend)
 * Luigi
 * Princess Peach
 * Princess Daisy
 * Yoshi
 * Donkey Kong
 * Yacker (Sonic Colors)
 * Wisps (Sonic Colors)
 * Mother-Wisp (Sonic Colors DS only)
 * Classic Sonic (Sonic Generations only)
 * Classic Tails (Sonic Generations only)

Rivals

 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Arch rival)
 * Silver the Hedgehog (Ally & Friendly Rival)
 * Metal Sonic (Robotic Doppelganger)
 * Jet the Hawk (Rival at Extreme Gear Racing and speed)
 * Mario (Friendly rival) (originally intense rival)
 * Johnny (Rival at speed)
 * Blaze the Cat (Formerly)
 * Knuckles the Echidna (Old Rival)
 * Espio the Chameleon (Sonic Rivals 2 only)

Enemies

 * Doctor Eggman (Arch-Nemesis and usually main antagonist)
 * Metal Sonic (Robotic Doppleganger)
 * Chaos (Formerly)
 * Pir'Oth Ix (Sonic Chronicles only)
 * Fang the Sniper
 * Metal Knuckles
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Formerly, more of a friendly rival now)
 * Silver the Hedgehog (Formerly)
 * Tails Doll
 * Eggrobo
 * Silver Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Only)
 * Gemerl (Sonic Advance 3; formerly)
 * Eggman Nega (Sonic Rush / Rivals series only)
 * Captain Whisker (Sonic Rush Adventure only)
 * Johnny (And Rival)
 * Scourge the Hedgehog (Archie Comics only)
 * Erazor Djinn (Sonic and the Secret Rings only)
 * Mephiles the Dark (Sonic 06 only)
 * Solaris (Sonic 06 only)
 * Ifrit (Sonic Rivals 2 only)
 * Black Knight (Sonic and the Black Knight only)
 * Dark Gaia (Sonic Unleashed only)
 * Dark Queen (Sonic and the Black Knight only)
 * Black Doom (Shadow the Hedgehog only)
 * Bowser (Mario & Sonic series only)
 * Bowser Jr.
 * Wario
 * Waluigi
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Nega Mother-Wisp (Sonic Colors for the DS only)
 * Time Eater (Sonic Generations only)

Trivia

 * There is a hedgehog genome named Sonic hedgehog.
 * Sonic is blue because SEGA's logo is blue and Yuji Naka felt that Sonic should symbolize peace since blue is the color of peace.
 * Sonic was the first of two video game characters to appear in the Macy's Day parade. (The second was Pikachu from the Pokémon franchise.) It was officially annouced that in the 2011 Macy's Day Parade, Sonic will make his return as the lead of the parade, as well as to commeriate his 20th Anniversary.
 * If left alone too long in the first Sonic game, Sonic will become impatient, and tap his foot on the ground until the player continues.
 * In Sonic CD, after standing for three minutes, he will say "I'm outta here" and jump off the screen, and the "GAME OVER" screen will appear.
 * Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Sonic Free Riders, and Sonic Unleashed (while in Werehog-Form) are the only games where Sonic is wearing different shoes.
 * Strangley, some of Sonic's artwork has him with buckles, whereas others don't.
 * Curiously, Sonic's first appearance in games wasn't in Sonic The Hedgehog, but in Rad Mobile, much like Mario's first appearance was in a game called Donkey Kong.
 * In all classic Sonic games, as well as Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Advance 1, 2 and 3 when Sonic closes his eyes, his eyelids are the same color as his arms and muzzle, but later, they were changed blue. Currently, they are still blue. However, in one of the commercials, his eyelids weren't blue. And in the commercial of the game in Japan, he had no eyelids. He does blink twice in the commercial, but he still has his eyes open when he blinks. This was referenced in Sonic Generations, where as Modern Sonic has blue eyelids, while Classic Sonic has flesh-colored eyelids.
 * One of his Sonic X artworks bears a striking resemblance to one of his Sonic Adventure artworks, (the same can be said about Big, Eggman and Rouge.)
 * Sonic has made a playable cameo appearance in the Christmas NiGHTS bonus event Sonic the Hedgehog into Dreams. This was also Sonic's first true 3D appearance.
 * Sonic's soles are gray but in some games they are white.
 * Sonic's favorite food is chili dogs.
 * According to an interview in Sonic Central, Sonic does not know the whereabouts of Mighty the Armadillo, Ray the Flying Squirrel, Nack the Weasel, Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Dynamite. This explains why they haven't made a game appearance for a long time.
 * In Sonic Rush, if you tap Sonic with the stylus during gameplay, he would clap, jump back and forth, then he'll continuously swing his arm clockwise as if he is exercising.
 * Originally Sonic was supposed to have visible fangs in the Japanese artwork, but they were removed when he was given a more Americanized design for the US artwork in order to "soften him up" a bit. Although he does have fangs they are only visible when he opens his mouth (this can mostly be seen in Dreamcast titles like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Shuffle, but stopped being as noticeable after Sonic Adventure 2). Before, his fangs were supposed to be visible even when the mouth is closed.
 * On some drawings such as official artwork for SegaWorld Sydney and a few animation cels, his arms are mistakenly colored blue.
 * Sonic has tied for 10th best selling series with Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda.
 * In the game "Little Big Planet", one can customize the sackboy into the Sonic the Hedgehog look, along with other costumes such as Knuckles, Tails, Eggman and Sonic the Werehog.
 * Sonic's age has always been a tricky one to pinpoint. According to the Sonic Technical Files, it says he is 18, "but it's kinda hard to tell." In a video for those who preordered Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in Japan, Sonic's age was listed as being "15-16." Once Sonic Jam was released, it looked like it was solidified at 16, but Sonic Channel had finalized it as 15.
 * In the Japanese versions of the games, Sonic has shown that he knows the most amount of English out of all other characters, as he is the only one who uses English many times in the games. This may be due to the fact that the English language is considered "cool" in Japan and therefore makes sense to have the "coolest" character have many English lines, as well as his Japanese voice actor wanting him to.
 * Sonic is the first character to utilize the Chaos Emeralds by transforming into Super Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
 * In the 2011 Guinness World Records Gamers Edition, Sonic placed 10th in the "Top 50 Video Game Characters of all time." His rival, Mario, placed first, and Shadow placed 25th.
 * Sonic's original name was Mr. Needlemouse.
 * Any time Sonic is in a band he is the guitar player.
 * It could be possible that Sonic can move faster than the speed of light. It's implied in the DS version of Sonic Colors, after Sonic gets an S on Omega's mission. When Omega collected data from Sonic, he said "At this rate, light speed will be exceeded." Then Sonic told him that light speed was slow time and not a challenge. However, this may just have been just a joke to mess with Omega.
 * Sonic has been chased by something numerous times in 3D games (A whale in Sonic Adventure, a G.U.N. truck in Sonic Adventure 2, three giant spiky wheels and a giant alligator in Sonic Heroes, a fire tornado and another whale in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), a black hole in Wii version of Sonic Colors, and a helicopter and a truck in Sonic Generations).
 * He is notorious for breaking the fourth wall.
 * In the game "Project Diva Extend", Hatsune Miku can dress up as Sonic.
 * Apparently Sonic and his friends are able to breathe in space as seen in several games.

Memorable Quotes

 * "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." - Sonic introducing himself.
 * "Tails, long time no see!" - Sonic greeting Tails in a few games.
 * "I'm outta here!" - Sonic when the player waits for too long in Sonic CD.
 * "Aw, yeah! This is happenin'!" - Sonic enjoying a run on building rooftops in his intro of Sonic Adventure.
 * "It won't change how he feels inside, will it? His heart will still remain in turmoil and his anger just won't vanish!" - Sonic claiming that sealing Chaos in the Master Emerald will not change anything, in Sonic Adventure.
 * "Hey, I'll play with you some other time!" - Sonic in Sonic Adventure after defeating a boss.
 * "Say something! You fake hedgehog!" - To Shadow when first encountering him Sonic Adventure 2.
 * "Too easy. Piece of cake!" - Sonic getting a B Rank in Sonic Adventure 2 and winning a match in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * "Let's head back to the planet that's as cool and blue as me!" - After defeating the Finalhazard and talking with Amy in Sonic Adventure 2.
 * "Let's blast through with Sonic speed!" - Selecting Team Sonic in Sonic Heroes.
 * "Time to crack that Eggman wide open... Yeah, let's party." - Sonic in the Team Sonic intro from Sonic Heroes.
 * "Shoot! Not my day..." - Sonic getting an E-Rank in Sonic Heroes or getting a 1-Star rank in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * "Ready anytime!" - When Sonic gets a Team Blast for Team Sonic in Sonic Heroes.
 * "Alright. Let's get ready to do this. We'll show that creep the real super power of teamwork!" - Sonic and friends about to confront Metal Madness in Sonic Heroes.
 * "Anytime you want a rematch, just let me know! I'll be waiting!" - Sonic challenging Metal Sonic to a future match in Sonic Heroes, later to be done in Sonic Free Riders.
 * "Let's do it!" - Sonic in the beginning of the levels in Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure.
 * "You gotta be true to yourself." - Sonic talking to Blaze in Sonic Rush.
 * "Looks like the party's getting started! Time to rock and roll!" - Sonic about to go to a stage with Shadow in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * "You up for this Shadow?" - Sonic asking if Shadow's up to fight a massive army of Black Arms when they were going up to the Space Colony Ark in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * "Don't you remember Shadow? We raced here once." - Sonic asking Shadow if he remembers their race from Sonic Adventure 2 in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * "Nothing starts until you take action. If you've got time to worry, run!" - Sonic talking to Elise in Sonic '06.
 * "Aren't you worried?" - Sonic rescuing Elise for the final time in Sonic '06.
 * "You're too slow!" - A very famous quote when taunting in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * "Sonic's the name, speed's my game!" - After winning a match in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * "Come on, step it up!" - Sonic taunting in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * "Hey, we should do this again sometime." - Sonic winning a match in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * "That was easy, piece of cake!" - Sonic whips out a Chaos Emerald after winning a match in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * "Finally! Something interesting!" - Sonic in the teaser trailer for Sonic and the Secret Rings.
 * "And enough of that 'rat' stuff! Seriously! I'm a hedgehog! HEDGE-HOG!" - After the Erazor Djinn calls Sonic a rat in Sonic and the Secret Rings.
 * "I told you, I'm not a rat! I'm a hedgehog!" - Sonic when Erazor "fufills" Sonic's final wish of trapping Erazor forever in his lamp in Sonic and the Secret Rings.
 * "Yeah, this is the real me. Pretty cool huh?" - Sonic telling Chip that this is what he usually looks like in Sonic Unleashed.
 * "Yo, Eggman. Thanks for that little skydiving adventure the other day!" - Sonic after saving the people of the village in Mazuri.
 * "Not a bad toy, but play time's over pal!" - Sonic after defeating the Egg Beetle of the daytime bosses in Sonic Unleashed.
 * "Do I need a reason to want to help out a friend?" - Sonic after discovering that Chip is actually Light Gaia, who believes that defeating Dark Gaia is not Sonic's responsibility.
 * "Time for the big finale!" - Sonic in the final battle against Dark Gaia in Sonic Unleashed.
 * "Eh. Can't win em all..." - Sonic when getting a C rank in Sonic Unleashed.
 * "Yeah, I'm good!" - Sonic after getting an A rank in Sonic Unleashed.
 * "Beautiful!" - When Sonic gets an S rank in Sonic Unleashed.
 * "Hey! Hold up a minute. Girls hate guys who rush them, Jet." - Sonic coming to Amy's aid after Jet accuses her of stealing an Ark of the Cosmos in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.
 * "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I have no master, except the wind that blows free." - Sonic introducing himself to Sir Percival in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * "Let's just say that whim is my other master." - Sonic after saving Sir Percival after their fight in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * "Just one more question before we settle this. Why'd you do it? Weren't we trying to save this kingdom from the underworld?" - Sonic confronting Merlina when he first enters the barrier in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * "A knight... never... flees his foe... right?" - Sonic restating Caliburn's words to the knights of the round table when he refuses to run away from Merlina during their fight in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * "It was... never about chivalry for me... I just gotta do what I gotta do, that's all!" - Sonic when badly beaten by the Dark Queen in Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * "Faster than the speed of sound!" - Sonic before starting an event in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.
 * "Wait, we're going up against them? Seriously?" - Sonic after he found out he had to go up against Team Rose in Sonic Free Riders.
 * "Because Eggman plus secretly built amusement park equals evil plot for us to foil." - Sonic talking to Tails at the beginning of the story in Sonic Colors.
 * "I did a little shopping, grabbed a bite to eat, and trashed a giant killer robot." - When Tails was wondering where Sonic was in Sonic Colors.
 * "Hey Tails! You missed the BBBE!" - Sonic telling Tails that he missed the "Best Boss Beating Ever" in Sonic Colors.
 * "Now, If I was an alien in need of saving, where would I be?" - Sonic in Sonic Colors while trying to find trapped Wisps.
 * "Experience has taught me to investigate anything that glows." - Sonic going to investigate one of Eggman's generators in Sonic Colors.
 * "BALDY NOSEHAIR!? That is the best thing I've heard all day! I gotta remember that one!" - Sonic laughing when Tails told him that the Wisps call Eggman "Baldy Nosehair" in Sonic Colors.
 * "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" - Sonic in Sonic Colors before fighting the boss on Planet Wisp.
 * "We? I don't remember YOU fighting off any insane robots." - Sonic sarcastically telling Tails he didn't help freeing the Wisp at the end of Sonic Colors.
 * "A hedgehog's gotta do what a hedgehog's gotta do." - Sonic tells Tails he did what he had to in order to defeat Eggman and outrun the black hole that enveloped the theme park in Sonic Colors.
 * "C'mon! Step it up!" - Getting a rank A in Sonic Generations with Modern Sonic
 * "Hey! Not cool!" - To the Time Eater at their first meeting in Sonic Generations.
 * "Another Sonic?! What!?! Wait a second!" - When Modern Sonic meets his Classic self before the boss fight with the Death Egg Robot.
 * "Destroy me? You and what mustache? I beat you all the time by myself, and now there's two of me!" - to both Dr. Eggman and Dr. Robotnik before the 1st half of the boss fight with the Time Eater, he's referring to the fact there's both Modern and Classic Sonic.
 * "Time to scramble some Eggmen, SUPER SONIC STYLE!" - Sonic says this before he and Classic Sonic transform into Super Sonic in Sonic Generations.
 * "It was great teaming up with you. Hope you learned a few tricks that'll help you out in the future. I mean the past. You know what I mean!" - Sonic to his Classic self after they've restored the time-space rift in Sonic Generations.
 * "Hey Sonic! Enjoy your future. It's going to be great!" - Sonic's farewell to his Classic self when he is going to return to his original timeline, at the ending of Sonic Generations.
 * "That's no stranger than rescuing genies in magic books and saving aliens in an intersteller amuesment park." - Sonic mentioning his past adventures with Shahra and the wisps in Sonic Generations.

Solo Themes

 * In Sonic SatAM, Sonic's theme is "Fastest Thing Alive."
 * In Sonic CD, Sonic's theme is "Sonic Boom." In the Japanese version, his theme is "Sonic - You Can Do Anything."
 * In Sonic Adventure, Sonic's theme is "It Doesn't Matter."
 * Also, in Sonic Adventure 2, the City Escape stage has lyrics to the music, which refer to Sonic in the line "Rollin' around at the speed of sound".
 * In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic's theme is a a faster-paced, alternative rock remix of "It Doesn't Matter."
 * In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) the main theme "His World" is possibly a Sonic theme because the Zebrahead version has lyrics like "and straps on his shoes" a reference to Sonic because of his iconic shoes and "cause' he's the best there ever was, i betcha' heard the news" because he is often referred to as a savior to mankind and he is known by many in his world.
 * In Sonic and the Black Knight the main theme "Knight of the Wind" is probably referring to Sonic, for Caliburn eventually calls him so.
 * In Sonic Unleashed, Sonic's theme is "Endless Possibility," which describes life from his point of view.
 * In Sonic Colors, his theme is "Reach For The Stars" describing from his point of view on his new adventure.

Shared Themes

 * In Sonic Heroes, Team Sonic's theme is "We Can," and refers to Sonic in the line "Sonic's in the lead, giving us greater speed!"
 * In Sonic Riders, Sonic's team theme, shared with Tails and Knuckles, is an instrumental called "High Flying Groove."
 * In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Team Sonic's theme song is "Un-Gravitify."

Gallery
For a full gallery of images of Sonic, including sprites and screenshots, see Sonic the Hedgehog (character)/Artwork Gallery.