Picky


 * Not to be confused with Pocky.

The Picky (ピッキー) is a creature in the Sonic the Hedgehog series which first appeared in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. They are a race of small pig Animals inhabiting various regions all over Sonic's world, and are close friends of Sonic the Hedgehog and his allies. They are perpetually targeted by Dr. Eggman who seeks to use them as energy sources for his Badnik army and often imprisons them in Capsules for later use.

Anatomy
The general Picky resembles a rotund domestic pig slightly less than half a meter tall. However, they are remarkably humanoid in anatomy, even standing on two legs. They have light pink skin and possess a large round head with two large grey eyes (originally black), triangular ears, and a small stubby snout. Other features include a relatively small torso, thin and short arms with five fingers, stubby legs with long feet and two cloven for toes, and a short coiled tail.

Characteristics
Like actual animals, the Pickies can only speak in a language consisting of oinks. Although recognized as animal life, Pickies are remarkably intelligent and sociable, being capable of understanding normal language and establishing their own Animal communities. All Pickies are generally good-hearted, helpful, friendly and playful, but their small stature leaves them rather defenseless on their own. They also have great respect and appreciation for nature, choosing to live in complete harmony with it.

Habitats
Pickies inhabit various natural environments like forests all around Earth, like the lustrous South Island, and even its unusual satellites like the Lost Hex, where they have established their own small villages, more often than not with other Animal species.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
The Pickies first appeared in the 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. The Pickies were amongst the Animals on South Island whom Sonic went to rescue after Dr. Robotnik captured them and used them to power his Badnik army - all as a part of a plot to collect the Chaos Emeralds. They can be found in Spring Yard Zone and Star Light Zone where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or opened Capsules at the end of the third Acts. The Pickies also appear in the ending cinematic where they celebrate Sonic's victory in the Green Hill Zone.

Pickies also appears in the 8-bit version of the game with same name. In this game, they only appear from the opened Capsule at the end of Bridge Zone Act 3.

Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld
In Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld, Picky appeared along with Sonic, Tails, Amy and other Animals. He can be seen in the background among Gameworld testing equipment. In the mini-games, a toy version of Picky can be seen inside a machine in the Toy Drop game, and an icon of it is visible inside a slot machine in the Concentration game.

In the American credits of the game, Picky is labeled with his Japanese name ("Picky") instead of his western name during that time.

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

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

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
In Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, a Picky appears alongside several Animals in the game's perfect ending if the player has cleared Chaotic Space Zone where they celebrate Sonic's victory over Eggman.

Sonic Advance
In Sonic Advance, a Picky makes a cameo in the ending cinematic after clearing the Moon Zone. There, the Picky, alongside with Tails, Knuckles, Amy and other Animals, awaited Sonic's return from the moon.

Mario & Sonic series
In the Mario &amp; Sonic series, the Pikcies appear in all the series' installments where they are seen amongst the audience of every event along with other characters from both the Sonic and Mario franchises, cheering on the competitors.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4
In the Sonic the Hedgehog 4 installments, the Pickies appeared in all three episodes where they reprised their roles from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. In Episode I, Dr. Eggman specifically began capturing Pickies and other Animals to produce a new wave of Badniks capable of defeating Sonic. The Pickies can be found in Casino Street Zone in Episode I and in Oil Desert Zone in Episode II, where they pop out of destroyed Badniks or opened Capsules at the end of the boss Acts.

In the ending cinematic of Episode Metal, the Pickies and other Animals see Sonic and Tails leave in the Tornado, only to be scared away by a furious Metal Sonic.

Sonic Generations
In the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, Pickies appeared alongside other Animals in the Challenge Acts Rescue the Animals! and Rescue the Animals 2!. In these Acts, the player has to find a certain number of Capsules containing the Pickies and other Animals, and free them. A statue of a Picky and the other Animals can also be unlocked in the Statue Room.

Sonic Jump (2012)
In the 2012 remake of Sonic Jump, Picky appeared along with several other Animals. In this game, Dr. Eggman kidnaps them and takes them away in the prison unit on the Egg Mobile, while Sonic and the others try to stop them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sonic Mania
The Pickies reappeared in Sonic Mania.

Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic
Picky along with other animal friends, appears in Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic manga. He appears in few panels in first and third stories. In Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Volume 2 ' s story "Clash!! South Island" Sonic frees him from being Caterkiller badnik. Picky then starts tell Sonic that he saw Ricky and Cucky also becoming badniks. After hearing this Sonic start his rescue mission.

Sonic the Comic
In Sonic the Comic, Picky is named Porker Lewis. In this media, he was a founding member of the Freedom Fighters and a technical genius. After a mission involving the Brotherhood of Metallix, during which he was held prisoner on the Miracle Planet for a month, Porker suffered a nervous breakdown and left the team. He subsequently moved to the Floating Island and helped Knuckles the Echidna fix the island's ancient Echidna technology.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Pickies are a Mobini species native to Mobius, and later Sonic's World.

Sonic X
In the Sonic X franchise, the Pickies are an animal species native to Sonic's world. Several of them got sent to Earth by Chaos Control, but they were returned home not long afterwards.

Early Sonic canon
In the early days of the Sonic series, when all the Animals were renamed by Sega of America in the Sonic Bible, Picky was defined as a male and was renamed Pig in the bible's first draft for the western media. He was later renamed Porker Lewis in the bible's second draft. According to the bibles, Porker Lewis comes from a large family like the other animals (which was intended to explain the appearance of multiple identical Pickies in the games) and helped raise an orphaned Sonic. It is said in the first draft of the Sonic Bible that Porker Lewis introduced Sonic to the delights of wallowing in mud, but it was later changed in the second draft for the bible, where it is said that he taught Sonic how to fear fire.

Trivia

 * Inside the game data of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Picky seens to have unused sprites for the Death Egg Zone. Because of lack of enemies in the zone, Picky is nowhere to be seen.
 * The Pickies were presumably created by Naoto Ōshima, the character designer on the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * In DiC's early scrapped Sonic cartoon, Porker Lewis was featured in a cast picture as part of the "Freedom team". He was large with wild hair and wore a leather jacket and sunglasses.
 * Apparently in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Picky was originally set to appear in Death Egg Zone. Picky's sprites can be found inside the game's coding, but were unused due the lack of any Badniks in the last Zone of the game. However, Picky does appear normally in the new additional credits sequence of 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 port for Nintendo 3DS.
 * His western name, Porker Lewis, is likely parodying the popular comedy character Parker Lewis, from the series Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
 * Porker Lewis may be the inspiration for the Sonic the Hedgehog television series and Archie Comics' pig character, Hamlin, although the characters' personalities in their respective comics are total opposites.
 * When Picky was originally featured on his own card in Sonic the Hedgehog Online Trading Cards, he has been misleadingly named as Cookie. Pocky on his own card, has been then misleadingly called as Picky.