Super Sonic

Super Sonic is a powered up version of Sonic the Hedgehog that can be activated through collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds and usually fifty rings. In the 2D games, he plays like Sonic but he can jump higher, is faster and invincible, although he could still drown or die by falling off screen (gameplay only). In his first appearance, Super Sonic bears no impact on the game's story, but would give the good ending if achieved. However, in most later games, he usually has a greater impact on the story and is often part of the ending, or secret ending. Sonic has golden yellow fur and red eyes.

Appearances of Super Sonic

 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2: When Super Sonic first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, he was almost the same as Sonic but he was yellow instead of blue and his spikes pointed upward.
 * Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Super Sonic's appearance was slightly altered so that his eyes changed from black to green.
 * Sonic the Fighters: Super Sonic appearance was very close to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but in 3D, and he had yellow upturned spikes and black eyes.
 * Sonic R: Super Sonic had the same appearance as in Sonic the Fighters, but in the graphic style of Sonic R. Also, instead of having upturned spikes, he received longer quills.
 * Sonic Adventure: Since Sonic had an updated character design Super Sonic was also changed. Apart from the design changes shared with Sonic, Super Sonic now also had red eyes. This is also the first game Super Sonic had a yellow aura. Note that his spikes tilt upwards a bit, similar to Shadow's, and the spike on his back became longer.
 * Sonic Adventure 2: In this game, Super Sonic is mostly the same as his Sonic Adventure appearance, except he is a metallic gold color, but his aura stays yellow. The spikes on his back also do not change size. This change is the same for all the games after Sonic Adventure 2 (with Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) as an exception).
 * Sonic Advance: The design of Super Sonic is mostly the same as in Sonic Adventure 2, for the entire series.
 * Sonic Heroes: In this game Sonic again had a metallic gold color like Sonic Adventure 2. His spikes also lifted entirely over his head.
 * Sonic Rush series: When Super Sonic doesn't move, his design is the same as in Sonic Advance.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): In this game, Super Sonic's appearance had again become yellow instead of metallic gold. The design of his spikes is the same as in Sonic Heroes on his head, but with Sonic the Hedgehog 2's design for his back.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: In this game, Super Sonic appears as Sonic's Final Smash. It looks exactly like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) except that his back's spikes are in Sonic Adventure 2 style.
 * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood: Super Sonic's design in this game appears as a cross between his Brawl and Adventure appearance.He also transforms to defeat the leader of the Nocturnus Clan, Ix. After defeating Ix, Sonic and his friends return to their dimension from the dimension called Twilight Cage. Then, they return into the hands of the traitorous Dr. Eggman. The game then finishes, and Tails and Omega tell you the creators of the game. After you finish, you get to do the whole game again with your powerful people.
 * Sonic Unleashed: Super Sonic looks similar to his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but has a fire-like golden aura.

Conditions for Super Sonic
In the actual story canon, Sonic only needs to use the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds to turn into Super Sonic. While he doesn't need to collect fifty rings to trigger the transformation since, for most games after Sonic Adventure, he automatically starts them, the rings are required to sustain the super form as they slowly deplete. Once Super Sonic is out of rings, he will back revert to Sonic. Though, it is possible for Sonic to indefinitely hold his transformation-- in Sonic Advance, he kept it for almost a week. In Sonic Unleashed, his ring count doesn't deplete, but he is significantly weaker without collecting them. It is shown that Super Sonic is faster than the speed of light in Sonic Rush. Burning Blaze is shown to have the speed to escape from a black hole/dimensional rift (not even light can escape a black hole), and Super Sonic is even faster than her. It is also stated by Tikal in Sonic Adventure that Super Sonic can turn into a "bolt of lighting".

In the MegaDrive/Genesis games that Super Sonic appeared in, he could only be activated by first collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds from the Special Stages. If this condition was met, Sonic could simply transform into Super Sonic by jumping, or in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, double tapping jump, as long as he had at least fifty rings and no shield.

In the Sonic Adventure series, the Chaos Emeralds are an essential part of the plot and as such are already collected at the end of the game as part of the story. Super Sonic is only playable for the final boss, with the final stage unlocked by clearing all the other characters stories.

In the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series, the Chaos Emeralds have to be collected throughout the game by clearing Special Stages, but unlike the MegaDrive Genesis games, Super Sonic is only playable for the final boss.

In Sonic R, Super Sonic can be played after finding all seven Chaos Emeralds in the game. He can then be selected to be used on any track. Unlike most of his other appearances, Super Sonic is not limited by a ring count and can even race alongside Sonic, as the two are considered separate characters in this game.

In Sonic the Fighters, Super Sonic can be played but only for the second match against Metal Sonic and the fight against Eggman. To play as Super Sonic, the player must not lose and enter hyper mode. The Chaos Emeralds are automatically collected after each fight.

In Sonic Riders, Super Sonic is obtained by achieving gold emblem for all Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross missions. Then the Chaos Emerald extreme gear is unlocked and when used by Sonic, he will become Super Sonic while he has rings. He is unlocked in a similar manner in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Super Sonic is unlocked in the same way as the Sonic Adventure series, and again is only playable for the last boss.

In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Sonic again becomes Super Sonic for the final fight. Due to the RPG nature of the game, Super Sonic is not bound by a ring count. Sonic gains a vast increase in HP as Super Sonic (several thousand compared to the several hundred or so of his regular form) and only attacks with the Super Sonic POW Move, which requires a long series of stylus commands, but can inflict over 9999 damage. It's worth mentioning that Finial Boss (Super Ix) was using Super Sonic's presumed weakness in the comics, the Master Emerald. Super Sonic was able to defeat him almost flawlessly.

In Sonic Unleashed, Sonic becomes Super Sonic in the game's opening, demolishing Eggman's armada and cornering the scientist. Unfortunately, Eggman traps Super Sonic and uses his power to awaken Dark Gaia. Because Sonic was in super form, he was more greatly exposed to the negative Chaos energy, causing him to become a Werehog. When all the Chaos Emeralds are empowered again, Super Sonic reappears for the boss fight against Perfect Dark Gaia. For the Wii version, Super Sonic starts with less Rings than usual, requiring the player to gather them to fill the boost gauge. In the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 versions, he doesn't lose rings, he possesses a life gauge in that form and uses rings to fill it.

In Sonic and the Black Knight Sonic is shown in golden armour. It is possible that this is a variation of Super Sonic for said game.

Homage to Dragon Ball
Super Sonic is widely believed to be homage to Akira Toriyama's very successful manga Dragon Ball. Super Sonic bears many similarities to Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball, such as when a Saiyan becomes a Super Saiyan, their hair stands up and turns yellow, similar to Super Sonic's spikes. Another point is the fact that a Saiyan's eyes become green when they turn Super Saiyan, much like Super Sonic's in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Also the fact that a seventh Chaos Emerald was added when Super Sonic first appeared similar to there being seven Dragonballs in Dragonball Z. Yuji Naka is a well known fan of Dragon Ball, and was once asked in an interview if Akira Toriyama had ever approached him about Super Sonic, to which he smiled and replied, "No." Both the Super Saiyans from the Dragon Ball franchise and Super Sonic (among other Super Transformations) are in fact a reference to an old Japanese legend about a powerful golden warrior.

It should be noted that Super Sonic first appeared in a 1992 Sonic video game while Super Saiyan appeared in a 1991 manga chapter of DBZ.

BUT Super Sonic was not influenced by DBZ as stated above.

Sonic X
Sonic X is the only Sonic anime/cartoon to feature Super Sonic. Super Sonic is very similar to how he is in the games (Sonic Adventure design), except that he only needs the 7 Chaos Emeralds to achieve Super Sonic, rings serve a different purpose. It can also be noted that from the front, it seems that all of his quills are sticking straight up, giving him a more Sonic 2 appearance. Only from a side or back view does it reveal that he really has the Sonic Adventure look.

Archie Comics
Super Sonic's first Archie Sonic appearance was in issue 4 to battle The Universalamander, a giant roboticized salamander. Earlier comics had him collecting 50 rings to access the special zone, wherein collecting 50 more rings would allow him transform, but that was eventually phased out to just the requirement of Chaos Emeralds.

In the fight against Master Mogul, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were able to combine the energies of the rings they had previously gathered with the energy of Mogul's attacks to achieve their super transformations. This was the first instance of Sonic transforming without the use of a Chaos Emerald.

In the recent saga where Sonic was thrust into deep space, he mentions that he is able to transform into Super Sonic using only six green emeralds, and is able to do so on an alien planet that also plays host to Chaos Emeralds, only these alien emeralds are red. His transformation when using red emeralds, however, has a very different outcome. Rather than transforming into Super Sonic, his powered-up form exists as a separate entity, and his actions are unpredictable because this Super Sonic doesn't believe in "good or evil," only "power" and the acquisition of such. His time, however, just like the green emerald Super Sonic, is limited, and he vanishes before he causes any real damage. The red emerald version of Super Sonic has not been seen since.

Super Sonic's latest appearance was when he fought the new Enerjak in issue 184. This transformation was accomplished in another unusual way, as sonic transformed by standing atop the Master Emerald and absorbing his energy, much in the same way as Mecha Sonic transformed by standing atop the Master Emerald in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Fleetway
In Sonic the Comic (StC), Super Sonic was a more powerful form of Sonic created from absorbing too much Chaos Energy, however unlike in the games Super Sonic was originally evil. In Sonic the Comic, the Chaos Emeralds absorb negative energy so this is presumably why Super Sonic was evil. Super Sonic later became a separate entity from Sonic after Super Sonic almost killed Sonic's friends but Sonic will prevented him from doing so, they were then split into two separate beings. Shortly after being separated Super Sonic lost his memory and became a peaceful person who soon after made friends with cats called Ebony and Pijamas. They attempted to help Super Sonic recover his memory before finding the truth behind his identity. Super Sonic regained his memories, and the knowledge of how to harness his powers, but each time he unleashed his powers he turned evil, resulting in several very close calls. When the Sonic Adventure story was adapted into the comic Super Sonic returned and was revealed to be dying from a lack of Chaos Energy as a life support. He defeated the unstoppable by absorbing all the Emerald Energy from Chaos, who's Perfect Form was also significantly more powerful than in the games, Super Sonic once again turned evil, and supercharged. Sonic and Ebony worked together to trick Super Sonic into getting close enough to merge him and Sonic back into one being.