Flicky

Flicky is a fictional female bluebird who debuted in the arcade game Flicky as the main character and has since become a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series as a species commonly used for "organic batteries" in the evil Doctor Eggman's robots, also known as Badniks. They also play integral parts in Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic Adventure. Flicky's original designer was Yoji Ishii, a member of Sonic Team until August 1999.

Flicky


Flicky's eponymous debut. Player 1 (or Player 2) controls Flicky around a series of simplistic levels. Flicky moves left or right and has one action button to jump and to shoot. Flicky has a very good jump range, but strangely enough, cannot actually fly.

Released in arcades in 1984, using[Sega's System 1 Hardware. The aim of the game is collect your lost 'children' Chirp (Piopios in Japan) who are scattered around each level, and return them to the doorway/entrance that you used to enter each level. To get a Chirp to follow you in a line like ducklings you just need to touch them, usually this involves jumping to reach them. If you have more than one Chirp and place them in the doorway [to do this all you have to do is stand in front of it with Chirps following you] your score per Chirp will increase by 100 [i.e. 100 points for the first Chirp, 200 for the second, 300 for the third...]. If you place them separately you will get a flat rate 100 points. Your main problem is Tiger (Nyan-Nyan in Japan) tabby cats that are similar to the cats in the Mappy franchise. If you hit a Tiger you will lose a life. If a Tiger clips your Chirp line the clipped Chirp will break the line and you'll have to re-collect it and any behind it in the line. Iggy (Choro in Japan) is an Iguana that does pretty much the same thing. Like Mappy, you are never helpless, for each level has a set of objects, ranging from telephones to chairs to flowerpots, if you touch one of these objects you can carry it until you jump (this is because 'throw' is the same button as 'jump'). When you throw it, you will send it spinning off in a straight line, and if a Tiger or Iggy is unfortunate enough to be in the way of the object, they'll go spinning and you'll get extra points. Hit more than one with the same object and a gem will appear and give you even more points. Each level loops, and is thus endless. Between every few rounds is a bonus round, where Tiger catapults Chirps up in the air, and Flicky must catch them in the net in her net. The game is simplistic and has the feel of being aimed at a younger audience, but can become quite challenging quite fast. The Game was popular enough to be 'ported' (transferred) to both Sega's home consoles the Mega Drive (or Genesis) and Master System in 1991 (the same year Flicky guest-starred in Sonic the Hedgehog, funnily enough). Both suffer from the downsizing in graphics [due to the consoles' capabilities]. Iggy is particularly effected by this, but plays virtually the same. Both versions also lose their cute balloon intro for the Title screen.

Due to her close links with the Sonic franchise, the Mega Drive port of 'Flicky' was included as an unlockable game in the Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus compilations that were compiled under Sonic Team's supervision. Unlike Comix Zone and The Ooze, Flicky was kept in the Western version of Mega Collection for the Nintendo GameCube.

Flicky made subsequent cameo appearances in many Sega games in the late 80's, including:
 * TeddyBoy Blues
 * SDI
 * Flash Point
 * Super Monaco GP (when the words "Game Over" are shuffling by letters, Flicky can be seen flying by. Arcade only)
 * Bloxeed

Flicky in the Sonic the Hedgehog series
Flicky is perhaps most known for her cameos in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games. Flicky is one of small animals captured to Doctor Eggman in order to power 'Badniks' [as they were originally known in the West], the robotic enemies in the games. Flickies seem to be large abundance in Sonic's homeplanet, as they appear to live on South Island, Little Planet, Westside Island and Angel Island.

Sonic the Hedgehog to Sonic & Knuckles
Her first cameo was in the very first Sonic game, Sonic the Hedgehog. Here she was one of Sonic's friends on South Island whom Sonic went to rescue in the Japanese storyline - the Japanese manual even names her as Flicky. However, the Western manuals made no mention of the friends, their names, or even South Island, and Flicky was not named again until Sonic 3D Blast where 'Flicky' became a species.

Flicky's appearances in Sonic 2, 3 & Sonic & Knuckles were more low-key, her design was simply used as one of the freed animals, though she is one of the animals seen frolicking the Mushroom Hill Zone during the beginning of Knuckles the Echidna's story in Sonic & Knuckles.

Flicky also makes an appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, even though flowers fall from the Badniks there instead of animals. If you destroy the Metal Sonic holograms in each Zone, Animals will frolic in the present time, with one of them being Flicky.

In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, when playing as Super Tails, four Flickies that appear to be "Super Flickies" surround him and destroys enemies for him. When Super Tails reverts back to normal, the Flickies turn blue and fly away. Also while playing as Super Sonic in Sonic 2, any flickies you see Including the ones in the final cutscene are super. But while playing as Tails there are chickens instead.

Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island
In this game, the sixth Sonic the Hedgehog installment for the Mega Drive, Flickies are mysterious birds who live on Flickies' Island and can travel through very large rings; these rings are similar to the rings used to enter the Special Stages in many older Sonic games, and the 'Goal Rings' in more modern Sonic installements. Eggman learns of these creatures and decides to transform them into Badniks and have them search for the Chaos Emeralds for him.

Sonic 3D is Flicky's most well known appearance. However it is not Flicky who appears, but Flickies, a species. The 'classic' Flicky look is only one of four different kinds of Flickies; there are three others introduced: pink, red and green Flickies.

Sonic 3D and Flicky share similar traits, though collecting rings and Chaos Emeralds are still a part of the game, Sonic's main purpose is to collect Flickies [a bit of a turn around]. Five Flickies are to be collected at a time and deposited in a giant ring. Flickies follow Sonic in a line like ducklings; if Sonic is hit the Flickies disperse [only blue and pink Flickies will make an attempt to find their way back to Sonic, the red ones bounce randomly and the green wander aimlessly] and must be re-collected. If they are clipped by an enemy the hit Flicky will break the chain and must be recollected, along with any Flicky behind it. Plus, if you desposit Flickies in the large ring in multiple numbers, your score per Flicky will increase. All of these traits are from the original Flicky game.

This game was ported to PC and to the Sega Saturn. The PC and Saturn versions featured dozens of graphical enhancements, including full animated backgrounds, that suggested that Flickies' Island was inhabited by other species, including construction worker moles. This port also featured a new soundtrack, and a new polygonal special stage that was, at the time, quite impressive.

Flicky and the Sega Saturn
As well as appearing in several images as one of Sonic's friends in Sonic The Screensaver, a PC program, Flicky made cameos in all of Sonic's appearances on the Sega Saturn console. Though Sonic 3D was not included on Sonic Jam, the Sonic compilation released for the system, Flickies fly around the Game's bonus material, the fully 3D Sonic World. Flicky is named in the Characters section for the first time since Sonic 1.

Sonic R also features a Flicky cameo (not surprising as it was made by Traveller's Tales, the same British company who made Sonic 3D Blast). Whole flocks of them, in all four of their Sonic 3D Blast colours, can be seen around the start/finish of the Resort Island level.

Sonic Adventure
The primary Flicky in Sonic Adventure appears at the beginning of Amy Rose's quest. It falls from the sky, apparently hurt. Immediately following this event, a robot known as E-100, or ZERO, began pursuing Amy and the Flicky bird nonstop. As Amy's game progressed, the Flicky showed her the picture in the large locket it was carrying around. The picture depicted two other Flickies. Amy assumed that the birds in the picture were family members, and that Dr. Eggman had captured them. These Flickies turned out to be inside the robots E-101 Beta and E-102 Gamma, with Gamma being another playable character in the game. In the end, the robots are destroyed, and the Flicky is reunited with the two other ones.

There seems to be dispute over these three birds and their gender. In the game, Amy referred to the bird as "Birdie," and is referred as a male. However, in the Sonic X cartoon adaption of Sonic Adventure, Amy and Cream the Rabbit name the bird "Lily" and refer to it as female. Gamma and Beta are always addressed as males (and have masculine voices), but many people think that the two birds were parents of the blue Flicky, and that Gamma's pink hue implied that he was in fact a female. Sonic X ' s Amy said that they were the blue bird's brother and sister. It could also be that the two other birds are both male or female, maybe two siblings or simply friends.

Flickies have not appeared in any 3D Sonic games since Sonic Adventure, but has appeared in some Sonic Advance games for the Game Boy Advance and Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS.

Sonic the Comic
In the British comic book Sonic the Comic, the Flicky design made cameos often in earlier issues as random Mobians and victims, though as the series developed more human bird characters were utilized instead.

Sonic the Comic adapted Sonic 3D Blast in the 3-part Flickies' Island, though besides the location it had little to do with the game. In the story Tails could talk to/understand the Flickies' chirps and tweets and lead Sonic to Flickies' Island on the whim of a Flicky. There they clashed with Robotnik, who was hiding out on Flickies' Island after being kicked out of power as dictator.

Having deduced that Flickies came to Mobius from another dimension, Robotnik was experimenting with the dimensional gateways known as Mobius Rings and pulling Flickies from them to use as organic batteries for his lethal new Badniks (based loosely on the Sonic 3D Blast ones). His plans of using the new Badniks to re-conquer Mobius were thwarted when the alien race known as the Drakon Empire intervened; it was they who had built the ruins on Flickies' Island long ago, and left the Mobius Rings as a way of knowing when the Mobians had developed to the point where they could be a potential threat pose a threat to them. Robotnik was taken to the planet Drak and the Mobius Ring was deactivated.

For a while afterwards (after making a deal with the Drakon's Emperor Ko-Dorr), Robotnik ran his operations from Flickies' Island and attacked Mobius repeatedly with his new model of Badniks. His base was destroyed in issue 132.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)
The Archie-published Sonic the Hedgehog comic book also chose to adapt Sonic 3D Blast, but in its own separate '1-Shot' (a common practice in American Comic Books and something they had already done with Sonic & Knuckles and Knuckles' Chaotix.)

In their story, a little closer from the original, Sonic responsed to a distress call on an Attoll called Flickies' Island (even though the game and the 1-shot were both called Sonic 3D Blast, the island's name remained the same). Eggman had enslaved the island, robotosized the Flickies and was looking for Emeralds. Sonic soon found out that the Robot Flickies were weak to seawater, when hit by saltwater they reverted to their flesh and blood forms. Sonic raced through the Zones and defeated Eggman, who fled.

The Flickies in this adaptation were only the game's four kinds but were not encased in robots instead roboticizised: a method devised, in that universe, by Sonic's Uncle Chuck to patch up wounded Mobians during their Great War, but taken and twisted by Robotnik and used to transform the organic creatures of the planet into robotic slaves. Flickies are the only 'Robians' that have ever had a weakness to Sea Water, or water of any kind, mostly they required 'Derobotisizing' via the same machine that robotisized them, unsurprisingly called 'the Robotisizer', to change them back.

Others
Flicky also appeared in a Sonic the Hedgehog series of novels made in 1992/3.

The Flickies from Sonic 3D Blast made a cameo in the Sonic X anime, when creatures from Sonic's world were taken to Earth.

Cameo appearances

 * When Treasure released Gunstar Super Heroes on the Game Boy Advance in 2005, they paid tribute to Flicky in Pink's stage, where you run through a rotating jungle section rescuing little yellow chicks and guiding them to the exit door of the stage.
 * The character also appears in the Dreamcast game Shenmue as a gashapon toy the character can collect.

Additional notes

 * At one point, DiC were considering using a character based Flicky, though it was red and male, in one of their cartoon series. This concept was scrapped (some say it was evolved into Sonic's "SatAM") so the character was never taken beyond his one promotional image, though he does bear a striking resemblance to the red Flicky in Sonic 3D Blast.
 * An interesting note is that if one plays as Knuckles in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, or plays Knuckles in Sonic 2, the Flickies turn red due to Knuckles' red palette (it is possible that they were just swapped for cardinals, however).