!!Fanfic:
* ClicheStorm: Many of the tropes found in video game creepypastas are found here played completely (and unashamedly) straight. Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} examples include the author's [[ExactTimeToFailure obsession with listing the exact amount of time things happened for]], constantly jamming things from other games into the story simply because it might be "scary", and of course, hyperrealistic blood.
* CommonKnowledge: X is often interpreted as a demon, when he's actually an alien. Him being an alien was made more clear by [=JoeDoughBoi=] and ASTRANOMICONX, Sonic.exe's new owners. Then again, various aspects of the original story and its sequel don't exactly do anything to avoid creating the confusion in the first place.
* CompleteMonster:
** [[EldritchAbomination X]] is a monster resembling [[Characters/SonicTheHedgehogSonictheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog]]. Trapped in another dimension, X created a cursed ''Sonic'' game. Once someone had played through the game, a portal would open up, allowing X to tear the player's soul out of their body and take them back to his world for [[AndIMustScream eternal torture]]. When Tom plays the game, he witnesses X torment several people whose souls have been transformed into Sonic characters, before he brings Tom into his realm. In ''Sonic.exe Round 2'', it is revealed that X has killed 31 people, and plans to one day permanently cross over to Earth and [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans turn it into a realm of eternal suffering]]. Viewing all of humanity as toys [[ForTheEvulz for his amusement]], X is as evil as a Creepypasta monster could be.
** [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Shannon Goldman]] is the leader of the [[ReligionOfEvil Cult of X]]. [[MisanthropeSupreme Viewing all of humanity as "stupid" and the Earth as "filthy"]], she formed the cult to help X with his evil plans. Shannon and her cult deliver the game to unsuspecting people, allowing X to claim more victims. After X has killed the victim, Shannon sends a member of her cult to retrieve the game and move on to the next victim. When a member of the cult named Cole [[HeelFaceTurn realizes how evil they are and tries to stop them]], they make him X's next victim. When detective Derek Green comes close to stopping them and destroying the game, Shannon and her cult tie him up, insert the game, and allow X to kill him. Shannon later sends Derek's friend Bob Richardson [[WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied an audio file of Derek's death, likely as a way of taunting him about his friend's fate.]]
* CondemnedByHistory: You would have nary a clue this used to be one of ''the'' most well-respected game Creepypastas out there judging by how the pasta is treated nowadays; after critics tore it apart and made people realize its flaws, the pasta was lampooned so hard it got moved off the Creepypasta Wiki and onto a wiki dedicated explicitly for bad or troll Creepypastas. This in turn led the author to practically explode with petulant rage, writing a response to the Creepypasta Wiki's deletion of the story (with an archive available [[https://c0rps3.deviantart.com/art/The-Original-Sonic-EXE-Rant-EDIT-READ-DESCRIP-508262184 HERE]]) so overwrought and laden with PurpleProse that he only [[DiggingYourselfDeeper drew further attention]] to both the story and himself, resulting in even more relentless mockery and criticism. Finally, it was revealed in 2021 that the creepypasta author participated in questionable roleplays with minors, leading to said author being disowned by most of the fandom. While there does still exist a significant following for the general idea and character of Sonic.exe (ironically, something the author's response outright desired to keep alive), especially among [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids kids]] or [[NostalgiaFilter adults who encountered it as kids]], [[AdaptationDisplacement it is almost entirely divorced from the actual original story]], which any retrospective will be quick to point out the issues with.
* DesignatedHero: Tom spends the entire story worrying about fictional characters and mourns over their gruesome deaths ([[DracoInLeatherPants including Robotnik, Sonic's archenemy who wants to turn people into robots and take over the world]]) unlike his real-life friend, Kyle, who presumably died horribly trying to save him.
* FandomRivalry:
** One exists with ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'' due to the latter's BigBad, Turbo Mecha Sonic, also having an AGodAmI mentality, so they have Mecha and Sonic.exe duke it out to see which of them deserves the God title. Though this rivalry is heavily onesided; most who know about it take Mecha's side and have him utterly ''[[CurbStompBattle trash]]'' Sonic.exe, [[CurbStompCushion even if the latter fights back]] (it helps that Mecha is considered more terrifying than [[NightmareRetardant Sonic.exe]]). Even when Sonic.exe was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap by the ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'' fanbase through the ''VideoGame/VsSonicExe'' mod, it amounted to nothing, because kkirby999, a fan of ''Super Mario Bros. Z'', made a mod where Boyfriend faces Mecha, which led to other SMBZ fans to make covers where Mecha trashes the characters in the ''Vs. Sonic.exe'' mod.
** Another animosity of an even bigger magnitude exists with ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork''. Case in point, that series has a lot of .EXE characters, but none of them are demonic soul-snatches [[spoiler:(the closest instance is how [=MegaMan=] is Lan's brother Hub having undergone BrainUploading, and that still doesn't count)]] and many of them are actually benevolent and friendly. And then, as the ''Battle Network'' fans would claim, Sonic.EXE came around and posed as a [=NetNavi=] to ruin the good name of the true [=NetNavis=]. Needless to say, the ''Battle Network'' fans ''will'' rise with pitchforks against anyone who likes Sonic.EXE.
* FirstInstallmentWins: While "wins" is a bit too much of a term, the original pasta is given a small credit due to having a more straightforward plot that does not drag out for too long and featuring little if any PurpleProse, something both the sequel and the remake suffer from greatly.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** There would eventually be an [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020 official Sonic media]] with a human protagonist named Tom. Funnily enough, it ''also'' had a version of Sonic that made people reel in horror. That very same version of Sonic (albeit with a few cosmetic changes) was later featured in Film/ChipNDaleRescueRangers2022, where he does a creepy closeup at one point similar to one of Sonic.exe's faces.
** In his infamous rant, the author claims that "our glorious little Hellspawn shall have the last laugh yet" and tells his fans to do whatever it takes to keep it alive. By 2023, Sonic.exe has, [[AdaptationalDisplacement even if they're rather divorced from the original]], maintained a strong community of fan-games, fan-videos, art, and mods compared to other creepypastas, even fellow big-namers like ''Literature/JeffTheKiller'' and ''[[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]]''. So, in a sense, Sonic.exe did get the last laugh.
* IAmNotShazam: "Sonic.exe Round 2" reveals the antagonist's name is "[[OneLetterName X]]". Virtually everyone on the internet calls him "Sonic.exe" (despite that being the name of the cursed game).
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Ever since it was posted on the Creepypasta Wiki and the fangame adaptation, it has gained widespread popularity across the net, and since then many find it as one of the worst examples of creepypastas out there. This trope, among [[CondemnedByHistory other]] [[ClicheStorm reasons]], is the reason it was moved from the Creepypasta Wiki to its sister site, the Trollpasta Wiki (along with many other old creepypastas that fell into this trope). Even amongst its initial following, it didn't really stand the test of time against other pastas.
* MemeticLoser: Sonic.exe is commonly trashed by other Sonic villains - either those that are genuinely scary, or have a much cooler concept - such as [[ComicBook/SonicTheComic Fleetway Super Sonic]] and [[WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ Turbo Mecha Sonic]]. This is referenced in the ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'' mod ''VideoGame/VsSonicExe'', where Fleetway Super Sonic is one of the opponents, and [[TakeThat constantly throws jabs at Sonic.exe]] [[GameOverMan when Boyfriend loses to him]].
* MemeticMutation:
** The phrase "hyper-realistic", thanks to this story, sees use as a catch-all phrase when discussing badly-written pasta.
** This story started the trend of, as WebVideo/{{Yuriofwind}} put it, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QKC3Lw9NA4&t=19s "putting a dot and some letters after your underwhelming story title."]]
* {{Narm}}:
** Sonic.EXE's [[http://masterggg.deviantart.com/journal/Sonic-exe-finally-revealed-333606342 backstory]]. Specifically, [[spoiler:the fact that he became a fan of the series and goes after people that hate the ''Sonic'' games]] kills any dramatic tension that the original story had.
** The Gods in the Cult of X in Chapter 2, who show up, are introduced as "[Insert [[GratuitousJapanese Emotion in Japanese]]], the God of [Insert Same Emotion in English]" and then promptly vanish from the plot.
* NightmareRetardant: Pretty much the entire thing could count, but here are some highlights.
** The title screen, especially "[[NumberOfTheBeast SEGA 666]]" and the "[[DiscreditedMeme hyper-realistic]]" blood.
** The author's [[AuthorCatchphrase general overuse of the phrase]] "[[InsistentTerminology hyper-realistic]]", probably taken from ''Fanfic/SquidwardsSuicide''.
** The story also has a love for repeatedly listing or estimating an exact number of seconds something happened. This can get pretty tiring. This culminates in a moment near the finale, in which our protagonist 'in an actual split second' screams - must have been a very short scream! - then yells for 7 seconds while the game produces static for the exact same amount of time, cramming in a healthy dose of PurpleProse for good measure.
--->''Suddenly '''in an actual split second''' I screamed as Sonic lunged at the screen screeching loudly with his mouth wide open to an unnatural length revealing nothing but a literally spiraling [sic] abyss of pure darkness before the red static came again, this time much louder and distorted, so loud that it hurt my ears, I yelled and grabbed my ears as the red static screeched for '''a good 7 seconds.'''''
** The excessive use of {{red and black|AndEvilAllOver}} throughout the story, as if they're the only evil colors in the color spectrum.
** The constant ripoffs from other video games (ripping off the final boss music from ''VideoGame/{{Silent Hill|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]]'s ever-popular laugh [[note]]{which had already been used in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmyv5iOh9HI Sonic Oddball Crackups]]'' in lieu of Knuckles' sniggering for ''intentional'' comedic effect}[[/note]], etc.).
** The ending. [[spoiler:It ends with a bloodied Sonic plushie that appeared out of nowhere on Tom's bed.]]
** In the sequel, our protagonist, despite writing in a diary, decides to write in abbreviations you'd be more likely to see in texting. Made even worse by him suddenly realizing his sister played the game and fell victim to X, yet he ''still'' [[SkewedPriorities has to write all that down]] and call out to his sister in that very diary.
* OlderThanTheyThink: It was revealed on October 12th 2023 that the very first Sonic.exe creepypasta actually predates the one commonly known today, having started out as a ''WesternAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' edit of all things, then came to be a Spanish creepypasta dubbed "The Blue Pendrive". The revealed info can be found [[https://twitter.com/tome_heitor/status/1712579949377298553 here]].
* OnceOriginalNowCommon: The .exe part of the story's name itself. The idea was that it's just a regular file called "Sonic" with the file extension for executable files at the end to give an eerie air since [[ParanoiaFuel it is seemingly a regular file that anyone could stumble upon and open to find out the consequences too late]]. After tons of imitators copied the story's name, adding ".exe" to the end of a title is just seen as a common creepypasta trick, and of the oft-mocked kind at that.
* SerialNumbersFiledOff: Some people tend to point out how many key plot points "Sonic.exe Round 2" borrows from another creepypasta, "The Case of Stitch". Two detectives (one male, one female) try to investigate a series of gruesome murders, the female investigator then disappears and the male protagonist meets the culprit in person and realizes he is powerless to stop them. "Round 2" follows the ''exact'' same formula, except the protagonists are siblings instead of friends and X replaces the eponymous Stitch as the main antagonist.
* SoBadItsGood:
** Due to the sheer quantity of NightmareRetardant and an absolute torrent of a ClicheStorm of Creepypasta tropes, this story has this reputation among hardcore Creepypasta fans.
** [[http://trollpasta.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic.exe/Round_2 The official sequel]] is also considered to be hilariously bad and even more {{Narm}}-filled than the original story.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The protagonists are idiots who endanger themselves and others through their acts, and the antagonist is an obnoxious EldritchAbomination who can never be defeated.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Tom can be hard to sympathise with due to how [[IdiotHero idiotic]] his actions are (like playing a game even after he was repeatedly told to destroy it) and the fact that he cares more about fictional characters dying rather than his real-friend who probably died trying to save him, never considering about it until the end, which was still overshadowed by him worrying over Tails, Knuckles, and ''[[DracoInLeatherPants especially]]'' Robotnik.

!!Video game:
* AdaptationDisplacement:
** The original video game adaptation of the Creepypasta by [[https://gamejolt.com/@MY5TCrimson MY5TCrimson]] (which simulates Tom's experience) is more well-known and was often considered the superior experience by many, as you are the one experiencing the cat-and-mouse game with the demonic Sonic, as opposed to the contrived and idiotic human characters in the original story. Though the lack of proper gameplay, a lot of NightmareRetardant moments and amount of similar fangames trying to piggyback on its success with various results somewhat tarnished the first adaptation as the time went on.
** The remastered version has become much better received than even the first adaptation thanks to being geniunely scary with the involvement of featuring original art and music, as well as following the original creepypasta quite closely.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: X's {{Leitmotif}}, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ6hSMFi2Qg "Hill Act 1"]], is a beautifully melancholic piece of GothicHorror music.
** Kyu Sawamura, the song's composer, went on to [[RoleReprise reprise his musician role]] for the official remaster by [=JoeDoughBoi=], [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI9-aO9if0hzMw7QsBBIMrlPqiA3Jzt2b composing the majority of the new game's soundtrack]].
* CrossesTheLineTwice: In Version 5, a bloodied [[MemeticMutation Trollface]] appears in Hill Act 1 if you try to run left. This is replaced with a [[LampshadeHanging "hyperrealistic]] [[MemeticMutation doge"]] in Version 666.
* GoodBadBugs: In the earlier versions of the game, there was a way you could make a character ''moonwalk'' to their demise.
* ImprovedSecondAttempt: The official remaster by [=JoeDoughBoi=] manages to offer a much more effective experience by reworking much of the NightmareRetardant from both the original story and [[https://gamejolt.com/@MY5TCrimson MY5TCrimson's]] first game:
** The title screen's [[FreezeFrameBonus split-second change]] is reduced down to just seeing Sonic's arm and X's [[RedEyesTakeWarning red pupils]] in pitch blackness before disappearing. It's both more subtle and just a little easier to buy someone passing off as "just a glitch".
** The StockScream shared between Tails and Knuckles (glaringly unfitting in the latter's case) is not only replaced with more fitting vocals for the two, [[NothingIsScarier but more emphasis is put on the near-unseen brutality X puts them through, with only the gruesome sounds of their fates being heard.]]
** X's voice, which was added in Version 7 of the original game, is greatly reduced in the remaster, with him saying only one line right at the very end. As a result, the demonic Sonic's antics as well as the text boxes are much more eerie in the silence.
* NightmareFuel: Despite its issues, this creepypasta did manage to include genuinely terrifying moments. [[NightmareFuel/SonicExe Just take a look here]].
* NightmareRetardant:
** [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl The scream]] made by X's victims when he catches them. It fits with Tails since he's a young child, but with [[TheBigGuy Knuckles]] it's so unfitting it's hilarious. [[ImprovedSecondAttempt As mentioned above, this is changed in the remaster.]]
** The voiceovers for X introduced in Version 7 of the original game can sound more ridiculous or over-the-top in a CrossesTheLineTwice way than scary.
*** When X says "DIE" every time the player collects a negative ring.
*** When X catches Tails, he snarls "I will eat your heart", but the distortion of his voice makes the "heart" sound like "hat".
*** When X says "I will strip your flesh from your body." In the secret level of Robotnik's stage. The way he says it makes it sound like he is just so done with everything that it is hard to take seriously.
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