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alt title(s): Sonic 
Sonic's the name, speed's my game!
"You'll pay for this, Sonic!!"
A fast hedgehog, a two-tailed fox, and an echidna who protects a bunch of Green Rocks (which are seldom green) go down to the local pub. A floating fat man with a penchant for robots bursts in on their Happy Hour martinis to announce his schemes to Take Over The World with aforementioned " Green Rocks." The hedgehog, fox, and echidna put down their drinks, mutter something along the lines of "Aw, hell no!", and proceed to kick the floating fat man's ass from here to New Brunswick. Rinse and repeat, adding lots and lots more characters.
That's Sonic The Hedgehog in a nutshell—well, except for the pub part. Created in 1991 for the then-fledgling Sega Genesis (and not-so-fledgling Sega Master System) by a group of fifteen people tasked with creating a mascot to compete with the face of video games, Sonic quickly became the gaming company's mascot, and grew in strength with each sequel to put its creators into a healthy competitive spot with Nintendo and other, lesser gaming companies during the 16-bit Console Wars.
The games were positively brilliant, and eventually spun off into no less than four cartoon series, two comic series, and even an anime movie. For a while, Sonic even overshadowed Nintendo's poster boy, Mario, in the minds of some fans, due to the technical whizziness of its concept (helped by Sega dropping the meaningless term " Blast Processing" into its ads) and the proto-Badass nature of its main character. (This was the predecessor to the eventual family-friendly versus mature games debate, with a hedgehog with an attitude standing in for killing beeyotches.) And the concept was so simple: The aforementioned trio of Sonic (the hedgehog), Tails (the fox), and Knuckles (the echidna) try to thwart Dr. Robotnik's (the floating fat man) attempts at world domination using the Chaos Emeralds (the Green Rocks). Run fast, collect rings, bash robotic critters, and it's all good.
Sonic hit a bit of a dark age during the run of SEGA's Saturn console, which was a good deal less successful than its predecessor. The spinoff game, Sonic R was the only noteworthy Sonic game on the console, with a much better one, Sonic Extreme, being announced but canceled. The series got revived in a 3-Dimensional incarnation on SEGA's next console, the Dreamcast. The two Sonic Adventure games are noted for their production values and ambitious plotlines, but featured some questionable gameplay styles that left fans dumbstruck, and certainly suffered in comparison with Mario's genre-defining Mario 64. SEGA attempted to address some concerns with Sonic Heroes, a game that focused on gameplay styles fans wanted more of, but the plot and gameplay was significantly worsened in that game, to say nothing of its cheesy dialogue and most of its replay value is a result of artificially prolonging the amount of times levels need to be played.
From Sonic Adventure 2 (itself controversial, but mostly agreed to be at least a good experiment to determine what did and didn't work) onwards, fans' opinion toward this series has been extremely conflicted. Multiple camps exist defending one gameplay, character, or plotline decision while condemning multiple others. A very strong Hatedom and counter-movement appears to form with every new release due in no small part to SEGA attempting to appeal to older and newer fans despite limited production time.
While it is safe to say that the "quality" of Sonic '06 is agreed upon by the fans, very little else is. Recent titles such as Sonic Unleashed and the various handheld titles endure a Love It Or Hate It standing with such a massive group that even professional reviewers are not unaffected. In line with all the controversy, large varieties of theories exist to explain why the Sonic series is struggling in terms of reviews ranging from hastened development for deadlines, a lack of talent or caring from the development team, over-reliance on new "gimmicky" features, or unrealistic demands from nostalgic fans. The future is somewhat uncertain for Sonic, but the series still retains a massive, if sometimes obnoxious, fanbase.
The list of games and other franchises Sonic has appeared in includes, but isn't possibly limited to: Video Games
Television Shows
Original Video Animation
Comic Books
Tropes used in the video games:
- Abusive Precursors: The ancient Echidnas They attacked (unknowingly) Chaos, an innocent god, just to steal his Chaos Emeralds. They created an unstoppable robot in order to conquer the world. Both of which had to be sealed thus handing down the problem to us. In Sonic Chronicles one clan of Echidnas return and try to conquer our world again. Which pushes them past just being Neglectful Precursors.
- Action Girl: Rouge, Amy & Blaze.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Zone names in CD, Chaotix and 3D Blast.
- Affably Evil: Dr. Eggman
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Robotnik's favorite type of weapon, starting with Sky Base in the Game Gear Sonic and continuing with the Egg Carrier and its variations in the modern games.
- All Is Well That Ends Well: Sonic Adventure ends this way, Tails even quotes the trope name.
- All There In The Manual: Among Sonic's various, obscure, contradicting origin stories is that he was born on Christmas Island, and that he gained his speed from an experiment with Dr. Kintobor.
- Always Night (The haunted house levels in some games)
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Be honest; have you ever seen a blue hedgehog in the wild?
- Ambiguously Human: Dr. Robotnik / Eggman
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: Old American artwork of Robotnik depicted him as constantly scowling (and with black eyes), as opposed to the oddly-always-smiling Eggman of the Japanese artwork.
- Strangely enough, the opposite happened with Sonic. Sonic was made nicer and more friendly in some early American adaptations than his Japanese counterpart. In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik had his 'evil' design, but was a bumbling boob prone to Angrish.
- Animated Actors: Sonic Chronicles delivers the credits by having Sonic, Tails and Omega break the fourth wall to discuss the developers.
- Anti Hero: Shadow. (Type 3)
- Apologetic Attacker: Tikal
- Art Evolution: Here's what Sonic used to look like.
 ◊
- Artistic Age
- Ass Pull: Sonic only survives being shot into space and blown up by instantly learning how to use Chaos Control. He never uses this ability outside of Sonic Adventure 2, and technically shouldn't even be able to do it because he is a normal living being and not a genetic experiment like Shadow.
- It's explicitly shown that Chaos Control is a skill, and anyone could do it with the right traits and sufficient power. Metal Sonic, Black Doom, and Silver all use Chaos Control later on in the series. Even Eggman pulls it off with a machine in Sonic Advance 3
- Actor Existence Failure: Deem Bristow, the original video game VA for Dr. Eggman (Or Robotnik), passed away in January 2005. It is commonly asserted that Mike Pollock, who voiced the character in Sonic X being chosen as his replacement led to the replacement of the entire cast. This claim is blatantly untrue, as Mike Pollock himself has stated several times, and the change was already underway before Bristow's passing.
- Australian Accent: Marine the Raccoon from Sonic Rush Adventure.
- Badbutt: Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles... this series is really built on this trope, even moreso than Star Fox.
- Back From The Dead: Shadow, in a way; and Sonic in the 2006 Sonic game
- Badass Mustache: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Same for Eggman Nega and Professor Gerald.
- Bad Ass Normal: Amy post Sonic Adventure 2.
- Band Land: Stardust Speedway in Sonic CD as well as Music Plant in Sonic Advance 2.
- Base Breaker: Pretty much every character introduced in the past decade, with Shadow being the standout case.
- Because Destiny Says So: Sonic explicitly in the games, and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in the Archie comics, are mentioned through ancient prophecies to be destined for great, messianic things.
- In the game Sonic & Knuckles, in the "Hidden Palace" level, there are mosaics on the background wall that clearly depict Super Sonic fighting Robotnik's Final Boss Robot at the end of the game.
- Benevolent Architecture: And how.
- Berserk Button: Never harm (or worse kill) Shadow's friends. This triggers a genocidal Roaring Rampage Of Revenge, which humanity learned in Sonic Adventure 2 (stopped by Amy), the Black Arms experienced the hard way in Shadow The Hedgehog (linked to the SA2 example), and based on his reaction to the idea of Omega being damaged or destroyed, could have happened to the Marauders if Omega was destroyed.
- Bittersweet Ending: In Sonic Adventure, although Chaos is neutralized at last, Station Square is completely destroyed and flooded; and it's unknown if anyone survived.
- Let's not forget Shadow dying at the end of Adventure 2. Or did he...?
- In Sonic Rivals 2, Shadow and Metal Sonic seal themselves into the Ifrit's dimension to trap Eggman Nega and the Ifrit within, but then the trope is subverted when Metal Sonic Chaos Controls himself and Shadow out of the dimension, since he had a Chaos Emerald hidden inside his chassis.
- Bottomless Pit: Relatively rare in the early Sonic games, but increasingly common as the series has gone on.
- Breaking The Fourth Wall: The end of Sonic Chronicles mercilessly beats the fourth wall into dust.
- Broken Base
- Brother Chuck: Nack/Fang, who hasn't been seen since Sonic The Fighters.
- Calling Your Attacks: "Chaos Control!"
- Canon Immigrant: The Swatbots of Sat AM fame have been introduced into Chronicles, although with a notable armor overhaul.
- Captain Ersatz / Expy: The Nocturnos are very similar to the group of Echidnas, the Dark Legion, from the Archie Comics, and Shade is similar to Julie-Su, and their home dimension "The Twilight Cage" has a similar name to the Dark Legion's dimension "The Twilight Zone". Ix also looks similar to the Sonic The Comic character Dr Zachary, and Archie's version Dr Finitivus. One theory as to why they didn't use the Dark Legion is because they couldn't get the rights to the characters, the other theory is that they just chose not to introduce them into the games. So either trope could apply.
- Character Alignment:
- City Of Canals (Soleanna in 2006)
- Classic Cheat Code (Up, Down, Left, Right, A+Start)
- Colony Drop: The ARK space station in Sonic Adventure 2.
- Compilation Rerelease: Practically all of the original games from the Genesis and Master System up to the Dreamcast were rereleased on later (non-Sega) consoles in some form or another.
- Complaining About Shows You Dont Watch: The fanbase is very quick to start ranting and raving about how any new game will "ruin Sonic forever", often months or years prior to the entry's release.
- Continuity Creep
- Continuity Nod: Sonic Chronicles contains references to past games, mainly Sonic Adventure and the mostly-forgotten Sonic Battle.
- In Sonic Adventure 2, Eggman finds a newspaper article that says a Chaos Emerald was given to "the boy who saved Station Square"—i.e., Tails received the Emerald as a reward for his heroics in Sonic Adventure.
- In Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic & Knuckles are referenced when characters compare the level where they are now to similar places they know.
- In Sonic Adventure, Amy has a flashback of a scene which happened in Sonic CD, when she's kidnapped by Metal Sonic. Later in the game, both Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic from Sonic 3 are seen in one of Eggman's bases.
- Cool Shades / Scary Shiny Glasses: Robotnik's ever-present round specs.
- Cool Ship: The Egg Carrier from Sonic Adventure, as well as Robotnik's "Egg-O-Matic" hovership that he uses at every possible opportunity.
- Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: Nintendo Power writer Chris Hoffman simply refuses to believe the established fact that Tails is not a mutant squirrel.
- Crosshair Aware
- Crossover: With the Mario franchise, and a whole bunch of other game franchises.
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: Has its own page.
- Damsel Scrappy: Princess Elise from Sonic 2006.
- Dark Magical Girl: Shadow, the oddly male version of this trope.
- Darker And Edgier: Shadow the Hedgehog and his self-titled spin-off game.
- Dead Little Sister: Shadow the Hedgehog's memories of Maria Robotnik.
- Deader Than Dead: Sonic in Sonic '06.
- Death By Origin Story: Maria and Gerald Robotnik.
- Death Course: Even in the middle of nowhere, out in the ocean or in the middle of a forest, Sonic and the gang will inevitably cross paths with crates, spikes, drills, and other nasty hazards.
- Death Glare: Amy gives a glare to Silver that says "take one step further and I'll kill you" in the 2006 game during her Mama Bear moment. It worked.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Rouge the Bat
- In the first Sonic Rush, Blaze is a non-romantic example.
- Detonation Moon: In Sonic Adventure 2
- Did Not Do The Research: The climax and overall conclusion of Sonic Battle makes no sense without taking place sometime after Shadow The Hedgehog. Problem is, Battle precedes Shadow by two years in release dates, and since Sonic Team doesn't seem too big on prequels, Tomoyuki Hayashi, Battle's director, most likely just fell into the trope. it also doesn't help that the game contains throwbacks to Sonic Heroes, a game that isn't going to exist until three weeks later in Japan.
- Doesnt Like Guns: Sonic states that he "wouldn't be caught dead" wielding a gun in Shadow the Hedgehog.
- Duel Boss: Shadow, the Zoah leader and Super Ix in Chronicles
- Also Sonic/Blaze in Rush, Tails/Eggman, Rouge/Knuckles and the aformetioned Sonic/Shadow in Adventure 2, Sonic and Shadow vs Silver in 06, and Knuckles in Adventure 1 but more importantly Hidden Palace Zone from Sonic and Knuckles.
- Dummied Out: Can be considered a Trope Codifier. Every game in the series has something major in it missing, and sometimes new games are borne from those scrapped elements.
- Eagle Land: Arguably, this is the idea behind Sonic's character design. He is a mishmash of different western FunnyAnimals (in fact, in one of his earliest character concepts, he was a grey rabbit with a bowtie, and his body and head shape were reminiscent of Felix The Cat), he is the same color as the American flag (but recent information points that his trainers were made red and white to match [[Santa Claus]] colour scheme), and his 90s snarky, aloof attitude and penchant for XTREME hobbies were distinctly non-Japanese. (He also speaks in Engrish in the Japanese version.) He also has a tendency to roam the lands randomly helping people, not unlike wild western heroes like Shane. All of this was intentional on Sega's part, since the Japanese branch knew that the Genesis (and to a lesser extent, the Master System) sold more in America than in their own country, and with Nintendo's Super Famicom looming on the horizon, they knew they would need some kind of hook to keep from being trounced internationally.
- Eight Point Eight: Fans flipped out at Unleashed's atrocious scores in the press (in some cases, worse than the universally-panned Sonic '06), many of which blamed the Werehog for ruining the game entirely.
- Eleventh Hour Superpower: The Super/Hyper/Darkspine/Whatever versions of the core Sonic Trio (and Shadow/Silver/Blaze).
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Originally Knuckles, then Fang/Nack, and then Shadow, but nowadays it appears to be Blaze the Cat, one of the few Sonic characters who evokes a generally positive response from the highly Broken Base when she is speculated to appear in a new game.
- Evil Counterpart / Evil Twin: Shadow (Who also has Shadow Androids) and the Metal Sonics, Mecha Knuckles and Tails Doll.
- Evil Laugh: Robotnik's weird "Oh hohohohoho!"
- Evil Is Not A Toy: Chaos, Project Shadow, Metal Sonic, Dark Gaia... you'd think a guy with an IQ of 300 would have spotted the pattern by now.
- Eggman Nega, however, knew what he was doing, as he fully intended to let the Ifrit destroy the world.
- Executive Meddling: The unfortunate cause of Sonic X-Treme's Vaporware status, as well as the replacement of all the game voice actors with their Sonic X counterparts.
- Exposition Fairy: Started out as the Floating Advice Reminder, then turned to the actual characters themselves noting your abilities, usually the NPC secondary characters.
- Fan Dumb / FanWank: Epic.
- Fastball Special: Sonic seems to make a natural projectile. Very common in Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Heroes.
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Rouge.
- Five Man Band: The core Sonic Team (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) with Amy Rose and Cream; could also apply to the Chaotix, when Mighty and Knux are present.
- Floating Advice Reminder: Started in the Sonic Adventure games with Tikal and Omochao, then exploded from there.
- Forgotten Phlebotinum: Sonic developed time-freezing and teleportation powers in Sonic Adventure 2, but you can count on one hand the times he's actually used these since.
- Fridge Logic: Sonic Adventure ends with the characters slapping themselves on the back over a job well done. Considering by the end of the game most of Station Square is a smoking ruin with thousands, if not millions, of people dead, and Eggman got away, should they really be congratulating themselves?
- Fungus Humongous: Mushroom Hill Zone.
- Furry Fandom: Many furry artists started out as Sonic fans. Furaffinity even has a special Category on the site just for Sonic characters.
- Genki Girl: Amy Rose
- Goddamned Bats: Nearly every single enemy in the second half of Sonic Chronicles can act as this due to either ridiculous defenses, regenerating health, poisoning you every chance they get, leeching off your health, or any combination of the previously mentioned.
- The Raptor Hawks in the first half of the game probably count, too. Although there's only six of them at the most, they have 120HP, do ~50 damage per hit and can use "Evading" whenever they want. It's a good thing when they use their Special move, Feather Barrage, because it's easy to counter.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Robotnik gained a pair of them in Sonic Adventure and, aside from a brief moment in Sonic Adventure 2, never used them, maybe because he has the aforementioned Scary Shiny Glasses.
- You can buy a replica pair in Sonic Unleashed, and their description points out that "wearing them has no effect."
- Good Is Not Nice: GUN, especially in the backstory. They've been getting better since Shadow though.
- Shadow himself often acts like this.
- Gratuitous English: Once Sonic got a voice, though in all fairness, his 'tude pretty much justified it.
- Gravity Barrier
- Green Aesop: This is what the series used to revolve around, with Sonic functioning as a nomadic Nature Hero of sorts. Unlike most examples of the latter trope, he is quick to utilize technology to fulfill any tasks he needs to do, but he still seems to carry disdain for Eggman's wanton environmental destruction.
- Green Hill Zone: Trope Namer, and sometimes used as a Nostalgia Level.
- Guide Dang It: Act 2 of the Carnival Night Zone from Sonic 3 still haunts people to this day.
- Half Dressed Cartoon Animal: Most of the male characters wear nothing but shoes and gloves.
- Hatedom
- Healing Shiv: Shadow gets a healing gun in Shadow The Hedgehog.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: Tails constantly reminding you to save your game in Sonic Chronicles. You can tell him to stop doing that, though.
- Hero Antagonist: Knuckles ends up as this a lot.
- Hidden Depths: Shadow is much smarter than he looks. Best example is in his story in the 2006 game when he's the only one fully aware of the real threat and ALMOST puts a stop to it.
- Hive Mind: The Voxai from Chronicles.
- Hollywood Nerd: Tails
- Homage: Super Sonic is an throwbacks to Dragon Ball. Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, and some elements from Sonic X are arguably cut from the same cloth. The Death Egg is, of course, a Star Wars reference.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The Gizoid Centurions and Prefect Charyb, the first time you face them.
- Hostage For Mc Guffin: Subverted in Sonic Adventure 2, as not only was the exchanged MacGuffin fake, but the villain saw through the ploy and launched it and our hero into space.
- Hover Board: The Extreme Gear in Sonic Riders.
- The Hub: Sonic Adventure, Sonic 2006, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Unleashed.
- Huge Holographic Head
- Humans Are Bastards: Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2. He gets better
- I Have Many Names: Apparently, whether it's "Eggman" or "Robotnik" still matters to some people.
- In The End You Are On Your Own
- Infinity Plus One Sword: Three in Chronicles. Put them in the party with Shadow (Who has a move that can instantly KO any enemy) or Tails (Who can give other characters another chance at movement for a while), and you've got "Team Win":
- Omega, who despite getting one move per turn, can hit up to three enemies with one normal attack, has one of the most damaging armor piercing attacks in the game, overall strongest attack power, and is immune to the enemy move Counter due to his long range attack.
- Cream, who can tug the entire party out of a pit with enough PP restoring items.
- And a Unique Chao called Ferox, who lets bonded characters pull off POW moves automatically.
- Combine the above two and Cream's Refresh move (restores party PP, including Cream's) at rank 2 (it recovers more than it costs) and you, sir, have broken the game.
- Informed Ability: Sonic's speed is sometimes this relative to the other main characters, especially in the older games before the characters' abilities had speciated as much. For instance, some of the earlier games contain situations where Knuckles, Tails, and even Robotnik can run as fast as (or in Robotnik's case, faster than) Sonic.
- Informed Flaw: Eggman is no doubt fat, but it's often said to be from overeating, and we have only seen him actually eat once. Then again, he took down a twelve inch sandwich in two bites during that one instance, so this has some merit.
- Inspector Javert: Knuckles in Sonic 3. The G.U.N. Commander in Shadow the Hedgehog. Silver in Sonic 06.
- Internet Backdraft: The less said of Sonic 2006, the better...
- Interspecies Romance: The awkward (one-sided on Elise's part) romance between Sonic and Elise in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
- Invulnerable Attack
- Iron Woobie: Shadow.
- Its Easy So It Sucks: The Sonic Advance games in comparison to the classic series (of course, Your Mileage May Vary).
- It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time: Knuckles has some really odd, if not outright boneheaded, ways of protecting the Master Emerald from thieves.
- Sonic even says so in the third season of Sonic X after he used Chaos Control to send the Chaos Emeralds away.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Knuckles.
- Kaizo Trap: The Egg Viper in Sonic Adventure will crash through the floor after you beat it, and sent you falling to your doom if you're in the middle of the arena.
- Killer App: The original Sonic games for the Sega Genesis, and arguably the Sonic Adventure games for the Dreamcast (at the time).
- Kill Sat: The ARK. Of course, when the "Kill Sat" part fails (And due to the machinations of Professor Gerald Robotnik), it's Colony Drop time.
- The Lancer / The Rival: Shadow, Sally and sometimes Knuckles and Metal Sonic.
- Lampshade Hanging: Omega once commented on the size of Eggman's ridiculously huge bases with: "ERROR! Unable to compute why a base this size has gone undetected. ERROR!"
- Laughably Evil: Robotnik/Eggman.
- Last Of His Kind: Knuckles until Sonic Chronicles
- Lawyer Friendly Cameo: The Death Egg for the Death Star.
- Lets You And Him Fight: First came Sonic vs. Knuckles, then came Sonic vs. Shadow, then came Sonic vs. whoever Sega decided to pit him against, that game. Spilled over into the comics, as well, with some very painful results.
- Live Item: The small animals.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters
- Loads And Loads Of Loading: Sonic 2006.
- Mac Guffin Delivery Service: Robotnik used this trick against Sonic and Tails for the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Adventure.
- Mad Scientist: Robotnik/Eggman, obviously.
- Magic Pants: Sonic's gloves in Sonic Unleashed, the opening even shows them being ripped off.
- Malevolent Mugshot: Robotnik/Eggman's face has showed up on everything from Mecha Mooks to spacecraft.
- Mama Bear: Amy in Sonic Battle. Again in Sonic 2006 when she ready to kick Silver's ass when he tried to finish Sonic off.
- Mascot With Attitude: Sonic The Hedgehog. Trope Codifier or Trope Maker.
- Meaningful Name: Practically everyone has one. Sonic is faster than sound, Knuckles has spikes on his fists, etc.
- Meanwhile In The Future: Sonic2006 was horrible about this. Characters will shout "WE'VE GOT TO HURRY!" and run as fast as they can... to save somebody 200 years in the future. Uhhhh...
- Mecha Mooks: Eggman loves them.
- Mega Neko: Big the Cat is, well...a big cat.
- Megaton Announcement: Project Needlemouse had the fans fairly interested for a while, what with Sonic Team's promises of no new friends, 2D gameplay and such. Then they revealed the real title: Sonic The Hedgehog 4. The fandom pretty much exploded.
- Mercy Invincibility: As long as you had at least one ring or shield to your name, this'll kick in when you're hit... unless you're bouncing on spikes in the first version of the original game.
- Metroidvania: Spin-off Game Gear game Tails' Adventure.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Robotnik, with his grandfather Gerald providing a Face Heel Turn variant.
- Motion Blur: He's even nicknamed "The Blue Blur".
- In some of the 3D games, Sonic can create a blur by Spin Dashing. In fact, everyone who can use the Homing Attack has their own Motion Blur.
- Ms Fanservice: Rouge the Bat.
- Her alternate outfits from Adventure 2 and the Jiggle Physics of said game contribute to this trope.
- Multiple Choice Past: Eggman Nega. In Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure, he's Eggman from a parallel universe. In Sonic Rivals, he's Eggman's descendant from 200 years in the future. Blaze is also from either the future in Sonic the Hedgehog '06 or another dimension in Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure.
- Multiple Demographic Appeal: The games, animated series and merchandising have all long been popular across many ages and both genders. This is probably at least in part due to the fact that many of the people who played the original games in the early nineties are now in their twenties and it's nostalgia setting in. Unfortunately, this means you get Fan Dumb from all directions.
- Multiple Endings: Dates all the way back to the first game, though it wasn't until Sonic & Knuckles that the difference was of any significance. Shadow the Hedgehog has 10 different endings, plus the final ending, and 326 total ways to complete the game.
- Mythology Gag: Sonic's favorite food is chilidogs. This was created by DiC for the cartoons. Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Unleashed are full of them. He's also seen eating two in the beginning of "Sonic and The Black Knight".
- Nightmare Fuel: The Drowning Music. For purposes of Illustration, watch here.
- No Ending: Combined with Sequel Hook. Sonic Chronicles ends with Sonic and friends learning that Eggman has taken over the world. And then they thank Bioware for being awesome.
- Noblewomans Laugh: Robotnik's Santa-esque chuckle.
- Nostalgia Level: The extra 3D version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog's Green Hill Zone in Sonic Adventure 2.
- There are also Nostalgia Bosses in Sonic Advance, in the form of Sonic 1 and 2's first bosses in the X-Zone.
- Sunset Hill Zone from Sonic Advance 3 certainly qualifies. It even has the music!
- The final level in Sonic Chronicles can apply sorta. It has a remixed version of the Final Boss fight from Sonic 3.
- Sonic Battle has Green Hill Zone as an unlockable stage.
- Sky Sanctuary Zone in Sonic (3) & Knuckles features two Nostalgia Bosses. Mecha Sonic shows up piloting the boss vehicles from the first zone of Sonic the Hedgehog and the eighth zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 before you fight him quill-to-quill.
- Wave Ocean from 06 is very much like Emerald Coast in Adventure 1, intentionally of course. In both levels Sonic gets chased across a bridge by an orca.
- Obvious Beta: Sonic 2006.
- Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: No matter how much havoc Sonic wreaks on Robotnik's bases, he's always got enough badniks, eternal engines and wave motion guns for another world domination bid come next game. It reached a peak in Sonic Adventure, where after Sonic and co. spend the entire game taking down the Egg Carrier, he shows up with another Egg Carrier to try and subdue Chaos.
- One Game For The Price Of Two: Sonic 3 & Knuckles, although the sting is lessened by being able to connect with Sonic 2 as well. Also the fact that playing all the way through S3&K is a very satisfying experience.
- One Hit Point Wonder: Final Zone and Death Egg Zone in Sonic 1 and 2, respectively, have no rings whatsoever, effectively rendering Sonic a One Hit Point Wonder for the final confrontations.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Sonic the Werehog.
- Panty Shot: Amy and Cream. This may be Fan Disservice, because Cream is only six years old.
- People Jars: Possible variation. In the original games, Dr. Robotnik trapped animals within robots which Sonic had to destroy to set free.
- Personality Powers: Sonic — hyper and impatient, with superspeed; Knuckles — stubborn and quick-tempered, super-strong, etc.
- Averted with Light Gaia AKA Chip - he is playful and hungry, instead of mainly caring (the usual depiction of characters of elemental light).
- Physical God: Chaos the God of Destruction, Illumina the Goddess of Dreams, the Master Emerald, and possibly Solaris and Emerl who are also refered to as Gods, even though they are both artificial.
- Pinball Zone: Almost every game in the series has at least one pinball-themed level, whether a regular level or a Bonus Stage. Sonic Spinball is a whole game based entirely around this concept. Despite the "zone", the Trope Namer is not from this series.
- Pink Girl Blue Boy: Amy and Sonic, obviously.
- Platform Game
- Plot Coupon: The ubiquitous Chaos Emeralds (and their daddy, the Master Emerald).
- Polygon Ceiling
- Pop Star Composer: Masoto Nakamura (from the J-pop band Dreams Come True) composed the music for Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. Famously, Michael Jackson was supposed to compose for Sonic 3. What happened then? Nobody quite knows, but everybody has an opinion.
- Porting Disaster: Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for GBA.
- Power Trio: Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.
- Prepare To Die: One of Eggman's phrases in Sonic Battle.
- The Psycho Rangers: The robots in Sonic R, Team Dark in Sonic Adventure 2, The Babylon Rouges in Sonic Riders.
- Punny Name: Miles "Tails" Prower, and Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (and his legion of egg-themed machines)
- Puzzle Boss: Hardly used, but they do exist.
- Random Power Ranking (In Sonic Adventure 2 Battle)
- Red Eyes Take Warning: Super Sonic and Shadow.
- Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Big in Sonic Chronicles. Done by taking his stupidity and making it funny stupidity rather than plain ol' retarded stupidity.
- Ret Con: It's not Rosy the Rascal, it's Amy Rose.
- The Archie comics actually referenced this one when they started pulling out alternate universe versions...
- Oh yeah, and Eggman was just a nickname that stuck, his real name is Ivo Robotnik.
- Ring Out Boss (The Sandopolis miniboss from Sonic & Knuckles)
- Roaring Rampage Of Revenge: Shadow's reaction to Maria's death. Attempt on humanity prevented by Amy. Results in the genocide of the entire Black Arms race as Black Doom can be considered indirectly responsible for her death.
- Robotic Psychopath: Omega, lampshaded in the Bioware chronicles, where his simialritys to HK-47 are noted.
- Ruined Forever: Many Sonic fans bitched and moaned about the 4Kids voice actors voicing the characters for the games starting with Shadow the Hedgehog.
- Sampling: The Japanese/European version of Sonic CD has lots of it.
- San Dimas Time: The level timers in Sonic CD, where you regularly travel hundreds of years through time mid-level on a regular basis.
- Sand Is Water: Bottomless pools of... sand?
- Scenery Porn: Ever since Sonic Adventure, the series has indulged in this from time to time, especially in Sonic Unleashed.
- The Scrappy: Take your pick; every medium has one. The main ones from the games are Big, Silver, Princess Elise, and Exposition Fairy Omochao.
- Scrappy Level: Carnival Night Zone, specifically for the Red Barrel of Doom, and the Labyrinth Zone from the first game.
- Mad Space in Adventure 2.
- Scylla And Charybdis: The names of two of the space sectors in Sonic Chronicles, as well as the names of the Big Bad's two Dragons.
- Sealed Evil In A Can: It started with Chaos in Sonic Adventure and exploded from there.
- Secret AI Moves: In Sonic 2, Tails can only fly when controlled by the AI, not by the player.
- Shout Out: Sonic X is chock full of these, not only to the previous Sonic cartoons, but Eggman's various mecha manage to include Thunderbird 2, Great Mazinger, and the USS Enterprise.
- Sigil Spam: Some post-Sonic Adventure games (including the Sonic Advance Trilogy) show Eggman's property having a stylized depiction of his face on them (its design is inconsistent from game to game). The same goes for G.U.N.
- Shown Their Work: Metal Sonic's technical specifications on Sonic Channel abide to all the guidelines for robotics.
- Shut Up Hannibal: Shadow gives one of these to Mephiles at the end of his story.
- Slave Mooks: The little robots with animals in them are this trope.
- Small Annoying Creature: Chip from Sonic Unleashed.
- So Bad Its Good: Among the usual candidates named for this are multiple song lyrics, most strikingly We Can, My Sweet Passion, and the in-level Knuckles raps from Sonic Adventure 2, the campy dialogue during levels and, to a lesser extent, in some cutscenes, and almost everything about Shadow the Hedgehog.
- So Bad Its Horrible: Sonic2006 and Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis are generally considered to be such.
- Somebody Elses Problem: If there's something going on, there's a good chance Shadow doesn't do jack about it unless he has a reason.
- Space Pirates: In one of the Sonic Chronicles sidequests, accompanied by a huge Lampshade Hanging.
- Spell My Name With An S: Sonic the Fighters gives us, "REVENGE OF DR. ROBO-TONIC". Even the English translation of Sonic Mega Collection spells his name as "Robotonik". No wonder they decided to keep his name "Eggman"...
- Spikes Of Doom
- Spin Attack: Sonic's trademark maneuver. Comes in normal and Spin-Dash flavors (in certain games).
- The Spiny: A fair number of badniks qualify, although since the standard attack method is to hit an enemy while curled into a ball rather than necessarily to hit it from above, some of these are covered in spikes or other harmful stuff on all sides, rather than just the top, and must be defeated by waiting for them to revert to a vulnerable state or using invincibility. Others, though, look more like the Spinies of other games and can be dispatched by rolling into them. Oddly enough, an enemy with this exact name is not an example of this.
- Springs Springs Everywhere: Springboards are common objects in Sonic series. Often other things like bumpers and sometimes even clouds do the same thing too.
- Sprint Shoes: Most games in the series have these, generally called Speed Shoes/Super Sneakers/Power Sneakers depending on the game.
- Stage Names: Jason Griffith, the voice of Sonic (well, the current one anyway) has used "J. Griff" and "Adam Caroleson".
- Strange Bedfellows: Sonic Adventure 2's memorable Cannon's Core level.
- Super Drowning Skills: Since his first appearance in 1991, Sonic has never been able to swim. His allies, Tails and Knuckles, can. Sonic sinks like a rock in water and relies on air bubbles to survive underwater. The drowning music has been Nightmare Fuel for many.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: E-123 Omega in Sonic Heroes as a replacement for E-102 Gamma who "dies" at the end of his storyline in Sonic Adventure.
- The Woman Behind the Man: Merlina in Sonic and the Black Knight.
- Themed Cursor: In Battle, the cursor is an arrow and your character.
- The Other Darrin: Possibly one of the most debated and poorly recieved examples. The new voice actors got better over time, but there's still rage to this day, amazingly enough.
- The Power Of Friendship: Sonic Rush and also Sonic Heroes.
- They Changed It Now It Sucks: Any change as far as the fanbase is concerned.
- To Serve Man: The final ending to Shadow the Hedgehog.
- Tomato In The Mirror: Subverted in Shadow The Hedgehog. Eggman convinces Shadow that he is an android, and he even accepts it in the two neutral endings. However, in the Last Story, this is proven false by Eggman himself. About 7 to 8 minutes into the Final Boss fight with Devil Doom, the doctor, afraid he'll soon die, admits to Shadow that he lied to him. He was found by one of Eggman's robots after his fall from the Ark and tells him that he suffered amnesia and really was the same Ultimate Lifeform created by his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, 50 years ago.
- Took A Level In Bad Ass: Post Sonic Adventure 2, Amy serves as a perfect example. Went from a damsel in distress to a full fledged Bad Ass Normal Action Girl.
- Toy Time: Toy Kingdom in Sonic Advance 3.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Sonic's official favorite food is chili dogs, confirmed in Sonic Unleashed and shown in the beginning of Sonic and the Black Knight.
- Transformation Trauma: When Sonic transforms into the Werehog, this always looks painful.
- True Final Boss: Inverted in Sonic the Fighters. A perfect run is
freaking impossible quite difficult, though.
- Uncanny Valley: The 2006 game, with the Anthropomorphic characters compared to semi-realistic humans. Averted in Sonic Unleashed.
- Underwater Ruins: One level in almost every game is set amidst underwater ruins.
- Unlockable Content: Sonic Adventure DX in particular had a feature where collecting all the emblems would allow you to play every Sonic Game Gear game ever.
- Unpleasable Fanbase
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Eggman's MO.
- Vaporware: Sonic X-Treme
- Verbal Tic: Like Yoda the Kron speak. At the end of their sentences their verbs they put.
- Video Game Flight: Tails' tails come in handy. Err, tail-y.
- Video Game Lives
- Video Game Movies Suck: Surprisingly, averted with Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, which captured the spirit of the pre-Sonic Adventure games extremely well, in terms of aesthetics, character personalities and the story as a whole.
- Video Game Settings: The series has always shamelessly used every standard platform level style.
- Villain Decay: Eggman, though he seems to have gotten better as of Unleashed and Chronicles.
- Warm Up Boss: The boss from Emerald Hill Zone in Sonic 2 is the poster-boy for this.
- Wave Motion Gun: The ARK's Eclipse Cannon in Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow The Hedgehog, the Chaos Energy Cannon in Sonic Unleashed, the Death Egg in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- Wheel O Feet: Pretty much all characters, though Shadow is a subversion with his "air skates", and Tails with his... tails.
- White Gloves: Again, pretty much all the characters, even with some of the humans.
- Who Wants To Live Forever: Not Sonic as the end of Sonic and the Black Knight shows.
- Xanatos Sucker: Knuckles the Echidna, Silver, and possibly Shadow..
- Yandere: Amy is borderline this in Heroes. At other times she's a Stalker With A Crush at worst.
- Year Inside Hour Outside: the Twilight Cage in Sonic Chronicles
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