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Sonic The Hedgehog
alt title(s): Sonic
Sonic's the name, speed's my game!
"You'll pay for this, Sonic!!!"
-Dr. Eggman, Sonic Rush

"I hate that hedgehog!!!"
-Dr. Robotnik, Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog

''"Not that irritating hedgehog again!!!"''
-Dr. Eggman, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

A fast hedgehog, a two-tailed fox, and an echidna who protects a bunch of green rocks 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 (barring doujinshi, see Rule Thirty Four), 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 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 epic production values and plotlines, but featured some questionable gameplay styles that left fans dumbstruck. SEGA attempted to address some concerns with Sonic Heroes, a game that focused on gameplay styles fans wanted more of, but the plot 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 condeming 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 the Broken Base while still drawing in children despite limited production time.

While it is safe to say that the "quality" of games like Sonic '06 and Shadow the Hedgehog is agreed upon by the fans, very little else is. Recent titles such as Sonic Unleashed and various handhelds endure a Love It Or Hate It standing with such a massive group that even professional reviewers are not unaffected. Depite this, the blue hedgehog may well be on an upswing that might eventually win back his old status in the eyes of fans.

Even then, however, many fans believe that the series is now flawed on a much deeper level than mere concepts. Why else, they reason, is Sonic Advance so much less fun than the original Genesis series, and Sonic06 so much worse than Sonic Adventure despite both games being built on the exact same formula, respectively? Many blame the aforementioned limited development time and attempts to draw in children. A few blame Sammy, Sega's new owner, for starting this. From that angle, Sonic is still in trouble, no matter what its developers try.

Even so, the series retains a gigantic, if occasionally obnoxious, fanbase, with perhaps the largest online presence of any video game series.

The list of games and other franchises Sonic has appeared in includes, but isn't possibly limited to:

Video Games
  • Sonic The Hedgehog
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 2
  • Sonic CD
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 3
  • Sonic and Knuckles
    • Knuckles in Sonic 2
    • Sonic 3 & Knuckles
  • Knuckles Chaotix
  • Sonic 3D Blast
  • Sonic R
  • Sonic Shuffle
  • Sonic the Fighters (known as Sonic Championship in some regions)
  • Sonic Chaos
  • Sonic Triple Trouble
  • Sonic Drift
  • Sonic Drift 2
  • Sonic Spinball
  • Sonic Labyrinth
  • Sega Sonic the Hedgehog (an arcade game)
  • Sonic Adventure (remade as Sonic Adventure DX)
  • Sonic Adventure 2 (remade as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle)
  • Sonic Battle
  • Sonic Advance (remade as Sonic N for the N-Gage)
  • Sonic Heroes
  • Sonic Advance 2
  • Sonic Advance 3
  • Sonic Rush
  • Shadow The Hedgehog
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2006
  • Sonic and the Secret Rings
  • Sonic Rivals
  • Sonic Rush Adventure
  • Sonic Rivals 2
  • Super Smash Bros Brawl
  • Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
  • Sonic Unleashed
  • Sonic and the Black Knight

Television Shows

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 has been starting to develop into one of these after Sonic Heroes. Is a full blown one in Chronicles.
    • Let's not forget Blaze now, though she even has a little Lady Of War.
  • 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.
    • Also used in Sonic and the Black Knight, when you get three stars on a stage playing as Shadow/Lancelot.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Animated Actors: Sonic Chronicles delivers the credits by having Sonic, Tails and Omega break the fourth wall to discuss the developers.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Tikal
  • Arabian Nights Days: Sonic and the Secret Rings
  • Art Evolution: Here's what Sonic used to look like.◊
  • Artistic Age
  • 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.
  • Back From The Dead: Shadow, in a way; and Sonic in the really bad 2006 Sonic game
  • Badass Mustache: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Same for Eggman Nega and Professor Gerald.
  • Band Land: Stardust Speedway in Sonic CD as well as Music Plant in Sonic Advance 2.
  • 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.
    • Cosmo is revealed to be destined to help save the universe and resurrect her dead clan by dying in the Sonic X anime.
  • 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 SA 2 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. Then it's ruined by Tails saying that "All's well that ends well." Sure...
    • Granted, those cheers had to come from somewhere.
  • 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
  • Calling Your Attacks: "Chaos Control!"
  • Canon Immigrant: The Swatbots of Sat AM fame have been introduced into Chronicals, 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.
  • Chaotic Good: Sonic embodies this.
  • Chaotic Neutral: Shadow
  • Chaotic Evil: Metal Sonic
  • Character Derailment: Many of the secondary and/or one-off characters, especially in the cartoons and comics, though Robotnik himself has fallen into this trope.
    • This is the biggest complaint with Sonic Chronicles, especially for Shadow and Rouge. This caused a Relationship Writing Fumble between Omega and Shadow in an awkward scene where Shadow left all characterization behind.
    • Knuckles. Just...Knuckles. He was derailed from mysterious guardian of the Master Emerald to a common Butt Monkey.
  • Character Name And The Noun Phrase: the Storybook series (Sonic and the Secret Rings/Black Knight)
  • City Of Canals (Soleanna in 2006)
  • Classic Cheat Code (Up, Down, Left, Right, A+Start)
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Amy Rose, who borders on Stalker With A Crush. This is another instance of Character Derailment, as this aspect of Amy's personality has been exaggerated over time.
  • 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.
  • 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 Silver Sonic from Sonic 2 are seen in one of Eggman's bases.
    • Sonic and the Black Knight has a few instances in the levels where Sonic talks about past experiences that that something reminds him of.
  • 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.
    • He's just joking as NP often does, particularly in pulse
  • Crosshair Aware
  • Crossover: With the Mario franchise, and a whole bunch of other game franchises. Archie comics has made a number of comic book crossovers, and Ken Penders made one as a shameless plug for The Lost Ones.
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: Crush 40 has written a lot of memorable tunes for the Adventure-era games, including Open Your Heart, Live and Learn, What I'm Made Of, among others. (Not that Crush 40 is the only one; take Julien-K's Waking Up and This Machine for example.)
    • Not to mention Sonic 3, mostly composed by none other than Michael Jackson.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Shadow, the oddly male version of this trope.
  • Darker And Edgier: Shadow the Hedgehog and his self-titled spin-off game. Averted (At least for half the game) by the Bioware-developed RPG Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
  • 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.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Rouge the Bat
  • Detonation Moon: In Sonic Adventure 2
  • Doesnt Like Guns
  • Duel Boss: Shadow, the Zoah leader and Super Ix in Chronicals
  • 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).
  • Enemy Mine: Robotnik's fatal derailing trope, starting from Sonic Adventure onward. Which is subverted in his favor by the end of Sonic Chronicles
  • 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 Unpleasable Fanbase when she is speculated to appear in a new game.
  • Evil Counterpart / Evil Twin: Shadow (Who also has Shadow Androids) and the Metal Sonics.
    • And for that matter Metal Knuckles and Doll Tails, for those who recall Sonic R.
  • Evil Laugh: Robotnik's weird "OH hohohohoho!" in the Japanese games (and English Sonic Rush, oddly enough).
    • Err, all the english dubs have this.
    • One Name: Mephiles
  • 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.
  • Exiled From Continuity: It is rumored that Mighty the Armadilo has not appeared in the recent Sonic The Hedgehog games because his creator held the rights. To date, his only appearances are Sega Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles' Chaotix.
  • 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: Oh God.
  • Fastball Special: Sonic seems to make a natural projectile. Very common in Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Heroes.
  • Fetish Fuel: Rouge anyone?
  • 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...or you could, if the game in which he did so existed.
    • Not to mention the Super Emeralds and Hyper Sonic in S3&K.
      • And Super Knuckles, and Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails in S3&K, and possibly Sonic Heroes, though its still debated.
  • Fridge Logic: Sonic Drift 1 and 2. Why would Sonic need a car if he's already "the fastest thing alive"?
    • Worse in Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games, where Sonic is running on foot, and can still be bested by Mario, whose primary notable ability isn't running. Presumably he has to handicap himself for these races so the others stand a chance...
      • Both of those could be considered Rule Of Fun
      • Also, since cars aren't alive, Sonic could still be the fastest thing alive and be slower then a car.
  • Fungus Humongous: Mushroom Hill Zone.
  • Genki Girl: Amy Rose
  • Genre Roulette
  • Goddamned Bats: Nearly every single enemy in the second half of Sonic Chronicals can act as this due to either rediculous defenses, regenerating health, poisoning you every chance they get, leeching off your health, or any combination of the previously mentioned.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Robotnik gained a pair of them in Sonic Adventure and never used them, maybe because he has the aforementioned Scary Shiny Glasses.
    • This troper recalls them being used as welding goggles at some point in Sonic X.
    • This troper seems to recall them being used in Sonic Adventure 2, in a cutscene shortly before Cosmic Wall.
    • The goggles finally did something in Sonic '06, where they apparently have a chaos emerald detection system. The famous Let's Play of said game had the gang cheering this development vociferously and briefly considering the idea that this made playing said game worth it. (It didn't.)
  • Gratuitous English: Once Sonic got a voice, though in all fairness, his 'tude pretty much justified it.
    • Also, Sonic the Fighters.
  • Gravity Barrier
  • Green Hill Zone (Trope namer)
  • Guide Dang It: Act 2 of the Carnival Night Zone from Sonic 3 still haunts people to this day.
  • Half Dressed Cartoon Animal
  • Hatedom: A large portion of the internet is dedicated to hating Sonic.
  • 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.
  • Hero Antagonist: Knuckles ends up as this a lot.
  • Hive Mind: The Voxai from Chronicles.
  • Hollywood Nerd: Tails
  • 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.
  • The Hub: Sonic Adventure, Sonic 2006, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Unleashed.
  • I Have Many Names: Apparently, whether it's "Eggman" or "Robotnik" still matters to some people. This troper preferably calls the character from the old Sonic cartoons "Robotnik" and the video game character "Eggman".
    • Its been a widely accepted theory that his real name is "Dr Ivo Robotnik" while "Eggman" is his nickname, this has been confirmed by Word Of God once, and on the Sega of Japan site "Eggman" is stated to be a nickname.
      • Notably, in American game canon, the first game where Dr. Eggman himself adopts the name, Sonic Adventure 2, also made it a plot point to state that the last name of Eggman's grandfather, Dr. Gerald and Gerald's granddaughter Maria IS Robotnik, even in the Japanese version, implying that Dr. Eggman adopted the name to downplay his connection with Dr. Gerald in the presense of GUN.
  • Inspector Javert: Knuckles in Sonic 3. The G.U.N. Commander in Shadow the Hedgehog. Silver in Sonic 06.
  • Internet Backdraft: Just don't talk about Sonic 2006.
  • Interspecies Romance: The awkward romance between Sonic and Elise in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
    • Not a romance, but close... what about the weird relationship between Knuckles the Echidna and Rouge the Bat?
  • 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.
  • Jonas Quinn: E-123 Omega in Sonic Heroes as a replacement for E-102 Gamma who "dies" at the end of his storyline in Sonic Adventure.
  • 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.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: "It's no use...why can't I defeat you?" "Because we're SONIC HEROES!"
  • 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.
    • Ahem. Metal Sonic... if only sporadically.
  • Laughably Evil: Robotnik/Eggman.
  • Last Of His Kind: Knuckles Until Sonic Chronicles
  • Lawful Good: Knuckles represents the tension that can exist between lawful good and chaotic good characters. Shade becomes this.
  • Lawful Neutral: Shade starts as this before chapter 6.
  • Lawful Evil: Eggman, Imperator Ix, and possibly Black Doom.
  • 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.
    • Ahem. Metal Sonic... before any of those.
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters
  • Loads And Loads Of Loading: Next-Gen has more loading than gameplay
  • 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 06 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: The 2006 game is 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.
  • Memetic Mutation: "GET A LOAD OF THIS! GET A LOAD OF THIS! GET A LOAD OF THIS!"
  • 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.
  • Mike Nelson Destroyer Of Worlds: The whole reason behind Robotnik's Enemy Mine-fueled Character Derailment.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Robotnik, with his grandfather Gerald providing a Face Heel Turn variant.
  • Ms Fanservice: Rouge the Bat, who looks and sounds quite like a prostitute at times.
  • Multiple Choice Past: Eggman NEGA. InSonic 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. Allot of fans have come up with explanations for this, but there is no official explanation at the time of this writing.
  • 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, and 326 ways to get each ending.
  • Narm: "This is WHO I AM!!"
    • Does "Let's show that creep the real SUPER POWER OF TEAMWORK!!!" ring a bell?
    • Ha! You think THOSE are narm? The first one is acceptable coming from somebody who just recovered from amnesia. The second one, well, that's just rubbing it in. And besides, Sonic Heroes' gameplay is based around Fastball Special team attacks. And any way, they're both Shakespeare compared to something ELSE from Shadow the Hedgehog's game: The ending you get for doing the Dark mission on Final Haunt. "I am the ultimate hedgehog." That ending's so jarring that its WTF Quotient turns it into a {Crowning Moment of Funny}}.
  • 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.
  • Neutral Evil: Black Doom is either this or Lawful Evil.
  • Neutral Good: Tails, Cream, Big (too stupid to be any other good alignment), and Amy, who's considerably more aggressive than most neutral good characters.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The Drowning Music. Oh god, the Drowning Music.
    • This troper never learnt to swim due to chronic fear of swimming pools as a result. Where are the bubbles? WHERE ARE THE BUBBLES?!!
    • For purposes of Illustration, watch here. You can hate me later.
      • I don't. However, if you didn't get Knuckles the ability to breathe in water expect to hear This music alot.
      • This troper has the drowning music, complete with the drowning sound, as his cell phone alarm.
    • Tails Doll
    • Sandopolis Zone Act 2 : Justifying fear of the dark, with a side-dish of sand-traps, timed stone doors and creepy music.
  • 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 in the Japanese versions of the Sonic cartoons and games.
  • 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.
  • Obvious Beta: Sonic 06 (nick name for Sonic the Hedghog for X Box 360 and PS 3).
  • 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. See also Grand Unifying Guesses for the "logical" conclusion to all of this.
  • Our Werehogs Are Different
  • Palette Swap: Shadow, Silver (to an extent), and all of the various Mecha versions of the core Sonic trio.
  • 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 Soliaris and Emerl who are also refered to as Gods, even though they are both artificial.
    • I'll give you Emerl (as artificial), but Solaris is a little iffy. He is natural at first, but is later recreated from his two halves.
  • 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
  • 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.
    • "My eyes are broken! No wait, they're just closed."
      • "We could give Big some ice cream!"
  • 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.
    • He only destroyed the Black Arms because Gerald created him to do that. That was before Maria died. And there was that whole saving the world, thing. Shadow got over Maria's death when he got amnesia and forgot who she was.
  • Ruined Forever: Many, even This Troper, bitched and moaned about the 4Kids voice actors voicing the characters for the games starting with Shadow the Hedgehog. Not being confined by said company's Bowdlerizing standards, the VA's actually do well.
  • 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. Sometimes to the point of the point of view screwing you up in order to better show off the eye candy.
  • Scrappy Level: Carnival Night Zone, anyone?
    • How about the Labyrinthe Zone in the first game? It's the third level and by far the most difficult in the entire game. This troper used a cheat code to skip it, and the subsequent zones (up to and including the Final Battle with Robotnik) were not nearly as Nintendo Hard.
  • Scylla And Charybdis: The names of two of the space sectors in Sonic Chronicles.
    • Also the names of the Big Bad's two Dragons. Presumably there is a connection between the names of the henchmen and the names of the sectors, although it's not really pointed out.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: It started with Chaos in Sonic Adventure and exploded from there. It's the other reason for Robotnik's Enemy Mine-fueled Character Derailment - he can't stay away from the darn things!
  • 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.
  • Small Annoying Creature: Chip from Sonic Unleashed.
  • So Bad Its Good: Unfortunately, quite a few things by this point, but at least it's not worse...well, at least not ''all'' of it is worse. 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.
    • And that is only in the games themselves. Many would also include the TV show, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and a few story arcs of the Archie comics series, under this trope.
  • So Bad Its Horrible: With all due respect, no matter how "bad" his games have been, a little gem shiny, valuable turd by the name of Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis sounds and/or looks so bad, this troper, who wants to someday play Sonic 06 and judge it for himself, wants to stay the hell away from this game.
    • How horrible Sonic06 really is has been subject to debate, but it is generally detested because it's so inarguably inferior to older Sonic games, and it has no good reason to be.
  • So Yeah: Sonic is the real King Arthur.
  • 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"...
    • To explain, this comes from how the name "Robotnik" is rendered in Japanese, i.e. "Robotonikku." Mostly, it's only happens when Sega of Japan tries to use the Robotnik name.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • The above applies only to the 2D games. In the 3D games, water generally behaves as a Bottomless Pit, even when it's only a few feet deep.
      • Taken to a ridiculous extreme in Sonic 2006. In pokecapn's Let's Play of the game, one playthrough of the Wave Ocean level features an incredibly cheap death when Tails fell in the water right next to a platform-so right next to it, in fact, that the edge of the platform was in the water, and not only did Tails end up laying on it, if he had stood up it wouldn't even have covered him.
  • The Woman Behind the Man: Merlina in Sonic and the Black Knight.
  • The Power Of Friendship: Sonic Rush
  • To Serve Man: The final ending to Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • Tomato In The Mirror: Subverted and/or averted 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.
  • 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. (Having been a facet of the character since the TV shows were in production, this can be considered a retcanon).
  • Transformation Trauma: When Sonic transforms into the Werehog, this always looks painful.
  • 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.
  • Unpleasable Fanbase: "Too many characters, how about a Sonic solo game? (right afterwards) What do you mean you can only play as Sonic in this game!?"
  • 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.
  • Villain Decay: Robotnik.
    • The Japanese Sonic 1 manual states that he's tried to conquer the world countless times before, and was always stopped by Sonic, but this was left out of the English, so it might be a case of American Kirby Is Hardcore.
    • 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.
    • Also, the Blue Typhoon in the later series of Sonic X (a Cool Ship Tails happened to have lying around, just in case) has a Wave Motion Gun that fires Sonic as ammunition.
    • Another one shows up in one of the teaser trailers for Sonic Unleashed. One wonders where Robotnik got another orbital laser.
      • He's a Mad Scientist, they're expected to have a few spare death rays lying around.
      • And don't forget the Death Egg(s). Considering the insane amount of trouble Eggman/Robotnik went to just to get the original Death Egg back into space in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, it was apparently powerful enough to conquer the world all by itself. One assumes those giant eyes shoot lasers.
      • The Fleetway Comics does have the Death Egg using eye lasers and given it's a Death Star homage, your assumption is probably correct.
  • Wheel O Feet: Pretty much all characters, though Shadow is a subversion with his "air skates".
    • A much earlier subversion is Tails, who used his... ahem... tails as propulsion once he got into high gear.
      • Replaced a Bird Run pose from Sonic Jam onward.
  • 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.
  • Word Of Dante combined with Adaptation Distillation: Many fans take the stuff from adaptations and apply them to the games or other adaptations. "Chaos Energy" is a term used exclusively in Sonic The Comic for the energy stored inside the Chaos Emeralds, but fans use the term in every series. The "Chaos Force" was an explanation made by the Archie Comics to explain how Shadow can use Chaos Control without the Chaos Emeralds, the fans of the games liked the explanation better the Sonic Battle's explanation of Maria's heart being in Shadow.
  • Xanatos Sucker: Knuckles the Echidna, Silver, and possibly Shadow.
  • Year Inside Hour Outside: the Twilight Cage in Sonic Chronicles
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