YMMV / Sonic Forces: Speed Battle

• Difficulty Spike: It depends on the algorithm and what character you're playing as, but in general the game is noted to be harder when you reach 4,000 trophies (the season reset threshold), with more unbalanced matchmaking (meaning you're likely to be with players with unfairly higher levels and higher-level characters), not helped by the very crummy Comeback Mechanics. In other words, if you don't make a good headstart, you've likely to lag behind in the race and lose a lot of trophies.
• Epileptic Trees: The inclusion of Paladin Amy had quite a few players wondering if she is meant to replace Nimue, Amy’s Black Knight counterpart as her design there seemed impractical for a running game.
• Fridge Brilliance: Multiple characters have playstyles encouraged by their powers that fit their personality to a T.
  • Infinite, in his normal and Warlock costumes, has power ups that encourage him to keep the lead purely by punishing people ahead of him, essentially embodying his nature as a petty bully with far more power than is reasonable.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • Zazz has access to an incredibly dangerous Signature Move in his Star Trail, which causes him to leave several stars behind him which hurt opponents and steal rings; it's easily spammable and Zazz can absolutely fill the track with stars if far enough ahead. This, combined with his solid stats as is (9/10 speed and 10/10 acceleration allowing him to easily take the lead and keep it for a long time) has resulted in him being considered by far the best character in the game, and the most hated, or at least in the game's early years before the nerf to Star Trail.
  • Spring Cream is also hated for having the same Speed and Acceleration stats as Zazz and how much of a Game-Breaker Hedge Maze is (produces tall vines that players can't even jump over and slows them every time they switch lanes when hit), but the hate subsided akin to Zazz when her broken move got nerfed.
  • Tikal become the next contender of the most hated character due to her Captive Light item works like Zap Trap, easily spamable and placed in front of the players which not on only can it damage them, but also blinding their screen for a few seconds, leaving them potentially vulnerable for incoming traps and obstacle on top of being slowed down. Her item is eventually nerfed by simply removing the damage system so it can only blinding the players' screen without slowing them down.
  • Jingle Belle Amy is essensially just as dangerous as Zazz given she has her own version of Star Trail item, Gift Trapped. But what makes her standout is that she also has access to freezing type item such as Ice Wave and Ice boost item in oppose to Zazz' item-removal type one, making it quite a pain to overtake her without the risk of being immobilized. Gift Trapped's nerf did stop her from being a Tier-Induced Scrappy for the future, Ice Wave still keeps her as a High Tier character.
  • DJ Vector and Punk Zazz, when compared to the other characters, have no disadvantage state due to the sheer duration of Beat/Bass Boost. It doesn't help that all sound based (no pun intended) moves apply it's respective status effect regardless of invincibility or not. With DJ Vector also having Storm Clouds, just keeping up can seem like an impossible task. Their nerfs to Beat/Bass Boost and Audio Assault have made them at least manageable to go up against, but they still remain a pain in many player's behinds.
  • Unicorn Cream continued where DJ Vector and Punk Zazz left off. While mostly being a standard character, Magical Boost alone makes being behind her a nightmare as her rainbow arches can stop you dead in your tracks upon contact. She's much more manageable after the nerf to Magical Boost nowadays.
  • For a long time Super Sonic was an extremely polarising character. While he isn't game breaking, should a good Super Sonic be in the lead close enough to the finish line with 100 rings, they automatically win. Being able to spam Fireballs and Ice Mines while in Super Sonic Form doesn't help matters and many players have been frustrated losing to Super Sonic a split second before crossing the finish line. Nerfs have made him much less polarising, now requiring 80 rings to transform instead of 50, rings draining faster than before and Fireballs in general travelling not as far.
  • Before Super Sonic was nerfed, the one way to deal with him was Werehog. Alongside having Storm Clouds, he can immediately start frontrunning with ease with a few Dark Blasts in hand. Combined with his amazing stats made catchup up nearly impossible, even for Super Sonic. Werehog would later have his stats nerfed alongside Dark Blast and Feral Dash getting nerfs to their damage and chances of picking up multiples. Now he's manageable, but akin to DJ Vector and Punk Zazz he remains a very strong character even after the nerfs.
  • While many characters have been claimed to be Top Tier, it's usually because of a single item and/or good stats. Infinite on the other hand is broken in every regard. His exclusive status effect caused by all his items disable Item Boxes and Dash Pads, key components to keeping up. Before the nerf, even invincibility and Shield can't save you from getting infected. Reality Warp is a projectile that covers almost every single lane akin to Ice Wave and is very hard to dodge. Even when not maxed out, good luck jumping over it with barely enough time to react. Deadly Replica spawns a moving Lava Bomb that can't be dodged at all, making that lane utterly unusable, which can cause some guaranteed hits on certain tracks with split lanes. Phantom Boost lets Infinite fly over everyone at incredible speeds while damaging anyone he touches and able to still use his other items during his flight. When combined together with his great stats (even having the highest stat total in the game), Infinite has the oppressiveness of Zazz, the annoying status effect of Spring Cream, the power of Chaos, the speed of DJ Vector/Punk Zazz and the win condition of Super Sonic. Even after being nerfed in three different patches, he remains the best character in the game by far. Even as all the other powerful characters caused the community to cry out for Power Creep to stop, it was Infinite's sheer dominance that ceased Power Creep seemingly for good. He's that broken.
• I Knew It!: With Tangle and Whisper coming to this game, some people already speculate more IDW characters to eventually made it in as well, with Surge being one of them. Sure enough, she's revealed to be one of the unlockable characters.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many people will only play the game for the Events, which reward players with reskins of characters showing off creative and fun costumes rarely seen in the main games and akin to that of fan art, as well as characters from other continuities.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Infinite is no longer weak. ^ExplanationInfinite, who's been the butt of many jokes in the Sonic fandom for years, has recently hosted his own event in the game, competing against all the players and actually scoring 500,000 more points than them at some point. Some fans joked that he's become much stronger than he was in Forces. His reputation as the strongest remained when it was found out how much of a Game-Breaker he really was in a player's hands.
  • Meh-philus The Dark ^ExplanationDuring the reveal of new characters for Speed Battle, the narrator manages to flub the pronounceation of Mephiles the Dark's name as "Meh-fillus". Fans took to the obvious mistake with more mockery, often referring to the Snapcube dub of Sonic 06 by either referring to him as "Me-Files" in reference to Shadow doing the same in the dub itself, or joking they mispelt "Memphis Tennessee"'s name.
  • De-Yassified Silver ^ExplanationWhen a CG trailer for the game was released in early 2024, fans quickly realized that Silver was missing the black streaks beside his eyes, with many quick to joke that he had forgotten to put on makeup.
• Misblamed: Or rather, mis-praised, but when a fan praised Ian Flynn for convincing Sega to put Tangle and Whisper into the game, Ian confirmed that the decision was made completely independent of him, and he was just as surprised as everyone else when they made it in.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is merely a mobile game with online racing battles. Despite this, it has received far more positive feedback than Sonic Forces for both fun online races and bringing characters from other games skipped out on by the original, as well as from other continuities (or at least prior to Sonic Team's statement that the latter is canon). This may have been why the game is officially called Sonic Forces despite merely being a tie-in.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The "doot-doot-doot-doot" SFX of Whisper's Green Hover.
  • The Bass Boost's Theme Music Power-Up, which contain the remix of The Chaotix's theme and The Deadly Six's theme for DJ Vector and Punk Zazz respectively.
  • Also regarding Theme Music Power-Up, Super Sonic also has one in a form of an instrumental version of Fist Bump.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The fact you keep earning cards for a character after you've maxed them up, which is cumbersome since some characters are hard to obtain cards for.
• Spiritual Successor: To the Sonic Rivals duology and Sonic R to some degree, as the game involves racing on foot against other players, both heroes and villains.
• That One Attack: Several.
  • Storm Cloud and Zap Trap are hated for being particularly dangerous traps that can't be jumped over but instead have to be passed under by sliding, though some players may accidentally jump into them anyway, and stunning players while erasing one of their items. And boy, have mercy if these traps are placed on the rails section since you can't slide while grinding over them, forcing you to move aside, use your defensive item if you have any, or get hit. ^note Unless if you play as Baby Sonic since his small body allows him to run under obstacles without the need to slide, making these traps a complete joke
  • Chaos's Ice Wave attack is able to freeze targets upon contact. While it can't phase through obstacles, it makes up for it with it's incredible speed and ability to cover multiple lanes upon upgrading. Unlike many other items, it never got nerfed and still is a really effective tool in Chaos's kit. Unicorn Cream's Rainbow Blast functions similarly (aside from inflicting a blindness effect instead of freezing targets), but it's not as strong compared to Ice Wave.
  • Jet's Bashosen used to be one of the most broken items in the game during the early years of Speed Battle's life. When thrown it leaves behind a trail that damages anyone who merely touches it. Jet can pick up multiple at a time and flood the track with trail after trail to slow down the competition. It got quickly nerfed, to where the trail only slightly slows down anyone inside it with only the Bashosen itself dealing damage still.
  • Zazz's Star Trail has the same effect as the Explosive Mine (which very slows players down), except it can be placed and spammed anywhere on the track, and since it places them behind him on his lane instead of ahead of him in every lane but his, he's free to take the most optimal route through a sequence of boosters or rings and render it unusable to the racers behind him. Jingle Belle Amy's Gift Trapped also applies as it essentially the Christmas-themed version of this item. This is no longer the case as both items eventually got nerfed where a Maxed level Zazz or Jingle Belle Amy could only drop five Stars/Presents.
  • Spring Cream's Hedge Maze grows vines on all of the lanes when most other traps leave one lane open, most of which are so tall they cannot be jumped over, and it slows the player down incredibly by doing so every time they switch lanes. The item eventually got nerfed with the slowdown effect's duration being decreased considerably. It would get remotely nerfed again following the universal change to all trap items so that they can never cover the lane the user is currently on when activated.
  • DJ Vector and Punk Zazz both have similar functioning boosts in the form of Beat Boost and Bass Boost. Both Boosts are capable of inflicting the same status effect as Audio Assault, but that's not why both are hated. What earned both boosts their infamy is their incredible duration compared to every other boost in the game. So long as they don't hit any obstacles, DJ Vector/Punk Zazz could easily catch up to the pack and even get into first should they ever fall behind for even a second. Both boosts eventually got nerfed, but still have really long durations and cements both as High Tier threats.
  • Unicorn Cream's Magical Boost leaves damaging (and blinding) rainbow arches behind her that can damage rivals. Since being damaged cancels out one's boost, anyone behind Unicorn Cream using Magical Boost would be dealing with an even worse Star Trail as each arch covers three lanes with only the middle one being able to be passed under. The item got nerfed, making it's arches only apply the blinding effect without damaging anyone hit by it.
  • Werehog has access to Dark Blast, a projectile item that deals electric damage and leaves behind a trail that can be used to speed Werehog up. That last detail is what makes the move as good as it is, letting Werehog catch up much easier if he's behind or further extend his lead to the point where no one can keep up if he's frontrunning. What's worse is that he can obtain multiple Dark Blasts from a single item box, allowing for consecutive speed boosts regardless of position. Dark Blast got nerfed twice, both times reducing it's chances of obtaining multiple of it, but it still provides the same speed boost that can still be used to keep Werehog frontrunning with little issue.
  • Unlike everyone else, all of Infinite's items are in one way or another Game Breakers. Each one inflict a special status effect where whoever's infected has item boxes and dash pads replaced by spikes and badniks become impossible to destroy without an item. It's a severely good status effect that lasts a pretty decent amount of time, leaving whoever infected left in the dust due to being unable to use dash pads of collect boosts from Item Boxes. This is the status effect for each item alone.
    • Infinite's projectile is Reality Warp, a slower moving Ice Wave (which is already a good item as is) that has a bigger hitbox. Ironically, despite moving slower, that makes it harder to jump over due to Reality Warp travelling at nearly the same speed as players. What's worse is that upgrading the move makes it's hitbox even bigger, to the point where it's impossible to even jump over it. Since it covers three lanes, the only way to avoid it would be to get into the only unoccupied lane, but that's easier said than done when chained into Deadly Replica. Patches have nerfed it's height so that players can at least jump over it occasionally when maxed out, but otherwise it doesn't change how broken Reality Warp is.
    • Infinite's boost is Phantom Dash, a boost that drain rings as it travels. Despite the cost, it's worth it due to the move allowing Infinite to fly (akin to Green Hover and Chaos Charge) for as long as it's active. It's duration and speed rivals that of Beat/Bass Boost while still allowing Infinite to spam Reality Warp and Deadly Replica over and over again. Using Phantom Dash, Infinite's never stuck in fourth for long and can often rocket a good few feet ahead of even first place with it alone. Sandbagging with Phantom Dash in your inventory and using Infinte's other items to get in first basically secures an easy victory. Even colliding with a boosting Infinite isn't safe as touching him will cause damage and his Phantom Ruby status effect. The move's speed has been nerfed before, but not enough to stop it from being oppressive.
    • Infinite's trap is Deadly Replica, a mobile version of Lava Bomb that slowly moves ahead along the track. While it's easy to spot and dodge regularly (unless one's boosting or using a dash pad), the sheer size of the trap makes jumping or sliding over/under it impossible. Should you be stuck on a single lane and a Deadly Replica's in your path, you have no choice but to take the hit. While annoying, it's real strength comes in combining it with Infinite's other items, making him utterly unstoppable.
• That One Sidequest: One of the event quests that can pop out during the Infinite event after you unlocked him requires you to hit one opponent with Reality Warp once. This is easier said than done, as the random boxes have more chances to give you either Phantom Dash or Deadly Replica unless you deliberately don't use them to keep their slots filled up. And even when you get it, it's not guaranteed that it will hit.
• Unexpected Character:
  • There are a few characters who aren't in the console game. But the biggest one was Longclaw, who has no canon version and looks very different from other Sonic characters.
  • Longclaw's inclusion at least had movie marketing on its side. But who was expecting Tangle and Whisper!? This was unexpected as a comic character never showed up in a Sonic game since Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (and those appearances were small cameos).
    • Even more surprising was Whisper receiving a New Year's alt, as many assumed their status as Canon Foreigners meant they wouldn't get anything other than their normal versions.
  • Excalibur Sonic alongside Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival & Sir Gawain was quite a surprise, as Sega hasn't spoken of the Storybook games in a long time.
    • Sir Galahad is also quite a shock since he's a minigame exclusive character in that game.
    • And speaking of those games, Darkspine Sonic is also a surprise for the same reason.
  • With the game it tied with heavily focused on fighting Eggman's forces as the badniks littered across the track, some people didn't expect the doctor himself eventually becoming a playable character.
  • Mephiles the Dark was confirmed in a Sonic Central stream to become playable as part of a Halloween event, despite the infamy of his game of origin.
  • E-102 Gamma is also set to make an appearance, despite being famously Killed Off for Real at the end of his story.
  • It's safe to say that nobody expected Red and Chuck to make an appearance as playable characters, given that they're not even Sonic characters to begin with.