How long can you run?
Sonic Dash is a free-to-play Endless Running Game developed by Hardlight and published by Sega for iOS, Android and (formerly) Windows devices. It is set in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
The game plays much like fellow Endless Running Game Temple Run, but has its own unique spin on things. Unlike Temple Run, which is controlled by both tilt and touch controls, Dash is played completely using touch controls, a decision that critics and fans have both unanimously praised. Being a Sonic game, Dash also moves at a significantly faster pace than Temple Run, and using the Spin Dash ducking move, Sonic can also destroy enemies in his path. Power-ups such as ring magnets and head-starts can be obtained both in-game and via the game's store. Some items and upgrades can be purchased using the standard gold rings you collect during game play, but others must be purchased with special red rings that can be obtained by completing missions and buying them with physical money from the in-game store.
On October 31st, 2013, a boss battle featuring Zazz from Sonic Lost World was added to the game. A battle against Dr. Eggman (which is really just a reskin of the Zazz fight) was later added on February 13, 2014. A sequel was made in 2015 that focused on the Sonic Boom cartoon. A arcade version named Sonic Dash Extreme likewise followed where you play for tickets.
A racing spinoff made to promote Sonic Forces, Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, was released worldwide on November 2, 2017.
This game provides examples of:
Elements first introduced in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, then carried on to here should go on that respective page. Vice-versa applies.- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The game has now been updated to bank rings every time you reach the bounce pad.
- If your character passes under an obstacle or through an enemy while rolling, they won't stop rolling until they have fully cleared it.
- When a Dash boost runs out, the nearest oncoming obstacles will be removed from the track to avoid catching players off guard.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: It's entirely possible to get everything by playing for free and watching ads to get more rings, but due to how the game is structured, it'd take a long time. So the in-game marketplace gives options of buying red rings and gold rings with real-world money.
- Real-world money can also buy a free revive for every single playthrough.
- Boss-Only Level: The routes leading up to encounters with Zazz and Eggman typically consist of only a small strip of road to gather a few rings and maybe an item before the fight starts proper.
- Console Cameo: The Android robot is a playable character. Play fifty times with this character, and you unlock Andronic. This is exclusive to Android systems.
- Crossover: With Angry Birds Epic. For a limited time, Red, Chuck, and Bomb were playable characters. In turn, Epic held an event where Sonic was a playable character and teamed up with the birds against Eggman's bots. This was eventually followed up by an event where players could unlock Red and Chuck as they appear in The Angry Birds Movie and likewise, various Angry Birds games had Sonic-themed events to match.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Levels are randomly generated according to a special design algorithm. Some portions of levels may be designed similarly as a result.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Unlike previous games in the Sonic series, the magnet powerup does not qualify as a shield here. Also, both the magnet and the actual shield powerup only last for a brief period of time (though that period can be extended via upgrades), while in previous games, they lasted until the player got hit.
- Invoked intentionally by the spring transition bonus mini-game. The game will often give you one or two directional combos over and over until you're able to do them in mere moments without thought only to give you a completely different combo, causing you to slip up and miss out on the bonus rings.
- Disc-One Nuke: If you collect enough Rings early on and upgrade the Boost and Filling time enough, you can use the Dash on a regular basis, which basically turns the game into a complete cakewalk.
- Endless Game: The game only ends when you hit a wall, hit an obstacle without any rings, or fall off a ledge.
- Endless Running Game: Follows this category, and makes sense considering the source material.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Every run ends with you hitting a wall, hitting an obstacle without any rings, or falling off a ledge.
- Floating Continent: Sky Sanctuary.
- Fungus Humongous: Mushroom Hill.
- Green Hill Zone: The initial Seaside Hill area. The Trope Namer was also added alongside Classic Sonic as part of the franchise's 25th anniversary celebration in 2016.
- An Interior Designer Is You: A little bit. Some features in the Zone Builder can have custom choices for the player to select.
- Invulnerable Attack: Collecting rings charges up Sonic's Dash Meter, which allows him to run extra fast for a while. Using it causes all obstacles, including gaps and barricades, to have no effect on him at all. The Head Start item is basically the same thing, except you get to use it at the start of a new game without any rings.
- Luck-Based Mission: Certain missions, such as going through X loops or destroying X Choppers, can be a crapshoot as, due to the Cut and Paste Environments nature of the game, it's entirely possible for the player to simply not come across any, even if they try to take paths that are more likely to include said obstacles. Fortunately, these missions are usually cumulative rather than needing to be done on a single run, so you'll still finish them eventually.
- Metropolis Level: Golden Bay and Emerald City, two locations added during promotional events for the two Sonic movies. The first being based off San Francisco and the latter off of Seattle.
- Mythology Gag: Treasure Hunter Knuckles has his hat from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
- No Plot? No Problem!: A rare example in modern gaming; there is literally no story in this game at all. You're just running forward, dodging obstacles and killing enemies, with the occasional loop-de-loop and boss fight. The comic fleshes it out a bit; it says the game is Sonic and friends going on a red ring hunt.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Sonic (or whoever you're playing as), although it's especially glaring in this game, because any obstacle Sonic touches without dashing (that isn't an enemy, spikes, or a bomb) will make him keel over instantly, even if he has rings! It's especially egregious in that Rings somehow protect you from bombs, spikes, and Badniks (all things that are obviously harmful), but not from walls, pillars, bridges, and other things that don't have much potential for causing injury at subsonic speeds.
- Like in the main series, this can be extended to two hits if a shield bubble is picked up.
- That said, shields wear off in this game if you spend about half a minute without getting hit.
- Like in the main series, this can be extended to two hits if a shield bubble is picked up.
- Palette Swap: Even though there are multiple characters that can be chosen from, they all play the same.
- Also, Eggman and Zazz are pretty much the same fight, but with different visual effects and music.
- Palmtree Panic: The Pirate Ship area.
- Permanently Missable Content: Some characters were only obtained as events (such as the Angry Birds and Hello Kitty characters), and some normal characters could be obtained for free in their own events.
- Premium Currency: Red-star rings. They can be only earned by catching them on daily first runs, completing missions, or buying them with real money. Red-star rings can be used to buy new characters or revive after dying.
- Renovating the Player Headquarters: The latest major update to the game introduced hub pages for each stage. By collecting specific animal friends in various quantities and a new currency, Gems, you can decorate and add new structures to the hub. By leveling up a hub to it's final state you'll earn access to a new character to play.
- Respawn Point: You respawn right where you leave off if you use a continue. As a bonus, the obstacle that was busy schooling you gets wiped off the track.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The Ruins area and Sky Sanctuary in later updates.
- Sadistic Choice: The missions that require the player to perform some action every day for X consecutive days to complete. Either you accept that you won't be completing the current trio of missions for several days, thus severely limiting the Red Rings you can gather during that time, or you can opt to skip it, but spend several Red Rings to do so.
- The missions that require playing as a certain character are also quite sadistic. Since characters cost Red Rings to buy and the number of Red Rings it costs to skip a mission increases the more you play, the choice is between spending a fairly large number of Red Rings to skip the mission or spending an even larger amount that will at least get you something from it.
- Score Multiplier: Completing missions adds to the starting score multiplier, having a full Dash Meter doubles whatever the base amount is, and using the Golden Badnik bonus on a run will add up to x6 on top of that.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Snow Mountain Zone
- Unlockable Content: Including several characters and wallpapers for your device. Characters cost the premium Red Star Rings, but wallpapers can be bought with the regular ones.
- Weird Crossover:
- For a limited time, Dash included playable characters from the game Angry Birds Epic. Another Angry Birds crossover happened in early 2024, this time allowing players to unlock the movie versions of Red and Chuck.
- For the first week of December 2016, Hello Kitty characters can be obtained for a limited time.
- More recently, they did a cross-promotion with Danimals yoghurt that allowed you to unlock Bongo, the current Danimals mascot as a playable character.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: Each hubworld requires different amounts of different Animal Friends in order to unlock the various upgrade options.
