Board 8 > ITT I rank Sonic the Hedgehog characters

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjgum1AZgxc

Jehtt is one of the best YouTube accounts.

Eggman's most devious plan yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgNI_haDmAA

Top 5 Non-Vocal Sonic Songs

So this is too damn hard to pick just five, so let's do something different: my favorite non-vocal track in most games! Only exceptions are remixes and instrumental versions of vocalized songs. If I didn't include a game it's likely because no music really stands out to me.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Springyard Zone
https://youtu.be/Owc5NNYSLwY

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Death Egg Robot
https://youtu.be/WkAdxBlIshw

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone 1
https://youtu.be/2_5BV4N9uqQ

Sonic & Knuckles - Flying Battery Zone 1
https://youtu.be/pd_sXmARxjw

Sonic CD JP - Wacky Workbench Bad Future
https://youtu.be/z0eIndDM3PU

Sonic CD EN - Quartz Quadrant Bad Future
https://youtu.be/fQ-6ChzHpds

Knuckles Chaotix - Midnight Greenhouse
https://youtu.be/72yQZlbHuko

Sonic Triple Trouble - Sunset Park Zone Act 3
https://youtu.be/lcWrovC-pXg

Sonic 3D Blast Genesis - Panic Puppet Zone 1
https://youtu.be/-b-4uPCbF34

Sonic 3D Blast Saturn - Gene Gadget Zone 2
https://youtu.be/zXuVBDTi_hg

Sonic Adventure - Sky Deck a Go! Go!
https://youtu.be/DyJcPr0FBQo

Sonic Adventure 2 - Mr. Unsmiley (Sky Rail)
https://youtu.be/t7yWN5Uiy-g

Sonic Heroes - Egg Fleet
https://youtu.be/mEisuRNYmBA

Shadow the Hedgehog - Cosmic Fall
https://youtu.be/WiKaLm2G5dM

Sonic 2006 - Crisis City
https://youtu.be/TKNQEol9OXM

Sonic Unleashed - Rooftop Run
https://youtu.be/B0I9M86BnF4

Sonic Colors - Terminal Velocity Act 1
https://youtu.be/IyFKFdTkzPg

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Mad Gear Zone 1
https://youtu.be/Pb55FDoAEMY

Sonic Lost World - Dr. Eggman Showdown
https://youtu.be/r11BM3PdGiw

Sonic Mania - Press Garden Zone 1
https://youtu.be/6MndM7CKbq4

Sonic Forces - Egg Gate
https://youtu.be/mcc4FSegArw

hey you skipped my top 5

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Sonic Forces - Egg Gate

Fuck yeah, this theme fucking slaps.

Can never go wrong with Sonic music

Honestly Sonic Forces had a lot of fun vocal tracks for the Rookie, too.

Sonic's music was a little same-y but Egg Gate definitely stuck out.

NFUN posted...

hey you skipped my top 5

what the fuck is a phantasy star

a series made by sonic team featuring sonic composers such as Kenichi Tokoi (eg Unknown from M.E.), Hideaki Kobayashi (Solaris), and Fumie Kumatani (eg Biolizard)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/5/AATFBfAADd-z.jpg

Maria Robotnik
First Appearance: Sonic Adventure 2

Yo, they shot and killed a little girl in a Sonic game what the fuck?

Maria is a little blonde girl in a blue dress. I mean, that's all we really need.

So Maria is sick and her grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, works with a genocidal alien to create an immortal ultimate lifeform named Shadow who shares a soul with Maria and then they became besties. Eventually, the government came in and destroyed everything and Maria helped Shadow escape but got gunned down by some dopey soldier but she tells Shaodw to bring hope to humanity. Oh and she was also friends with GUN COMMANDER as well. And then Shadow has like three conflicting memories of what she said and Shadow fights in Maria's memory. It also drove Gerald fucking insane and he tried to destroy the world over it twice but not really because he was actually trying to save the world instead.

So all of that inane bullshit I just typed is her story. She's alright though. I don't necessarily love her. We don't have a ton of scenes to see from her. She's not particularly interesting and is just an innocent little girl. It's also kinda weird for a character like Shadow to have someone like that in his backstory because he's a giant edgelord but he was also close friends with some girl.

We don't need to see anything else from Maria either. She served her purpose well enough and she's a serviceable part to Shadow and Gerald's story even if it's actually insane. Shadow has reasonably moved on from her and I'm wondering if they even bother with her in third Sonic movie. God only knows how they implement Shadow and his backstory, but I don't think she's going to get mowed down by a military death squad.

Rank: E

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/6/AATFBfAADd-0.jpg

https://twitter.com/OnTheDownLoTho/status/1549441546772426752?t=9cnjFwqBZP8vXK42AMMx3g&s=19

What's the name of the human woman Sonic kisses in that one game no one played?

Anagram posted...

What's the name of the human woman Sonic kisses in that one game no one played?

that would be Elise and plenty of people played it unfortunately (including me)

and to be fair Elise kissed him because he was dead at the time

also if you've never watched Pokecapn's Sonic 2006 LP and you enjoy watching LPs, you owe it to yourself to check it out

Knuckles the enchilada

Sonic the Hotdog

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/5/AATFBfAADeq3.jpg

Princess Elise the Third
First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

If YoU hAvE tImE tO wOrRy, ThEn RuN!

Elise has such a shitty design (nothing new for Sonic 2006), and just checking out a picture of it again I'm reminded how awful it is. She looks so damn bland in some white dress and golden straps and absolutely hideous leggings, and then a barrett in her red hair. She looks so plain. She doesn't look interesting. I legitimately don't know how they didn't go out of their way to make her look more appealing. It can't be hard. If she had a more fun design then people might have started to look past all the other issues. Maybe. Probably not. But at least she's be less bland! She gives me total Ann from Arrested Development vibes.

Like okay, I get what they wanted to do. Her story is just that Sonic teaches her how to have fun and live free and not sweat stuff because she lived a sheltered life. Fine. Whatever. It doesn't work because she is so bland. Just such a boring character that is impossible to care about and her backstory where she can't cry sucks, because if she does cry then Iblis will come to life and merge with Mephiles and then Solaris happens and destroys the world. Who came up with this shit?

She gets kidnapped no less than three times and each time it's completely absurd and at one point she legitimately just fucking dies and they have to transport back in time to save her. WHAT? lol

But here's the kicker: because Sonic grew so attached to her and showed her a better life and such, Mephiles just dead ass murders Sonic which why didn't he just do this sooner and then Elise and she cries and then Iblis comes back and merges with Mephiles to become Solaris. And then it happened: she kisses Sonic and revives him with the Chaos Emeralds like some cheesy love story.

The thing is, I don't know that they actually wanted it to be a romance? But it's so poorly written that it comes across as a clumsy love story. It's just that Sonic displays no romantic feelings at all because YEAH! WAY PAST COOL! CHILI DOGS! OUTTA SIGHT! But they had this kiss which... just why the fuck? Who thought this was a good idea? Just do the magic with the Emeralds and have that be it. The fact a kiss was involved at all makes me think it might be romance but everything else in the story just feels like they didn't intend for it. It's honestly baffling.

But yeah, Elise sucks. She's bland as hell, her story is goofy and impossible to take seriously, and there's literally no redeeming part of her. Oh, and Sonic 2006 actually didn't happen since the ending retcons the whole game and she and Sonic don't remember each other. So yeah, I guess we're just done with Elise forever. Just a complete waste.

Rank: F

https://youtu.be/BWWfjK0v8eM

I have a really low standard for generic Girl characters and she doesn't clear it

Sega really, really wanted to pair hedgehogs with human women during the 2000s, huh?

Also, considering Sonic '06 was undone in its own ending, you'd think someone in Generations would have made a comment about not remembering Crisis City.

Thread

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1550510998716502017?t=f8IlX6q5pwkVKk3QLTToOg&s=19

That is the best Twitter thread I've seen in a long time holy shit

Yea Shadow should have been the one to kiss Sonic

That Twitter thread actually was terrific.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/6/3/AATFBfAADfn7.jpg

Emerl
First Appearance: Sonic Battle

emerl is spinoff robot fella

Emerl has a cool design. He's a gold and orange robot who seems more in place in something like Mega Man than Sonic though. I like his little fin guard thing he has on his head tho.

Man, I don't really care about Emerl though. He's created by Gerald Robotnik based on an ancient race of people and robots and his soul is based on his granddaughter Maria's soul. Eggman stole him and tried to use him for his own bullshit and then Sonic rescues him and befriends him. Only when Emerl saves the day he goes all nutter butters and then tries to destroy the Earth. So then Sonic stops him and he diiiiiiiies. But at least he's still with us... in the Chaos Emerald shards.

But Eggman makes a knock off and tries to use it to destroy the world too.

Honestly, Emerl is like the least interesting of all the sentient robots in the series. I just don't care about him and never thought he was tremendous in Sonic Battle. I don't have a tremendous amount to say about him. I would rather we just go with a new robot or make better the cooler ones. Sorry Emerl.

Rank: E

https://youtu.be/MiW2Vwuow6Y

Ahh Sonic Battle good times

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/5/AATFBfAADfzh.png

Black Doom
First Appearance: Shadow the Hedgehog

Black Doom is the complete shits of a villain and is so ungodly stupid.

He's got a dumb double bladed head and three eyes and dresses like a floaty space monk in bland colors.

So Black Doom comes to Earth and finds Gerald Robotnik and the well-meaning doctor decides to work with a guy named BLACK DOOM to creat the Ultimate Lifeform (that's Shadow) to help heal Maria Robotnik's illness. Shadow is created from this dumb bastard's blood and has the power to do Chaos Control as a result. But Gerald realized that Black Doom was evil, somehow, and decided to make the Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet (Black Doom's traveling planet/space station thing) (which he later used to try to destroy Earth instead), because Black Doom would come back 50 years later because I guess he'll want to destroy Earth then, but not the first time for some reason?

Anyway, Black Doom and his Black Arms come to Earth and Black Doom spends the whole game trying to manipulate Shadow into being EVIL and trying to convince him to join him and destroy the world. He does manage to use the Eclipse Cannon to almost kill the President of San Francisco and start taking over the world.

Now that Black Doom is ready to take over the world Shadow decides to stop him because he's the only one immune to whatever Black <insert thing here> takeover McGuffin happens to stop everyone else. Just as Shadow is about to give up hope and all of that because of Black Doom's words, the Chaotix play a well-timed video made by Gerald and Maria telling Shadow to kill Black Doom and so he killed Black Doom, but not before Black Doom turns into DEVIL DOOM.

Needless to say, Black Doom is terrible. He's around for only this game but he does a bunch of cryptic bullshit all game attempting to be manipulative but the whole plot of this game is stupid, making everything that Black Doom attempts also stupid. And it's so over the top for a Sonic game and he comes across as absurd and not a good villain for Shadow at all. Even freaking Mephiles was a better villain for Shadow than this guy.

Black Doom will not be missed. He should be forever forgotten about and chances are he will be. There's nothing redeeming about this mess of a character.

Rank: F

https://youtu.be/8V1pMQKDPco

https://twitter.com/Lemon_Eyebrows/status/1552427928352604161?t=UnimfAH7gm77jaXL_ExvLQ&s=19

I'm only through the first two pages of this so I don't know if anyone's already done this, but there's a serious lack of Chronicles mentions when talking about characters like Big who were at their best in that game (not that that's saying much; it's Big), so I'm going to force the issue.

Shade the Echidna

Edit: Okay I'm all caught up now and someone did mention Shade, so...actually f*** it there's not that many characters left. I'm sticking with Chronicles.

Imperator Ix

Bark the Polar Bear

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/4/AATFBfAADgo8.jpg

Chaos
First Appearance: Sonic Adventure

Ooookay, this one is a doozy.

So Chaos has multiple forms depending on the number of Chaos Emeralds he possesses! He's mostly a fun little goo fella who turns into a shark-like thing, a weird toad-like thing, and then a giant dragon guy. All of them are pretty great designs and really feel like an escalation of power!

So Chaos was protecting the Chao at the Master Emerald back in the day until the ancient Echidnas all came out and decided to take all the Emeralds for themselves, aaaand it murdered all of them dead using the negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds. So Chaos' buddy Tikal sacrifices herself to seal Chaos inside the Master Emerald!

Flash forward to Sonic Adventure 1 where the Master Emerald was destroyed, freeing Chaos. Eggman spends the whole game trying to gather the emeralds to throw into Chaos. Fortunately, Chaos is stopped before getting the last Chaos Emerald, thus preventing it from becoming Perfect Chaos and saving the day.

Jk It goes to the Master Emerald shrine where Knuckles had 6 of the Chaos Emeralds and it took the last one from Tails' plane. And then Chaos turns into Perfect Chaos and absolutely destroys Station Square, the place you've been running around all game. WELP. Many people are dead but it's fiiiiiiine. Sonic ends up turning Super Sonic using the positive energy from the Chaos Emeralds and defeats him. It de-transformed and then Tikal was like "Hey it's cool we're all happy." And then Chaos is cool with that and according to Iizuka, the Director of Sonic Adventure 1, says that Chaos went into heaven. EXCUSE ME IT CAUSED A GENOCIDE. NO WAY IT WENT TO HEAVEN.

Oh, it kind of appears in Sonic Battle but doesn't really do much? And Sonic Generations gives us an updated Perfect Chaos fight! Where it looks so much more badass and cool. And then it also appeared in Sonic Forces but actually does literally nothing. Very cool.

Anyway, Chaos is pretty awesome. I've always loved the design and thought that the character was used perfectly in Sonic Adventure 1. You really feel a dread and escalation in power with Chaos and it builds up perfectly as we see what horrible thing is going to be engaging with us. It doesn't need to do anything but just be a simple boss to fight, with Eggman leading the charge. But when the Last Story begins, we see it decide enough is enough and take things into its own hands. We see it destroy the entire damn city. We see it destroy the extra Egg Carrier that Eggman had sitting around inexplicably. And then we have a truly epic fight with Super Sonic to fight it. It's not a tremendous fight, but it's entirely carried by how cool it all feels and how well the game builds up to it. Chaos is absolutely unforgettable because of that.

I don't know if we'll see Chaos again in a more legitimate way than Sonic Forces, but if they do it well then I think Chaos would be a welcome addition to the series! That said, I doubt we're seeing more of Chaos, so just enjoy what we got.

Rank: A

https://youtu.be/uEzXFuYN89k

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/5/AATFBfAADgo9.jpg

There was a fused version of Tikal and Chaos called Tikhaos in the comic.

Eggman has a whole fleet of flying battleships by Sonic Heroes, so him having an extra Egg Carrier on hand isn't that weird.

JackMan posted...

Eggman has a whole fleet of flying battleships by Sonic Heroes, so him having an extra Egg Carrier on hand isn't that weird.

It is when there is an entire cutscene devoted to it coming out of hiding in the middle of the forest in the game and he treats it as the definitive one!

JackMan posted...

Eggman has a whole fleet of flying battleships by Sonic Heroes, so him having an extra Egg Carrier on hand isn't that weird.

He had another massive battlefleet in Shadow the Hedgehog too. Became normal after the adventure games.

TheRock1525 posted...

There was a fused version of Tikal and Chaos called Tikhaos in the comic.

I am disturbed by this information.

https://twitter.com/PineappleInTime/status/1554179519732453378?t=_tYdRZ6ADGFKyBMKGvG0eQ&s=19

Cool project. May actually play it since I do have fond memories of Sonic Triple Trouble.

https://twitter.com/NoahNCopeland/status/1555007276230000641?t=RCgTZ94vxyv0qXyyTBBAfQ&s=19

The world cries out for more Nack the Weasel.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/7/AATFBfAADh6j.jpg

Mephiles the Dark
First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Mephiles is a cool idea sandbagged with a terrible origin in a terrible game.

He's like a crystal Shadow the Hedgehog looking guy with purple power tendrils coming off of him. He has no mouth too, which is weird as well.

So let's start with why Mephiles would be better if we made literally any kind of change. He was born when Solaris was split into two, where one was a giant lava monster thing and the other was darkness gas which was Mephiles. This is so stupid. Why isn't the plot just something less absurd like Mephiles being an evil badass guy wanting to find something to become super powerful instead of... everything with Sonic 2006. I don't need to rehash this over again.

But anyway, he's sealed in the Scepter of Darkness by a time traveling Shadow the Hedgehog. Eggman finds it eventually and it was shattered and he emerges and takes the form similar to Shadow and he can apparently send people into the past and does so to Shadow and Rouge. He wanted to find the Chaos Emeralds and make Princess Elise cry so that Iblis can be released (ugggggh) and then they could fuse into Solaris.

He went to the future, looking like the most evil MFer you've ever seen and was like "Yo Silver the Hedgehog you should trust me the blue hedgehog is totally evil and the reason your world is destroyed" and then he sends them back in time for some reason to go kill Sonic. Like he looks so evil that this is unbelievable. He can change forms! Take the form of a cutesy little rabbit girl or something.

Eventually he tries to convince Shadow to join him and convince him the world would never accept him, and it's probably the best he's utilized and he does it a hell of a lot better than Black Doom ever did. Shadow doesn't go with it, but eventually he manages to defeat Mephiles again.

Buuut he survives or escapes somehow and then MURDERS SONIC and then causes Elise to cry and releases Iblis and then Mephiles fuses with Solaris and fucks up the multiverse or something. All three hedgehogs then defeat him.

So all of the cool stuff with Mephiles, from his look, to his personality, to his powers are all awesome. Quality stuff. But he is trapped in this shitty game with it's dog shit story and he's just wasted here. I wish we had a Mephiles in a better game, because this doesn't do him justice. We're never going to see him outside of that mobile game though, which is unfortunate, but he's such a mess of a character it's hard to bring him back in without completely retconning most things about him.

Sorry Mephiles. You deserve better than Sonic 2006.

Rank: C

https://youtu.be/UJ8PFy-v4vI

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/2/AATFBfAADiKu.jpg

G.U.N. Commander
First Appearance: Shadow the Hedgehog

You know you have a quality character when they don't even give him a name, and just his job title.

The Commander just wears a generic black military suit and is an old man with heterochroma.

This dude sucks, plain and simple. Apparently he was the childhood friend of Maria Robotnik and got to see Shadow be created. But then the GUN Military attacked and shoots Maria to death and also his own parents too. What the fuck is up with this military group that they dead ass just murdered these completely harmless randos like this? But the key here is that Commander blames Shadow for it for some reason.

Flash forward to Shadow the Hedgehog and he spends the game trying to kill Black Doom and Shadow. He's never interesting, but he's super determined to kill Shadow. But he's also friends with the President [of San Francisco], and he has to be motivational to him. He strangely works with Sonic too. It's just weird.

But eventually they confront each other and Shadow says he's got amnesia and the Commander doesn't believe him, but then Shadow says he'll accept his fate if it's true and then the Commander decides that Shadow is telling the truth and lets him go. It's bad.

At the end though, after Shadow had defeated Black Doom, Commander talks with the President about how Gerald Robotnik was really a great guy and that they will work for a brighter future in his honor! Guys, HE TRIED TO DESTROY THE WHOLE EFFING WORLD. Why do they ignore this!?

Anyway, this character, like most exclusive Shadow the Hedgehog characters, really sucks. He's not interesting, he's extremely dumb, and nothing about his motivations works in execution. We do not need another appearance from COMMANDER.

Rank: F

https://youtu.be/nEFknRfCDQ8

This is the only thing I know about Shadow the Hedgehog.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/3/AACpsLAADiKv.jpg

I always thought the Commander was dumb, but it was the first time I knew heterochroma was an actual thing. So I give him props for that.

Anagram posted...

This is the only thing I know about Shadow the Hedgehog.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/3/AACpsLAADiKv.jpg

Still don't know when anf how that pic was taken and it's never elaborated on.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/5/AATFBfAADiQ3.jpg

Charmy Bee
First Appearance: Knuckles' Chaotix

Off the top of my head, is Charmy the only bug-related character in Sonic? Because I think so.

Charmy Bee is a bee, obviously. But he has a helmet, goggles, and sneakers, and then also gets a flight jacket in later appearances. It's pretty unique.

So I don't love Charmy, but I don't necessarily hate him? He adds a new dynamic (albeit sometimes annoying one) to the series. He doesn't do much but bring a lot of energy, and I really don't have much to say about him since he's... kind of a nothing character? Like he's just an excited kid who can fly which is fine but... I don't see how you can make more of him unless you go the weird Archie route of royalty?

I feel like as a trio that you could stand to add someone else in the group to kind of make Charmy more... tolerable? Like say that Mighty fellow that used to hang out with them. Because Charmy can stand to have something make him less annoying because in a three man group he really stands out there.

He stands out, but I don't know if it's necessarily in a good way, and I don't really need to see him a lot? There's more you can do with a lot better and more interesting characters that having Charmy around feels like a waste. Nooooot great, but not absolutely horrible either.

Rank: D

https://youtu.be/DtqLn6mld98

i think we've covered them all and that i haven't posted this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4jaYRmRsjQ

Iblis

https://youtu.be/R6e1_IlvmQs

SEEDEEZNUTS

Did not expect that

NFUN posted...

i think we've covered them all and that i haven't posted this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4jaYRmRsjQ

I started watching this and couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, then realised it wasn't the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGGMYZqJhk

JackMan posted...

I started watching this and couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, then realised it wasn't the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGGMYZqJhk

oh entirely my fault. i just chose the first link i found because the others i knew died and i did not want to watch it again