I Can’t Believe Sonic Freaking Died

Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has been floundering for a while. What was once a new and fresh mascot to rival Nintendo’s Mario has languished in the post 3D platform era. While Sega tries again and again to capture the old magic that once won the hearts and minds of kids in the 90s, they have never been able to quite get their games to feel right. Many of their 3D games languish with mixed reviews on Metacritic.

That is until now. 

Released on March 31 in what could have been the most disappointing April Fools prank, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog turned into one of the best reviewed Sonic games on Steam and has generally favorable reviews on Metacritic.

The gameplay is not what you expect for a Sonic game. There is very little “going fast,” and it is not an action-packed game. Instead, it is a visual novel with light runner-game elements. The charm of the game is immediately captured by the art style and the writing. Even the sound design helps push the tone of fun and absurdity. The game is humorous while being just the right amount of cheesy; you can tell that the creators of the game love Sonic. According to Katie Chrzanowski, the social media manager for Sonic the Hedgehog, this game was a passion project by a small group of friends within Sega.

From the Family Guy pose that Sonic takes as he lays on the ground to the blank look 

your character has despite what is going on, the physical humor shines through. The characters also stand out, with their own quirks and eccentricities taking center stage. While many 3D Sonic games languish in clunky gameplay, by removing that gameplay, the artists allowed the characters and humor to speak for themselves.

Dispersed throughout the game are minigames where you are Sonic constantly running down a path with randomly generated obstacles. This is the main character’s game that they turn to when they are out of ideas. It helps them “Think like Sonic.” It gets harder as the game progresses but stays relatively in the background and is not the best part of the experience. This minigame can be gimmicky and can interrupt the flow of the gameplay but not enough to take away from the experience of the whole.

While we might not get another gem like this, I do hope Sega pays attention to the love with which the game was made with and received. Hopefully, Sega will allow more of these passion projects in the future.

The game can be downloaded for free on Steam. As of writing, it has overwhelmingly positive reviews with over thirteen thousand Steam reviews. On Metacritic, it has a 84 critic score and 8.7 user score.