The worst thingSoniccould ever be is safe. Passable, average games will be the death of the series, and I’d take something that swings and misses over a game that’s playing catch-up with other platformers.
Sure, Sonic Lost World is fine, but so what? EvenSonic Colors, a much better attempt at the Boost formula, is largely overlooked now, despiteits glossy remasterin 2021. For years, that’s what the series was - passable games with no vision. No idea what it means to be a ‘Sonic game’. Now,Segahas finally cracked the code: the Sonic series is at its best when it doesn’t shy away from its weird and wonderful self.
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InThe Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic is well, murdered. He’s dead. And with him being dead, we obviously can’t play as him, so we follow the rest of the characters around instead.
Rather than hanging out with the Blue Blur, we spend the whole visual novel with his pals, and even lesser-spotted side characters. It’s fantastic. Amy is obsessed with true crime. Shadow is forced to be a LARPer. Rouge gets told off for stealing a pen from a gift shop. It’s silly, and it’s wonderful.
It’s something that could only come from the unique team that developed the game in secret, headed by social media manager, Katie Chrzanowski. Sega, for all of the improvements it made withSonic Frontiers, probably wouldn’t kick off a game by killing the hero.
But Sega deserves credit for even allowing this to happen. It’s hard to imagine any other big franchise letting its social media team make a game, and there’s nothing to really compare it to. It’s such a relief to see the Sonic series evolve beyond compare once more, after spending years pushing out mediocre platformers, left inSuper Mario’s shadow.
For years,rumours have circulated about how protective Sega is of its brand. It was said that Sonic writers couldn’t ever depict him losing a fight, much less give him any kind of real struggle. After some embarrassing romantic storylines in the comics (and one in the games), these were apparently ruled out too. We don’t know exactly what was going on behind the scenes, but from the outside, it was clear that Sonic was going through a complete identity crisis - losing the snarky ‘90s kid sass, and replacing it with, well, nothing. By the 2010s, Sonic had beaten the cringe allegations, but it felt hollow.
Now, we have a game literally titled The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. This is pretty far from a ban on him not being able to get his ass kicked. It’s a hit too, so it’s safe to say the fans are along for the ride.
In truth, it doesn’t matter one bitif The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is canon or not. It’s a real Sonic game that exists, and that in itself is incredible. It’s full of love, charm, and passion, and it’s the jolt of energy the series needs after years of life support. Hopefully, Sega now realises that Sonic can be whatever it wants - he just has to besomething.
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