#sonicblr

Intro

Everything that I will recommend you to in this post only assumes you’ve seen the full Sonic movie (yes, that includes the post-credits scene) and will prominently feature the following:

Dr. Eggman/Robotnik

Sonic

Tails

(No, this guide won’t feature Owl Mom, as she only appeared in these movies so far. She was never in any other Sonic media, and I doubt you’d see much of her outside the movies)

With that out of the way, let’s begin!

Games

There are quite a lot of Sonic games, and this can seem the most overwhelming, especially since SEGA has been trying their hardest to get new fans from the games rather than the films. But there are a few good games to start with if you only saw the film!

In terms of emulating any of these games: I am fine with emulation. There is nothing wrong in terms of finding ways to preserve these games for years, and if you don’t have the money to own any of these games, then I do recommend emulation. The only emulator I can recommend in terms of the old, 90s Sonic games would have to be Kega Fusion, and if you want to find the ROMs/ISOs, good luck. I can’t tell you how to find ROMs/ISOs, as that is illegal, so I’d recommend asking a friend for help or DMing me if you need help finding a place to find ROMs/ISOs, but legally I can’t post where to find ROMs/ISOs. Despite all of that, when possible, please support SEGA by buying them officially when possible. With that out of the way, let’s truly begin!

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) - The very first Sonic game, of course, is the best place to start. Not the 2006 one! The 2006 game also titled Sonic the Hedgehog for Playstation 3 & Xbox 360 is not a good representation of the Sonic brand SEGA has been trying to push today, and it’s not a great game overall to start with. Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, however, is! It isn’t based off the new film, but it is what the current film has the most based off of. It starts off with the basics; you play as Sonic, and you have to stop Dr. Eggman from taking over the world, while saving all your animal buddies. It isn’t too long of a game, and better yet, this game is the easiest to get. It’s available on the Playstation Network store, Xbox Store, Nintendo Eshop (both for the Switch and 3DS), Steam (for Windows and Mac), and it’s even available on both Apple and Android devices! It’s free on phones, but you have ads, so that’s probably one of the best places to start in terms of games!

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) - Now, if you just saw the film, including the post-credits scene, then this is another perfect place to start. Not only can you play as Sonic, but you can also play as Tails! There are tons of more levels than in the first game, and there’s even a little secret if you collect all the Chaos Emeralds! (can’t say much about those as they haven’t been introduced in the films yet) And like the first game, there are tons of places to get this game. You can get this on the Playstation Network store, Xbox Store, Nintendo Eshop (on both Switch and 3DS), Steam (Windows and Mac), and on both Apple and Android devices! Like the first game, it’s also free on phones, with ads, so if you played the first game or only saw the newest film, this is another great place to start.

Sonic Mania (2017) - Another perfect place to start, and one of the best Sonic games in the past decade, this is an official catch-all Sonic game made by fans for not only the classic 90s games, but also features new levels and new playable characters that haven’t been seen in any recent games, including Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Now, I don’t think we’ll ever be seeing Mighty or Ray anytime in the films, but Knuckles is in this game as well (and in Sonic 2, I forgot to mention that), and I got a feeling Knuckles might show up in the next Sonic film. But yes, you can play as Sonic and Tails, of course. And this game does also have a multiplayer mode as well, and tons of extra secrets. And honestly, if you do want a recent game to start off with, Sonic Mania might have to be the best place to start with. And the best part is, this game is available on all recent modern gaming hardware, including Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam (Windows and Mac). Sadly, this game isn’t available on smartphones, but that shouldn’t detract from how good this game is. While the base game is cheap, only running you at $20, the DLC for this game only costs $5, while the physical release of this game (which includes the base game, DLC, and more), should only cost you $30.

Now, I hear ya, platformers aren’t really your thing. You don’t have the most modern, recent gaming devices, and your computer/laptop isn’t that powerful either. You only have a smartphone, and you only play mobile games. In that case, SEGA does also deliver in smartphone games, especially for Sonic! There is really only one I can recommend for beginners that even did include a limited event based on this film (that sadly has already passed), and that is

Sonic Dash (2012) - Possibly the easiest place to start with in terms of Sonic games on smartphones. Even though Sonic 1 & 2 are available for smartphones, SEGA did make and release this before those games came out. And with 100 million downloads, who could deny how huge this game has been for them. You really only start out as Sonic, play through Green Hill Zone, and you fight Dr. Eggman. Gameplay-wise, this game is very similar to Temple Run/Subway Surfers, so if you played those games, then this game shouldn’t be that hard to get into. As you play this game, you’re able to unlock more characters, including Tails, and you even get to unlock more levels, and even get to upgrade your characters as well. It is available on Apple and Android devices, and is free to play, despite all of the ads, so you can start off there if you don’t want to play any big Sonic game and just want a casual, light mobile game to play.

Now, Sonic didn’t only have games to boot. He also had tons of cartoons and comics! And let’s talk about those cartoons!

Cartoons

There are tons of Sonic cartoons out there, and there really aren’t that many to start off with if you only saw the film. These are the only few I could recommend to start off with.

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1995) - One of the first Sonic cartoons by DiC (animators behind the old Mario cartoons), this is honestly one of the few Sonic cartoons I could recommend to beginners, or only those who have seen the film. It stars Sonic and Tails, as they defeat evil plans by Dr. Robotnik, and it does include characters exclusive to this show. And despite the reputation this show has, I’d say this is one of the better cartoons to start off with. Sonic the Hedgehog 1993, or better known as SatAM (Saturday Morning Sonic Cartoon), isn’t really that good of a place to start off with if you only saw the movie. Not only does this show feature tons of characters that aren’t really seen outside of this show and the Archie comics, but this is a little bit more serious, and I don’t really recommend this to beginners who only have the film to go off of. AoSTH, however, is a lot more light, comedic, maybe even a little more childish, but it is one you can have on in the background and don’t really have to pay attention to, and it’s one you could show to kids. You can find this show currently on Netflix, as well as a number of episodes have been uploaded to YouTube in HD, so you can choose wherever you want to see this show.

Sonic Mania Adventures (2018) - A short series of shorts based on Sonic Mania, I’d say this is another great place to start especially in terms of cartoons. They’re all silent cartoons, and are based on Sonic Mania, but also features an original story to boot. Best part; you can watch them on YouTube now. Here’s a video with all of the episodes combined, and they also made a Christmas Special as well. The whole series is only 15 minutes long at most, and it’s something I definitely recommend checking out if you have the time.

Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie/the OVA (1996/1999) - An absolutely different movie from the actual Sonic movie we got a couple months ago, despite some obvious problems within the script and writing itself, I’d highly recommend checking out this movie! This is a really good movie that captures the speed of Sonic perfectly, and is one of the only few Sonic cartoons based on that 90s anime aesthetic. So if that suits you, then I’d recommend checking out this film on YouTube.

Comics

Now, this is even harder to decide on where to start with when compared to the cartoons. Not only are all the comics not that good, but they are all especially dependent on whatever type of knowledge you have on Sonic. The Archie comics are really only dependent on SatAM, and are cancelled! But the IDW comics are heavily dependent on if you played Sonic Forces, which isn’t that great of a game to begin with if you’re only knowledge of Sonic is based on this new film. But the IDW comics aren’t even on that good of an arc now. The British Fleetway comics aren’t that great either; not only are they ableist (with Super Sonic being “mentally insane” and evil), those comics are also cancelled as well. I really only have one comic series to recommend to beginners, if you can even find them.

Sonic -Mega Drive- (2016) - Made by one of the best writers for the Sonic comics, Ian Flynn, and drawn by the same person who redesigned Sonic for the new film, Tyson Hesse, these are a series of one-shot comics based on the original Sonic games. Very easy to get into, the cast isn’t that large, and overall it’s just a whole lot more appealing than the Archie or current IDW comics! There’s only two issues, with a third one that was cancelled due to SEGA withdrawing the Sonic license from Archie in 2017. If you can find them, I recommend checking them out.

Misconceptions About Sonic the Hedgehog and the Fandom

Now, coming out of the new film, you are really interested in Sonic the Hedgehog, but you already know about a whole lot of misconceptions about Sonic and his fandom, which may turn you off from going into this. So I am here to smash down a lot of those misconceptions, because a majority of them are all wrong, and I’m pretty sure anyone can enjoy Sonic after watching the film.

1. The Sonic Fandom is only full of overgrown babies who complain about all the newer games and only love the old games. 

This is an absolutely terrible misconception! This is absolutely not true for the entire fandom, and despite the bias I have towards the 90s Sonic era as seen in this guide, let me say this: There is no one wrong place to start with in terms of games. The Sonic Adventures games are good, Sonic Colors is good, and so is Sonic Generations and Lost World. There is no terrible Sonic game, and if there is, then that game probably has a small fandom of people who see the positives of that game, and only wish to improve on it. You are not wrong if you have an unpopular opinion on any Sonic game, and you can honestly enjoy any Sonic game of your choice. Yes, there are gatekeepers in this fandom, but they are small in numbers when compared to the majority of this fandom. This fandom is absolutely welcoming of any Sonic fan who enjoys any part of Sonic, and if anyone online is making you feel bad about enjoying any part of Sonic, then you can either ignore them or block them. You don’t need to hear their voices, as their voices are only minor when compared to this whole fandom.

But yes, there are people like SammyClassicSonicaFan who do have a bias towards 90s Sonic games, and there are people who have a bias towards the Modern games. But overall, it doesn’t matter what type of games you do enjoy, it’s just that you don’t bully or harm anyone else for enjoying those games. And again, mostly everyone in this fandom are fine with whatever Sonic game you like. Not that many people really bullies anyone in this fandom, and if they do, then again, they are the minority.

2. The Sonic Fandom is full of furries who only draw porn of the characters.

Yet again another terrible misconception about the Sonic fandom! Just because you’re a fan of Sonic, doesn’t make you a furry. I am one of the rare exceptions, though, as I am a Sonic fan, and a furry as well, and Sonic is partially the reason why I am a furry. But overall, I have met Sonic fans who aren’t furries, and I’ve met furries who aren’t Sonic fans.

And to that other half of this misconception; no, just no. Not only are the majority of the cast practically children (Tails is 8, Amy is 12, and Sonic is even 15), a majority of the characters who are 18 or over only barely fit that range (Rogue is 18, Vector is 21), and a majority of adults don’t even have confirmed ages (Dr. Eggman doesn’t even have a canonical age, and there’s been debate over whether Shadow is 15 or over 50 years old). So no, we don’t draw porn, and almost all of us are grossed out when we find Sonic porn (the only exception of this are the creeps who do draw that porn, but we don’t consider them apart of this community).

So there you go! That’s all I could think to mention in this whole guide! I hope you have fun enjoying these shows and games, and I hope you especially have fun in the Sonic community!