Sonic the Hedgehog: Difference between revisions

Sonic is a 15-year-old anthropomorphic hedgehog who, as his name suggests, is capable of running at supersonic speeds. He is 3 ft, 3 in (1 m) tall, weighs 77 lbs (35 kg), and has large quills, blue fur, and green eyes. Sonic also wears a pair of Power Sneakers<ref>Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) (Sega Mega Drive) United States instruction booklet, p. 2.</ref> alongside a pair of white gloves.

Sonic's most defining feature is his speed, as it was his main gimmick and driving force during his inception. Sonic is constantly seen outrunning traditionally fast objects like cars and trucks, rockets, fighter jets and even time and space itself. This even applies to gameplay, with players often finding ways to glitch and sequence break several games by simply going fast enough. Aside from his speed, his main ability is to curl up into a ball and effectively make himself a projectile that can damage enemies. His most iconic method of achieving this state is the [[Spin Dash]], where Sonic curls up into a ball and spins around in place enough times to launch forward at high speeds. A variant of this technique called the Super Peel-Out exists, which has a similar effect except without curling into a ball. While Sonic initially could only jump and land on the heads of enemies, later games introduced the [[Homing Attack]], where Sonic will lock on to the closest enemy for a near guaranteed hit. Later games also introduced a boosting technique, where Sonic can further increase his speed by using a resource that varies depending on the game.

Sonic gathers golden rings for his primary source of health and energy. If he takes damage, the rings will fly out of him, the amount fluctuating depending on the game, and he has a few seconds to get them back before they disappear. Sonic also collects power-ups such as Power Sneakers that increase his speed further, various elemental shields that let him interact with the level in unique ways and allow him to take a hit without losing rings, invincible boxes that temporarily turn him invincible, several permanent power-ups that let him perform new techniques and access new areas, and wisps that temporarily change Sonic's abilities.  

Sonic's most iconic power-ups are the seven [[Chaos Emeralds]], which appear in most games as either collectibles or plot devices. Sonic has been shown to know how to perform Chaos Control, which is using the energy of at least one emerald to warp the fabric of reality, usually resulting in time slowing to a crawl or stopping entirely. If Sonic collects all seven emeralds, he can transform into [[Super Sonic]], which grants him flight and invincibility so long as he has a sufficient number of rings.

 

Initially, early Western profiles sometimes portrayed Sonic as being from the fictional planet Mobius. However, Japanese profiles (which Western territories would follow starting with ''{{s|wikipedia|Sonic Adventure}}'') and Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team, have since stated that his birthplace is {{s|wikipedia|Kiritimati}} (also known as Christmas Island), one of the numerous atolls that comprise the real world sovereign state of {{s|wikipedia|Kiribati}}.