Sonic (SSBU)

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Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Sonic the Hedgehog
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Super Sonic

“	This speedy fighter has a lot of rush-type attacks. His final smash, Super Sonic, lets him fly around the stage at an incredible speed!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Sonic (ソニック, Sonic) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was confirmed as a playable character on June 12th, 2018. Sonic is classified as fighter #38.

Sonic is once again voiced by Roger Craig Smith in the English version, albeit with recycled voice clips from various Sonic games, as was the case in Super Smash Bros. 4. In the Japanese version, Jun'ichi Kanemaru reprises his role via recycled voice clips from Brawl and Smash 4. He is also voiced in French by Alexandre Gillet, in Spanish by Jonathan López, in German by Marc Stachel and in Italian by Renato Novera.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Sonic being the 17th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with anyone, being the first character in Mario's unlock tree, the eighth character in Pikachu's after Pichu, and the ninth character in everyone else's unlock trees.
• Have Sonic join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Sonic must then be defeated on Green Hill Zone.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Aesthetics

• As with all veterans returning from Smash 4, Sonic's model features a more subdued color scheme. His fur is now lightly detailed similar to other furry characters.
• Like most of the cast, Sonic is more expressive, as he now grins while dashing and now has an angry expression when using his up tilt, forward smash, and holding his shield.
• Sonic now grins during his victory pose where he smiles instead of smirking, like in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
• Sonic's head quills jiggle and move around more, resembling how their movement was in Brawl.
• Sonic's victory animation where he grabs a Chaos Emerald now has him running up to it.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Sonic's jumpsquat animation now takes three frames to complete (down from 5).
• Sonic walks faster (1.375 → 1.444).
• Sonic dashes faster (3.5 → 3.85).
• Sonic's initial dash is significantly faster (1.5 → 2.31).
• Sonic's air speed is faster (1.15 → 1.208).
• Sonic falls faster (1.45 → 1.65)
• Sonic's fast-fall is faster (2.32 → 2.64)
• Sonic is considerably lighter (94 → 86) and now only weighs slightly more than Zelda, making his survivability much worse but also makes him less prone to combos.
• Sonic now takes a slight amount of damage per second when he's swimming. He shares this with Charizard, Inkling, and Incineroar.

Ground Attacks

• Due to Ultimate's reworked run mechanics, Sonic can easily surprise opponents with any ground attacks, including neutral, tilt and smash attacks, due to his incredibly fast dash speed.
• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's second hit can now lock.
  • Neutral attack's third hit has a slightly different animation.
  • Neutral attack has slightly more endlag.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt launches at a more upward angle, improving its combo potential.
  • Down tilt now sends Sonic forward then back to where he started.
    • This makes the move slightly more safe in terms of positioning.
    • This means down tilt can no longer make him pseudo-crawl.
• Dash attack:
  • Sonic's previous dash attack now has its Spin Attack portion removed, with only the lunge kick being intact.
    • Due to this change, his dash attack is no longer a multi-hit.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has slightly less start up lag (frame 19 → 18).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's front hit has much more knockback.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (Neutral: frame 16 → 10, Forward: 26 → 17, Back: 30 → 19, Up: 21 → 14, Down: 38 → 22).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial connects more reliably.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial connects into each hit less reliably.
  • Up aerial's second hit deals more damage (6% → 8%).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial now meteors at the initial hit, making it easier to meteor smash opponents.

Throws/other attacks

• Standing grab and dash grab have increased ending lag.
• Pummel has a slightly different animation.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw now sends opponents at a more horizontal angle.
• Up throw and forward throw deal less knockback. This improves their combo and tech chase abilities, but weakens their KO and edgeguarding abilities.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw deals slightly more damage (7% → 8%).
  • Sonic hops a bit higher after performing his down throw.

Special Moves

• Homing Attack:
  • Homing Attack now shows a reticle on the opponent right before Sonic is about to strike, as in games from Sonic and the Secret Rings onward. The reticle most closely resembles its design in Sonic Colors.
  • Homing Attack can be charged for much longer, with Sonic ascending much higher than before. The attack deals more damage when charged and has improved accuracy.
  • Homing Attack comes out much quicker than in previous titles when the attack button is pressed. This uncharged state of the attack allows for combo potential.
• Spin Dash:
  • Spin Dash's charge can no longer be canceled by pressing shield.
  • Spin Dash now stops upon hitting an opponent's shield, reducing its safety.
  • A grounded charged Spin Dash can now be released in the air while keeping its charge.
  • Sonic no longer loses his double jump after landing with an aerial Spin Dash or Spin Charge.
• Spring Jump:
  • Spring Jump has less ending lag, making it chain into aerial attacks easier.
  • Aerial Spring Jump's Spring has lowered knockback, making it harder to chain and to KO opponents as easily.
  • Spring Jump provides significantly less intangibility to Sonic, making it easier to edgeguard him.
  • Sonic gains slightly more vertical height from Spring Jump.
• Spin Charge:
  • Spin Charge now changes the color of the trail to indicate charge strength, going from blue, to cyan, to yellow.
• Final Smash:
  • Sonic's Final Smash has been changed. He still transforms into Super Sonic and launches foes on contact; however, his speed has been drastically increased, and he now moves automatically on the horizontal axis, so only his vertical position can be controlled.
  • It now deals damage and knockback when Sonic turns normal.

Classic Mode: At the Speed of Sound

Sonic's opponents are a mix between the game's fastest characters as well as references to characters in other Sonic titles.

Round	Opponent	Stage
1	Fox	Green Hill Zone
2	Captain Falcon	Figure-8 Circuit
3	Giant Metal Sonic	Fourside (Ω form)
4	3 Kirbys	Halberd
5	Sheik	Mushroomy Kingdom
6	Giant Incineroar	Windy Hill Zone
Bonus Stage
Final	Master Hand and Crazy Hand	Final Destination

Note: Every stage plays a track from the Sonic universe, no matter what universe the stage originated from.

Role in World of Light

Sonic was among the fighters summoned to the cliffside to assist in defeating an army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Sonic was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. While attempting to run away, Sonic noticed Pikachu doing the same and reached his hand towards Pikachu in an attempt to save it, but both he and Pikachu were vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment.

He is later seen standing next to Mario, as the heroes prepare their last stand against Galeem and Dharkon.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Sonic artwork, as posted on the official Japanese Sega Twitter account.

• 

  Sonic's fighter card.

• 

  Sonic idling on Wrecking Crew.

• 

  Running on Mushroomy Kingdom.

• 

  Attacking R.O.B. with his up tilt on Skyworld.

• 

  Coming to a halt before a Shy Guy on Figure-8 Circuit.

• 

  Attacking Shulk with Spin Charge on Mario Galaxy.

• 

  With one of Bayonetta's butterflies on Skyworld.

• 

  Running with Falco on Prism Tower.

• 

  With Olimar, Pac-Man, and Mario on Gaur Plain.

• 

  Sonic and Villager getting hit by Robin's down smash on Wily Castle.

• 

  Sonic holding Death's Scythe on the Bridge of Eldin.

• 

  Sonic and Knuckles posing on Palutena's Temple.

• 

  Sonic and Knuckles posing on Garden of Hope.

• 

  Idling on Distant Planet.

• Sonic on-screen appearance.gif

  Sonic's on-screen appearance.

• Sonic 3rd victory pose.gif

  One of Sonic's victory poses.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• Sonic's stock icon in Ultimate bears a striking resemblance to several logos and icons in the Sonic series, namely:
  • The logo for Sonic Team.
  • Sonic's character icon in some Sonic spin-off games.
  • The life icon and 1-ups in Sonic Unleashed (when Sonic is not in his Werehog form), as well as the 1-ups from Sonic Colors.
    • It is also one of four to show the character's eyes, the others being R.O.B., Kirby, and Meta Knight.
• So far, Sonic is the only third-party character in Ultimate with more than one home stage representing his series.
• Unlike other installments in the Super Smash Bros. series, Sonic slowly takes damage if he falls in any body of water, which is a nod to his inability to swim in his own series.
• While Sonic has appeared in three installments, Ultimate marks the first time Sonic is the first third-party character announced, as Snake was announced before him in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, while Mega Man was announced before him in Super Smash Bros. 4.
• Sonic being unlocked by clearing Classic Mode as Mario is a reference to the bitter rivalry between the two of them in the '90s through 2001, while Sega was still a console manufacturer.
• Sonic's Classic Mode has numerous references to his franchise:
  • Stage 1 has Fox on Green Hill Zone, which is likely a reference to Sonic's sidekick, Tails, who debuted in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis.
  • Stage 2 has multiple racing references to homage Sonic R for the Sega Saturn.
  • Stage 3 is a reference to Chaos, the antagonist of Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast, of which has its theme. The stage being a city at night is likely a reference to their final battle in the game.
  • Stage 4 has three Kirby's while playing the Sonic Heroes theme. The Kirby's are colored in reference to the color coding of Sonic Heroes's three roles/abilities: Blue (Speed), Red (Power), and Yellow (Flight). The stage is Halberd, which references the Egg Fleet from the same game and the setting of the final levels.
  • Stage 5 references Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii.
  • Stage 6 is a reference to Zavok from Sonic Lost World for the Wii U.
• The games Sonic's Classic Mode references also go in chronological order from each console generation starting from the 4th (Sega Genesis) to the 8th (Wii U).
• Sonic is the only character who travels to Figure-8 Circuit and Green Hill Zone in Classic Mode.