Aesthetics
Sonic's design is largely the same as it was in SSB4, although his model features a more subdued color scheme due to the aesthetic used in Ultimate. His fur is now lightly detailed, similar to his appearance in the Sonic Boom cartoon and Sonic Forces artwork, and his shoes appear more polished.- Like most other returning characters, Sonic is more expressive than in Smash 4. He now has a sly grin while dashing and frowns during his up tilt, forward smash, forward throw, and when shielding. His eyes are also slightly more emotive. However, he still isn't as expressive as in Brawl, as he doesn’t grow impatient during his foot-tapping idle pose and doesn’t grin during his finger-wiggle idle pose.
- Sonic's head quills have greater independent physics, resembling how their movement was in Brawl.
- Two of Sonic's victory poses have been tweaked:
- His left-inputted victory pose now has the camera appears fixed on where he appears, showing him sprint off-screen twice before appearing. He also grins when he gives a thumbs up instead of smirking, akin to Brawl.
- His up-inputted victory pose now has him running up to the Chaos Emerald before grabbing it.
- Although Sonic still has an animated mouth in his victory poses, the ending poses switch back to the standard model so that its movement appears more natural.
Attributes
Like all characters, Sonic's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 5).- Sonic walks faster (1.375 → 1.444).
- Sonic dashes faster (3.5 → 3.85).
- His initial dash is significantly faster (1.5 → 2.31), now being the third fastest in the game.
- Sonic's traction has been massively increased (0.06 → 0.138), now being the highest in the entire game. This makes it much easier for him to punish out of shield.
- Sonic's air speed is faster (1.15 → 1.208).
- Sonic falls faster (1.45 → 1.65), his falling speed now being above average instead of below average.
- His fast falling speed is faster as well (2.32 → 2.64), which improves his air mobility and leaves him less susceptible to juggling.
Sonic is considerably lighter (94 → 86), now making him a lightweight instead of a middleweight, weighing slightly more than Zelda and being lighter than Little Mac, worsening his endurance. While this change would make him less susceptible to combos, this is prevented by his faster fall speed.- Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-15 → 4-14) and has more ending lag (FAF 28 → 29).
- Back roll has more ending lag (FAF 28 → 34).
- Spot dodge has more startup (frame 2 → 3).
- Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 2-25 → 2-26).
- Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 31 → 51).
- The reintroduction of directional air dodges improves Sonic's recovery more than other characters', as due to Spring Jump not causing helplessness, he can get additional distance with a directional air dodge after using it.
- Sonic takes a slight amount of damage per second when swimming. He shares this trait with Charizard, Inkling, and Incineroar.
- His swimming animation is also changed, showing him constantly in a panicked state (as opposed to only being in one when drowning).
Ground attacks
- Neutral attack:
- The first and second hits have different angles to keep opponents closer to Sonic (hit 1: 92°/60°/361° → 361°/180°, hit 2: 80°/60°/48° → 361°), akin to other neutral attacks, and deal less knockback (18 set/100 scaling → 20 base/20/15 scaling (hit 1), 20/15 base/20 scaling (hit 2)), but have gained hitstun modifiers (0 → 8 (hit 1), 4 (hit 2)). This allows them to connect more reliably, and the second hit to lock opponents.
- Consecutive uses of the first hit are faster (13 → 10 frames).
- The first hit transitions faster into the second hit (frame 9 → 7), which transitions faster into the third hit (frame 8 → 6).
- The third hit launches at a lower angle (50° → 361°), allowing it to force opponents offstage more effectively and set up tech-chases.
- All hits have a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.6× (hit 1), 1.2× (hit 2), 2× (hit 3)), giving opponents more time to SDI each hit and DI the last hit.
- The first hit has had its three large hitboxes replaced with four smaller ones (3u/3.5u/4u → 1.4u/1.4u/1.6u/1.6u). The second and third hits have smaller hitboxes as well (4u/3.4u/3u → 2.3u/2.3u/2.8u (hit 2), 3u/3.5u/5u → 2.6u/2.6u/3.6u (hit 3)).
- The second hit deals less damage (2% → 1.5%).
- The third hit has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 4-6 → 4-5).
- The third hit has a slightly different animation.
- Forward tilt:
- The first hit has drastically reduced knockback scaling, but increased base knockback (60 (base)/70 (scaling) → 80/3) and has been moved farther from Sonic (Z offset: -1.6u → -0.7), allowing it to connect into the second hit more reliably.
- The second hit's outermost hitbox has been moved further outwards (X offset: 4.9 → 6) improving its range.
- Up tilt:
- Both hits have less startup lag (frame 7 → 6 (hit 1), 18 → 13 (hit 2)).
- However, the move's total duration was not fully compensated (FAF 40 → 36), giving it one more frame of ending lag.
- The first hit's late portion no longer uses the autolink angle (365° → 95°).
- The first active hitbox is slightly smaller (5.5u → 5.2u).
- Down tilt:
- Down tilt launches at an upwards angle instead of horizontally (361° → 73°) and deals much more knockback (30 base/80 scaling → 40/100), improving its combo potential.
- Sonic no longer slides forward after using the move, making it safer to use for spacing.
- However, this completely removes its ability to be used as a pseudo crawl.
- Dash attack:
- Dash attack has been changed to only consist of a lunge kick, with the Spin Attack portion beforehand being removed. As a result, it no longer hits multiple times. It also deals less knockback to compensate for the single hit's greater damage relative to the previous version's final hit (80 base/125 scaling → 88/80 (clean), 93/80 (late)).
- It has much less ending lag (FAF 62 → 46).
- It deals more damage (6% → 8% (clean), 4% → 6% late)).
- It has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 0.75× for the clean hit, and 1.05× for the late hit. Combined with its reduced ending lag, higher damage, and the increased shieldstun for ground attacks, this makes both safer on shield, despite the clean hit having a below-average multiplier.
- It launches at a lower angle (70° → 60°), hindering its KO potential.
- Forward smash:
- Sonic's arm stretches out further during the punch, improving its range.
- Up smash:
- Up smash has less startup (frame 19 → 14). While its total duration is one frame longer by comparison (FAF 66 → 62), it retains the same ending lag due to the first hit being separated one more frame from the subsequent hits.
- It grants more intangibility frames (frames 18-20 → 14-18).
- The first hit launches opponents towards Sonic (90° → 110°) with more set knockback (70 → 120), while the looping hits have a lower SDI multiplier (0.6× → 0.5×), and both use weight-independent knockback, allowing them to connect more reliably.
- Two of the looping hits' hitboxes are larger (4u/4u → 4.2u/4.2u), slightly improving its range.
- The last hit has increased knockback scaling (165 → 170), improving its KO potential.
- Down smash:
- Down smash's front hit deals much more knockback (55 base/63 scaling → 50/80), matching the strength of the back hit.
- It has a new animation where Sonic's feet stretch out and enlarge. However, its hitboxes weren't adjusted, and as such, it has gone from being disjointed to failing to cover Sonic's feet.
Aerial attacks
- All aerials have less landing lag (16 frames → 10 (neutral), 26 → 16 (forward), 30 → 15 (back), 21 → 13 (up), 38 → 21 (down)).
- Forward aerial:
- Forward aerial's multi-hits consist of one large hitbox instead of four smaller ones (2u → 5.5u), which uses the autolink angle (130°/60°/200°/340° → 367°) and has more set knockback (30 → 40), allowing them to connect more reliably. They also have a lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.7×), making them harder to SDI out of.
- Back aerial:
- Back aerial's late hit has much less knockback scaling (100 → 76), significantly hindering its KO potential.
- Up aerial:
- Up aerial's first hit has much less knockback scaling (100 → 50) and launches at different angles (100°/118° → 110°/123°). As a result, its knockback fails to follow Sonic's vertical momentum when used in a jump, worsening its linking ability into the second hit.
- The second hit deals more damage (6% → 8%), with knockback scaling compensated (82 → 68).
- The second hit has an additional hitbox below Sonic, mitigating some of the linking issues caused by the aforementioned changes to the first hit.
- Down aerial:
- Down aerial only possesses a clean hit and late hit, with the early hit being removed (frames 17-18/19-22/23-32 → 17-19/20-32).
- Its meteor smash hitbox is slightly larger (3.5u → 3.6u).
- This allows for the aerial meteor smash to be landed much more easily.
- However, this reduces the clean hit's duration against grounded opponents.
- The late hit deals more knockback (80 base/70 scaling → 75/80).
- The late hit has gained a sourspot that deals less damage (7% → 5%) without compensation on knockback.
Throws and other attacks
- Grabs:
- All grabs have more ending lag (FAF 31 → 38 (standing), 38 → 48 (dash), 37 → 40 (pivot)).
- Standing and pivot grab have slightly more startup lag (frame 6 → 7 (standing), frame 10 → 11 (pivot)).
- Standing and dash grab have less range (Z2 offset: 9.7u → 8.7u (standing), 11.1u → 10.4u (dash)).
- Pummel:
- It deals less damage (2% → 1.3%).
- It deals more hitlag (4 frames → 14), but has much less startup (frame 4 → 1) and ending lag (FAF 16 → 7).
- It has a slightly different animation.
- Forward throw:
- Forward throw sends opponents at a more horizontal angle that is desirable for edgeguarding (70° → 45°).
- It releases opponents faster (frame 12 → 11), but with its total duration unchanged, increasing its ending lag.
- It has more knockback scaling (70 → 75), but significantly less base knockback (100 → 70), no longer KOing at high percents.
- Up throw:
- Up throw releases opponents faster (frame 28 → 23), but with its total duration unchanged, increasing its ending lag. This reduces its combo potential, despite Sonic's faster jumpsquat and jump speed, and in combination with the faster knockback physics, it severely worsens Spring Jump-assisted followups, no longer being guaranteed.
- Down throw:
- Down throw's release deals more damage (4% → 5%), with its base knockback compensated (80 → 75).
- Edge attack:
- Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).
Special moves
- Homing Attack:
- Homing Attack can be charged for much longer, with Sonic ascending much higher during the charge (frames 22-34 → frames 15-82).
- It has less startup when uncharged (frame 22 → 15), allowing it to be comboed into from other moves.
- It deals more damage especially when charged (5%-12% → 7%-20%), with knockback not fully compensated (45 base/90 scaling → 55/65), improving its KO potential at high charge levels.
- It launches Sonic at a straighter trajectory towards opponents, improving its accuracy.
- It incurs less ending lag upon hitting an opponent (FAF 34 → 27), allowing it to combo into other moves at certain percentages.
- It has larger hitboxes (3.5u/3.5u → 5u/5u).
- It has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 0.5×, thus dealing less shieldstun than in Smash 4, despite it being increased for moves other than smash attacks and aerials. This makes it relatively less safe on shields.
- It launches at a slightly lower angle (55° → 53°).
- The move 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.
- Colliding with a wall while moving on the ground with Spin Dash or Spin Charge now has Sonic bounce off it, using the same animation when rebounding off the ground with Homing Attack.
- Spin Dash:
- A grounded charged Spin Dash can be released in the air while keeping its charge.
- The first jump hit deals slightly more damage (4% → 5%) and has a bigger hitbox (2u → 3u).
- Its charge can no longer be canceled by shielding, removing its usefulness for faking out approaches.
- It can no longer be held indefinitely, instead being unleashed automatically if charged for more than two seconds. However, this can be somewhat circumvented by starting the move on the ground, then jumping out of it and charging it in the air, in which case the automatic release does not happen until Sonic lands.
- The move stops upon hitting an opponent's shield, and cannot cross up unless it is charged enough, reducing its safety.
- The trail changes from purple to yellow when fully charged.
- Sonic does not hop if the move is released at full charge.
Sonic no longer loses his double jump after landing with an aerial Spin Dash or Spin Charge.
- Spring Jump:
- Sonic gains slightly more vertical height from Spring Jump, matching the move's vertical height from Brawl.
- The aerial version's Spring launches opponents at a higher angle (361° → 48°), hindering its edgeguarding ability.
- It grants significantly less intangibility (frames 5-13 → 5-7), leaving Sonic more vulnerable to edgeguards.
- Using the move incurs 10 frames of landing lag.
- Grabbing onto a ladder no longer causes Sonic to become helpless whenever he lets go or falls after climbing to the top.
- Spin Charge:
- Spin Charge's hits launch at a more horizontal angle (60° → 9°), and have more base knockback (40 → 70), but drastically less knockback scaling (60 → 15), as well as lower hitlag and SDI multipliers (1× → 0.5×). This allows them to connect much more reliably.
- It can no longer be held indefinitely, instead being unleashed automatically if charged for more than three seconds.
- Like the Spin Dash, it stops upon hitting an opponent's shield, and cannot cross up unless it is charged enough, reducing its safety.
- It changes the color of the trail to indicate charge strength, going from blue, to cyan, to yellow.
- Super Sonic:
- Super Sonic's functionality has been changed. Instead of being fully controllable, he moves automatically across the horizontal axis at a drastically increased speed, and only his vertical position can be controlled.
- When reverting from Super Sonic, Sonic deals damage and knockback if he makes contact with opponents while flying back to his starting point.
- Super Sonic's damage output is significantly weaker than its previous iterations, and it lasts for a much shorter time period. The more limited controls also make it less possible for him to secure an early KO.