Quick Review: The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog

SEGA won this year’s April Fools, no contest.

Actually released on March 31st, 2023, this official SEGA game (yes, really) is a visual novel for the Sonic franchise (yes, really) that opens with the premise of Sonic the Hedgehog getting murdered. Yes, really. …Did I stutter? You’ve seen the title, haven’t you?

Meanwhile, Tails hopes he's not getting trolled again.

I'm so glad to be playing a Sonic game featuring so many
characters from the franchise. I wished that happened more
often. Also, is that a "printed comic book" effect?

Well, okay, some context. It’s Amy Rose’s birthday, and she always does something special to celebrate. So she has invited Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Blaze, Rouge, Shadow, Espio and Vector to a special murder mystery game on a high-tech speed train. Everybody’s playing a role. The train’s conductor is… well, busy conducting, leaving the new hire, an awkwardly average quokka, to tend to the guests’ needs. The game takes a strange turn when it’s Sonic who is found “dead” in the end wagon despite having been assigned the conductor’s cabin. At first, Tails and Amy think it’s him playing his part for Amy’s party. The quokka, however, notices that the famous hero is much more banged-up and feeble than he should be… especially for make-believe! He might even be dead, for real! They thus decide to become Tails’ sidekick, and lend a hand in solving the mystery.

(Side-note: The quokka, unofficially called Barry by promotional material [though you name them at the start of the story], is adorable and I want a plushie of them. Get them as an NPC in more games, dagnabbit!)

Apologies. It may seem I produced a sound that was a failed
attempt at a squee.

....Nothing! Please don't punch me or Tails. Nice hat BTW!

The visual novel half is incredibly well-made. Embodying all the humor we know from the Sonic series and made by the Sonic social media team, with one of the game’s lead artists, Min Ho Kim, having worked on a spin-off miniseries in Sonic’s IDW Comics run. Packed with in-jokes and references pertaining to the Sonic franchise’s 32 years of existence, the game actually has a really good story with twists and turns and genuinely great character interactions. This is one of the rare few pieces of official Sonic media where you could see some secondary characters interact with each other, like Rouge and Blaze. Or have so many secondary characters be relevant to the story at hand. There’s a  bit of Ace Attorney inspiration here as well, presenting evidence and coming to logical conclusions…

Rouge, can you stop treasure-hunting for two seconds?
Apparently not.

Oh hey, the console even has my name on top. Cute!

The other half is the DreamGear, known as the THINK! Levels, which represent the quokka’s thought process when they have to work their brain more than usual to reach conclusions. It’s done through a mini-game in which Sonic runs and jumps through an obstacle course and has to get a certain number of rings before the end goal, which is a lightbulb. Barry, or whatever your name is, buddy, if it takes you that long to go through a logical thinking process, you might be a little slow. But you’re adorable so I’ll let it slide. Those segments start out pretty simple but get progressively tougher as the story advances, with them being omnipresent, and very tough, in the final stretch. In an effort to make the game accessible to all, a set of options allows you to make Sonic invincible, remove all pitfalls, slow the game down or reduce the number of rings needed, making these sequences easier if you want. You can even make them impossible to lose, if you'd rather focus solely on the story.

As the hazards pile up, the THINK! levels get more and more
difficult. Crumbling ground, shuriken, spikes everywhere!

Nothing like finishing a THINK! stage and missing only one
or two rings from the required total.

Legit a great game, good in all the ways it could be. Crisp writing, superb art, excellent interactions between characters, a lot of comedy, a lot of heart, some fun twists, challenging running stages for those who like them, with accessibility options for those who’d rather have it easy. Perhaps the closest we’ll get to the feel of the comics and other continuities of the multimedia Sonic franchise that’s normally separated from the main continuity of the games. Really great. Worth your time (it’s short, can be beaten in two to three hours), and free, to top it off.

What are you waiting for? Go download it, right now!