Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)

Sonic the Hedgehog is an ongoing American comic book series published by Archie Comics, featuring Sega's video game mascot of the same name, Sonic the Hedgehog. The comic debuted in the US as a four part mini-series, published between November 1992 and February 1993. The ongoing series began in May 1993, and as of April, 2014, there had been 259 issues.

In 2008, Guinness World Records formally recognized it as the longest running comic series based on a video game.

Spin-off publications from the comic include; Sonic Universe, an on-going series featuring stories centered around different side characters every arc, reaching issue #63 as of April, 2014; Knuckles the Echidna, featuring Knuckles as the main protagonist with help from his friends The Chaotix, which ran for 32 issues; and Sonic X, a comic based on the anime of the same name, which lasted 40 issues.

Premise
The main focus of the comic storyline is the title character and hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is endowed with super speed and a love of freedom, which puts him at odds with the antagonist, Dr. Robotnik. Sonic is depicted as having important ties with his family and friends, and a deep sense of duty. He holds a personal grudge against the Doctor and understands his ability to protect the world from this menace.

Sonic is affiliated with the Freedom Fighters, a rebellion group that was formed to counter the tyranny of Dr. Ivo Robotnik (later also referred to as "Eggman") and his legion of unquestioning, warlike robots. The basis of the original issues was designed to closely mirror the animated television series, as well as the names and likenesses of Sonic's allies in the Freedom Fighters. Since then, the series has integrated many elements from the video games, which has led to ongoing story arcs involving Shadow the Hedgehog and others.

Issues #1-50
The first forty issues of the series consisted mostly of isolated stories rarely with any continuity between issues. The early issues featured much of Sonic versus Robotnik, in which Sonic would constantly foil Robotnik’s plans whether it be to tear down a forest or find the hidden location of Knothole Village. The first sign of a major victory was when Sonic's beloved Uncle Chuck was able to free himself from Robotnik's roboticization-induced mind control, and joined the team as a robot spy. Eventually though, the issues started to gain a sense of an ongoing story, most notably with the addition of the Mecha Sonic storyline in issue #39, in which Sonic is transformed into a robotic form and does as Robotnik commands. This would later be concluded in a Sonic Special issue where Knuckles gets transformed into a robot in order to defeat Mecha Sonic. Following the defeat of Mecha Sonic, the Freedom Fighters come together in issue #46 to discuss ways to attack and defeat Robotnik once and for all. The loyalty of many of the Freedom Fighters comes into question, particularly notable in a feud between Sonic and Geoffrey St. John, member of the Acorn Secret Service. This continues into the End Game saga which takes place over a four issue span, #47 through #50.

The saga begins with a mission by the Freedom Fighters and the Wolf Pack, led by Lupe, to attack Robotnik’s base. Princess Sally reveals thoughts of her father, King Acorn, telling her that it would soon become apparent that Sonic is a traitor. The mission proceeds and Sally is in need of help or she may fall to her death. The Freedom Fighters look on in despair when they think they see Sonic and assume that he will rescue the princess. Much to their surprise, Sonic aids Sally in falling to her death. The mission is called to retreat, and the Freedom Fighters move back to Knothole Village. Meanwhile, Sonic is seen battling Robotnik inside the base (when he apparently left Sally for dead). Robotnik escapes and Sonic leaves the base, wondering where the rest of his companions have gone. Sonic returns to Knothole, only to be arrested and spared the death penalty in light of all his services, so instead he is sentenced to life in prison. While Sonic is being transported, Swatbots attack the vessel and it crash lands. Sonic escapes, and King Acorn demands the recapture of Sonic by St. John. Bunnie and Antoine discover that Drago (a member of the Wolf Pack) has been working with Robotnik in order to frame Sonic. Drago tricked his lover, Hershey Cat, into cutting the rope while disguised as Sonic, making her believe that it was really Robotnik's treacherous nephew, Snively, who was dangling from it. This is followed by King Acorn issuing Robotnik as his new Warlord. Robotnik reveals his duplicate of the king by making it self-destruct and the true plan has become evident to all. All this would lead up to Sonic's return to Knothole in issue #50, where Sonic clears his name heads to a final showdown with Robotnik. Sonic is uncharacteristically devoid of humor as he approaches Robotnik, even going so far as to address him as "Julian". In the battle, Robotnik’s Ultimate Ahnihilator crashes and the room is destined for destruction, but Robotnik and Sonic remain to fight. In the end, Sonic emerges victorious and Robotnik is wiped out. It is revealed by Doctor Quack that the Ultimate Ahnihilator was reprogrammed by Snively to only affect Robotnik's bio-signature, therefore only Robotnik was killed when it exploded. Sonic later revives Sally with a kiss, though, as the doctor later reveals, she never actually died.

Issues #51-100
Storylines continue to follow after the EndGame saga. With the main antagonist seemingly defeated, Sonic gets bored with calm, daily life, and the reconstruction efforts, and takes off to travel the world with Tails. In this, Ixis Naugus makes his first appearance in issue #53. Although temporarily defeated, he would later return in issues #64 through #66, along with the appearance of Nate Morgan, former advisor of King Acorn, and Naugus would be defeated this time by Ultra Sonic, one of Sonic's transformations. After returning home to Knothole, Issue #71 has Sonic combine his speed with the power of a Super Emerald to stop a time beam that could destroy Mobius. He succeeds, but a side-effect of the Chaos Energy alters his body slightly, giving him green eyes and gold buckles on his shoes.

Issue #75 reveals that a robotized version of Robotnik from another dimension, that Sonic and friends faced in issue #19, known as Robo-Robotnik, survived the last encounter and killed his dimension's version of Sonic, and after learning about the death of the Robotnik Prime in issue #50, decided to fill out the void for both his and Sonic Prime's life by taking Robotnik Prime's place. Sonic and the Freedom Fighters head to space to battle Robo-Robotnik, and although they defeat him, they only destroyed his robot body. It is then revealed that he had many back-up bodies on standby with which to download himself into. Robo-Robotnik went into one shaped differently from the original Robotnik, and became who is now Sonic's familiar arch-enemy, Dr. Eggman (until being transformed back into an organic lifeform by the Bem in issue #118).

Sonic Adventure is readily adapted into the series with the appearance of Chaos, beginning in issue #79. The saga ends with Sonic successfully defeating Perfect Chaos, the final form of Chaos after absorbing all of the Chaos Emeralds, by transforming into Super Sonic in issue #84. Sonic does not actually destroy Chaos, as Chaos returns to his ancient beginnings to live in peace. Sonic Adventure 2 comes into adaptation for one issue featuring Shadow the Hedgehog.

Issues #101-200
Issue #108 heralded the return of the original Dr. Robotnik, who was revived by Eggman in order to steal his memories, and also team up with him to eliminate the Freedom Fighters. Fortunately, Robotnik Prime was too unstable to remain alive for long, and the machine that revived him was destroyed so that he would never return again.

In issue #125, Sonic battles an alien race known as the Xorda, leaves him stranded in space after saving Mobius from these aliens' secret weapon known as the Quantum Dial, a device that would create a black hole that would destroy Mobius. Back on Mobius, he is assumed to be dead. Sonic journeys through space discovers that Tails' parents are still alive on a far off planet. Sonic returns in issue #130 where he reveals to everyone that he is indeed alive and well. Sonic and Sally are approved for marriage by King and Queen Acorn, but when Sonic refuses to rule by Sally's side while her parents are touring Mobius in favor of continuing to fight in the war, their relationship comes to an abrupt end.

Back in the main storyline, issue #145 features the return of Shadow, who then proceeds to take an active role in the story, frequently battling Sonic in issues #157 through #161.

Sonic was switched with Anti-Sonic (an evil version of himself from a parallel universe first encountered in issue #11) temporarily and got back to find Anti-Sonic ruining his reputation around Knothole by making romantic advances toward his female friends. Sally was about to marry Patch (the evil version of Antoine from the same parallel universe, masquerading as his doppelganger), whose plan was to kill King Acorn upon the end of the ceremony, effectively making him king of the Acorn Kingdom. Although Patch is ultimately successful in marrying Sally, her brother Elias asserts his right to the throne in order to protect his father. Sonic is able to discover Patch's scheme, defeats him, sends him back to Anti-Mobius, and rescues the real Antoine. Elias then annuls Sally's and Patch's marriage. Realizing that it would take a long time before he and Sally could have a healthy relationship, Sonic began dating Fiona Fox (also doing so in order to end Tails' unreasonable infatuation with her).

Issues #160 and #161 feature the creation of Scourge the Hedgehog, Anti-Sonic's green form that resulted from his mutation via the Master Emerald. It is later revealed that Fiona's loyalty belonged to Scourge rather than Sonic, and she subsequently left the Freedom Fighters to be with him, and later returns with the other "Anti-Freedom Fighters," who have since become the "Suppression Squad". After this revelation, Antoine finally proposes to Bunnie, and the two are wed with all of the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix (sans Espio) as witnesses. The reason that Espio was not present was because he had infiltrated Eggman's base to discover what he was plotting next. Upon learning said plot, he panics and attempts to retreat and warn the other Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, but is ultimately captured.

In issues #175-#177, Eggman initiates the operation that Espio had failed to prevent. Snively catches the Freedom Fighters off guard and vaporizes all of them except Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sonic. Sonic races off to save everyone else in Knothole while Knuckles, Tails, and Amy are trapped in the ruins of the base. Sonic finds Knothole in ruins as the Egg Fleet burns it too the ground. Sonic, in panic, rushes to Castle Acorn to save Elias and the castles inhabitants, when Eggman, in a new battle armor, destroys the castle before Sonic's eyes. Eggman reveals that Snively did not actually kill Sonic's friends, but rather teleported them to Eggman's Egg Grapes in order to convert their life-force into energy to power his Eggman Empire. Eggman and Sonic battle, but Eggman easily defeats Sonic using his Egg Beater, robotic armor specifically designed to outclass Sonic in every possible way. Eggman leaves Sonic broken and defeated, believing that his pride is too shattered to ever again raise a hand against him, and returns to his Egg Grapes. Sonic returns to his friends and they discover that NICOLE the supercomputer has survived the attack with a plan to defeat Eggman. They break all the citizens of Knothole out of the Egg Grapes and Nicole reprograms Eggman's computer as Eggman and Snively run to their armor. As all the escapees flee the Egg Vineyard, Eggman tries to teleport everyone into his reserve Egg Grapes, but the reprogrammed armor, instead, sends them all to New Mobotropolis, a city created entirely out of Nanites by NICOLE.

After the Freedom Fighters defeat the Egg Beater, Sonic faces new hardships, including a brief falling-out with Tails, Knuckles' transformation into the demigod "Enerjak', being forced to serve the evil Mammoth Mogul after he brainwashes Sonic's friends, and being kidnapped by Mogul's cronies, the "Destructix". Eventually, the Suppression Squad invades Mobius and forces the Freedom Fighters out of their old hideout.  After Sonic disobeys the Council of Acorn in an attempt to retake it, he is sent on a mission to counter-invade "Moebius", the Anti-Mobius, as punishment.  It is then that the Suppression Squad betrays Scourge and leaves him and Sonic stranded on Moebius.  Their fight is interrupted by a psychic hedgehog named Silver, who came from Mobius' future to stop a "traitor" to the Freedom Fighters who would doom the world, believing it to be Sonic.  Sonic manages to convince Silver to help him defeat Scourge first, so Scourge uses his stash of "Anarchy Beryl", Moebius' equivalent to Chaos Emeralds, to transform into Super Scourge, and easily defeats them. Sonic is eventually able to defeat Super Scourge by manipulating his ego, and Silver decides to return to the future to get more evidence about who the traitor is. After Sonic sends Scourge to Zone Jail, he decides that it's time to end the war with the Eggman Empire once and for all.

In Issues #198 and #199, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix proceed to storm Eggman's Egg Dome. In #200, Sonic once again beats Eggman, who unexpectedly goes completely insane as a result from his previous defeats, leaving Sonic at a total loss. Snively and the Dark Egg Legion, meanwhile, have been planning to have Eggman defeated so they can have a new ruler of the Eggman Empire; namely, Snively's lover, the Iron Queen.

Issues #201-247
After witnessing Eggman mental breakdown in front of him, Sonic becomes depressed and blames himself for his foe's current pitiful state, but is cheered up by Sally in order to enjoy the celebration of finally defeating Eggman. However, the party is crashed when Monkey Khan appears in a rage. He reveals that the Egg Empire has a new ruler; with Eggman incapacitated, Snively has given control to the Iron Queen, who controls the four ninja clans of the Dragon Kingdom. Meanwhile, Eggman escapes his cell in Robotropolis only to be taken prisoner in New Mobotropolis.

While frustrated with Eggman’s escape and inability to capture New Mobotropolis, Snively realizes and theorizes that the Iron Queen’s technomagic can control Nicole and the nanites that the city is composed of. Using this information, the duo take over Nicole and use her to take control of the city and trap the inhabitants, however Sonic, Tails, Sally and Khan manage to escape. Outside, Sonic and Sally manage to break the Queen's hold on Nicole, but Nicole warns them about the alliance of the four clans in the Dragon Kingdom and the danger it poses. The four head to the Dragon Kingdom while Nicole keeps an eye on the city and one by one they break the Queen's alliance with the ninja clans. With her forces now depleted, they defeat and capture the Iron Queen. In the process, Snively escapes with Eggman, who has regained his sanity.

After the confusion, Sonic, Sally, and Big work with the Wolf Pack to reclaim an ancient onyx and help forge a peace treaty between the Wolf Pack Nation and the Felidae. Back in New Mobotropolis, Rotor and Penelope are reorganizing the city's constitution until Hamlin barges in and informs Rotor that his family is being mind-controlled by the Dark Egg Legion. When he returns, Sonic hears the news and urges Rotor to go, but Rotor insists on staying with the council. Sonic heads to the Northern Tundra alone and teams up with the Arctic Freedom Fighters.

Back at New Mobotropolis, Rotor works in secret on a suit design when NICOLE appears next to him. He asks her to build the suit for him and she recycles some nearby nanites to instantly build the suit. Rotor then flies off to aid Sonic in his mission behind the council’s back. Rotor is ambushed by Silver who believes that Rotor is the traitor. Silver nearly finishes off Rotor, when Rotor manages to express the importance of his mission, and Silver agrees to help him. They head to the base where Sonic and the Artic Freedom Fighters are fighting the walrus herd and the Dark Egg Legion. Taking advantage of the mind control device, Silver cripples the Dark Egg Legion, removes the mind control and permanently sets the walrus's minds so that they will never be mind-controlled again while Rotor sets the base to self-destruct. Later in Icebourogh, Sonic hears about and is highly amused by Silver’s erroneous theory, which was the confusion over Rotor’s real name and his nickname, Boomer. Thoroughly embarrassed by the ordeal, Silver returns to his future after the failed mission to speak with his master, revealed to be Mammoth Mogul.

When Sonic returns to New Mobotropolis, he is given a new mission: to rendezvous with the Freedom Fighter group in Sand Blast City. Bunnie D'Coolette accompanies Sonic on the mission, but is shot by a metal detecting cannon made by the Sand Blast Freedom Fighters. Sonic attempts to rescue her, but is stopped by the Sand Blaster Freedom Fighters, who tell him about the oil rig Eggman had built. When Bunnie wakes up, she finds herself in Dark Egg Legion territory and is reunited with her uncle (nicknamed "The Baron") who initially believed she was part of the Dark Egg Legion due to her bionics. She discovers that he is part of the misunderstood group known as the "Del" and that the Sand Blasters are attempting to take the oil rig that the “Del” is guarding. The Freedom Fighters attempt to ambush the "Del", but Bunnie stops them in order to protect The Baron, causing Sonic to misunderstand her intentions and forcing the two to fight. While fighting and yelling at each other about what they know, the two realize that if THEY destroy the oil rig, no one could blame the Sand Blasters or the “Del” for the destruction, thus fulfilling their intentions to keep the rig out of both sides’ hands and protect the “Del”. After Bunnie sets things right with The Baron, Sonic and Bunnie head back to Mobotropolis.

In issue #219, Sonic and Geoffrey St. John go to the Special Zone to retrieve one of the seven Chaos Emeralds from the god, Feist. Sonic found the emerald, but Geoffrey betrays Sonic by stunning Sonic and sneaks off to give the emerald to Mammoth Mogul. Mogul is not fazed until St. John mentioned the revival of the true king, who according to him is Ixis Naugus. Geffory uses the emerald to restore Naugus's sanity (which he had lost after being sent to Eggman's Egg Grapes). Naugus then makes plans to seize the throne of Acorn with Geoffrey's help, who is revealed to have been Naugus's apprentice the entire time.

Naugus uses his magic to cause the people to become increasingly paranoid of NICOLE's power. Sonic and Sally go on a date at a free concert when Ixis Naugus and Geoffrey attack. The Freedom Fighters (minus Sonic) are overwhelmed by Geoffrey, who is revealed to be an Ixis Wizard (though he only has some limited control over wind magic), so they instead convince him to stop fighting them and let justice take its course. Naugus, who claims the kingdom was sworn to him by Max Acorn long ago, fights with Sonic in the council's room, but the latter is forced to stop when the wizard's magic affects the council and turns most of them against Sonic. Eggman, however, has been rebuilding the Death Egg (now known as the Death Egg Mark II) and finally obtains a Chaos Emerald to power it. The Death Egg Mark II is launched, forcing Naugus and Sonic to start a truce. Sonic and Sally break into the new Death Egg, but Sonic is distracted by a rebuilt Silver Sonic. Frustrated, Sally proceeds alone to find Eggman, but is seemingly killed by a turret. Hearing the shots and seeing Sally's broken goggles lying on the ground, a distressed Sonic tries to reach Sally. Eggman then activates "Operation: Clean Sweep" and the entire world goes white.

The universe is "reset" to an alternate world more similar to the Sega video games, the effects known as "Genesis", where nobody remembers the events that occurred in the comic series. Eggman and Snively still have the Death Egg in orbit and plan to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to power their "world roboticizer." Meanwhile, Sonic re-meets some of the current Freedom Fighters (Sally, Antoine, and Rotor are re-met, but Sonic already knows Tails), and together they shut down Eggman's facilities. After a series of mysterious earthquakes occurs, Snively starts to realize that the universe seems to be trying to turn itself back to normal and Sonic and Sally slowly start to remember parts of their previous lives. Sonic eventually decides to go face-to-face with Eggman himself instead of just shutting down more of Eggman's facilities. Tails joins with him and they invade the Metropolis Zone while Sally, Rotor, and Antoine shut down the last of Eggman's plants. After Metropolis loses power, Eggman escapes to the Death Egg, and Sonic follows him with help from Tails and the Tornado. Sonic boards the Death Egg and fights Eggman one-on-one, but is overpowered. Seeing victory near at hand, Eggman gloats about how the Death Egg is powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds and that he will make the reset permanent through his “world roboticizer”. Hearing this, Sonic takes a nearby cable broken during the fight and uses the energy to become Super Sonic, promptly defeating Eggman.

Sonic grabs more broken cables to get enough energy and uses Chaos Control to dispel the effects of the "Genesis Wave." He also rewinds time by ten seconds which allows Sonic to save Sally from being killed, though the Death Egg and the "world roboticizer" are still intact. While Sonic fights Eggman, Silver Sonic, and the latest version of Metal Sonic, Sally is able to sneak under the floor and uses NICOLE to hack into the "world roboticizer". Snively activates the machine, unaware that Sally had changed the area of effect to be a small radius around NICOLE, causing NICOLE’s original body, Silver Sonic, Metal Sonic, and part of the Death Egg to explode. However, Sally is roboticized in the process much to Eggman’s glee, but horrifies Sonic. Unwilling to attack Mecha Sally, Sonic is thrown out of the Death Egg and Eggman decides to launch two other attacks as a distraction. He launches Titan Metal Sonic and “Deadly Cuddles,” also known as Tails Doll.

Prior to the attack and directly after the Genesis Wave, Ixis Naugus wakes up on the ground only to discover that the three ghosts of the original mages that created his body had awoken. Naugus becomes highly distressed, but when he sees the city under attack, he rushes to protect it, despite the ghosts’ taunts about how he is ruling a shell. Partially driven mad, Naugus is able to use his magic to crystallize Titan Metal Sonic and control him with his powers. Bunnie, who originally decided to fight the robot, is hit by Naugus' blast also, crystallizing her robotic parts. Cream is able to rescue Bunnie and Vanilla and Big rush Bunnie to Dr. Quack. While Cream looks for Bunnie's crystallized hat, she finds the Tails Doll among the wreck of the city and takes it with her. The citizens eventually praise Naugus as king after he successfully defends the city from two attacks from the Death Egg Mark II, though Naugus is still haunted by the spirits who are disgusted by him for ruling a ‘fake’. In a publicity stunt, Naugus uses his magic to reverse the crystallization on Bunnie in the hospital, and, by accident, he turns Bunnie's robotic parts into flesh and blood again.

After the Babylon Rogues and the Battle Bird Armada are defeated by Sonic and the others, Geoffrey is arrested for treason by Antoine. Geoffrey is found guilty in his trial, but since Naugus is now king, he pardons Geoffrey and lets him go free. Elias seeks out Harvey Who, one of his father's old advisers, and begins plans for a group of Freedom Fighters that will work behind the King and council’s backs. Naugus contacts Eggman and tells him that the Freedom Fighters plan to evacuate former king Elias and his family from the city. The doctor attacks the Freedom Fighters with both a repaired Metal Sonic and a heavily-weaponized Mecha Sally. Due to the loss of Bunnie's robotic limbs and the group's overall reluctance to fight Sally, the Freedom Fighters are left at a severe disadvantage. Eventually, Metal Sonic self-destructs on Antoine, leaving him in a coma. With the remainder of their spirits crushed, the Freedom Fighters are left at Eggman's mercy, but are spared in order to prolong their suffering. Furious, Snively finally decides to usurp his uncle and rescue the Iron Queen, but is ultimately defeated and imprisoned by Eggman.

Bunnie, wracked with guilt over her husband's condition, states that she knows what she has to do to make everything right and leaves the Freedom Fighters. In the future, Silver finds evidence of his actions in the past and, after reading damaged sections of Antoine’s diary, decides that Antoine is the traitor. Silver presents the information to Mongul, and Mongul reluctantly gives Silver permission to go back in time on the condition that Silver leaves the Kronos Stone to prevent him from abusing it. After teleporting into Mobotropolis, Silver is found by a disgruntled Sonic, to who Silver eagerly tells the current theory. Enraged at the accusation, Sonic attacks Silver and drags him to Antoine's deathbed in the hospital. Realizing that he has once again jumped to conclusions, Silver seeks more solid evidence by joining Harvey Who's Secret Freedom Fighters.

With Sally roboticized, Antoine in a coma and Bunnie missing in action, the remnants of the Freedom Fighters decide to officially disbanded. Sonic ultimately refuses to give up and decides that they just need to come up with something even better. As a result, the remaining Freedom Fighters along with the re-instatement of Rotor and some newcomers, are instead split into two groups: Team Freedom, composed of Rotor as the leader, Big, Cream, and renegade Eggman robots Heavy and Bomb, who protect Mobotropolis from any danger that befalls it, and Team Fighters, consisting of Sonic as the leader, Tails and Amy, who follow the Death Egg Mark II and foil Eggman's worldwide conquest in order to spread hope amongst the people of Mobius, as well as eventually capture and de-roboticize Sally.

After narrowly succeeding in preventing a war between the Wolf Pack and the Felidae brought on by Mecha Sally's actions, Team Fighters continues to harass the weakening Death Egg. Eggman attempts to slow them down by having Mecha Sally attack her own brother, forcing Elias to flee with the newly formed Secret Freedom Fighters. Mecha Sally and a new Silver Sonic III are ultimately defeated and forced to retreat with the arrival of Team Fighters which instills courage in the people and causes an uprising.

With Team Fighters distracted, Eggman mounts a second attack on New Mobotropolis, using the Tails Doll to disable the force field surrounding the city. With some unseen help from the Secret Freedom Fighters, consisting of Silver, a repaired and reformed Metal Sonic (now dubbed "Shard"), Larry Lynx, Wolf Pack twins Lyco and Leeta, and former king Elias, Team Freedom succeeds in driving the Death Egg away from the city. At this point, Eggman is infuriated that he isn't winning as easily as initially thought, especially since Sonic wasn't even involved in the fight, and shows signs of madness once again. He is left no time to repair his destroyed robots, as Team Fighters is still hot on his tail. After discovering a sprig of the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra, a Badnik that very nearly killed Sonic not too long ago (ironically, Eggman himself destroyed the Hydra because he was determined to end Sonic's life on his own terms), he desperately launches an incomplete Titan Metal Sonic merged with the Hydra in an attempt to stall his pursuers. Although the Hydra was ultimately defeated by Team Fighters, it was able to delay them long enough for Eggman to achieve his goal of destroying Albion, much to Sonic’s horror.

After the battle, Naugus realizes he is losing his grip on the people of New Mobotropolis, especially after being saved by Team Freedom during Eggman's attack on the city when the constant bickering of Naugus' inner spirits causes him painful mutations. Because of recent failings of the nanites, the Council of Acorn motions to overturn NICOLE's exile from the city to help protect and rebuild the city. Realizing that his body is falling apart, Naugus desperately attempts to trick someone to enter into a magical contract with him so he can possess their body. However all of his attempts fail, and when Geoffrey tries to convince his master to abandon his evil intentions and ask for help with his condition, Naugus decides to possess Geoffrey. Naugus (in Geoffrey's body) then informs the council that the king is "dying" and enlists their help to save him, obviously hiding more sinister plans.

At Albion, Team Fighters is attacked by Metal Knuckles, and their plane crash lands into Albion. There they encounter the Dark Egg Legion, led by Lien-Da, who has captured Knuckles' mother. Knuckles hears the distress call and warps to Albion, only to find the Dark Egg Legion and all of the other echidnas nowhere in sight. After joining up with Team Fighters, Knuckles discovers that the echidnas, including Knuckle's mother and girlfriend, have all been transported away to lands unknown by Thrash the Devil, who has a vendetta against the echidnas for using his people in their experiments. Knuckles defeats Thrash, but ultimately fail to prevent him from escaping, and thus lost his chance to bring his people back. Meanwhile, the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra is revealed to have survived and takes control of the damaged Metal Knuckles to battle Team Fighters. Weakened from their early fights, Team Fighters and Knuckles are unable to fend off the Krudzu Hybrid. From the sidelines Shard (the original Metal Sonic who had been rebuilt and reformed and had joined the Secret Freedom Fighters to make amends to his past deeds) grew increasingly worried about the course of the battle and eventually intervened, despite his orders to follow and report on Team Fighters. Together with Thrash's herd of devil dogs, the Hydra is defeated and captured, with Shard taking the last sprig in hopes it can be modified to de-roboticize Sally.

Finally free from any more distractions, Team Fighters joins up with the Arctic Freedom Fighters in the Northern Tundra in order to capture Mecha Sally, but are interrupted by Silver. Silver reveals that the traitor he has been searching for is definitely Sally, but since she wasn't a traitor of her own free will as he initially believed, he decides to help save her rather than destroy her. As the team storms Eggman's base, they are ambushed and nearly killed by Mecha Sally herself. While this is happening, back in Mobotropolis, NICOLE has decided to save Naugus by working on a machine meant to reverse his condition. Cream also notices that the Tails Doll disappearances are connected to the nanites failing in the city. Team Freedom concludes that the Tails Doll has been sabotaging the city's defenses, but just as they confront it, it mutates into a hideous, formidable monster. Back in the Northern Tundra, Silver manages to deactivate Mecha Sally and thus prevent the team's death as was the case in his future, but before anything else can happen, Eggman releases his Genesis Wave once again, this time not only resetting Mobius, but another world as well...

Worlds Collide (Issues #248-251)
After Sally sacrificed herself to destroy the World Roboticizer, the Chaos Emerald that Eggman was using to power the Death Egg Mark II mysteriously vanished. The gem was not destroyed in the explosion, but rather sent into an alternate universe where it was found by another evil scientist known as Dr. Wily. Wily has his own nemesis in the form of "Mega Man", a heroic blue robot boy created by Wily's benevolent former colleague, Dr. Light, who has forced Wily into hiding after his most recent defeat. Wily, in an attempt to analyze the emerald's power, accidentally came into contact with Eggman, and after a bit of arguing, the two realized that they had a great deal in common and decided to team up. Eggman explains the power of the Chaos Emeralds to Wily, and they use their combined geniuses to create a pocket dimension between their two worlds called the "Skull Egg Zone", where they are finally able to meet in person. The two then combine their forces to build a new, more powerful flying fortress, christened the "Wily Egg".

After releasing the now-perfected Genesis Wave into both of their worlds, they decide to make a new army by combining Eggman's roboticization process with Wily's robot designs. They send Metal Sonic, Wily's enforcer Bass, and Copy Robot (an evil duplicate of Mega Man) to kidnap and roboticize Sonic's friends, as well as steal the remaining Chaos Emeralds. When Copy Robot and Metal Sonic make themselves known to Sonic and Mega Man respectively, the duplicates trick the originals into fighting one another, leading to a fierce duel between Sonic and Mega Man that spans across both of their worlds. When the battle proves to be too evenly matched for either side to land a decisive blow, a roboticized Tails is sent in to finish them off. The two form a truce, and manage to turn Tails back to normal. They then realized that they had been duped by the doctors, and decide to team up to take them on.

They go back to Mega Man's house, where they witness Dr. Light being kidnapped by Metal Sonic and Bass. Joined by Mega Man's older brother Proto Man, the four manage to infiltrate the Skull Egg Zone, where they find and defeat Copy Robot. They are then attacked by the two evil scientists, who demonstrate the powers of their "Roboticized Masters", including Amy, Knuckles, the Chaotix, Shadow, Blaze and Silver. Meanwhile, Dr. Light is rescued by Rouge the Bat, who decided to help fight the doctors after they took Shadow. After a series of battle, the Roboticized Masters are all returned to normal, and they team up with Sonic and Mega Man to prepare an all-out assault on the Wily Egg. While Sonic's friends deal with all of Wily's previous "Robot Masters", Sonic and Mega Man storm the flying fortress, where they manage to defeat Metal Sonic and Bass. However, they are then captured by the mad doctors, who reveal that they plan to use their "Super Genesis Wave" to rewrite their universes entirely to their liking, including wiping the blue heroes from existence.

Fortunately, Knuckles and Proto Man arrive to save the duo and distract the doctors long enough for Sonic and Mega Man to escape and use the Chaos Emeralds to achieve their Super forms. Using Chaos Control, Super Mega Man is able to safely return his world to normal, but Super Sonic is not so lucky, having his own attempt interrupted by Eggman, who refuses to accept defeat. Out of time, Super Sonic is forced to use his imperfect Chaos Control to try and restore Mobius, only for Eggman to shoot the ball of Chaos Energy, leading to disastrous results...

Issues #252 - Present
The Genesis Wave successfully returned Sonic his home planet, but significant changes had occurred to fabric of reality, changing many current and previous events. Sonic battled the giant Tail's Doll, who was attacking the city, but was hampered by distress from the conflicting memories he was experiencing. Naugus, who had lost his powers, regained his memories of the old world after touching NICOLE and subsequently fled the city. After he and Tails defeated the monster, he learned that all his friends were across the globe on different missions. Sonic, Nicole and Tails decide to find each of them and restore their memories, as it would also fix Nicole's corrupted data. They locate Rotor working on the new mobile base Skypatrol (named for the game Tails' Skypatrol) and restore his memories, and leave him with Big the Cat to assist him. They then find Antoine protecting Uncle Chuck as the Hedgehog doctor is studying strange tremors, aided by his assistant Muttski-Sonic's dog before the Super Genesis Wave, now a Mobian. A tremor results in Sonic being exposed to a strange gas from deep below ground, and Antoine's memories are restored. During this time, Eggman-who also retains his memories of the old world-begins making his way back to the Death Egg, and determines that the planet has become dangerously unstable. Sonic and Tails find Bunnie and restore her memories as well, before returning to Mobotropolis to rendezvous with Amy, Cream the Rabbit, and Sally-the former pair returning from Blaze the Cat's world, the other restored to her organic form. Amy and Sally's memories are restored, and NICOLE and Eggman then discover that the planet is cracking just before it breaks into several fragments, beginning an adaptation of events from the game Sonic Unleashed.

A quest soon begins to restore the fractured world through collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds and bringing them to the Gaia Temples; along the way the Freedom Fighters run into new allies and enemies.

Spin-offs and other related series
The series was originally published as a four issue mini-series, with the first issue labeled as "issue 0". At the end of the fourth issue of the series, it was announced that Sonic would return in a regular series, and the next issue was published as "issue 1" of the regular series.

Alongside the main Sonic series, Archie Comics published various special issues. Longer than typical issues of the comic, these specials feature stories involving Sonic and other related characters. Several miniseries have also been published, featuring characters such as Sally, Tails and Knuckles.

Because of the popularity of the specials and Miniseries featuring Knuckles, in 1997, Knuckles the Echidna became an ongoing series. Knuckles's stories featured its own cast of characters, including the Chaotix. In 1999, the series was canceled, but the stories were continued in the pages of Sonic the Hedgehog until it was phased out completely by Sonic issue 125. In this form, a typical issue of Sonic included a Sonic story and a second, shorter Knuckles story afterwards, though eventually this phased out as well.

In order to allow for stories that focused more on side characters than primarily on Sonic-most notably the other characters featured in the Sega games-the Sonic Universe comic line was introduced. This series has included a wide range of characters previously introduced in other comic issues, as well as allowing for the introduction of additional characters to the comic cast. Typically, the series is broken up into four-issue long story arcs focusing on a select character or group of characters, though one-issue stories have also been released.

A short, three panel comic strip similar to those found in a newspaper at the end of some issues called Off-Panel. It was originally found in the main series of comics, and was later continued in the spinoff series Sonic Universe. Earlier strips involved fictional version of staff interacting with comic characters, while later strips removed this element, it always retains elements of comical gags relating to the issues main story, often containing fourth wall breaking.

Adaptations
The Sonic the Hedgehog comic typically runs original storylines based around characters from various Sonic media, but it has also made a number of adaptations. For instance, it has adapted a couple episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as complete or partial adaptations of the following video games:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (#6)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (#13)
 * Sonic CD (#25)
 * Sonic & Knuckles (Sonic & Knuckles Special) (also combined with Sonic 2 for the Sonic-Quest mini-series)
 * Sonic Triple Trouble (Sonic Triple Trouble Special)
 * Knuckles' Chaotix (Knuckles' Chaotix Special)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Combined with Sonic & Knuckles for the Sonic-Quest mini-series.)(#228-229)
 * Sonic 3D Blast (Sonic Blast Special)
 * SegaSonic the Hedgehog (Knuckles #26-28) (arcade game)
 * Sonic Adventure (Super Special #13, and issues 79-84, originally planned to be 78-83, and Knuckles issues 33-34 before it was cancelled after issue 32)
 * Sonic Shuffle (#92)
 * Sonic Adventure 2 (#98, #124 & Sonic Universe #2)
 * Shadow The Hedgehog (#157, #171) (Shadow's origins)
 * Sonic Rush (#160 & #161)
 * Sonic Riders (#163 & #164, Sonic Universe #33-35)
 * Sonic Rush Adventure (#180, Sonic Universe #1)
 * Sonic and the Secret Rings (free comic made for the game) *
 * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (#191) *
 * Sonic Unleashed (#193, #253 & Sonic Universe #63-current)
 * Sonic and the Black Knight (#197) *
 * Tails Adventure (Sonic Universe #17-20)
 * Sonic Colors (#219) *
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (#226-227)
 * Sonic Generations (#230) *
 * Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Sonic Universe #36)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (Sonic Super Special Magazine #3) *
 * Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Sonic Universe #45)

 * denotes a self-contained comic story which directly adapts the video game and is not retrofitted into the unique ongoing continuity of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series.

''Sonic the Hedgehog Episodes:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (#38, starts with Sonic singing the theme song)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Super Special #8, Episode: "Ghost Busted")
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (#113, Episode: "Cry of the Wolf")

''Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Episodes:
 * Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (#2, Episode: "The Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad")
 * Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (#9, Episode: "Pseudo-Sonic")

''Movies:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (Brief reality in #101)

Comics
The Sonic the Hedgehog comic continuity currently comprises the following comics:


 * Sonic the Hedgehog Miniseries #0-3 (Published monthly from November 1992 to February 1993)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog #1-Ongoing (Published since June 1993) (Published thirteen times a year (every four weeks) until 2007 then published monthly (every month's first Wednesday) thereafter)
 * Sonic Specials (Eight individual issues, published quarterly from 1994 to 1997)
 * Sonic: In Your Face! (Fall 1994)
 * Sonic & Knuckles (Spring 1995)
 * Sonic Triple Trouble (Summer 1995)
 * Knuckles' Chaotix (Fall 1995)
 * Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles (Winter 1995)
 * Mecha Madness (Summer 1996)
 * Sonic Live! (Fall 1996)
 * Sonic Blast (Winter 1996)
 * Princess Sally Miniseries #1-3 (Published monthly from April to June 1995)
 * Tails Miniseries #1-3 (Published monthly from December 1995 to February 1996)
 * Knuckles Miniseries #1-3 (Published monthly from July to September 1996)
 * Sonic Quest: The Death Egg Saga Miniseries #1-3 (Published monthly from December 1996 to February 1997, reprinted February 2007)
 * Knuckles the Echidna #1-32 (Published monthly from April 1997 to February 2000)
 * Sonic Super Specials #1-15 (Published quarterly from 1997 to 2001)
 * #1: Battle Royal (Summer 1997)
 * #2: Brave New World (Fall 1997)
 * #3: Sonic Firsts (Winter 1998)
 * #4: Return of the King (Spring 1998)
 * #5: Sonic Kids (Summer 1998)
 * #6: Sonic #50: Director's Cut (Fall 1998)
 * #7: Parallel Paradigm (Winter 1999)
 * #8: Zone Wars Prelude  (Spring 1999)
 * #9: Sonic Kids 2 (Summer 1999)
 * #10: Crossover Chaos (Fall 1999)
 * #11: Girls Rule! (Winter 2000)
 * #12: Turnabout Heroes (Spring 2000)
 * #13: Sonic Adventure (Summer 2000)
 * #14: Sonic Stew (Fall 2000)
 * #15: Naugus Games (Winter 2001)
 * Sonic X #1-40 (Published ten times a year from November 2005, to December 2008) (Based on Sonic X anime series, and continued with Sonic Universe)
 * '''Free Comic Book Day 2007 comic (a one-shot comic made for free distribution on Free Comic Book Day 2007.)
 * '''Free Comic Book Day 2008 comic (a special reprint of Issue #1 of the main comic series, with a new cover—based on the original—by Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante, made for free distribution on Free Comic Book Day 2008)
 * '''Free Comic Book Day 2009 comic (an illustrated summary of the story through #199, released for Free Comic Book Day 2009)
 * '''Free Comic Book Day 2010 comic (a one-shot comic made for free distribution on Free Comic Book Day 2010)
 * '''Free Comic Book Day 2011 comic (a remake of Sonic Super Special 15 for Free Comic Book Day 2011)
 * '''Free Comic Book Day 2012 comic (a reprint of issue #230 of the main series, with a special cover for Free Comic Book Day 2012)
 * Free Comic Book Day 2013 comic (a flip book special. One half with a reprint of issue #247 of the main series and the other half with a reprint of #23 of the Mega Man comic series
 * Sonic Universe #1-Ongoing (Published every month since February 2009)
 * Sonic also has appeared in issue #28 of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as well in a two-part crossover which concluded in Sonic Super Special #10: Crossover Chaos. In this crossover, Sonic was brought to Sabrina's world and brainwashed into fighting the former.
 * In 1998, a mini-comic given away for Halloween entitled Archie & Friends: A Halloween Tale was released and featured a short story called A Festival of Fantasy that included appearances by Sonic, Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik.
 * Sonic has also made a cameo in a 1999 Archie's Weird Mysteries mini-comic.
 * Mega Man #24-27 (From April–July 2013)
 * The aforementioned issues contained chapters of the Worlds Collide crossover, which were respectively Part 1, 4, 7 & 10.
 * #23 (which was partially included in the FCBD Special of 2013) has a vague mention of Dr. Eggman with Wily referring to him as Ivo and as with StH #247, ended with the Genesis Wave striking.
 * #28 serves as an aftermath for Mega Man and cast. The issue opens with Mega Man's final dialogue from StH #251, as well as Dr. Wily having an unexplained violent urge to stomp on a carton of eggs (due to Eggman betraying him).

Trade paperbacks
Trade Paperbacks have also been released, typically collecting older, hard-to-find issues and compiling them in a single volume. These include:

Early Specials:
 * Sonic Firsts (1998) (Includes the first appearances of Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Super Sonic, and Knuckles the Echidna, taking stories from issue #0 of the original Sonic Miniseries, and issues #3, #4, and #13 of the regular series. The stories are edited to give both Sally her modern brown color and Rotor his modern name instead of the Boomer one. A special electronic edition of this comic is among the special features in the Sonic Mega Collection game. The foreword is by Paul Castiglia, a former editor of the Sonic comics.)
 * Sonic: The Beginning (2003) (A reprint of the original Sonic Miniseries, with a foreword by their author Michael Gallagher) (Eventually rebranded Sonic Archives #0 in February 2009)

Sonic Archives:
 * Sonic Archives #1 (November 2006) (A reprint of issues #1-4 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #2 (December 2006) (A reprint of issues #5-8 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #3 (May 2007) (A reprint of issues #9-12 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #4 (June 2007) (A reprint of issues #13-16 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #5 (September 2007) (A reprint of issues #17-20 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #6 (October 2007) (A reprint of issues # 21-24 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #7 (June 2008) (A reprint of issues #25-28 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #8 (August 2008) (A reprint of issues #29-32 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #9 (October 2008) (A reprint of issues #33-36 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #0 (February 2009) (An Archives rebranding of Sonic: The Beginning)
 * Sonic Archives #10 (March 2009) (A reprint of issues #37-40 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #11 (August 2009) (A reprint of issues #41-44 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #12 (January 2010) (A reprint of issues #45-48 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #13 (August 2010) (A reprint of issue #49 of the regular series and the Sonic #50: Director's Cut Super Special)
 * Sonic Archives #14 (December 2010) (A reprint of issues #51-54 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #15 (June 2011) (A reprint of issues #55-58 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #16 (November 2011) (A reprint of issues #59-62 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #17 (February 2012) (A reprint of issues #63-66 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #18 (July 2012) (A reprint of issues #67-70 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #19 (December 2012) (A reprint of issues #71-74 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #20 (March 2013) (A reprint of issues #75-78 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #21 (August 2013) (A reprint of issues #79-82 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #22 (January 2014) (A reprint of issues #83-86 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Archives #23 (April 2014) (A reprint of issues #87-90 of the regular series)

Knuckles Archives:
 * Knuckles Archives #1 (October 2011) (A reprint of issues #1-3 of the Knuckles miniseries and #1-3 of the spin-off series.)
 * Knuckles Archives #2 (April 2012) (A reprint of issues #4-9 of the spin-off series)
 * Knuckles Archives #3 (August 2012) (A reprint of issues #10-15 of the spin-off series)
 * Knuckles Archives #4 (May 2013)(A reprint of issues #16-21 of the spin-off series)
 * Knuckles Archives #5 (May 2014)(A reprint of issues #22-27 of the spin-off series)

Sonic Select:
 * Sonic Select #1 (April 2008) (A reprint of the 48 page specials, "Sonic In Your Face", "Sonic & Knuckles", "Sonic Triple Trouble", and one story, "The Substitute Freedom Fighters" from "Sonic Live")
 * Sonic Select #2 (November 2008) (A reprint of the 48 page specials, "Knuckles' Chaotix", "Super Sonic VS. Hyper Knuckles", "Mecha Madness" and part 2 of "Knuckles' Quest" as seen in "Sonic Live")
 * Sonic Select #3 (February 2011) (A reprint of the 48 page Sonic Super Specials, "Battle Royal", "Brave New World" and "Return of the King", "Eel of Fortune" from "Mecha Madness" and "Bugged Bunny" from "Sonic Blast")
 * Sonic Select #4: Zone Wars (December 2011) (A reprint of the 48 page Sonic Super Specials, #8, #10, #12 & #14 plus content from "Sonic Blast")
 * Sonic Select #5 (May 2012) (A reprint of the 48 page Sonic Super Specials, "Sonic Kids" and "Sonic Kids 2")
 * Sonic Select #6 (October 2012) (the entire Sonic Quest Mini-Series plus the special 2010 & 2011 Free Comic Book Day stories)
 * Sonic Select #7 (March 2013) (the entire Princess Sally Mini-Series, "My Special Friend" from Knuckles #29 and Sonic #222)
 * Sonic Select #8 (September 2013) (the entire Tails Mini-Series plus "Submersible Rehearsal" from Sonic Triple Touble, "Growing Pains" from Sonic #28 & #29 and "The Chosen One" from #149 & #150)
 * Sonic Select #9: The Games (March 2014)(A reprint of issues #160-161, #180, #191, #193, #197, #219 & #230, Super Special Magazine #3, #9 & #10, Sonic Universe #45, Super Digest #5 & the special Sonic & the Secret Rings comic)
 * Sonic Select #10 (January 1015)

Best of...:
 * Best of Sonic the Hedgehog #1: Comics (May 2012) (special reprint of the entire "Mecha Madness", the ending to "Endgame", "Order of Chaos" and "Future Tense")
 * Best of Sonic the Hedgehog #2: Villains (August 2013) (special reprint of "Don't Call It a Comeback", "I Am the Eggman", "Lost in the Moment", "Mogul Rising", "Sonic Riders" and "Unthinkable")

Sonic Universe:
 * Sonic Universe #1: The Shadow Saga (September 2011) (A reprint of issues #1-4 containing the arc "The Shadow Saga")
 * Sonic Universe #2: 30 Years Later (March 2012) (A reprint of issues #5-8 containing the arc "30 Years Later")
 * Sonic Universe #3: Knuckles Returns (August 2012) (A reprint of issues #9-12 containing the arc "Knuckles Returns")
 * Sonic Universe #4: Journey to the East (February 2013) (A reprint of issues #13-16 containing the arc "Journey to the East")
 * Sonic Universe #5: The Tails Adventures (June 2013) (A reprint of issues #17-20 containing the arc "The Tails Adventures")
 * Sonic Universe #6: Treasure Team Tango (November 2013) (A reprint of issues #21-24 containing the arc "Treasure Team Tango")
 * Sonic Universe #7: Silver Saga (April 2014) (A reprint of issues #25-28 containing the arc "Silver Saga")

Sonic Saga:
 * Sonic Saga 1: Darkest Storm (September 2012) (selections from issues #162-167)
 * Sonic Saga 2: Order from Chaos (April 2013) (selections from issues #168-172)
 * Sonic Saga 3: Eggman Empire (July 2013) (selections from issues #173-176)
 * Sonic Saga 4: House of Cards (October 2013) (selections from issues #177-180)
 * Sonic Saga 5: Enerjak Reborn (February 2014) (selections from issues #181-184)

Sonic Legacy:
 * Sonic Legacy Series #1 (October 2011) (A black and white reprint of issues #0-3 from the Original Sonic miniseries and #1-16 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Legacy Series #2 (October 2012) (A black and white reprint of issues #17-36 of the regular series)
 * Sonic Legacy Series #3 (December 2013) (A black and white reprint of issues #37-56 of the regular series)

Reception
Destructoid praised the comic series, especially the earlier issues during the 1990s, for adding more backstory and character interaction than was presented in the Sonic video games for the Sega Genesis. Escapist Magazine praised it as well, calling it good and "...Not Watchmen or KtE, but good.", citing this due to Sega keeping a close watch on the series without including too much plot from the poorly received video game plots.