"Sonic the Hedgehog" General Quiz

Answer: Dr. Eggman

At the very start, Dr. Eggman was indeed his name in Japan. Sega of America's localization team converted this into Dr. Robotnik, wanting the name to make him seem more intimidating. In 1999, it was officially revealed that his 'official' name is indeed Dr. Robotnik, but 'Eggman' has been an insulting nickname Sonic has used for him; this fits in perfectly into Sonic's personality, as he has used demeaning terms to refer to Eggman before.

Interestingly, the big bad himself has largely embraced the moniker to the point of naming many of his genius devices after it, calling basically all of them Egg-something or other.

Answer: His shoes

In "Sonic Labyrinth", Dr Eggman steals Sonic's shoes. The premise of this game is that, without them, Sonic cannot sprint anywhere near as fast as usual, so he must get them back. This identifies the shoes as the source of his speed, and not any actual natural or innate talent or quality.

Answer: Nothing

The Super Sonic form is essentially a wickedly souped up from of the "blue" blur, who now becomes more of a "golden" blur. Sonic can now fly, moves much, much faster and, most importantly, is functionally invincible and can't take damage in the conventional sense.

It is usually still possible for the player to take a death in this form. When going Super Sonic, Sonic is usually seen in space or fighting some major world-ending deity. While in this form, his ring count will slowly bleed until it hits zero. Once it hits zero, Sonic's Super form subsides, and this is usually simultaneously alongside dying as the player is usually required to maintain this form until said major threat has been defeated.

Answer: Tails

Tails is arguably more fun to pilot than the main man himself in this one! Unlike Sonic, Tails is not tied to any lives or rings mechanics, so he can never 'permanently die' like Sonic can. Tails can take damage and be "defeated", but if this happens, he will simply return to action shortly after. Tails can "die" over and over again and continue to respawn. No matter how poorly the Tails player plays, there are no stakes attached for them whatsoever, and their presence cannot directly make the game harder or hinder the Sonic player in anyway.

This makes the game absolutely incredible for enjoying it with a friend who may not be the most proficient gamer in the world, or perhaps a spouse, a young child or the like.

Answer: Zero

Zero rings means that the player cannot take so much as one single hit without immediately taking a death. There are no rings to be collected during the fight either, meaning the player must hit Metal Sonic six times, then the Death Egg Robot twelve, with essentially flawless gameplay. If you make it to seventeen hits and then mess up, you have to go all the way back to the beginning and try again.

The adversaries themselves are stiff, and maybe a little bit janky as per what you'd expect from a 20th century Sega Genesis game. Metal Sonic relies heavily on visual cues to overcome, as well as snappy decision making to react to whatever attack it is about to use. The Death Egg Robot is a bit more of a slow paced version of this, plus exploiting super tight windows to actually damage the thing.

Answer: Sonic Blast

"Sonic Blast" was, sadly, a pretty mediocre at best game if we're being charitable, with inarguably the absolute worst controls in the entire franchise. It does try to make up for this with having some of the better graphical quality in the franchise, even for its time (1996).

It is a massive shift in tone for the franchise as per what you might expect going from 2D to 3D. This game also debuted the use of the iconic homing attack, giving Sonic's combat functionality a little more depth.

Answer: No

Knuckles is anything but friendly to begin, as he has been tricked by Dr. Robotnik/Eggman into believing Sonic is evil, as the evil doctor's mechanized version of Sonic is the one who fights Knuckles early, not the real deal, and unfortunately the Echidna is not able to tell the difference.

Sonic saves Knuckles' life late in this game after the evil doctor betrays him, and this gains Knuckles as a permanent ally for the rest of the franchise's history.

Answer: Three

The first two iterations released in consecutive years, 2001 and 2002. The third version was a little more of a wait, launching in 2004, but was also the most well received version, making the delay seem worth it in the end.

Answer: Tails & Knuckles

Tails had always been Sonic's understudy, and Knuckles had been part of the informal now formal squad for, at the time, almost ten real-life years. They were opposed by Teams Dark, Rose and Chaotix.

Answer: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Sonic was massively hyped as a third-party entry into the game, though he sadly was not the strongest character in the game by any means. This would by and large change in subsequent titles.

In "Brawl", Sonic doesn't get a ton of screen time during the Subspace Emissary campaign, but the time he does get offers (in my opinion) the coolest sequence of the entire campaign: with the antagonist Tabuu getting set to unleash a massive burst of Subspace energy to wipe out the entire playable roster, Sonic speeds in at the last moment to interrupt his attack and shred his wings used to conduct the attack, before he turns to face Tabuu and wags his finger in an "oh no you don't" manner. Maybe the coolest introduction to an iconic character in a crossover in all of gaming history.