Fans Just Realized Sonic’s Smash Bros. Moveset Is a Deep Cut Reference to a Forgotten Sonic Game

What started as a light jab at Sonic the Hedgehog and his famously odd but effective Super Smash Bros. moveset has quietly turned into a genuine moment of realization for longtime fans.

The discussion began with the self-proclaimed #1 Shadow The Hedgehog Fan poking fun at Sonic’s kit, specifically calling out his up-throw animation and the “Hedgehog Needle” move. On the surface, the move really does look like Smash leaning a little too hard into Sonic’s real-world hedgehog traits.

For longtime fans, though, the explanation was obvious.

A large portion of Sonic’s Smash moveset comes straight from Sonic the Fighters. Sonic’s forward smash, his down smash spin, the Split Kick, and several of his attack animations are lifted almost directly from that game. These are not random additions or Smash-original jokes. They are callbacks.

That is why Sonic feels different in Smash. He is not built around boost gameplay, Adventure mechanics, or modern cinematic flair. He is built like a fighting game character, because that is exactly what he was in Sonic the Fighters.

The disconnect comes from how obscure that game is. Sonic the Fighters was an arcade release, and outside Japan, cabinets were uncommon. Many fans never saw it until years later, when the game resurfaced on GameCube and PlayStation 2 through the Sonic Gems Collection compilation, though it was overshadowed by more mainstream collections like Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus. Years later, it appeared digitally on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and more recently, it has been playable as an in-universe arcade game in Lost Judgment and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

So when Super Smash Bros. introduced Sonic, Masahiro Sakurai did not invent a moveset from thin air. He pulled from an existing Sonic fighting framework that already made sense within Smash’s ruleset.

For dedicated Sonic fans, this has always been part of the character’s history. For casual Smash players and newer audiences, it is understandably a revelation. If your Sonic experience begins and ends with Green Hill Zone and boost stages, a deep-cut arcade fighter from the 90s is not exactly top of mind.

That gap in familiarity is what made Sonic’s Smash kit feel odd for so long. Now that the reference is finally being pointed out again, it reframes the entire discussion.

Sonic’s moveset was never random. It was just aimed at a smaller audience than people realized.