Sonic Rumble Party may be preparing to pull a character out of the franchise’s deeper back catalogue, and this one would be considerably more surprising than most.
The game’s official social accounts have posted their latest mystery character teaser with the message “we pullin’ out the tinfoil hats for this one.” That is already a pretty enormous clue for anyone familiar with Sonic Boom, but the accompanying image makes the answer even harder to ignore, showing what appears to be part of a large orange-and-brown ear. Put those two things together and there is one particularly obvious suspect: Sticks the Badger.
For anyone who has managed to forget Sticks over the past decade, conspiracy theories are basically part of her natural habitat. Introduced as one of the main characters of the Sonic Boom universe, Sticks is a wilderness-raised badger whose extreme suspicion of technology, governments, secret plots and just about anything else that seems remotely questionable regularly drove the show’s comedy. Even Sonic Channel’s own character material described her as deeply distrustful of advanced technology while being rather more willing to believe in occult phenomena. She also has a very distinctive ear shape, and what Rumble Party is showing us certainly appears to fit.
Nothing has been formally announced yet, so Sticks should still be treated as the likely answer to the teaser rather than a confirmed new character. If it is her, however, this would be a genuinely notable return. Sticks was created specifically for Sonic Boom and became one of that sub-series’ central characters, appearing alongside Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy throughout the animated series and its games. She was playable in titles including Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, with the latter arriving in 2016, while the television series itself concluded in 2017.
Since then, Sticks has largely disappeared from active Sonic projects. She did receive the occasional acknowledgment after Boom, most notably when Amy mentioned her by name near the end of the English version of Sonic Frontiers, but that never developed into an actual return. For years, it has remained unclear whether SEGA intended to properly reintegrate Sticks into the wider Sonic cast or simply leave her attached to the now-dormant Boom era.
That is also what makes Sonic Rumble Party a particularly believable place for SEGA to finally bring her back. The game increasingly depends on a large and continually expanding character roster, and SEGA has already shown a willingness to venture beyond the safest handful of recurring faces. Recent updates have drawn heavily from IDW with characters and costumes involving Surge, Tangle, Whisper and Lanolin, while Season 8 has continued expanding the roster and cosmetic lineup with increasingly specific characters and designs.
A live-service game built around collecting Sonic characters can only survive on new Sonic variants for so long before somebody eventually has to open the cupboard marked “characters we haven’t used in years.” Sticks is an especially interesting candidate because she is recognizable enough to have an existing fanbase while still feeling like a genuinely unexpected addition. It does not necessarily mean SEGA suddenly has major plans for her in the next mainline Sonic game, nor would her inclusion by itself settle every question about how the Boom version relates to the wider series. It would, however, show that the character is not completely off limits.
And if Rumble Party really is willing to start reaching back into Sonic Boom, that suddenly makes the future roster a lot more interesting. We are probably still getting Erazor Djinn or Merlina long before Comedy Chimp and Dave the Intern, but the pool of characters SEGA appears willing to consider may be getting a little deeper.
For now, keep the tinfoil hat nearby.
If that ear belongs to who it very obviously looks like it belongs to, Sticks the Badger may finally be back.
Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic Rumble Party News and Updates!
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