Yesterday, we could see the ears. Today, SEGA has finally said the name.
Sticks the Badger is officially returning in Sonic Rumble Party.
Following yesterday’s wonderfully obvious “tinfoil hats” teaser, the game’s official account has formally revealed Sticks as a new character coming in Season 9. Better still, players will not necessarily have to wait for the new season to get their hands on her, as SEGA says the top Rumblers competing in today’s tournament will have a chance to win Sticks early.
The confirmation closes the admittedly very small mystery Sonic City covered yesterday. The original teaser deliberately stopped short of showing Sticks in full, using conspiracy-themed wording and a close-up of her distinctive ear instead.
More importantly, today’s announcement tells us something yesterday’s teaser did not: Sticks is specifically part of Season 9. SEGA has not yet detailed how players will normally obtain her once the season begins, but the current tournament provides an early opportunity for its highest-performing competitors to add her to their roster before then.
And as character additions go, this is a pretty significant one.
Sticks was introduced as one of the core characters of the Sonic Boom universe, becoming a regular 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, but largely disappeared from active Sonic projects after the Boom era wound down. We noted yesterday that she has occasionally been acknowledged since then, most famously through Amy mentioning her by name in the English version of Sonic Frontiers, but that was a long way from actually putting Sticks back into a game.
Sonic Rumble Party has now changed that.
Her arrival also continues the game’s increasingly enthusiastic habit of reaching beyond the most regularly used Sonic characters. Recent updates have already expanded heavily into IDW material with characters such as Surge, Tangle, Whisper and Lanolin, while the game’s enormous Skin roster has given SEGA considerably more room to revisit characters and designs that might otherwise struggle to find a place in a current Sonic title. Sticks being pulled out of the Sonic Boom cupboard makes that potential roster considerably more interesting.
It does not, by itself, tell us whether SEGA has larger plans to reintegrate Sticks into future mainline stories, nor does it suddenly answer every long-running question surrounding Sonic Boom’s relationship with the wider series. What it does confirm is much simpler and still pretty exciting: after years on the sidelines, Sticks the Badger is playable in a current Sonic game again.
The tinfoil hat worked.
Sonic Rumble Party Season 9 will introduce Sticks as a new character, while top competitors in today’s tournament can win her ahead of the season. Further Season 9 details have yet to be announced.
Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic Rumble Party News and Updates!
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