This article is about the mobile game. For the console/PC game, see Sonic Forces.
Ready, Set... Sonic!
— Tagline
Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is an online battle-racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was developed by Sega Europe and Hardlight for Android, iOS, and iPadOS mobile devices to promote the release of Sonic Forces.[1] It was soft-launched by Sega on the App Store (and eventually the Google Play Store) on September 12th, 2017, with the official release following on November 2nd, 2017 for iOS and on November 15th, 2017 for Android.[4]
The gameplay of Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is very similar to that of Sonic Dash and Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom, with a competition element similar to the Sonic Rivals series added to it. Instead of being an endless runner like Sonic Dash and its sequel, it is a basic runner where players each choose a character and race against each other online in real-time on one of many tracks selected at random, based upon City, Green Hill, Sky Sanctuary, Mystic Jungle, Planet Wisp, Golden Bay, Emerald City, and Metro City. During races, players can collect up to 100 Gold Rings (which serve to increase their movement speed) and dodge obstacles as they progress to reach the goal (represented by the Phantom Ruby prototype). Getting hit with any obstacles will cause the player to lose Rings and slow down momentarily. After a race, the players will keep the Rings they have collected.
While racing, the playable characters are always running forward automatically. At the same time, the players can use the Spin Jump and Slide moves to dodge obstacles and destroy enemies. They can also interact with other paths, normally utilizing Grind Rails.
At the end of the race, players can earn Battle Chests which grant a range of cards to a particular character. In addition, the first and second place finishers receive a Victory Chest which can be unlocked to earn larger bonuses, such as a large number of Rings or cards for multiple characters each. Red Star Rings are featured as a premium currency which can be obtained from Free Chests or purchased using real money which can be used to purchase additional Rings, Chests or instantly unlock Victory Chests that are already acquired. A Free Chest is distributed to the player every eight hours and can be found in the Store tab, under the "Lightning Deals" section. Players can view each other's Trophies in the online leaderboards.
Based on which position they finish a race in, players will then gain or lose Trophies, a numerical matchmaking ranking system akin to an Elo rating system in other competitive games. This matchmaking gameplay mechanic is part of the "Tier" system, which determines which courses the player is able to play on and the number of rewards the player can earn from Chests.
Characters are unlocked over time by collecting the enough number of Cards required per rarity, they are split into five different rarities: Common, Rare, Super Rare, Special, and Challenger (the latter two only being obtainable during events). Aditionally, each character has different levels of stats, with the highest being 10: Speed (the highest speed the player can reach), Acceleration (how fast the player can reach top speed), and Strength (how much speed they lose when taking damage from rivals or obstacles), as well as an unique selection of three power-ups that can be obtained from Item Boxes along the racecourses. These items can be used for the players' own benefit or against their opponents.
Collecting enough cards for a character after it was unlocked will allow the player to level it up using Gold Rings, which improves the character's items and the number of Rings they start the race with.
By upgrading characters, players are awarded with XP, which will increase their level:
When a player's level increases, their Ring Boost and Attack Resistance also increase. Ring Boost increases the maximum amount of speed the player can gain by collecting Rings. The higher the player's Ring Boost is, the faster they can go. Attack Resistance, on the other hand, decreases the effect attacks from other players have on the player's character. The higher the player's Attack Resistance is, the greater the reduction will be.
Every 8 hours, players will be given a new random mission (up to three of which can be left uncompleted at a time) which awards Rings or Red Star Rings, and Cards for upgrading characters. These missions range from tasks such as "Destroy 30 Badniks" to "Star Runner" missions, which require playing a certain amount of races with a specific character.
The Progression system is composed of pre-set missions divided into ten "Stages". Completing the missions (usually five or more) in said Stages rewards the player with items such as Rings or Red Star Rings. After completing a Stage, the player is awarded with a Gold Chest.
Seasons are monthly events that take place in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. First unlocked in Tier 4, they can be entered by finishing a race in first place at least 3 times during that season and will award a Chest with a certain amount of cards at the end of the month, with the number of cards increasing the higher the player's Tier. Upon reaching the first prestige Tier (Tier 8) at 4,000 Trophies, any Trophies earned past that number will be converted into Prestige points at the end of the season and reset back to 4,000. These points are shown on a separate leader board, which only updates at the end of each season.
It is possible to make upgrades to the characters to improve their attributes and items when enough Cards have been collected. Each character can be upgraded a total of sixteen times. The rarity of a character determines how many Cards and Rings will be required to upgrade it to the next level, as well as how much XP the character will award.
Sonic Forces: Speed Battle was first in development in June 2016 after analyzing the latest capabilities of present-day phones.[5] It began as a prototype by Hardlight, checking if synchronous gameplay would work as well as they expected.[5][6] These early prototypes used existing tech and games as testing grounds for the gameplay, like Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom.[6] The game was originally planned for the Sonic Boom franchise, using the main cast of characters from Team Sonic.
From the beginning of the project, Hardlight wanted the game to have flexible levels for more expansive gameplay. For this, they developed a modular system that allowed them to create any track piece they wanted. Hardlight also wanted, right from the start, for the game to be a skill-based, global multiplayer. While relying on the classic staples in the Sonic series, branching paths on the tracks were added to make the game more exciting and unique. Extra care was also made to ensure the levels fit the mobile environment. During development, the staff focused on making the tracks feel appropriate before polishing their design.[7]
Hardlight pitched their idea to Sonic Team back in 2016 when the latter was looking for a mobile game. After discussing with Takashi Iizuka, the teams settled on what would become Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. Hardlight subsequently expanded their team while working on the environments and metagame. After being in development for about a year, Sonic Forces: Speed Battle received a soft launch so Hardlight could test the game and work out the remaining bugs before the global launch.[6] The game was scheduled to have three Zones with twelve tracks for its global launch, with more Zones being planned on being developed.[7] It was revealed on 16 March 2018 that Mystic Jungle would appear as a new Zone in an upcoming update.
The reception for Sonic Forces: Speed Battle since its launch has had a range of quite positive to mixed. The head of Hardlight, Chris Southall, stated that the game "exceeded expectations" shortly after launch. The game has a 4.4/5 star rating on the Google Play Store with over 450 thousand ratings, and a rating of 4.6/5 stars on the App Store with over 40 thousand ratings. It has a rating of 4/5 stars on Amazon with nearly 15 thousand ratings. It currently has a Metacritic rating of 7.2 based on 26 ratings.[8] The game has been praised for being fun, challenging, and entertaining, while being criticized for being multiplayer only.[8]
The online battle-racing game also earned a spot on the '#10 Top games' category on the Google Play Store. Additionally, Sonic Forces: Speed Battle has received individual ratings for various aspects of the game on the Google Play Store. These include: Gameplay (4.5 stars), Graphics (4.6), and Controls (4.4).
According to Ric Cowley of Pocket Gamer, "Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is a lot of fun to play, though it's probably best off experienced in short bursts," while noting, "there's a ton of grinding before you open up new levels, and after the hundredth run on the same two stages, you might start to grow a little tired of the experience."[9]
Two weeks after its launch period, the iOS version of Sonic Forces: Speed Battle had gained two million downloads.[10] As of 16 March 2018, the game has over 12 million downloads. It managed to exceed 10,000,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. On 21 April 2020, the game passed the 50 million download milestone.[11] On 30 September 2021, the game passed the 100 million download milestone.[12]
The soundtrack of Sonic Forces: Speed Battle consists of reused tracks from Sonic Forces and past games. The sole exception is an original menu track that played during the "World Tour" event. Listed below are all the songs used:
Hardlight Staff: Alastair Graham, Andrew Paul, Andrew McMillan, Antony Lavelle, Ashley Khan, Billie McMillan, Chris Southall, Claire Chamielec, Claudia Farre, Daniel Darnbrough, David Foster, Dawid Esterhuizen, Gordon Theobald, Harinder Sangha, Ian Sullivan, Jacob Jensen, Jan Strajnar, James Back, Joel Atkinson, Joseph Stone, Liam Rüdel, Lisa Waldron, Louis Macan, Laura Back, Lubomir Baran, Louis McLaughlin, Lucy Lavelle, Luke Boscott, Marc-Etienne Beinio, Mark Milton, Matt Allan, Neall Jones, Neil Armstrong, Neil Topham, Nia Knibbs Vaughan, Nick Adams, Paul Twynholm, Richard Smith, Richard Sugden, Rebecca Thompson, Rob Ruck, Ryan Simpson, Scott Griffiths, Scott Orchard, Simon Foster, Shaun Lawrence, Stephanie Brooke-Harris, Stuart Grant, Tom Gaulton, Thomas Quartly, Tom Woodward, Yordan Gyurchev
Thanks: Adrian Klimczak, Anthony Lewis, Csaba Berenyi, Inna Slepstova, James Booth, Miklos Hajma, Oleg Salyakhov, Richard Tawn, Rick Nath, Simon Dew. Thank you to all at SEGA, our contractors and our fans.
Excluding the Avatar, who is a customizable character, Orbot and Cubot are the only major characters from Sonic Forces that do not appear in this game.
The initial playable cast of the game (aside from the inclusion of Amy Rose) is the same as Sonic Runners Adventure, another mobile game released in 2017.
Outside of cameos, this game marks the first appearances of:
"You think you can beat me?" is derived from one of Robotnik's phrases, "Do you think you can beat me?" when playing in the two-player mode in Sonic Adventure 2.
"Welcome to the next level" is a throwback to the tagline used in Sega commercials between 1992-1994.
Sonic also said this line in Shadow the Hedgehog.
"Now we're talking!" is a line stated by Sonic upon seeing the Black Bull in Shadow the Hedgehog.
"Get a load of this!" is one of the lines used by Robotnik in the Egg Walker and Egg Viper boss battles from Sonic Adventure.
"The more the merrier" is derived from Eggman's lines of dialogue, "You know what they say... The more the merrier!", during his boss battle in Mad Matrix from Shadow the Hedgehog.
Knuckles' artwork also resembles his Sonic Forcesartwork, but rather than looking sideways like in the original, he is facing to the front.
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow's artworks seen in the game's splash and matchmaking screens are also reused from Sonic Forces.
Sonic's artwork was edited to make him smile instead of screaming like in the original. It's currently unknown why this change was made.
Despite having artwork made for Sonic Forces, Eggman and Infinite use new artwork for this game.
Though, some of their original artwork can be seen in promotional material.
Amy, Charmy, Omega, Espio, Rouge, Vector, Wave, Tikal, Froggy, and all of the Special and Challenger characters (excluding Chuck and Red) have entirely new artwork made for this game.
So far, Wave is the only character that was not teased before she was added to the game.
Prior to Big's reveal, an update allowed players to randomly see Froggy at the end of stages. Now, Froggy can be seen at the end of the races if at least one player is using Big, or a variant of him.
In the initial teaser for Chrono Silver, an identification number reading 21-12-06 can be found. If read as a date, this becomes 21 December 2006; The Japanese release date of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
Similarly, in the teaser for Idol Shadow, the row, seat and time correspond to 19/06/2001, or 19 June 2001; Sonic Adventure 2's North American release date.
The podium banner, splash screen and event panel of Chrono Silver's event use a background that features a piece of artwork created for Crisis City.
Baby Sonic and the Super characters (along with Burning Blaze) are the only ones to have a different upgrade path from the other characters, though the Super characters just have number of Rings changed).
In spite of unchanged upgrade path of Mephiles (alongside with Oni Mephiles), he also has different one that his projectile and trap was exchange the upgrade order for him (projectile in normal Trap upgrade order of (Oni) Mephiles, and vice versa).
Extreme Gear users, Eggman and Gamma are the only characters that do not perform the Spin Jump. Instead, they merely perform a regular jump (in Gamma's case, the Hover technique is also performed).
Classic Sonic (and by extension, Elf Classic Sonic and Classic Super Sonic) is the only character that performs the Spin Attack instead of the Slide.
DJ Vector's hoodie references the famous clothing brand Supreme.
Super Sonic (and by extension the other Super characters, as well as Burning Blaze) is the only character that cannot use the Shield power-up, just like in the various Sonic games he appears in.
Currently, eleven characters have unique entrance animations:
When Tikal and Longclaw enter, a beam of light that emits from the sky appears above them.
When Excalibur Sonic enters, his armor floats around while he begins running in his base form.
When Eggman enters, he raises his fists in determination before lowering them again.
When the Werehog enters, he begins running in his base form before getting struck by a lightning bolt.
When Infinite (and Warlock Infinite) enters, he does a gesture with his hands while emitting a red aura, then releasing a wave of energy cubes. It resembles the animation he does at the beginning of his second boss fight in Sonic Forces.
When Darkspine Sonic enters, he begins running in his base form before being engulfed in a fiery aura, thus transforming him.
When Mephiles (and Oni Mephiles) enters, he begins floating while an aura of darkness surrounds him.
When Chrono Silver enters, he flashes white and becomes slightly transparent, like a hologram.
Currently, four characters have special abilities that other characters do not have:
Baby Sonic is the only character that does not need to slide under obstacles, though he still retains the mechanic to do so.
Eggman (along with LEGO® Dr. Eggman) is the only character that can freely float over bottomless pits.
Gamma is able to stay in the air a little longer than everyone else while jumping thanks to his Hover technique.
Currently, three characters have unique hurt animations:
In the games files Chaos' beta icon for the progress bar was also a piece of uncredited fan art by Nibroc Sarkaria, though it was never shown in any promotional material.
In the game's files, the name for a variant character of Tails called "Cupid Tails" can be found as a leftover asset from a long unused Event. It is unknown if it will be featured in the future.[13]
At one point during development, Gamma was originally intended to preform the Spin Jump, but this was scrapped in favor of his unique Hover technique. Despite this, Gamma's model for using the Spin Jump can still be found in the game's files.
Before Chrono Silver was officially announced, he was named 'Tech Knight Silver' in the game files, which is likely an early internal name.
Similarly, Snowdrift Sonic was once known as 'Santa Sonic' internally.
Excluding transformations, the alternate versions of the characters from Sonic Prime, the film series, and the storybook series, Amy currently has the second most variants of herself included in the game, standing at eight (All-Star Amy, Jingle Belle Amy, Paladin Amy, Popstar Amy, LEGO® Amy, Panda Amy, Fortune Teller Amy, and Dulce Amy). Sonic has the most variants, standing at nine (Classic Sonic, Elf Classic Sonic, Slugger Sonic, Boscage Maze Sonic, LEGO® Sonic, Snowdrift Sonic, Dragonfire Sonic, Jester Sonic, and Extreme Gear Sonic).
However, if the classic and modern incarnations are counted separately, the amount is reduced to 7:2 (quantity ratio of Modern to Classic).
Silver's model lacks the black lining around his eyes, something noticeably prominent in the promotional trailer Hardlight released in 2024. This mistake also extends to Lantern Silver's model but is corrected for his variants that came afterwards.
Valiant Tails was intended to be the 100th character in the game, but for unknown reasons was pushed back. Due to this, he is actually the 101st character, with Burning Blaze becoming the 100th character. Despite this, Valiant Tails is still promoted as the game's 100th character in artwork and in his newsfeed information section.
Burning Blaze is the only character with a Super transformation to not be in the Special rarity.
↑Sega Europe on X. X (3 November 2017). Retrieved on 3 November 2017. "Have you played #SonicForces Speed Battle yet? You can get it FREE on iOS at http://sega.vg/DLXU30g7hlZ. (Android version coming Nov.16)"
↑SEGA HARDlight on Twitter. Twitter (30 September 2021). Retrieved on 30 September 2021. "100 MILLION DOWNLOADS!! From all of us at Team HARDlight, thank you for your support."
↑SonicWindBlue on X: "@SparksEchidna Sorry for being the bringer of bad news, but "Cupid Tails" is in the files for a very long time now and a leftover from cancelled content. He's not planned for this year, unfortunately." / X
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