Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

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Script (Sonic)

Script (Shadow)

Script (Silver)

Script (Last)

Credits

Manuals

Glitches

Beta elements

Gallery

This article is about the 2006 video game. For other uses, see Sonic the Hedgehog (disambiguation).

This time, speed won't be enough...

— Tagline

Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Sonikku za Hejjihoggu^?), commonly known as Sonic '06, is a 2006 3D platformer video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega, it was made to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the franchise. The player controls Sonic, Shadow, and a new character named Silver, each of whom have their own storylines and support characters. The overall plot is set in the fictional city of Soleanna and centers around Solaris, a powerful entity sought after by Doctor Eggman.

Commonly described as an attempted reboot on the series, the game faced a tumultuous development cycle following the departure of series co-creator Yuji Naka from Sega midway through development. Sonic the Hedgehog was rushed for release during the December 2006 holiday season. It was released in November of the year for the Xbox 360, and for the PlayStation 3 in December, being the first major Sonic game on these consoles.

Pre-release showings were well received, with journalists hoping the game would return to the series' roots following years of poorly received titles. However, upon release, it received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with criticism for its excessive loading times, technical issues, story, and controls. It was a commercial success nevertheless, selling an estimated 2 million copies worldwide. It is often considered one of the worst games of 2006 and in the series, and was delisted from retailers alongside other poorly received games in 2010 to increase the value of the franchise.

Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot, ending details or any kind of information follow.

Episodes

Sonic Episode

File:Ss03.jpg

Sonic in the opening cutscene of his story.

The principality of Soleanna celebrates the Festival of the Sun to honor their god of light, Solaris. During the ceremony, the ruler Princess Elise the Third briefly sees a vision of Iblis, a giant beast, burning the city. Doctor Eggman disrupts the celebration to kidnap Elise and investigate the "Flames of Disaster". Sonic attempts to save her, but she is ultimately abducted to Eggman's Egg Carrier, throwing Sonic her Chaos Emerald.

File:STH2006 SN Saved by Amy 06.png

Sonic is overpowered by Silver during their first fight.

The next morning, Sonic runs into Miles "Tails" Prower, who offers his help. After unsuccessfully pursuing the Egg Carrier in Wave Ocean, they head to the Dusty Desert, where they discover a chamber where Eggman has stashed Elise. Tails creates a diversion so Sonic and Elise can escape together. After escaping into the grasslands, Elise reveals that the "Flames of Disaster" coveted by Eggman are the wrath of Solaris, which killed her father ten years ago. Returning to Soleanna, Sonic and Elise are attacked by Silver the Hedgehog, who calls Sonic the "Iblis Trigger" and attempts to kill him. During the fight, Eggman kidnaps Elise again, but Amy Rose intervenes, allowing Sonic to give chase to the doctor.

Sonic reunites with Tails and finds Knuckles the Echidna with a message from Eggman, promising to release Elise if they hand over the Chaos Emerald. The three infiltrate White Acropolis and give up the Emerald, but Eggman sends them to Silver's future. In the post-apocalyptic Crisis City, Sonic and his friends come across Shadow and Rouge, who explain that they need a Chaos Emerald to use Dual Chaos Control and return to the present. While searching, Sonic's team stumbles upon a meeting between Silver and Mephiles the Dark; after they are gone, Tails learns that Elise died in an explosion on the Egg Carrier.

File:STH2006 SN Going back to the present 03.png

Sonic and Shadow use Dual Chaos Control to return to the present.

Sonic's group reunites with Shadow and Rouge, who have found a Chaos Emerald. The team explores Flame Core for a second Chaos Emerald, only to be attacked by Iblis. After defeating it, Sonic and Shadow use Dual Chaos Control to return to the present. Sonic then splits from Tails and Knuckles, pursues Eggman's train in Radical Train, and rescues Elise, only to be attacked again by Silver. His interruption again lets the doctor recapture the princess, but Shadow intervenes to let Sonic escape. Sonic rescues Elise again by defeating the Egg Genesis in Soleanna Forest. He then takes her through Tropical Jungle, telling her she should return to the castle. She almost cries when talking to Sonic about her duty to her kingdom, but he assures her to smile.

Eggman threatens to level all of Soleanna unless Elise meets with him. She agrees to his terms, and is abducted once again. Aboard the Egg Carrier, Eggman reveals his plan to harness Solaris' powers to conquer time. Meanwhile, Sonic pursues the Egg Carrier in Kingdom Valley, and is surprised when Silver helps him defeat Eggman's robots, having had a change of heart. They follow the Egg Carrier, only to watch as its engines malfunction and it crashes, killing Elise. Sonic is despondent, until Silver suggests he travel back in time before the crash to rescue Elise. After opening the portal, Sonic gives the future Chaos Emerald back to Silver, encouraging him to fix his home.

File:STH2006 SN Nice smile 11.png

Sonic and Elise after escaping the crashing Egg Carrier.

Traveling a day in the past, Sonic reunites with Tails and Knuckles to infiltrate the Aquatic Base. Sonic boards the Egg Carrier before it takes off, reuniting with Elise just as the ship begins malfunctioning. Eggman challenges him with the Egg Wyvern, but Sonic defeats it, giving them just enough time to jump ship. On solid ground, Sonic and Elise share a laugh at their escape.

Shadow Episode

File:Chara02 01.jpg

Shadow in the opening cutscene of his story.

By request of G.U.N., Shadow the Hedgehog infiltrates Doctor Eggman's base at White Acropolis per an SOS signal from agent Rouge the Bat. Once he locates Rouge, Shadow helps her defeat the Egg Cerberus and learns she was on a mission to steal the Scepter of Darkness. Upon teleporting out of the base, they find themselves in a secret room in Soleanna. Rouge asks Shadow to escort her to the rendezvous point in Kingdom Valley so she can return to G.U.N. with the artifact.

File:STH2006 SH The resurrection of Mephiles 18.png

Shadow meets Mephiles the Dark.

In Kingdom Valley, Rouge explains the castle was abandoned 10 years ago after a major accident with the Solaris Project. The two are then ambushed by Eggman for the Scepter of Darkness, and in the scuffle, Rouge drops the Scepter and it opens, prompting Eggman to flee. Mephiles the Dark, a Shadow-like figure, emerges, and teleports himself, Shadow and Rouge away.

Shadow and Rouge find themselves in the distant future, and reunite with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles transported here by Eggman. They form a plan to use two Chaos Emeralds and make a time portal home, so they begin searching Crisis City. Shadow and Rouge find a Chaos Emerald, before stumbling upon E-123 Omega locked in standby mode. Unable to help him, they leave him to meet with the others. The group traverses Flame Core to find a second Emerald. Upon finding it, however, they are suddenly attacked by Iblis. After repelling the beast, Sonic and Shadow use Dual Chaos Control to form a portal. The team begins entering the portal, but Shadow is distracted by Mephiles suddenly appearing behind him, and chooses to pursue him instead.

Rouge arrives in the present with one of the future Chaos Emeralds, disturbed that Shadow didn't follow her. She decides to go after Omega for now, finding him in Tropical Jungle, and gives him the Chaos Emerald with orders to deliver it to Shadow 200 years in the future. Omega complies, shutting out external access to prioritize this mission.

Still in the future, Shadow confronts Mephiles, who urges him to join him for revenge, but he refuses, so Mephiles enters a new form to battle him. Shadow and Mephiles seem evenly matched until Omega arrives, his fate having been altered by Rouge. Together they defeat Mephiles, and follow him into another time portal.

Shadow and Omega arrive in the present-day Soleanna to search for Mephiles. They run into Rouge again, who reveals Eggman's robots are hunting Shadow, but he asserts they really want Mephiles. Shadow finds Eggman in Radical Train, where the doctor reveals Mephiles is linked to the Solaris Project, but will only say more once he is contained. Shadow finds Sonic being attacked by Silver the Hedgehog, and steps in to help. Shadow uses Chaos Control to overcome Silver, who attempts to use Chaos Control too, forming a time portal. Shadow decides to travel 10 years into the past to see the Solaris Project incident, and suggests that Silver follow him.

Shadow and Silver witness the failed Solaris Project, and Solaris splitting into two beings: Mephiles and Iblis. While Silver pursues Iblis, Shadow pursues Mephiles through Aquatic Base and captures him using the Scepter of Darkness obtained from the injured Duke of Soleanna. Leaving the laboratory, Shadow reunites with Silver carrying the unconscious Elise and leaves the Scepter so it can be found by Soleanna.

Returning to the present, Shadow reunites with Rouge, informing her that he has discovered how to seal Mephiles. They learn from G.U.N. sensors that Omega is fighting Mephiles in Wave Ocean and head there; before fleeing, Mephiles reveals to Omega that the humans reprogrammed him to defeat and seal away Shadow in the future. Omega relays this information, which enrages Rouge. Shadow is touched by their concern for him, and lets them follow him to pursue Mephiles.

File:TeamDarkintro.jpg

Shadow removes his Limiter Rings at the end of his story.

The group tracks Mephiles to Dusty Desert, figuring he is hunting for the Chaos Emeralds so he can merge with Iblis. The three find him, who has one of the Emeralds in his possession, within the ruins, and Shadow rejects his offer for partnership once again. When Mephiles is defeated, Shadow tries to seal him within the Scepter of Darkness again, only for him to break free, boasting that with Shadow's power he can no longer be trapped. Mephiles tries to break his will once more, but Shadow claims he will always fight, removing his Limiter Rings to raze through Mephiles with Omega and Rouge.

Silver Episode

File:STH2006 SL He's the Iblis Trigger! 05.png

Silver and Blaze with Mephiles.

Silver the Hedgehog lives approximately 200 years in the future, in a world ravaged by an immortal fire monster known as Iblis. Accompanied by Blaze the Cat, Silver fights Iblis every time he resurrects, but grows increasingly frustrated by his lack of progress. A being called Mephiles the Dark falsely claims Sonic is the "Iblis Trigger" and tasks Silver with killing him to prevent Iblis' awakening. He then teleports himself, Silver, and Blaze into the past, although the three end up separated.

In the present, Silver explores Soleanna to find the "Iblis Trigger" and is amazed by the abundant life. He eventually meets Amy Rose, who initially mistakes him for Sonic and offers her help in his mission, which she is unaware of. After a failed attempt to locate Sonic in the Dusty Desert, Silver confronts Sonic in Soleanna, allowing Doctor Eggman to kidnap Princess Elise. However, Amy intervenes and allows Sonic to escape. Now alone, Silver begins pondering the morality of his mission.

Silver reunites with Blaze and asks her opinion on their mission, and she suggests nothing will change without trying. Silver proposes they learn more about Sonic, and they storm Eggman's White Acropolis for information. There they fight the Egg Genesis and retrieve the blue Chaos Emerald, which Blaze explains can transform thoughts into power. Mephiles orders Silver to pursue Sonic at the Radical Train, with a security lockdown forcing him to be separated from Blaze. He ambushes Sonic, again allowing Eggman to kidnap Elise, until Shadow intervenes. Silver is overwhelmed by Shadow's Chaos Control and desperately tries Chaos Control with his own Emerald; this inadvertently causes Dual Chaos Control, opening a time portal. Shadow suggests Silver follow him into the portal to learn the truth about Mephiles.

File:STH2006 SL The Talisman 4.png

Silver leaves his Chaos Emerald with Elise in the past.

Ending up ten years in the past, Silver and Shadow witness the catastrophic failure of the Solaris Project, splitting Solaris into Iblis and Mephiles. While Shadow pursues Mephiles, Silver pursues Iblis in Aquatic Base, helping the Duke of Soleanna perform a ritual with a Chaos Emerald to seal the flames within his own daughter, Elise. The Duke then succumbs to his wounds, leaving Silver to bring the unconscious Elise outside the laboratory. He meets with Shadow, who leaves the Scepter of Darkness containing Mephiles and returns to the present via another Dual Chaos Control. Silver leaves his blue Chaos Emerald with Elise as a lucky charm before departing as well.

Reappearing in Soleanna, Silver reunites with Blaze and tells her of Elise's connection to Iblis and the falsehood of Mephiles' Iblis Trigger narrative. When Blaze reveals that Eggman has kidnapped Elise again, Silver deduces that he is trying to release Iblis, and the two rush to Kingdom Valley to help Sonic rescue her. However, the Egg Carrier malfunctions and crashes, killing both Eggman and Elise. Silver suggests Sonic travel back in time to save Elise before the crash, and helps him open a time portal to do so. Meanwhile, Silver and Blaze agree to return to the future to face Iblis once more.

Silver and Blaze traverse the Flame Core to fight Iblis and stop its resurrection. Upon reducing it to flames, Silver tries to take Iblis into his soul, but finds himself incompatible. Blaze takes his place, successfully housing Iblis in her fiery soul. She then urges Silver to use Chaos Control to stop time and send her and Iblis to another dimension, but he initially refuses to doom his friend. Blaze appreciates Silver's feelings, but seals Iblis within before fading away. With both Blaze and Iblis gone, Silver watches alone as the skies turn blue and the world begins to heal.

Last Episode

File:STH2006 LAST Elise's tears 06.png

Mephiles killing Sonic.

While Sonic and Elise walk back to Soleanna Castle Town, Mephiles suddenly blinds them with the glare of a purple Chaos Emerald before firing an energy blade that impales Sonic through his back, killing him. He laughs evilly as Elise mourns Sonic, finally crying and releasing the Flames of Disaster.

In Dusty Desert, Shadow equips his Limiter Rings, having destroyed all the Mephiles clones. As he moves for the two Chaos Emeralds, they disappear in a flash. Mephiles has summoned all seven Chaos Emeralds to his location, using them to merge with Iblis and assume a single form: Solaris. Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are helpless as a blinding light engulfs all of Soleanna.

Tails, Knuckles, and Amy find themselves in a mysterious void, meeting Silver, Team Dark, and Dr. Eggman. They find Elise cradling the deceased Sonic. As Solaris roars, Eggman predicts that Solaris is so enraged he will consume all timelines and cause time itself to collapse, making the entire world disappear; he adds that defeating him here would be futile, as Solaris exists in all times. Silver refuses to give up and suggests they destroy Solaris in the past, present, and future simultaneously, but Shadow states that such a plan would only work if Sonic were still alive. However, Elise feels Sonic's presence lingering in the wind. With this idea, Silver suggests they collect the scattered Chaos Emeralds and use Elise's connection with Sonic to resurrect him. Eggman pinpoints the Emeralds' locations, leaving the heroes to split up to gather them in the End of the World.

File:Revivesonic.png

Sonic being revived by the Chaos Emeralds.

With all seven Chaos Emeralds, Elise focuses her thoughts on Sonic. She ends the ritual with a kiss, resurrecting Sonic into Super Sonic. Super Sonic offers the power of the Emeralds to transform Shadow and Silver into Super Shadow and Super Silver as well. Together, the three hedgehogs fight Solaris - Sonic targeting his present, Shadow his past, and Silver his future - and they destroy his will, making Solaris explode into light.

Sonic and Elise are drawn to a point in the past where Solaris was little but the Flame of Hope kept by the royal family of Soleanna, before the disastrous Solaris Project. Elise realizes that if she blows out the flame, Solaris will cease to exist, but she and Sonic will never meet. She cries that she does not care what happens as long as she is with him. However, Sonic reminds Elise all she needs to do is smile, convincing her to go through with it. She blows out the flame to erase Solaris, including Mephiles and Iblis along with it.

When time returns to the Festival of the Sun, Sonic runs through Soleanna. His speed creates a gust that makes Elise lose one of the feathers in her hair. A maid asks if she is okay, and Elise responds that she felt someone familiar calling her. She smiles and continues the festival as Sonic watches from a rooftop. The game ends with Sonic watching Elise's feather float into the night.

Excluding the ending scene of Sonic and Elise in Soleanna, the events of this game are thus undone in the Sonic the Hedgehog series timeline. All characters involved in this game seemingly do not remember that these events once occurred. Blaze experiences déjà vu upon visiting Crisis City in Sonic Generations, but does not fully remember it. The extent to which Sonic remembers the events is currently dubious, as he has expressed both familiarity and unfamiliarity with the subject.

Themes

The story has at least three distinct themes. The first is the relationship between a single individual and the rest of the world. This dichotomy arises in various examples. Princess Elise ignores her own needs by repressing her emotions to lead her people and prevent the awakening of Iblis. Shadow chooses to fight for the world even if they one day scorn him, and Rouge promises to stay by his side too. Amy chooses to believe in Sonic despite Silver's prophecy that he would destroy the world. After this moment, Silver questions if it is right to take one life to save the world, and ultimately fails to sacrifice his one friend Blaze to achieve his goal. In the end, Elise is also forced to choose between her relationship with Sonic and destroying Solaris to save reality.

File:Vlc 2016-06-22 14-38-53-401.png

Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver's golden aura lights up the sun symbol on the Altar of Light

A noticable theme is the trinity of "past, present, and future." Of the main trio of characters, Sonic represents the present by living in the moment, Shadow the past due to his age and his relationship to Mephiles, and Silver the future as it is where he hails from. Sonic's theme "His World" is about seizing the day, Shadow's theme "All Hail Shadow" is about not letting the past hold you down, and Silver's theme "Dreams of an Absolution" is about wishing for a better future. Of the Town Stages, Soleanna Castle Town represents the present as the current castle's location, Soleanna New City represents the future with its urban development, and Soleanna Forest represents the past with its ancient castle ruins. All three of these time periods are also visited via time travel, as Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all travel into the past or the future at different points in their stories.

Another theme is hope. Solaris was originally called the flames of hope, but became the despair of Soleanna ten years later when Mephiles was released and the beginning of the end started. Silver, and arguably Blaze, is the last remains hope in a wasteland of despair 200 years into the future which is overruled by Iblis and his flames. In the last story while the group are in despair, it is Silver and Elise who bring hope to them. Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver are the hope that fights Solaris' despair. In a similar vein is the idea of Light vs Dark. Mephiles the Dark and Solaris whos name refers to light. The Scepter of Darkness and the Altar of Light. Crisis City which is stated to be in "eternal darkness" verses Soleanna which is shown in nearly every day cutscene to be in bright sunshine. When the bright blue skies and sun returns in the future, Silver, who has been left to deal with the emotional concequences, is framed with two dulled Chaos Emeralds either side of him. When Solaris begins to destroy the world, the only place safe from Solaris is the Altar of Light. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver then fight Solaris in a deep, dark void. When Solaris is reduced to its conciousness by the three Super hedgehogs, their light aura lights up the pattern of the sun on the floor of the Altar- perhaps alluding to their "triumph" over the Sun God.

Characters

Main

Image	Character	Biography
File:Next sonic 00.png	Sonic the Hedgehog	The world's fastest hedgehog who is free spirited but hates knavish acts. He can be short tempered, but is available for those in need of help. In Soleanna, he will confront Dr. Eggman in order to save Princess Elise.
File:Elise2006-2.png	Princess Elise	Princess of Soleanna at the tender age of 17. She lost her father when she was younger, but she keeps her promise to him to never cry, no matter what. She fulfills her duty as the royal princess, but she has yet to see the mysterious powers she possesses.
File:Eggman 06 Final.png	Dr. Eggman	A master of robotic engineering with an IQ of 300. Knowing about the princess' secret powers, he attempts to capture her to unlock and use her powers for his self-serving needs.
File:Shadow-large.png	Shadow the Hedgehog	The ultimate life form, created by Professor Gerald. On a mission from the Federal Government to rescue Rouge, Shadow encounters a mysterious enemy, Mephiles. During the course of battle, Shadow is hurled into the future.
File:Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).png	Silver the Hedgehog	A hedgehog with telekinetic powers. The mysterious hedgehog, Silver, travels back in time to the present day to save the future from the destructive evil of the Iblis Trigger.

Supporting

Image	Character	Biography
File:Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) - Tails - 1.png	Miles "Tails" Prower	A friendly kid fox with two tails.
File:Knuckles2006.png	Knuckles the Echidna	A powerful and wild echidna who is a close friend and rival of Sonic.
File:Rouge2006uo1.png	Rouge the Bat	Professional treasure hunter and part-time government spy.
File:Omega 2006.png	E-123 Omega	The last and most powerful of Dr. Eggman's E-Series robots.
File:Amy2006iy4.png	Amy Rose	An energetic girl that adores Sonic and plans to marry him someday.
File:Blaze06.png	Blaze the Cat	Calm and level-headed feline that's quick on her claws.

Gameplay

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 3D, third-person platforming video game, which plays similar to past 3D Sonic games. The story of this game is branched into three episodes, respectively protagonized by Sonic, Shadow and Silver. At first, the player will have unlocked Sonic's storyline by default. However, they will be able to play the other two episodes by progressing through the game. Upon completing the three episodes, they will unlock a final episode. In addition to those three main characters, each storyline has two supporting characters: Tails and Knuckles for Sonic; Rouge and Omega for Shadow; and Amy and Blaze for Silver.

Gameplay is broken up into two gameplay styles, similar to Sonic Adventure: Action Stages and Town Stages. Action Stages are primarily where the bulk of the gameplay takes place. While all three main storylines have the same Action Stages, they are ordered differently and have different pathways for each character. Town Stages, on the other hand, are free-roaming locations within Soleanna where the player can talk to non-player characters, buy Level Up Items, and further the game's plot by finding entrances to Action Stages via the Mirrors of Soleanna. Non-player characters in Town Stages with a blue exclamation point hovering over their head will provide the player with Town Missions to complete for additional Rings. Town Missions are usually completed as a single character, generally the main character of the story, though there are Town Missions where more than one character is used. Unlike Action Stages, Town Missions vary depending on the storyline.

As with past 3D Sonic games, the main objective of the Action Stages is to get to the Goal Ring at the end of the level. Over the course of the Action Stages, many gimmicks can be found, some of which the player can use to their advantage. There are also many obstacles and enemies, the latter of which are divided into Eggman's mechs and Iblis's Minions. Rings, which serve as a method of protection against attacks, are also common. if the playable character is hit while carrying at least one single Ring, they will survive at the cost of losing all their Rings. On the other hand, being hurt while not having any Rings will cost the player a life. Nonetheless, under some certain circumstances, such as falling into a bottomless pit, will cost the player a life, regardless of the amount of Rings the player has on them. After losing a life, the playable character will respawn at the latest Point Marker they touched, or at the start of the Action Stage if no Point Marker has been touched. If the player runs out of lives, they will get a Game Over.

Sonic the Hedgehog makes use of a ranking system, which is similar to that from Sonic Rush. Based on the score gathered, the player will be provided a ranks, with the highest being S and the lowest being D. In order to get an S rank on Town Missions, 30,000 points are needed, and in Action Stages, 50,000 points are required.

For each of the action stages in the respective stories, gold medals are obtainable by achieving S rank in these stages or completing it (Both in Normal and Hard mode), or by obtaining all ten Silver Medals on the stage, giving a total of five Gold Medals per stage.

Character-specific gameplays

Main characters

Sonic the Hedgehog

File:Sonic2006-Kingdom Valley-02.jpg

Sonic in Kingdom Valley, the eighth Action Stage in his episode.

Sonic the Hedgehog's gameplay is the same as in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, retaining most of his abilities from the latter game. One of the fastest in the character roster, he makes use of returning movements such as the Spin Dash and the Homing Attack. He can also unlock Custom Actions to be able to perform many new movements.

Most of Sonic's Action Stages have a special section near the end called "Super-Speed Stages". here, he will be running at high speeds without stopping. In these sections, the player can only move him left or right, make him jump and use the Light Speed Dash, though being able to use it is likely due to a glitch. Also, Sonic is vulnerable to anything he collides with, causing him to lose all his Rings upon colliding with any obstacle, such as a barrier. At the end of a Super-Speed Stage, the player will touch a Goal Ring and finish the Action Stage.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Parts of Shadow the Hedgehog's gameplay is similar to that of his own game. He is slightly slower than Sonic in gameplay, but is able to drive vehicles to move faster, which include a Bike, Glider, Hover Craft, and Buggy. While in an Action Stage, Weapons become active for the vehicles. The Buggy and Glider gain access to Missiles, while the Bike and Hover Vehicle gain access to machine guns. He is also seen attacking with Chaos Blasts and Chaos Spears. Like Sonic, Shadow also has "Custom Actions" to give him move movements to use in gameplay. He can also use the Homing Attack (which has more range than Sonic's), grind and do a sliding kick. By defeating enough enemies, Shadow can also use Chaos Boost.

Silver the Hedgehog

Silver is the slowest character out of the three main characters. He has psychokinetic powers, which are the main feature of his gameplay. With them, Silver is able to pick up objects around the playing field and throw them at enemies, including cars and missiles. He also possesses the ability to levitate in the air for differing amounts of time (using up his energy bar), and he can purchase new abilities in the in-game store with Rings as well. His energy bar depletes faster the heavier the object he is lifting, and his energy bar replenishes with time.

Supporting characters

Sonic Episode

Miles "Tails" Prower

Tails is the supporting character most often played as in the game. Tails can use his two tails to fly and reach things that Sonic cannot, such as hitting a switch to open a door. He can also throw a "dummy ring bomb" that can destroy an enemy. His flight ability can be drastically extended by releasing Template:A Button (Xbox)/Cross before reaching max height and then holding Template:A Button (Xbox)/Cross for about two seconds after he begins descending. However, he still lacks overall speed compared to other supporting characters.

Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles is able to glide can perform an attack the Screwdriver, which can flatten enemies in succession at average speed. He can also use the Ground Shaker, where he is enveloped in an extra fiery aura that paralyzes every enemy in the vicinity upon impacting the ground.

Shadow Episode

Rouge the Bat

Rouge has the ability to make round bomb-like objects and throw them at enemies. She can also glide, and climb walls by gliding on them. Here, she is able to put bombs on the walls she is climbing on, or throw them to attack and gain height.

E-123 Omega

Omega has the abilities to both hover and shoot rapid-fire. He meets up with Rouge at the end of the Tropical Jungle stage. His hover ability can be exploited to fly without descending by tapping the Template:A Button (Xbox)/Cross repeatedly rather than holding it. He has also gained an increase in speed that makes him the second-fastest supporting character.

Silver Episode

Blaze the Cat

In gameplay, Blaze is as fast as Sonic and Shadow. She can do the Fire Claw to attack enemies; the Accelerator Tornado for both offensive and gaining altitude; and the Spinning Claw, where she makes up a vortex of flames for ground and midair attacks.

Amy Rose

Amy can double jump, use her Piko Piko Hammer to whack enemies, and turn invisible to sneak up on enemies.

Controls

General

Button formation		Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:Left Analog Stick		Move
Template:Right Analog Stick / File:Xbox-Button-LB.png/File:Xbox-Button-RB.png	Template:Right Analog Stick / L2/R2	Rotate Camera
Template:LT Button (Xbox)	L1	Reset camera
Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross	Jump
Template:X Button (Xbox) (while Grinding)	Square (while Grinding)	Crouch
START		Pause

Character specific

SonicShadowSilverTailsKnucklesRougeOmegaBlazeAmy

Button formation		File:StH2006-Sonic-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3	Normal	With Elise	Super Sonic
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Jump Dash / Homing Attack (near an enemy or object)		N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Attack	N/A	Arrow of Light
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) (while standing still)	Hold Square (while standing still)	Spin Dash	N/A
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) (while moving)	Hold Square (while moving)	Slide		N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox) (near Rings)	Square (near Rings)	Light Speed Dash		N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox) (in midair)	Square (in midair)	Bound Attack	N/A
Template:Directional Pad Left & Right		Change Custom Action	N/A
Template:RT Button (Xbox)	R1	Use Custom Action (Mach Speed, Tornado, Thunder Guard, Gun Drive)	N/A
Hold Template:RT Button (Xbox)	Hold R1	Use Custom Action (Slow, Homing Smash, Scale, aiming in first person for Gun Drive)	Energy Field	Charge Action Gauge
Template:A Button (Xbox) (while moving)	Template:X Button (PS) (while moving)	N/A		Turbo Boost
Template:Y Button (Xbox)	File:PSTriangleButton.png	N/A		Switch to Super Shadow

Button formation		File:StH2006-Shadow-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3	Normal	In a Vehicle	Super Shadow
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Jump Dash / Homing Attack (near an enemy or object)	Boost (Buggy, Bike, Glider) / Hover (Hover Craft)	N/A
Homing Attack > Template:A Button (Xbox) x5	Homing Attack > Cross x5	Chaos Attack / Chaos Snap (after using Chaos Boost once)	N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Edge Attack	N/A	Spear of Light
Template:X Button (Xbox) x3	Square x3	Spin Kick	N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox) (in midair)	Square (in midair)	Chaos Spear / Chaos Lance (after using Chaos Boost twice)	N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox) (near Rings)	Square (near Rings)	Light Speed Dash	N/A
Template:RT Button (Xbox)	R1	Chaos Boost / Chaos Blast (after using Chaos Boost three times)	Shoot bullets/missiles	Charge the Action Gauge
Template:A Button (Xbox) (while moving)	Template:X Button (PS) (while moving)	N/A		Turbo Boost
Template:Y Button (Xbox)	File:PSTriangleButton.png	Board vehicle	Exit vehicle	Switch to Super Silver

Button formation		File:StH2006-Silver-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3	Normal	Super Silver
Template:A Button (Xbox) > hold Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > hold Cross	Levitate	N/A
Template:A Button (Xbox) x2	Cross x2	Teleport Dash	N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Psycho Smash	N/A
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox)	Hold Square	Hold Smash	N/A
Template:X Button (Xbox) (in midair)	Square (in midair)	Psycho Shock	N/A
Template:RT Button (Xbox)	R1	Psychokinesis	Shield of Light
Template:RT Button (Xbox) x2	R1 x2	Grab All	N/A
Template:RT Button (Xbox) + Template:X Button (Xbox)	R1 + Square	Throw objects
Template:A Button (Xbox) (while moving)	Template:X Button (PS) (while moving)	N/A	Turbo Boost
Template:Y Button (Xbox)	File:PSTriangleButton.png	N/A	Switch to Super Sonic

Button formation		File:StH2006-Tails-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Fly
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Dummy Ring Bomb
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox)	Hold Square	Dummy Ring Snipe
Template:X Button (Xbox) (in midair)	Square (in midair)	Dummy Ring Blitz

Button formation		File:StH2006-Knuckles-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Glide
Template:Left Analog Stick (while on wall)		Climb
Template:X Button (Xbox) x3	Square x3	Punch Attack
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) (while on ground)	Hold Square (while on ground)	Screwdriver
Template:X Button (Xbox) (while in midair)	Square (while in midair)	Ground Shaker

Button formation		File:StH2006-Rouge-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Glide
Template:Left Analog Stick (while on wall)		Climb
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Bomb
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) (while on ground)	Hold Square (while on ground)	Bomb Snipe
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) (in midair)	Hold Square (in midair)	Throw multiple Bombs
Template:X Button (Xbox) (while on wall)	Square (while on wall)	Heart Mine
Template:A Button (Xbox) (while a bomb is exploding)	Cross (while a bomb is exploding)	Blast Jump

Button formation		File:StH2006-Omega-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Hover
Template:X Button (Xbox) (while on ground)	Square (while on ground)	Omega Shot
Template:X Button (Xbox) (in midair)	Square (in midair)	Omega Launcher
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox)	Hold Square	Lock-On Shot

Button formation		File:StH2006-Blaze-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Accelerator Tornado
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Fire Claw
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox)	Hold Square	Spinning Claw

Button formation		File:StH2006-Amy-Life.png Movement
Xbox 360	PlayStation 3
Template:A Button (Xbox) > Template:A Button (Xbox)	Cross > Cross	Double Jump
Template:X Button (Xbox)	Square	Hammer Attack
Hold Template:X Button (Xbox)	Hold Square	Invisibility

Characters

Playable characters

• Amy Rose
• Blaze the Cat
• E-123 Omega
• Knuckles the Echidna
• Miles "Tails" Prower
• Rouge the Bat
• Shadow the Hedgehog
  • Super Shadow
• Silver the Hedgehog (first appearance)
  • Super Silver (first appearance)
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Super Sonic

Non-playable characters

Accordion Player Template:Only Adrianna Template:Only Alan Template:Only Alberto Robert Template:Only Alfano Template:Only Anna Template:Only Antonio Template:Only Aristo Template:Only Berruni Template:Only Bishop Template:Only Claudia Template:Only Dante Template:Only Dr. Eggman Duchess of Soleanna (mentioned) Duke of Soleanna (first appearance) Elkan Template:Only Frances Template:Only Francesca Template:Only G.U.N. Soldier Galienna Template:Only Hatsun Template:Only Herman Template:Only

Iblis (first appearance) Ken Williams Template:Only Ladies-in-waiting Template:Only Liza Template:Only Lord Regis Template:Only Mancini Template:Only Mels Template:Only Mephiles the Dark (first appearance) Mephiles's monstrous form (first appearance) Mikhail Template:Only Nicolo Template:Only Paganini Template:Only Parr Template:Only Pele Template:Only Pinto Template:Only Porta Template:Only Priest Template:Only Princess Elise the Third (first appearance) Prodi Template:Only Puccini Template:Only Renzo Template:Only

Roberta Template:Only Rossi Template:Only Sabrina Template:Only Sandro Template:Only Solaris Template:Only Soleanna Boys Template:Only Pucci Template:Only Soleanna Royal Guards Template:Only Alessio Template:Only Fabio Template:Only Giorgio Template:Only Guido Template:Only Pietro Template:Only Solomon Template:Only Solsaliente Template:Only Monica Template:Only Sonic Man (first appearance) Sophia Template:Only Zof Template:Only

Enemies

Eggman's mechs

Egg Armor Template:Only Egg Bomber (first appearance) Egg Buster Template:Only Egg Buster (Egg Gunner) Template:Only Egg Cannon (first appearance) Egg Chaser Template:Only Egg Commander Template:Only

Egg Flyer (first appearance) Egg Guardian (first appearance) Egg Gunner (first appearance) Egg Hunter Template:Only Egg Keeper Template:Only Egg Lancer Template:Only Egg Liner Template:Only

Egg Rounder (first appearance) Egg Searcher (first appearance) Egg Stinger (first appearance) Egg Sweeper Template:Only Egg Walker Template:Only

Iblis's Minions

• Gazer Template:Only
• Golem Template:Only
• Iblis Biter (first appearance)
• Iblis Taker (first appearance)
• Iblis Worm (first appearance)
• Shadow Template:First appearance
• Stalker Template:Only
• Titan Template:Only
• Tricker Template:Only

Stages

Town

• Soleanna Castle Town
• Soleanna New City
• Soleanna Forest

Action

No.	Episode
	Sonic	Shadow	Silver	Last
1	Wave Ocean (with Tails)	White Acropolis (with Rouge)	Crisis City (with Blaze)	End of the World
2	Dusty Desert (with Elise)	Kingdom Valley (with Rouge)	Tropical Jungle	N/A
3	White Acropolis (with Tails)	Crisis City	Wave Ocean (Blaze only)
4	Crisis City	Flame Core (with Rouge)	Dusty Desert (with Amy)
5	Flame Core (with Knuckles)	Tropical Jungle (Rouge only)	White Acropolis (with Blaze)
6	Radical Train
7	Tropical Jungle (with Elise)	Aquatic Base (with each other)
8	Wave Ocean (Tails only)	Wave Ocean (with Omega)	Kingdom Valley (with Sonic)
9	Kingdom Valley (with Silver)	Dusty Desert (with Omega)	Flame Core
10	Aquatic Base (with Tails and Knuckles)	N/A

Bosses

No.	Episode
	Sonic	Silver	Shadow	Last
1	Egg-Cerberus (Dusty Desert)	Iblis (Phase 1) (Crisis City)	Egg-Cerberus (White Acropolis)	Solaris (End of the World)
2	Silver vs. Sonic (Soleanna Castle Town)		Iblis (Phase 2) (Flame Core)	N/A
3	Iblis (Phase 2) (Flame Core)	Egg-Genesis (White Acropolis)	Mephiles (Phase 1) (Flame Core, with Omega)
4	Egg-Genesis (Soleanna Forest)	Shadow vs. Silver (Radical Train)
5	Egg-Wyvern (Egg Carrier)	Iblis (Phase 3) (Flame Core)	Mephiles (Phase 2) (Dusty Desert)

Multiplayer

Sonic the Hedgehog features two styles of multiplayer gameplay that offer two-player action. In both modes, the Level-Up Items the three characters can use are limited to how many of them have been collected in the story mode. The game was originally supposed to be four player, but was changed due to deadlines for completing the game. Shared features between the two modes are downgraded graphics (due to an alternate renderer to increase performance), making objects and enemies shaded. Several auras from the character animations are also removed here, including the Homing Attack's aura, Shadow's hand auras while charging a Chaos Spear/Chaos Lance, and Silver's psychic moves. High Speed items also make more frequent appearances in the multiplayer than in Action Stages, and the Invincible sparks work for every character, instead of only Sonic. While most stages are available in both multiplayer modes, Radical Train and Tropical Jungle are not.

The first mode, Tag Mode, is a co-op type of play between Sonic, Silver and/or Shadow. Two players, each one controlling a character, must work together to clear levels and collect all the Chaos Emeralds. Lives are shared in this mode, so if one player loses a life when only one life remains, both will receive a game over.

The second game style available is Battle Mode. Battle mode pits two players against each other and has them race to a goal in the selected level. The player who reaches the goal first is the winner. In this mode, there is no score total or a system of losing lives.

The previously rumored mini-games that were to allow up to four players to play simultaneously/alternately (Quiz, Race and a few others) seem to be missing in the final release of the game. The U.S. manual and Sega America game site (did prior to release of the game) do not mention any other modes other than the aforementioned Tag and Battle modes, though there are references to them in the text files for menus. It is also possible (and somewhat likely) that these minigames were moved to the Wii's Sonic and the Secret Rings, which sports a 4-player minigame mode with Sonic, Shadow, Silver and other playable characters.

Development

Beginning development in the fall of 2004, Sonic the Hedgehog was meant to be a rebirth of the series, the idea emerging from the question, "What if Sonic the Hedgehog existed in the real world?", and was intended to take elements that people had praised in the preceding Adventure titles and bring Sonic "back to his roots." Nothing pointed more to the idea of using this game to celebrate what made Sonic the Hedgehog the "Most Famous Hedgehog In The World" than naming the game after the first in the series. However, instead of keeping things simple, Sonic Team came up with numerous ideas they wanted to include to make the game the ultimate Sonic experience.

The advertising of Sonic the Hedgehog was first announced at the E3 convention in May 2005. At the 2005 Tokyo Game Show convention, Yuji Naka revealed the game's official title, Sonic the Hedgehog, and announced that it would celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Game director Shun Nakamura demonstrated the game's use of the Havok Physics engine during Sega's stage shows. The game was to be available for consoles as well as on the PC. At the same convention, Sonic Team also unveiled another game called Fifth Phantom Saga that used the same engine. However, this game was later canceled, and its concept of a psychokinetic protagonist gave birth to the idea of Silver the Hedgehog instead.

After its debut, the game's development team faced serious problems, starting with the resignation of Yuji Naka as the head of Sonic Team and the executive producer of Sonic the Hedgehog, although Yuji Naka claimed on his Twitter in 2022 that he was fired for speaking openly about development salaries. When presented with development kits for the Wii, it was decided that Sonic the Hedgehog's staff would be split in two, with director Shun Nakamura finishing the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles while Yojiro Ogawa would use the other half of Sonic Team to begin work on a Sonic game for the Wii, which would become Sonic and the Secret Rings, rather than port the "next-generation" game to the Wii's weaker hardware. What was originally an ambitious undertaking now became a race against time to meet Sonic the Hedgehog's deadline of the 2006 holiday season, on two consoles, with only half of a development team. In this time, Sonic Team reportedly ignored Quality Assurance Tester bug reports in their rush to have the game ready for Christmas of 2006 regardless of the consequences. Sonic the Hedgehog was released with a large number of problems, which resulted in the game being heavily critically panned.

In February 2007, an interview with Sonic Team's producer Yojiro Ogawa was made to comment on what made the game look like it did, in which he replied: "The reason why we probably ended up with what we see today, involves a lot of reasons. One is that we did want to launch the title around Christmas, and we had the PS3 launch coming up, but we had to develop for Microsoft's 360 at the same time and the team had an awful lot of pressure on them. It was very hard for the team to try and see how we were going to come out with both versions together with just the one team. It was a big challenge."

Interestingly, insight into the development of the game's story, as well as selected concept art, was leaked to the internet before the game was released in the form of a file called "SONICNEXT_allscript", which had all the storyline ported in XML format and was given to a fan site.

On 23 June 2018, Shiro Maekawa answered several questions about the game. He said that the story of Sonic the Hedgehog was so complex to write that after it was completed, it felt like they had solved a puzzle. During the production of Sonic the Hedgehog, he was told by Shun Nakamura that he wanted a story that was similar to Sonic Adventure 2. Maekawa was in charge of scene composition and writing key dialogue. Certain small parts were written by Kiyoko Yoshimura.

Cast and Voice direction

This game features the 4Kids Entertainment cast from the Sonic X anime series in the English version while the Japanese version has mostly the same seiyū from Sonic X and the game series.

While there is no option in game to switch voices, the BIOS on both systems can be changed to the Japanese language to enable the Japanese voices. However, the entire game will be in Japanese, with no option to switch subtitles.

In addition to the 4Kids actors in the English version, Lacey Chabert, who is coincidentally a long-time Sonic fan, voices Princess Elise, marking the first time in the history of the franchise that Hollywood talent has provided voice-over work for a Sonic game.

The voice directors for this game are Eriko Kimura in Japan and Christopher Collet, Julie Rath and Lisa Shaffer for the English dub.

Role	Voice actor(s)
	Japanese	English
Sonic the Hedgehog	Jun'ichi Kanemaru	Jason Griffith
Shadow the Hedgehog	Kōji Yusa
Silver the Hedgehog	Daisuke Ono	Pete Capella
Princess Elise III	Maaya Sakamoto	Lacey Chabert
Dr. Eggman	Chikao Ōtsuka	Mike Pollock
Miles "Tails" Prower	Ryō Hirohashi	Amy Palant
Anna	Hikari Yono
Sophia		Lisa Ortiz
Amy Rose	Taeko Kawata
Blaze the Cat	Nao Takamori	Bella Hudson
Knuckles the Echidna	Nobutoshi Canna	Dan Green
Mephiles the Dark	Takayuki Sakazume
Solaris Project scientists	Yoshikazu Kozuma
	Keiji Okuda
Rouge the Bat	Rumi Ochiai	Kathleen Delaney
E-123 Omega	Taiten Kusunoki	Maddie Blaustein
Duke of Soleanna	Kenji Utsumi	David Willis
Narrator
G.U.N. communicator	Keiji Okuda

Downloadable content

Very Hard Mode

This download has to be purchased separately for each character, Very Hard Mode consists of more enemies, being forced to take the hard paths and even going through levels backwards; amigos also get a bigger role in this than in normal gameplay (most notable in Shadow's levels, where Rouge and Omega are in every level except Wave Ocean). Each main character's missions must be purchased separately for $2.49 USD each.

Team Attack Amigo

File:Sonic06Amigomanual.png

A Japanese document depicting the path of stages in the Team Attack Amigo DLC from the Japanese site of Sonic the Hedgehog.

This download includes an Extra Stage where the player must pass through eight different parts of the stage. The first three parts are played by Tails, as the player must go through Crisis City, Radical Train, and Kingdom Valley. The fourth and fifth parts are played by Blaze the Cat where the player must go through Tropical Jungle and Aquatic Base. The sixth and seventh parts are played by E-123 Omega where the player must go through Dusty Desert and White Acropolis. The final part of the stage consists of a boss fight where the player must fight the Egg Genesis as Omega to beat the Stage.

This download is available on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Japanese and European versions, and the North American Xbox 360 version but the North American PS3 version doesn't offer the download. Due to the Xbox 360 Marketplace's closure, this DLC can no longer be purchased anywhere in North America.

The European Xbox 360 version of the DLC doesn't save any of the stats after finishing the stage.

Boss Attack

Boss Attack has to be bought separately for each of the characters. Boss Attack is similar to the boss attack mode in Sonic Adventure 2, and a similar boss from Sonic Heroes is brought back where as the player has to fight several waves of enemies. The player has to defeat all bosses from the corresponding storyline and nearly each of them is slightly more difficult than the original fight (there are extra enemies in the boss arena, the boss attacks more frequently and attacks in bigger variety). Defeating all of the bosses isn't the only objective however. Between boss battles, the player must defeat all the enemies that spawn in sub-arenas which are altered versions of boss arenas or hub worlds.

Achievements

These are the achievements which add to the player's Gamerscore on the Xbox 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Badge	Name	Description	Requirement	Gamescore
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SonicEpisodeCleared.png	Sonic Episode: Cleared	Clear Sonic Episode!	N/A	30
File:Sonic2006 Achievement ShadowEpisodeCleared.png	Shadow Episode: Cleared	Clear Shadow Episode!		30
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SilverEpisodeCleared.png	Silver Episode: Cleared	Clear Silver Episode!		30
File:Sonic2006 Achievement OneToReachTheEnd.png	One to reach the end	End the last hidden story.		20
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SonicEpisodeCompleted.png	Sonic Episode: Completed	Clear unlocked Sonic difficult level mission.	Clear all Sonic ACT Missions on hard difficulty.	40
File:Sonic2006 Achievement ShadowEpisodeCompleted.png	Shadow Episode: Completed	Clear unlocked Shadow difficult level mission.	Clear all Shadow ACT Missions on hard difficulty.	40
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SilverEpisodeCompleted.png	Silver Episode: Completed	Clear unlocked Silver difficult level mission.	Clear all Silver ACT Missions on hard difficulty.	40
File:Sonic2006 Achievement ShadowEpisodeMastered.png	Shadow Episode: Mastered	Clear all unlocked Shadow ACT Missions with Rank S.	N/A	60
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SonicEpisodeMastered.png	Sonic Episode: Mastered	Clear all unlocked Sonic ACT Missions with Rank S.		60
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SilverEpisodeMastered.png	Silver Episode: Mastered	Clear all unlocked Silver ACT Missions with Rank S.		60
File:Sonic2006 Achievement NightsOfKronos.png	Nights of Kronos	Unlock the complete ending to the last hidden story.	Clear all Last Episode ACT Missions with Rank S.	60
File:Sonic2006 Achievement LegendOfSoleanna.png	Legend of Soleanna	Overcome all trials and accomplish a great feat.	Clear all ACT Missions and TOWN Missions with Rank S.	100
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SilverMedalist.png	Silver Medalist	When you collect all the Silver Medals scattered around Soleanna...	N/A	50
File:Sonic2006 Achievement GoldMedalist.png	Gold Medalist	When you collect all the Soleanna legendary Gold Medals...		50
File:Sonic2006 Achievement BluePhantom.png	Blue Phantom	Super Sonic Obtain the all moves.	Obtain all Sonic moves.	20
File:Sonic2006 Achievement UltimateLifeForm.png	Ultimate Life Form	Resurrect the ultimate power from the lost memory.	Obtain all Shadow moves.	20
File:Sonic2006 Achievement PsychicSoldier.png	Psychic Soldier	Obtain all the power to save the future world.	Obtain all Silver moves.	20
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SoleannasHero.png	Soleanna's hero	Solve all of Soleanna's problems.	Clear all Sonic TOWN Missions.	40
File:Sonic2006 Achievement EliteAgent.png	Elite Agent	Complete all the tasks given as agent.	Clear all Shadow TOWN Missions.	40
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SilverTheLiberator.png	Silver the Liberator	Solve all the mysteries in Soleanna.	Clear all Silver TOWN Missions.	40
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SoleannasBlueWind.png	Soleanna's blue wind	Solve all the problems swiftly.	Clear all Sonic TOWN Missions with Rank S.	50
File:Sonic2006 Achievement DarkHero.png	Dark Hero	Meet all the requests with magnificent skill.	Clear all Shadow TOWN Missions with Rank S.	50
File:Sonic2006 Achievement SilverTheSavior.png	Silver the Savior	Reveal all secrets with your ultimate power.	Clear all Silver TOWN Missions with Rank S.	50

Music

The main theme for the game, entitled "His World", was performed by Ali Tabatabaee & Matty Lewis from Zebrahead.

Hip-hop/R&B performer Akon has done a remix to Dreams Come True song "Sweet Sweet Sweet" in Japanese and "Sweet Dreams" in English, which was originally the ending theme for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive. The song is entitled "SWEET SWEET SWEET -06 AKON MIX-", in Japanese and "SWEET DREAMS -06 AKON MIX-" in English. It is Sonic's ending theme for the game. It was also featured in a trailer shown at Tokyo Game Show. Both versions are available to listen in the game but are omitted in both Soundtrack releases of the game. They were eventually released on Sonic the Hedgehog 1&2 Soundtrack.

Crush 40, who have done several songs for the Sonic series in the past, performed a cover of "All Hail Shadow", one of the vocal songs from the Shadow the Hedgehog soundtrack, originally sung by the band Magna-Fi. However, aside from this one track and 2 others, Jun Senoue did not compose the music for this game.

Silver's theme, "Dreams of an Absolution" by Lee Brotherton (Remix Factory), can be heard at their website, as well as an exclusive remix of the song.

Singer/songwriter Donna DeLory performs Elise's theme, entitled "My Destiny". The in-game music was composed by Tomoya Ohtani. The soundtrack to Sonic the Hedgehog is available to buy from Sega Direct, under the name Sonic the Hedgehog Original Soundtrack. It was released on 10 January 2007. There are two different albums: the OST and the vocal album Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx: Several Wills. The Vocal Traxx is on one disc while the OST is on three discs.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	46% (X360) 43% (PS3)
Review scores
Publication	Score
Famitsu	29/40
GameSpot	4.4/10 (X360) 4.2/10 (PS3)
Play	8.5/10 (X360) 5.5/10 (PS3)

Sonic the Hedgehog was generally panned by critics and became one of the most notable video games for its negative reception. While many believe this was due to a rushed development cycle, that was only a main issue the game possessed. Many complaints appeared to stem from the game's control, level design, convoluted plot and abundant load times (each lasting around 20 seconds). Another common complaint was with the apparent romance between Sonic and Elise. Receiving low mixes and severe negatives, this game has even been called the "rock bottom of the franchise." Across 39 reviews, GameRankings recorded the average score as 46%; the second poorest average for an Xbox 360 title at the time of the game's release. The later PlayStation 3 release received a similar score of 43%.

A number of video game magazines or ranking sites gave the game mixed to negative scores. Famitsu gave a score of 29/40. GameSpot gave the Xbox 360 version a 4.4/10 and the PlayStation 3 version a 4.2/10. Dave Halverson of Play Magazine was notable for initially giving the game its biggest praise: a score of 9.5 for the Xbox 360 version. This was dropped down to 8.5 in the next issue, with Halverson explaining how he was incorrectly told that the load times and glitches in his review copy would not be in the finished product. Later, Halverson gave the PlayStation 3 version a 5.5, expressing his disgust for how the glitches and load times had still not improved and how the game now ran even worse despite the extra development time. In the Play Magazine awards of 2007, he stated he would pay praise and honor to the Xbox 360 version of the game, but not the PlayStation 3 iteration. As a contrast to its scathing reviews, it was praised for its music.

Sales

Despite all the contemptuous commentary, Sega's official statement according to financial reports on Sonic the Hedgehog regarding its sales were positive, calling them "strong" and seeing the game's commercial performance as "solid", particularly in the United States and Europe, meeting the company's expectations for an overall figure of 870.000 copies sold in the aforementioned regions by May 2007. The game also made it onto the Xbox 360's Platinum Family Hits line, but it was not included on the PlayStation 3's Greatest Hits collection, although it met the criteria to qualify. Other sources have also calculated an estimate of the game's overall sales worldwide, with results giving Sonic the Hedgehog more than 2 million units sold.

Trivia

• There are many differences between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions:
  • The PlayStation 3 version runs slightly faster, but this comes at a price with less stable framerate in a few areas. Also, the frame rate for the in-game cutscenes, including the boss intro and outro scenes, are locked at 30 FPS on PlayStation 3 in comparison to an unlocked frame rate of 60 FPS on Xbox 360, meaning audio is properly synced with all cutscenes on PS3. Slowdowns for certain parts of the game, like the results background in Crisis City as Sonic for example, have also been fixed in the PlayStation 3 version.
  • There are a few other minor changes, such as the start of Silver's rival boss battle against Sonic - he starts on the end facing the altar of light across the strip of water in the Xbox 360 version, whereas in the PS3 version he faces the building.
  • The PlayStation 3 version does not support trophies, as trophies would not be implemented in PS3 games until 2008.
• Not counting ports, this game is the only Sonic game on the Xbox 360 to run at full 60 FPS, though there is frequent slowdown in stages and cutscenes.
• In both modes of multiplayer, the player whose character is Silver can use Psychokinesis on the other player's character.
• There is a clever wordplay involving Blaze the Cat's choice of words present in the Japanese dialogue. The Japanese word for the color "blue" (adjective) is "aoi" (青い), and the Japanese word for the adjective "naive" is also "aoi" (青い or 蒼い). So, Blaze's mentioning of "Blue Hedgehog..." is "Aoi Hedgehog..." in Japanese, which can be taken either way. This phrase could not be directly translated, so it is missing from the localized version.
• In the Town Stage of Empire City in Sonic Unleashed, one of the citizens reads a newspaper that features the front cover of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• There are slight differences in how Silver first caught sight of Sonic. In Sonic's story, he first spots Sonic while he and Elise are outrunning missiles from Eggman's robots and then determinedly clenches his fist and mutters, "I've finally found him... the Iblis Trigger." However, from Silver's point of view, this scene and his statement occurred shortly after Eggman captured Elise and while Sonic was looking up at the Egg Carrier while it flew away. He also raises a different hand both times.
• Pre-release screenshots of the game showed that Sonic was supposed to go through Tropical Jungle on his own, but in the final game, he is with Elise.
  • Should a player hack Sonic on his own into Tropical Jungle, it's shown that he lacks the ability to use the vines located within the level.
• This is the first main console Sonic game to use the S rank.
• This is the first main console Sonic game for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
• Sonic the Hedgehog could be the first Sonic game with official Russian translation, according to SONICNEXT_allscript file.
• An advert on the back cover of the Sonic Riders instruction manual says it was due for release on PC DVD-ROM and Xbox 360. However this PC version was cancelled.
• In Silver's Story, when Mephiles is explaining to Silver and Blaze about how to save their world, if one looks closely behind Silver, they can notice that there are "SEGA" logos on the posters behind him.
• Some missions in Shadow's story seem to have an error in reacting with Shadow's storyline: at least two Town Missions have Iblis-and Mephiles-themed minions before the latter was released from the Scepter of Darkness.
• When Sonic, Tails and Knuckles return to the present and read the newspaper, the title of the newspaper says "Daily Soreana". This is due to the lack of distinction between the "L" and "R" sounds in Japan.
• The credits music for Sonic (Sweet Dreams AKON Mix) is the same tune as the ending theme in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (where Tails flies the Tornado to save Sonic from crashing into the planet).
• The game was available for Xbox Games on Demand in 2009, but it was removed the following year as well as the downloadable demo. According to Sega, this was done to increase the value in the franchise.
• Sonic and Shadow are never playable in each others' episode - Silver and Shadow in Aquatic Base, Sonic and Silver in Kingdom Valley - despite going through the same parts of Crisis City and Flame Core at the same time.
  • In the game's files however, there are voice clips of Sonic and Shadow working together in a scrapped story for Tag Mode. Animations of Sonic riding in the Buggy were also found, but Sonic's model is offset far from the seat.
  • Silver also appears as a rival in every story, except for the Last Story.
• When Rouge returns from the future, she receives a call from a G.U.N. agent questioning her. In the dialogue, he questions if she has the Book of Darkness, but in the subtitles, it shows that he should have said the Scepter of Darkness. This is most likely a recording error stemming from an earlier translation for the Scepter of Darkness.
  • Another recording error is heard when a G.U.N. soldier is telling Shadow that Omega has gone to Wave Ocean. Near the end of the line, the voice actor can be heard messing up his line, and reading it again.

File:Wmplayer 2017-03-30 16-59-10-331.png

Silver jumping into the portal while the Chaos Emerald is in his hand in "Leaving the Scepter of Darkness" cutscene.

• In the "Leaving the Scepter of Darkness" cutscene of Shadow's story, Silver has the Chaos Emerald visible in his hand while jumping at the portal that leads to the present timeline, however, he is supposed to leave it beside the young Elise in the "The Talisman" cutscene of his story. This is most likely an oversight on the developer's part, given that the part with Silver leaving the emerald is unrelated to Shadow's story and was not included in it, the model of the Chaos Emerald ended up sticking to his hand because he did not place the emerald in the said cutscene.
• The blue Chaos Emerald goes through a Boostrap Paradox. The Emerald at the start of Sonic's story was given to Elise by Silver who gave it to her 10 years in the past. She then gives this Emerald to Sonic, who later loses it in White Acropolis where it is found by Silver who later travels to the past and leaves it behind with Elise again.
• The dialogue of the Last Story's "Embers of Solaris" cutscene differs between the English and Japanese version. In the English version, Elise asks if Sonic has destroyed Solaris, to which he replies that he did not, followed by him saying that the light approaching them is the true Solaris. In the Japanese version, Elise questions if it is over. Sonic replies with "No", and comments that the light that is approaching them is "Solaris's spark".
• In the "Going back to the present" and "Shadow remains in the future" cutscenes, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge enter the Chaos Control time rift back to the present after defeating Iblis. However, Rouge did not arrive to the present with the boys at the exact same time.
• If one was to compare the information given from the official guide for the game, to the gameplay itself, several interesting points can be gathered:
  • Some screenshots in the guide has Sonic's icon for the life count of every character besides Sonic himself.
  • The guide mentions that E-123 Omega's Hover ability and Tails's Fly are bound to the energy of the Action Gauge along with screenshots that show the said gauge being used by these characters. This, however, is not the case in the final version since the Action Gauge is only displayed in gameplays of the three hedgehogs and Omega's hovering lasts indefinitely until landing.
  • The Silver medals' placements sometimes differ from the game.
  • The guide documents the unused Speed Chip upgrade for Silver.
  • Several Level Up Item and Gems have their details contradict what is up in the game: the Mach Speed would work the same way as what is now the Sonic Boost; the Dummy Ring Bomb would throw an empty item box; and the Teleport Dash could have warped through an enemy and its attacks.
• Sonic Team originally planned to release a port of the game as the first Sonic game for the Wii. However, such a port would have taken a long time to create, and Sega wanted to release a Sonic game much closer to the Wii's launch. This became the 2007 video game Sonic and the Secret Rings.
• Within the menu text files for the game, it is shown that the supporting characters were planned to have episodes of their own, possibly as DLC, and that Metal Sonic (who does not appear otherwise in the game) would have been playable. Due to the rushed development and poor reception of the game, these plans were scrapped.
• This is the second Sonic game with an E10+ rating. The first one was Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • According to G4, the game had E rating at some point.
• Sonic's voice actor at the time, Jason Griffith, revealed at Sonicon in November 2010 that 4Kids and Sega had brought in the Japanese voice directors of the game to direct the English voice cast along with the English directors.
• Like Sonic Adventure, when the player enters a loading screen into a new act, they will be unable to restart the stage from the beginning, instead being taken to the beginning of the current act.
• An unused gameplay mechanic where Sonic's top speed would have dramatically increased the more Rings he collects can be seen in the E3 2006 beta demo. Since the game was rushed, however, this mechanic was never fully implemented, and Sonic's top speed outside of the Mach Speed Stages became slower.^{[citation needed]}
• This is the final 3D mainline Sonic game until Sonic Frontiers to feature Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as fully playable characters.
• This is the first Sonic game to feature HD graphics.
• This is the first 3D main game where the Tornado does not make an appearance.
• This is the second mainline series game in the Sonic franchise to be released on an important Sonic anniversary year, the first game being Sonic Adventure 2, which helped celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Sonic franchise.
• Excluding the Xbox Live Arcade Sonic games, this game has the least number of achievements (23).
• It can be noted that Silver is the only character who is playable throughout all four Episodes; in addition to his own Episode, he is playable in Kingdom Valley in Sonic's Episode, he is playable in Aquatic Base in Shadow's Episode, and he is playable in Dusty Desert in End of the World and during the Solaris boss fight in his Super Form in the Last Episode.
• This is the second game to have hidden items to collect in the Town Stage, the first being Sonic Adventure.
• It is possible to reach areas with a character that the developers did not intend for that character to reach. For example, you can enter the area right before the end of Silver's first section of Aquatic Base as Shadow, using a glitch that allows Shadow to go through walls. Not only can you explore this area, but Silver's voice clips play when you are Shadow as you enter the last room of the first section (this is due to how the game loads voice clips, which loads a specific voice clip to play for a single character, as opposed to being dynamic like Sonic Heroes). Almost every character can achieve a trick like this.
• Sonic's animations from TGS 2005, as well as his homing flip animations from E3 2006, were leftover within the game, but were unused. The homing flip animations can still be seen with using the White Gem, however.
• Tails and Knuckles did not appear alongside Sonic in the last Castle Town Adventure Field leading to Aquatic Base despite the trio being playable in that Action Stage together.
• The game manual states some features and items that are not in the actual game, due to rushed completion, such as two options for Tag Mode: Tag Story, begin a new game or continue a previously saved game, and Tag Trial, play stages beaten in Tag Story, shields, the Action Gauge limiting the power of Sonic's abilities, and the flying and hovering abilities of Tails and Omega, and the ability to upgrade Custom Actions up to level 3.
• There's a typo in the ending, when Elise says, "It felt like... someone was calling me," the subtitles read, "It felt like... like someone was calling me."
• There is a glitch found in Shadow's story that happens when one is to enter Soleanna New City at the time in-game when they are supposed to enter Dusty Desert through using Shadow's wall glitch at the gate leading to Soleanna New City. Things like unused mirrors for Flame Core and Crisis City were found. The most interesting thing to be found though, was an entire unused mission. A warp is placed around the area with the mirrors. The mission is fully functional, and even has some unused text after it is completed. However, this mission isn't saved in the Town Trial levels and cannot be accessed with the same save file if you save after completing it.
• There was a planned combination move between Silver and Blaze that by using the Template:Y Button (Xbox)/File:PSTriangleButton.png, the player can use Blaze's pyrokinesis to wrap into flames/approach sides in Iblis' third phase.
  • There was also another combo that Silver can pick up Blaze and throw her to launch a powerful attack in the same boss battle.
• Amy is the only hedgehog in this game to not fight a boss, have her own episode, or Level Up Items.
• Silver's story is the only story in which all hedgehogs are playable.
• Shadow is the only character to fight Iblis, Mephiles, and Solaris.
• Omega is the only supporting character to be playable in a boss.
• The red Chaos Emerald is the only Emerald that was not seen individually in any cutscene.
• Tails is the only supporting character to be playable in the Soleanna Adventure Field.
  • However, the Silver Medals do not appear in Castle Town when Tails is playable there.
• Knuckles is the only playable character to not complete a mission, leading his victory screen animation and rank voice clips unused. However, the player can do a glitch to complete a stage as him.
• Silver is the only hedgehog in the game not to introduce himself by a full name or title.
  • Sonic introduces himself as 'Sonic the Hedgehog' to Princess Elise when they meet during the first cutscene of his campaign.
  • Amy introduces herself as 'Amy Rose' to Silver and Elise during their introduction scenes in Silver's campaign.
  • Shadow introduces himself as 'Shadow the Hedgehog' after Silver mistakes him for Mephiles before their respective boss battles in Radical Train. He later does the same when Mephiles demands the name of the one sealing him in the Scepter of Darkness.
  • Silver only introduces himself as 'Silver' to both Sonic and Amy when he first meets both of them. The only time his full title of 'Silver the Hedgehog' is displayed in game is during the start of his boss battles.
• Some achievements in this game are poorly described. One example includes "Nights of Kronos," in which it tells the player that he/she can see a completely different version of the game's ending in the Last Episode. However, the player gets this achievement when he/she gets an S-rank on both End of the World and Solaris. Another example are the achievements "Silver Medalist" and "Gold Medalist." The description indicates that the player will unlock something when they collect all the silver medals and gold medals respectively, when in reality, they do not. However, it suggests that it was intended for the player to unlock something, potentially Free Mode, but was scrapped as well. "Legend of Soleanna" is unlocked after achieving an S-rank on all act missions, town missions, and boss battles with every character, but its description simply tells the player to "overcome all trials and accomplish a great feat.
• This is the first time that Shadow the Hedgehog removes his Limiter Rings in the game series.
• If the player removes the game disc while the game is still playing on the PS3 version, it will just continue playing as if the disc was still inside. However, the music will stop playing.
• This is the first main series game where Sonic and Shadow do not fight each other in Story Mode since Shadow's introduction.
• Currently, this is the last Sonic game until Sonic Superstars to feature a Last Story, as the episodic format used to tell the game's story was no longer used after this game.
• Even though both the "Running through the plains" and "Knuckles delivers a letter from Eggman" cutscenes, along with the title screen video, are pre-rendered and set to work at 30 FPS, they do not use the CGI graphics of the game.
• This game was originally going to have a day and night feature, but the idea was scrapped for time restraints and the concept was later used in Sonic Unleashed instead. Sonic Frontiers would later realize this idea in full, with the game having a fully functioning day and night cycle - sixteen years after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Sonic the Hedgehog is the first main game to have all four hedgehog main characters presented (Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and Silver). The others being Sonic Generations, Sonic Forces, and Sonic X Shadow Generations.
  • Of these games, Sonic the Hedgehog is the only one to have all four of them playable.
  • All of these games are also anniversary titles or partially a remake of a previous anniversary title.
• Shiro Maekawa had written a draft for the game's story that would have connected it more clearly with Sonic Rush.
• The Mission Clear jingle in this game was later used as Sonic's victory jingle in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, making this the one of the only series with a victory jingle that was ripped straight from another game.
  • However, in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, his victory jingle was shortened in the final build instead of the full version in the E3 build.
• When Takashi Iizuka was questioned about the apparent inconsistencies of Blaze's role in the game compared to those in Sonic Rush, he stated that the reason no one expressed familiarity with her was because everyone had "amnesia."

Videos

US TrailerJapanese TrailerDebut TrailerPlayStation 3 Trailer - EnvironmentEuropean CommercialGerman Commercial

File:Sonic The Hedgehog - Trailer - E3 2006 - Xbox360.mov

File:Sonic The Hedgehog - Tokyo Game Show 2006 Trailer

File:SONIC The Hedgehog (2006) E3 2005 Technical Demonstration Reveal Trailer

File:Sonic the Hedgehog PlayStation 3 Trailer - Environment

File:Sonic '06 Commercial Enter The Sonic Age

File:Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 TV Spot Deutsch

External links

• Official English website
• Official Japanese website
• Official European website
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game) at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sonic the Hedgehog console mainline games

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