Sonic (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)


 * This article is about Sonic's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic the Hedgehog (, Sonikku za Hejjihoggu) is a character from SEGA who appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. A swift character, Sonic runs at an extremely fast pace that surpasses even Captain Falcon. Nintendo Power states that since Sonic isn't well known for his fighting skills, some of his fighting moves were influenced by SEGA's fighting property, Virtua Fighter. Sonic's moves are also influenced by SEGA's Sonic The Fighters. Sonic is unlocked by doing one of these four things, beat Sonic after beating Classic mode with 10 different characters, beat Sonic after playing in Brawls for 10 hours, have Sonic join your party in The Subspace Emissary or beat Sonic after playing 300 Brawls.

Sonic is currently placed 31st on the Brawl tier list due to his low priority, lack of killing moves and poor matchups overall.

Attributes
Sonic is the fastest character in the game, in regards to movement speed, though only about half his attack arsenal has the speed to match. His tremendous running speed, combined with his Spin Charge special, Spring Jump, and down-air give him excellent follow up ability on pretty much every character. Opponents should always expect Sonic to continue his assault should he get a hit or throw in somewhere, even off the edge. Sonic is one of the more difficult characters to gimp in the game, given his tremendous vertical recovery, as well as his theoretically limitless horizontal recovery (Homing Attack) should an opponent be off the stage with him. Sonic also has the ability to wall jump, and on Final Destination can use his Spring Jump underneath the lip, should he be required to, and can wall jump off the small wall portion to make it to the edge. However, should an opponent be in place at all, invincible or not, Sonic will not have enough time to both attack and successfully grab the edge.

Sonic's attacks are primarily offensive in nature, and his air game and air speed are good enough to accommodate attacking in the sky, as well. His up-air is quick, good at juggling, and has pretty good priority on the second hit, while his forward-air is instantaneous, and can often be chained into itself to bring opponents off the stage. Sonic can remain in the air indefinitely with careful use of his neutral special, Homing Attack, and with proper placement can either stage spike or gimp in this manner. Stage spiking in general is an excellent offensive strategy for Sonic; by running off the edge and immediately using back-air, many characters or opponents who focus on ledge-camping (such as Pit) can be caught off guard for either a kill or a tactical advantage. Sonic's speedy and long-lasting dash attack is another move that can catch opponents unexpectedly, and its traveling distance usually prevents significant retaliation, such as shield-grabbing.

His primary offensive game, however, comes from combining his two different dashing specials, Spin Dash and Spin Charge, with his grab. Mixing up these maneuvers makes for a speedy, unpredictable Sonic, and the damage accumulated by hitting with these techniques can be tremendous. Spin Charge is more offensive in nature, requiring button presses to rev up and going straight forward on release, making it the easier of the two to obtain max attacking speed. It's also effective when used just slightly above the stage, as slamming into the opponent from the air yields two hitboxes, combined with the rolling and jumping hits Sonic can obtain once back on the ground. Spin Dash, on the other hand, is defensive in that it can be shield-canceled in the first second or so of holding B to charge, making it great for fakeouts to shield-grabs, and upon release has a little hop that can be immediately jumped out of for a follow-up aerial. The hop itself has roughly five frames of invincibility, and if performed up a steep enough hill, the entire dash along the ground will be an invincible attack. Spin Dash is also useful for recovery provided the second jump is still in reserve, and those with excellent timing can even return to the stage immediately upon leaving it with Spin Dash, zooming forward along the ground towards the opponent.

His poor tier placement stems from poor killing power and poor priority. Lacking a Meteor Smash, Sonic has only four ways to reliably kill the opponent (backwards and upwards aerial, and forward/down smash), all of which are slow or obvious in nature. This hinders his ability to finish off opponents. His poor priority is usually masked by his attack speed, but long-lasting hitboxes wreak havoc on the spiky hedgehog.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack - A left-handed punch, then a right-handed punch, then finally a side kick with the left leg. 7% damage.
 * Dash Attack - Rolls into a ball to hit anyone in his way, similar to when you press down while running in most Sonic games. 6% damage. Difficult to punish, even when shielded.
 * Strong Side - Stick out both of his feet, with both of his hands planted on the ground (appearance and knockback comparable to Pikachu's F-Tilt in Melee). 11% damage, in two hits. Decent in-close defensive move.
 * Strong Up - Kicks upward which hits three times (appearance comparable to C. Falcon's Up Smash in Melee). Decent knockback. 14 damage if both hits connect(7% per hit).
 * Strong Down - Foot sweep (appearance and knockback comparable to Sheik's D-Tilt in Melee). 6% damage. Can trip at tip.  Moves him forward, and combos well at early percents due to IASA frames.

Smash

 * Side Smash - Winds up his arm during the charge and attacks with a short range punch and yells "GO!". It has good knockback, but the range isn't too impressive. 14-19% damage. Can be angled. Tip of fist has high enough priority to clank with swords, and can punch through Meta-Knight's Mach Tornado.
 * Up Smash - Sonic does a short jump and hangs at its apex for a bit doing a spin. Enemies that get hit are caught into this attack, and gets hit multiple times until the final hit, which does low knockback.  Horrid lag time makes it very punishable.  Has minor spiking properties towards the back of the move on around the 6th-7th hit.
 * Down Smash - Spin Dashes back and forth over a short distance around him. It has good knockback, and decent range. 12-19% damage.  Presents a moving hurtbox for Sonic, and works well on opponents descending onto Sonic.  Possesses three hitboxes, with the last hit having no KO power.

Other

 * Ledge Attack - Gets up onto stage with a sort of flip-spin attack, returning to near the edge afterward. 8% damage.
 * 100% Ledge Attack - Sticks out foot then the other while on his back, two consecutive hits. 13% damage.
 * Floor Attack - Quick foot sweep, hits both sides. 6% damage.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Aerial - Spins in place. Properties are similar to the properties of the Sex Kick. 11% damage. Low priority.
 * Forward Aerial - Drills at the enemy head first rotating his body. Similar to Pikachu's/Falco's f-air. Below-average knockback, but is an excellent follow-up move out of throws and easy to follow-up on.
 * Back Aerial - Kicks behind him (appearance and knockback comparable to Samus's B-Air in Melee). Sonic's best killing move. 13% damage.
 * Up Aerial - A flip kick similar to Fox's U-Air. First he splits his legs apart and out (capable of hitting enemies a bit to his sides) doing no significant knockback. Then he kicks up, knocking his opponents up with decent knockback. 9% damage. Good for juggling out of spin dash moves at early-mid percents.
 * Down Aerial - A Stall-Then-Fall aerial. Sonic stalls for a brief moment, then shoots downwards foot first. Appearance is comparable to Ganondorf's Wizard's Foot. This attack does NOT continue downwards until landing (although it does go down very far before stopping). It has a good amount of lag when hitting the ground if not performed from high enough. Knocback is either diagonally vertical, or slightly down and horizontal at onset of move. 8% damage.

Grabs and Throws

 * Pummel - Knees the opponent. 3% damage.
 * Forward Throw - Oddly enough, it kicks them upwards using a straight up kick (think Sonic doing the splits vertically). Can follow with Up-Air juggles, but it can be heavily DI'ed backwards. 9% damage.
 * Back Throw - Does a back flip while spinning (and while holding the opponent) and slams them on the ground, sending them backwards with okay knockback. Appearance is similar to Pikachu's back throw in Melee. 8% damage.
 * Up Throw - Tosses the opponent slightly above him and then lands on his hands as if to do a push-up. His quills harden just before they make contact and the foe is shot upwards and at an angle. 12% damage. Excellent juggle early on, and great for follow-ups with Spring Jump later, though advanced players will horizontally DI.
 * Down Throw - Throws them down and spins on them (similar to Jigglypuff's down throw but not quite the same), then knocks them a bit forward against the stage. Does a good amount of damage but has set horizontal knockback. 8% damage. Great for tech chasing or for getting opponents off the edge.

Taunts
Up: Does a front flip, then crosses arms with his index finger pointing out while making a teasing clicking tune, which forms into one of his signature poses. Side: Does a figure eight peelout dash, saying "You're too slow!" in a teasing manner.

Down: Says: "C'mon, step it up!" while breakdancing.

Role in Subspace Emissary
Sonic does not appear in the Subspace Emissary until the very end, but unlike the secret characters (Wolf, Jigglypuff, and  Toon Link), Sonic can be chosen to fight Tabuu after The Great Maze. As when every fighter makes it to where Tabuu floats, he prepares his Off Waves, which would have turned every character into a trophy. As soon as he's about to release the attack, a dashing blue blur dashes past the fighters, and rams into both of Tabuu's wings; causing the Off Wave attack to not happen. As the blue blur jumps up on a "peak", he reveals himself to be Sonic. While he taunts, Tabuu's wings break apart, and then six fighters are selected to fight Tabuu in the final battle. Sonic's late role in the adventure mode was probably because he was added late in 2007.

Exclusive Stickers

 * Amy Rose: [Leg] Attack +14
 * Classic Sonic JP Ver.: [Arm] Attack +21
 * Classic Sonic US Ver.: [Throwing] Attack +20
 * Dr. Eggman: Launch Resistance +39
 * Espio The Chameleon: [Body, Spin] Attack +12
 * Jet The Hawk: [Leg] Attack +17
 * Knuckles The Echidna: [Electric] Resistance +23
 * Shadow The Hedgehog: [Specials: Direct] Attack +20
 * Silver the Hedgehog: Launch Power +49
 * Sonic the Hedgehog: [Body, Spin] Attack +32
 * Super Sonic: [Electric] Resistance +27
 * Wave the Swallow: [Arm] Attack +19

Trivia

 * When wearing a bunny hood, Sonic can outrace both the Big Blue track and the water slope on Distant Planet to the point of self-destructing.
 * Despite being an unlockable character, Sonic appears in the game's title screen.
 * Many of Sonic's moves originate from his appearance in the game Sonic: the Fighters. However, a few of his moves, namely his downwards aerial, seem to originate from Sonic Battle.
 * Along with Zero Suit Samus, Sheik and Squirtle, Sonic is one of the only characters to not be seen in trophy form during the Subspace Emissary, due to his late appearance. Ironically, all four of these characters' names begin with the letter 'S'.
 * Sonic is the only character who can be unlocked by four separate methods.
 * Sonic is the first unlockable character to be playable prior to the game's release. He was first playable in Nintendo Media Summit in October 2007, shortly after he was confirmed to be in the game.