Sonic the Hedgehog (Universe)

The Sonic universe refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from the world famous media franchise owned by Sega and centered on its company mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. This had been easily the most anticipated new franchise for inclusion in the Nintendo-based fighting game series and is considered the biggest "rival" franchise to Mario.

Franchise description
As Sega's 16-bit console, the Genesis, was launched by 1990, Sega decided it needed to develop a killer-app for the system that could effectively combat the 1991 launch of the Super Nintendo console and its hit pack-in game, Super Mario World. It put into effect "Project Million Seller", where a small team of developers, prominent among them programmer Yuki Naka, developed a side-scrolling platforming game named Sonic the Hedgehog. The game indeed sold millions as the pack-in title for Genesis systems, thanks in no small part to design elements that were welcomely radical and fresh for their time: lengthy-yet-timed action-based levels where the object is to get to the end before time runs out, and the main character runs and jumps very fast through these levels to bounce off of and roll through enemies and obstacles while avoiding pits and spikes and bouncing off springs. This character, the anthropomorphic blue hedgehog and 'tude-filled speed demon named Sonic, was endearingly established as Sega's mascot and answer to Nintendo's Mario and helped ensure the Genesis' place as the primary contender to the SNES in what would be remembered as one of gaming's most memorable "console wars".

As one would expect for such a smash hit character and game franchise, sequels were in order, and a steady stream of Sonic sequels, spin-offs, and alternative media was released in all of the following years for all Sega-owned systems. The "real" sequels to Sonic the Hedgehog were generally the most successful for expanding on both the core gameplay and the characterization and world design. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 introduced many Sonic staples, such as Sonic's Spin Dash ability to charge forward at full-throttle, Sonic's Super Transformation ability to become a faster and strong gold-colored version called Super Sonic, and a CPU-controlled sidekick to follow and assist Sonic, which in this case is the young two-tailed fox Miles "Tails" Prower. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 thoroughly revamped the gameplay and presentation and introduced Sonic's anti-hero rival Knuckles the Echidna, and Sonic & Knuckles was a direct and physical continuation that was the first and only Genesis cartridge to have another Genesis cartridge insertable onto it. Locking Sonic 3 into Sonic & Knuckles created a huge Sonic quest where Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were all separate playable characters.

Time would not be so merciful to Sonic's career and Sega's standing in the game industry in the years afterward, though. A lot of spinoff games for Genesis and other less successful Sega systems like the Sega Saturn took the franchise in various different directions such as isometric platforming and adventure-based racing, and also introduced more characters, but the games were not appreciated as much as the main series by fans and critics alike. Sonic had a magnificent resurgence on Sega's better-handled Dreamcast console with its premiere title Sonic Adventure, successfully pulling off a fully 3D adventure game that physically remodeled Sonic's character design and yet felt worthy of the Sonic name. In spite of great hardware and software in the Dreamcast, the system and Sega itself were ultimately defeated by the competition in the form of the powerful Sony PlayStation brand (with franchises like Metal Gear Solid) and the phenomenal popularity of Nintendo's Pokémon franchise, and Sega ultimately shifted its company focus to strictly a software publisher.

Now a developer for companies once considered its rivals, Sega resumed developing a steady stream of Sonic titles and releasing them for all three main competing hardware publishers - Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Some of these games would be critically acclaimed, some viewed as mediocore, and some widely panned, and standout Sonic games on Nintendo systems include the Sonic Advance series for Game Boy Advance, Sonic Rush for DS, and Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii. As a franchise, Sonic remains one of gaming's most recognizable, and for this reason Sonic the Hedgehog has even appeared in crossover games by popular demand. Two Wii titles are especially notable: one is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, a track-and-field-style sports title featuring characters from the Mario universe and the Sonic universe competing against each other, and the other is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, featuring characters from many universes as playable fighters, with Sonic among those playable.

The Sonic game franchise is a widely ranging series of games and other media covering many genres and formats, and if the characters and world consistent among them were taken away, there would seem to be several games and subseries unrelated to each other and to the "main" series of side-scrolling platformers left behind as a result. Sonic and related properties have appeared in games covering genres such as side-scrolling, 3D adventure, racing, party-gaming, pinball, sports, and fighting. What is generally consistent among all Sonic games is a sense of speed and fast pacing, and gameplay and action is generally emphasized over voluminous characterization and overwrought storytelling. A sense of "attitude" and "coolness" pervades each Sonic title as well.

The Sonic franchise comprises several separate continuities and alternative interpretations, such as with a long-running comic-book series published by Archie Comics and several animated TV series separate from the games themselves, and in many cases the games are not grouppable together by "storyline". But in general the franchise depicts a world where characters are wildly anthropomorphic and colorful animals who speak and interact just like normal people (similar to the Star Fox universe). "Normal humans" also exist in the Sonic world, however, and the primary antagonist of the series is a "mad scientist"-style human named Dr. Robotnik (or Dr. Eggman) who repeatedly attempts to take over the world with an army of robots and a Death Star-inspired superweapon named the Death Egg, and his nemesis Sonic must thwart his schemes time and time again, collecting power-ups like Gold Rings and powerful artifacts called the Chaos Emeralds along the way. Recent Sonic games have explored different and more involved styles of storytelling and added new characters of good and evil affinities, much like recent Mario games.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
In the April 2002 edition of EGM, an Aprils Fool's claim was that Sonic and Tails, the two biggest mascots of the game company Sega, could be unlocked in Super Smash Bros. Melee by defeating 20 or more Fighting Wire Frames in Cruel Melee.

Players have proven this rumor false both in premise and in practice. It would be highly unlikely that SEGA (which, during Melee's development, was not yet a full-fledged third party company, and thus was in competition with Nintendo) would sell its characters for use in a Nintendo game. There are no provisions to include Sonic and Tails in Melee's All-Star Mode (which showcases every character in the game), and an in-game message also indicates that Mr. Game & Watch is the last unlockable character. In addition, another message tells the player that they have unlocked every trophy. As beating single-player modes with Sonic and Tails would yeild new trophies, this is impossible.

Additionally, Cruel Melee strategies showed very quickly that Sonic and Tails did not appear after obtaining 20 kills - in particular, a video of a Japanese player KO'ing 565 Wire Frames with Pikachu disproved the rumor spectacularly.

When asked if Sonic was going to appear in Melee in an interview with Edge Magazine, Yuji Naka stated that "It was very close, but time constraints did not allow us to continue with the idea."

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Sonic franchise makes a sensational debut in the Smash Bros. series in this game.

Character

 * Sonic the Hedgehog: The eponymous star of the franchise was the most anticipated and requested third-party character for Brawl. Seemingly as expected, he is a character who emphasizes speed.