There's six books in the series:
- Metal City Mayhem (1993)
- Zone Rangers (1993)
- Sonic vs. Zonik (1994)
- The Zone Zapper (1994)
- Theme Park Panic (1995)
- Stormin' Sonic (1996)
And the series follows Sonic the Hedgehog and his sidekick Miles "Tails" Prower trying to defeat the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik from conquering Mobius with his evil schemes. But they can't do it alone. They need your decision making to help them save the day. Or you can get him crushed by a bulldozer, killed in vacuum of space, forced to watch his nemesis destroy his home and be unable to anything, get his sidekick Tails eaten by a shark. By the way, did we forget to mention these books can get quite dark for Sonic standards?
The books require the reader to number Sonic's Vital Statistics (Speed, Strength, Agility, Coolness, Quick Wits and Good Looks) from 2 (being worst) to 5 (being best). And these are important to remember as there will be points in the books where Sonic needs to use one of these to get him out of a situation or defeat an enemy/boss, which also require a 6-sided die roll.
Not to be confused with the video game Sonic Adventure.
Sonic the Hedgehog Adventure Gamebooks provides examples of:
open/close all folders
General
- Adaptational Badass: Robotnik's badniks. Unlike the original games where they're small and don't serve a real challenge, here - aside from some exceptions - are huge and a genuine threat to Sonic. Just take this Chop Chop from the Genesis game
◊ to the same Badnik in Sonic vs. Zonik◊. - Adaptational Wimp: While Sonic is a nigh-unbeatable powerhouse in the games, here, due to his success being more on Vital Stats and good dice rolls, Sonic is far weaker in some of his best abilities and can actually lose fights.
- Anyone Can Die: In the first two books has multiple ways for Sonic, Tails and even some of the critters to die.
- Alternate Continuity: The books take place in a separate continuity from the games and British comic, but do carry some elements, such as Dr. Ivo Robotnik originally being Ovi Kintober, a detail in early US material and the British comic series.
- Art Shift: The first two books use the more Japanese style designs for Sonic, Tails and Robotnik, while the next two books use the more US designs for Sonic and Tails (ex: mohawk look for Sonic and lack of belt under Tails' socks). The final two books have Sonic back to looking like he did in the first two books while Robotnik starts to look like his AOSTH self.
- Big Bad: Dr. Robotnik, as usual.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sonic regularly talks to the reader in certain sections of the
- Darker and Edgier: Metal City Mayhem and Zone Rangers are far more brutal and explicit with darker topics. With the bad endings getting descriptively dark in ways the video games never cross often.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: This comic was produced when "Sally Acorn", "Porker Lewis", and "Johnny Lightfoot" had not yet undergone Divergent Character Evolution and were still just Sonic's Animal Friends with new names from Sega of America. This early version of Sally is notably just a Ricky◊ with a bow on her head.
- Multiple Endings: As common in adventure gamebooks, there's multiple endings the reader can achieve. Most of them are Bad Endings with one Golden Ending per book.
- Product Placement: The books commonly use Sega consoles like the Game Gear and Mega Drive (AKA the Sega Genesis).
- Video-Game Lives: Each book starts you off with three lives, with collecting a hundred rings earning you a extra life, and losing them all earns you a Game Over.
_1.png){kind=small}
Metal City Mayhem
A mysterious city called Robotropolis appears in Green Hill Zone, and just as it did, all of Sonic's friends have been held captive inside to be turn to robots. Sonic and Tails venture into the city to rescue their friends and find the person behind this mysterious city. We'll give you three guess to who it might be.
- Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: If you choose to make Sonic wait around in the empty room he's thrown in, he questions your decision:Sonic: Hey, smart-bonce, are you sure waiting here is a good idea? I'm stuck in Robotnik's clutches, and you want me to hang around and see what happens?
- Bittersweet Ending: If Sonic uses the Game Gear controls to stop the Technobot by steering it off the highest cliff in the Green Hill Zone instead of the deepest lake, he ends up destroying the robot for good and saving Green Hill, but gets crushed by the Technobot's stomach, killing him.
- Bookends: The story starts with Sonic playing Botman on his Game Gear and struggling to get past the final boss. After defeating the Technobot, Sonic back playing Botman and uses what he did in real life to beat the game.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sonic's Game Gear and a cable he can get from a gold robot or Robotnik's storeroom ends up proving important near the end as Sonic needs a cable to plug his Game Gear into the control desk to gain control of the Technobot.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the only book to have no mentions or collecting the Chaos Emeralds.
- Evil Knockoff: In Section 45, Sonic finds a room of robot doubles, some being shoddy copies while others are indistinguishable from the real Sonic.
- Final Boss: To complete his adventure, Sonic needs to take down Dr. Robotnik's Technobot and the mad doctor himself.
- Foreshadowing:
- Some pretty on the nose foreshadowing at the beginning. On page one, Sonic is relaxing in the Green Hill Zone playing Botman on his Game Gear, and notes how the Technobot at the end of Level Six stymies him every time. He goes to ask his friend Porker for advice since he beat the game already and the book mentions that "Sonic is almost too proud to go and ask his friend's advice, but Porker is a good friend and besides, it's only a video game, not the end of the world." Guess what Sonic needs to fight at the end of the adventure.
- On Section 121, Sonic reads information about all the robots in the Robotropolis. The most mysterious of them is the Platinum robot, with only one existing with all details classified. Wonder what that can be.
- Game Within a Game: Sonic is seen playing Botman on his Game Gear.
- Identity Breakdown: Upon being in a room of Sonics, the real Sonic begins having an existential crisis and starts to question if he's even the original Sonic. Even proved more if he loses the race against his evil knockoffs.Sonic: Oh. Maybe he really was the real, original Sonic, and I am just a duplicate after all. Perhaps it's all for the best. After all, he did look like a hero...
- Knockout Gas: In one of the Bad Endings where Sonic waits around an empty room he's thrown in, this gas begins to be sprayed in that knocks Sonic and the reader out, with the former being taken away to who knows where.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Sonic wastes time defeating the robot guarding the captured Sally Acorn trapped in a glass box with limited air, Sally ends up suffocating and dying!
- Skewed Priorities: In one of the Bad Endings where Sonic lets the Technobot march towards Green Hill Zone and head off towards the horizon to cause more chaos, Sonic more worried that he'll never finish Botman.
- Win to Exit: At one point, Sonic gets sucked into Robotnik's computer and put in a video game world where he has to play a shoot 'em up, fighting game and a racing game to exit out.
Zone Rangers
Sonic and Tails are napping when they are suddenly interrupted by a bulldozer tearing up the countryside. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Robotnik isn't far behind and the duo go off to stop him that takes them all across Mobius, and beyond.
- A Day in the Limelight: Of sorts. Compared to other books, Tails has his own separate vital stats as he separates from Sonic as has his own adventure while away from Sonic.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In one of the Bad Endings, if Sonic and Tails fail to have their Coolness 8 or higher when Robotnik tries to brainwash the pair, the doctor succeeds and puts the now brainwashed pair to work.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Subverted BIG TIME in one of the endings. If Sonic and Tails don't finish putting their space suits on and chase the red robot that opens the airlock to suck Sonic and Tails out into space, they end up dying!
- Hand Wave: In the Golden Ending, Porker reveals to Sonic and Tails that the Robotnik Broadcasting Company - that was brainwashing the animals - went off air an hour ago, and the animals took care of the buildings and roads to restore Green Hill to its original glory.
- For Want Of A Nail: Sonic and Tails deciding to leave the viewing party of Zone Alone is what allows them to not be brainwashed by Dr. Robotnik and allow this whole book to happen.
- Mind-Control Device: Robotnik builds a Broadcasting Company to hijack the live showing of Zone Alone to make the animals work for him. He later tries to use it on Sonic and Tails.
- Mistaken for Spies: During Sonic's mini adventure away from Tails in Scrap Brain City, he wanders into the Outsiders camp and gets captured by the group, with the group leader Ravis believing Sonic is a city spy. If he chooses to go along with the lie instead of staying honest and getting tortured, he's called a coward and tied to a stake to be fed to vultures, ending his adventure.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If you allowed Sonic to let Tails get ran over by the bulldozer, the book will mention that the real Sonic would let his friend Tails be killed and mentions how Sonic must have fallen under Robotnik's mind control rays.
- Random Events Plot: The book goes in all sorts of directions. It starts with Sonic and Tails trying to save their friends after they are brainwashed from Dr. Robotnik's Brodcasting Company that Sonic and Tails try to break into, that goes then into them getting involved with natives, getting warped to different places, heading to outer space, breaking into Robotnik's submarine, among else.
- Rewarding Inactivity: Subverted. If you let Sonic continue to rest and ignore the bulldozer, the bulldozer will run over Sonic and earn the reader an instant Game Over.
- Self-Destruct Button: Inside Robotnik's rocket Sonic and Tails stow in, the computer has a self-destruct choice to pick, and upon picking it, this happens:The rocket does. Game Over.
Sonic vs. Zonik
Sonic is being framed by an imposter named Zonik, and must hunt Zonik down before he collects enough rings to enter the Special Zone and bring Robotnik whatever he finds.
- Adaptational Expansion: Of the the second game, which has Robotnik built Zonik to rampage around and destroy the real Sonic's reputation and Sonic has to hunt him down through the game's levels.
- A Winner Is You: In the Golden Ending, after Sonic and Tails chase Zonik across the Sky Chase Zone and defeat him in a quick battle, Zonik melts to goo, Sonic and Tails go: "Well, I suppose that's that then" and run off into the distance. There's not even any ending artwork.
- Brought Down to Normal: If Sonic and Tails fail to escape the maze in Chemical Plant and lost their last life, they're soaked in Mega Mack and lose their special abilities, getting an instant Game Over.
- Chekhov's Gun: The gloves Sonic can get using the Zone Chip prove important as they're needed for Sonic to fight Zonik.
- Easy Impersonation: Zonik frames Sonic for evil deeds and his animal friends, even Tails think Sonic did it, despite Zonik looking rather robotic than Sonic.
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- Your starting equipment isn't listed on the character sheet (it's supposed to consist of the Energy Gun).
- The choices are reversed in sections 298 and 119.
- The path that leads from 82 to 67 should in fact lead to 121 instead.
- The path from 85 to 68 should instead lead to 227.
- The transitions from 216 to 114, 153 to 268 and 199 to 97 are all wrong, though it's unclear where the paths actually should lead (it's been speculated it's in the jump from 180 to 76, which works slightly better if it replaced 76 with 234).
- Microtransactions: Two In-Universe examples:
- Sonic starts of the game with an Energy Gun that when fired freezes the target for a while and costs ten rings per use.
- Later on, Sonic finds the Zone Chip, which he can use at any time to transport him and/or Tails to a zone with four door ways to choose from that will reward you an item if you clear the challenges (the tweezers and the gloves are vital in cetain sections, partially the gloves). However, it costs ten rings per person to use.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: At the start of the book, Sonic is attacked by a group of bunnies that make him confused, as they were usually his friends. Even more so, his buddy Tails yells at him to stay away from him and flies away from him before Sonic convinces Tails he's the real Sonic.
- Out of Focus: Robotnik plays a very minor role in this book in comparison to the other book, only being seen once when he mistakes Sonic as Zonik.
- Rising Water, Rising Tension: In Chemical Plant, Mega Mack slowly rises as Sonic and Tails spend more times in the maze, with you having only 20 * sections before it starts to deplete your rings for every * section, then removing one of Sonic's lives for every 5 * sections, and if you fail to escape the maze and lose your last life, Sonic and Tails are soaked in the Mack and lost their special abilities forever.
- Tyop on the Cover: The cover has the title spelled as Sonic v. Zonik, whilst the inside is called Sonic vs. Zonik (which will be how it's named here.
- Unrobotic Reveal: Upon breaking into the Metropolis factory, Sonic and Tails find out that Zonik's created using a blue goo-like substance meant for creating clones of the real Sonic upon finding a Bottle Bank of clones of Zonik, and Zonik himself melting to goo upon defeating him.
- Versus Title
The Zone Zapper
Robotnik creates a Reality Inversion Beam which turns everything good into bad. And with his buddy Tails zapped and turned into a robot, Sonic must make an unlikely team up with a badnik named Catcher, who was hit with the ray and turned into a "Goodnik", to find the Chaos Emeralds to save Mobius and Sonic's little buddy.
- MacGuffin: In order to reverse the effects of the Reality Inversion Beam, Sonic must find three Chaos Emeralds hidden Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruin Zone and Emerald Hill Zone and drop them in the ray.
- Odd Friendship: Sonic ends up forming a friendship with Catcher, the former Badnik turned Goodnik he spent most of the story with.
- Out of Focus: With Tails getting struck by the Reality Inversion Beam and turned into a robot, he spends most of the story absent.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: In the Golden Ending, it seems the book is going to end bittersweet with Grabber turning back into a Badnik. But Grabber still reveals to have his old personality inside the Badnik still.
- Transformation Ray: Robotnik creates a Reality Inversion Beam, that turns turn good into bad and bad into good.
- Twisted Ankle: Tails ends up twisting his ankle around the start of the book, which allows him to get transformed by Robotnik's Reality Inversion Beam.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Upon getting hit with the Reality Inversion Beam, Tails gets transformed into a gnashing and gibbering Badnik, or a Tailsnik.
Theme Park Panic
An amazing new theme park has opened on Mobius. But for Sonic and his pals it turns out to have more than the usual thrills and spills, thanks to the devious mind of Robotnik.
Stormin' Sonic
The zones are being plagued by bizarre and dangerous weather by a mysterious Weather Egg creating climate chaos wherever it goes. And Sonic and Tails must stop it before it creates a weather wipeout.
- That Cloud Looks Like...: The book begins with Sonic and Tails looking at clouds that look like a bunny, a rabbit and Dr. Robotnik before getting rained out.
