Stay Sonic is a 1993 guidebook to Sonic the Hedgehog. It is based on Sega of Europe's interpretation of the series.
Stay Sonic features a history section based on the backstory given in the American comic Sonic the Hedgehog Promo Comic. Both come from Sega of America's internal "Sonic Bible" documents. This backstory was dropped in American media such as Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) except for Sally Acorn and was never canon in Japan, but it used extensively in European media until Sonic Adventure.
Sonic Says also includes various other tidbite such as a Sonic quiz, a diagram of Robotnik's Eggmobile, descriptions of the badniks of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and tips on how to play the game.
Nigel Kitching, one of the lead writers of Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, owned a copy of Stay Sonic and used it as a basis for the lore of the comic.
Sonic Says contains examples of:
- Absent-Minded Professor: Dr Ovi Kintobor, while a genius, is so absorbed in his work that he forgot to go shopping. In the laboratory fridge, Sonic finds a six month old egg. Distracted, the good doctor trips over a wire...
- Another Dimension: The Planet Mobius is revealed to exist in a parallel universe.
- Big Eater: Sonic has a large appetite for fast food.
- Bowdlerization: The original document was grimmer:
- Sonic's father dies by falling into toxic waste.
- Sonic is mentioned as being extremely poor.
- He is almost non-morphic in this story, rather than simply brown.
- Hibernation is important to the plot.
- Create Your Own Villain: Dr. Kintobor was a benevolent scientist until an accident, caused by Sonic distracting him, turned him evil.
- Early Adaptation Weirdness: It features many differences from later canon, such as Sonic and Robotnik having been friends once. As well as Ivo Robotnik originally being named "Ovi Kintobor".
- Earth Drift: Inverted.
- Fantastic Science: Tails can fly because he has double joints where his tails join his spine.
- Face–Heel Turn: Dr. Robotnik was originally a kindly scientist but a freak accident turned him the way he is.
- Friend to All Living Things: Dr Kintobor, in attempt to rid the planet Mobius of evil, undertook a worldwide quest for the Chaos Emeralds, thereby to contain it.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Middle-aged academic Dr Ovi Kintobor and easy-going, adventurous young Sonic.
- Jekyll & Hyde: When Dr Kintobor tripped over a wire connected to the ROCC, the evil contained within the Chaos Emeralds turned him into a tyrannical misanthrope, "Ivo Robotnik"; the distraction found by Sonic in the fridge added an obsessive love of eggs.
- Parental Abandonment: Sonic.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Chaos Emeralds, with their power to contain malignancy, are sealed by Dr Kintobor in his Retro Orbital Chaos Compressor, or ROCC.
- Talking Animal: Sonic learned human language through the Lingua Scrambler.
- Translation Convention: Used in the early scenes in the forest.
- Unfortunate Name: Joe Sushi the walrus is referred to as "unfortunately named".
