Referenced By / Sonic the Hedgehog

"It's Slide time!"

Throughout Sonic's history, there has always been an homage to the blue blur in one form of another.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Print ads and commercials for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger shown the eponymous Ty dropping in on three hospitalized and highly bandaged characters who bear obvious resemblances to Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro the Dragon, all of whom have Ty's signature boomerangs embedded in them somewhere. They all flatline after Ty scares them with a "BOO!".
• Print ads for James Pond 2: Codename RoboCod, featured the title fish in what appeared to be an ice cream parlor talking up his new Do-Anything Robot abilities, and Sonic dashing out of frame because he couldn't compete.
• Sonic appears in a commercial for Honey Nut Cheerios, where Buzz plays Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and gets sucked into the game. Buzz then challenges Sonic to a race for the titular cereal, which Sonic wins.
• Sonic appears in a commercial for Progressive, where he visits Flo and Jamie in the Progressive Store. The "Invincibility" and "Extra Life" music from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was used in the commercial.
• Sonic appears in commercials for the McDonald's Happy Birthday Happy Meal, where he interacts with various animated characters, such as Barbie, as well as a live-action Ronald McDonald.^note One of the toys featured in the promotion was Sonic-themed.
• An ad for McVities biscuits, showing not-quite-right versions of various iconic things, shows a realistic hedgehog collecting Mario-style coins, as the voiceover declares "There's only one hedgehog."

Anime

• Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Scott’s opening lines to Ramona are an awkward rundown on how Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic SatAm aired at the same time, were tonally different, and had the same actor playing Sonic.

Comic Books

• Scott Pilgrim:
  • Volume 4 has a title page inspired by the title screen of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
  • Also, when Roxy dies, a bunch of small animals pop out of her, much like when the Prison Egg capsules are broken open at the end of the third act of a level.
  • A band in the series is named Sonic and Knuckles.
  • Wallace tells Scott over the phone that no, he does not know the stage select code from Sonic 3.

Comic Strips

• Off the Mark: Sonic appears alongside other cartoon characters in this strip◊.

Fan Works

• A griffin in Ace Combat: The Equestrian War is named Jet, after the Sonic Riders character of the same name.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! GSTART, Kohaku Yudin's Pixel HERO Deck includes a few Monster Cards that reference this series (among others), including Speed Spike (Sonic), Chaos Needle (Shadow), and Chaos Speed Spike (Super Sonic, complete with an Expy of the Chaos Emeralds). According to the author, Kohaku's design also includes a few cues from Sonic, such as his green eyes, blue leg covering (shared reference to Mega Man), white gloves (shared reference to Mario), and blue spikes in the back of his hair.
• In the Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee story "Risa's and Emma's Double Trouble!?", Risa Selden directly quotes Sonic's "Real Superpower of Teamwork!" line from Sonic Heroes when sending out her Eevee against Team Rocket.

Films — Animation

• Wreck-It Ralph:
  • In the original movie, Sonic appears in a PSA advising arcade characters to be back in their games by the time the arcade opens.
  • In Ralph Breaks the Internet, Sonic explains to Ralph what "Wi-fi" stands for when an internet router gets plugged into Game Central Station.

Films — Live-Action

• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): The discarded Sonic design from the 2020 live-action film appears, named "Ugly Sonic" and full of Self-Deprecation about the backlash he got when he was revealed.
• In Home Alone 3, a Sonic 3D Blast cartridge can be seen in Alex's drawer when he looks through it for a dog whistle to irritate the dog Alice Ribbons is walking.
• In Jingle All the Way, there is a scene near the end with a large parade of famous cartoon characters and mascots. Sonic can be seen marching in the parade in a few shots.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World:
  • Scott Pilgrim VS The World has the ring pickup effect accompany the "He Really Doesn't" caption. When it does hit "Gets It", the sound from the end-of-level points tally in the second game plays.
  • Also, the hammer uses the sound effect of Sonic entering a Special Stage.
• In Ready Player One, Sonic can be seen near the beginning. He also attends to the final battle, performing a Homing Attack.
• In Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Noah and Kris refer to each other as "Sonic" and "Tails" respectively over their walkie-talkies. Later on, Kris refers to Mirage as "Knuckles".

Live-Action TV

• During some of the arcade scenes in an episode of The X-Files, sound effects from the first game are heard.^note Coincidentally, one of the actors in that episode is named Jason Griffith, who shares the same name as the previous voice actor for Sonic. They are often confused for each other, but they have different middle names.
• Breaking Bad:
  • In season 4 episode "Bullet Point", Jesse plays Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with a female friend. In the season 5 episode "Hazard Pay", Andrea and her son Brock plays the same game.
  • In season 4 episode "Crawl Space", Jesse and Brock plays Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Big Wolf on Campus: In "Game Over", Tommy is attacked by a video game character named Dirk Strykem (an obvious parody of Duke Nukem) and tries to convince his friend Merton to help him. Merton doesn’t believe him, so he sarcastically replies that he’ll help him and asks if he should also keep an eye peeled for Sonic the Hedgehog.
• In the Malcolm in the Middle episode, "Dinner Out", Malcolm and Stevie are seen playing Sonic R on a Sega Saturn.
• In the Maid Marian and Her Merry Men episode "Tunnel Vision", the Merry Men are making a real hedgehog make its way through a maze while avoiding crabs. They call this game Chronic the Hedgehog.
• Seinfeld: In "The Couch", when George attempts to rent the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's instead of reading the book, multiple rows of Sega Genesis games can be spotted behind him in the video rental store. Amongst these games are Sonic Spinball, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

Music

• The title of A Day to Remember's song "You Be Tails, I'll Be Sonic" is obviously referencing Sonic, however the song itself contains no Sonic references. The title refers to how Sonic is faster than Tails. Being a Break-Up Song, the protagonist wants to get away from his past girlfriend.
• The song うずまき by Machine Girl has a sample of the Japanese version of past Palmtree Panic from Sonic the Hedgehog CD at 1:49.

Roleplay

• Dino Attack RPG:
  • Member Kotua in Space was a huge fan of the series, and his writing contains many references to it. Most infamously, Chaos was based upon the water creature of the same name from Sonic Adventure, with the Chaos Emeralds used by Kotua being a recurring element of the series.
  • The XERRD scientist Dr. Robert Nicholas is inspired by Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Dr. Nicholas was first seen in a hovercraft with a wrecking ball, a tribute to Dr. Robotnik's first boss battle in the first game.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: At Skopp City's apartment building, there's a poster featuring a 'Dash Raccoon' sporting Sonic's hedgehog quills.
• In the employee changing room at the beginning of Asterix and Obelix XXL2, you can see a conveyor belt with three costumes. One of them is a Sonic-like armor, making this an Early-Bird Cameo (the actual enemies aren't met before roughly halfway into the game).
  • Sonic Romans are introduced inside LuckSore. They are fast and often roll, strike with ring-shaped blades, and a "ring collected" sound is heard when they are defeated. They get some statues and posters in SeizeUs.
• At the beginning of Bayonetta, the title character and Enzo conduct the funeral of a man named "Eggman". As the creator explains:
  Kamiya: In this part, I had just randomly decided to use the word "Eggman". Then I found out it was the name of a character in another famous game. I figured if the fans get a kick out of it, then it is fine to leave it as it is.
  • In addition, the halos collected from slain angels bear an uncanny resemblence to Sonic's Rings.
  • Bayonetta rides Enzo's airplane in the introduction of Bayonetta 2 the same way Sonic does in the classic games: by standing on the wing. The plane itself has the same coloration as the classic Tornado.
• In Chapter 2 of Deltarune, one of Mauswheel's battle quotes reads "(Rolling around at the speed of mouse...)", riffing on the opening line to "Escape from the City".
• Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories has Tink's Sonic Roll, obviously inspired by the Spin Dash. The original PS2 version even has the same sound effect.
• Exponential Idle gives the "Gotta Go Fast" achievement for reaching 2.5x with the acceleration button (approximately 7 minutes of holding it).
• The Sega racing game, Gale Racers, your character's racecar have a Sonic plush toy hanging from underneath it's rear-view mirror.
• Malice: A bird scold another for worshipping a blue hedgehog.
• Mega Man: The Wily Wars has a backdrop in the outside portions of Mega Water S's stage that look suspiciously like Green Hill Zone from the first game. More blatantly, the game was advertised with a picture of Mega Man shaking hands with Sonic himself.◊
• Retro City Rampage:
  • There is a character named Dr. Von Buttnick, much like Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
  • Also, you get a power-up in the form of shoes that alow you do to a quick dash tackle. They're apparently from the Green Hills.
  • Every area in Theftropolis ends in "Zone", much like the various areas in this series.
• Spike Out have a stage set inside a shopping mall, including an area promoting Sega products. With a gigantic twenty-foot Sonic inflatable in the stage's background.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game has a "Speedy the Porcupine" power-up. The "Change coins into animals" code is not only a reference to the animals in the Prison Egg capsules, but the code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Up, Up, Up) is the same as Sonic The Hedgehog 3's insanely hard level select and sound test code.
• Donkey Kong Country 2 has a place where Diddy can be ranked in comparison to Mario and Link. The place also includes a bin labeled "No Hopers", with Sonic's trademark red shoes underneath. Curiously, Earthworm Jim's red gun is also there, despite being on Nintendo systems.
• The Impossible Quiz 1 and 2 each have a minigame involving Sonic characters as a reference to the creator's earlier flashes. It's obvious he isn't fond of the series, based on what goes on in said flashes.
• In Uniracers, trying to name your team "Sonic" or "Sega" and you'll be told it's "not cool enough". The final boss of the game could also pull a number of Interface Screws on you, one of them being "Hedgehog Speed", which was actually super-slow motion.
• The ending of the original Amiga version of Zool has the eponymous character kicking away a tiny blue hedgehog with red shoes. And it has a track of music called "Sonic Basher".
• The obscure Bullet Hell NES Shoot 'Em Up Recca has something like this as a intro that was edited out. See it here.
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island included a fast blue hedgehog enemy named Harry Hedgehog that was pretty easy to trounce. This was during the time when Sega and Nintendo were fierce rivals in the Genesis/SNES Console War and said hedgehog was included as a Take That! towards them. When the game was later rereleased on the Game Boy Advance, the rivalry between the two had subsided into more friendly terms, which in turn lead the hedgehog to be recoloured purple.
• In the intro of the obscure Amiga game Quik the Thunder Rabbit, a tiny blue hedgehog is slowly making his way over a road before Quik zooms around the corner, causing the rodent to scurry away and leap off a cliff.
• In the Tiny Toon Adventures Licensed Game for the NES, there is a black hedgehog enemy in the forest level that resembles Sonic and defends itself by using a move resembling Sonic's spin attack.
• In Bug, Sonic appears in Reptilia, once in a bonus level where the title character holds a footrace against him, and again in a secret hard-to-reach area. If you turn on the cheat that makes Bug able to move anywhere, you can actually move up to him and kill him for laughs.
• In Gem Smashers, the character of Bom is a blue hedgehog who is also the game's fastest playable character.
• In Toy Commander, Sonic can be seen on a calendar in the Children's Bedrooms.
• In the 1998 PC adaptation of Candy Land, the "Ring" sound effect from the Sonic games is used whenever the space on the board your character is supposed to move to is clicked on.
• Tamagotchi has a Licensed Game for the Sega Saturn called Sega Saturn de Hakken!! Tamagotchi Park. In the game, you can unlock a set of Tamagotchi breeds that are all based on Sega characters; obviously they included a Tamagotchi version of Sonic, but besides him there are also Tamagotchi versions of Alex Kidd, Pengo, Flicky, and Opa-Opa.
• Being another Sega Genesis game starring a super-fast, blue-colored cartoon character, the developers of Desert Demolition Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote added a few nods to Sonic in the game by throwing in giant shuttle loops, springs, and even a speed booster as setpieces for the Road Runner to use. The second level in particular feels like it was ripped straight out of a Sonic game.
• Sega Game Pack 4 in 1: In Tennis, Sonic appears as the referee.
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie: In the Licensed Game for the Game Gear, in Stage 2: The Night Town, Sonic can be seen on posters in the windows of the Bookshop.
• Illbleed has a demonic-looking version of Sonic called "Zodick the Hellhog" as the boss of the sixth level.
• Pizza Tower: Snick the Porcupine is obviously an Expy of Sonic. Interestingly, he actually exists separately from his inspiration, according to the SAGE 2019 demo description. In addition, the SAGE demo's plot consists of Peppino attempting to visit the SAGE expo only to accidentally end up in Snick's expo instead.
• In Curse Crackers: For Whom The Belle Toils, Bonnie's Riot mode functions very similarly to one of the series' Super Modes, giving her flight and invincibility (among other things) in exchange for the ability gradually draining her currency.
• The Henry Stickmin Series has quite a good few shout-outs to Sonic:
  • In Infiltrating the Airship's earpiece route, Henry can call in a Robo-Helper to get him across a chasm. Said Robo-Helper looks an awful lot like Tails...
  • In Fleeing the Complex's Charge Tackle route, Henry can use speed shoes to escape his pursuers in the Transfer Cell Hallways. Unfortunately for him, this soon leads to another problem...
  • During the Thief/Ghost route in Completing the Mission, Henry, having swiped a giant emerald from the Toppats and facing down their Kill Sat, can absorb the emerald to become Super Henry! Unfortunately, it doesn't work because, well...
  FAIL Screen: "You need like 6 more emeralds before you can transform into Super Henry."
• Spyro: Year of the Dragon: In the Crystal Islands, Moneybags threatens to turn Spyro into a blue hedgehog if he doesn't pay him the 1,000 gems required to lower the bridge.

Web Animation

• Sunstriker Animated Universe: Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails appear as characters in the universe.

Web Comics

• Square Root of Minus Garfield has a strip where Jon is replaced by Dr. Eggman, with appropriate dialogue. (The sprites were specifically traced from Sonic Battle.)

Web Novel

• In the Nifty version of Can You Spare a Quarter?, the name Tails for Jason's squirrel is based on Sonic the Hedgehog.

Web Videos

• Dark Secrets of Garry's Mod: Sonic appears as a supporting character in the series, often portrayed as best friends with a childish version of G-Man. Other Sonic characters also appear sometimes.
• How It Should Have Ended:
  • "How Sonic the Hedgehog Should Have Ended" provides two alternate endings to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). In the first, Sonic's friends travel from their dimension to help Sonic in the final battle against Dr. Robotnik. To combat them, Robotnik summons Badnik versions of Jim Carrey's film characters. In the second, Sonic uses his speed to dodge Tom's dart and travels to the mushroom planet, only to find Mario as its inhabitant. In The Stinger, the Business Woman calls the police on Tom after he says he has a child in his bag.
  • "How Sonic 2 Should Have Ended" provides several alternate endings to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). In the prologue, Knuckles takes the quill Robotnik saved and heads for Earth to battle Sonic by himself, leaving Robotnik stranded on the Mushroom Planet. In the first alternate ending, during the final battle with the Death Egg Robot, Tails uses his hologram projector to fool Robotnik into thinking he's made clones of himself, Sonic, and Knuckles, allowing them to easily extract the Master Emerald, which lands in Rachel's hands. Rachel then uses the power of the Master Emerald to become a giant, squash the G.U.N. Commander, and easily defeat the Death Egg Robot. In the second, Knuckles tries to get the Master Emerald from Robotnik, who easily dodges his attacks and destroys him, Much to Tails' shock. Robotnik is then seen at the Mean Bean coffee shop, explaining his victory to Bowser, The Joker, Emperor Palpatine, Lord Voldemort, and GLaDOS. In the third, when Sonic tells Knuckles that Robotnik is stealing the Master Emerald, Knuckles tosses a boulder at Robotnik, then uses the power of the Master Emerald to become Super Knuckles, overtaking both Sonic and Robotnik. In The Stinger, when Knuckles power bumps Sonic and Tails, he breaks their arms, saying his revenge would come when they least expected it.
• Joueur du Grenier's first DVD is themed after the classic Sonic trilogy: the cover resembles the first game's European cover, the DVD menu is a parody of the second game's title screen with JdG's theme recreated with the game's soundfont, and the episode selection menu looks like the third game's data select menu, complete with a Suspiciously Similar Song.
• Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: Sonic appears as a recurring minor character in the series along with many others from the Sonic cast. He even has his own subseries called Sonic the derphog.
• The Runaway Guys:
  • From the playthrough of Mario Party:
    Chugga: Good! Great! Awesome! Outstanding! AMAZING! All I did was press A!
    Jon: Thank you, Sonic Colors.
  • Chugga sometimes comments on "the real superpower of teamwork!!".
  • While playing Minigame Island, all three start singing the infamous drowning music when Knock Block Tower shows up.
    • They do it again during a skiing minigame in Wii Party.
  • Near the start of Episode 4 of The Subspace Emissary, when they point out that the timer skips from three minutes to one minute, it is handwaved as being due to Time Dimensions.
  • In the Space Land section of their Mario Party 2 LP, Chugga, quotes Sonic Adventure 2: "And we all did it together!"
  • During World 2-2 of Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Chugga says a line from the Unawakening Float song from Sonic and the Secret Rings.
  • At the start of Egg Engines, Emile references a line of Dr. Eggman's from Sonic Generations.
  • Chugga starts humming the boss music from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the final boss fight of LittleBigPlanet, as he says it reminds him of the final boss from that game... which ironically had a different, unique, theme to the regular boss theme that he's humming.
• In the Fireman Sam YouTube Poop "Sam Eats Scrambled Eggs", Dilys presents Norman with a picture of Dr. Robotnik's head on a plate.
• SuperMarioLogan:
  • Sonic appears as the main antagonist of the "Mario and Bowser's Stupid and Crazy Adventure" story arc. He has a British accent and is often mistaken for a cat by Bowser, much to his ire.
  • In "Chicken!", Cody uses his animal machine to turn Bowser Junior's remote into a hedgehog. Junior and Joseph name the hedgehog "Sonic" after the restaurant, saying they're the first people to name a hedgehog that. Upon hearing this, Cody says, "Yeah, it's really original. You should try copyrighting that." Afterwards, Junior says the name sounds like a video game.

Western Animation

• Megas XLR: The Thanksgiving Episode has the Monster of the Week take over a parade float that's a parody of Sonic called "Auggie the Adorable Aardvark" which Coop and Jamie both deem lame. It also performed a Rolling Attack.
• The Simpsons:
  • The Simpsons episode "That 90s Show" has a billboard with Sonic proposing to Amy Rose with a ring from their game series. "Sonic the Hedgehog says: Wait until marriage" is written on the billboard.
  • In a much earlier episode, Bart is tempted to steal a video game. The Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Sonic play the role of bad angels, with Sonic advising Bart to "Just take it! TAKEITTAKEITTAKEITTAKEITTAKEIT!"
• Amethyst from Steven Universe uses Sonic's Spin Dash attack in several episodes.
• In the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short, "Winter Blunderland" from the The Looney Tunes Show episode, "Eligible Bachelors", after Wile E. freezes the desert with the ACME insta-winter, a shuttle loop-like structure can be seen. Later in the short, Wile E. chases Road Runner through the shuttle loop.
• The Amazing World of Gumball has an episode titled "The Uncle" that centers around Gumball mistakenly thinking that Ocho knows Mario. It turns he does know Sonic, and the episode ends with Gumball chasing after Ocho while imitating Sonic's Classic-era run animation.
• In an episode of Samurai Jack, Jack obtains a pair of blue sneakers that gives him Super-Speed and makes him run like Sonic, down to his legs forming an 8.
• Robot Chicken:
  • In the sketch, "Stopping Sonic" from "Shoe", Sonic starts off his last life in Green Hill Zone by speeding through a 35 MPH zone with no rings on him. The police lay down a spike strip to kill him.
    Officer 1:: That stopped him!
    Officer 2: Yeah, but man, a spike strip? I mean, couldn't we have tried a warning first?
    Officer 1: Yeah, we could have, but we didn't.
  • The sketch, "Why Does Sonic Run?" from "Callie Greenhouse in: Fun. Sad. Epic. Tragic." reveals the reason why Sonic runs so fast is because he's trying to outrun his depression.
  • The sketch, "Sonic in the Library" from "Max Caenen in: Why Would He Know If His Mother's a Size Queen" has Sonic try to get a book from a library, only for the book to fall on him, causing him to lose his rings, which disturbs the other patrons. The sound effect of Sonic picking his rings back up is taken from the Sega Master System and Game Gear versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 1.
  • A sketch from "Happy Russian Deathdog Dolloween 2 U" has the Nerd dressed like Sonic (specifically the original live-action design with "off-putting human proportions") at a Halloween party.
• In the Jelly Jamm episode "The Man That Could Be King", Bello tries to help the King to get his chores done by presenting them as a sort of real-life video game, since the King is quite skilled at video games. The King picking weeds during this scene is accompanied by the "ring collect" sound from the Sonic games.
• Craig of the Creek:
  • In "Kelsey the Worthy", Kelsey reads a Slide the Ferret comic book, an obvious Sonic the Hedgehog parody featuring Dr. Robomelette, a Captain Ersatz of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Robotnik, and Slide's Robot Me.
  • "Ferret Quest" depicts this Sonic parody more. Slide's love interest Glide The Ferret was inspired by Rouge the Bat.
• MAD:
  • "TwiGH School Musical" / "Avenger Time" features a commercial for Sonic brand sneakers. Sonic appears running happily as his sneakers are advertised.
  • Amy makes a brief cameo in "Gaming's Next Top Princess" as one of the eliminated contestants.
  • Bunnie Rabbot appears in "The Iron Giant Lady" as a student at Chuck Norris Invitational, where she lands a brutal steel foot kick at the Texas Ranger himself.
  • Sonic appears in "Franklin and Crash" as the prosecutor for the trial of The Prince of All Cosmos. It is revealed that Sonic has a vendetta against Crash, who serves as one of the Prince's laywers, for trying to copy him.
    Sonic: Well, hello, Crash. Having fun running through levels, spinning through boxes? I love your sneakers and gloves.
    Crash: I added shorts.
  • Sonic and Dr. Eggman appear in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Icarus" as students at Video Game School.
  • In "Here Comes the Doom" / "Brain Purge", Sonic and Dr. Eggman appear in a commercial for Koopa Troopa, Guts Man, and Kracko. Sonic first appears destroying Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile, then with help from Koopa Troopa, Dr. Eggman gets back at Sonic by building a spike pit too long for Sonic to jump over.
• Amphibia: In "Mr. X", one of the stands in the theater is for a film called Fast Rat, with its tagline being "I require acceleration!"
• Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City: At one point in "The Great Gooseberry Chase", Orange Blossom performs a Wheel o' Feet that resembles Sonic's Super Peel Out.
• The Incredible Dennis the Menace: In "Caution! Boy at Work", when Dennis is seen playing an arcade game at Hasty Mart, the "Screech", "Jump" and "Ring" sound effects from Sonic the Hedgehog can be heard.^note The Incredible Dennis the Menace was not only released in 1993, the same year as Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), but all three cartoons were produced by the same company, DiC Entertainment.

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