Despite the minimal ups and undeniable downs in the Sonic The Hedgehog series lately, the Sega mascot has endured and become ubiquitous with gaming. As the franchise continues to reinvent itself, fans have taken note of a number of retcons, convenient omissions, and straight-up mistakes over the years.
Call it blind adoration or super fandom, either way, fans are routinely asked to ignore a glaring number of plot holes baked into the world of Mobius.
10 Sonic Racing Games Fundamentally Make No Sense
Sonic and friends all run fast yet somehow, whenever this group gets together for some casual racing, the breakneck speeds they can reach on foot hardly ever seem to be enough.
Sonic R's clunky design and terribly awkward controls seemed to imply that programming a Sonic game where all the participants race on foot was nearly impossible for 1997. In fact, even before Sonic R, Sega was inclined to have Sonic and co. race in vehicles for the Sonic Drift titles from 1994 and 1995. Most would say that a Sonic racer is a no-brainer, but a Sonic racer with cars feels blasphemous. It's the kind of concept that makes less sense the more you think about it. Still, the concept was revisited for Team Sonic Racing in 2019.
9 Knuckles' Negligence Should Get Him Fired
Sonic's long-time rival, Knuckles the Echidna, is the sworn protector of the Master Emerald that keeps Angle Island airborne. Knuckles made his debut in 1994's Sonic The Hedgehog 3, wherein he was tricked by Robotnik into believing that Sonic and Tails were after the Master Emerald.
Eggman eventually steals the Master Emerald to repair his Death Egg while Sonic and Knuckles team up to stop him. As an isolated incident, this is alright. However, the fact that the Master Emerald is later stolen or otherwise tampered-with in Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Sonic Battle, Sonic Rivals 1 &2, and Sonic Advance 3, it might not be off-base to suggest that perhaps the intrepid Echidna is asleep at the wheel more often than not.
8 Eggman Blew Up Half The Moon
Fans of the Sonic Adventure series will never forget the ambitious storylines that made these games what they were. The final entry in the adventure series, Sonic Adventure 2, features a now-infamous cutscene in which Dr. Eggman does the unthinkable by blowing up half of the Moon for no reason other than to show off the power of his fancy new laser beam cannon.
Upon the game's climax, this little issue is never once brought up again. In fact, the moon appears in later Sonic releases, prompting fans to question what became of this gigantic mishap. Sonic Team and Sonic's anime adaptation, Sonic X, provided conflicting explanations that open up the pandora's box of Sonic's confusing continuity once again.
7 Metal Sonic's Appearance in Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Undoes Sonic Cannon
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is considered an unfortunate blemish on the tapestry that is Sonic The Hedgehog, and that is really saying something. Among the many issues with this digital-only catastrophe, one that has left many Sonic fans scratching their heads was the re-introduction of Metal Sonic.
Sonic's Metal counterpart was thought to have been disposed of in the "good" future of Sonic CD. Later games like Sonic Triple Trouble for the Gamegear and the arcade game Sonic The Fighters appear to corroborate this. However, in the beginning of Sonic 4's Episode Metal, Metal Sonic is seen in the "bad" future in Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD, implying that the canon fans had accepted was a lie.
6 Sonic Has Too Many "Home" Planets
In 1991, Sega of America made a series bible for Sonic The Hedgehog. This document provided background info and named Sonic's home planet "Mobius". This was never adopted in Japan. For Western Sonic fans, this was a cold hard fact that was further solidified in three different cartoons, two comics, and at least one game manual.
Until 1999, there was no reason for Western fans to question whether or not the in-game locales were supposed to be situated on the fictional planet Mobius. Two pieces of media would be released in the region at that time that challenged that notion. The first was Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie, where Sonic's home planet is referred to as "Planet Freedom". Sonic Adventure was released on the Dreamcast a mere 3 days later and asserted that Sonic and friends are on Earth. Meanwhile, 2020's Sonic The Hedgehog film shows Sonic's humble beginnings on an unnamed distant planet before being dispatched to Planet Earth for his own safety.
5 What Ever Happened To Hyper Knuckles and Super Tails?
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles presents players with a choice at the onset of the adventure, allowing them to pick between Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles. If players collect all 7 Chaos (or Super) Emeralds as either Tails or Knuckles, players will be prompted with a message alerting them that they can now play as either Super Tails or Hyper Knuckles.
These forms are comparable to the Super/Hyper Sonic transformations, granting the sidekicks invincibility and a golden or pink glow to Tails and Knuckles, respectively. Super Tails even gets a swarm of golden flicks surrounding him. Perplexingly, these transformations are notably absent in every subsequent title. While Sonic Team came close in the final moments of Sonic Heroes, the super forms seen here seem to do little more to Tails and Knuckles than encapsulate them in a bubble.
4 Eggman Should Go After Knuckles Not Sonic
Sonic has been billed as "the fastest thing alive" and, at times, it can feel as though that promise was the only thing Sonic could deliver on for the last few years. However, nobody seems to give any credit when it comes to Sonic's supporting cast, all of whom seem to be more than capable of keeping up with the blue blur.
Fans have wondered why so much emphasis is placed by Eggman on catching Sonic specifically. In fact, if anything, Eggman's biggest problem may be Tails. In addition to being just as fast as his blue counterpart, Tails also has the ability to fly and is certifiably a genius. This makes Tails a triple threat. Even disposing of Knuckles would likely be more useful to Eggman as that would leave the Master Emerald vulnerable for any nefarious deed he'd like and yet, somehow Eggman only has eyes for our favorite Hedgehog.
3 There Is No Way Eggman's IQ Is 300
In the manual of the original Sonic The Hedgehog from 1991, Dr. Ivo Robotnik is credited as having an IQ of 300. Surely it is impossible to ignore his proficiency in robotics, mechanical engineering, and astrophysics but one would have to think that a scientist of his caliber would be more than capable of catching the fastest hedgehog alive, once and for all.
However, in spite of all the things Eggman has accomplished, his plans for battling Sonic head-on seem to always be a little half-baked. Some of his more questionable ideas have included attaching a ball and chain to his Egg-Cruiser, driving a car with a drill, and Shadow The Hedgehog's Egg Dealer Mech which, for some inexplicable reason, had the ability to power up his opponent.
2 Sonic's Age Is Unclear
Sonic may turn 30 this year but Sega has never officially aged him outside of his redesign in 1998 for the then-upcoming Sonic Adventure title. At the time, character designer Yuji Uwekawa had envisioned what became known as "modern Sonic" as 15 years old.
If Uwekawa is to be believed, Sonic should be at least 16 now, as Sonic Generations opens with Sonic's birthday party. Ironically, Sonic Generations was released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the franchise and many players assumed that was the milestone being celebrated in the games introductory moments. Sonic also celebrated several birthdays in the Archie Comics series and did a fair amount of time traveling, making his real age incredibly difficult to pin down.
1 Eggman Should Definitely Be In A Maximum Security Prison By Now
Eggman has demonstrated, time and time again, that he is an apt aerospace engineer. What is perhaps more impressive than the aircrafts, is the speed with which Eggman is churning out entire fleets of massive ships.
This incredibly unstable and fragile man is, all on his own, able to build a nation's worth of high-tech spacecraft. How it could be possible that Eggman lives a life free of any government agency watchlists or anything of the sort truly undermines the authority of any world leader in Sonic's world.
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