Super Sonic

This page is about the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. For an entry on high-frequency sound waves, see supersonic.

Super Sonic is an in-game form of the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. In Super Sonic form, Sonic is faster, tougher, and near-invincible. To reach this form, Sonic must first collect all of the Chaos Emeralds, and harness their power with Rings.

Overview

Sonic began as a video game on the Sega Genesis console, and later became an animated series. In many versions of the game and television cartoon series, Sonic's main objective is to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds to prevent the evil Dr. Robotnik from harnessing their energy to destroy or conquer the world. In the early Sega Genesis original title Sonic the Hedgehog, there were 6 chaos emeralds, all of which are different colours; this number was later increased to 7. In some versions, there is a 'Master Emerald' which contains great energy and can power entire doomsday devices on its own. These Chaos Emeralds are what provide the energy for Sonic to become Super Sonic.

Sonic collects the Chaos Emeralds by entering into special stages in which he must collect golden rings or blue spheres (in the first game, Sonic does not need to do this; he must merely break through the walls of the dimension and reach the Emerald without touching the misleadingly-named "Goals"). Once the player has accomplished entering and finishing the special stage seven times, he must collect 50 rings in the real world and jump (double-jump in later versions) to activate the temporary power called Super Sonic.

The Abilities of Super Sonic

Sonic the Hedgehog possesses the ability to run very fast, jump into a spiked ball to attack, perform "spin-dashes", and (in later versions) perform a "super-spin" to rev-up for a spin-dash (see Sonic the Hedgehog). Becoming Super Sonic enhances Sonic's abilities in many ways:

1. Sonic is invincible

In the Sonic games, to be "invincible" is a temporary condition which means that Sonic is, for the duration of the invincibility, immune to the attacks of enemy "badniks" (Robotnik's robotic creations). It also allows Sonic to destroy most badniks by simply touching them ("bosses" like Robotnik himself always take multiple hits to defeat, but they too can be damaged by simply bumping into them). Sonic is still susceptible to death by anything that causes death without ring loss, such as drowning or being crushed. Normally, Sonic is never invincible except when he picks up the temporary Invincibility Box.

2. Sonic's Abilities are Enhanced

Which is to say that all of Super Sonic's movements, including running, spin-dash, jumping through the air, flying, swimming, climbing walls (with a rope), etc. are sped up to the max. This often means a total inability for the beginner to control Sonic's movements due to his flying through the air so fast and often getting himself killed by leaping off cliffs by mistake. Luckily, this is countered by an increase in Sonic's agility: Super Sonic can easily switch directions or stop himself, especially in the air. Sonic also jumps much higher and remains in the air for an abnormally long time (allowing for the flying-off-cliffs incidents).

3. Sonic transforms

Super Sonic has red eyes (Green in Sonic 3 and Knuckles) and long, spiky yellow hair. It resembles Sonic's normal, spiky blue hair, except that it glows and flashes a bright white-yellow light. It has yet to be proven that this appearance, as well as Super Sonic's enhanced abilities and the very idea of Super Sonic itself, derives from Super Saiyan, the highest form of a Saiyan in the television series Dragon Ball Z, as well as its subsidiary, Dragon Ball GT. Like Super Saiyan form, Super Sonic is also temporary in most cases: he must continue to collect Golden Rings for the duration of Super Sonic, as his rings steadily decrease (1 per second) to fuel his power. When his rings reach zero, Super Sonic morphs back into Sonic, and Sonic is left without any rings to protect himself from the attacks of badniks (in the final battles of certain games, this results in instant death instead). Additionally, Sonic must again collect 50 rings in order to re-activate the Super Sonic form.

Hyper Sonic

Hyper Sonic has only appeared in Sonic & Knuckles. His abilities are the same as Super Sonic's, with the added ability of the 'lightning flash'. It kills all enemies in sight, and can also be used in the same manner as the Lightning Shield, jumping 2-3 times higher than normal. Hyper Sonic flashes a very bright white, pink, blue, green, yellow, and orange, flashes many stars (similar to the invincibility powerup) and can also breathe underwater. Hyper Sonic is acquired by obtaining the Super Emeralds by completing Super Special Stages. When Hyper Sonic is obtained, he changes the ending as well. Instead of the Floating Island lowering, it raises into the sky and Hyper Sonic without the sparks brings the emerald down effortlessly.

The Later Games

In Sonic Adventure, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic to defeat Perfect Chaos. This is when it was revealed that the Chaos Emeralds had positive and negative powers; Chaos used the negative power to become Perfect Chaos and Sonic used the positive power to become Super Sonic. Also, Sonic is stated to move at light speed in order to attack Perfect Chaos.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic became Super Sonic to defeat The Finalhazard, which was pulling the space colony ARK down to earth. This time he was aided by Super Shadow who also used the power of the Emeralds. Whether Shadow used the negative power while Sonic used the positive or not is unclear.

In Sonic Heroes, Super Sonic had some help from his friends, Tails and Knuckles to defeat Metal Sonic. In this case, Sonic used the positive energies of the Chaos Emeralds to go Super, and used the other half to encase his team mates in protective balls, enhancing their abilities as well. In this state they were known as Team Super Sonic.

The Comics

In Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway, Super Sonic was an evil version of Sonic that manifested itself in Sonic's body when Sonic was under extreme stress or anger. Unlike his video game counterpart, STC's Super Sonic had no qualms about injuring innocents after he had disposed of a threat. As time went on and Super Sonic became stronger, he developed the ability to fire energy out of his eyes, and in a dream sequence was shown to have the power to move Mobius' moon out of orbit.

History

Sonic first transformed into Super Sonic shortly after the events of the first Sonic the Hedgehog video game, having successfully regained all six of the Chaos Emeralds. But when brought together, the Chaos Emeralds become unstable, and radiate Chaos Energy, generating a spatial warp that sends them into the Special Zone - and when they did so on this occasion, Sonic took the full force of the energy, and transformed into Super Sonic. Consequently, whenever he became stressed or extremely angry, Sonic would tap into this Chaos Energy soaked into his body, transforming into Super Sonic. He did so once more during the events of 'Sonic 2', and then again during a battle in the Oil Ocean Zone. Later, Sonic went Super to combat the second Metal Sonic and Commander Brutus.

A turning point came when Sonic accidentally fell into the pit containing all the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, which transformed him into an even more powerful and insane version of Super Sonic. To save him from himself, his friends channelled the Chaos Energy out of him, through a Star Post into the Special Zone - but so great was the energy that Super Sonic was able to continue existing on his own.

Super Sonic allied himself with the Special Zone criminal, Lord Sidewinder, leading to a showdown between him, Sonic and The Chaotix Crew against Super Sonic, which ended when the Omni Viewer absorbed Super Sonic and used his space/time manipulation powers to freeze time, immobilising both of them - and leaving Sonic with no way out of the Special Zone. Eventually, however, it transpired that the Omni-Viewer had failed to completely halt time, merely having reduced it to a crawl, and so Sonic and co. sealed the Omni-Viewer in the Black Asteroid, so that even if Super Sonic escaped, he would be trapped.

The plan failed.

Freeing himself from the Omni-Viewer, Super Sonic used his speed to set the asteroid on a collision course with the planet Sonic and Chaotix were occupying. Upon collision, it would generate a planet-wide electromagentic pulse, disabling all electronics - and so, Sonic had the Omni-Viewer transport the asteroid to Mobius, where the pulse swept the planet and deactivated all of Doctor Robotnik's computer systems and robots. With no defences to protect him, Robotnik was finally deposed as ruler of Mobius. But Super Sonic, meanwhile, had lost all his energy in this act, and became amnesiac, befriending Ebony and Pajyamas, although his whereabouts remained unknown to Sonic and co.

In the final Sonic the Comic story, Super Sonic, dying due to the absence of Chaos Energy from his body, was drawn to the site of the confrontation between Sonic, Robotnik and the monstrous Chaos. Chaos had absorbed all the Chaos Emeralds, and despite Sonic's protestations, Super Sonic hurled himself into Chaos, absorbing all the Chaos Energy from the creature and reverting it back into its Drakon state. Re-energised, Super Sonic was his demonic self again, and Sonic was forced to reintegrate himself with the beast to save Mobius from him.

See also

• Sonic the Hedgehog