The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog Review
Played on PC
Developed by Sega
Released 1st April 2023
Teased, announced and released as an April Fools joke, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was an unexpected twist to the Sonic IP that ended up being very welcomed as a short, accessible experience, for all intent and purposes. Proposed as an idea during the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020, the concept was only just pitched to the developers at Sega by the Sega Social Media team in early 2022. The inexpensive idea of a visual novel was further propelled by non-Sonic inspirations like Ace Attorney and the murder mystery chapter in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and resulted in a very successful launch with over 1 million downloads in its first week on Steam (most likely helped by its nonexistent price tag).
Story
The story of this 2-hour dialogue-box scroller takes place in the Mirage Express train where series-classic Amy has transformed her birthday party into a murder mystery, and as the title indicates, Sonic is the one who kicked the bucket. You play as a newly introduced, player-named character rather than as a pre-established character, helping establish this third-person perspective onto the rest of the cast of memorable, anthropomorphic animals. The overall linear narrative of interviewing each person on the train to get closer to the truth behind the murder is quite cut-and-dry and anything but innovative, however, the experience itself works effectively due to its heavy reliance on the charming characteristics of its cast. The act of figuring out who broke the arcade machine or who printed the concert tickets out is quite mundane but the catalogue of reactions and motives each of these characters had is quite enjoyable in itself. Even towards the end with the plot twist, uncovering of secrets, etc., the whole tale felt weak and my interest in it just barely survived it due to the characters.
Gameplay
The gameplay is as much of a visual novel consisting of constant reading as it is a detective game and an endless runner. Normally for a visual novel, I'd skip the Gameplay section as it doesn't provide enough "gameplay" to validate a critique or score, but this well-made April Fool's prank offers more player interaction than at face value. In between talking with the passengers of the train, the player-named character and Tails engage in a point'n'click adventure where you interact with the scene's objects to later use them in interrogating the occupants of the same room. This process is also quite bare-bone and the mechanic of linking the object to your argument is the same in its oversimplicity since the game is heavily forgiving if you get it wrong, allowing you to change your answer repeatedly. After this, you get access to the "think" moments of the game where you play an arcade-y endless runner of Sonic and you must collect a select amount of rings in one run in order to successfully, link the culprit, item and argument altogether. The game is also quite forgiving in this aspect as the settings allow you to reduce the needed ring amount by up to half of what was originally asked for. I enjoyed this element of my experience and found it to be great, especially for a project of such a small scale, however, its overuse in the "final boss" section ruined much of the vibe that the rest of the game was succeeding in. While these mechanics are ridiculously simple and inoffensive, I wasn't expecting a AAA-level of playtime and engagement, and I wasn't expecting it to fare up against other adventure games that nailed these components like The Walking Dead, seeing as this is a comedic passion project rather than corporate push on the series. As a result, the game ends up offering more value than it could've, in both quantity and quality.
Characters
This part will be short as it was mostly said in the Story section, however, the characters severely carry the game's narrative presence. Shadow's unwavering edginess being triumphed over by his love for his friends or Amy's brute-force passion are all entertaining to witness, especially if you are a huge fan of the series (which I wouldn't say I am). They do play into the one-dimensional flavour of the story a little bit too much, but I think I'm just nitpicking where I shouldn't be at this point.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere was surprisingly incredible. Very highly detailed, colourful and slick 2D drawings resulted in the visual quality being boosted. The environments and characters look so distinct and bold that they seem memorable despite their mundane nature (such as that of a library or a train station), but they don't pop out too much, giving the necessary spotlight to the other components of the shots. The colour palette is vibrant and wonderful and gives this animated feel to these static images. The music follows through with the same energy, portraying the scenarios in a bouncy, playful manner, with the same standard melody of other Sonic games. The OST also embraces a more "detective"-esque feeling with the interrogation tracks of this game sharing the same sound as the Danganronpa series. The only letdown that I can think of for this game is that the sound effects are quite plain, but that is mostly due to how they are pushed to the side by the rest of the game's audible presentation.
Story - 6.5/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Characters - 7/10
Atmosphere - 7.5/10
Good
A fun, little visual novel that offers more entertainment than expected from an April Fools package.
