THE TRIAL OF DEEMON

The accused is charged with multiple crimes, such as leaving and detonating random weapon-shaped explosives in the middle of public spaces, defamation of Mr. Jimmy ‘’Jimmy T’’ Thang in a court of law, and latest of all, being the main suspect behind the Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog™. How does the defendant plead?

-… I believe that it’s in my best interest to speak with my lawyers first…

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So… if you’ve read any of my Sonic related reviews, you may have noticed that I share a strange relation with the blue mammal, and by strange I mean that despite claiming I’m familiar with the character and the series, before this year I had beaten like… 2 of his games. And hey, it’s not my fault that I happen to suck balls at the speedy simulators… well maybe it is but I digress; my point is that yeah, only now I am finally really getting into the Sonic franchise as a whole an learning more of its philosophy and design decisions, but much, MUCH before that, I became a fan more-so because of its world and characters… I’m gonna point to Sonic X as the main culprit for that because I have no fucking clue how I learnt of these guys personalities otherwise.

Still, it’s not like I was ever a big fan, even in my youngest years I probably would have said I was more of a Mario guy just after finishing eating crayons, but that didn’t change the fact that I actually quite enjoyed the personalities of Sonic’s cast; I really loved the main trio of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, Robotnik is to this day one of my favorite videogame villains thanks to its personality and the fact its still a sort of meme among me and my friends, and Vector was always the coolest fucking guy to ever walk a 2D or 3D space so of course he would become my favorite character in the franchise. These and all of the Mobius inhabitants have an unequivocal charm that’s easy to like, even when the games and stories they tackle pull off some weird ass shit, you are bound to find at least one of the characters pretty charismatic. I myself tend to prefer when Sonic its at its more cartoony, its more goofy and laid-back, cause even then it manages to make some interesting narratives and seeing these Looney Toon motherfuckers interact and evolve even with its incredibly define quirks and traits it’s a joy (and you thought I was pedantic already, watch me when I pull my full blown analysis on Sonic’s narrative and characterization…)

The series knew how to be charming with its protagonist and it captivated me through that, but it wasn’t enough to grab me completely and convince me to sit through the games till their ending, and a big reason that I didn’t fall off completely from the franchise is in big part thanks to my girlfriend, who is much bigger fan of Sonic than I, despite having a kind of love-hate relationship with the series. But aside from the likes of Mania and Generations, I still reluctant to getting more into the games, of finally seeing more of Sonic and their buddies aside from random cinematics on youtube and clips from SatAM, but in the back of my mind, I was always secretly waiting for a perhaps more narrative focused Sonic game, one that kept the simplicity and goofiness that I love, but was more about the characters and interactions, something that finally gave the chance for this fellas to shine once again, to captivate me once again…

It's honestly fucking hilarious that the way they did it was by killing the son of a bitch.

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Mr.Deemon, you seem to be doing a mockery out of this court room, I’m gonna ask you once again to speak the truth and nothing by the truth, stop avoiding the question and telling us, did you Murder Sonic the Hedgehog™?

-Well first of all that feels like too direct and personal of a question, but I’ll say that that this all very funny to put the blame on me considering that porcupine’s obsession with dying; like, have you see him falling to his death time and time again? Have you seen his obsession with drowning clearly visible in its first game? Have you seen his reluctance to make a normal-ass jump like a basic platformer mascot? Have you tried controlling him through a fucking touch screen? Have you tried getting the fucKING CHAOS EMERALDS WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SANIITY?! I DID, AND YEAH, I ADMIDT IT, I KILLED THE BLUE BASTARD, THE POINTY MOTHERFUCKER WAS PRACTICALLY ASKING FOR IT, AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I’D DO IT AGAIN, ‘CAUSE I LIKE IT, I-

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Funny thing is, I already saw everything this game and to offer back when I watched my girlfriend play it, but decided to hold on writing a review for it until I tried it for myself… let’s just say it took a while for that to happen.

Still, even after my replay and trying for myself the little active gameplay it has to offer, that first experience of seeing it it’s what I think of first when ponding about it, and I mean, obviously it was a ton of more fun, but even beyond that, I think that playing it that way, with someone else by your side, was by far the best way anyone could experience The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog .

To be surprised just as it released on Steam to the surprise of all and the excitement of many (my girlfriend one of them), to jump together into whatever this was about to be, to be enamored by the amazing drawn art-style, to laugh and enjoy at the actually pretty funny jokes, to give voices to each of the characters and trying that they somewhat fit but then failing miserably (something I seem to be an expert of when it comes to voice-acting) and just… enjoying this wonderful, out of nowhere surprise.

Looking at the dates, it’s clear that they wanted this to be some kind of free April fools spoof, but it’s so much, much more than that. The passion and effort put into is clear as day, it’s nothing crazy of course, but it didn’t have to be that, hell, it didn’t even have to exist in the first place, but it does! And I’m so glad it’s thing if only for that wonderful random heist scene, for the snarky-ass dialogue that got a chuckle out of me several times, for sharing that fun moment with someone else that enjoys these characters as much as I and even more, to feel that warmth of a cozy, cartoony adventure… and most of all to see Vector once againLET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO VECTOR THE GOAT BABY BUY TEAM CHAOTIX LET’S GOOOOOOOOO-

Sure, some jokes do not land, the overall murder mystery ends in a super strange and kind of confusing way, it really seemed like they were preparing for the goofiest ending imaginable, which in a way they did, but still, I feel like the way they handled the ending of the investigation felt a bit weird and kind of anticlimactic… and that’s about everything strictly negative I can say, really, it’s just super hard to be grumpy about this.

A small, clearly full of passion project that clearly knows what it wants to aspire to be; a gift to the fans, of people that enjoy this cast of cahracters, and beyond that, just a really fun time. It’s not amazing, it’s not exceptional, it’s far from perfect (I remember back when it released my girlfriend encountered some bugs which… I don’t know how you manage to create bugs in a VN but hey, its certainly on the spirit of the franchise), but it sure is… nice, it’s extremely nice.

Maybe it’s because I revisited it after finishing Sigil II, but it’s hard to not look at this as another gift to its respective community, one that tries to have small surprises, but at its core being a piece of what many wanted, something to enjoy as a whole, and seeing so many people and groups of friends coming together to play this alongside each other and make voice-overs and the such is a wonderful proof of that.

And it’s hard to, being here, finally reviewing this, not to look back on this year, to the memories mad, the wonderful experienced had, and how in a way, this game was one of the things that made me jump into the Sonic series as much as I did this year, and even with its lows and highs, I’m beyond welcomed for it, I’m so happened to have experienced all of this, and I’m not only referring to the Sonic games. Times passes and with it, the year ends, but I know that many more wonderful memories will be made next year, and I cannot wait to make more that surround Sonic and its games, ‘cause even when I seem to be getting mad or disliking it… I can never erase the smile from my face.

… and hey, maybe this change of heart and end of year realization will spare me from court… right?


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With what I can only refer to as resounding evidence, I close the trial of Deemon v Literally Everyone Else In The Planet by declaring the accused guilty of all charges, his sentence is to be punished by not having roasted chicken in New Year’s Eve


-… FUCK.

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Happy New Year, everyone!

"If you were to ask me what my least favorite genre of game is, I'd probably say... Visual novels. I don't read a whole lot, the last book I actually finished was back in 2014 or something."

Well, guess what the next game in my hedgehog bucket list is like. Womp womp.
But let's not get too carried away here, after all, this is a free game made to celebrate April Fools. This means it doesn't come anywhere near the level of complexity or length of other VNs. There are no routes, there are no game overs or bad endings, different choices will give you flavor text but no meaningful changes, and it's over in a little over an hour. Good ol' Steam Deck is still sitting at 60% battery after finishing it.

Nah, this is a short story made by fans, for fans, with SEGA's blessing. This immediately makes MOSTH a hard sell for VN aficionados and non-Sonic fans. Novelheads will probably feel disappointed with the game's extremely simple structure and short length, and non-Sonic fans, I mean... What are you even doing here? "Oh, a free VN made by fans to celebrate April Fools with Sonic? This will be the one to change my mind about the guy!"

That's not to say that what we have here is poorly done, don't get me wrong! MOSTH(I really like writing that) is some of the cutest shit I've seen out of this franchise yet. A very cozy experience, just hanging out with Sonic and friends, eating microwaved food and pestering the fuck out of Shadow. I could've done without the autoscrolling minigame though, if you're gonna bring these characters to a different genre, actually stick to it please. These were completely unnecessary.

The character sprites, my god, I LOVE the way they look here. Whoever is responsible for them, PLEASE bring them back, SEGA. I miss 2D art in these games so much.
And on that note, uhh... I kinda hope they start leaning on things like these more often? MOSTH shows that it's OK for a Sonic game to not be about speed, sidescrolling or 3D action all the damn time.

SEGA has the wrong idea about Sonic's large cast of characters. They say that there's too many of them and trying to fit them all in one 3D adventure is too cumbersome, but these characters are hardly ever given their own experiences. They always have to be tagging along Sonic in whatever crazy situation he's gotten into, instead of just doing their own thing. In the few instances that different characters got the spotlight, most of the time, it was still just Sonic gameplay, but with a twist! Or a gun.

Give Amy a style savvy-esque spinoff, give Big a dedicated low budget fishing game, give Knuckles a beat 'em up; hell, remember when Tails had his own Metroidvania? Whatever happened to that? The solution to the "too many characters" problem isn't to try and make them all play nice with traditional Sonic gameplay, and it's not to sweep them under the rug either. Sonic, as a franchise, is big enough for these characters to get a shot at their own games. Even bigger after the movies, and it'll only continue to grow after the third one.

Let them have fun. A lot of people care about these characters beyond the ceaseless boosting and forced 2D sections we've been fed. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing a fully fledged visual novel featuring them, with proper routes and deeper story arcs, maybe even an option to make an OC before starting the game, who knows! Who knows.

All I know is that this was a delightful little treat. Beautiful art, good music and cheeky writing all around, it's clear the folks behind it love Sonic a great deal.

15

I’m a bit shocked at the 3.7 rating on here. Maybe visual novels just aren’t for me, but this is very clearly a cheap game (I know why) with its simple—maybe too simple art style, and the generic dialogue that you’d find in every single visual novel ever made. If someone didn’t know that this was a Sonic game, and you showed them the dialogue, there is no way they’d be able to tell that these are in fact Sonic characters; granted I’m not the biggest Sonic fan, but these characterizations are straight up boring. You have all the archetypes here! All of them! The minigame is easily the best part of the game, so much so that I wish it was focused on more, so that I wouldn’t have to sit through this much tedium.

Playtime: 1.6 hours

Every Game I’ve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Sonic Games - Ranked
2023 - Ranked

tragic events in history: sonic's death. while boarding a train he got shot in the ass and F*CKING DI-

this one almost fulfills my dream of a sonic game where the characters are written a la jehtt or snapcube videos. tmosth (wow, that's an ugly acronym) has certified fanfiction vibes. it goes places. it appreciates that every sonic character has depth, and it made me squeal like a little girl nearly the entire time i played it.

first impressions- the character costumes are SOOOOOOOOOO cute. knuckles, my favorite sonic character (i was holding my knuckles plush through the whole playthrough), doesn't get much screentime but he's got this silly cowboy getup that make me giggle. amy has this super pretty frilly dress that pops way more than her typical fit; i'd think it apt for how confident and pinkie-pie-esque she is here. none of that lovey-dovey sonic-obsessed BS! i love it. the rouge costume & characterization are also fan-freaking-tastic. deadass one of my FAVORITE CHARACTERS EVER. an absolute queenie. pretty as heckin heck (i might have a giant crush). stylin' on everyone in her mondo cool jacket 'n jeans combo. i'm not entirely convinced she didn't sneak a gun onto the train. however, though she might be my favorite character, my favorite costume is tails'. it's so simple but he's just so gosh darn adorable. the little detective smans gets a big spotlight in this here murder mystery and i think he deserved it bigtime. he's degraded to a nonautonomous sidekick too often in the main games, so seeing his linux user ass investigate around and nerd out about books made my heart uber happy. every time his puppydog eyes sprite came on scream i SCREAMED. my only initial complains are the lack of silver (and 06 callbacks in general) and the sonic-forces-fursona-ass-inself-insert-oc main character, but Cjer named him Mike Schmidt which made up for his exceptionally lame personality.

alright, y'all know my ass puts a bigger emphasis than most on sound design and music. so how does the shiny 5-star fare in that department?
...pretty poorly! it sits in a sweet spot between typical and grating. if i had to pick a favorite ost, i would pick the jazzy lounge car theme (though that's the midi-jazz addicted section of my brain talking). oh, on the note of the traincars- i haven't even introduced the main concept of the game yet. it's a murder mystery on a train. musically underwhelming though it may be, the devs did make up for that aesthetic weakness with the visual design of the traincars. each one makes up the equivalent of a telltale episode. every character (or duo of characters) gets their own traincar; this way, everyone gets their own tailored little environment and slot of screentime. very swag B). shadow's car/the lounge car is my favorite, with its little chao band (called the Big Chao Band). the Big Chao Band had two drummers and two bassists and two pianists because the assets kept glitching and duplicating on cj's screen. tbh shadow's car should have had emo music. he's a certified guyliner user. he's also a certified "kid who cried to linkin park in their room because they were gay and in the closet", though i'm too much of an amy x shadow person to 100% call him gay. their dynamic is perfect here. i appreciate the writers showing his soft side considering sega's trying to turn him into this 1 dimensional cool guy as of recent.

what were we talking about?

any good sonic game has one confounding game design choice that sours the experience for normies. surprisingly, this visual novel has a huge one in the form of mandatory gba-ass isometric platforming sections. i feel bad for whatever 7 year old didn't get to see the ending after getting filtered by the final section's projectile gauntlet. luckily, i watched cj play the game over call, so i get to ignore all that and proclaim that this is a perfect game. like any other kamige, the message is obviously to live happily. i'll say i certainly came out of the murder of sonic the hedgehog happier than i did subahibi! i know this is an april fools game, but sega: i would kill for a sequel. my face hurts from how much i've been smiling.

"to the confident, unshakable, and radiant amy rose!"

wow so decent Sonic games do exist. (leave me the fuck alone, i like Adventure 💀💀💀)

VN and puzzle elements were cute, if nothing earth shattering. i was surprised that i was familiar with and otherwise enjoyed the cast so much given that i've only seen two other Sonic games all the way through before. the protagonist/main character is not included in said enjoyment though lmao.

the most Sonic game in existence that it found a way to jam miserable platforming segments into a completely unrelated experience gameplay wise. disappointing but not surprising ofc.

O Assassinato de Sonic, o ouriço, é um título gratuito, presentinho da SEGA como brincadeira de 1º de Abril em 2023.

Ele é um simples, curto e cômico adventure baseado no formato japonês de Visual Novel com elementos de gameplay.

Temos uma festa de aniversário com temática de mistério de assassinato, onde os participantes devem descobrir quem matou...bem...o Sonic, como reza o título.

Na parte mecânica não temos muita novidade nem na condução da história de forma geral, nem para o gênero Visual Novel. Quem tem costume de jogar adventures mais robustos, como a série Ace Attorney ou similares (Danganronppa, os jogos da CING ou Zero Escape) vai encontrar algo despretensioso e com respostas facílimas de deduzir.

Mas apenas deduzir não é suficiente. O protagonista precisa ainda "pensar" em como vai apresentar e argumentar o caso, então o jogo entra em um minigame onde o jogador precisa coletar argolas numa corrida com o Sonic, muito similar às fases bônus do Sonic 2, mas em outra perspectiva, mais isométrica.

Vidas infinitas e tentativas sem penalizações garantem que o jogador tente o suficiente até passar, avançando na história. Eu não achei difícil, mas me pergunto se algum jogador pode chegar a ficar preso sem conseguir avançar porque não consegue passar das fases, apesar de não serem procedurais e, portanto, bastante "treináveis".

A trama segue na linha das histórias que já vimos ao longo da franquia Sonic, igualmente modesta, mas com suas surpresas, já que se trata de um mistério de assassinato dentro do universo Sonic.

Com bom humor durante toda a sua duração, a leveza é uma característica marcante de sua breve proposta, que não deve se alongar por mais do que 3h de jogo.

Inesperadamente bom.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog é um spinoff de gênero visual novel (ideias nunca antes vistas na série) lançado como piadinha de Primeiro de Abril. O marketing do jogo foi totalmente baseado na suposta MORTE do protagonista resultando num whodunit que remete à obras de Arthur Conan Doyle e Agatha Christie.

Além das novas características, o título também apresenta as fases THINK de plataforma pra atrair os fãs da série. Achei bastante inclusivo as opções de assistência pra quem não está acostumado com a gameplay convencional de Sonic pois o jogo ironicamente também tem potencial de atrair fãs de visual novel e/ou mistério que não estão familiarizados com a série. É também uma boa introdução ao universo de Sonic.

Também há elementos point-and-click em cada cenário pra coletar pistas e entrevistar suspeitos no melhor estilo Ace Attorney.

E o melhor de tudo: além de ter muita qualidade, é gratuito!!!!

I wasn't expecting much out of an April Fool's game but this one was charming. Makes me want another Sonic visual novel. It's got amusing dialogue, fun gameplay, a chill soundtrack, a pleasant artstyle, which is everything I'd want out of a Sonic game. Especially the way the characters are utilized. You know, Sonic's friends are mad enjoyable when they get to show off their personalities and aren't just there, being cheerleaders. If Sega made more fun and silly games like this, I'd be more than happy to support them.

This must be the fastest I've ever uninstalled a game in my entire life. Literally the very first frame of the game, showing someone's DeviantArt furry OC - which was supposed to be ME - made me almost vomit up the oranges I just ate. I tried, I really tried, to soldier through. But within two text boxes I had realized I was either too old, too cynical, or not as ... you know... as the typical Sonic fan to suffer through this sickly saccharine garbage. I feel violated for what I saw and what I saw was very little. This game might be free, but I don't think I could play it even if you paid me.

I love when I cop the twist to a story right off the bat. Even if it's a kid's game and probably exceedingly obvious to everyone else as well.

Very cute. Lots of great references, the best presentation we've gotten for a lot of these characters... ever - in a game, that is - fun to look at, and the most I've been allowed to dig through trash cans outside of Pokémon.

This might just be because I'm tired and played this after getting off work, but man my eyes are ready to not look at things after having played this. The segments of actual gameplay that's somewhat like Sonic 3D Blast's special stages really started to bother my eyes. They were decent, but the angle being isometric instead of behind Sonic probably made me mess up more than usual.

Anyway, this was really charming and had some good laughs, I hope something else likes this happens again - maybe shift out some of the supporting characters for others of Sonic's friends?

"Hmm imagina uma fusão entre Sonic e Ace Attorney e vamo ver no que dá" - Funcionário random da SEGA

A history do jogo se passa em um trém-bala (lembrei da musica da Ana Vilela :V) onde nele é basicamente um roleplay de um assassinato e controlando um funcionário recém entrado no emprego junto com Tails temos que descobrir quem matou o Sonic passando de vagão em vagão até descobrir o real motivo.

BEM, esse jogo me surpreendeu até demais KKKKK, só por eu ver as fotos eu daria um 4/10 mas jogando eu vi o quão bom e polido eles fizeram para um jogo de primeiro de abril, a musica foi para mim muito boa e enquanto escrevo isso escuto a música do DreamGear, e também o plot é bem construido acerca do assassinato e também o jogo é bem aleatório em certas partes e me cativou e ainda mais que é de GRAÇA então pega lá que é GG. 8/10

It's Amy's birthday, and she's hosting a murder mystery party on a fancy train called the Mirage Express! You play as a worker on the train, making sure the party and partypeople are having a good time! When Sonic becomes the game's victim, everyone is off to get to the bottom of things. Things unfold, the game goes forward and something is definitely not right!

The game is a lovely little visual novel game with a mix of some point & click elements. The story is pretty interesting and I think the game is pretty fun for a free game! Definitely thought the game was a joke when it came out, but apparently a lot of people enjoyed this and after playing it myself I can definitely say the same for myself.

It's a game from SEGA, so it's official and it's for the price of free! Definitely a recommend from me, especially for the fans of Sonic and friends.

"What would Sonic do...?"
THINK!!

I'm late to the punch, but The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is as sweet as it is short. Just clocking in before the three hour mark, this point-and-click visual novel shows that its made with immense love and care; nobody in the entirety of Sonic's cast has been given this amount of attention and faithful writing since, and you're not going to want to hear it but say it with me anyway, Sonic the Hedgehog '06. Not only does every one of Sonic's friends act as they should, letting their own personalities shine, this was a perfect vehicle for some unique character interactions you couldn't get before, alongside some well-inversed callbacks that I didn't piece together until a few lines after. I wish Ian Flynn could write callbacks with this kind of subtlety.

As an experimental side game made by Sonic's social media team with SEGA's blessing, and with some lines in-game hinting as such, I can only hope they're cooking a successor already, potentially one with voice acting and more Sage. This was a great piece of fanservice, one that treats each of Sonic's wonderful friends with the respect they've deserved and have been deprived of for long over a decade.

Before I started playing the game, I imagined it wouldn't be very good (don't ask me why), but it was actually quite fun. The 'Think' mini-game was challenging at times (especially at the end) but it remained fun throughout. The story was simple and easy to follow; the music was also great to listen to. I hope that SEGA saw that people liked this game, and started to think of differently-styled game that the Sonic franchise could dip its toes into. They'll never know if the genre will work... until they try it!

Would definitely recommend someone play at least once.

Obviously no one should have high expectations for a cute little April Fool's visual novel, but the fact is there really isn't any deduction happening in this game. You basically just click through dialogue, click on the clue you found in the room, and then play a little Sonic minigame that stands in as you "thinking." The handful of actual choices you can make are solvable just by brute force guessing down the list of people. I guess it probably would be cuter if I had a connection to these characters.