Music Accompaniment

A solid murder mystery story that obeys the premise it set out before going for the 'twist'. A genuine whodunnit as a birthday party game for Amy. It's important to note in a slew of contemporary whodunit stories willing to break their own rules for a story: Disco Elysium (2019), Knives Out (2019), and even I would argue Tangle Tower (2014); The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (2023) stands as a completely honest and 'solvable' mystery. There's a contained reasonable mystery to solve before it ramps the plot in the 3rd act. Impressive on its own, far moreso for an 'april fools' work. Not willing to settle on just this the text also flirts with the mundane realities and interest that shape our 2020s world: infinite runners, beatboxing, escape the room entertainment, and even the anxiety of labor as 'many hats' gig economy service worker. To be clear my point here is regardless of whether it's manifestly 'critical' of each of these factors, for instance many of the nerds among us might be disappointed that the game doesn't poke fun at infinite runners. Regardless though even the acknowledgement that these are reflections of contemporary helps the player feel more immersed in the world. On top of this, the decision to make the player character the 'watson' sidekick is a great way to offset failure states in a fun and realistic way such that if you are wrong about some fact Tails can wrestle the falsehood of your reasoning away allowing for the story to remain on rails.

As a light comic strip style 2 hour romp into the world of Sonic as a fun cheeky cartoon world, this is fantastic. It's nice to see the Sonic cast intermingle in mundane and non combative environments, something that has truthfully not really been done aside from the comic book series, even the cartoon show is your general 'enemy of the week' formula, so I hope that they feel comfortable exploring this friendlier character driven side of the world of Sonic. All we have to do is look at another story involved game like Sonic Frontiers (2022) which admittedly seems perfectly servicable as a 3D action platformer, to see the comtemporary problem with sonic. It's not an issue of tone but an issue of centralizing 1 protagonist at the expense of the ensemble. What Sonic Frontiers represents is Sonic as a military general because its constant planning and preparation through him, crucially none of the other characters talk to each other. The ensemble cast approach to sonic has been discarded ever since the 3 character structure of Sonic 06' (2006) was written off as a mistake. As such, Sonic has been the default protagonist, which is monotonous when you have many other main characters you could explore, like in the case of Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) because in SEGA's view this and the ensemble approach is probably hurting the bottom line. The most endearing factor of Sonic in the view of the fans is how characters that arent Sonic interact with each other, the ensemble story building element, one that by design depicts Sonic as stageplay with all the shakespearean matters of miscommunication and deceit that come with. It's a genuine tragedy that this side of sonic has been unexplored and, as such, we can see The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog as the first signs of finally awakening from that hibernation. If viewed that way, then its a wonderful awakening by all accounts.

My colleague Cadensia is a lot more sour about the entrapment of this work as an april fools prank, for her

"It may be a shame to point this out, but The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, while a harmless experience, reveals the franchise's structural problems. Caught up in its own nostalgia and struggling to innovate around a character from another era, the Sonic Team proved incapable of coming up with a subversive and fresh concept. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog manages to do so, but the title is still plagued by being an April Fool's joke, and only seen as such by SEGA. There's something about the company's management that prevents them from really trusting a new generation that might have insights to offer on a truly major project." (link)

However there's two rebuttals to this line of reasoning I want to note here. This is a cynicism that over rides the corporate future based on what we already know, but we can't exactly rule out the idea that this is a test pilot work from SEGA to see if people would be interested in this side of the Sonic world merely disguised as an april fools joke. All we have to do is glimpse at the blatantly unfinished nature of other April Fools VN titles like Bug Fables: April Fools! (2018) to see how the formula of such a prank is supposed to go. It's not supposed to be a rich and finished story its meant to be a gag. There's no gag here, its a full free Visual Novel with a firm 3 act structure and an evolving minigame. So I wouldn't really rule this out based on that extra polish and care put into a 'joke' as a form of test piloting.

Beyond just that, the work is so flourished and well considered that even if it is just a shallow gag on SEGA's part this is a 'gag' that slipped through the cracks and let be told a millennial tale. An important note here is that compared to other corporate mega giants, SEGA is not that interested in copyright takedowns. This is obvious when looking especially at the development of Sonic Mania (2017) being made in tandem with fan developers. I don't want to go all 'glory to the corporation' but if we consider it as SEGA continuing to sabotage their own world, the lack of IP restriction means that regardless of what gets made in a stuffy 'canonizing' office building this work functions regardless as a joyful emission to other fans as a reference point for acceptable fan games that take the world into account as an internal space.

Anyway regardless of all that, the art is great and the positioning of all the characters is wonderful. I only have a couple minor complaints: I was not actually able to gather information and properly interrogate Rogue and Blaze in the casino and I really wanted to especially since Rogue is my favourite character. Aside from that the 'what would Sonic do' logic that tails puts forward, messianic blasphemy aside, doesn't really make that much sense. The sonic run minigame sections are meant to reflect your character thinking, but I don't know, the quickness and desperation of doing it reads to me a lot more as paniced 'racing thoughts'. Aside from just that, Sonic is not that forward thinking, in fact literally the core point of Sonic Adventure (1998) and the cartoons generally is that while he has a great heart and is proactive, he's not that thoughtful so relying on him as a way of life doesnt make sense in that context. This is an easy enough fix though, if you have somebody smarter like tails in the piloting seat during these minigames. However its not a huge loss that it is this way regardless. I also didn't play the story all at once either, so unlike my good pal Cadensia these runner sections didn't bother me much. Not to be too maternal but if you feel something as exhausting that may be a good sign to take a break! :3

All in all I think The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a perfectly fine detective adventure romp, and the fact that it takes place on a sci fi enhanced train makes it all the more satisfying as a way to keep the story both self contained and enjoyable. If you like train transport like me it satisfies that itch immensely. A great way to spend a couple hours and in the process connect to the genuine aspects of Sonic's franchise that adult fans try to talk up. Really hope detective novelists check this one out, might play it again someday, that really is how much fun I had with it C: