When I was growing up, there were two franchises that I was obsessed with as a kid and was always begging my parents to get the new releases of: Sonic the Hedgehog and Ace Attorney. It was always weird to everyone I talked with at school and even relatives who I showed my game collection to whenever they would visit that of all the games for me to be into when I wasn't even 11 years old yet, it was a series of murder mystery games. I even went as Phoenix Wright for Halloween when I was in 7th grade only for no one to know who I was. As the years went on and various interests and media fixations I had came and went, the two flames that never died were my love for Sonic and murder mystery games, having played Danganronpa, Ghost Trick, and Hotel Dusk by the time I was out of high school (the last of which being just a general mystery game minus the murder, but hey). I'm a college graduate now, and here we are with the culmination of those two things: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sure, it's kind of weird to murder your mascot, but Archie killed Knuckles off for a bit and then made him green for three years, so things could've been a whole lot weirder.

This being a passion project that the Sonic social media team was working on for a while with character art supplied by Min Ho Kim, one of the cover artists on the currently ongoing IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic, my expectations right away were high with the acknowledgement that I would definitely not have my deduction skills put to any serious test. I went into The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog expecting, essentially, baby's first Ace Attorney. While that is mostly accurate, I think it's also more than that in regards to just how much this game loves the Sonic cast.

When you look at criticism of Sonic games from the early 2010s, even well-regarded ones like Colors and Generations, people usually cite that it seems like Sonic Team just doesn't care about its supporting cast anymore, and doesn't give them the love they should. It's understandable, honestly; when a franchise makes a character as unanimously loved as Blaze the Cat and then decides to toss her aside after two games to just being another member of the gang who says two lines and then lets Sonic have the spotlight, it can be a little frustrating to see that potential squandered. If TMOSTH gets anything right, it's the writing. Huge props have to be given to Ian Mutchler, who's done previous writing work for Sonic shorts including that adorable Amy and Metal holiday special for Sonic Mania Adventures, so the right guy was definitely picked for the job of a lighthearted Sonic mystery game. All of these characters are finally given the chance to be themselves and have extended conversations with each other in a video game setting, with fans only having the comics to go to for that content previously. To my knowledge, this is the first time some of these characters have ever interacted in the games, like Blaze and Rouge or Shadow and Vector.

One of the best choices this game makes that allows its writing to be so free is that you play as a brand-new character made just for this game and made just to solve the mystery of who put Sonic under. I could see some people being disappointed that a Sonic detective game doesn't have you controlling one of the members of the Chaotix, but the choice to create someone new, Barry the Quokka, ends up being to the game's benefit. Barry, having never met anyone in the Sonic cast before, allows the dialogue to more naturally occur between the characters that, as aforementioned, would never speak to each other under normal circumstances as they're all talking to you, the new kid. It's also helpful for fans of mystery games or visual novels in general who may not be huge on Sonic, as Barry being the protagonist means that all of the cast will have to introduce themselves to Barry, giving those not familiar with the cast a surface level idea as to who these characters are. Everything is planned out so well writing-wise to the point that just based on how faithfully the characters are represented and how fun it all is, it becomes one of the best written games in Sonic's 30+ year history.

Now, in regards to how good of a mystery the game provides... yeah, it's not amazing. It's a very simple murder mystery, and while I will be avoiding talking plot details in this review, it feels on par with the first case in an Ace Attorney game in how it very much holds your hand in figuring everything out. Now, this isn't a heavy knock against the game considering that this game is made so that someone who just likes Sonic and wouldn't touch a mystery game otherwise is able to beat it, but if you are interested in the game for the mystery, you might be disappointed in how basic of a mystery it is. There are some fun twists here and there, but it ultimately doesn't try to hide whodunnit all that well, which does feel like a bit of a shame when the game goes out of its way to provide such great locales for you to investigate, colorful and full of things to click on to get really great Phoenix and Maya level back-and-forth between Barry and Tails, along with whoever else is in that part of the train with you.

There is one part of the TMOSTH experience that I'm so, so mixed on: the interrogation sections. Now, I love the fuck out of Hotel Dusk and I'm currently in the middle of replaying it, and a big part of why that game is so amazing is its interrogation sections and how you have to really get to know the other people inside the hotel so you know how to poke and prod them for more information. The Murder of Sonic has this to a very watered down degree, and while normally I love the feeling of presenting evidence and explaining why it's important to the conversation, this game turns it into, to put it bluntly, an unenjoyable slog. Every single time you present evidence to one of the other characters, you get sent into a Sonic Advance-style bonus stage where you collect a certain number of rings, and if you hit the goal, Barry explains how the piece of evidence contradicts the other character.

I do not like this.

Even with the understanding that this is meant to be completable for a younger audience, I still don't understand why every single time a character asks you to back up your argument, you collect rings and then your character just answers the question for you. One of the most satisfying parts of any mystery game is being able to draw that conclusion yourself, and I don't think an age demographic is a really good excuse for that. As I stated at the very beginning of this review, I was playing Ace Attorney games to completion since I was 10 years old, so I think they could stand to let the player use their critical thinking skills just a tad bit more. And even if players do get stuck, you could always offer something like The Great Ace Attorney provides and let the game solve a certain section for you. This is all on top of the fact that these bonus levels just are not enjoyable to play and are incredibly boring, each interrogation usually just adding one more gimmick to the bonus levels that are more irritating than they are difficult.

But all of that aside, I found myself grinning so much throughout this game. Sure, I was wishing for the game to appeal to that Ace Attorney fan in me more and more, but this game is so charming that it's hard to be that mad at its faults. There's so much passion and love for the Sonic franchise in every line, every character sprite, and every background detail that you can't help but falling under its spell, and I was wishing that there was hours more content by the time the credits started rolling. If anything, the grievances I had are just suggestions I would give the team if they were given the greenlight to make a sequel, which I hope happens in the worst way. There's so much potential in a series of Sonic visual novels with how much people love these characters and the attachments they have to them. Throughout this entire review, I've chosen to not mention the fact that this game came out on April Fool's because to boil this game down to "wow, this sure is cool for an April Fool's joke!" is doing a disservice to how genuinely great of a product this game is. The fact we got something like this for free and it's one of the best Sonic games to come out in years and years is incredible, and arguably robbery because I want to give this team my money for giving me something I only could've dreamed of being able to play as a kid.

Also, yeah, I gave this a higher score than Sonic Frontiers. That's what happens when Espio is in your game.