Blaze is my favourite character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and I’ve never drawn her! So here she is, along with a selection of folks she has a connection to or has teamed up with over her adventures. In brackets I’ve put the primary or first story that significantly connects the characters.
Blaze the Cat, Cream the Rabbit & Cheese the Chao (Sonic Rush), Marine the Raccoon (Sonic Rush Adventure), Silver the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)), Ebony (Sonic the Comic Online), Amy Rose (Archie Comics), Gardon (Sonic Rush Adventure), Vector the Crocodile (Team Sonic Racing)
Not pictured: Tails, Pyjamas, Shadow, Bark & Bean, Dax, Etsu & Phi from Drak, Tangle… am I forgetting anyone? Anyone blue? I guess not!
In 2016, Sega published a series of 25 comics (plus one bonus) on their Sonic Channel website to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. The comics each centre around a “day in the life” for a different character in the series; originally the website also published a biography of the character and their game appearances. With the tireless help of Horseypope, I’ve translated just the comics into English. They were already printed to be read left-to-right, which helps!
Now I found out when I was almost finished this that these comics have been officially translated through a pack-in with some Tomy toys. But I couldn’t find a scan of these books, nor could I find any other fan translation attempts. Either way, if you’ve seen these before or not I hope you enjoy my translation of them.
The comics have a great style to them, with spot-on designs by Eitaro Toyoda, who mostly works as a level designer on the Sonic games. I love how each has a key colour and uses different shades of it. The gags are pretty good too! Anyway, please spread this around if you can! Special thanks to Sonic News Network, I used some of their translated titles.
After falling for Sonic Rush I intended to pursue its lineage through Rush Adventure and Colours DS, before finishing at Generations 3DS as the final evolution of the formula under Dimps. I had to move the schedule up though, for the Streetpass opportunities that my trip to Japan afforded me. Consequently I played through the 3DS version while over there, then followed it with the console version when I got back.
This is my first Sonic game! And I liked it! I have tried some of the Mega Drive ones thanks to various collections, but I never got on with them. I couldn’t handle them being either fast and punishing, or slow and tedious. But hey, that’s just me and my shallow understanding of them. I picked this one up thanks to Hideki Naganuma, composer for the Jet Set Radio series and all-around funkalicious dudemeister, who also did the soundtrack for this game. I wasn’t at all disappointed on that front, but to my surprise I really enjoyed the game itself too!
I enjoyed the previous game to this… they both have awkward names so I’ll call them SASASR and SAASRT. No, how about Sega Racing 1 and 2. “Sonic and Sega” and “Sonic and Whatever”. Let’s workshop that one.
