Super transformation (Sonic the Hedgehog)
- This page is about the video game character Super Sonic. For an entry on high-frequency sound waves, see supersonic.
Super Sonic is an in-game form of the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, first introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In Super Sonic form, Sonic is faster, tougher, and near-invincible. To reach this form, Sonic must first collect all of the Chaos Emeralds, and harness their power with gold rings.
Overview
Sonic began as a video game on the Sega Genesis console, and later became an animated series. In many versions of the game and television cartoon series, Sonic's main objective is to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds to prevent the evil Dr. Robotnik from harnessing their energy to destroy or conquer the world. In the early Sega Genesis original title Sonic the Hedgehog, there were 6 chaos emeralds, all of which are different colors; this number was later increased to 7. In some versions, there is a 'Master Emerald' which contains great energy and can power entire doomsday devices on its own. These Chaos Emeralds are what provide the energy for Sonic to become Super Sonic.
Sonic collects the Chaos Emeralds by entering into special stages in which he must collect golden rings or blue spheres (in the first game, Sonic does not need to do this; he must merely break through the walls of the dimension and reach the Emerald without touching the misleadingly-named "Goals"). Once the player has accomplished entering and finishing the special stage seven times, he must collect 50 rings in the real world and jump (double-jump in later versions) to activate the temporary power called Super Sonic.
Abilities of Super Sonic
Sonic the Hedgehog possesses the ability to run very fast, jump into a spiked ball to attack, perform "spin-dashes", and (in later versions) perform a "super-spin" to rev-up for a spin-dash (see Sonic the Hedgehog). Becoming Super Sonic enhances Sonic's abilities in many ways:
Sonic is invincible
In the Sonic games, to be "invincible" is a temporary condition which means that Sonic is, for the duration of the invincibility, immune to the attacks of enemy "badniks" (Robotnik's robotic creations). It also allows Sonic to destroy most badniks by simply touching them ("bosses" like Robotnik himself always take multiple hits to defeat, but they too can be damaged by simply bumping into them). Sonic is still susceptible to death by anything that causes death without ring loss, such as drowning, being crushed, or falling to his death. Normally, Sonic is never invincible except when he picks up the temporary Invincibility Box.
Sonic's abilities are enhanced
Which is to say that all of Super Sonic's movements, including running, spin-dash, jumping through the air, flying, climbing walls (with a rope), etc. are sped up to the max. This often means a total inability for the beginner to control Sonic's movements due to his flying through the air so fast and often getting himself killed by leaping off cliffs by mistake. Luckily, this is countered by an increase in Sonic's agility: Super Sonic can easily switch directions or stop himself, especially in the air. Sonic also jumps much higher and remains in the air for an abnormally long time (allowing for the flying-off-cliffs incidents).
Also, especially in Sonic 2, the camera occasionaly has problems keeping track of Sonic, so much that Sonic occasionally dies for no apparent reason after the camera is forced to play catch-up.
Sonic transforms
Super Sonic has red eyes (they were green in Sonic 3 and Knuckles) and long, spiky yellow hair. It resembles Sonic's normal, spiky blue hair, except that it glows and flashes a bright white-yellow light as well as sticking upright, much like Dragonball Z's Super Saiyan. Super Sonic is also temporary in most cases: he must continue to collect Golden Rings for the duration of Super Sonic, as his rings steadily decrease (around 1 every second) to fuel his power. When his rings reach zero, Super Sonic morphs back into Sonic, and Sonic is left without any rings to protect himself from the attacks of badniks. In the final battles of certain games, this results in instant death instead (because Sonic is in an environment in which he would not normally be able to survive, such as space). Additionally, Sonic must again collect 50 rings in order to re-activate the Super Sonic form.
There exist several similarities in appearance and power between Sonic's "Super" form and the "Super Saiyan" form found in Dragon Ball Z. The creator of Sonic the Hedgehog was a fan of Dragon Ball Z and added the "Super Sonic" ability as a homage to Akira Toriyama's series. This is the descision that led to Super Sonic's golden appearance, as well as the total of 7 Chaos Emeralds (similar to Dragon Ball Z's 7 Dragon Balls.)
Hyper Sonic
Hyper Sonic has only appeared in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. He glows with the colours of the Chaos Emeralds, is surrounded by flashing sparks and leaves afterimages in his wake. His abilities are the same as Super Sonic's, though he can breathe underwater and has the added ability of a devastating the "lightning flash" attack. This can be used to "double-jump" in any direction and when performed destroys all enemies on-screen with a bright flash. Unlike the game's Lightning and Flame Shield, the player may choose the direction of Hyper Sonic's second jump by holding a direction on the D-pad.
Hyper Sonic is acquired by obtaining the Super Emeralds by completing the Super Special Stages. When Hyper Sonic is obtained, he changes the ending as well. Instead of the Floating Island lowering, it raises into the sky and Hyper Sonic without the sparks brings the emerald down effortlessly. See image here.
Appearances
In Sonic Adventure, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic to defeat Perfect Chaos. This is when it was revealed that the Chaos Emeralds had positive and negative powers; Chaos used the negative power to become Perfect Chaos and Sonic used the positive power to become Super Sonic. Also, Sonic is stated to move at light speed in order to attack Perfect Chaos.
In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic became Super Sonic to defeat The Finalhazard, which was pulling the Space Colony ARK down to earth. This time he was aided by Super Shadow who also used the power of the Emeralds. Whether or not Shadow used the negative power while Sonic used the positive is unclear.
In Sonic Heroes, Super Sonic had some help from his friends, Tails and Knuckles to defeat Metal Sonic. To weaken Metal Sonic's Metal Overlord form required help from team Chaotix, Team Rose and Team Dark. In this case, Sonic used the positive energies of the Chaos Emeralds to go Super, and used the other half to encase his team mates in protective balls, enhancing their abilities as well. In this state they were known as Team Super Sonic.
In Sega Superstars, both Super Sonic and Super Shadow appear in the Sonic The Hedgehog game when you collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds and do not die.
Super Sonic can also be found in: Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Jam, Sonic R, Sonic Pocket Adventure, Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2,Sonic Battle, Sonic Advance 3 and Sonic Rush.
The Comics
Fleetway
In Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway, Super Sonic was an evil version of Sonic that manifested itself in Sonic's body when Sonic was under extreme stress or anger. Unlike his video game counterpart, STC's Super Sonic had no qualms about injuring innocents after he had disposed of a threat. As time went on and Super Sonic became stronger, he developed the ability to fire energy out of his eyes, and in a dream sequence was shown to have the power to move Mobius' moon out of orbit.
Sonic first transformed into Super Sonic shortly after the events of the first Sonic the Hedgehog video game, having successfully regained all six of the Chaos Emeralds. But when brought together, the Chaos Emeralds become unstable, and radiate Chaos Energy, generating a spatial warp that sends them into the Special Zone - and when they did so on this occasion, Sonic took the full force of the energy, and transformed into Super Sonic. Consequently, whenever he became stressed or extremely angry, Sonic would tap into this Chaos Energy soaked into his body, transforming into Super Sonic. He did so once more during the events of Sonic 2, and then again during a battle in the Oil Ocean Zone. Later, Sonic went Super to combat the second Metal Sonic and Commander Brutus.
A turning point came when Sonic accidentally fell into the pit containing all the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, which transformed him into an even more powerful and insane version of Super Sonic. To save him from himself, his friends channelled the Chaos Energy out of him, through a Star Post into the Special Zone - but so great was the energy that Super Sonic was able to continue existing on his own.
Super Sonic allied himself with the Special Zone criminal, Lord Sidewinder, leading to a showdown between him, Sonic and The Chaotix Crew against Super Sonic, which ended when the Omni-Viewer absorbed Super Sonic and used his space/time manipulation powers to freeze time, immobilising both of them - and leaving Sonic with no way out of the Special Zone. Eventually, however, it transpired that the Omni-Viewer had failed to completely halt time, merely having reduced it to a crawl, and so Sonic and co. sealed the Omni-Viewer in the Black Asteroid, so that even if Super Sonic escaped, he would be trapped.
The plan failed.
Freeing himself from the Omni-Viewer, Super Sonic used his speed to set the asteroid on a collision course with the planet Sonic and Chaotix were occupying. Upon collision, it would generate a planet-wide electromagentic pulse, disabling all electronics - and so, Sonic had the Omni-Viewer transport the asteroid to Mobius, where the pulse swept the planet and deactivated all of Doctor Robotnik's computer systems and robots. With no defences to protect him, Robotnik was finally deposed as ruler of Mobius. But Super Sonic, meanwhile, had lost all his energy in this act, and became amnesiac, befriending Ebony and Pajyamas, although his whereabouts remained unknown to Sonic and co.
In the final Sonic the Comic story, Super Sonic, dying due to the absence of Chaos Energy from his body, was drawn to the site of the confrontation between Sonic, Robotnik and the monstrous Chaos. Chaos had absorbed all the Chaos Emeralds, and despite Sonic's protestations, Super Sonic hurled himself into Chaos, absorbing all the Chaos Energy from the creature and reverting it back into its Drakon state. Re-energised, Super Sonic was his demonic self again. To save Mobius from him, Sonic was forced to reintegrate himself with the beast, making it probable that he will again become Super Sonic in times of stress.
Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie, Super Sonic is one of Sonic's super-powered forms. In this series, Super Sonic first appeared in issue #4, during the series' more comical era. There, he battled a roboticized and enlarged lizard calling itself the "Universalamander" (At the end of the issue, he would still have a "super" sense of humor by putting a fake whoopee cushion on Antoine's chair afterwards). He would not go on to reappear until the 48-page special "Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles" (Hyper Knuckles was what the comics used to refer to Knuckles' seven-emerald form rather than the higher level), and then made numerous appearances later on, including where he battled the emerald-empowered "Master Mogul", along with Hyper Knuckles and Turbo Tails, and the battle against Chaos in the Sonic Adventure adaptation. Super Sonic's most recent appearance was when Sonic discovered red-colored emeralds on an alien world, causing Super Sonic to be born as a crazed lunatic, separate from Sonic himself. This duplicate's existence ended when his powers faded.
Sonic also has the ability to transform into "Ultra Sonic" when empowered by the vast energies of one of this setting's version of the Super Emeralds - it resembles Hyper Sonic in some ways, but Sonic's fur color does not change. He merely gains greater strength and speed, as well as elemental powers. In addition, in this form, Ultra Sonic can transform into various elemental forms based on his environment - Solar Sonic, Eco Sonic, and Polar Sonic to be exact.
The Shows
Super Sonic never appeared in any of the three cartoons produced by DiC Entertainment, but there was a few coincidental references. For example, in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Road Hog", the leader of a gang of rude bikers (as the episode's title suggests, they're hogs) threatens to turn Sonic yellow. Also, the Saturday morning cartoon had an episode titled "Super Sonic". In the final episode of the SatAM continuity, Sonic and Sally harnessed the fury of the Power Stones, odd artifacts that seemed to have little explanation. While this process imbued both of them with phenominal power, this was not a true 'Super Sonic' transformation.
It was only in Sonic X that Sonic was able to become Super Sonic in an animated series. He does this by drawing on energy from the seven Chaos Emeralds. He used this several times: once to defeat Eggman's Eggsterminator, once to overcome Perfect Chaos, once to battle the Finalhazard alongside Super Shadow, and once to combat Eggman's Egg Battleship. Sonic also uses this ability in the upcoming third season, but the new villains have the ability to stand up to him even when he is in this form. However, the effect seems rather odd, as Super Sonic is unable to beat these Metarex, while Sonic and the gang seem to with relative ease.
Dark Sonic
In Sonic X, Sonic powers up in rage, drawing on artificial Chaos Emeralds. The result is a "Dark" Super Sonic. This entity is completely black except for his gloves, shoes, and eyes, which are all normal except that the eyes have no pupils or irises-they're entirely white. He is also surrounded by a blue power aura, as opposed to the usual yellow. It is presumed that this entity has all the powers of Super Sonic, but none of the positive qualities. This is likely an abridgement of the evil Super Sonics of Fleetway and Archie and the attempt to distinguish Super Sonic transformations from those of the Super Saiyans.
Theme Songs
- In Sonic Adventure, Super Sonic's theme music is "Open Your Heart".
- In Sonic Adventure 2, his theme is likely Event 11, "Remaining Hope". "Live and Learn" is also played during Super Sonic and Super Shadow's fight with Final Hazard.
- In Sonic Heroes, "What I'm Made Of" describes the fight between Metal Overlord and Team Sonic (Sonic is in his super form while Tails and Knuckles are in floatings orbs).