Review: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog takes the franchise in an entirely new direction and it somehow works

This past April, SEGA did something expected: they pulled an April Fool’s Day prank. What we didn’t expect was a fully polished, in-universe, murder mystery, visual novel starring the majority of the major characters in the Sonic franchise. That’s how we got The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog.

Wild, right? But, it’s a modern Sonic game. How good could it really be? Let me tell you that this is probably one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog-related games this century and easily among my favorite visual novels of all time. 

I know it sounds weird, but I’m not kidding. Let me break it down for you.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog Story and Gameplay

In The Murder of Sonic Hedgehog, you play as a new employee (who you can name) on a train that hosts events like murder mysteries. The conductor, a kind old dog man, is set to retire and this is his last big event on his train before he does.

There is a birthday party going on for Amy Rose, Sonic’s longtime “love” interest. The characters eventually all pile in, which includes a wide array of fan favorites like Rouge the Bat and Vector the Crocodile. Of course, the classics are there: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and even Shadow, among others.

Each character is assigned a role, with Tails being the Detective, Amy as the nosey journalist, Knuckles as the sheriff, and so on. It’s a murder mystery and someone will “die”, as the rules go. It’s all make-believe, though, right?

After the train causes everyone to take a tumble, Sonic is found unconscious. Everyone believes him to be the chosen death and assumes he just opted to nap through it. But, something way more sinister is afoot. 

The mystery involves finding out whodunit by looking for clues, interviewing suspects, and piecing together the evidence. 

Putting together things requires a separate THINK minigame on the Dream Gear (an obvious nod to the Game Gear, especially with the icon that sits with it) that plays like a runner game. You play as the blue blur and avoid obstacles while collecting the required number of rings to proceed.

Art and Music

The music in The Death of Sonic the Hedgehog is nostalgic-feeling but doesn’t opt to just re-use old Sonic classics. It’s lofi and relaxing, except for the times when it isn’t (I won’t spoil too much story here).

Throughout the game are little in-jokes and references to Sonic games of the past, such as seeing Big the Cat fishing when looking out the window once or specific colors and decor that you have to stop and think about how deep-cut that particular one is, or that a specific shape is a reference to a specific game.

As for the main gameplay, the art is crisp, clean, and right at home in any modern visual novel. The Dream Gear sections are pixelated and feel more in line with games like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with its isometric style. The music for the Dream Gear sections is very retro-feeling and chiptune-y.

Coziness

I’m not usually a big fan of visual novels, to be perfectly honest. They tend to bore me. I know, it’s a novel. 

But, frankly, I need a little more autonomy and action in my life. That said, I’m a really big fan of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. So, I wanted to give it a fair shot as a lifelong fan of the franchise. I’m happy that I did.

Most of the game is, as mentioned, a visual novel style. It tells most of that story for you if you click on the right responses. But, as far as I can tell, there are no wrong answers because you’ll eventually be funneled to the correct ones.

Every time you need to think harder, you get into the Dream Gear THINK sequences. As a runner, your job is to avoid the hazards. Hitting one will knock your ring count down. You have to get enough rings to pass each section. But, if you mess up, you get to start over with no consequences.

The majority of these are easy to handle on the standard difficulty. But, the final one is where I need to offer a note to you: it’s hard. But, I pressed on, pushing through about 40 attempts before I finally succeeded.

I was just about to give this game a sudden drop in cozy score. But, after I completed the game, I hit up the settings menu. I realized that the game offers options in what it called the Assist Mode settings that would have made that final Dream Gear THINK mission a breeze. 

The menu affects all Dream Gear missions throughout the entire game. You can turn on invincibility, remove pitfalls, drop the gameplay speed to nearly nothing, and adjust how many rings you need for each Dream Gear mission. 

Oops, my bad. That solved all of my issues and I’m silly for not looking sooner.

They even give a brief description that the THINK levels are designed for long-time fans and that they understand that not everyone wants that exact experience. Good job, SEGA.

Final Verdict

My only real issue was not knowing about the above Assist mode for the final boss THINK mission. But, with that knowledge, I can’t think of a single reason to not try The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog out, especially since it is free.

This short love letter to Sonic fans was an absolute joy to play. It’s free to download from Steam, it’s relaxing and untimed, and the THINK levels can be adjusted. If you’re part of the blue blur’s fandom, you’re going to enjoy this silly little game.