Sonic (Super Smash Flash 2)

Sonic is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. Unlike the ' games, he is not the only representative of the ' franchise, he is joined by his sidekick. His sprites are based on his appearance in. His voice clips are directly taken from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and his moveset is a combination of his Super Smash Bros. 4 and Project M movesets.

Sonic is currently ranked 33rd out of 40 on the tier list, placing him in the C- tier. Sonic has fast attacks, useful techniques, decent combo ability, a good grab game, and KO moves in forward tilt, forward smash, down smash, up aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, down aerial, up throw, back throw, and Light Dash. Sonic also has outstanding mobility, the fastest dashing speed in the game and a fast walking speed. With his special moves allowing him to attack while in motion with little fear, Sonic's approach and neutral game are both impressive. He also has good recovery with multiple options in Spring Jump, Homing Attack, and Light Dash.

However, Sonic lacks range in the majority of his attacks. Additionally, his moves lack a lot of priority, making him vulnerable to characters with higher priority attacks or disjointed hitboxes like and. Sonic lacks a proper projectile and because of this, he has little to no reliable ways to deal with them, especially projectiles that are high in priority or transcendent. He may have problems KO'ing his opponents due to his KO options having high lag, making them risky, and killing later than average.

Sonic appears to have a small playerbase and lackluster representation in online tournaments. Sonic normally places low to mid in tournaments that his players participate in.

Attributes
Sonic is a middleweight that has outstanding mobility like in his home series. He fittingly has the fastest dashing speed in the game and also having one of the fastest walking and air speeds. With his below-average falling speed and average gravity, Sonic has nigh omnipresence despite of his slow air acceleration, his other attributes enable him to travel at a blinding speed across any stage. In addition, these traits make Sonic able to easily and effectively utilize a hit-and-run playstyle. He has KO options in forward tilt, forward smash, down smash, up aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, down aerial, up throw, back throw, and Light Dash.

Sonic's neutral attack, tilt attacks, and throws deals decent damage and has minimal lag, which make them hard to punish. Sonic also has a strong air game. Neutral aerial is a great combo starter thanks to its low landing lag and launching angle. Forward aerial is useful for starting and finishing combos thanks to its sourspot's launching angle and its sweetspot being a meteor smash. In certain instances, its sourspot can combo into itself at low percentages thanks to Sonic's fast air speed. Up aerial has KO potential near the upper blast line and is great for combos, while its minimal lag makes it deceptively safe. Back aerial's clean hitbox is strong, making it one of his few reliable KO options like his up aerial and forward aerial. Lastly, down aerial is a stall-then-fall, it is Sonic's least effective aerial but it lacks startup and its clean hitbox can meteor smash.

Sonic has useful special moves. Spin Dash is perhaps Sonic's best neutral game option, as it allows him to roll across the stage at varying speeds while also dealing damage upon contact. It hits multiple times and moves faster than his dashing speed, making it a reliable alternative to dashing. Jumping out of Spin Dash allows Sonic to hop while spinning, making him a jumping hitbox for a brief moment. It can also give Sonic additional protection when recovering and even chain into other attacks. Opponents have to be careful when dealing with this move, since a mistake can result in a very fast chain of attacks that can rack up impressive damage. Homing Attack deals consistent damage and homes in on the nearest opponent, making it useful for punishing missed or laggy attacks and breaking edgeguards. Light Dash is one of Sonic's most reliable KO options, especially when sweetspotted. It can also be used as a recovery move to grab the ledge. Spring Jump is a useful recovery move that covers a good amount of vertical distance. It is also one of the few recovery moves that does not cause helplessness, as Sonic is able to attack and dodge during his descent, while the spring that is dropped can be useful both on and offstage by allowing him to pressure and gimp opponents, respectively.

Sonic has good grab game, it is fairly easy to land thanks to his mobility as he has one of the best grabs in the game. Sonic's pummel is quick, which allow him to rack up a fair amount of damage before throwing an opponent. His up throw is a reliable combo starter, while also able to chaingrab on fast and high fallers. Its combo potential may not be as consistent as Spin Dash but it still decently deals damaging combos beginning at 0%, as well as Spring Jump-assisted aerial combos beginning at medium percentages. It also has KO potential, although it kills reliably at very high percentages. His down throw sends opponents at a low angle with high base knockback, which make it excellent for starting up combos and tech-chases. Back throw also deals high base knockback and has KO potential, especially if it is used near the edge. It moves Sonic backwards, which makes it useful for setting up an immediate edgeguard attempt. Lastly, forward throw is his least useful throw, as its primary utility is for forcing the opponent off the stage or setting up tech-chases.

However, the majority of his attacks have short range, which makes it hard to approach characters with large or disjointed hitboxes, forcing him to stay close to his opponent at all times, providing extra risks. He also has a hard time dealing with camping and projectiles he cannot out-prioritize, like those with transcendent priority like 's s, since many projectiles in the game can severely limit his movement options. His KO potential is held back by his most reliable KO options (forward smash, down smash, forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial, and Light Dash), requiring good positioning and having fairly noticeable startup and/or ending lag. Despite his outstanding mobility, Sonic also has trouble landing due to his slow air acceleration, leaving him susceptible to juggling. Lastly, Sonic can also be susceptible to early KOs. Unlike other middleweights like Mario and Luigi, some of his attacks are very punishable, especially if they miss, allowing openings for opponents to punish him. His recovery can also be predictable because of its linearity, making him vulnerable to gimps even at low percentages.

Overall, Sonic has a great offensive playstyle that must force opponents to make a mistake in order to safely rack up damage and use his impressive mobility to avoid heavy punishment. Despite being a middleweight, he has below-average falling speed, making him fairly easy to combo. But, it can be hard to escape from him once he starts racking up damage on the opponent, especially tech-chasing and reading DI. However, he has some trouble killing, resulting in his opponents surviving even up to very high percentages.

Changes from v0.9b
Sonic has received a mix of buffs and nerfs, but he was mostly buffed overall. He has gained a lot from his moveset based on his appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Changes to his moveset and the knockback in some of his moves gives him better combo ability and more KO options. Additionally, his recovery and edgeguarding ability are also better, improving his neutral game. These changes allows him to compete against the roster better. However, the range and KO options in some of his moves has been nerfed. Despite the nerfs he was given, he has impressive mobility and approaching options, good recovery, and good edgeguarding game.

Tier placement history
In tier lists for demo v0.6, Sonic was seen as a top tier character ranking 3rd of B tier on the first list and 1st of S tier on the second list. In demo v0.7, Sonic was seen as a high-top tier character where he ranked 6th of B tier on the first list and 4th of A tier on the second list. In demo v0.8b, Sonic had his worst tier position yet where he ranked 19th of K tier and was seen as a bottom tier character. However, in demo v0.9a, Sonic would once again make his way back into the top tiers where he ranks 1st of S tier and he was once again seen as the best character in a demo. In demo v0.9b, Sonic dropped to 20th of B tier where he was seen as a mid tier character. However, the changes in the metagame showed that Sonic was not as effective like he was in the previous demo, so he then dropped down to 27th of C tier on the second tier list of demo v0.9b, where he is seen as a bottom tier character again.

Trivia

 * Sonic, along with, Meta Knight, , Marth, , and are the only characters so far to wear their default costumes in team battle when they are on the blue team.
 * Sonic can outrun Sand Ocean with the aid of the Super Mushroom item.
 * Sonic is the first character so far to be 1st on a tier list twice (demos v0.6 and v0.9a respectively), the second being Meta Knight.
 * He is also the first character to rise from the "Kirby tier" directly into S tier during the transition from demo v0.8b to v0.9a.
 * In v0.9a and v0.9b, if the player is using the 3rd color palette for Sonic and then activate his Final Smash, instead of appearing yellow like in his Final Smash, Super Sonic, he would resemble Hyper Sonic from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
 * Sonic's first pixel art is based on a victory pose he does in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His second pixel art resembles his up smash charging animation.

External link

 * Sonic's v0.8 dev blog (old)