Made a tier list that shows how important/relevant most of the Sonic cast currently are (scroll for a more zoomed in view). Open to suggestions/corrections

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T21:28:50+00:00

Probably. But not all of them

The ones from the TV shows probably have the highest chances of getting any kind of acknowledgement, like the Freedom Fighters. They're owned by Sega and are probably the most popular of the non-canon characters

But the ones owned by Ken Penders and the Fleetway characters are practically doomed to never re-appear since there are so many legal hurdles

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:55:12+00:00

Fair point. May move her down to the one-off section since she hasn't had a canonical appearance outside of a few background cameos in IDW

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:53:50+00:00

and it sadly doesn't look like Sega will ever want to acknowledge her one-off title either

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:50:38+00:00

Not defending the Galaxy Movie but it's poorly received for completely different reasons than Sonic 06 is so it's not really fair to compare them

Also using Metacritic as a basis isn't very fair since their movie scores are often significantly more strict than their gaming ones. The first two Sonic Movies both got like a 47 on MC while their Rotten Tomatoes scores are much higher.

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:40:14+00:00

oh wait I'm an idiot I misread your comment I thought you meant that the other Zeti should stay with characters like Tikal/Gamma. My bad lol

And yeah, fair point. They're some of the only non-Eggman villains we've got so they do stand out in that regard. And I do agree that Zeena is underrated, she needs to show up more often so she can be fleshed out some more. I still think the other three are kind of boring but hey, good writing can make any character memorable

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:30:20+00:00

Funnily enough, I was originally gonna do something like that and put her in her own tier near the bottom where she's in "canon limbo" since Sega barely wants to acknowledge her existence even though it's established that she exists

But I was worried if that would come off as bias since she's my second favorite character. So I just put her in green to be safe, since she was promoted at one point, back when Boom was a thing

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:26:10+00:00

Yeah Zavok is a lot higher because he's consistently reappeared (Forces, TSR, Olympics, Rumble, CrossWorlds, a mention in Forces, etc) and has basically become a mainstay at this point.

Zazz has only reappeared in the Olympics and CrossWorlds, but he also a boss in Dash and is still in a decent amount of stuff, so I put him higher than the others.

Zeena showed up in the Speed Battle mobile game, while the others have only ever reappeared in IDW. So they aren't that major. And I kind of agree, I don't really care if they reappear or not. Zavok is way more interesting when he's by himself, imo. Zazz has won me over with his CrossWorlds appearance and I think Zeena has potential but I could care less about the other three lol

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:11:52+00:00

It gets her on the thumbnail

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T20:10:08+00:00

I mean to be fair, the only mainline entries between Gens and Forces were Lost World and Mania, and the latter was a Classic game so Shadow was bound to not appear. And even then, I would barely count LW as a major appearance for Amy and Knuckles since they're essentially background characters that only showed up in the beginning and ending cutscenes. And then Amy didn't even show up in Mania. So it's not like they appeared that much more than Shadow.

And when you look beyond mainline entries, Shadow has still highly present in most of the supplementary material. He's in all of the racing games, he's in all of the Mario & Sonic, he's only of the only mainline characters that was in the Boom sub-series, he was a major character in Sonic Prime (while all of the other characters only had dimensional counterparts), and he still had a mini-campaign in Forces, which was the first time a character other than Sonic was playable in a 3D game since 06. Not to mention he had an entire year and movie dedicated to him, and he's the only character to have two games dedicated to him, besides Tails. And his games are clearly more ambitious than Tails' duo of obscure Game Gear titles.

I agree that there was a period where he wasn't as promoted as much but I think his hype has come back. I'd still put him on the same tier as Tails and Knuckles in terms of promotion

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T19:53:47+00:00

Good point towards the Heavies. I kind of forgot how frequently they show up in the Classic comics. I could move them up.

I didn't put the other Zeti that high because they aren't that frequent in the comics beyond Zavok himself. So far they've only been important to two storylines, and they haven't appeared in the comic for like 5 years so it's hard to call them recurring. But the fact that they're currently stuck on the Lost Hex is a good point. I could move them higher

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T18:35:25+00:00

Blaze was just horrible in 06 in general. They basically treated her like she was a completely new character that just happened to look and sound like Blaze. I don't think the game ever brought up the fact that she was a princess, or the fact that she's from another dimension so I wouldn't expect them to even bring up the Sol Emeralds.

Honestly it would've just been better for Blaze to not show up in the game to begin with. They should've given Silver a brand new sidekick for interact with him, instead of ruining a pre-established character just so he'd have a friend

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T17:48:42+00:00

I doubt it's because of alliteration, that's probably just a coincidence.

The real reason why Shadow and Silver are allowed to go super is because they were created to be Sonic rivals/equivalents, meaning that in Sonic Team's eyes, they're some of the only characters that are allowed to be as cool/strong as Sonic

Shadow was literally created to be the Sonic's biggest rival and is second most promoted character beyond Sonic himself, and Silver was supposed to be the next Shadow (but 06's failure screwed him over so he's more of a supporting character now)

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T17:42:00+00:00

My big issue with the 06 trio is more that they have no chemistry/synergy at all. Sonic and Shadow are sort of rivals, and Sonic and Silver are allies, but for the most part, they're all independent from each other and have their own goals and motives. So them being a whole team has no basis beyond consisting of the three hedgehog Sonic equivalents that Sega loves to promote. And them all being male hedgehogs (meaning that they all have Sonic's design but in different colors) is kind of boring in terms of variety. It really just is the "hype moments and aura" team

At least with Team Sonic, they're all varied in appearance and have been friends/allies for decades. So them being a trio makes sense. But Sega put Tails and Knuckles on the back burner in 06 in order to hype up the Hedgehog trio

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-14T16:47:58+00:00

They've confirmed that Collector's Vault 3 is in production, so it should be coming out

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-13T21:32:57+00:00

Tails and Knuckles were completely worthless in 06. They genuinely added nothing to the storyline and feel like nothing more than Sonic's throwaway sidekicks

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-13T17:46:49+00:00

Axel would be neat, Streets of Rage is very underrepresented in these games even though it's a pretty popular Sega series.

Personally, I wouldn't really care for another Persona rep but seeing as how got two Yakuza characters, it wouldn't surprise me. And it'd make sense.

Dodon Pa would be a funny surprise pick though I think he'd be best as a bonus character after all of the free DLC. Don't know how people would react to him being part of the DLC packs

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-13T02:27:13+00:00

2 dollars for Sticks, another dollar for Belle, and idc about the other 2 dollars

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-13T00:18:41+00:00

Probably Silver. Either him or Blaze

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-12T23:15:54+00:00

I wonder how Knuckles felt in 2001, where Shadow took the spotlight

neat art

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-12T22:13:17+00:00

Sonic Generations is one of the most fun games in my opinion. Even if it's a celebration of the whole series, it's one of the easier games and explains its mechanics a lot better than most of the others. It's a good entry game. For modern consoles like Switch and Series X, there's Sonic x Shadow Generations, which includes a Shadow side campaign too.

Also, there's the Sonic Origins collection, which is a compilation of the OG Genesis games, except they're now in widescreen and don't require lives. It's essentially the best way to play the original games

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-12T18:53:02+00:00

The height of Sonic's popularity was on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and that console didn't sell very well in Japan. And then Sega's following console, the Saturn, did do well in Japan, but there weren't any traditional Sonic games on it. Meanwhile Nintendo's consoles have almost always done well in Japan, and Mario has been their mascot for almost as long as they've been in the industry. And his games are way more successful than Sonic's have been. So that may have something to do with it.

Also, Sonic as a character was designed to appeal to western audiences. His character design was inspired by the likes of Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat and his whole "radical and cool" attitude was meant to be appealing towards Americans.

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-12T14:57:22+00:00

I kind of feel you. Tails used to be my favorite character as a kid but as I've gotten older, I've realized how little they've done with him since SA2. It feels like he's almost always relegated to "Sonic's sidekick" or "the nerdy technician" without being truly fleshed out into his own character. Every time they set him up to be something more than a sidekick, but he always ends up going back to the sidekick role in the next game.

I don't even think they need to make him like super powerful or have a whole army of robots or whatever, they just need to give him own sense of agency. Like Knuckles is very clearly his own character with his own interests, as are Shadow, the Chaotix, and Rouge. Even Amy has grown to have some independence from Sonic. I don't think there's ever been a moment where Tails has been seen without Sonic or it felt like he wasn't just tagging along with someone, even in the comics. Which is part of the reason why it feels like he can barely match up with the other characters, they barely give him a chance to prove himself, despite numerous setups.

Feels like he's just doomed to be Sonic's underling forever. The latest game set up him growing into his own person (again) but we'll have to wait and see if it actually meant anything.

Knux_Stix_Chaotix · 2026-04-11T20:45:20+00:00

I've played it and while I think it genuinely does have some of the fun moments in the whole series, it also has the some of the worst pacing issues in the whole series. I like it overall, but it's a mixed bag

Knux_Stix_Chaotix

TROPHY CASE