Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2006 platform video game developed by Sonic Team and Radical Entertainment and published by Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game serves as a reboot of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and was produced in commemoration of its fifteenth anniversary. The story follows the individual quests of three hedgehogs—Sonic Sr, Shadow, and Silver—to defeat Solaris, an ancient evil pursued by Doctor Eggman (until he was killed by the U.S. Navy SEALs) as well as Sergei (who replaced Dr. Eggman after his death until he is betrayed by Cynder) and Cynder and they were aided by new allies.

Development of Sonic the Hedgehog began in 2004. The game was conceived as an original intellectual property before being reworked into an entry in the Sonic series. The team was directed by Richard Donner, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, and was the game was designed to relaunch the franchise for the seventh generation of video game consoles. Though positively received in pre-release showings, it experienced a difficult development cycle, with Naka resigning to form his own company and the team split to work on the PlayStation 2 and Wii title Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007). The game was rushed to the market to release in time for the holiday season; versions for the PlayStation 2, Wii and Microsoft Windows were cancelled. Since release, the title has often been referred to by critics and fans of the series with colloquial terms that reference its year of release, such as Sonic '06.

Sonic the Hedgehog became notable for receiving negative reception upon release. Criticism was directed at the game's perceived lack of polish, with reviewers citing long loading times, a poor camera system, gameplay glitches, a complicated plot, and imprecise control. It has been considered among the worst games in the Sonic series and in the video game medium. Sega delisted the title from retailers in 2010, following its decision to remove all Sonic titles with sub-average Metacritic scores to increase the value of the brand.

Gameplay
Sonic the Hedgehog is a 3D platformer with action-adventure and role-playing elements. The main player characters are three hedgehogs: Sonic Sr, Shadow, and Silver, who feature in separate campaigns titled "stories". A bonus "Last Story", which surrounds all three hedgehogs and concludes the storyline, is unlocked for completing the first three. Sonic Sr's story focuses on the speed-based platforming seen in previous Sonic games, with some sections having him run at full speed while dodging obstacles or riding a snowboard as well as using weapons or ride vehicles. Another character, Princess Elise, must be escorted in some stages, and she can use a special barrier to guard him. Shadow's sections are similarly speedy albeit more combat-oriented, with some segments having him ride vehicles. In contrast, Silver's levels are slower and revolve around his use of telekinesis to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. In certain areas, control is switched to a friend character with their own abilities.

In each story, the player navigates through open-ended hub worlds known as "Town Stages", where they can converse with townspeople and perform missions to advance the story. The main gameplay takes place in linear levels called "Action Stages" that become accessible as the game progresses. Although every character traverses the same levels, each's unique abilities allow the player to access different areas of each stage and deny them from accessing certain items. Scattered throughout each level are golden rings, which serve as a form of health. The rings can protect a character from a single hit by an enemy or obstacle, at which point they will be scattered and blink before disappearing. Sonic Sr, Shadow, and Silver start the game with a limited number of lives, which are lost when they are hit by an enemy or obstacle with no rings in their possession or encounter any other fatal hazard. The game ends when the player exhausts their lives. Every several levels, players will encounter a boss stage; in order to proceed, players must defeat the boss by depleting its health meter.

Upon completion of a level or mission, players are given a grade dependent on their performance, with an "S" rank being the best and a "D" rank being the worst. Players are given money for completing missions; more money is given to higher ranks. This money can be used to buy upgrades for the player character. Certain upgrades are required to complete the game. The game also features two multiplayer modes: "Tag", a cooperative mode where two players must work together to clear levels and collect Chaos Emeralds; and "Battle", a player versus player mode where two players race against each other.

Original Story
The game begins inside a temple in Los Angeles in March 23, 1925, where a large red dragon named Ignitus (Adult voiced by Gary Oldman and Young voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) (who helped the Allied Forces to win World War I and liberate the world) is watching over an egg; it is the "Year of the Dragon", a time every twelve years when new dragon eggs are brought to the realm in Los Angeles. A dragons' prophecy tells that every ten generations, a rare purple dragon will be born, who will direct the fate of that era; Ignitus is looking after such an egg. The dragons are, however, at war with an enemy known as the "Dark Master", who also knows of the prophecy, and lays siege to the temple, intent on destroying the brood of eggs. Ignitus escapes with the blue hedgehog's egg, leaving it to drift downriver from Panama Canal to New York City, hoping for the best. The egg is discovered by a family of dragonflies, and upon hatching, they name the blue hedgehog Sonic Sr (Adult voiced by Rob Lowe, Teen voiced by Josh Keaton and Young voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) and adopt him into the family and raise him as one of their own, alongside Sparx (Adult voiced by David Spade, Teen voiced by Yuri Lowenthal and Young voiced by Zachary Gordon), a dragonfly born the same day. Many years passed since Sonic Sr's birth in the Old Dragon Temple in the city of Los Angeles on March 23, 1925.

On one fateful day in the heart of Brooklyn in January 22, 1940 after the World War II began when Sonic Sr and Sparx were playing hide 'n' seek, a group of Apes attacked the duo and Sparx was captured in the process. Sonic Sr disposed most of the group when Sparx gave the leader a sarcastic insult. The leader didn't take the insult very well and was about to kill Sparx. Sonic Sr, furious, unconsciously used his M1928 Thompson to open fire on the leader, who promptly retreated report back to someone called Cynder before they were killed by the NYPD Officers. Sonic Sr dealt with the remaining Apes (who were killed by the NYPD Officers) and freed Sparx from his 'lantern' cage. Upon returning to Brooklyn, he was told by his foster parents, Flash (voiced by Cameron Clarke) and Nina (voiced by Vanessa Marshall), that he was not a dragonfly, but a blue hedgehog from the city of Los Angeles. Sonic Sr decided to leave Brooklyn Heights and went to the New Dragon Temple in Manhattan Island. Sparx, though reluctant at first, decided to follow along. Sonic Sr was pursued by hostile forces, but eventually came into contact with a distraught Ignitus, who although pleased that Sonic Sr was alive, feared that with the New Dragon Temple under occupation by the Apes, led by a large black dragon named Cynder (Adult voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown and Young voiced by Mae Whitman), their war was already lost but the Allied Forces arrived and later defeated them which they won World War I by liberating the world before they banished her to the underground cave in Moscow.

Sonic Sr convinced Ignitus to lead him to the New Temple in New York City, and was able to drive Cynder's forces out, after which Ignitus told Sonic Sr more about their war against the Dark Armies which was ended when the Allied Forces defeated the Dark Armies and liberating the world after they won World War I before they banished Cynder to the underground cave in Moscow, offered Sonic Sr some training in the art of fire as well as using speed tricks, guns and swords after Sonic Sr, Ignitus, the NYPD and the U.S. Military liberated the New Dragon Temple, and then sent Sonic Sr off to fight WWorld War II (in Pacific Theater and European Theater), Vietnam War in the 1960s until 1975 and later the Cold War in 1980s (Sonic Sr's partner Alex Mason was killed by a ally Frank Woods who disobey Sonic Sr's order before escaping to New York in Januiary 14, 1990 after the invasion of Panama) and later Assassinating Raul Menendez (voiced by André Sogliuzzo) at South America in June 8, 1995 thus avenging the deaths of Mason and Hudson for his revenge just before entering the first retirement from the United States Marine Corps. Fifteen years after the end of Cold War and nine years after the assassination of Raul Menendez, Sonic Sr returns home back to San Francisco only to be found by Terra (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Aqua (voiced by Moira Kelly) who offered him to join S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than for the second retirement.

One year later in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base, Terra and Aqua take an exam to achieve the Mark of Mastery. Master Xehanort (voiced by Paul St. Peter) manipulates the test so only Aqua passes and Terra fails, lessening the control of darkness in his heart. Shortly after the test, Xehanort disappears and a horde of mysterious creatures called the Unversed begin to appear throughout the major cities in pursuit of the Princesses of Light. Learning about the developments from Yen Sid (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) in the city of Chicago, Master Eraqus (voiced by Martin Landau) sends Terra and Aqua to destroy the Unversed and find Xehanort throughout the major cities in the world. Later, Xehanort's apprentice Vanitas (voiced by Matt Lanter) convinces Sonic Sr to follow Terra to New York City against Eraqus' wish when the Festival of the Sun is began, while Eraqus orders Aqua to watch over Terra and bring Sonic Sr back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base in San Francisco. Twenty minutes later, Sonic Sr (who is searched for Terra) visited New York City during a festival where he saved their monarch Princess Elise (Adult voiced by Lacey Chabert and Young voiced by Ariel Winter) from Dr. Eggman (voiced by Mike Pollock) who returned from the exile and was also after the Flames of Disaster known as Iblis to help him rule the world which was sealed inside Elise and later killed General Scott Dolph (also voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson). As Sonic Sr brought Elise to safety, he got distracted by Eggman's mechs and Eggman kidnapped Elise and escaped, though not before Sonic Sr received her Chaos Emerald, but the American Soldiers fired on Eggman until Sonic Sr told them to seize fire and contact the U.S. President Charles Jackson (voiced by John C. Reilly).

Determined to save Elise, Sonic Sr teamed up with Tails (Adult voiced by Dakota Fanning, Teen voiced by Aria Noelle Curzon and Young voiced by Michelle Ruff) the next day, went to London until they were meet by Peter Pan (voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) who take them to Never Land. Later they would tried to catch the Egg Carrier at Never Land after defeating Captain Hook (voiced by Kaiji Tang) who is chased by Tick-Tock the Crocodile (vocal effects by Frank Welker) before he head back to Hook's ship, but failed. But before returning to New York City, they were transported to the Yen Sid's Tower in Chicago by using Mickey's (also voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) Star Shard before they were found by Donald (voiced by Tony Anselmo) and Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer). After returning from Yen Sid's Tower in Chicago, Sonic Sr and Tails learned Elise was in Egypt along with King Mickey. There, they found Elise and King Mickey only for Eggman to attack them with the Egg Cerberus (vocal effects by Frank Welker). After Sonic Sr destroyed it, Sonic Sr escaped Eggman's forces with Elise by letting Tails create a diversion with the help of Aqua, but not before sending Mickey to Paris (who is saved by Aqua and taken back to Yen Sid's Tower in Chicago) and also saving the two Dragon Guardians Cyril (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) and Volteer (Adult voiced by Travis Willingham and Young voiced by Jim Cummings). As they escaped, Elise treated Sonic Sr's injuries (who is wounded during the escape) and apologized for them, but Sonic Sr insisted her smile was all he needed. Sonic Sr was then filled in on the Flames of Disaster and Solaris (Soleanna's sun god) by Elise, who grew worried of what Eggman would do with it. However, Sonic Sr cheered her up with a run along with Cyril and Volteer and gave her some advice with Cyril and Volteer to go by which was located in the heart of Sydney, Australia.

Later in the city of Sydney with Elise, Cyril and Volteer, Sonic Sr was attacked by Silver the Hedgehog (voiced by Hayden Christensen), who claimed that Sonic Sr would destroy his world but Cyril and Volteer intervened and told Silver that Sonic Sr would never do that and ordered him to disobey Mephiles' order in which he refused. Sonic Sr initially had the upper hand, but Silver caught him off-guard and incapacitated him. Meanwhile, Sonic Sr saw Eggman kidnap Elise again, but was unable to save her. Luckily, Sonic Sr was saved when Amy (Adult voiced by Gabrielle Union, Teen voiced by Cree Summer and Young voiced by Eden Riegel) stopped Silver, and he went to warn Eraqus in San Francisco, where Eraqus plans to betray Ventus when he refused to tell that Silver is trying to kill Sonic Sr. Terra arrives to save Sonic Sr and fights with Eraqus. Upon his defeat for his treachery, Eraqus is vanquished by Xehanort, who destroys the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base and tells Terra to go to the city of Los Angeles. Sonic Sr returned from San Francisco and reunited with Cyril and Volteer before they met up with Tails and Knuckles (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), who gave him a message from Eggman demanding Sonic Sr’s Chaos Emerald in exchange for Elise. Despite knowing that Cyril and Volteer told Sonic Sr that it would be a trap in which he ignored and told to return to the New Dragon Temple in which Cyril and Volteer both accepts it, Sonic Sr, Tails and Knuckles arrived at Siberian Mountains in Russia, where Sonic Sr gave Eggman the Chaos Emerald, but was tricked and sent to the future by Eggman's machine with his friends and the mission ends with a failure. After Team Sonic's failed attempt to rescue Princess Elise, U.S. President Charles Jackson orders to sent the U.S. Navy SEALs to hunt down Eggman, avenge Scott Dolph's death and rescued Princess Elise in Siberian Russia and returns to New York City in United States.

Arriving in the Pride Lands after Mufasa's (archive recordings by James Earl Jones) death in which Scar (also voiced by Jim Cummings) became King, Sonic Sr, Tails and Knuckles encounter Shadow (voiced by David Gallagher) and Rouge (voiced by Brittny Snow), who are also trapped in the Pride Lands. In order to return to the present, they need to create a rift in time and space, which they figure can be created if Sonic Sr and Shadow use Chaos Control together. While searching for Chaos Emeralds, Sonic Sr, Tails and Knuckles encounter Silver, his friend Blaze (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), and Mephiles (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), a dark being who resembles Shadow, tells Silver that Sonic Sr is the one responsible for the future's devastation, and takes them back in time to kill Sonic Sr until he is betrayed by Silver (who is told by Terra to disobey Mephiles' order) and Blaze who disobeyed him two days later. Sonic Sr learns from a computer file that Elise was killed when Sergei executed her for a treason two days after the Festival of the Sun in New York City. After retrieving a pair of Chaos Emeralds, Sonic Sr and Shadow create the space-time rift, allowing them to return to the present after Eggman's death and Sergei (voiced by Robert De Niro) leds his mercenaries to capture Elise before were attacked by Cynder shortly after he rescues the final Dragon Guardian, Terrador (also voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) and Simba (also voiced by Cameron Clarke) became the King of the Pride Lands after overthrow Scar who he is now eaten alive by Hyenas (Shenzi voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, Banzai voiced by Michael Kenneth Wiliams and Ed's vocal effects by John DiMaggio) after the battle with Simba which end with his defeat; Ignitus intervenes to fight Cynder but is kidnapped.

It is revealed that it was the four dragons who originally sealed away the Dark Master, and that Cynder is using the dragons' drained powers to open the seal. In Silver's future, Shadow faces Mephiles, and learns that in the future he was imprisoned by Omega (voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly), blamed for the destruction in which he refused to be blamed and defeats Mephiles with the help of Omega. Shadow and Omega then return to the present-day. Sonic Sr returns to Brooklyn Bridge to look for Elise, but is once again attacked by Silver, also allowing Sergei to kidnap Elise yet again and Sonic Sr orders the U.S. Marines to fire on Silver but Silver wiped the Marines out. Fortunately, Terra stops Silver from killing Sonic Sr and tells him to disobey Mephiles' obey in which Silver accepts him and goes to Times Square to find and disobey Mephiles, allowing Sonic Sr to rescue Elise, But before he returns her to Liberty Island in New York Harbor, he was contacted by Mickey to meet in Never Land. After Never Land, Sonic Sr sent Shadow to Egypt to confront Xehanort, who instructs him to destroy Vanitas, the source of the Unversed created from the darkness extracted from Shadow' heart. Xehanort sends Shadow to the Enchanted Dominion, where Shadow finds Maleficent (voiced by Susanne Blakeslee) and later meet Silver (who helped Flora (voiced by Barbara Dirickson), Fauna (voiced by Laura Bailey) and Merryweather (voiced by Tress MacNeille) to free Aurora's (voiced by Kate Higgins) heart) in the Dark Castle in five minutes later. After the battle, Shadow and Silver travel ten years into the past and learn Iblis (also voiced by Frank Welker) and Mephiles are parts of the Duke of Soleanna's (voiced by Christopher Plummer) project to harness the power of the city's god Solaris.

The Duke gives Shadow the Scepter of Darkness, which he uses to seal Mephiles, while Silver and the Duke seals Iblis into a young Elise's tears, the dying Duke asks his daughter not to cry for her tears could release Iblis just before United States Army General Scott Dolph came and adopt her as an adoptive sister of United States. Ten years later in New York City, Sergei and his Russian Troops arrives in his battleship and threatens to destroy New York City, Elise willingly surrenders herself to him to protect her people. But Americans refused to surrender and fires on the Russians after Elise surrenders herself to Sergei. Sergei explains to Elise that in order for his plan to take over the world to work, he requires the seven Chaos Emeralds and the dormant power of the Flames of Disaster within Elise to awaken Solaris (also voiced by Frank Welker), allowing him to harness the sun god's power over time. Shadow is similarly instructed to do the same by Vanitas, as is Sonic Sr by Yen Sid, who informs him about Solaris before going to save Elise. On his way to rescue Elise, Sonic Sr encounters Silver (who disobey Mephiles' order) once more who, instead of attacking him, expresses concern for Elise as well. The two hedgehogs team up, but before they reach the battleship, it went to the Russian Federation, just as Sonic Sr feared while back at the future. However, Sonic Sr and Silver realize they can use Chaos Control to travel back in time to the previous day, but instead Sonic Sr goes on the Blackhawk Helicopter with Navy SEALs and reunites with Elise after the execution is interrupted and the plan was foiled. Later, Cynder betrays Sergei which she deals to bring back the Dark Master. Ignitus's power is the final key in unsealing the Dark Master, so Sonic is sent the American Forces on a final, direct assault against Russian Base in Moscow. Sonic Sr attempts to fight Cynder, but Cynder succeeds in draining Ignitus's power of fire into a crystal, and escapes to the sealed realm of the Dark Master but not before he blames Cynder for the draining of Dragon Guardians' power.

During the fight, Sonic Sr had noticed there was something familiar in Cynder's eyes. Ignitus then tells Sonic Sr the rest of the story of what happened the night of the attack on the temple. After sending Sonic Sr's egg down from Los Angeles to New York City, Ignitus had returned to see that the Dark Master's forces had destroyed the brood of eggs before the Los Angeles Police Officers and American Military Soldiers kills the Dark Master's forces, except one - for only a dragon born in the Year of the Dragon can open the portal and release the Dark Master: Cynder, who had been transformed by the Dark Master's sinister powers. Ignitus fears that it is too late to stop her, but Sonic Sr told him to take Elise back to the Untied States before pursuing Cynder and forces a showdown, eventually using all of his power in a final attack which defeats her, purging her of the Dark Master's influence and returning her to her true form, a young dragon the same size as Sonic Sr. The realm begins to collapse in on itself; Sparx insists on making a quick exit but Sonic Sr declares he will not leave Cynder behind with the Dark Master; though barely, Sonic Sr is able to grab Cynder after he used the M67 grenade to destroy the Dark Master's portal as well as the crystal, thus foiling her plan to free the Dark Master and escape safely to the exit while Ignitus takes Elise to escape from the exploding Russian Base and makes it back to Siberian Russian Heights before taking her, Sonic Sr, Cynder and Sparx back to New York City.

After Cynder's defeat, Mephiles (who is betrayed by Silver and Blaze who disobeyed his order twenty mintues ago) is seen sporting an evil look as he finally seems prepared to merge with Iblis and destroy the world before helping Xehanort and Vanitas. Using his Purple Emerald, Mephiles blinds Sonic Sr and Elise, who were reunited by Terra and Aqua in the New York City from where Sonic Sr's storyline left off. When they are confronted by Xehanort, Vanitas and Mephiles, they fought in the New York Streets and after the fight with Xehanort, Vanitas and Mephiles, he launches an energy beam that impales Sonic Sr through the back, killing him instantly, U.S. National Guardsmen and the U.S. Army tries to kill Mephiles and avenging Sonic Sr's death, but Mephiles pushed back. Elise frantically attempts to revive Sonic Sr, but upon discovering that he is indeed dead, she cries in despair, releasing Iblis. At this point, Mephiles absorbs Iblis, mutates into a monster known as Solaris and then creates his own world to destroy time itself. Continuing from where Shadow's story ended, he and his friends recover from their battle with the Mephiles clones and Shadow notices the Green and Yellow Chaos Emeralds that Mephiles left behind. These create a blinding flash that send Shadow, Rouge and Omega to the time-space rift formed by Solaris. Meanwhile, in New York City, Amy, Tails and Knuckles notice a large bright light that engulfs Manhattan. When the light fades, they realize that they have also been transported to the rift where all of the previous levels in the game exist. Amy is the first to spot Silver, who has been teleported here as well by the Chaos Emeralds that Blaze used to seal Iblis within her. Everyone notices that they have all been brought to this strange place, even the ghost of Dr. Eggman appeared to them. As they try to understand what was happening, Dr. Eggman's Ghost reveals that Iblis' seal has been broken.

It is then that they turn and see Elise, cradling Sonic's body in her arms. After a few realizations, Eggman's Ghost reveals that Solaris is about to bring about the end of the world by destroying time itself, and that, being a transcendental life form, it cannot be defeated in the present as it exists in all timelines, so defeating it in the present would return to normal. Silver refuses to give up, and suggests that they team up and destroy Solaris in the past, present and future all at once, but Shadow quickly shoots that possibility down, stating that, with Sonic Sr dead, Solaris is completely unstoppable. With Amy upset over Sonic Sr's death and their impending doom, Elise recognizes a familiar wind in the air that makes her come to believe that Sonic Sr may not be entirely dead yet. Silver, furthering Elise's observations, explains that they can use the Chaos Emeralds to revive him. After a lengthy search on the part of Tails, Omega, Knuckles, Silver, Rouge, Amy, and Shadow along with Simba, Terrador, Cyril, Nala (also voiced by Vanessa Marshall), Timon (voiced by Kevin Schon), Pumbaa (voiced by Ernie Sabella), Cinderella (voiced by Jennifer Hale), Prince Charming (voiced by Brendan Fraser), Snow White (voiced by Carolyn Gardner), Princess Aurora, Peter Pan, Prince Philip (also voiced by Roger Craig Smith), Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara), Beast (voiced by Robby Benson), Volteer, Zazu (voiced by Jeff Bennett), Lumiere (voiced by Troy Baker), Cogsworth (voiced by David Odgen Stiers), Jaq (voiced by Rob Paulsen), Captain Jack Sparrow (voiced by James Arnold Taylor), Will Turner (voiced by Crispin Freman), Quasimodo (voiced by Steve Van Wormer), Phoebus (voiced by Dave Fennoy), Terra, Aqua, Ignitus and Sparx, they find the Chaos Emeralds and revive Sonic Sr, with Elise's kiss transforming him into Super Sonic Sr with Keyblade Armor. Super Sonic Sr uses his power to transform Shadow and Silver into their Super States. Together, the three hedgehogs fight Solaris. The three use Chaos Control on Solaris causing the monster to be torn apart in a time loop.

Sonic Sr, now back to normal, travels with Elise to a point in the past where they find the "Flames of Disaster" and its birth. Elise realizes that if she puts out the Flames, Solaris will never exist. But before restoring back to the present day America after Eggman's death, Terra's heart is swallowed by darkness in the ensuing battle and Xehanort takes over his body (voiced by James Horan), but Terra's mind remains within his discarded suit of armor, which comes to life and defeats Xehanort while Shadow is forced to be possessed by Vanitas to create the χ-blade. Aqua, Sonic Sr, Silver and Mickey fight with the possessed Shadow after Sonic Sr and Aqua defeated Braig (also voiced by James Horan), while Shadow engages Vanitas in a metaphysical battle within his own mind. Sonic Sr and Aqua destroys the χ-blade as Shadow defeats Vanitas, though Shadow sacrificed himself for the fate of all worlds as a result after removing Inhibitor Rings and gives the rings to her. After learning of Shadow's fate, she, Sonic Sr, Aqua and Mickey will never meet each other, which Sonic Sr and Aqua confirms. Overcome with despair, Elise begins to cry and shouts that she does not care what happens to the world as long as she and Sonic Sr are friends but Aqua told her to cheer up in which she refused. Though Sonic Sr is clearly unhappy about this as well, he tells Elise to just smile and manages to convince her to abandon their meeting. She confidently puts out the Flames, eliminating Solaris from existence once and for all. Though victorious, the battle cost Sonic Sr much of his own strength and powers as the time restores back to the present day America after Eggman's death.

Elise is in her boat waving the audience as Sonic Sr runs through the public, the "wind" of his speed making Elise lose one of the feathers in her hair. A maid (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) asks her if everything is alright, and Elise says that she thought someone was calling her while the ghost of Scott Dolph watches her. Another maid (also voiced by Grey DeLisle) replies that it's just the wind, and Elise says that it might be, but that it felt familiar somehow, and smiles, apparently knowing who it was. She leaves New York City to Soleanna in England as Sonic Sr watches from the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Sonic Sr watching Elise's feather flying into the night, also smiling and Sonic Sr reuniting with Cynder for a suspect that the Dark Master is still alive somewhere; the war is still far from over. In a post-credits scene sets in three days later in San Francisco, new S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (voiced by Beau Billingslea) (who replaces Master Eraqus) visits Sonic Sr and Cynder (who both returned home from New York City after he defeated Solaris with the help of Silver and Shadow), telling him that Sonic the Hedgehog Sr is not "the only superhero in the world", and explaining that he and Cynder wants to discuss the "Avenger Initiative".

Sonic Sr's Final Mission
16 years before Sonic Sr (voiced by Troy Baker replacing Rob Lowe) become the Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sonic Sr is sent by Ignitus (voiced by Gary Oldman) to go to Panama and visit Frank Woods (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) and Alex Mason (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) one last time before they meet at Mark McKnight's (voiced by Khary Payton) home in Clayton, Panama for discussing Noriega's (voiced by Jim Cummings) capture, and on December 20, during the midnight attack, deploy closeby to the Panama City, starting the search for Noriega. Sonic Sr, Alex and Frank move to a nearby airfield, where they see Noriega's jet, but Noriega was in a hotel not far from the airfield. The team arrives at the hotel and capture Noriega, and later are informed by Jason Hudson (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) that he is an HVI and must be taken to a US Army checkpoint for a prisoner exchange. The exchange was going to take place at the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal.

The prisoner is brought out with his head bagged and restrained by Panamanian soldiers. Woods is told to shoot, but is warned by Sonic Sr not to kill Mason in which he ignores Sonic Sr's order and he does so and when Woods removes the bag to confirm the kill, he notices that the target was Mason instead of Menendez, and tries to shoot Noriega for payback, but is suddenly ambushed by Menendez (voiced by André Sogliuzzo), who shoots his kneecaps and headbutts him, knocking him out except Sonic Sr escapes back to New York City. Woods awakens to find Alex's body, Hudson tied to a chair and David tied to a pole while in a trance. Hudson admits that he was forced to manipulate Woods, in order to prevent David (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) from being killed. Menendez says that one of the three people must also die, or in ten seconds they're all dead. Hudson at first, hesitates saying that he has two kids, but unwilling to let David or Woods die for what he has done, he immediately tells Menendez to kill him. Menendez shoots Hudson with his shotgun in both of his knees, then slits his throat with the point of Josefina's heart shaped pendent. Instead of killing Woods too, he leaves while telling him that he will now feel as much as pain as he had when Josefina died. Before he leaves, he moves close to David and shows him the heart-shaped pendent telling him that one day David will see it again, and that when he does, David will remember what happened that night, and will come to Menendez. Then, as Menendez leaves the room, David wakes from his trance, and begins crying when he sees the corpse of his father, Alex.

Later in America on Janaury 14, 1990, Sonic Sr blames Menendez for the deaths of Mason and Hudson and swearing his revenge on Menendez. Later in June 8, 1995, Sonic Sr assassinated Raul Menendez in South America and avenging the deaths of Alex Mason and Jason Hudson thus completing his revenge. After the Assassination of Raul Menendez, Sonic Sr buried both Jason Hudson and Alex Mason in the Arlington Cemetery just before he going for the first retirement for being a United States Marine. In the post-credits scene sets in ten years later after the death of Raul Menendez, Sonic Sr returns home back to San Francisco only to be found by Terra (voiced by Matthew Mercer replacing Benedict Cumberbatch) and Aqua (voiced by Laura Bailey replacing Moira Kelly) who offered him to join S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than for the second retirement.

Development
Sonic the Hedgehog was first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo convention in May 2005. At the 2005 Tokyo Game Show convention, Yuji Naka revealed the game's official title, Sonic the Hedgehog, and also announced that the game would celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Directors Richard Donner, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff along with the producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Don Hahn and Baker Bloodworth as well as the executive producer Francis Ford Coppola were both demonstrated the game's use of the Havok engine during Sega's stage shows as well along with Warner Bros. and Sierra.

After its debut, the game's development team faced serious problems, starting with the resignation of Yuji Naka as the head of Sonic Team. When presented with development kits for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii, it was decided that Sonic the Hedgehog's staff would be split in two, with the directors Richard Donner, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff as well as the producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Don Hahn and Baker Bloodworth finishing the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360 and PS3, while the director Francis Ford Coppola and producer Sofia Coppola would use the other half of Sonic Team to begin work on Sonic and the Secret Rings for the new Nintendo platform. What was originally an ambitious undertaking now became a race against time to meet the game's deadline with only half of a development team. In this time, Sonic Team reportedly ignored Quality Assurance Tester bug reports.

The game was also made available on Xbox Live's Games on Demand service on August 11, 2009, but was later delisted during September 2010 in order to increase the value of the brand.

Sonic the Hedgehog had a troubled development, and multiple frequently discussed features were scrapped before the game was released. Sonic Team began development on the title in 2004, after the completion of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (2003). It was initially conceived as an original non-Sonic project; however, it was reworked into a Sonic title as the developers believed the project's realistic tone combined with the world of Sonic would allow them to create expansive levels previously impossible on earlier sixth generation consoles and experiment with multiple play-styles. Series co-creator and team lead Yuji Naka envisioned the next-generation Sonic title as a reboot of the franchise, and wanted to mimic the success of superhero films such as Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Batman Begins (2005). The game's title was chosen to signify it as a "move to reset and reinvent the series". As Sonic Team no longer had the rights to use the RenderWare game engine used in prior games, they used the Havok engine, previously used in their PlayStation 2 title Astro Boy (2004). Game director Shun Nakamura demonstrated the engine during their stage shows at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show.

As Sonic the Hedgehog was designed to reboot the series for the seventh generation, the design team created a more realistic setting than previous Sonic games and gave the human characters a photorealistic look. Sonic Sr and Doctor Eggman were redesigned to better suit this updated environment: Sonic Sr was made taller, with longer quills, and Eggman was made slimmer and given a photorealistic appearance. At one point, Sonic Team and Radical Entertainment considered giving Sonic Sr realistic fur and rubber textures. Silver the Hedgehog's gameplay style was born out of the desire to take advantage of the Havok engine's realistic physics capabilities. Silver was conceived as an orange mink before attaining his final hedgehog look following fifty concept designs later. In designing Shadow's gameplay, the developers abandoned the concept of firearms previously used in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) in favor of combat elements to differentiate him from the other characters. Sonic the Hedgehog features several CGI animated cutscenes produced by Blur Studio. The cast of the Sonic X anime series by Warner Bros. Animation includes Rob Lowe, Dakota Fanning, Grey DeLisle and Mike Pollock reprised their voice roles for the game except Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman voices Knuckles and Ignitus (replacing Kevin Michael Richardson and Jonathan Adams) and actress Lacey Chabert supplied the voice of series newcomer and damsel in distress, Princess Elise.

After its reveal, the development faced serious problems, starting with Naka's resignation as head of Sonic Team to form his own company, Prope. According to former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske, Naka's departure affected the spirit of the development team, as he was the only remaining member of the team who had worked on the original Sonic game. Sonic the Hedgehog was originally intended for release on all major seventh generation consoles as well as Microsoft Windows, but when presented with development kits for Nintendo's less powerful Wii console, the team was split in two. Richard Donner, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff led one team to finish Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 while Don Hahn, Roger Allers, Sofia Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola led the other half to begin work on a new Sonic game—later revealed to be Sonic and the Secret Rings—for the Wii. Due to the split, the staff was left with an unusually small development team to work on Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment began pressuring the development team to release the game by Christmas 2006, so with their deadline quickly approaching, Sonic Team and Radical Entertainment rushed the final stages of development, ignoring existing bugs and control problems. Various planned features were dropped, such as a time of day and night mechanic similar to the one later implemented in Sonic Unleashed (2008), and additional multiplayer components.

In retrospect, Shuler Donner, Hahn and Bloodworth noted the final period providing a large challenge for the team. Not only was the Xbox 360 release imminent, but the PlayStation 3 launch was scheduled not too long after. This presented tremendous pressure on the team to develop for both systems. Similarly, current series producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Don Hahn and Baker Bloodworth stated that "we didn't have any time to polish and we were just churning out content as quick as we could."

Music

 * Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 soundtrack)

The musical score for Sonic the Hedgehog was composed by Alan Menken and Harry Gregson-Williams (who conducted his score) with the additional music for Gregson-Williams was later composed by Stephen Barton, Nick Glennie-Smith and Graham Preskett while the music programming was also provided by Tom Holkenborg, Hybrid, David Buckley, Halli Cauthery, Clay Duncan, Toby Chu and James McKee Smith. Both soundtracks were released on digital and CD by Warner Sunset Records and Atlantic Records in January 2007 includes Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx: Several Wills and Sonic the Hedgehog Original Soundtrack. Originally, directors Richard Donner, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff contacted Hans Zimmer on scoring the video game, but Zimmer declined due to being busy scoring Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code. Later in the DLC Sonic Sr's Final Mission after the game's release, in which Randy Edelman was chosed to compose the score.

The main theme for the game, "His World", written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, is performed by Jesse McCartney and Elton John. R&B artist Akon along with B.B. King and Lady Gaga performed a remix of the Dreams Come True song "'Sweet Sweet Sweet", a song originally from their 1992 album The Swinging Star, and was also used as the ending theme to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A number of other songs feature vocals by other artists as well. Shadow's theme, "All Hail Shadow," one of the vocal songs from the Shadow the Hedgehog soundtrack, was re-arranged by "Weird Al" Yankovic and B.B. King; it was originally co-written and sung by Phil Collins. Silver's theme, "Dreams of an Absolution," by Kenny Loggins and Jesse McCartney was also written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Elise's theme, entitled "My Destiny," was performed by Idina Menzel and plays the first half which followed by "Can't Smile Without You" performed by Barry Manilow for the second half, "The Prayer" by Andrea Bocelli for the third half and later "The Legend of Spyro (Theme)" by Hans Zimmer for the last half (who used during the game) during the last story's ending. Later the original score from the video "The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning" was later composed by James Newton Howard and Blake Neely.

Promotion and release
Sonic the Hedgehog was first announced in a closed-doors presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo convention in May 2005. At the Tokyo Game Show, Naka revealed the game's title and said its release would correspond with the series' fifteenth anniversary. A demo version of the game was playable at E3 2006. A second demo, featuring a short section of Sonic Sr's gameplay was released via Xbox Live in September 2006. Sega, Warner Bros. and Sierra released several packages of desktop wallpaper featuring characters from the game, and American publisher Prima Games published an official strategy guide for the game, written by Fletcher Black. Sega, Warner Bros. and Sierra also made a deal with Microsoft to run advertisements for the game in Windows Live Messenger.

The Xbox 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog was released in North America on November 14, 2006, followed by a European release on November 24, 2006. Both versions were released in Japan on December 21, 2006. The PlayStation 3 version was released in North America on January 30, 2007, and in Europe on March 23, 2007. The game is often referred to by critics and fans with colloquial terms that reference its year of release, such as Sonic '06 or Sonic 2006. The game was also made available digitally via the Xbox Live Marketplace on April 15, 2010. However, in September of that year, various Sonic games with average or below average Metacritic ratings, including Sonic the Hedgehog, were delisted from retailers in order to increase the value of the brand, following the positive pre-release reception to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I and Sonic Colors (both 2010).

Downloadable content
In 2007, shortly after the game's launch, Sega, Warner Bros. and Sierra released several packages of downloadable content that added features to single-player gameplay. These include a more difficult single-player mode and a continuous battle mode with all of the game's bosses back-to-back. One downloadable addition, "Team Attack Amigo" mode, sends players through a multitude of levels changing to a different character every two or three levels and culminating in a boss fight. The PlayStation 3 version was delayed to allow more time to incorporate the downloadable content, and thus launched alongside it.

Reception
Pre-release reactions to Sonic the Hedgehog were positive. Reception to prior games Sonic Heroes (2003) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) had been mixed; after a number of well-received showings and demos, some felt Sonic the Hedgehog could be a return to the series' roots. Ricardo Torres of GameSpot said the game "showed a considerable amount of promise" after playing a demo at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2006, and Andrew Alfonso of GameSpy praised its graphics and environments. In 2008, Brett Elston of GamesRadar said that it had looked "amazing" before its release.

Post-release
Sonic the Hedgehog became notable for receiving negative reception upon release. On aggregating review website Metacritic, the game holds a score of 46/100 and 43/100 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3), respectively; the site considers this "generally unfavorable" reception. The game was moderately successful commercially, selling 870,000 units in the first six months of release.

Reviewers were divided on the game's presentation. Juan Castro of IGN called the game's graphics, audio, and replay value "decent", and felt its interface and menu system worked well, though they lacked polish. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot, however, felt that the game's graphics, while colorful, were bland and only a small improvement over sixth-generation games, a sentiment echoed by Shane Bettenhausen of 1UP.com. Game Informer and Rob Fahey of Eurogamer made note of several graphical glitches. Fahey also criticized the decision to continue the Sonic Adventure (1998) style of gameplay, believing that Sonic Team had learned nothing from the criticisms of past games.

Gameplay was also criticized; reviewers found fault with the game's camera system, loading times, controls, level designs, and glitches. In a one-star review, Bobbi Dempsey of Common Sense Media found that the game's design was poor and its control system was imprecise. Gerstmann claimed the level design was worsened by the game's frustrating camera system, and Game Informer criticized the game's high difficulty, citing the camera as causing most deaths. Some criticized how the majority of the game was not spent playing as Sonic; Gerstmann claimed playing as Tails made a level boring. Fahey offered similar criticism, finding that the supporting cast annoyed rather than fleshing the game out, and considered the camera system to be the worst he had ever seen in a video game. Bettenhausen, however, felt that despite the control and level design problems, the game still played like a Sonic game.

Journalists criticized the plot as confusing and inappropriately dark. GamesRadar described the story as overwrought and "conceptually challenged". Fahey found its voice acting painful and its cutscenes cringe-worthy. Some unfavorably compared the plot to that of an anime or Final Fantasy. The romance between Sonic Sr and the human Princess Elise was especially criticized; GamesTM stated that it marked the point "the [Sonic] series had veered off into absolute nonsense." Asked whether anyone might accuse the game of supporting bestiality, actress Lacey Chabert, who provides Elise's voice, stated, "Ha! No, you're just being silly. It's not an inappropriate relationship. Let's just say Sonic Sr and Princess Elise have an attraction for each other."

Regarding the game as a whole, Gerstmann described it as "a mess from top to bottom" that would only appeal to core Sonic fans. Castro said that the game had some redeeming qualities, with brief segments of gameplay that demonstrate how a next-generation Sonic game could work, but found it "rips them away as soon as it shows them". Fahey believed that the game's mistakes could have been noticed in a game released in 1996. In a 2015 retrospective, Patrick Klepek of Kotaku jokingly called the relationship between Sonic and Elise a nod to the series' "erotica community". The same year, Dave Meikleham of GamesRadar listed Sonic and Elise's relationship as one of the "8 wrongest romances in video games".

Despite the mostly negative reception, Dave Halverson of Play Magazine and Game Informer defended the game. Halverson initially gave the Xbox 360 version a score of 9.5/10, praising each character's controls and abilities and calling it the best 3D Sonic game yet. In the following issue, however, Halverson reassessed it as 8.5/10, writing that he had been told that the load times and glitches in his review copy would not be in the final version of the game. In a later review of the PlayStation 3 version, Halverson was frustrated that the problems had still not been corrected and that the performance was worse despite the extra development time; Halverson gave the PS3 version a 5.5/10. Game Informer described it as ambitious and praised the graphics, story, amount of content present, and reply value, though the publication still believed that only fans of the franchise would enjoy the game.

Legacy
Both GameTrailers and GamesRadar considered Sonic the Hedgehog to be one of the most disappointing games of 2006, and GamesTM specifically singled out the game when it ranked the Sonic franchise at the top of their list of "Video Game Franchises That Lost Their Way." The A.V. Club, Kotaku, Game Informer, and USgamer have called the title the worst game in the Sonic series, while the staff of GamesRadar named it among the worst video games of all time. The critical failure of Sonic the Hedgehog is said to have led to a rethinking of the direction of the Sonic series; later titles in the series have featured only Sonic as a playable character, simpler and more humorous plots, and a larger focus on platforming. The game remains a popular title for "Let's Play" walkthroughs, with players often showing off the game's various glitches. The official Sonic the Hedgehog series' Twitter account has mocked it as well.

Sonic the Hedgehog introduced the characters of Silver the Hedgehog, Princess Elise, Mephiles, and Iblis to the Sonic franchise; most have made few appearances since. Silver, however, has appeared as a playable character in both Sonic Rivals (2006) and its sequel, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (2007), and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and its sequels, and was a minor supporting character in the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors (2010).

To celebrate the Sonic franchise's 20th anniversary, Sega, Warner Bros. and Activision released Sonic Generations (2011), a game that remade aspects of various past games in the series. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC version contain a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog's "Crisis City" level. Additionally, every version of the game, including the Nintendo 3DS version, contains a remake of the boss battle with Silver. The decision to include Sonic the Hedgehog stages and bosses in Sonic Generations was controversial; Jim Sterling of Destructoid referred to the Silver boss fight as the "catch" of the otherwise high-quality game.

An unofficial fan-made remake of the game for Microsoft Windows began development in 2015, being made in the Unity engine by an ensemble of fans known as Gistix. A demo version, featuring a brief gameplay segment for Sonic Sr, was released in January 2017. Unlike the original game, the demo was positively received by gaming journalists.