TL;DR – The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a surprisingly fun if exceedingly forgiving freebie that came out to celebrate April Fool’s day of all things. It’s a charming and short little game, that’s split between a basic point and click detective game with some occasional “action” segments that take the form of a isometric auto-runner where you need to collect a certain amount of rings. In spite of this very simple gameplay, the game itself is quite enjoyable albeit short and while it is utterly lacking in challenge it’s still a pleasant little experience.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog came out of nowhere earlier this year as a free download on Steam with minimal fanfare, yet it was quickly able to gain a popular following due to the fact that it’s just brimming with charm. In the Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog you get to play as a random train employee who is assisting the cast from the Sonic series in hosting their own little murder mystery shindig to celebrate Amy’s birthday. This plot device essentially justifies almost the entire game, as you’ll be wandering around with Tails and engaging in some light Visual Novel (VN) gameplay with a detective theme. As you’ve probably figured out, this is a light-hearted point and click adventure where you’re tasked with helping figure out the mystery of who “killed” Sonic. Due to the fact that everyone is a suspect aside from Tails and Amy (due to the roles they’ve been assigned), you’ll go through the train grilling everyone as to their whereabouts before finally figuring out the “murderer” in your midst is. This plays a bit like the Phoenix Wright series, in that you have an inventory with a handful of items and you’ll occasionally be called on to show which item proves the latest suspect is a dirty liar. Unlike most detective games however, there is no penalty to guessing the wrong one and your inventory never has that many items in it at a time. As such this is a pretty straightforward “case” to work through, although getting it wrong will cause various characters to call you a dummy.
Once you’ve figured out the correct item to use, the game abruptly changes gear and initiates an auto-runner to represent you thinking through the evidence. While this might sound silly (and it is!) the reason for this is that you’re constantly being told by Tails to think like Sonic would and so it makes sense that Sonic would be running through some isometric stages. Initially these are very easy, but overtime the amount of rings you need to gather continues to increase and the stages begin to contain various hazards such as spikes, ninja stars hurtling you and even platforms which fall away. The difficulty these stages is handled nicely, and the rationale for acting like Sonic would actually pays off in the end. Regardless these primarily serve to break up the gameplay and do provide a modicum of challenge, although let’s face it they’re not particularly challenging. If for whatever reason this little bit of trickiness has caused you to panic, then rejoice! Even in these areas failing has no consequence aside from requiring you to start again.
That’s about it as far as the gameplay goes, as this is a pretty short and easy game to play through without too much depth in terms of gameplay mechanics. Really the main focus of the game is to faff around with the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and appreciate both the good natured writing and the surprisingly good visual design. I know Sonic has had his up’s and down’s (especially when they had redesign him for the movie), but this is a really good looking game and I wouldn’t be surprised if the positive reception has made some folk at Sega think that this silly idea could have some legs to it. After all, the game got a ton of positive press and if it had been longer and perhaps some sort of fail state, then it’s entirely feasible that we could see some sequels pushed out as low cost games. But that’s beside the point, the main point here is that this is a game that looks really good and has a charming stylised art-style with plenty of merit. It’s not cutting edge graphics by any means, but it’s clear that the art team put some serious into this little giveaway game and it really shows. Not only is the character art done well, but the backgrounds are pleasant to look at and each area has it’s own little introductory graphics which give the whole thing a quality feel. Plus, without wishing to spoil there’s some good use of colours and plenty of character expressions on offer.
The musical score is also pleasant to the ears with some light musak vibes, even if it’s fairly restrained and the sound effects are done well, although they’re not anything to rave about. All I can really say is that each piece of the puzzle here goes together nicely, and while the game isn’t a huge standout success or anything it’s still well made and well put together. I did take a look at the 60th Sega Anniversary games earlier and compared to those, this is a big step up and really does feel like it could’ve been expanded into it’s own game. Of course it would need to be expanded significantly, as while there is a cheeky little twist and some fun moments throughout, this is a game that will take you around 90 to 120 minutes (or 2 hours) to beat. It’s a super short experience and while it’s been made with care, if you’d paid money you might be disappointed. Fortunately it’s totally free and still available for download as of time of writing (Mid September 2023, although you won’t be reading this for two whole months as I’m trying to get a bunch of reviews done before I go visit Vietnam and Cambodia).
With that being said, there isn’t much more to say funnily enough. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a charming, short and free release that is great for Sonic fans and still enjoyable for those who haven’t played a Sonic game since the Dreamcast was a thing. The characters are all written well with some light-hearted dialogue and plenty of jokes, the visuals are great, the soundtrack is fitting and the gameplay has some nice variation. Once you’ve resolved the “murder” the game has an extra little dollop of content that throws everything together nicely and then you’re free to either replay the game or move on with your life. Either way The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is perfect for a rainy afternoon or if you’ve got a laptop/Steam Deck, a great way to spend a bit of time at a coffee shop or college library (assuming you’re a student of course). Ultimately I’d recommend this game to everyone as it’s nice to experience a pleasant little game every now and then, which this most certainly is.
