Surprise killing Sonic the Hedgehog shows why he’s lived so long

pcgamesn.com:

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is absolutely brilliant. Released as a free game on Steam to coincide with the many April Fool’s jokes our industry puts out, Sega and Sonic’s social team has once again proved that they completely understand the characters, fanbase, and reason why the series sticks around so much. Despite repeated attempts to kill him, Sonic The Hedgehog refuses to die.

Part visual novel, part Ace Attorney, and part meme-filled fan service, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a short adventure that sees you take control of a new character whose first day on the job is marred by a murder mystery party that’s light on the murder, but heavy on the mystery.

It’s a rather simple and yet absurdly engrossing premise for us Sonic fans, as you get to see the large cast of characters interact with each other while the writing team has squeezed in as many deep-cut easter eggs and jokes as possible. One minute it’s a Tails voice line I’m certain most fans don’t even remember, and then it’s a recreation of the Family Guy death pose.

There are a lot of reasons The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog works, and chief among them is Sega’s continued willingness to listen to series fans (many of which are now experienced developers or working at Sega themselves) and just let them make anything with ludicrous sincerity.

Sonic social media manager Katie Chrzanowski says they “pulled together a group of friends and pitched” what would become The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (see the image below), and at this point, I’m not even surprised Sega went with it. Sonic Mania was given to someone in the fangame community that made mobile ports of the original games, and Sega even gave Sonic away to have him be in his own Roblox game. Part