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SEGA Releases Playable April Fools Game, "The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog"


Solister
GX -The Spindash-
Message added by GX -The Spindash-,

This topic was good and got turned into SEGA Releases Playable April Fools Game, "The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog" at some point.

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4 minutes ago, fink said:

Usually, these SEGA April Fool's games only get visually delisted (as in no Steam Store page), but they can always be downloaded by typing/pasting the steam install command into your browser. For example, this game would be steam://install/2324650.

8-Bit Bayonetta: steam://install/567090

Streets Of Kamurocho: steam://install/1368430

Armor Of Heroes: steam://install/1368440

ENDLESS Zone: steam://install/1368450

Golden Axed: A Cancelled Prototype: steam://install/1368460

(Bonus lol) Codename Gordon: steam://install/92

That's true, but I don't think everyone knows this, so I'm archiving this just to be safe

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Finished it.

Definitely a huge game which it's hard to believe it's a freeware after all. I think the only two major complaints I have are that the mini-game can be awful annoying sometimes, and I've also noticed the game partially crashed after a few conversations sometimes, getting me stuck for some good 15–30 seconds without I'm being able to do something before it proceeded.

Spoiler

I know everyone was expecting Sonic to not truly be dead, but it's interesting how they wrote around it, but I do must admit at the end I was expecting a bigger plot-twist as in the OC being the murdered, the retired driver or especially Amy or Tails himself, though Espio was like my 4th or 5th suspicious of the eligible cast. Also, unless I didn't catch some detail (which is very likely), was there any actual hint to suspect him at first? Because every character looked like to had good pros and cons.

I'm also 50-50 if I really liked the idea of the game following a straight line. As cool as it would be if your actions did alter the route, I must admit I wouldn't have the patience to play through all paths and would keep saving the game at every dialog. But seeing my first annotations such as "Amy and Tails are likely not the murderer" before I understood that, kinda let me down when I closed the game and read them.

Of course, all the references to past games were amazing and, not for a bad reason, this games quite resembles the Sonic Generations plot to the point I could nickname it Amy Generations. It's also curious that, if I'm not mistaken, Amy is pretty much the first character of the franchise to receive a birthday game which isn't Sonic (and technically Eggman), also assuming her spotlight is due to Sonic CD turning 30 later this year.

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19 minutes ago, Solister said:

 

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Also, unless I didn't catch some detail (which is very likely), was there any actual hint to suspect him at first? Because every character looked like to had good pros and cons.

Spoiler

Not at first, but that's really on purpose - it wouldn't really make a ton of sense if you were given all the info to finger a suspect before getting halfway through all of them.

If you wanna get really into it, you could say that Vector and Espio missing their keys is the first big red flag - Vector's alibi still remains in tact as Knuckles' alibi justifies Vector's, however - the only thing Vector's alibi grants Espio is being present within the library before leaving, and after returning, with an assumption that he only remained there because Espio claims to have read a full book (which technically he did).

Either way, it's the shakiest of all the alibis as it's the only one that had a very limited time-frame of someone else confirming it, meanwhile - Knuckles and Vector were together for most of it, Rouge and Shadow met multiple people during the mystery, therefore meaning multiple people could confirm their alibis, and Blaze was with Rogue for a significant portion as they were working together on the chao egg mystery. This means Espio is the only one who had a open timeframe where he was clearly not seen by anyone.

The only thing there is Shadow and Espio told different stories on how they saw each other, with each trying to blame the other for the mix-up. However, Shadow has more points to verify his own alibi as again, he met everyone on the way back, other than Tails, Amy, and the player.

The other red flag is obviously the book being returned to the shelf. It's not only out of order, indicating Espio placed it back in a rush, which is a red flag for someone as usually as collected as he is, but it's one of the only books that's placed back after the train speed boost, meaning it was placed back after Sonic was 'murdered'.

As soon as the info comes out about the passage between Espio's cabin and Shadow's cabin comes out, Espio becomes the only possible suspect, as he's the only one with the tools to pull off everything (IE - setting Shadow up, getting to Sonic despite the locked doors, missing keys, time to do so, etc). Technically, Vector could also be suspect, but Vector is completely pinned down by both Shadow, and Knuckles' confirmations that he was in the arcade, leaving Espio as the last possible person who could do it.

 

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Spoiler

I figured Espio would be the killer after the whole "I can read your mind" thing came up during character introductions. I figured his test with the book was actually just him reading the player's mind like earlier, which wound up kind of being true! The red herrings and twists in the game are really well-placed, and do a lot to give the player enough mental puzzle pieces to put together.

 

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Absolutely fantastic treat. I hope nobody sleeps on this, shrugging it off as "another stupid social media team meme thing" by the title (not that I'm among such folks, it's so inherently funny).

Once you're past that, what we have here is just full-on character fanservice with just utterly outstandingly charming artwork throughout.  I sure bloody hope nothing in the future keeps this from being canon because how lovely it all was.

 

Major spoilers:

Spoiler

I was able to correctly guess it was Espio too, I can't remember what but there was a tiny point when talking with Shadow I think where Espio's alibi unravels JUST that little bit.  He was the only character that had something like that happen to, so he was my first guess.  It's not like the game lets you make wrong answers, but considering they don't hand that one to you on a silver platter, it was a good feeling to get it right.

Also I just lit up at Sage's cameo at the end.  I am so here for Eggman's dysfunctional family, please let this status quo be established post Frontiers-DLC, I'm begging you Sonic Team!!!

 

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That’s was utterly amazing from start to finish, loved the art work, LOVED the characterization and interactions, a actual official game that’s JUST a day in the life of Sonic and his friends hanging out being silly is so satisfying to finally have. And honestly the new waiter character wasn’t bad either, he had a lot of good charming and funny lines, this whole game was really hilarious actually, the funniest a game has been probably ever.

Also the fact that this free game has a more mechanically AND narratively satisfying final boss than Frontiers actually kills me. I actually felt something at the end!

10/10 my only criticism is that I can’t financially support it because I would’ve tossed down at least 10-15 because damn it I WANT MORE STUFF LIKE THIS 

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ARGH.  I got stuck on a minigame so I gave up after failing at it a dozen times. :.  I wish there was a way to bypass those.  It's otherwise a really cute game!

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This was delightful. 2 Hours of fan-service for no other reason than because they could. Even better because the game kinda sidelines Sonic for a bit to let the others shine.

 

So many fun little tidbits that feel right at home in the franchise.

 

Spoiler

Seriously, I died laughing when I found out Eggman quite literally built up the infrastructure of the surrounding citys, of only to make the logistics of taking over the world down the line more efficient. That's just SO Eggman.

 

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Just finished the game and blown away with what they've put together here.

For an April Fools Day game I expected something along the lines of Big's Big Fishing Adventure 3, a tiny over-the-top silly game for some quick laughs. Instead, they've given us a free game that I clocked in at nearly 3 hours at beat, and fits in perfectly with the canon Sonic world once you get past the deliberately silly title and learn the full context. Some of the situations are fittingly silly but there's equally some great character interaction and some genuine heart put into some of the story beats.

I really hope this is a sign of them starting to have fun with these characters again. I've never actually played this genre of mystery-solving games but I could definitely see myself playing more, and I think this is a great indicator that the Sonic world is strong enough to branch into unconventional spinoff territory. I'd be more than willing to pay for budget title spin-offs like this if they're willing to make them.

Also this is possibly the best these characters have looked in a long time, I absolutely adore the art style. If they ever do an illustrated game cover in future, THIS is style I'd want to see.

 

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44 minutes ago, babsiwuff said:

ARGH.  I got stuck on a minigame so I gave up after failing at it a dozen times. :.  I wish there was a way to bypass those.  It's otherwise a really cute game!

In the Options, you can adjust the difficulty of the "THINK" minigames. You can enable invincibility / remove bottomless pits if that helps!

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The Spriters Resource has already uploaded the art/reactions of Amy and Blaze. (Sonic was currently pending as of typing this statement.)

I do like the texture they added. It gives them an almost...Storybook style to them.

Amy.thumb.png.31124daa56fb62c9f8eff85754f50006.pngBlaze.thumb.png.c6cb7395fb180b5f31aa23aaf077fd0a.png

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I thought it was pretty funny how we got to see a new side to certain characters like Blaze. She's usually portrayed as serious, rather cold, or keeping to herself since she's new to the whole finding friends stuff.

How they lean into the fact that she's a princess is honestly pretty fun, through how they just generally make her somewhat demanding, and making everything as 'official' as possible. I wasn't expecting one of the biggest laughs being suggesting:

Spoiler

that you pretend to be Blaze's spouse, only for Blaze to take it to the utmost serious extreme, and start commenting on all of the things they would need to fix about the player character before there was even a hope of Blaze considering it.  

Even Espio got some new fun details, like intentionally speedreading to screw with Knuckles if he's reading a book, or how he tries to use poetry to slip insults at people.

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This took me by complete surprise when I saw it posted online. Played through it and yeah, it's pretty fun! I didn't expect it to be so long for a free title. Took me 2.5 hours to finish. I went in thinking it would be a 10 minute meme game. The art style was one of the strongest points to me, but I am a very visual person ^^;

Spoiler

My favorite part of the game was the heist plan. It was fun given all the different dialogue options and I got so giddy seeing the Sonic the Sketchog style designs for the characters! Very cute stuff

As DaBigJ noted, I noticed as well that the game had no DRM (it was the first thing I checked, admittedly) and applaud them for that. After the recent SEGA offerings all having Denuvo, it was nice to see that this didn't even have Steam DRM or nothing.

So yeah, I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it yet. Though this being SSMB, and it being free, I imagine most have plans to check it out if they haven't already. I don't know if there's much to say about the gameplay as it's mostly text based with some amusing special stage type segments. Honestly, just amazed that they went out of their way to make a very solid little visual novel free as a meme. Little things like this is why I love Sonic and SEGA. You'd never see someone like Nintendo pulling stuff like this. Really shows that they love their fans.

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Excluding the THINK gameplay, especially at the end, this was an entertaining Sonic VN. 

Spoiler

There were many highlighted points, besides already knew Eggman had somehow something to do with Sonic's "death" incident but leaving the blame on Espio as the "culprit" since his alibi was a bit shady.

I did enjoy the Casino Car "heist". That part during the plan with the option of being Blaze's spouse was downright hilarious. Then when Rouge began to open the Fabergé Chao Egg in which everyone started panicking when they thinking it was a bomb, the options on so many choices on how to stop the timer had me dying!

Then we get to Shadow, it was so adorable of him that he was trying to get Amy tickets to see her favorite band (or their favorite band) for her birthday. Goodness if the Twitter Takeover 6 with them being Taylor Swift fans hadn't gotten them much more in common in terms of interests. And then she invited him made it more of a ShadAmy moment. 

 

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I said this earlier in the statuses and earlier on Retro and earlier on Twitter, but this is the best Sonic thing in years and years.

This is the blend of comedy, tension, character interactions, lore, all of it, that they've been looking for. It's right here! I could only hope this little goofy experiment ends up being really successful, because I really hope it influences their storytelling for future games. If not the main games, then at the very least future visual novels like this.

And everyone acts themselves in ways I haven't seen in years! It's been such a sight for sore eyes to see

Spoiler

- Tails being inquisitive and adorable
- Amy being a ditzy bratty primadonna
- Knuckles, Vector and Espio all being buddies and knowing each other
- Rouge getting to do some treasure hunting
- Sonic's animosity for Eggman / Eggman's over the top bombastic attitude at Sonic

Just made me so overwhelmingly happy. And then

Spoiler

- Blaze's entire everything
- All the player character's dialogue / the dialogue choices
- SHADAMY REAL?!?!?

Just holy shit, bros. We just got FED. When's the last time we've been FED?!

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Spoiler

Tails explaining the sunk cost fallacy was gold. Great over-explain on how you are wasting your time.

 

even better when you find out that Blaze owned the slots before you got there. lol

 

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7 minutes ago, azoo said:

Just holy shit, bros. We just got FED. When's the last time we've been FED?!

Last year.

 

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1 hour ago, Kaze no Klonoa said:

In the Options, you can adjust the difficulty of the "THINK" minigames. You can enable invincibility / remove bottomless pits if that helps!

Oh can you??  That’s fantastic!  I’ll try that, thank you!

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11 minutes ago, DaBigJ said:
19 minutes ago, azoo said:

Just holy shit, bros. We just got FED. When's the last time we've been FED?!

Last year.

The powers and devs that be have been keeping good momentum on the series' reputation lately. Dandy.

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Just played through it and yeah, this is great.

Like everyone has said, the character interactions in this are some of the best I've seen from the series in general. Hats of to Mutchler. Sega's decision to let the comic side do more with the series continues to be one of the best moves they've made in recent times.

With this and Frontiers, I really, really hope this direction continues with literally everything they do next. Because honestly, after this, it's honestly going to hurt a lot more whenif they fuck up on the narrative side again.

Also pretty big spoiler for the end:

Spoiler

20230401021523-1.jpg

I am ecstatic they seem to be going with the egg fam angle; and so soon too! It's such an hilarious concept that's filled with narrative potential. At least if this is canon...

dear lord please let this be canon

 

All this in a free April Fools joke too... like fuck man. I know at the end of the day Sonic is really just a massive PR effort for Sega these days but real talk, gg.

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I didn't expect that thing at the end... wait nope, i didn't expect ANY OF THIS. After years of doing the joke "Tails is dead", they actually went with "Sonic is murdered" instead. I thought this was such a cool concept for a game to be honest.

Every character was fun and charming to read, the costumes/designs were really great, this is kind of a given but Knuckles with the hat as the sheriff... top! Even though it's not the first time they've been doing it since OVA.

Only thing... the minigame, it would have been more fun if there were more minigames with the other characters other than Sonic running through a special stage kind of. But this is a free game, it's already bigger than I thought it would be since it's a joke.

Spoiler

Shadow is adorable in his intentions, and I laughed for some reason at the "Shadow is locking doors behind him", I dunno why.

Blaze's spouse thing, I immediately clicked on that when there was the option, I knew it would be funny.

I knew Espio was the culprit, not because I followed the clues carefully but it just made sense to me as he was the most calm of the bunch, a reader even, definitely fishy...

And yeah, while it's predictable "Eggman is the final boss" again, I don't mind it because I wanted them to include Eggman in some fashion, the train is the culprit got me laughing too, and the cameos of the Eggfamily at the end were just what I want from them from now on.

I also really liked the cast they picked, although it's missing Big the Cat but I will forgive them, I kind of expected his cameo because nowadays he's everywhere.

More of this stuff please!

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So, uh, someone tell me if I'm overthinking this, but...

(Major Spoilers)

Spoiler

Is it weird that they killed the Train? Like they go out of their way to explain that the thing's sentient, they even use the word "sentient"... and then Amy smashes it with her hammer. I thought they generally didn't destroy the self-aware ones?

Also, it seemed odd that the final boss in this detective game didn't involve any detective work. I thought that the conclusion they were building towards was obvious. You were going to have to find clues one last time, or maybe use the clues you gathered along the way, and you would have to prove to the Train, using evidence, that it was, in fact, acting selfishly. You would still have those super hard minigames, as normal, to convey how hard the argument is.

Instead, you just break it, and none of the characters seem to have any sort of... I don't know, awareness of the fact that they just ended a sentient creature's existence? Like, was there some dissonance at the end for anyone else, or was that just me.

Like, they went out of their way to show that Tails felt empathy for books but the Train gets nothing?

 

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1 hour ago, Kellan said:

So, uh, someone tell me if I'm overthinking this, but...

(Major Spoilers)

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Is it weird that they killed the Train? Like they go out of their way to explain that the thing's sentient, they even use the word "sentient"... and then Amy smashes it with her hammer. I thought they generally didn't destroy the self-aware ones?

Also, it seemed odd that the final boss in this detective game didn't involve any detective work. I thought that the conclusion they were building towards was obvious. You were going to have to find clues one last time, or maybe use the clues you gathered along the way, and you would have to prove to the Train, using evidence, that it was, in fact, acting selfishly. You would still have those super hard minigames, as normal, to convey how hard the argument is.

Instead, you just break it, and none of the characters seem to have any sort of... I don't know, awareness of the fact that they just ended a sentient creature's existence? Like, was there some dissonance at the end for anyone else, or was that just me.

Like, they went out of their way to show that Tails felt empathy for books but the Train gets nothing?

I wouldn't say overthinking but perhaps expecting a bit more from the story than they were going for!

Spoiler

Ultimately it kind of brings up the question of whether it was sentient sentient or just thinking more than normal for a badnik, and whether we can chalk the destruction and release of the Flicky to be kind of, the end of it's existence "so none of it matters now".  Like, it never actually felt anything, it was just programming.

But then it calls into question Gamma, Metal Sonic, Sage, Orbot and Cubot... should we consider them in the same light and not have any empathy for them as characters?  (Of course in Gamma's case, we could follow the same train of thought (harhar) as the fan theory that Gamma was as much the Flicky inside as he was himself the whole way through, and the train "lives on" with their friend into retirement as the Flicky now.

It was a bit awkward and I was disappointed that it just does a basic apology for going rogue as it "dies" from its injuries, as oppose to choosing to end it's own existence as the only logical action to take - since it would be respecting its friend's wishes, repenting for it's dangerous actions, and most importantly freeing the Flicky (who has been trapped for 32 years?  That's also something we kinda have to gloss over to keep the mood light huh??).

 

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32 minutes ago, JezMM said:

I wouldn't say overthinking but perhaps expecting a bit more from the story than they were going for!

Yeah, you're probably right.

Spoiler

Now that I think about it, we did help Rouge rob the train for, like, no reason. So, that probably should've clued me in that we're not supposed to think too hard about the ethical implications of the character's actions this time around.

I think the fact that most of this story is genuinely well-written, especially character-wise, caused me to forget that this is still, at it's core, an April Fools game. Probably shouldn't be taking it too seriously.

I did like it a lot, though!

 

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