By Zamantha Muñoz-Morales

Rolling around at the speed of sound since 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog is without a doubt one of gaming’s most remarkable and beloved icons. The year was definitely his best year to date! Sega and Sonic Team made sure to touch every form of media possible!  We got a movie, two new games, and tv shows, just to name a few. Now that he is closing his 31st year, I think we should take a look back on one of the biggest years for the blue blur and what it brought.  

Starting off 2022 was the long-awaited sequel to the first Sonic movie. When Sonic the Hedgehog 2 finally made its debut in theaters on April 8, fans were impressed. The story’s main focus is around a century-long beef between Sonic and the Knuckles’ ancestors, along with Sonic’s maturity improving, and the two-hour-long journey to find the master emerald. The movie once again broke the records for the number one video game movie in the United States!  It wasn’t long until Paramount announced that the third film in the franchise is in development and set to release in December of 2024 as well as a solo Knuckles spinoff show coming to Paramount Plus in 2023. Only Sonic the Hedgehog could pull off greatness like that, and his greatness continues throughout the year!

After the movie was released, all eyes were on Sega for what they were planning for the 31st anniversary. In response, they released Sonic Origins, a classic video game collection, on his anniversary. The game was a blast of nostalgia for Sonic fans who grew up with him in the 90s. The collection includes Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles, and Sonic cd.  It even includes some special features like anniversary mode, which gives access to new features exclusive to the collection such as secret missions. Needless to say, Sonic Origins was a good game overall. The biggest takeaways were Shadow was confirmed to be in the new Sonic tv show, Sonic Prime; there was an exclusive gameplay reveal for Sonic Frontiers; and there was a first look at an animated prologue for the game taking place prior to the events within the Frontiers story. As the months passed, the day finally arrived when Sonic Frontiers was released on all video game platforms. November 9th was like a big holiday for Sonic fans. December, however, was finishing Sonic’s 31st year with his new Netflix original series, Sonic Prime. Spoiler-free elements include a pirate dimension, a jungle tribe universe, and a world where Eggman turned Green Hill into a tech wasteland. All in all, Sonic Prime was a great way to end off Sonic’s year full of surprises.  

If I had to choose a favorite Sonic offering from 2022, it would be Sonic Prime. If we look back, the last time we got a new Sonic show was all the way back in 2015 with Sonic Boom which was soon canceled back in 2017. Sonic Prime is a breath of fresh air for the Sonic community because it gives us another Sonic in the multiverse of madness scenario that we had not gotten since Archie Comics. The voice acting was done well, and the overall writing was done splendidly for every episode. I loved every project for 2022, and the only question that remains is, can 2023 top 2022?