Sonic Forces

About

Sonic Forces is a platform video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise released in November of 2017 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. The game notably features the addition of a player-avatar character who plays an important role in the plot.

Development

Sonic Forces was developed by the Sonic Team, which made Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.^[1] The game was announced at San Diego Comic Con on June 22nd, 2016. That day, the trailer for the game was uploaded to YouTube by the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube Channel (shown below). The trailer showed off the avatar player-character addition to the game.

On August 31st, 2017, the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account announced several pre-order bonus costumes for Sonic Forces, which included skin based on the protagonist Joker from Persona 5 (shown below). Sonic Forces was released on November 7th, 2017.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews from critics. As of November 8th, 2017, the game has a 53/100 on Metacritic.^[2] While critics praised the visual presentation, they criticized the game's brevity and platforming problems that had plagued previous entries in the Sonic franchise.

Online Reaction

Similar to critics, fans have mixed reviews of Sonic Forces. On Steam, the game has a mixed user rating.^[3] On /r/SonicTheHedgehog, users joked about the game's poor reception, especially compared to Sonic Mania. A post by foxhuntelectronic^[4] making this point gained over 160 points in the subreddit on November 8th.

Sonic Forces 5 Persona Costume

Sonic Forces Persona 5 Costume, also known as Fursona 5, refers to the Persona 5-themed player skin for the Sonic Forces player-avatar. After the costume was announced in late August 2017, many online made jokes describing it as a furry depiction of the Persona 5 protagonist.

Sonic Forces Trailer

On May 16th, 2017, the GameSpot YouTube channel uploaded an official trailer for the Sonic Forces, showcasing how players will be able to create their own custom heroes to play in the game (shown below). That day, Redditors began discussing the custom heroes in the context of original characters in a thread posted to the /r/Games subreddit.

Meanwhile, Twitter user @TheLazyShyGuy posted a photoshopped screencap of Sonic Forces trailer featuring Coldsteel the Hedgeheg (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 likes and 700 retweets. Also on May 16th, the gaming news site Polygon published an article titled "Sonic fans celebrate original characters – and memes – becoming canon in Sonic Forces."

Sonic Hooters

Sonic Hooters refers to a promotional campaign between Sega and the restaurant chain Hooters to promote Sonic Forces.

On September 23rd, 2017, Sega announced a partnership with Hooters to promote Sonic Forces during the Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, Japan. That day, NeoGAF member AlexFlame116 posted several photographs from the event in a thread titled "Sonic Forces x Hooters partnership announced" (shown below).

On September 23rd, Twitter user @TheChaosSpirit^[1] posted an illustration of Sonic the Hedgehog wearing a Hooters tanktop (shown below). That day, Twitter user @neonspindash uploaded a similar illustration of Sonic serving a beer while dressed in a Hooters uniform (shown below, right).

On September 25th, YouTuber ProtoMario posted a video discussing the Hooters announcement (shown below).

Sanic Shirt DLC

On November 25th, 2017, the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter feed announced the release of a free Sanic T-shirt DLC, allowing players to customize their in-game avatar with a T-shirt featuring the MS paint character (shown below).^[4] Within 48 hours, the tweet gained over 29,400 likes and 10,100 retweets.

That day, several posts about the new DLC reached the front page of various subreddits, including /r/gamegrumps,^[5] /r/NintendoSwitch^[6] and /r/SonicTheHedgehog.^[7] In the coming days, video game news sites published articles about the Sanic T-shirt, including Polygon,^[8] GameSpot^[9] and Eurogamer.^[10]

Search Interest

External References