19 Sonic the Hedgehog Designs Ranked from Worst to Best

[Music] so full of mission here it did not strike me until the release of sonic the hedgehog 4 that modern sonic and classic sonic were two different designs i never even considered the fact that his anatomy was slightly different and that his eyes were green until the entire internet pointed it out because i remember sonic the hedgehog 4's announcement trailer getting quite a bit of ridicule for using sonic's at that time modern design as opposed to the classic one it didn't even dawn on me i just literally thought of it as an art style change and now sega have gone ahead and established classic sonic as the younger version of the modern sonic and then gone so far as to say they're completely different people from other dimensions in the same dang continuity but are we gonna have answers for all the other sonic designs that exist so you know what i got down to work and i tried to find as many distinctive different sonic designs as i could and kind of go ahead and rank them for you i came up with 19 and two honorable mentions that it's not fair to put in this ranking which i'll get to before we unveil the top picks heck there may be a chance that when you watch this list you think ah never even thought of that as a new design well to be honest i've been on that exact journey of discovery when i troll google images looking for pictures of sonic and that's a normal sunday evening for me so sit back relax subscribe because we are going to be ranking sonic the hedgehog's designs through the ages in 19th place and many of you can probably predict this is the version one of sonic the hedgehog's movie design i think when it came to poorly translated video game to realistic movie designs the sonic the hedgehog design was unprecedented my god the design could not have been much worse than this and i think to be honest most people would agree that this design was very poorly conceived sonic the hedgehog is supposed to be appealing he's supposed to look appealing he's supposed to appeal to that sort of tween tweenage radical sensibility not look like a sleep paralysis demon now i can't see inspiration for this i i genuinely can see what inspired the different parts of this design they clearly wanted this to look like something that could exist in our world so they thought well what's the closest thing we have to like a humanoid animal he's kind of got kind of a monkey anatomy going on about him he's got these long monkey fingers these veiny monkey hands his hands and feet are back to being proportionate he got a monkey mouth but his nose is kind of like a real hedgehogs and it points upwards and kind of tapers in the eyes are separated which i guess i mean why wouldn't they be to be honest they're trying to make this look realistic but they're much more of a realistic look to them you can always kind of see the veins on them if you look up close the ears are like cat ears with an almost kind of disgusting amount of detail in there and that's the thing with this is it's a really really detailed character model a lot of working hours must have gone into this and a lot of thought must have clearly gone into this but my god this sonic is the uncanny valley unfortunately it's one of those things where all that effort just didn't pay off because this frankly looked hideous in 18th place now then i didn't want to include any archie comic sonic designs on here because he's usually pretty on model to what sonic would look like in illustrated form as far as the modern sonic goes but there is one version of modern sonic in the archie comics that did grab my attention and that is ken penders sonic which really to be honest is not much better than movie sonic for starters it might be even more terrifying but i'm not so sure yet at least this doesn't have the benefit of being three-dimensional and inhabiting the same space as humans but everything that could possibly go wrong with a drawing of sonic the hedgehog tends to go wrong in ken pender's artwork for starters sonic has human anatomy we don't have noodle limbs we have muscles and joints but then that is paired up with sonic's giant hands feet and head the eyes are still kind of joined up but at the same time they are huge this time sonic is really giving ogorki the hedgehog a run for his money when it comes to having giant dilated pupils so it's not really something that's inspired or well thought out like the sonic movie version this is literally everything that could ever go wrong with an illustration of sonic ever and frankly it's terrifying in 17th place we have fleetway sonic who's kind of like a poorly translated version of classic sonic i think at the time that fleetway comics were the main source of sonic stories we rarely really got a good look at sonic the hedgehog from other angles angles that were required for this level of storytelling so they basically had to kind of make sonic's design up for a brand new perspective and it just doesn't work i get the sense that they took a little bit of inspiration from toei sonic in regard to how the quills sort of point upwards but sonic's anatomy itself is so much closer to the usa model of classic sonic those two are polar opposites usa classic sonic and toei sonic are the complete opposite of one another and this weird amalgamation just doesn't work in 16th place we have sonic's design in sonic heroes sonic heroes wanted to kind of take sonic back to his roots to a degree by going back to a much more colorful kid-friendly sort of aesthetic it was the kind of thing while returning to the roots of sonic the hedgehog they also wanted to advance the series too this wasn't just like a nostalgia trip so it's not like we went back to classic sonic or anything like that what we got instead was a much more colorful look of modern sonic in a brand new art style and this look was quite a drastic departure from the sort of artwork that we'd seen on the previous two 3d sonic games in that it was all 3d and for me this first venture into having 3d artwork for the game just didn't quite pay off or at least in hindsight i don't really like this look it's very plasticky very tacky everything is crazy shiny and glossy looking maybe it's just hindsight but for me this just doesn't work as well as the radical sort of 2d artwork that we got for sonic adventure 1 2 and the sonic advance series i think this was also the first time that sonic looked truly lanky as well as that and i definitely prefer when he's got slightly smaller proportions than this his head's also a bit of a boxy shape and he's got really thick eyebrows in 15th place we have sega superstars sonic that's a lot of alliteration and i'm referring exclusively to sonic's design in sega superstars for the itoy which released one year after sonic heroes and showed us a drastically improved sonic design sonic's design was much more like in the adventure series albeit with longer legs and his character model was definitely of a significantly higher quality it has a lot of personality with that cheeky grin my only issue with this is that once again he has this very plasticky look it's definitely toned down a bit from sonic heroes but it is still present in 14th place we have 3d 90s classic sonic but let's call him extreme sonic for sure this guy had been making little appearances since the sonic the hedgehog 3 title screen he was seen again in the title screen for sonic and knuckles would have made his playable debut in sonic xtreme if it weren't cancelled but he did get to appear in sonic 3d blast this was made at a time when cgi imagery was still pretty new and pretty primitive and sonic being made up of simplistic shapes translated quite well to that and he still managed to carry a lot of that classic sonic personality over to the third dimension pretty well oh that's it yeah i forgot to mention he was also in sonic's schoolhouse man what a primitive era for gaming and while this definitely does appear quite dated today it certainly could have been worse and i think in many ways as i said before it is thanks to sonic's design being made of very simplistic shapes they were able to make it work this early on in 13th place we have deke sonic dexonic came about at a time when we still hadn't quite established how sonic looked in different angles and different perspectives and different dimensions and this was sonic's storytelling on a level like we'd never seen before at the time of the video games release because deke was a usa-based animation studio obviously sonic's design here shares a lot in common with sonic's design in the us box art for the original sega mega drive games with the thicker bodily anatomy and the appearing to be almost two-dimensional spikes on the back of his head it was definitely a more layered look for sonic much like the usa version but i'm really not sure how i feel about this interpretation of sonic's trademark quills in 12th place we have 2006 sonic 2006 marked sonic's first jump into the high definition era and with it came the at that time most polished sonic the hedgehog 3d character model we had ever seen but design wise this was a little bit of a departure from what had come before sonic had become progressively lankier over the years and this marked the next succession in that step but some would say it's a step too far sonic's design no longer had that sense of bounce to it anymore it was definitely slick but perhaps a bit too slick his trademark quills now look almost like a bunch of bananas and sonic's trademark personality just isn't coming across in this design now that isn't something that's just lost in translation though if you've ever played sonico 6 or seen the cutscenes sonic's trademark personality just isn't there and as you would expect the fandom were pretty vocal about it which is why safe for the sonic rider sequel this design didn't see the light of day again in 11th place is classic sonic usa it's a little bit strange how much miscommunication there was between sega of japan and sega of america in the 90s dr eggman was renamed to dr robotnik to make for a more threatening villain for us audiences this change was hastily made without the consent of sega of japan and the same goes for sonic the hedgehog getting a redesign for the usa boxer and promotional art with a sonic design that was expected to be more appealing to the american market in an art style similar to what you would see on a 90s disney movie i actually believe that this design was handled by one of the people that worked on artwork for like the goofy movie and that really does come across not only in the way that the design is shaded but also just the sort of art style to it it's definitely a more layered up design than its japanese counterpart i can appreciate it for what it is but honest to god i do think the japanese design would have went over just fine and it very much appears to have with the release of sonic mania but at the same time that could just be a hindsight thing maybe if they had released sonic as he were in his japanese design in america in the 90s it might not have taken off the way that it did who knows in 10th place we have modern sonic after the poor reception of sonic the hedgehog 2006 sega wanted to find a midway point between the progressions they were taking with sonic and his roots so when you want to bring sonic back to his roots where better to look than the opening introductory cutscene of shadow the hedgehog yeah there's kind of this misconception that modern sonic made his very first appearance in sonic unleashed but if you look closely at the intro of shadow of the hedgehog sonic can be seen in there and he definitely appears to resemble his modern design it's just that this design never saw the spotlight outside of that brief cameo in their intro until sonic and the secret rings yeah no still not sonic unleashed i think sonic unleashed gets the credit because that's the mainline game the first mainline game to feature this design and by mainline i i don't mean it's like it's not a storybook one or a spin-off it is like the main series so yeah my guess is that sega looked at that opening cgi cutscene and thought okay that's that's the design we need to go for we need to make that the new identity for sonic which is a modern sonic design that kind of trims away some of the lankiness that sonic developed during heroes and sonico 6 but doesn't go too far in the direction of classic sonic either it's a very well-rounded and what many would deem definitive sonic design but while i really do like modern sonic i have to say he's a bit stiff there have been certain instances for example the opening cutscene of sonic unleashed where yeah he's able to express more thanks to better animation but for the most part i generally find this design to be a little bit stiff and a little bit lifeless maybe it's just over familiarity for me but at this stage it's kind of like vanilla sonic i'm sure it was a sight for sore eyes after sonic 06 though in ninth place we've got the mid-2000s promo sonic by which i mean the illustrations the kind of sonic you would see on the box art for sonic adventure 1 and 2. during the late 90s through to the mid-2000s this was like this was the main sonic this was the most you'd ever see of him he was on the cover for both sonic adventure games he was on the sonic mega collection cover the three sonic advanced game covers and the two sonic rush covers and this art style just screams radical which is exactly what sonic needs to be and a very similar aesthetic was carried over to the sonic x tv series it's definitely clear that this caught on as the aesthetic for sonic at that time and i would really love to see this art style make a return as it has a lot of personality the closest thing we've had since this is the animation style for team sonic racing overdrive which combines the sort of radical look of this art style with the expressiveness of the toei sonic and the reason that's not on this list is because i'm not really factoring in like youtube specials or mobile games but it definitely deserves a little shout out of recognition for sure in eighth place and this could be the hill that i die on sonic boom now i'm not gonna claim that i always loved the sonic boom designs when i first saw them i hated them sonic with blue arms extra quills a scarf and sports tape and this is the lankiest he's ever looked have they learned nothing from sonico6 but the truth is i ended up watching sonic boom the series and i loved it and me giving this story and this universe and these characters a chance led to me giving the design work a proper chance and learning to really appreciate this look for sonic yes it was definitely the most drastic departure from sonic's classic design that we had ever had at the time of its release but in some ways that's a good thing because it really got an identity of its own and better yet these character models in particular sonics as well are so much more expressive than their modern counterparts in fact i rarely factor in sonic boom rise of lyric when discussing this because it's not exactly the strong suit of the franchise but the thing about sonic boom rise of lyric that no one ever gives it credit for is its use of squash and stretch animation which is reminiscent to the sonic boom tv series as well stretch and squish animation just suits sonic to the ground it's so expressive i'd love to delve one last time into the sonic boom universe in a sandbox sonic game because this universe was just brimming with personality and it's so sad to see it go there's something so brilliant about sonic boom and just the fact that rise of lyric was so unfinished and so poorly conceived let the whole thing down in sixth place we have sonic's character model in sonic adventure 2. now i realize that in this era of gaming obviously the graphics were going to be pretty primitive and sonic adventure 2 sonic doesn't hold up brilliantly today as far as technical aspects go you can see the polygons on this guy you can feel the polygons on this guy sometimes his arms are detached from his body and his mouth movements are a little strange but from a design standpoint this has a lot of attitude to it sonic's character model and facial expressions have a lot of personality and sonic adventure 2 is probably the most radical sonic game ever made and this is probably the most radical sonic has ever looked complete with gear on his wrists and soap shoes for grinding this design has an identity of its own and i really appreciate that in fifth place we have sonic adventures character model now again primitive very very primitive much more primitive than even the sonic avenger 2 character model but what i appreciate about this design is its anatomy once again sonic has all of the personality you could possibly want from him he's the rad dude with the attitude and his design sells that really well but i also just really appreciate just the body proportions of this guy he's not going full noodle with his limbs they're still slightly thick but he's not too lanky either he's kind of the perfect middle ground between classic sonic and modern sonic which i really appreciate in fourth place we have sonic's revised movie design for starters how unprecedented is it that they literally released a trailer for a sonic the hedgehog movie featuring a drastic redesign of the character that everyone hated but they didn't wait for the sequel to change it they just got straight to work based on everyone's response what this design represents is something awesome it represents our voices being heard and i'll always love it for that but not to mention this design is absolutely fantastic everything i loved about sonic adventure 1's anatomy is present in this one he's not gone for the full noodle look of the later sonic designs but he's not too stumpy either he's perfect the way they've incorporated the fur here really works well and i gotta admit the blue arms have definitely grown on me but also the genius way they've handled sonic's eyes they are pretty much the shape that sonic's eyes usually are but they're no longer joined but instead between them the fur is white to give it that sort of joined look that's absolutely brilliant and so creative if by some chance it turns out that this is not the real sonic the hedgehog redesign which is unlikely at this stage as we had a lot proving that it could be the real thing then i will make a sequel video to this taking him out but for now this is just this is perfect sonic this is the perfect sonic for today we went from the worst sonic ever to one of the best to one that made it to the top four and i think they deserve a round of applause for that in third place is the 3d classic sonic the modern classic sonic i guess you could say from sonic generations and sonic forces in terms of the cutscenes in sonic generations it was pretty minimal but classic sonic stole the show as his character design just had so much more personality than modern sonics did and i think they also really came through well because classic sonic can't talk in these games he can't express himself any other way and this was a pretty flawless 3d translation of the japanese classic sonic but the strangest realization for me was that this design is actually timeless it doesn't look dated when put next to the modern sonic if anything he shows up the modern sonic this 3d version of classic sonic proved that classic sonic still absolutely works today so before i get to my top two picks i'm going to give a few honorable mentions now the reason they're just honorable mentions is because it wouldn't be fair to include in this list so the first one is lego sonic from lego dimensions i think lego did a really nice job realizing sonic's design and bringing it into lego form it's kind of weird that he actually ends up being less stiff and more expressive than the general modern sonic design these days that's crazy and another honorable mention and this is because not an official one but a fan effort instead goes to blue core studios with their sonic the hedgehog fan film design which much like paramount's official release takes sonic into the real world complete with a realistic design now admittedly this design doesn't always work there are some shots where it looks good and some shots where it really doesn't but you gotta think these guys were working with a shoestring budget and how well they managed to make it work with that is impressive much like in the new movie sonic has realistic fur and spines i guess one issue that i have with this though is that the colors of him are so muted in this version but they did a nice job of realizing the rest of sonic's anatomy without going too far making it like a spiky monkey it definitely isn't as visually appealing as the movie sonic redesign from the new film but would you really expect it to be this was a superb effort so in second place is classic sonic's japanese design which is the design that started it all the design we would see on the classic mega drive trilogy covers in japan and europe and would go on to make it ceremonious return for the release of sonic mania which proved one other thing this design is absolutely timeless this art style is absolutely timeless and it should have never been abandoned it's such a simple art style but it's so effective and has so much character it's positively gleaming with color but in the right kind of way and now in first place we have the toei sonic as seen in the opening cut scene of sonic cd as seen in sonic the hedgehog the movie the ova version not the new one also showcased reanimated by tyson hess in the opening and ending of sonic mania as well as the sonic mania adventures series on youtube toei sonic is simply the most refined looking sonic that exists he's so simple but he's got so much character he works from every angle every perspective and he stands so proud he can be slick and athletic but he's not too lanky this design is just a spark of lightning in a bottle that you'll probably never recapture with sonic what do you guys think do you agree with my list disagree comment below and discuss and as always if you enjoyed this video and you want to see more like it don't forget to hit subscribe hit the like button and in the description below is the link to my patreon stay tuned for exciting promos and offers oh hey gang look at this channel goat is back but he's got bad news his computer was hacked by the ad zinko gang and they leaked his private information and now his goat cajoners are there for everybody to see ah man there's quite a predicament you got there channel goat and the thing is you're not the only one do you know how many people get hacked per year and have their personal information and data spread online for all to see a lot like look it up 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Channel: Channel Pup

Views: 188,620

Keywords: sonic movie, sonic the hedgehog movie, movie, sonic, sonic the hedgehog, sonic movie fix, sonic movie redesign, sonic film, sonic the hedgehog redesign, sonic the hedgehog movie redesign, redesign, sonic movie design, sonic design, new, sonic new design, sonic new look, jeff fowler sonic, ben schwartz sonic, jim carrey sonic the hedgehog, jim carrey new movie, new sonic trailer, trailer, sonic ranking, sonic designs ranked, sonic ranked, sonic the hedgehog ranking, worst best

Id: HOFsJZv6qqU

Length: 26min 1sec (1561 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 03 2019