Review: Sonic the Hedgehog: 30th Anniversary Special

It’s Been A Hell Of A Run

It’s hard to believe it’s been thirty years since the iconic blue hedgehog ran across our screens and into a comic book series that refuses to die. The previous popular incarnation of Sonic’s comic ran for a whopping twenty-four years (1993-2017) before landing itself in the Guinness Book of Records for being the longest-running comic based on a video game. These days the Archie take on Sonic has ended and has been revived as something a little closer to the games by veteran writers and artists who worked on Sonic previously under the Archie branding.

These days, Sonic’s comic representation has been streamlined, losing some of its wilder elements such as alternate universe clones, reality shattering demigods, and more down-to-earth elements like romantic relationships between the main cast, which have been avoided thus far. The new IDW run that started in 2018 has sadly lost a lot of its edge but still maintains a quality standard, albeit a more cookie-cutter approach.

The Main Event

The show Ian Flynn has decided to put on to celebrate Sonic can be described with one word; safe. The main story sees Sonic and the gang dealing with enemies new and old. They split off into groups and search for The Chaos Emeralds across different zones displayed lovingly as full drawings that resemble the pixelized playgrounds the hedgehog blazed through in the ’90s. We get to see the big guns trotted out like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy alongside other classic albeit more obscure characters like Bark, Bean and Fang. The art and setting evoke the classic Sonic style sticking to the cast that only appeared in the old 2D titles and the more recent Sonic Mania.

Sadly the plot is nothing special, it feels like a goofy adventure that carries no consequences by the time it’s wrapped up, and we also don’t get any character drama aside from Sonic really wanting to race his metal counterpart. They race around the zones, battle and collect gems until it’s finally revealed Eggman’s newest creation has taken over his lair and has been the one collecting the gems in order to amass ultimate power. It’s just as boring as it sounds, but the cast’s colourful personalities and the wonderful art keep it from becoming too tiresome. If you’re buying this book, it should be for the art more so than the story itself.

Sonic Learns To Drive

The second story has a little more substance and a lot more personality. We find our speed addicted hero behind the wheel of a van terrorizing his poor driving instructor, who is along for the ride. As Sonic blazes down the road like a bat out of hell, we get a funny but awkwardly worded explanation on why Sonic wants to get his licence. Amusingly Sonic explains while he’s faster than any car ever built, at times, his feet do hurt, and more importantly, he wants to enter a race to win a lifetime supply of his favourite food, chilidogs. The second story spoke to me a lot more as it felt like an episode of Rocko’s Modern Life, but instead of an anxious wallaby, we follow the fastest thing alive; watching him drive his instructor bonkers.

Seeing Sonic dodge traffic in this unexplained cartoony world created just for this short made me smile. Because of his inability to slow down, Sonic fails to pass his exam but ends up winning his driving instructor over as a friend when he tags along to help the hedgehog defeat Robotnik.

Eggman’s Birthday

The final short that brings the Sonic 30th Anniversary Special to a close is about Dr Eggman having and hating his birthday. We see every year his minions try to throw him a party, and they won’t stop no matter how much he asks them to relent. It’s basic, boring and written in an ultimately dry way in an attempt to evoke emotion from the reader for Dr Eggman.

“The Sonic 30th Anniversary Special is a pretty poor party.”

2/5 Stars

Writers: Ian Flynn, Clint, Justin, Travis & Griffin McElroy

Art: Aaron Hammerstrom, Thomas Rothlisberger, Tracy Yardley, Reggie Graham, Matt Froese, Mauro Fonseca