Sonic is no stranger to racing games. The Blue Blur has starred in Sonic Drift, Sonic R, Sonic Riders, and Sega All-Stars Racing. However, he also appeared in many racing titles outside of his own franchise. Examples of this include Daytona USA, Radmobile, OutRunners, and more! You can catch Sonic’s cameo exploits after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghfOTLsLpn4
When racing down Three Seven Speedway in Daytona USA, a sculpture in the side of a mountain will come into view. Upon closer inspection, you’ll find that it’s none other than Sonic the Hedgehog! Sonic can be viewed best from the first person perspective. Keep your eyes peeled on the video above from 0:22-0:24.
Long before Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic was already being featured with jet skis. In Wave Runner, Sonic’s image is sported upon the back of the main player’s wet suit.
In yet another Sega arcade classic, Sonic also appears in Sega Ski Super G. Players can ski between the legs of a giant Sonic sculpture. You can catch the skier swooping under him at 2:29-2:35.
A popular cameo for Sonic has been as a mirror decoration. He has decorated rear-view mirrors in Rad Mobile and Gale Racer.
Another common theme is Sonic appearing on billboards. Sonic billboards can be found in F1, Formula One World Championship, OutRunners, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, and Sega Super GT. You can catch the Sonic billboard in OutRunners at 0:43-0:45.
Racing games are not the vessel for Sonic’s cameos. He can be spotted in platformers, RPGs, horror games, and even on competitor consoles! Stay tuned for more of Sonic’s cameos.
A very informative and interesting post and a solid idea for a new feature. Thanks a lot, Stan! The Daytona cameo is ingrained in my memory, but a lot of the others were new to me. Interesting to see the different way they squeezed the blue blast in there.
While it’s not particularly a racing game, the cameo I remember most does involve a race. It’s in the Saturn game, BUG!, where during a bonus challenge, Bug must race against none other than Sonic in order to win an extra life. Sonic speeds in the background while you do your thing in the foreground. It’s a great gaming moment, and I imagine was meant as more of a torch-passing ceremony with SEGA’s hopes that Bug would become their new mascot for the 3D era. It never happened, but it was fun while it lasted!
Here’s a video of the race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilbcb3mrLf8
Thank you for your feedback, Grolt. I appreciate it. I will be certain that Sonic’s cameo in Bug will be mentioned in the future. 🙂