Sonic the Hedgehog

General
Sonic, the mascot of Sega, is a rather smart-mouthed blue hedgehog that has the ability to run faster than sound itself; hence the name "Sonic". The beautiful planet where he inhabits is continuously jeopardized by Robotnik's (or Eggman's) evil plans. With his supersonic speed and a little help from his friends, Sonic puts those plans to an end each time.

Attributes
Sonic is, without a doubt, the fastest character in the game. He can easily devastate his opponents by over-capitalizing their errors using his immense speed. On the other hand, he doesn't do extremely well in the air due to his lack of air speed, yet he has decent aerial attacks which are coupled with his superb recovery both vertically and horizontally, making him an ideal edgeguarder. Lastly, he has several combos, thanks to his throws and tilt attacks.

Even though Sonic can easily rack up damage, he arguably has the hardest time landing a KO move, as all of his KO moves are unreliable, he has no guaranteed setups to them, and he lacks an early KO move. Sonic has only four ways to reliably kill the opponent (backwards and upwards aerial, and side/down smash), all of which have weaknesses that prevent them from being reliable KO moves. All of Sonic's smash attacks have too slow start-up time to be reliable finishers.

Sonic is one of the more difficult characters to gimp in the game, given his tremendous vertical recovery, as well as his theoretically limitless horizontal recovery (Homing Attack) should an opponent be off the stage with him. Sonic has the ability to wall jump, however, should an opponent be in place at all, invincible or not, Sonic will not have enough time to both attack and successfully grab the edge. Sonic also has surprising survivability despite being a middleweight by nature. His down and side special serve as excellent momentum cancelers, which when coupled with his ability to recover, can allow him to survive until very high percentages, not as long as the heaviest characters, but still fairly long.

Sonic's attacks are primarily offensive in nature, and his air game and air speed are good enough to accommodate attacking in the sky, as well. Sonic can remain in the air indefinitely with careful use of his neutral special, Homing Attack, and with proper placement can either stage spike or gimp in this manner. Stage spiking in general is an excellent offensive strategy for Sonic; by running off the edge and immediately using back air, many characters or opponents who focus on ledge-camping (such as Pit) can be caught off guard for either a kill or a tactical advantage. Sonic's speedy and long-lasting dash attack is another move that can catch opponents unexpectedly, and its traveling distance usually prevents significant retaliation, such as shield-grabbing.

Sonic has good punishment options. Many of Sonic's moves use the same spinning ball animation, making him a very difficult character to predict. Unlike some characters however, practice is required to fully unlock Sonic's punishment potential. Sonic has one of the best shields in the game, because of the speed it pops out and the multiple ways he can go into it. Sonic can cancel any of his Spin Dashes/Charges into a shield, Spin Dash from the ground, and Spin Charge from the air. This allows Sonic to "fake-out" his opponents, causing them to make hasty moves on which Sonic can capitalize on. When an opponent goes into their knock down animation, Sonic's superior punishment comes into play. By moving closer to the opponent then stopping just outside their range, Sonic has the edge. Because of his speed, if they roll towards Sonic, away from Sonic or use their getup attack, Sonic can grab them as they finish their move. Sonic is surprisingly easy to grab out of his attacks, because many of his moves launch him straight at opponents, only to have Sonic finish the move next to the opponent.

Mastering Sonic's running game is crucial to Sonic's ability to perform at higher levels, and is one of the factors that makes him so difficult to play competitively. Sonic users take advantage of a variety of dash or dash-related techniques that are seldom used by other characters. Dash-dancing is much less useful in Brawl than it was in Melee, but it can be extremely useful for fake-outs in Sonic's gameplay, such as by running in one direction and then quickly turning the other way around to bait an opponent or catch him/her off-guard. It is often regarded by Sonic players that it is better to run away from the opponent and run back than to use roll-dodges to avoid opponent. This allows the player to avoid damage, not be as easily punished, have more control over their actions, and be able to punish their opponent's attacks. Dash-dance pivots (foxtrot away from opponent, then quickly dash-dance backwards) are particularly effective for this, as they can cause almost immediate turnarounds and then grabs can then be used to punish opponents.

Sonics matchups are difficult to define, as they vary greatly from player to player, possibly moreso than for any other character. Sonic players to this day find it difficult to agree on which matchups are Sonic's worst. Depending on the play-style of the Sonic, he can have a decent matchup against almost any character in the game, even at competitive levels. Because of his prowess for mindgaming and switching up tactics, as well as the inherent strengths and weaknesses to each style of play, some Sonic mains argue that Sonic has no truly disadvantageous matchups as a character, and that his matchups are much more heavily influenced by playstyle than his actual attributes. However, most Sonic mains will agree that he does not have many, if any, truly advantageous matchups.

Sonic's Normal Moves
Jab


 * Sonic punches, then does two follow-up kicks if the attack button is pressed repeatedly. This jab has deceptively good range. 2% for the first two punches, then 4% for the kick.

Forward Tilt


 * Sonic preforms a two-hit sideways kick while standing on his hands, similarly to his Brawl counterpart. This move is quick and has good range. Does up to 9% damage (2% with the first hit, 7% with the second).

Up Tilt


 * Sonic performs a backflip kick as seen in Sonic Battle. It's fairly strong, but sees no combo potential for Sonic. Does up to 9%.

Down Tilt


 * Sonic spins and sweeps his leg along the ground at high speed while sliding forward a short distance. This move is very fast and can combo into many other moves. 7%.

Nair


 * Sonic performs a quick spinning attack while curled in a ball. This move is Sonic's fastest aerial and has relatviely high knockback. Up to 9% damage.

Fair


 * Sonic does a frontflip and brings his foot down in a powerful axe kick. This is Sonic's signature spike and is among the strongest Spikes in the game, but it is fairly difficult to hit with it due to its slow startup speed. 15% with the spike, 11% otherwise.

Bair


 * Sonic does a fairly quick reverse side kick with good knockback. This is one of Sonic's most viable finishing moves. 13% sweetspotted, 12% otherwise.

Uair


 * Sonic flips upwards and does a two-hit scissor kick. A fast move, this attack beats out many other aerial moves with its high priority. 4% with the first hit, 7% with the second.

Dair


 * Sonic dives down with a spinning drill kick that hits several times. This move has a somewhat slow startup, but it has decent damage and knockback. Up to 12%.

Side Smash


 * Sonic slowly winds up and delivers a powerful punch. 15%.

Up Smash


 * Sonic spins into the air, hitting multiple times for up to 14% damage. This move has a notable amount of startup invincibility.

Down Smash


 * Sonic curls into a ball and dashes back and forth, hitting opponents on both sides. 14% with the front hit, 11% with the back.

Forward Throw


 * Sonic kicks his foe into the air in front of him. 8%. This move can start combos, but they have strict timing.

Back Throw


 * Sonic does two backward rolls and flings his opponent backwards. 8%.

Up Throw


 * Sonic tosses his opponent up and handstand-kicks them. 9%.

Down Throw


 * Sonic puts his opponent on the ground and spins on top of them, releasing them after three hits. 8%.

Dash Attack


 * Sonic curls into a ball and does his Spin Attack. Does 7% damage in the first few frames, and 4% afterwards. This attack is very fast, but has a lot of ending lag.