Did you know there’s a 3v3 Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game? Well there is! It’s called Ultimate Sonic Smackdown, and you can play it right now.
Indie studio Arcforged has released the game to the public for free. In an announcement trailer released today, you can see a variety of Sonic characters duke it out in 2D. All you’ve got to do is join the game’s official Discord server and get playing!
You may have guessed it from the title, but Ultimate Sonic Smackdown is actually a drastic overhaul of an older fan game: Sonic Smackdown. That game was a traditional 1v1 fighter, and has been playable online via Itch.io or at US tournaments for a while now.
This iteration, four years in the making, is a wilder evolution of the game. A tagging system means more hectic fights, more options for offence, and the opportunity to team up your favourite Sonic characters in your chosen squad. It’s the latest in a sparse scattering of Sonic the Hedgehog fighting games, first established by the official, Sega-developed Sonic the Fighters released in arcades in 1996. Its Sega Saturn port was cancelled.
As a tag fighter, Ultimate Sonic Smackdown joins a bizarrely packed collection of similar games coming out soon. You’ve got HunterxHunter NenxImpact coming in July, 2XKO which is bound to come out sooner or later, c’mon guys. Then you’ve got Invincible Vs coming next year, as well as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls! So suddenly, a style of fighting game that had basically no modern representation is stacked with incoming options.
Sonic has a rich history of fan games. Famously, Sega hired Christian Whitehead to be lead developer on Sonic Mania, following his work on unofficial ports of older Sonic games. There’s also a fan-made PC port of Sonic Unleashed which is rad, and a 16-bit makeover of Sonic Triple Trouble from a few years back.