The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog – how is this the least polarising Sonic game in recent memory? (pic: Sega)



A joke game about Sonic being murdered is doing far better than Sega may have expected, as it sits among Steam’s top 100 games of all time.



Unlike most April Fool’s jokes , we were surprised by how much we enjoyed The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog . Rather than just being a typical fake game announcement, Sega actually made a short but sweet visual novel murder mystery, that kills off its iconic mascot.



For what was meant to be a one-off joke, it seems Sega may have inadvertently struck gold, as the game has become a runaway success on Steam with over 1 million downloads.



It being free obviously means it’s not making any money for them, but user reviews are so overwhelmingly positive that it’s become one of the highest rated games on all of Steam, with less than 200 of its roughly 11,700 user reviews marked as negative.



It’s even surpassed not just every other Sonic The Hedgehog game available on the service, but every other Sega game in general… sort of.



Steam actually has two separate trackers and they have their own ways of weighing reviews, though both still place the game within the top 100.



SteamDB currently has The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog in 61st place overall, higher than any other Sega game.



Steam250 , on the other hand, charts it at 98th place at the time of writing. Still higher than the rest of the Sonic series (in fact, no other Sonic game sits in the top 250), but below the likes of Persona 5 Royal (93rd place) and Persona 4 Golden (65th place). Although it’s debatable whether Atlus’ stuff should be considered seperately.









Given its popularity, could this convince Sega to make a proper fully-fledged Sonic mystery novel? Maybe actually kill Sonic for real and let one of his many, many friends replace him as the new company mascot?



Probably not. If he can survive Sonic Boom for the Wii U, he can survive anything. Plus, we doubt anyone wants to see someone like Charmy Bee or Big the Cat take over as the new face of the franchise (Shadow, maybe, but don’t let him near any guns).



There is perhaps something rather telling that this joke title that doesn’t play like a regular Sonic game is performing far better than his previous efforts. The series hasn’t exactly had a stellar track record, with Sonic Frontiers only recently suggesting things may be turning around for the better.



Then again, people are always going to be more receptive to something that you don’t have to pay any money for, and the gag of killing Sonic has no doubt attracted attention from those outside of the usual audience.



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Regardless of how it achieved its popularity, the team behind the game is grateful for all the positivity.



Katie Chrzanowski, the Sonic brand’s social media manager and one of the minds behind the game’s initial pitch, tweeted, ‘Over 1 million of you have grabbed The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog and it’s currently the #61 highest rated game on Steam of all time. Absolutely unreal. Thank you all so, so much.’



Producer and project manager Michal Shafrir adds: ‘The outpouring of love for our game this past week has been beyond insane.



‘Thank you so much to everyone who played it, told a friend, left a review, drew fanart, streamed it, and just a huge general thank you to all Sonic fans who embraced this new adventure.’




The outpouring of love for our game this past week has been beyond insane Thank you so much to everyone who played it, told a friend, left a review, drew fanart, streamed it, and just a huge general thank you to all sonic fans who embraced this new adventure 💙 https://t.co/TqL1HKRX3O — Michal Shafrir (@Miexriir) April 5, 2023




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