4/5 ★ – Cryophage's review of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.

"...What?" I just spent a half hour thinking about ways to open up a discussion about this game in a semi-professional manner, when I realized it’s a game that released near April Fool’s Day about Sonic the flipping Hedgehog getting murdered at a murder mystery party. What can one even say about a game with such an inherently silly concept? While the plot is not as engaging as other murder mysteries, the game still manages to accomplish a lot in its short run time to provide a hint of engagement and intrigue. The actual mystery part of the murder mystery is not half bad, considering how much time it spends on what half of the characters on the train were doing while the murder occurred. It still feels rewarding when one gets to the end and finds out who the murderer is despite the simplicity of the plot twist. Unfortunately, the game does not go as in-depth with the gameplay as one would hope for from a game about solving a mystery. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog goes all in on quaint minigames where the player controls Sonic on a mini auto-runner platforming section where one must collect enough rings before the end of the level. However, these levels tend to happen a bit too frequently; one interrogation alone can feature three or more. Additionally, where other games similar to this- like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa- manage to achieve balance between minigames and letting the player figure out what happened on their own, this game goes all in on these platforming sections and frequent handholding instead of letting the player try to figure out what happened themselves. The characters stand out as the highlight of this game, as the interactions they have with the player character and each other are absolute gold. Several moments feel genuinely hilarious, like during most of the events in the Casino Car, or when the only two dialogue options when talking to Knuckles for the first time are “I like your hat” and “Please don’t beat me up.” The typically abrasive and occasionally irritating Sonic cast come across as endearing and enjoyable when not in serious situations, and the writers should take inspiration from this game to make the writing better in future Sonic games. Of course, critiquing a game like this is near impossible since it does not take itself very seriously and knows it is not a serious experience. The game sets the tone of the entire experience with Sonic getting “murdered” and ending up posed just like Peter Griffin after he falls down the stairs, as the following events feel just as goofy, and the complaints levied against the game in this review do not apply since the development probably did not even think about making a game as intricate as Ace Attorney or Danganronpa. The team did not care, but in the best way possible; They just wanted to make something silly and enjoyable, and they accomplished just that. All in all, I give The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog an 8/10!