Sonic is a hedgehog, you may have heard, an animal known for rolling up into a ball to bear the quills on its back. The spin dash is also a rather compelling bit of fiction. The ‘boost formula’ games, as they’re called ( Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Forces), none of which feature the spin dash in the same prominence as the older games, still feature a way to rapidly build speed to a maximum level, but more on that later.

Even as the spin dash fell by the wayside this value never seemed to go away. Ideally, the player should be given methods to reach that state of fun as readily as possible if high-paced action is the goal. The super speed is the draw after all, it’s the fun part. Sonic Team did not want Sonic crossing long stretches while not running at super speed. This requires space, it requires time, it’s generally not something you can do on a dime. 3 Mario has to run a good few seconds as the player holds down the dash button to reach top speed. Titular super speedy player-controlled hedgehog, Sonic is able to roll up into a ball, spin rapidly in place like the wheel of a revving race car, then take off with near-instant acceleration to a great speed. Sonic The Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis, the debut, introduces us to the spin dash. Building momentum is an angle Sonic has explored a lot through his games, but I’d argue that from the beginning, Sonic Team has understood that maintaining momentum is a lot more interesting than building momentum. ‘Momentum’ is a word that’s thrown around a lot, and I generally agree it’s an essential component to the gameplay formula of the blue hedgehog. One of the bottomless yawning abysms which haunt discourse around Sonic as a series of mechanical systems is what values, exactly, make the games fun, and which should be the focus in a given design system. What is the spin dash? If you’ve ever heard of Sonic The Hedgehog you probably know, but it is a special move that Sonic can do by rolling into a ball and spinning to charge up energy, then launch himself real fast in one direction. One such thought was ‘they really still haven’t brought back the spin dash’.

Promotions which have given me some thoughts. It is a topic I could wax about for ages, especially in light of recent promotions for the, as of this writing, still upcoming Sonic Frontiers. The three-dimensional variety Sonic in particular. I must admit I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Sonic The Hedgehog.

Sonic generations dash ring model