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Sonic Forces: Speed Battle - TV Tropes

  • ️Mon Jun 29 2020

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle (Video Game)

No looking back
You and I, we're on the attack
Full speed ahead
Running to the sunset

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, also known as Sonic Forces Mobile, is a Sonic the Hedgehog online multiplayer racing/battle Mobile Phone Game, meant as a tie-in to Sonic Forces and Spin-Off of Sonic Dash.

The gameplay is similar to Sonic Dash, with automated running, lanes to switch to, and obstacles to avoid. However, instead of Endless Running and occasional boss battles, you are to race against three other players from start to finish and slow them down with Power-Ups, from projectiles for direct attacks to speed boosts to traps to place on the track. The Excuse Plot is that everyone is hunting Phantom Ruby prototypes down and thus race to do so.

The game is known for its regular Events, offering Fan Art-esque costumed versions of characters and bringing minor characters back from off the bus.

Elements first introduced in Sonic Dash, then carried on to here should go on that respective page. Vice-versa applies.

This game provides examples of:

  • 100% Completion: Get every character, and every of their levels to the maximum of 16.
  • Alternate Self: There are alternate world variations of characters from the world of King Arthur, the Paramount universe, and the Shatterspaces.
  • Anti-Rage Quitting: Quitting mid-battle will deduct trophies from your count, most likely to prevent this players from rage-quitting once they're losing to save their trophy count. Unfortunately, this also applies to those whose game crashed or Internet randomly disconnected.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Zig-Zagged. Super characters falls between this and Difficult, but Awesome, mainly due to his dash having a lot working against it despite its speed and invincibility. First of all, it needs at least 50 rings, later nerfed to 80 rings to use, which is a steep cost, and Super form having a lower starting ring level up doesn't help. Second of all, it then leaves you with 0 rings, which puts you at a massive speed disadvantage that can cost you any lead the dash would have gotten you, and lastly, it's not quite as overpowered as it seems, as working against the speed boost is a short transformation sequence that starts it which has them come to a complete stop. On the plus side, if you are skilled enough to stick close enough with the other runners and manage to time their boost just right, Super characters are utterly unstoppable. with them capable of stealing their opponents' lead at the very last second, which can be quite satisfying.
  • Background Music Override: During Infinite and Mephiles events, their boss battle theme replaces the menu theme (and in some cases the stage music too, if they takes one of the player slots as CPU-controlled character).
  • Badass Pacifist: The description for Captive Light lampshades this with care to Tikal's personality: "Win without violence!"
  • Baseball Episode: The Rivals League event, which happens every June, has baseball-themed Slugger Sonic and All-Star Amy and their teams pitting against each other.
  • Blow You Away: There are wind-based items, such as Whirlwind, Wind Boost, Tornado, and Cyclone Charge, that many characters have. They generally do less damage, but steal the rings dropped and give them to the user.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory:
    • You can buy chests of cards of either Super Rare or Event characters with real money in case you need a good character, or level up one.
    • For a modest fee of $9.99 USD/$13.99 CAD (which is a lot for a mobile game), you can unlock Tails' Vault for an event's duration and get your reward cards doubled, having a higher level event character than usual. Later update increased the value of the vault with a daily bonus box containing a few extra cards and depending on the event, an extra doubled-up rings.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • Storm of the Babylon Rogues comes back as a playable character after being gone post-Sonic Free Riders.
    • Tikal the Echidna, who made her playable mobile game debut in Sonic Runners.
    • Excalibur Sonic (and by extension, Caliburn in his super form) from Sonic and the Black Knight made his appearance in this game. In a later update, Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival, Sir Gawain and Sir Galahad also join the roster.
    • Infinite, the main antagonist of Sonic Forces, made his playable debut here.
    • E-102 Gamma made his grand return here as a playable character ever since his last "appearance" in Sonic Battle.
    • Sonic's werehog form from Sonic Unleashed made his playable return since Sonic Runners. Likewise, his Darkspine form from Sonic and the Secret Rings also made his return here.
  • Canon Immigrant:
    • Numerous characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog (Film Series) were added to tie-in to said movies:
      • Movie Sonic, his baby version plus Longclaw the Owl were released alongside the first movie.
      • Movie Tails, Movie Knuckles and Movie Super Sonic were added to coincide with the release of the second movie.
      • Series Knuckles was added as a tie-in to the Knuckles series.
      • Movie Shadow and Movie Super Shadow were added to coincide with the release of the third movie.
    • Tangle, Whisper, and Surge originated in the the IDW comic series, making them the first ever characters from the Sonic comics to be playable in a Sonic video game.
    • As a tie-in to Sonic Prime, alternate universe versions of classic characters from the franchise who made their debut in the show were added to the game.
      • The New Yoke Shatterspace versions of Tails and Amy, Tails Nine and Rusty Rose, were added to the game after the show's debut on Netflix. The show's version of Sonic would also be added on February 28, 2023, specifically after he entered the Boscage Maze Shatterspace, known as "Boscage Maze Sonic".
      • Knuckles the Dread and Thorn Rose from the No Place and Boscage Maze Shatterspaces respectively joined the roster in 2023 for the premiere of the show's second season.
      • Alpha Grim Sonic, or simply Grim Sonic, was added to the game a few days before the third and final season's premiere in January 2024.
  • Cast from Money:
    • Rouge's Booby Trap inflicts this on players as a debuff, locking them out of their item slots until they pay a ring fee per slot to open them back up.
    • Treasure Hunter Knuckles and Elite Agent Rouge's Gold Rush and Infinite's Phantom Dash drain a certain amount of rings when the boost is activated until its duration is completed.
    • Super Form (or Sol Transformation for Blaze), costs 80 rings to activate (initially 50 rings) in true Super fashion. Upon activation, the characters will transform and dash forward with invincibility, consuming rings at a quick rate and continuing to dash until all rings are consumed or its duration is completed.
  • Color-Coded Item Tiers: Character tiers, which are Common (blue), Rare (yellow), Super Rare (purple), Special (green), and Challenger (red).
  • Comeback Mechanic: Speed boost items show up more often if you're in third or fourth place, but you'll still need plenty of boosts, skill, and even luck to make it to first place. Conversely, once you are in first place, you don't get speed boost items at all and instead get a generic shield item as its replacement.
  • Consolation Prize: There are chests for every place after each race, including a fourth place, so you don't feel bad and still get a bonus.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: Tangle has no projectiles or traps to hurt others, so if she's at the back of the pack (which will happen often at the beginning of races with her average Acceleration and Speed stats), she's going to struggle to slow her rivals down with the very short melee range of her Tail strike. However, all of Tangle's attacks (sans the universal Shield power-up) boost her forward and her Tail Spring has a powerful super armour effect. Given that Tangle also has the potential to pick up two Tail Strikes in a single item slot (making for up to four at once), she can also string her boosts in quick succession. If used correctly, Tangle can leave everyone else in her dust as she bounds towards the finish line with little regard for obstacles on the track.
  • Doppelgänger Attack:
    • Infinite can once again create replicas of himself, which damage players that are not him upon contact.
    • Chrono Silver and Grim Sonic can create duplicates of themselves to running alongside them to hit nearby opponents.
  • Do Well, But Not Perfect: There are missions in which you have to finish a number of races with no more than 80 rings.
  • Dynamic Difficulty: The difficulty the player faces is based on their trophy count. The higher the count, the more access to harder and reversed levels for them to navigate through. Though they'll get easy levels on occasion, they'll face players with similar trophy counts, which probably means similar skill levels to you.
  • Dragon and Lion Dance: The Dragon Dance power-up is directly based on the costumed performance.
  • Excuse Plot: You, your friends, and your enemies go to various areas to collect Phantom Ruby prototypes. That's all to the plot.
  • Fighting Clown: Big the Cat may be a goofy fat cat who doesn't carry any exceptional power, but he's a Super Rare, along with the ranks of the very powerful Shadow, Chaos, Metal Sonic, and Zeti, who can best everyone else and whose Lilytraps are tricky.
  • Fragile Speedster:
    • Baby Sonic is the only character who can carry up to 50 starting rings as opposed to the usual 35 rings upon being maxed out, giving him a massive headstart upon starting the race. That being said, he also has the weakest strength status in the game at 2/10, making him receive a much heavier slowdown upon hitting any projectiles and traps.
    • In a more general sense, most variations of Sonic also have a high speed stat offset with a lower acceleration and/or strength.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: With Excuse Plot in place, both heroes and villains are just duking it out in a race for the Phantom Ruby prototype.
  • Golden Super Mode:
    • As a part of Sonic's 30th anniversary, Super Sonic made his debut as a playable character. That being said, he spends most of his game time in his normal form (with an aura) and only able to turns super once you grab the Super Form item and collect a minimum of 80 rings. Eventually, more characters are also gains super variant such as Movie Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Classic Sonic, and Movie Shadow.
    • Excalibur Sonic could also count, as he is Sonic's Golden Super Form in his debut game, Sonic and the Black Knight.
  • Green Thumb: Spring Cream's Hedge Maze raises tall flowered vines from the ground.
  • Grim Reaper: Metal Sonic's Halloween variant is dressed up as the Grim Reaper, scythe included.
  • Guest Fighter: Red and Chuck (specifically their movie incarnation) from Angry Birds (whose developer Rovio was acquired by SEGA in 2023) made their appearance in the game as part of limited-time crossover event and are notable for being the first playable characters outside the Sonic franchise.
  • Harmless Freezing: Ice attacks such as Ice Mine, Jingle Boost, and Ice Wave will encase you inside a block of ice where you continue to slide forward until you either thaw out over time or hit something and break out.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Yes, you can even be hurt by your own traps if you're not careful. Most traps set themselves ahead of the player in every lane but the one they are currently in, but a few are a little trickier than that and can easily get you into trouble if you aren't paying enough attention, such as traps that place themselves directly in front of the racer ahead of you when they're in the same lane you are and dodge out of the way. There are some exceptions, though, such as Infinite being immune to his own Deadly Replica and Reality Warp. Additionally, some characters encourage you to hit their own trap to receive a quick power-up such as Longclaw and Boscage Maze Sonic gaining a little speed boost and a shield respectively.
  • Holiday Mode: Starting in 2018, the game hosts Chinese New Year, Halloween, and Christmas events annually, offering exclusive variations of characters themed after their respective holidays.
  • An Ice Person: Amy (and her variants), Sonic (and his variants), Chaos, Ice Slicer Jet, Reaper Metal Sonic, Santa Big, Elf Classic Sonic, Tidal Wave, Nutcracker Silver, and Zeena have ice-based items. Heck, Chaos is entirely an ice person.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: Sport-costumed characters can use their sport-specific ball to attack their opponents such as Slugger Sonic & All-Star Amy with Strike Out (A baseball), Ice Slicer Jet with Trap Shot (A hockey puck), and Quarterback Zavok & Linebacker Omega with Savage Throw (A football).
  • Invincibility Power-Up:
    • Vector, Knuckles, Classic Sonic, Linebacker Omega, and Paladin Amy have the Invincibility item, which increase their speed and makes them invulnerable to everything except for Bottomless Pits, (formerly) Interface Screw traps, and Booby Trap. Also, it will not destroy enemies.
    • Movie Sonic, Movie Knuckles, Movie Tails, and Tangle also have invincibility as their boost effect, with the former two using their ring portal and the latter two perform a flight and a leap respectively.
  • Interface Screw: Vector's Bubble Bomb, when stepped on by a player, covers their view of the track with bubbles, which can go away quicker by being tapped on and popped. Espio's Confusion Mine and his, Silver's, and Rouge's Confusion Boost, when a player runs into one, flips their camera horizontally temporarily, reversing their left-right controls. Tikal's Captive Light, when run into by a player, covers their screen with yellow light (though you can see through a little bit).
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: This game blatantly advertises Movie Sonic getting his own super transformation, ironically before the film it appears in getting a physical release (or in territories like Japan, being released at all).
  • Level in Reverse: Some tracks has an "R" version where you have to traverse them in reverse.
  • Light 'em Up: Tikal's Captive Light takes form of bright light orbs which can blind players.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: You can occasionally get a shield item instead of a boost one depending on your position to protect yourself from a single hit for a short period of time.
  • Making a Splash: Tidal Wave and Tropical Storm can hit others with Wipeout, a wave of water.
  • Make Some Noise: DJ Vector and Punk Zazz feature sound-based attacks. Audio Assault pierces targets and keeps going without stopping, and characters hit by it temporarily can't use their items.
  • Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest:
    • The "Defeat X Badniks" missions.
    • Eggpawn Assault events has all the players participating in this. They must destroy Badniks to increase the Resistance's score, while Badniks left on the track increase the Eggman Empire's score. They get rewards for giving the Resistance higher score than the Eggman Empire.
  • Master of None: Silver features a statline with a flat 6 across the board in every stat, which does him no favors, as it gives him the lowest speed stat in the game with nothing to make up for it.
  • Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
    • Tangle not only lacks projectile/trap items and has the ability to equip the same power-ups in two different slots (her Tail Strike) without the use of Metal Sonic’s Steal power-up, her Tail Spring power-up is a jumping boost with super armour once Tangle's in the air and as she lands. If this wasn't enough, all of her moves (sans the universal Shield power-up) boost her forward.
    • Surge plays similarly to Tangle above, with the differences is that her items are generally more powerful than Tangle in exchange that her small boost items has a cooldown system with each use whenever it doesn't hit the opponents.
    • Downplayed with the super variant characters. While they plays exactly the same as their vanilla counterpart, down to their stats and items, they only have access to super form for boosting and no shield item. And given the number of rings you required to activate them, the boost is best used when they near the finish line to overtake the leading opponents in one fell swoop.
  • Multi-Slot Character: This game features multiple alternate versions of characters as separate characters, mainly due to them being available as part of special events, and you can have multiple instances of the same character racing with one another. Justified, as they're Phantom Ruby copies.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Tikal's Captive Light is named after her attack in Sonic Adventure 2.
    • Whisper was added to the game in an event titled "Guardian Angel", alluding to Silver's nickname for her in the IDW comics.
    • Elite Agent Rouge's Bat Bomb uses the same design as the Bat Cracker in Sonic Battle.
    • Treasure Hunter Knuckles and Series Knuckles' cowboy hat is a reference to the OVA.
  • No Communities Were Harmed: As tie-in to Sonic the Hedgehog (Film Series), some of the tracks are based of the real-life locations that shows up throughout the movies.
    • Golden Bay Zone, added to promote the movie, is obviously based on San Francisco, California.
    • Emerald City Zone, added to promote the sequel, is based on Seattle.
    • Metro City Zone, added to promote the third movie, is based on Shibuya.
  • No-Sell:
    • Baby Sonic noticeably being the only smaller character, which allows him to run under obstacles without the need to slide, effectively making the traps like Storm Cloud and Zap Trap completely useless against him unless he deliberately jumps into them.
    • Dr. Eggman can hover above bottomless pits with his Eggmobile, which allows him to just pass across them without the need to jump.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Longclaw looks like a realistic owl. This is in stark contrast to fellow avian characters Jet, Wave, and Storm, who look just as cartoony as everyone else.
  • Pacifist Run: There are missions in which you have to run a number of races, each destroying a very few number of Badniks.
  • Palette Swap: The LEGO versions of Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman have the exact same stats and items as their regular counterparts, with only the LEGO aesthetic setting them apart.
  • Playing with Fire:
    • Naturally, all of Blaze's items, Fire Whirl, Fire Boost, and Lava Bomb, are fire-based. Several other characters have Fire items as well, such as Fire Whirl or Boost also. Fire moves generally don't do anything special or unique, but will do the most damage of any of the other elements.
    • Series Knuckles is notable for having a unique fire attack with Flames of Disaster, where his punch projectiles removes an item upon hit in addition of leaving a trail of fire that drains the opponents' rings when they stay in it.
  • Power Nullifier: Getting hit by any electric-based attack or trap, such as Lightning, Electro Boost, Zap Trap, and Storm Cloud. will erase a random item you have. Special variant characters like DJ Vector, Punk Zazz, and Movie Tails have moves that instead prevent the player from using any item for a set amount of time.
  • Power Parasite: Metal Sonic can Steal items from other players, allowing him to virtually use any item with the exception of boost items.
  • Punny Name: Wave and Storm's "summer" variants: Tidal Wave and Tropical Storm.
  • Required Party Member: In order to complete certain missions, players are required to use a specific character, otherwise they can't obtain the reward.
    • The "Star Runner" missions task the player to run a number of races with a specified character. The "Class of their Own" missions are more lenient, tasking the player to use any character of the specified class.
    • Downplayed with the now discontinued Hall of Champions events. Though they have you race with a specific character for a season (month) long, the only reward is being honored by Hardlight on social media.
  • Retcon:
    • Initially, some characters had Interface Screw items explicitly themed around Infinite's Illusion effects from Sonic Forces. In preparation for Infinite's introduction as a proper racer, all of those Illusion items were changed to be smoke themed Confusion items so the new Illusion could now inflict a more thematically appropriate debuff, although they now deal damage and hide the item interface alongside their usual screen flip as a tradeoff.
    • The young and teen versions of Sonic from the movie were simply introduced as Baby Sonic and Teen Sonic. Following the introduction of Movie Tails and Movie Knuckles to tie in with the sequel, Teen Sonic was renamed Movie Sonic to be in line with the others.
  • Shock and Awe: Attacks such as Lightning (which targets the leading player), Electro Boost, Zap Trap, Storm Cloud, and EMP Boost are electricity-based items to shock others with and (except for the last one) erase an item they have.
  • Shout-Out: Tangle was added to the game in an event titled "It's Hero Time!"
  • Super-Cute Superpowers: Cream's and Tikal's items produce pretty flowers and weaponize precious Chao.
  • Super Mode: Burning Blaze made her playable appearance since her playable 2D debut and she plays similarly to the hedgehogs' super form with the addition of 5 extra starting rings and ring-draining fire trail attack upon boosting forward.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: Lantern Silver's Firework Flurry holds 3 types of fireworks. The red one slows down. The yellow one stuns. The blue one freezes.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Each of super variant characters have their own theme whenever they activate their super form. For instance:
  • Thinking Up Portals: Movie Sonic and Movie Knuckles both have their Ring Portals from the movies as their dash. While mechanically this is implemented more like the regular invincibility power up, it does make the character invisible for its duration to evoke the idea of teleportation.
  • Trap Master: Everyone has some sort of Trap item to place on the track for others to run into and get hurt in one way or another. The sole exception to this is Tangle, who exclusively utilises melee moves.
  • Wacky Racing: You run on foot and own your opponents with Power Ups while evading obstacles in the way.
  • Wolverine Publicity: Shadow appears alongside Sonic in the official app icon for seemingly no other reason but because of his popularity.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: All of Infinite's items are capable of inflicting an illusion debuff that temporarily causes racers afflicted by it to perceive all boost pads and item boxes on the course as spikes, and take damage from them as if they were actually spikes. Badniks also become immune to regular jump attacks and slides, although they can still be destroyed with items.