Sega’s iconic blue hedgehog was a hit almost as soon as he arrived, from the pre-release hype to the post-release boom that saw rival companies create their own animal mascots. If they weren’t full of attitude, like Bubsy or Awesome Possum, they blitzed across the screen at high speed, like Zool and Kid Chaos. Yet they rarely directly adapted Sonic’s gameplay.

Crash Bandicoot was about smashing boxes. Rocket Knight Adventures was part beat ‘em up, part jetpack blasting. Spyro the Dragon flew in open levels. If anything, it’s only been in the past decade or so that players have tried replicating either classic Sonic’s momentum-based platforming, or his high-speed 3D bounding, and these stand out as the best of the bunch.

is low because it's actually another Sega property, and its stretchy-armed platforming doesn’t exactly evoke Sonic’s high-speed spins. Yet things could've been very different. Before Sega settled on using a fast hedgehog, they almost used a rabbit as a mascot who'd use his stretchy arms to get around. Ristar just shows that someone at Sega still thought the idea had legs (or arms) and put it into practice for a new IP.

Even with this new focus, Ristar still relies on physics and momentum, as the Starman often needs to swing fast on posts, branches and bars to reach higher platforms, treasure chests, and other bonuses. Alas, the game came out in 1995, right when the 2D mascot platformer boom was on the wane. Though ironically, he'd go on to inspire Sonic himself, as the Werehog in Sonic Unleashed used similar stretchy arms to get about.

Being low on this list doesn’t mean it’s bad or less good. It’s more a gauge to show how Sonic-esque they are, and there’s enough of the Blue Blur in for players to notice, like her spin attack and hovering a la Tails. But Kaze the Rabbit’s quest to save her friend and home from a curse had other classic platformers in mind as well.

For example, the Wild Masks act like the power-up forms in Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap, where players can use their different abilities to get around obstacles, like swimming with the Shark Mask or flying with the Eagle Mask. While some of the spring bouncing sections owe as much to Donkey Kong Country as they do Sonic. So, for fans of classic 16-bit platformers in general, Kaze has something for everyone.

If players fancy something more Sonic-esque over Ristar’s spin-off vision, Spicy Gyro Games followed the Blue Blur closely for their game, . It’s part-homage, part-parody as the titular porcupine rolls through loops, spins up ramps, and jumps over hundreds of buzzsaws and other hazards to stop Dr. Proventriculus from nabbing all the chickabirbs.

The difference is that Panic also has some Super Meat Boy in its DNA. There are a ton of levels filled with spikes, saws and other dangers that require very precise movements to get around. But luckily, Panic has Meat Boy’s infinite lives, and Sonic’s ability to reach blistering speeds, letting players either blow past the buzzsaws as soon as they arrive, or die multiple times trying until they figure out the level's trick.

Panic Porcupine is Spicy Gyro Games’ latest Sonic-esque game, but it wasn’t their first. Back in 2019, they worked with Shiny Dolphin Games LLC to make . This time, the titular pillbug has to save his friends from the nefarious Kaizer Kiwi in an experience that’s more traditionally Sonic-like. In that it doesn’t demand as much precision as Panic.

Instead, Polyroll must spin, bounce, and ricochet off platforms, springs, and other objects to progress further through the level, or boost up enough to smash bosses and other enemies. Though it does mix things up by having a map screen a la Super Mario Bros 3, letting players pick which levels to do in what order they like before tackling the world's boss.

It’s not just the 2D games that developers try to emulate. Brute Force made in 3D, where its ball of slime has to roll, bounce, and swing through levels fast, or it’ll fall into one of its many hazards. Some levels are stable enough, like grasslands, valleys and caves. Others will live up to the game’s name and crumble as soon as the slime touches them.

So, players have to keep up the pace to press on, and they have plenty of ways to keep up their momentum. Players can see touches of the Adventure games through the slime’s bouncing and dash-based air jumps, but its ability to swing on bars with its tongue is akin to the Doom Morph in Sonic X Shadow Generations. Only it predates Shadow’s gloopy power-up by 4 years, and is more intuitive to use.

After having made a series of Sonic fan games, Felipe ‘LakeFeperd’ Daneluz used his know-how to make an original game in . Fearing the increasing presence of robots in his society, he gets his chance for vindication when a robot uprising threatens to take over the world. But he'll have to do more than smash machines and go into 'Edgy' mode to face his prejudices and save the day.

The game’s Sonic touches are familiar enough, from racing up ramps and loops to boarding around obstacles a la Sonic 3 or Sonic Adventure 2. But Spark also has a health bar and the ability to fire charge shots and wall jump, adding some Mega Man X touches beyond the moody robot plot. It even had melee combat inspired by hack & slash games like Bayonetta, though it would be more refined in its sequels.

Usually, sequels are too similar to their parent games to warrant separate enemies, but Spark’s sequels made the leap to the third dimension and switched its gameplay up a lot. follows his robo-clone Fark as he tries to save his benefactor from the evil Freom. While brings Spark himself back to save the world from a rogue AI called Clarity and discover why Fark and his forces shut down the internet.

Both games play more like the Adventure games, mixing Adventure 1's bits of exploration with Adventure 2's more A-to-B racing style. Only Spark 2 brought in more combat, with Smash Bros-like shields and Metal Gear Rising-esque parries and boss fights. While Spark 3 refined the formula with speedrun and score attack challenges, vehicle sections, and more varied level designs (spot the references to Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog).

People have been making Sonic-like games for decades, but it’s only been in the past 10 years or so that Sonic-likes have been growing as a subgenre of their own, and the textbook example of a Sonic-like has been the games. Sabrina DiDuro originally began the project as a Sonic fan game, but then reworked it with artist Ziyo Ling's character designs into an original property with a style of its own.

Its hedgehog-based origins are noticeable, as Lilac, Carol, and Milla are all about racing through levels and looping the loops. But their abilities, like Lilac’s multi-directional dash jump, are all their own. It has more of a story focus, for both better and worse, but there’s still plenty of running, spinning, and jumping to make any Sonic fan feel at home, if they haven’t played it already.