Sonic

Sonic (ソニック, Sonic) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. All Stars. His return to the series was announced during the Nintendo Direct on August 23rd, 2018 to commemorate Sonic Lost World being released that month. Sonic is one of the six third-party characters in the game, alongside fellow Sega representative Bayonetta, Capcom's Mega Man and Ryu, Bandai Namco's Pac-Man, and Square Enix's Cloud. He was the second third-party character to be revealed in the game, and is the first and only third-party veteranin the series.

In the English version, Sonic is voiced by Roger Craig Smith, albeit via recycled voice clips from games such as Sonic Generations, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. This reflects Smith's succession of Jason Griffith as Sonic's voice actor, who voiced Sonic from 2005 until 2010. Sonic also has alternate voices for the French, Spanish, German, and Italian versions, as Sonic the Hedgehog games from Sonic Generations onward were dubbed into those languages. However, the Japanese version simply recycles Jun'ichi Kanemaru's voice clips from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, who still voices Sonic in Japanese to this day.

Sonic is currently ranked 5th out of 58 on the tier list, placing him at the top of the A tier and making him the third highest ranked third-party character (Behind Cloud who is in 3rd place and Bayonetta who is in 1st place). This is a significant improvement over his mid-tier placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 22nd out of 38. True to his name, Sonic has the fastest dashing speed in the game, which grants him excellent mobility. His outstanding speed is complemented by his special moves, which allow him to attack while moving with little fear of reprisal. He also has capable KOing options in his forward smash, up smash, back aerial and up aerial. However, Sonic's KOing options are hindered by their high lag, which makes them risky. Despite his mobility, he does have trouble contending with projectile camping, while Spring Jump is a predictable recoverymove due to its linearity.

Overall, Sonic has retained his problematic knockback and lag issues, but his newfound KO potential and the retention of both his strong neutral game and outstanding mobility have resulted in him achieving a strong playerbase and consistent success in tournaments.