Ranking EVERY Sonic Running Animation 

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I don't know why, but SA1's running animation has such a charm for me, the way Sonic bops as he slowly accelerates to his top speed gives a nice flow to the game. Unleashed running animations are peak, tho.

petition to rename the “naruto run” to the “sonic run”

You forgot to mention that Sonic's top speed animation in Mania changes if you set Sonic to use the super pillout instead of the Drop Dash or the Insta-Shield

Sayonara Chaomix, he lost it

I always used to run like that and my parents thought I was insane, thankfully I realised that it wasn't very effective before starting secondary school. If I hadn't, things wouldn't have gone well.

Sonic Adventure 1's running animations take the cake for me compared to Sonic Adventure 2's. I was always bothered with SA2's running animations because it just doesn't look like they were made for the intended speed it was meant to be played at. If you play SA2's top speed animation at a slower rate, they actually look quite fine in that context. But if you speed them up like they are in game, it looks very jittery and a lot of the smoothness is lost compared to SA1 where the animations are catered to the high speeds that Sonic can go. Much of this has to do with not only the level design, but also his head movement. SA1 gives him a lot of big space to be fast, and when you're at top speed in that game you'll notice that eventually his head doesn't bob as much, almost feeling like he's gliding which also in turn gives your eyes something to easily focus on. Also take for example the whale sequence in Emerald Coast where the camera is in front of you. Despite everything being destroyed behind you and so much chaos happening in the background, the animation of Sonic give you an easy focal point to look at since his eyes are dead center and easy to follow. If you were to replace that running sequence with SA2's animations, your eyes start to loose track of where supposed to be looking since his movements very jittery. New Frame Plus has a good segment of what I'm talking about. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GxCcHOvSVJQ.html

SA1 Run animation is peak

Running with your arms behind your back would make you go way faster because of reducing drag and a smaller profile, but you already have to be moving really fast to begin with...your friend wasn't wrong, everyone is just too slow.

Sonic running animations are usually absolutely incredible. Unleashed, S3&K, and Gens have to some of my personal favorites and I really wish they would bring back the Unleashed type animations back to modern Sonic as I really dont like the current animation. Its ok but it could be better!

One thing I like about Sonic Mania's running animations is the single-frame transition animation between run and dash/top speed. It's a little difficult to notice until you're told it exists but it demonstrates the amount of detail and care that went into the game. Sonic X-treme's running animation is interesting. AFAIK it only has a walking phase and a running phase. The walking phase is based off the Megadrive games, pretty standard but at some angles it looks like he's beating his chest like a gorilla. The run animation has the classic blurry wheel effect, but he also pumps his arms while running. It's also not a perfect circle; it seems the animator tried to make it make more sense in 3D, so when his foot is near the upper part of the circle it gets thrown to the side more instead of brushing his head like in the Megadrive games.

I am happy to see Sonic CD's running animation in A-Tier!

I’m surprised you liked the forces/frontiers animations. I feel like it’s one of the stiffest set of animations for sonic. His legs look so weird because of how stiff his upper body is. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I’d rapidly swing my toy Sonic’s legs back and fourth.

I've always liked the unleashed style of sonic running. It's also been a fairly consistent running pose for him throughout the years. Was in the 90s cartoons, the CD intro, the OVA, Sonic X, then came to the games with Rush and then Secret Rings and then Unleashed.

Man, this really made me reflect on how important good animation is to make controlling a character feel right. Games where the animation doesn't fit the movement feel floaty and clunky, while games where the walking is more detailed feel more precise and satisfying. People meme on Adventure 1 for the goofy facial expressions but I always felt that in the game itself, Sonic looked fantastic in motion; they definitely put the attention where it was most important.

Man, Sonic's animations is my favorite thing to research in the Sonic games, finding out how the animations were made and further perfecting my 3D animation skills. *Notes:* 26:03 There are actually *6* phases in Unleashed. And yes, there are so called "sub phases": -Walk -Walk fast (It appears VERY briefly when fully accelerating, but when you actually control your speed with the joystick, it is distinguishable with more vertical motion. This animation is also present in Sonic Generations, although it's completely unnoticable due to how the movement works. I don't think it's present in Colors) -Jog -Run -Dash (Leans in less and sways a bit more.) -Jet/Boost (Hedgehog engine games naming convention) 32:47 Fun fact, this is not an actual animation present in the game's files, it's just the boosting animation being blended into the dash animation. Speaking of, the Dash animation (or the sprint as refered in this video) is actually different from Forces. Sonic leans in less but looks lower and his hands are more open and are slightly higher. The base is still the same. I also wonder what are factors of how the running animations are made. Sometimes their choices look... Questionable.

You know that kid who said that running with your arms behind your back makes you run faster? Yeah, that was literally me 😅😢

I like the idea that Sonic’s arms are just flailing behind him because he’s physically incapable of alternating his arms at high speeds

who knew running was such an important part of sonic

Actually, Sonic CD's slow run/walk animation does not show the vertical movement characteristic of jogging, whereas the others do, making them superior.

Love your experimentation with the art style on your thumbnails, something SEGA never does nowadays 😂

I think the thing with the Sonic Advance 1 animation's feet is that they're not fully circular in their smear, but rather an ellipse, making the run look squashed it's like an uncanny mix of the circle and figure 8, featuring the shape of the circle, but the dimensions of the figure 8

Great video! Not sure if you knew or not, but in Generations, modern sonic has another running stage when boosting. It’s not a big change, he basically only closes his fists, but it’s there. I learned this from a video by New Frame Plus called “The Animation of Sonic Games”. It’s a really good video that goes into depth talking about Sonic’s animations in most of his games. Anyway, keep up the awesome work!

Sonic’s head bopping up and down more rapidly when he speeds up until he stabilizes at top speed in SA2 is so cool. Also the animations in the GBA games are unmatched and I won’t hear otherwise.

0:25 game theory did a video about this, apparently if you run at the speed of ninjas in naruto and sonic doing the naruto run helps, especially the sonic version since he leans further

I really like Boom Sonic's top speed. It's so effortless and smooth, like his cocky personality

Fun fact putting your arms back does make you more aerodynamic but at the speeds humans can move the benefit is negligible However at the speeds sonic and or Naruto characters move it would actually provide a positive effect

This was a great video

Finally a tierlist asking the important questions

I honestly think this is the best art you’ve ever made keep up the good work chao!

The reason why sonic booms arms and Fingers look like jelly is cause he’s going so fast that all the energy is making him wiggle a little

I personally prefer when Sonic's top speed animation turns into a smoother glide than the build-up phases. Not only does it provide visual contrast from the other phases (it took effort to get up to top speed, but once he gets there, maintaining it is easy for him), but it also reduces the visual noise and gives extra readability to his animations. If he were to change his expression mid-run, then it'd be much easier to see on a smoother run (like Adventure 1's top speed) than on a rougher run (like Adventure 2's top speed).

he's officially lost it fellas.

I like how he included the sega popcorn game and sonic jam gamecom but not sonic 4 Really shows that games staying power and memorability And literally nobody cares it’s hilarious

23:09 Thank God P-06 actually fixed some of these issues with the animation. It looks now pretty fluid and more straight-up branch when Sonic runs.

This is great as usual, keep up the good work man, your videos really inspire me on my RU-vid channel.

Oh yeah, I knew the kid who ran like Sonic in grade school. He was me. 💀💀

TimeStamps: Sonic 1, 2 and 3; 4:00 Sonic 2 Special Stage; 4:40 Sonic 3 Special Stage; 5:07 Sonic CD; 5:47 Sonic CD Special Stage; 6:18 8-Bit Sonic; 6:53 Sonic SpinBall; 7:15 Sonic Labyrinth; 7:46 Sonic Blast; 8:10 SegaSonic; 8:36 SegaSonic PopCorn Shop; 9:13 Sonic The Fighters; 9:28 Sonic's SchoolHouse; 10:05 Sonic 3D Blast; 10:40 Sonic 3D Blast Special Stage; 11:21 Sonic Jam; 11:50 Sonic R; 12:38 Sonic Jam (GameCom); 13:08 Sonic Adventure; 13:54 Sonic Pocket Adventure; 14:52 Sonic Shuffle; 15:32 Sonic Adventure 2; 16:06 Sonic Advance; 16:50 Sonic Advance 2; 17:40 --------------------------- To Be Continued

I still run like Sonic even as an adult. I ain’t afraid to admit it. It just feels fun. I don’t care if it makes me look like a mouth breather.

If anyone noticed this his run animation had that one moment where your going top speed but your going so fast he’s running he visually moving slow? It was on some animations and it rarely happened but when it does it’s a pretty epic moment

Love the video and keep up the great work chaomix

Good list! you are one of my favorite sonic youtubers because when need be you are critical instead of just hateful and plus I love your interest in the topics you talk about. If there’s even enough content for it, maybe you could cover shadow’s skating animations bc I think they are quite silly 😁💕

I think Unleashed's running animations are really great except for those awkward moments (like the one you showed in Spagonia) where the camera swings to the side and something seems to mess up in the leg speed modifiers. If it wasn't for that, I think I'd give it the S tier. I've always found SA2 animations to be amazing but I think the top speed one needs like... a few more separate frames, it feels too... choppy?

21:21 Oh my gosh I remember this game from my childhood. I found so many glitches in it. It is surprisingly easy to skip the giant robots if you move the right ways.

i like the running animation where sonic says “it’s running time” and runs like an absolute gamer with his sweaty putrid dogs out

I love the new thumbnail art btw!

Sonic Advance 2's spritework is pure art

Eyyy, your art has gotten bettet, amazing video as always

0:05 I was that kid in school (yes, elementary school) and I was comically slow to top it all 29:26 This game looks like the hybrid between 06’s running animation and the typical jog of any jack n’ daxter games

Actually, eggman started the "nuroto run" when you chase him at the end of sonic 1

You forgot to include the animations for the think sections in The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog

Great video as always! For me, I would personally put the running animation for 1, 2 and 3 in the A tier because they just look so nice.

Y’know, sonic should run more

Chaomix looks like Shaggy lmao Next video, could you show up in a green shirt?

bruh sonic jam need to be in S tier BRO HES SO CUTE

a nother block buster like always love your videos

My notes on your choices: - CD: While it DOES use the same animations that were used in 1-3, it slightly downgrades them where he's oddly stiff when you examine it closely despite giving us the Super Peel Out. - Popcorn Shop: To be fair, I think you only judged the "fail"/slow run, he DOES have a top speed run where it's the classic wheel feet blur, but that IS about the only thing that changes, he sort of only has 4 sprite bases for his run animation, 2 for his top half (either just walking or holding a thing of kernels) and 2 for his bottom (the run you show off and the feet blur). - 3D Blast/Flickies' Island: It's been a bit since I looked at footage but the guy behind the game DID release a "Director's Cut" mod of the game which MAY have added some extra run cycles? I don't think so but I don't remember. And I'm not sure if you would count it. - Sonic's Saturn model: Fun fact, this model was originally going to be used for Adventure 1 before they changed it, which can be seen in early showcase footage. - Adventure 1: Not gonna lie, I kind of wish he used his classic game's top speed pose with his tucked in arms for his Sprint animation (this point also extending to most of the games released after this). - Adventure 2: I'm not sure I agree. The run speed feels way to jittery for me, like sure it's more realistic, but the classic games established he knows how to handle his top speed without making him look like he's about to vibrate through the Speed Force that even Adventure 1 managed. - Advance 1, 2 (base game), 3 (base game), & Rush: Honestly I've always been bothered by the top speed run animations. It's mostly in how Sonic tilts his head down, makes me think he's making more air drag than he needs to. - Heroes: It having slippery controls I think is more due to how the characters just snap to a direction along with the ridiculous speed is what gave people the feeling of the controls being slippery. Basically, I think it was more the engine at fault than the animation, granted I'm not saying it probably at least wasn't a factor. - Colors DS: Yeah which it makes him look forward like how I'd like, it feels like he's about to trip over himself and skid across the ground with how far his torso's leaning forwards. So they fixed the head angle but left everything else as is. - Unleashed: You forgo to mention the Wii version was also used for the PS2 port. And while I'm not to bothered by how smooth it is, I feel like it SHOULD be that effortless with Sonic considering that's how the classic games established how well he has a handle on running. Granted I can see the point of wanting a tiny bit more of a bob to his run. But I do agree that it feels like his feet don't match his speed under top speed. Also you forgot the Java port, which is apparently basically another Rush game from what I've heard. - Generations (Console; Modern Sonic): I can understand the finger fanning thing, it maybe could have looked better if he had like, maybe stiffened his fingers to where they were squeezing together doing a more rigid pose? I don't know what it's called if it has a name but it's sort of like if you flattened and stiffened your hand out & treated it like a sword. (I hope those reading gets what I'm trying to describe because I don't know if ti came across or not XD). - Boom 3DS: I feel like it's still doing the issue in Colors DS I mentioned.

Temu must pay good money if even you get sponsored

I hope you hit 100k Chaomix! Keep it up with these amazing Sonic videos!

26:17 well buddy, that’s like the whole point when he hits top speed. Like he’s gliding effortlessly, due to momentum. That’s why the top speed animation NEEDS to look like that, to emphasize that when he hits top speed, he doesn’t need to put as much effort forth to keep it.

the ambition of this video brings me to tears. well done sir

Nice Video! I know its a bit nerdy but u forgot to mention the Boost animation for Secret Rings which makes his quills tighter and he is not bopping form left to right that much.

The thumbnail art looks crazy I love it

Now THIS is something I can get behind. It's also educational from an animation perspective.

I always respect that ChaoMix’s puts so much hard work in his videos, it’s just more interesting 😅

need more of these tier lists 😂

teeny tiny note about Unleashed and Gens They actually have 2 different walk animations. A normal one and one where he leans forward before starting to jog. Unleashed also has 2 sprinting animations just like Generations. In the first one he's leaning forward a bit less and his arms are slightly more relaxed. They look veeery similar so no wonder people don't really tell them apart

Its over, he sponsored Temu.

I just love the unleashed animation, I like the lightweight feel it feels like I’m playing as “the blue blur”

Good list, and very happy (and unsurprised) to see the Adventure games topping the charts.

“My god, this dudes running around like he’s got no kneecaps.” Is my favorite line now

This is a video i didnt know i needed to watch.

17:01 the fact that you put smbz footage in this video for an example instantly put this already masterpiece video in the highest tiers.

Sa1's running animation at full speed is SOOOOO good.

Keep going i love ur vids

Huh. Never really paid attention to the actual running animations, but now i realize how cool they are!

Only bit I disagre with here is with Unleashed, as I feel like it should be at the S tier But overall, it's a very solid list and a great video, nice job!

17:01 smbz was my literal childhood man

You forgot Sonic’s running animation in Christmas NiGHTS into dreams.

I'm gonna need a Shadow running/skating animation from you sometime soon, Chaomix. I just really need someone to validate my obsession with Shadow's SA2 skating vs every other version. lol

So there are actually a couple things to the loose arms run. Professional endurance runners often do something similar, as the act of pumping your arms like you would normally run is actually a waste of energy. The second being that there are really old japanese training methods that involve placing paper or hats on the chest, and then running. This forces you to run at a consistent speed using air resistance to keep it in place. However, your arms can knock this stuff out of the way or mess with this flow, so the arms are kept to the side.

Sometimes when im alone i do the SA1 Sonic Run 😭 it’s so addictive

So glad you put SMBZ there for Sonic Advance 🙏

I think that the animation of sonic running gets under looked so I think you made a good video related to this!

Next tier list should be idle animations

Seeing a reference to SMBZ is so heartwarming. I’m glad I’m not the only one who remembers Mark’s work fondly🥹🙏🏾

I remember how frustrated I was with Heroes, Shadow, and Rivals 1 and 2 when Sonic didn’t have his hands behind his back and was so excited when it came back in 06 and Secret Rings

Chaomix:Sonic Pocket adventure 2 special stage Sonic does not lean into his turns Me: you sure about that?

I would imagine the arms back pose probably is used for direction. By turning his arm slightly would cause a wind change around him causing his body to turn at that high speed. Kind of like how a bird turns its wing pitch to fly in a specific direction.

I grew up with heroes so I'm used to sonic not having his hands behind his back Just staying in one place While running I'm used to his hands being more dynamic while running especially looks cool during cut scenes. Rewatch team sonic first cut scene at heros you'll see what I mean. #letsparty! Nostalgic 😊 Thanks for this very nostalgic trip threw alot of my childhood sonic games

So glad that Sonic Advance 2 running animations are in S-tier. Having bought SA2 a few months, the running is great. Honestly, the fact that most Sonic fangame or animation uses SA2’s spirtes shows the high quality the spritework.

My favourite running animation is the super peelout from sonic mania by far, i mean the fact that sonics legs move in a figure 8 and his arms behind him is so sick and cool.

Even though were talking aboutnsonic running animations, Sonic r was my childhood and will never be tooken away from me.

You gotta do spindash animations sometime, epic video overall dude!

I LOVE the SegaSonic sprites, it's maybe the most adorable Sonic has ever looked!

6:11 Actually Sonic CD changed his jog. His sprite doesn’t go up and down simulating how at first your jogging makes you bounce higher, and as you go faster your bouncy motion gets more smooth

I'm surprised Sonic 1 isn't a tier above the rest of the classic games. When he runs and sprint, he does these little hops. But when at top speed, his head is lowered and stays steady. Some details you won't see in other classic games

bro can make anything sonic related a tiers list

I have an obsession with this concept

I will sleep better tonight knowing the greatest Sonic running animations.