Sonic Transformations 

What's your favourite Sonic Form 🤔

Dark sonic is the ultimate fraud. I remember seeing him in so much, fandom stuff, and being intrigue on where he came from, and what was the backstory is. Only to find out he’s a two minute plot device that never gets mention again. Which sucks because the concept and design is really cool.

The inspiration for Fleetway super sonic has always been really interesting to me. When the guy who wrote the Fleetway books unlocked super sonic in Sonic 2 for the first time, he didn't see it as a god mode power trip. He found it wild and out of control, which inspired him to make Fleetway SS all crazy and deranged.

darkspine is my personal favorite solely because “Your tale is finished, Erazor! Next time, try writing a better story.” is one of, if not, the best quote in the franchise he’s also just so pissed i love his screaming during the final boss fight

I've always been a Hyper Sonic fanboy. The idea of a form that is supposedly more powerful than Super always intrigued me, and the way Sonic 3 & Knuckles introduced it through how the Master Emerald turned the Chaos Emeralds into the larger Super Emeralds is such an amazing expansion of the lore. It's a shame that Sega/Sonic Team practically decided to retcon it out of canon and has never made an effort to allude to its existence since 1994.

Okay but can we all agree that super sonic transformation at the climax of unleashed was peak

Look I get that Sega probably doesn't want to deal with Multi-teir powerscaling stuff, but the fact that alot of these one-time transformations have alot of presence in Sonic fanon still proves that the idea of Sonic going even further beyond is a fascinating concept.(I personally would like to see what it would look like if Sonic utlizied the power of the Sol Emeralds.)

3:56 I swear for the longest time I believed that the Super Sonic in 06 was supposed to be some kind of “Super Sonic 2” because of how glowie he looks.

I never knew how good your Classic Sonic impression was

I love the meta side of Sonic's new transformation in The Final Horizon DLC for Sonic Frontiers. Sonic goes through this entire quest to channel the blessings of the ancients, he tempers his body and soul to be able to wield the power of the Cyber Corruption, but when he's done with his journey and gains the new powerup, Master King just says he can't use it. Just like how SEGA said "no new Super-forms, just Super Sonic", the new form seems to me the SSJ2 to Super Sonic, only changing his eye color... until. *"Sorry Master King, looks like I'll have to go all-out after all!"* Sonic just goes "fuck it, we ball" and gained a new Super form. It's not named. It'll never be endorsed. It'll never appear again. But the full-power Cyber Corruption Super Sonic will remain a historic moment in the Sonic franchise.

I would kinda like to point out that Dark Sonic's limited run in the series is similar to Hyper Sonic's, although you responded to their obscurity in very different ways. I find that kind of interesting! I think that Hyper Sonic is overpowered to the point where it can seriously affect a game's stakes, but Dark Sonic serves as more as an exploration of a part of Sonic we normally don't get to see. However, I personally feel that both of these forms have potential for stories in the series - what if they were treated like the inverse of each other, tying into that "positive energy, negative energy" thing from Sonic Adventure, and Shadow the Hedgehog's "hero" and "dark" routes? P.S. "Prismatic" is a cool word, I wish it leaned into the "prism" side of it more :(

A forgotten and highly underrated part of Fleetway Super Sonic’s storyline is him losing his memory after being split from Sonic, only to have something of a redemption arc when he moves in with a character called Ebony. He becomes weirdly adorable here. He did end up returning back to his evil self during the Adventure adaptation.

I’m glad LS Mark likes to embrace the edgy aspect of sonic. I know Shadow exists but seeing this happy friendship loving character just go off the rails furious is very exciting.

Fun fact: on that interview what Iizuka said is not that Hyper has never been canon, he actually said that it was a one time thing to happen in order to avoid power creep and there has not been something that requires the need for Hyper Sonic again since Super Sonic already is that powerful now And even if they said so, they have retracted from this idea since Mania being the reason why we can see the Super Emerald Stones on Lava Reef, people have questioned these countless times and they have been saying again and again "we just don't see how to use it without ditching Super Sonic" He is canon and it hasn't been retconed, they just want to stick with Super Sonic because he's already powerful enough and would ve kinda complicated to make Hyper and make it look different from Super without a change of skin and stating he's more powerful

Even though we've only seen excalibur sonic for like a few mins and a boss fight, imo he's peak because of the story behind black knight, were sonic was at his best. The thematic behind the form and why it happened was amazing and the fact it's not a super but a powered up form with a sword makes it 10 TIMES cooler than super sonic for me. The OG is the OG but i like variety and this sonic look was just the best.

I, for a long time, have wanted Dark Sonic to make another appearance. It shouldn't be impossible, the emeralds are established to have positive and negative properties and I don't think the user is restricted to one side. Plus I think it would allow for an interesting take on Sonic's character. I'm fine with Sonic being a static character and this beacon of inspiration but he should be allowed to experience a wider range of emotion. It's why I like that one small part in Unleashed after Sonic gets the Werehog stripped from him. He tells Chip to run and there is genuine fear in his face and voice. I want to see that dynamic. Sonic 90% of the time being this unshakeable force but if you manage to crack into that 10%, you don't know what will happen and I want that especially for anger. Seeing Sonic seething with rage for some fleeting moments as he does things he would regret in a different state of mind. Again, this need to be a rarity so that when it does happen, we take it *very* seriously.

It’d be cool if Dark Sonic returned and design-wise it was a mix of Fleetway Sonic and Dark Sonic

Excalibur sonic and darkspine were probably the most original and awesome transformation, not only they had a good story and build up to it, they also felt unique and better than any sonic form and yes even hyper.

12:06 THANK YOU! I thought I was the only one who felt they turned Sonic into a Boring Goody Two Shoes!

I've always wondered why Sonic Team was so against Hyper Sonic. I guess since most Super Sonic boss fights before Frontiers are just Sonic flying in a straight line and bashing into whatever baddy he's facing, they thought Hyper Sonic would be a bit redundant, but I feel like Frontiers specifically could've used it as a way of differentiating the final boss from the others because Super Sonic wouldn't be enough in this hypothetical universe. I also think it's just cause of the hassle bringing in Hyper Sonic would be. Sonic needs the Super Emerald which come about when their power is augmented by the Master Emerald...which is always on Angel Island. Yeah, unfortunately most Sonic Final Boss locations don't take place on Angel Island. Still I really hope that at some point we'll get to officially see the form in all it's seizure inducing glory again (probably won't though).

The thing I adore about Dark Super Sonic is how brutal and destructive he becomes. He literally slices apart something that was supposed to test his speed multiple times before it could even react and then punches the other one with so much force that it leaves a heavy dent before crushing the head. I want to see more of that destructive capability he has while in that form

The reason everyone wants Hyper Sonic back is because it’s so dope

What’s funny is that their intention in sa2 was that shadow was modeled after Super Sonic

Dark Spine Sonic made such an impact on me as a kid. Secret Rings was the first Sonic game I ever beat, and my gosh even if the graphics were questionable the vibe lives on in my soul.

Glad to see some Excalibur Sonic love. I always loved that form, replayed the heck out of the final level just to watch the transformation into gameplay, and then kick butt with it. Would love to see Sega decide to utilize these forms in new ways beyond mobile games. Perhaps something like a fighting game, where different Sonic cannons collide. And because of this, it allows for Sonic to reach the conditions to achieve these forms again. Perhaps storywise, it could be similar to Generations, only a lot more introspective. Seeing where Sonic has gone, what he's learned, how he's changed and how he's stayed the same. That would be pretty neat I think.

I want Mark to review Sonic X. It was the one Sonic show that still aired when I was growing up... on a channel I didn't have. Did anyone else ever tactically plan sleepovers to watch Saturday morning cartoons?

Man I wish he talked about Nazo more then the mention, most people probably didn't know he was supposed to appear in the show

Hot take: I think hypersonic being non-canon is perfectly fine. While I do think he’s really cool. The super emeralds would completely change the plots of the future games like the chaos emeralds would be stuck on Angel Island. How would that work with games like heroes and sa2. Also super sonic would basically become a irrelevant.

I like how the Forms allow us to see more interesting powers from Sonic, it is very unique and cool when we get to see him fight with more than just Spindashes and Homing Attacks. Can't wait for all the interesting stuff Superstars and Frontiers DLC 3 will give us.

Hope the new form in frontiers DLC 3 is the highly anticipated "Bababooey Sonic"

“I haven’t read these comics but I actually bought 200 of them-“ Only you, Splash Dash.

I love magic, weapons, and sonic. Excalibur is my favorite sonic form.

My headcanon is that the thing the 3D games call Super Sonic IS Hyper Sonic, because that form's abilities--namely being a flying and nigh unstoppable godlike force--matches the Classic games' Hyper Sonic more than their Super Sonic (who is just "Sonic but twice as fast") Also the Chaos Emeralds start looking like the Super Emeralds from SA1 onward.

Jokes aside, I would REALLY love it if Splash Dash were to do a review of the Sonic X series at some point in the future, I loved that show as a kid

If you’ve never slogged through Sonic X, can you really call yourself a Sonic fan 🧐

Super Sonic’s adventure spines make it better for shadows lore. It made more sense as GUN could’ve thought shadow was a dark sonic form. It also makes shadow better as he was based on the murals in hidden palace.

Prismatic Sonic will probably appear more epic in the finale of season 3 with all 5, yeah. Also, Super Sonic 2 is cool with the bonus red glow and cyan eyes. A subtle power up to also match the stakes without going Hyper. And yeah calling it 2 in homage to SSJ 2 is funny to me still.

I’m surprised ultra Sonic wasn’t on this list

I have a cool idea for forms. You know how the Sonic rush concept art for blaze has an evil, dark looking design? Well what if, if Sonic and Blaze used their opposing emeralds, Sonic the sol emeralds and Blaze the chaos emeralds, they would get their evil forms. Since they are from different dimensions it would make a little bit of sense if they didn't properly work with them. It would be a cool excuse to use that concept art for Blaze along with bringing back a form of dark Sonic. Maybe if we got a Sonic Rush remake or sequel?

crazy how dark sonic was used in one episode yet he is one of the most used forms in the sprite animation community

Now that I think of it, Super Sonic 2 having blue eyes wouldn’t mean much from a design and a gameplay aspect since we are almost always looking at him from behind

I like to think that after years of doing it, Sonic has mastered his Super form so he can do things he couldn't before even in Hyper. But that raises the question just how powerful would the Hyper form be now

Honestly, It would be super cool if darkspine sonic made a return in the main line sonic games, maybe even in the idw comics.

5:48 “Are you, a real villain?!” *Funni fart sounding noice*

My ears love this

I never understood why they never brought Hyper Sonic back. They're saying they don't want a "power creep" kinda thing, or for them to be more comparable to Dragon Ball. But to me, that makes no sense. Hyper Sonic came out WAYYYY before Goku even had another hair color change, which was Super Sayian God in 2013. Bringing back Hyper Sonic isn't going to have an impact on the Dragon Ball community saying they were ripped off again, since Sonic did it first. They have no reason to complain.

Good to know I'm not the only one with audio issues 😅

Excalibur sonic was just initially cool. Because you’ve never seen Sonic in knight Armor, and making it gold gave us that Super sonic vibe, without it actually being super sonic.

I always loved his Eco transformations from the Archie Sonic comics. While all had unique powers & abilities but unfortunately weren’t utilized or even developed as much as I’d hope for them to be. Ultra Sonic though was always dope

You left out the one sonic archie issue where he gets a bunch of transformations in a short burst, being eco, solar, polar, and ultra sonic. Ultra was pretty cool since he was able to manipulate the elements at a molecular level, thanks archie wiki for this info

I think the interest in Hyper Sonic comes from a lot of the more shonen/dbz-esque side of the fanbase, maintained mostly through them and flash/sprite animations, there's a bunch of sprite edits and MUGEN characters that basically obsess over transformations like it's Dragon Ball, even portaying Sonic's light speed glow effect into a Kaoiken ripoff The popularity of Dark Sonic and Fleetway's Super Sonic is a part of this, though the Sonic.EXE fan community probably contributes to those a lot too Darkspine Sonic is such random and yet out there concept, There's something about the visual design making his quills droop and hang more like dreads and how he constantly sounds like he's either pissed or in pain, but somehow holding back whatever it is I'll never forgive the internet for trying to convince us that none of these concepts were cool Also people might crucify you for not mentioning "Ultra Sonic"

9:57 If Secret Rings ever gets a remake I’d love for there to be some kind of extra or secret boss that has Sonic absorb all 7 World Rings and make some kind of “True Darkspine Sonic” Or maybe even a “Lightspine Sonic” (Name sounds dumb but you know what I mean) that’s not full of rage. Since both Darkspine and Alf Layla Wa-Layla were only so monstrous because they were incomplete from not absorbing all 7 Rings. (Also you forgot like 4-6 forms from Archie but Ultra Sonic is the only one that matters and I’d probably put him right below Excalibur Sonic)

The Super Emeralds aren't canon so he can't go super, I mean, it's not like he could use the Master Emerald

Although the lore reason for hyper sonic not returning is shotty at Best. Maybe to best reason is the reason he exists at all. Hyper Sonic exists due the Sonic 3 being split. Since they had to make the earlier levels in S&K easier because it was a standalone game as well. The thing is, the didn't want you to blaze through the levels with super sonic, which is why you lose super when you enter the second half of the game.

3:23 Which is funny, because shadow's and super sonic's spines being the same helped in the theory that gerald based his creations on echidna legends, biolizard based on the legend of perfect chaos, and shadow in the one we see in sonic 3&k of super sonic fighting robotnik

I'm glad to see that Sonic acquiring new forms is making a comeback recently. Since there was no new attempt since final color blaster

This slander against Hyper Sonic is unacceptable!!!!! I played the heck out of S3&K so I really miss him :( I didn't know Sega hated him

Nice to know that Mark is experimenting with silent videos

Huh, he never had red eyes in game til Adventure? I guess StC/Fleetway predicted it by accident! Wild!

While watching an old Splash Dash video best thing happened a new Splash Dash video came out.

How could the Super Emeralds have been shattered? Aren't they just what the Chaos Emeralds turn into when they're powered up by the Master Emerald? At least that's how I interpreted them.

I think the main reason people wanna see Hyper Sonic return is because it's the only form in the series that's been shown to be stronger than Super Sonic (unless you count Ultra Sonic from the Archie Comics) I know sega said they want to avoid dragon ball's power creep but considering Super Sonic's power multiplier seems more akin to that of Super Saiyan Blue (the Archie comics claim it's a 1000x multiplier, though it may be different for the games) I think one form above is acceptable.

I always have a field day every time LS M- I mean Splash Dash uploads a new video

Dark Sonic appears for like 20 seconds, refuses to elaborate and leaves a permanent mark on the fanbase. It's literally the meme and I love it.

Honestly, my only gripe with Hyper Sonic potentially coming back is that it feels unnecessary. Like, Super Sonic already goes up against gods on the regular. Do we really need “Super Sonic but stronger,” at least from a narrative standpoint? At least Darkspine and Excalibur Sonic had their own unique power sets that suited the situation.

Unrelated, but this guy sounds exactly like ls mark, but dont see any corolations to these two channels.

I love your channel!!

I think people want hyper sonic back so much because of The fan film with nazo. It made the form look sick and we saw a shadow plus sonic fusion

Audio?

Sonic's got as many forms as Goku.

It’s a good day when splash dash posts

After we've seen the new cybersonic he does actually have a secondary transformation it's just the blue eyes are his power when he's using it without going all out putting a limit on it he actually gets a similar color scheme to stage when she's blue in his full power form which we only see him use against supreme / the end

I think Hyper Sonic has so much appeal because it's the only one that's a step above Super Sonic. STC Super Sonic and Dark Super Sonic are just the same thing, but a bit to the left. You could argue that they're more dangerous because of raw savagery, but they're the same thing in terms of actual power. Darkspine Sonic and Excalibur Sonic are explicitly weaker, since they _can_ take damage whereas Super Sonic usually can't, with only a scant few bosses, most of which are gods or are using the power of gods, able to actually scratch him. Hyper Sonic has this appeal because, well, we like it when things go Even Further Beyond. Dragon Ball kept iterating more and more on the Super Saiyan, and for the most part, people go nuts for those extra forms. It's also one of the forms with the most use. The Werehog was used for half a game, and Super Sonic is in almost every title, and STC's version showed up in multiple issues and arcs, but all the others mostly only got used once. Hyper Sonic playing by old-style rules _and_ still getting the true final boss won him some extra fans, whereas everyone else was a one-and-done. Like, Dark Super is basically a "Well _that_ just happened" moment in Sonic X. It shows up for about thirty seconds, kills two generic robots, and then gets reverted to normal by Eggman going "Being mean isn't nice!" because, well, even good Sonic X is still worse writing than much of the rest of the franchise. Still got a fuckton of fanart and support just by being The Edgy One.

I reckon a big reason why people love to dunk on the concept of the Werehog so much is precisely due to its namesake - the *Werehog*. Which probably sounds like a stupid idea on paper, but its a shame since in practice it was actually such an interesting concept to base a Sonic game around, and I imagine they only added the whole Werewolf motif to their initial “Evil Sonic” concept later because it was just fitting. The Werehog definitely stands as one of the most unique transformations to date as its not just some variation of the Super form and has a lotta implications for Sonic’s character. I know we didn’t get much of an arc with Sonic and his insecurity surrounding his Werehog form but that little moment with Amy in Unleashed was appreciated regardless.

This was something of a cool list ranking alright and Werehog is my favorite 🐺

2:07 Prismatic Super Sonic is what I dub it as, seeing how his body not only gets a physical minor change but his speed his strenght are increased by a super large margin, and not only that some previous iterations would either change his appearance like dark Super sonic so Same would be with the prisms energy, also favorite sonic form has to be dark Super sonic

and then SplashDash said "It's Splashing time" and then dashed all over the place. My jaw was ON THE FLOOR!

Sorry could you please speak up?

Evil Super Sonic mentioned, subscription mandatory

1:07 Damn, personally my dopamine never ran thin playing as Super Sonic in Frontiers whatsoever. Sure the last Titan fight was kind of uneventful, but I still never felt burnt out playing as Super Sonic. The first 3 fights especially will forever be one of my favorite Sonic gaming moments ever. And replaying them in the enemy/boss rush mode is a blast too!

I keep seeing people say that the reason they cannot use Hyper, even for a hidden uber boss, or anything, is that after everyone will keep asking for him back because Super won't seem as cool by comparison. The ship has sailed on that a long time ago. If fans keep asking form him back, almost 30 years after the last appearance, they aren't going to forget. That said, if Sega does ever reconsider and add him for final or uber boss stuff, then it ought to be capped there to prevent any further power creep.

The personality of Fleetway's Super Sonic is based on how the Super Saiyan transformation was _supposed to_ tap into a Saiyan's battle instincts on such a deep level that Goku was afraid of killing his own son in his rage. That was dropped almost instantly in Dragon Ball, but it's interesting that Fleetway doubled down on this aspect which was _never_ part of Sonic's transformation in any other iteration. It also kinda "feels" natural in a way, like fitting with how a player might feel invincible and aggressively use the extra speed while the transformation is running.

I’m fairly certain that super sonic having green eyes In Sonic 3 was because goku gets green/blue eyes when going super saiyan

Goodness seeing origins with pixel perfect mode makes me so happy

Man, you don't know how many years I spent wanting Fleetway Super Sonic to be offical.

"this is a super sonic, and this, is a super sonic beyond a super sonic, or just super sonic 2"

It's so funny watching the cutscenes for unleashed and seeing all the skipped frames whenever the Werehog is on screen

Hyper sonic appearing is practically impossible to me because apparently in the original Japanese manual while sonic and tails already had a set of chaos emeralds and were headed to angel island when it was falling because the master emerald was resonating with tails emerald scanner The part of the island the death egg slammed into was on the emerald shrine on angel island. Causing the already existing chaos (super) emeralds to disappear. And when you collect all the emeralds knuckles is opening portals to the emerald shrine and your emeralds immediately resonate with the dead emeralds. Just completey replacing it. Maybe now they can't resonate anymore for some reason

“I dunno why people want Hyper Sonic, it’s just a cooler looking and more powerful version of Super” Damn you’re right why would people want that?

I chuckled at the racing stripe line. "Agreed. First prize!"

Hm, fair and valid points and opinions. I hope we get to see more of these forms in some way, as well as see more other forms. By the way, which other Characters would you like to see get Super Forms of their own?

my favourite part about the werehog is that his ears are pointed like devil horns that detail is so cool

Wow 2 lsmark videos and a video from splashdash!

Prismatic sonic as a conscept is neat because throughout the entire show it was only 1 sonic so having the after images being the different sonic varients of the prism shards was cool but sadly wasnt executed well I really liked how he interacted with essentially himself and wish they used that more Like if instead of it just making him so fast it leaves after images it would be sonic glitching between alternate selves as possible realities as a suedo multiple personality disorder

As a DBZ fan, I can imagine that Super Sonic may come off as cooler than Super Saiyan due to the fact that it’s used as the final trump card for Sonic in many instances, giving more hype to the transformation than Super Saiyan being possibly more well known than base form

Oh my days Splash dash finally released a video I nearly died bro Make more content!!!

14:46 Thank you so much for saying that.

I like it when hedgehog goes different colour

That was me in the video for Werehog in Speed Battle! 🤩

Man what a very in depth analysis of sonics transformations. Wish he would speak up a little bit