Sonic Smackdown is the free Sonic Smash Bros Ultimate that we deserve

Sonic is known for its speed and even starred in a few racing games. He is even about to become a movie star with the live action Sonic the Movie, escaping the clutches of a wacky Dr. Robotnik, personified by a Jim Carrey apparently on top of his game. However, Sega never tried to take the famous hedgehog and friends in a fighting game, at least one that focused on the franchise alone. Sonic Smackdown could be the game to fill that void.

The makers of this free game say that they took inspiration from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, although Sonic and friends could work nicely in a platform fighter similar to Super Smash Bros Ultimate or Brawlhalla.

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The current version features eight player characters and choose the fighter color: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, Rouge, Mecha Sonic, and Metal Sonic. You can play in Arcade, Versus, and Training modes, but there is no online mode right now, only local co-op.

The core gameplay in Sonic Smackdown is perfectly polished, with normal moves, special moves, super moves, and ultra moves. Your opponent drops rings that you pick up to regain health, and everything about the fighting mechanics just feels right. The graphics are good, and the characters are smoothly animated, and there’s a potentially great fighting game in there. The number of stages is pretty good for a free game, and you even have a selection of musics to pick from.

Sonic Smackdown feels like a labor of love and deserves expanded development. Here’s hoping that Sega isn’t going to issue a cease and desist against this team and decides to foster them and develop an official Sonic fighting game. The acclaimed Sonic Mania was created by a team used to make Sonic fangames, so there is a nice precedent for it.

You can download Sonic Smackdown here for free, it really deserves a few minutes of your time; certainly more, if you’re a Sonic fan at heart.