2022 was an interesting time for Sonic the Hedgehog. The second movie arrived, Sonic Frontiers released, and the first season of Sonic Prime arrived on Netflix. A joint collaboration between Man of Action, WildBrain Studios, and Sega provides a multiversal adventure giving some fun variations on Sonic friends.

Now, it being a multiversal adventure had me thinking there would be a load of variations on Sonic friends, and it wasn’t until after the first few episodes of the second season that I lost such thinking. Even with how the first season progressed, I was still expecting more alternate worlds to come. But with the conclusion of the story, I’m happy that they limited the number of alternate worlds. Any more would have affected the story for the worse, I feel.

From the first episode, there’s action. The usual Team Sonic, here consisting of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Rouge, against Dr Eggman and his robots. Eggman has found the location of the Paradox Prism, intending to use it to create a reality under his control. Sonic, being his usual act-first-question-later self, shatters the Prism in trying to stop Eggman taking it. Thus, the Shatterverse is created.

New Yoke City makes for a great first Shatterspace to visit, being a world in which Eggman has taken over. Uh… and found four others just like him to help rule. This is a very industrialised version of Green Hill, with just a few remnants of what Green Hill was visible among the skyscrapers and urbanisation. The denizens of New Yoke City have formed a resistance to oust the Chaos Council and return things to how they used to be.

Then there’s the Boscage Maze, a Green Hill that features very tall trees. Here, an alternate Amy has turned on the others for their greed and harm to nature, forcing them to live above the trees with little food. This is pretty much a world that mirrors Sonic’s own casualness regarding sentimentality. Something he comes to understand while fixing the rift between the alternate versions of his friends.

Then there’s No Place, a vast ocean which Green Hill lies beneath. Here, the crew are pirates led by Knuckles, who goes by the name of the Legendary Dread. This version of Knuckles mirrors Sonic’s refusal to be a part of the team. He’s a leader, he dictates and the others follow. It is also in No Place that the start of the worlds crossing over begins.

Such crossovers are fun, seeing these alternate versions of the characters interact with each other. Big the Cat also features as part of the crew in all these worlds, replacing Sonic within the friend group. Sonic’s interactions with each of these alternate versions works for who he is, seeing each of them as his original friends despite their differences. That does change over time as he learns the lessons these Shatterspaces are teaching him.

Except for one person, it is too late. Nine is a version of Tails who exists in New Yoke City. Bullied and alone, he constructs seven extra robotic tails to become a more formidable person. Nine is the first of his friends’ alternate versions Sonic has real interaction with. The two do connect, and Nine helps Sonic while still shunning everyone else. Across the first two seasons, Nine is captured by the Chaos Council and used by them. But Nine also uses the Chaos Council, while still continuing to help Sonic.

Shadow, who is unable to interact with any of the Shatterspaces, has at least been able to see what Sonic has been up to within them. Forcing Sonic to halt his journey between Shatterspaces, Shadow says he doesn’t trust Nine, and doesn’t trust Sonic to fix what he broke. Coming to understand that it has to be Sonic to fix things, he at least agrees to help in any way he can. But still as a distrust of Nine.

During that confrontation, Shadow had brought Sonic to Ghost Hill, a Shatterspace that contains the Green Hill Sonic knows effectively frozen. Here, memory blips of Sonic’s friends exist, repeating a line that is most how Sonic sees them. Also here is the ghostly version of the Prism, with only one part of it existing. The others exist in each of the Shatterspaces.

Without spoiling too much of it, the third season then gives us a final battle that should have been in Sonic Forces. There is plenty to enjoy about it, with said fight introducing new things to keep it fresh across the multiple episodes it runs for. The outcome never feels a certain thing, with an almost grim feeling throughout. Rather fitting considering where the final confrontation is taking place.

There is a lot to love about Sonic Prime. With the first season, I was massively invested in it that I was disappointed it was already over. Every episode I would be surprised it had ended, which tells how much I was invested in it. That last part repeated for the episodes of both season 2 and 3. There’s a lot of action, but it does balance it well with slower moments to progress the themes it is working toward. As such, I can easily recommend you give Sonic Prime a watch.

Images Taken From:
Sonic Prime | Official Trailer | Netflix After School