Sonic Rumble is a fun battle royale, but oddly slow spinoff

True to its titular hedgehog’s ethos, the Sonic series never slows down. After releasing what might be the franchise’s best game in decades, Sonic X Shadow Generations, yet another new game is set to launch this winter. Sonic Rumble will turn the series into a free battle royale game that takes some clear notes from Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. It’s an elimination game that’s more about clearing platforming minigames and collecting rings than combat.

Digital Trends recently went hands-on with Sonic Rumble, playing a few rounds on an iPhone. While it has all the right elements of a free-to-play multiplayer game, its slow movement doesn’t quite feel like a fit for the fast-paced nature of Sonic. It may end up being a fun enough mobile obsession, but it’s one of Sega’s odder uses of its legendary IP that I’ve ever seen.

Get ready to rumble

In Sonic Rumble, Dr. Eggman turns Sonic and his pals into adorable toys. It’s a light narrative that sets up its battle royale hook and cute aesthetic well enough. The hook here is that 32 players pop into a three-round test of skill. Some rounds have players racing through a long stage at the same time, while others are simple ring-collecting minigames. Each round, half of the players are eliminated. The final battle is between the top eight players, with only one coming out on top. It’s all par for the course for the genre, right down to its microtransactions, battle pass, and collectible skins.

If you love games like Fall Guys or Kirby’s Dream Buffet, Sonic Rumble will check a lot of boxes. At its heart, this is a lighthearted battle against physics. The first round is a chaotic match as 32 players all bounce around obstacles at the same time. It can feel a little derivative as I bounce between inflatable bumpers or run against spinning treadmills. There are a few unique ideas here, though. For one, it makes use of Sonic’s signature homing attack as part of its platforming. With the tap of a button, I can zoom toward ziplines or bounce into enemies.

The best ideas come in the interplay between cooperation and competition. At certain points during a race, players need to work together to progress. Sometimes I hit a door that only unlocks once six robots standing near it are smashed. That goes a lot quicker if I’m working with other players instead of sabotaging them. Similarly, I occasionally have to smash into a wall to knock it down, another task that goes faster with help.

While that collaboration adds a neat twist, it can be entertainingly cutthroat too. One closing round threw the final eight players into a small, snowy space filled with valuable rings. It was a race to see who could get the most before the timer ran out. During the chaos, gold chests popped up across the screen. Opening one gives players a homing attack that they can use to steal another players’ rings. I grabbed one and started hunting down the first-place player to do some damage. Moments like that bring the fun tension that this genre relies on.

Other standout features include the ability to create custom matches and streamer-friendly options that will help content creators organize matches with their audience. There’s even an in-game tab that curates content from those creators.

Though there are some great pieces, the entire project feels a little puzzling. You’d expect a Sonic battle royale to be about speed, sending players through the kind of quick roller coaster rides that other mobile games like Sonic Dream Team do so well. That’s not the case; in fact, Sonic Rumble is incredibly slow-paced. It plays much more like Fall Guys than Sonic, with characters stumbling through levels rather than blasting through them. There’s no snappy movement, and even the homing attack feels a bit clumsy. None of the things that make Sonic games fun are really represented here. Instead, it feels like an unrelated game that’s been reskinned to look like the franchise.

That’s not inherently a bad thing. The point of spinoffs is that they’re supposed to do something new with a series. Not every Sonic game needs to be built around speed — just look at The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. Still, you at least want to feel some DNA carried over to a game like this to make the franchise feel like a surprise fit for a new genre. Tetris 99, for instance, translates naturally to an elimination game thanks to its tense, competitive edge. Sonic Rumble doesn’t seem to make a compelling case for what Sonic brings to the battle royale. It winds up feeling like a cash grab launching a few years too late.

Perhaps the main thing that Sonic Rumble brings to the table is fan service — and that might be all that really matters. I’ve got a Chao companion that happily floats around me. I can unlock alternate skins for characters, which includes callbacks to games like Sonic Riders. The toy transformation setup isn’t just a cute plot point; it signals that this is a lighthearted plaything for fans. It’s another excuse to make a Sonic museum full of references. The actual battle royale almost feels secondary to its unlockables in that sense.

I don’t expect Sonic Rumble to shake up the battle royale market much. It’s a fairly standard elimination spinoff that doesn’t exactly play to Sonic’s strengths. That doesn’t mean that it won’t resonate with the hedgehog’s dedicated fan base, though, who are just getting another freebie to obsess over once they’re done playing Sonic X Shadow Generations and watching Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for a third or 10th time. Sonic is as much a lifestyle as it is a video game franchise at this point, so I imagine its intended audience won’t be too precious about how polished it is. It’s another way to play Sonic. Perhaps that’s enough for fans.

Sonic Rumble will launch on mobile devices this winter.