Sonic the Hedgehog Superstars: nostalgia, novelty, and a metaphor for industrial society

Artwork credits

The Sonic Ted Kaczynski drawing was created by Newgrounds artist SPANGLESNG

The Green Hill vista drawing was created by Wagner de Souza

The older I get, the more I see the nearly 30-year-old Sonic franchise as a metaphor for industrial society.

The glorious indigenous folk — colorful anthropomorphic animals folk including Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prowler, Knuckles the Echidna, and Big the Cat — live in vibrant islands with glimmering loopdy-loops atop green hills surrounded by beautiful gardens and villages filled with smiling friends known as Mobians (or Sonic’s friends as Sega calls them)

Sonic and his friends are inhabitants of numerous islands away from the oppressive regime of human industrial society. With the invasion of the white man, Dr. Eggman, Sonic and his friends must ward off their colonial oppressor. It is not an accident Dr. Eggman is based off Teddy Roosevelt, one of the most popular presidents associated with American imperialism.

Likewise, is not a subtle metaphor that the minions of Dr. Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik for all my westaboos out there) uses badniks as his main fighting force. Badniks are robots which are literally powered by small animals, as in they are shoved into a metal tomb and used merely as a battery. These badniks are a Kacynski-ite metaphor for how humans today have been “roboticized” by the white man under capitalism (or crapitalism).

Eggman has his mits in all sorts of illicit profit schemes

To briefly summarize Kaczysnki's anarco-privitivism, Ted Kaczynski believed that industrial society was inherently oppressive. The nature of work and labor changed for the negative as humans were disconnected from the modes of work which evolution had accustomed us to. Unlike hunting a gazelle, which is fun and awesome, answering emails is lame and boring. Hence, humans are more prone to psychological issues due to a intense feeling of alienation. People try to work through these issues by partaking in non-life sustaining activities. Basically, most hobbies are actually an outlet for you to feel like you aren't oppressed. Kacznski thought this way of life was unstable an advocated a return to a more primitive lifestyle.

In light of this thought, Sonic must use violence for self-defense and take the fight right to Eggman, much like Kazinsky had to use self-defense when the gubmint built a road on his favorite vista. To escape our digital dystopia Sonic must speed through locales to blow up Dr. Eggman’s plans in his face, like how Ted brought the fight against industrial society by mailing surprises. This is the tried and true method.

Sonic has always been a progressive franchise in that sense. One of the most prominent characters in the series is black-coded (a word I learned in university. It means the person is black but not black), that being Knuckles the Echidna. It is various obvious with his dreads and Jamaican flag shoes.

Likewise, we see sex work positive characters like Rouge the Bat.

Many scholars have hypothesized that Gen-Zs more favorable view of marijuana use was due to witnessing the design of Silver the Hedgehog during their formative years, that being the famous Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

The latest of these games, Sonic the Hedgehog Superstars, is no different and just as progressive. Here, Dr. Eggman teams up with Fang the Hunter (formerly Fang the Sniper. formerly Nack the Weasel. Fang is actually a jerboa) and a new character, Trip, to take over the world. Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prowler, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose must stop the terrible trio.

Fang (top left), Eggman (top middle), and Trip (top right)

Here we see Sonic series implementing the race and class traitor trope with Fang, who was willing to sell out his own people for money. Bribing is a common tactic used by oppressors. Next time Fang should change his name to Judas the Jerboa. Fang, so enamored with the wonders of industrial society and what money can purchase under the fascist free market socialism, sells out his own folx.

Trip, by contrast, has been propagandized by Eggman to accept industrial society through the oppressive public school system, the lying mainstream media, and the wonders of modern medicine. By the end of the game, she breaks her conditions and learns the power of primitivism, joining Sonic and his friends in saving the world. Trip is a reminder to us all that just because the modern world has conditioned use to enjoy air conditioning, doesn’t mean we have to accept our brain being conditioned by the public schools and our parents.

It is strongly implied Trip read the works of Jacques Ellul to break her conditioning

But enough about the depthful Sonic lore. Is the game fun, I hear you wondering. The answer is yes. If you liked the first 5 Sonic games (Sonic 1, CD, 2, 3, & Knuckles) and Sonic Mania, aka the objectively good Sonic games, you should pick this game up when it goes on sale. The physics are on point thanks to Sonic Team stealing the Taxman and Stealth physics engine from Sonic Mania. Is the game kinda ugly? Kinda, it mainly looks like a New Super Mario Bros version of Sonic, so like it should have been released 10 years ago.

2012 called, they want their uninspired artstyle back

The boss fights are actually dogshit, so get ready for that. You know what’s fun in a Sonic game? Waiting. Thankfully time attack allows you to play through levels without the boss battle at the end, so after you get through the story you can replay the game without any of the crap on your next play through.

I guess there’s multiplayer. I have no friends so I didn’t play it. Industrial society has alienated me from an authentic human relationships.

Are YOU going to pick up Sonic the Hedgehog Superstars? Pick it up this Black Friday sale!

Edit: I received a lot of hate mail from people saying that I shouldn’t be playing videogames if I believe that industrial society is bad. Excuse me. I didn’t CHOSE to be born in this era. I would live in a cabin if I could but everyone around me prevents me from doing it, so I just play videogames instead. I would go to a forest but it costs too much for transportation and public school didn’t teach me how to survive on my own like, I’ve been conditioned to be a serf to the system. It’s pretty insidious if you ask me.

The best I could do is let people know about works of Kazinsky through the internet. A lot of people ask how Kazinskites, so enamored with the internet they stumble upon fringe political beliefs like anarcho-primitivism, could do a 180 and decide to become hunter gathers. How about you stop being ignorant and read a book?