What was obviously an April Fool, not least because of the release date, it turned out that The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was, in fact, a real actual game that genuinely exists. And was free on Steam. Who wouldn’t want to play a game where Sonic the Hedgehog is murdered?
Minor spoiler (because obviously, c’mon): Sonic wasn’t murdered.
In this mostly visual novel game, it’s Amy’s birthday and, as you do for such events, a murder-mystery-onna-train party has been organised. All her friends are assigned roles, and then OH NOES, Sonic is murdered. It’s up to you, as Generic Furry Train Guard Person Thing, and Tails, as Designated Detective, to follow the clues, interrogate the suspects, and find the “killer”. Only there’s a PLOT TWIST because Sonic may have actually been murdered after all FO’ REALS.
Minor spoiler (because obviously, c’mon): Sonic wasn’t murdered.
Each time you want to question a Chum of Sonic (not a euphemism), you have to play a mini-game where you’d do what Sonic would do in this situation – collect rings. These are simple isometric versions of a sort of Sonic free-runner, where you have to get a number of rings and avoid holes and other traps. Ironically for a Sonic game, these Sonic bits are the worst bit of the game, as they’re so tedious and (in the later ones at least) rely on memorising the hazards.
In all, it’s a stupid premise, mostly well executed, quite funny, and it demands to be played.