Here's where it all began, the very first episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. This is the one that introduced us to the series and the wacky, nonsensical world within. Those familiar with the games already know the characters, but here's where some folks at DiC took them, gave them obnoxious personalities, made the villains really stupid, made Tails a damsel in distress, and made Sonic a near-invincible Mary Sue. It's a very formulaic show, but it's still entertaining. The best course of action is not to overthink what you're seeing, because this show plays by its own rules. The producers took heavy inspiration from Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons, and nowhere is that more apparent than the opening of this, the very first episode: we see Sonic racing down desert roads, tearing it up as he goes. Sounds familiar. I'm surprised he doesn't suddenly stop dead and the words: "Sonic the Hedgehog (Spineous Blue Speedous)" appear below him. No sooner do he and Tails stop running do Scratch and Grounder jump out and spring a trap on them, hanging them upside down from a tree. Of course, Sonic could just break out and keep going, but I guess he feels the need to tell the two dumbots about how they first met. They must have chosen the flashback route so it wouldn't affect the order in which these episodes aired in syndication. They did it so you could watch either the first or final episode and not miss a thing. Anyway, Sonic tells Scratch and Grounder about a time way back: four months ago to be exact, where Dr. Robotnik had gathered his army of robot bounty hunters to hunt down and annihilate a certain hedgehog. Those familiar with Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine will recognize a few of the bounty hunters. The doc rants and raves about how Sonic is the bane of his existence and puts up a bounty of one billion Mobiums. Sonic, who had snuck in and was watching from the audience, claims to be worth way more than that. Oh, I'm sure you really think that, you little showoff, and speaking of showoff, that's exactly what he does, proving that this bunch of bounty hunters blows chips. First, the hedgehog tricks Frankly, Dynamight, and Skweel into walking off a cliff, then he gives Arms and Davy Sprockett a wild ride, ending with them crashing into the side of a cliff, then finally, he causes Dragonbreath to knock over a tree, crushing him. At the least the video game gave more characterization to these guys, whereas here on the show, they're just throw-away baddies. Robotnik viewed the whole thing, claiming it to be only a small setback, as he's going to create himself some new robots. His recipe includes strength, fearlessness, rottenness, and intelligence, but obviously something went horribly, horribly wrong, because what came out of the insta-robot-maker was a lanky robotic chicken named Scratch who, while strong and rotten, is a cowardly dumbass. No matter, Robotnik still names him the first of his new Super "Special" Sonic Search and Smash Squad, and I put quotes around Special for a reason. Next, Botsy intends to create Scratch's identical twin by plucking a tail feather and tossing it into the machine, then he pulls a series of levers, with Scratch pulling one that was not intended to be pulled, and then from out of the machine comes a squat, green little multi-purpose bot named Grounder, and he's just as dumb as Scratch, if not dumber. Well, I'm actually glad that happened. I mean, who wanted to have Scratch in stereo? One is bad enough, but just imagine what would've happened if we had two. Huh, yeah, Botsy, with these two dunces at your disposal, Sonic is toast. Anyway, he gives them a copy of the Wile E. Coyote handbook and sends them out after the hedgehog, all while Coconuts, Robotnik's disgraced janitor robot monkey, decided to try and trap Sonic on his own.
Now we have a few rounds of Who Can Make a More Effective Hedgehog Trap. First up is Coconuts, who set up an attractive chili dog stand, which actually doubles as a gigantic death machine. It chases Sonic and Tails, firing cannons at them and reaching for them with giant, gloved hands. It almost worked, except Sonic was just a bit too fast for him. He stretched all the cannons to fire at the pilot, destroying the machine and leaving Coconuts all tied up. That's an A for effort, but an F for impact. Next up, Scratch relies on trap number 1 in the Handbook to trick Sonic into crashing into a wall with a painted mural in front of it. Grounder gets him to chase him by blowing into his hand and making a pumpkin pop out. (What? Pumpkin! Pumpkin, what? - Nostalgia Critic). He throws it at Sonic, who chases him toward the wall, only he outsmarts them and literally makes Scratch's plan come crashing down. That's a C for effort and an F- for impact. Now it's Grounder's turn, and they're going to lure Sonic into a deep pit. They do this by, huh, well, since they liked the inflatable gags so much, Scratch wears a glove that blows up into a woman. Oh yeah, they were on drugs when they made this. Sonic falls for the woman, and as surprising as it sounds, they actually get the drop on him. Sonic falls down the pit and he's trapped... for a few seconds, as he digs himself out and flattens the robots with anvils. That's a B- for effort and as for impact... um, a Z. Since Sonic was obviously too hard to catch, the bots actually succeed in capturing Tails. Sonic willingly surrenders, so he's put in a cage, while Tails is put in the stocks, and they call up Robotnik to come collect their prize. That's when Coconuts shows up and ties up Scratch and Grounder, saying he deserved the money. Actually no you don't, lightbulb brain, as their plan actually worked, as cheap as it was. Oh, how is Sonic going to get out of this? Easy, he uses reverse psychology to get Coconuts to open the cage and put Grounder and Scratch in, only for him to race out and lock up the monkey with the rest of them. And now, for the piece de resistance, when they see Robotnik flying in, Sonic creates a dust cloud, then calls him up, pretending to be an air traffic controller and tricks him into crashing. Back to the present, Sonic concludes his story by breaking out of the trap and racing off with Tails. Our Sonic Says is about calling 911. It opens with Sonic and Tails surrounded by Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts, with the little fox saying they should call 911, but Sonic says this is nothing and that number is for real emergencies. Okay, but let's look at this objectively, shall we? We all know those three idiot robots are harmless, but what about in real life if you're surrounded by people who want to harm you, they're much bigger than you, and they're armed? Are you saying to deal with them ourselves? I know what message they're trying to convey, as 911 is only for fire, police, or paramedic emergencies, but some of us are not fast hedgehogs surrounded by pushovers.
So that was "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad". That's a very strange name, why not just call it Sonic Smash Squad? Because they're super "special", of course. This episode is not bad, and it's quite entertaining despite the idiocy on display. The animation is terrible as the character models are all over the place, the voice acting is terrible, the writing is below substandard, but it's not a bad episode. It gets the ball rolling for the series we're going to see, and some episodes are good, and some are bad. As you may have noticed, Coconuts and Grounder originated from Sonic 2, while Scratch is an original character but he's based off Cluck from the Sky Fortress level. You know something else? For a while I've been noticing that Scratch and Grounder remind me of another famous robot duo, and only recently did I finally figure out whom. Let's see: one is tall, talkative, a bit cowardly and walks, while the other is short, has tons of gadgets at his disposal, and rolls. You know what famous robot duo I'm talking about, right? Yep: C-3PO and R2-D2. These two are supposed to be dumber, more violent versions of those famous droids from Star Wars. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it's plain to see. If C-3PO was a robot chicken and R2-D2 was a little green garbage disposal. I had a bad feeling about that. But anyway, I recommend "Super Special..." as it's entertaining, so long as you don't take it too seriously. I know this is the episode the Nostalgia Critic ragged on the most in his review of the series, and his points are definitely valid, but I say check it out anyway, and if you haven't played Mean Bean Machine, give that a try too.
Now we have a few rounds of Who Can Make a More Effective Hedgehog Trap. First up is Coconuts, who set up an attractive chili dog stand, which actually doubles as a gigantic death machine. It chases Sonic and Tails, firing cannons at them and reaching for them with giant, gloved hands. It almost worked, except Sonic was just a bit too fast for him. He stretched all the cannons to fire at the pilot, destroying the machine and leaving Coconuts all tied up. That's an A for effort, but an F for impact. Next up, Scratch relies on trap number 1 in the Handbook to trick Sonic into crashing into a wall with a painted mural in front of it. Grounder gets him to chase him by blowing into his hand and making a pumpkin pop out. (What? Pumpkin! Pumpkin, what? - Nostalgia Critic). He throws it at Sonic, who chases him toward the wall, only he outsmarts them and literally makes Scratch's plan come crashing down. That's a C for effort and an F- for impact. Now it's Grounder's turn, and they're going to lure Sonic into a deep pit. They do this by, huh, well, since they liked the inflatable gags so much, Scratch wears a glove that blows up into a woman. Oh yeah, they were on drugs when they made this. Sonic falls for the woman, and as surprising as it sounds, they actually get the drop on him. Sonic falls down the pit and he's trapped... for a few seconds, as he digs himself out and flattens the robots with anvils. That's a B- for effort and as for impact... um, a Z. Since Sonic was obviously too hard to catch, the bots actually succeed in capturing Tails. Sonic willingly surrenders, so he's put in a cage, while Tails is put in the stocks, and they call up Robotnik to come collect their prize. That's when Coconuts shows up and ties up Scratch and Grounder, saying he deserved the money. Actually no you don't, lightbulb brain, as their plan actually worked, as cheap as it was. Oh, how is Sonic going to get out of this? Easy, he uses reverse psychology to get Coconuts to open the cage and put Grounder and Scratch in, only for him to race out and lock up the monkey with the rest of them. And now, for the piece de resistance, when they see Robotnik flying in, Sonic creates a dust cloud, then calls him up, pretending to be an air traffic controller and tricks him into crashing. Back to the present, Sonic concludes his story by breaking out of the trap and racing off with Tails. Our Sonic Says is about calling 911. It opens with Sonic and Tails surrounded by Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts, with the little fox saying they should call 911, but Sonic says this is nothing and that number is for real emergencies. Okay, but let's look at this objectively, shall we? We all know those three idiot robots are harmless, but what about in real life if you're surrounded by people who want to harm you, they're much bigger than you, and they're armed? Are you saying to deal with them ourselves? I know what message they're trying to convey, as 911 is only for fire, police, or paramedic emergencies, but some of us are not fast hedgehogs surrounded by pushovers.
So that was "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad". That's a very strange name, why not just call it Sonic Smash Squad? Because they're super "special", of course. This episode is not bad, and it's quite entertaining despite the idiocy on display. The animation is terrible as the character models are all over the place, the voice acting is terrible, the writing is below substandard, but it's not a bad episode. It gets the ball rolling for the series we're going to see, and some episodes are good, and some are bad. As you may have noticed, Coconuts and Grounder originated from Sonic 2, while Scratch is an original character but he's based off Cluck from the Sky Fortress level. You know something else? For a while I've been noticing that Scratch and Grounder remind me of another famous robot duo, and only recently did I finally figure out whom. Let's see: one is tall, talkative, a bit cowardly and walks, while the other is short, has tons of gadgets at his disposal, and rolls. You know what famous robot duo I'm talking about, right? Yep: C-3PO and R2-D2. These two are supposed to be dumber, more violent versions of those famous droids from Star Wars. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it's plain to see. If C-3PO was a robot chicken and R2-D2 was a little green garbage disposal. I had a bad feeling about that. But anyway, I recommend "Super Special..." as it's entertaining, so long as you don't take it too seriously. I know this is the episode the Nostalgia Critic ragged on the most in his review of the series, and his points are definitely valid, but I say check it out anyway, and if you haven't played Mean Bean Machine, give that a try too.