Sonic Tweet is a discontinued digital application created by Sega of Japan as part of Sonic's 20th anniversary celebration. The app is accessed through X (known as Twitter at the time). The application comes off as a game where the player must help Sonic defeat Dr. Eggman. The game, which requires the player to follow @SONIC_TWEET_JP and authorize it to be able to read the player's tweets, is a free mini-game that involves the player to tweet "Sonic ★ Tweet" as part of the X message. Certain words from the message will make Sonic use a "Dash" to attack Eggman. Defeating Eggman will reward the player with 1 of 500 cards that can be collected or traded in for additional dash attacks. The cards are comprised with artwork or sprites from a group of 35 different Sonic the Hedgehog series games. The whole application is in Japanese.[1] The game ended on 31 December 2011.
History
Sonic Tweet was launched by Sega of Japan on 5 July 2011. By 18 July, the game had crashed due to an overwhelming amount of participants. A message in Japanese was left in place of the game which stated:
"We have had to stop the server as it is so busy. Currently, we are investigating the failure and progressing toward recovery. To everyone we are very sorry, thank you for waiting."
The game returned on 9 August 2011. To reward returning users, every account automatically received the Sonic card from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. The game has some slight changes from how it was at launch. For example, Sonic and Dr. Eggman used to pass by signs advertising Sonic Channel, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations and the series's 20th anniversary. When the user clicked on the signs they would be taken to the matching website. However, when the return of the game, these signs had been removed for unknown reasons. The signs returned on 9 September, exactly one month after the game itself came back online. Sonic Tweet ended on 31 December 2011. Currently, the sprite animations have been replaced with Sonic chasing Eggman on foot and large text reading "Thank you for playing" is on the left side. Many of the features have been removed from the site leaving only the pages that show results in collection, point total and card total.
Official Description
Sonic Tweet is nothing more than a free app for X. SOJ is calling it a "Game-included X Client"
The objective of the game (or app) is to collect 500 cards of characters from Sonic’s history.
To play, the player must tweet something using the app, and try to chain combos.
The tweet will be separated into single words, one of them will be randomly selected and assigned points. Apparently words like 20th or Sonic will receive more points. Then, the app will connect that word with words from other users and generate a combo. The higher the score, the more powerful Sonic’s attack will become.
Tweeting short sentences or tweeting the same sentence many times won’t be made into combos.
By attacking Eggman and making his HP go to 0, the player will receive a card.
To dash and attack Eggman the player will have to wait some time, but this can be bypassed by using the cards that are earned.
By defeating Eggman the player will receive exp points that will be used to achieve higher levels. The maximum attainable level is 10.
It will be possible to exchange cards with other X users, however to do this both users will have to be using this app and be followers of each other. Card trading is limited to 3 times per day, up to 5 cards per time.
There are three types of rankings, and going up to the third place will earn extra cards.[2]
Sprites
Different sprites from the original Sonic games are used in this game.
- Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
- Ganigani from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
- Motora from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
- Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Eggman with jetpack from Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Round 1)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) (Zone 2)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Zone 3)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile with sledge hammer from Aquatic Ruin Zone (Hammer Eggman) in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Zone 4)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile with lights and grips from Casino Night Zone (Catch Eggman) in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Zone 5)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile with flamethrower from Hill Top Zone (Submarine Eggman) in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Zone 6)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile with the large screw drill from Marble Garden Zone (Drill Mobile) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Zone 3)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile with two drills and a headlight from Mystic Cave Zone (Drill Eggman II) in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Zone 8)
- Eggman in Eggman's Mobile attached to the Jet Mobile from Mushroom Hill Zone in Sonic & Knuckles (Zone 9)
- Eggman appears in any one of the above machines at random or the Flame Mobile from Angel Island Zone (Act 2) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Zone 10)
Trivia
- None of Sonic's crossover games have cards in this app. Neither do the Sonic Rivals games, pinball games, mobile games, educational games, arcade games, compilation games, puzzle games, Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, Sonic 3D Blast, Knuckles' Chaotix, Sonic Shuffle, or Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
- On Mecha Sonic's card from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit), the New Motora artwork can be seen behind him.
- The Metal Sonic sprite on the Sonic the Hedgehog CD card was edited to feature its characteristic red eyes; in the original game, Metal Sonic only appeared with gray eyes except during the Stardust Speedway segment of the ending animation.
- The Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble cards use artwork originally from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Knuckles and artwork originally from Sonic the Hedgehog CD for Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic. All three pieces of artwork were re-used in the game's Japanese manual.
- The first two 8-bit titles have background scenes recreated using sprites from the original Master System releases, even though Japan did not receive these games until 2008 via the Wii Virtual Console. In contrast, the Sonic Triple Trouble and Sonic Blast cards use a similar "console" resolution but lift their visuals directly from the Game Gear titles. Sonic Chaos is different in that it appears to use graphics taken from both its Master System and Game Gear counterparts.
- The cards of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 use the artwork present in their respective remakes Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. The Chaos cards also use new artwork, as opposed to the original artwork from these respective games.
- Chaos 0 and Tikal use their Sonic Adventure 2: Battle artwork even though they are Sonic Adventure cards.
- Tails' card from Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Rush both use the same pose; the only difference is that one is a sprite and the other is artwork.
- The Sonic Heroes Neo Metal Sonic card uses the artwork with his silhouette instead of the colored artwork.
- In the Shadow the Hedgehog cards, the GUN Soldier, GUN Beetle, Egg Pawn, Black Bull and Egg Breaker cards use new artwork.
- E-123 Omega in the only support character from Shadow the Hedgehog to not have a card.
- Sonic Battle and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) are the only games that do not use the first level of the game as the background on their cards.
- Gemerl's Sonic Advance 3 card uses new artwork.
- The Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman and Cream artwork used for the Sonic Rush cards are originally from other games or Sonic Channel.
- In the Sonic Unleashed cards, Super Sonic and Dark Gaia cards are the only cards to have a different background.
- Many characters from the Multiplayer Mode of Sonic Adventure 2 and from the Party Mode of Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic and the Black Knight do not have cards.
- In this app many characters from other series like NiGHTS and Samba de Amigo appear in Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity cards.
- Super Sonic only has cards for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic R and Sonic Unleashed. Other games where he makes an appearance do not have cards.
- Sonic the Werehog is the only different transformation of Sonic to have a card. Other transformations like Darkspine Sonic and Excalibur Sonic do not have cards. Super transformations (with the exception of Super Sonic) do not have cards either.
- Fang, Bean, Bark, Mighty, Ray, and the Biolizard do not make any appearance in the cards of this app.
- Omochao only has a card from Sonic Free Riders and does not have cards for other games.
- The Neutral Chao only have a card from Sonic Adventure and do not have cards in other games.
- Characters exclusive to the DS version of Sonic Colors do not have card artwork.