Despite already having starred in numerous tabletop games in the last few years, including Sonic Roll, a co-operative board game from Kess Entertainment earlier in 2024 (which we covered on our sister site, Retro Dodo), fans of Sonic the Hedgehog know that he very rarely slows down. To prove the point, Kess Entertainment are also releasing another title featuring the blue blur this year!
This time around, it’s a card game named Sonic Speed Battle, and it’s confirmed for release in the US in Summer 2024; it’ll be available at Barnes & Noble, Target and local game stores, but its availability worldwide is yet to be confirmed.
So, what do we know about Sonic Speed Battle so far? Well, Kess Entertainment have confirmed, and this is reinforced by the game’s box art, that it’s inspired by Sonic Adventure 2. The game’s box art, incidentally, closely homages the cover of GameCube title Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, which refined and slightly expanded the gameplay of Dreamcast original, Sonic Adventure 2.
Sonic Adventure 2 was also the game which introduced the world to Shadow the Hedgehog (given his dark colour scheme and tendency to wield firearms, perhaps he should have been Shadow the Edgehog, eh?) and, mentioning our sister site Retro Dodo again, the game can be found on their list which ranks every single mainline Sonic game!
Sonic Speed Battle will have three different, completely separate card games, each inspired by aspects and modes of the Sonic video games, but each of which uses the same deck, just in a unique way. These games are a speed test (highly appropriate for Sonic and friends, of course), a Master Emerald hunt and a shooting showdown (no doubt that pistol packing Shadow is central to this one!); each can be played by 2-4 players, with an impressive 24 characters from the Sonic series to choose from.
Sonic Speed Battle is designed by Anthony Thorp, who was also responsible for the creation of Kess Entertainment’s other Sonic game, Sonic Roll. Given how beautifully thematic Sonic Roll was, with so many great uses of iconic Sonic imagery, settings and characters from the classic series, we have high hopes that the multi-game Sonic Speed Battle will be just as faithful and satisfying for long term Sonic fans, as well as for card game fans in general.
No further imagery from the game has yet been released, but given that, here at Card Gamer, we’ve been fans of Sonic the Hedgehog since the emergence of his very first 16-bit platform adventure on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, we can’t wait to see more. Let’s hope that release date comes around as quickly as the blue blur himself around a loop-the-loop in the Green Hill Zone!
