Surge the Tenrec from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series is set to make her video game debut in Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.
Announced on social media platform X, Sega Hardlight revealed that the cybernetically enhanced tenrec will be a playable character in the developer’s most popular Sonic mobile games. This is the third time a Sonic character exclusive to the IDW comics has made the jump into the official video games. The first and second are Whisper the Wolf and Tangle the Lemur in the same set of Sonic mobile games. YouTuber SonicWindBlue, an ambassador for Sega Hardlight and the Sonic the Hedgehog brand, has uploaded gameplay footage of Surge from Sonic Dash.
Created by longtime Sonic comic book writer Ian Flynn and artists Evan Stanley and Mauro Fonseca, Surge the Tenrec is a villainous anthropomorphic animal created for the sole purpose of destroying Sonic the Hedgehog. Debuting in the comic book mini-series Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #1, Surge is intentionally designed to mirror the appearance, attitude and power of Sonic by modeling her after a hedgehog-like animal. Her companion, Kitsunami the Fennec, is modeled after a fox native to the Sahara Desert to parallel him with Miles ‘Tails’ Prower.
In addition to their video game appearances, the IDW Sonic characters have also been referenced in the mainline 3D Sonic games. Sonic Frontiers, written by Flynn, has Sonic saying the line “I bet Tangle would love climbing around these ruins” during his traversal of Chronos Island. Flynn also confirmed on X that he contributed to the new Sonic Dream Team game that will be released exclusively on Apple Arcade in December. The new mobile game will feature multiple playable characters from the Sonic series such as Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Cream the Rabbit, Rouge the Bat and of course, the Blue Blur himself.
At the moment, only six playable characters have been confirmed for Sonic Dream Team. However, with Sega Hardlight as the developer behind the auto-run Sonic mobile games and Sonic Dream Team, it’s possible that more characters from the franchise — both games and IDW comics — could make future appearances. The strengthening between the Sonic comics and video games comes after a messy legal issue forced Sega to abandon the previous Sonic comic book continuity and its characters like Sally Acorn from Archie Comics.
Source: X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube
