Summary
The Blue Blur, Sonic the Hedgehog, is a protagonist who rarely fails in his mission of saving the world from the next batch of villains that he is tasked with defeating. However, there have still beena few antagonistswho managed to get the better of Sonic and ultimately ended up besting him.
Though in most cases, Sonic is able to return from these losses to take down the villain once and for all, doing so can be difficult when he’s already got a chip on his shoulder from the last encounter. Nonetheless, it definitely adds a lot of intrigue to a game’s story when the protagonist is handed a loss, and in the case of theSonicgames, these villains below are the ones who have managed to defeat everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog.
Sonic Forces’story kicks off with a bang, as the world is plunged into chaos after Eggman teams up with a mysterious new villain known only as Infinity. Not one to sit around and watch the world burn, Sonic rushes to the scene, only to be encountered by Infinite, who possesses the power of the Phantom Ruby, allowing his power to greatly exceed that of Sonic’s.
Despite trying to resist his powers, Sonic eventually succumbs to Infinite’s strength and is even imprisoned on the Death Egg after being taken down, leaving him absent for roughly half of the game. Considering thatSonic Forceswas a game that emphasized playersmaking their own characterand becoming a part of the story, removing Sonic for a while does make sense, but it was still surprising to see him defeated in such a quick fashion.
Lyric is a rattlesnake-like creature that is revealed near the beginning ofSonic Boom: Rise of Lyricto be the last surviving member of a mysterious group known as the Ancients. Being a part of this clan makes Lyric incredibly powerful, and about the halfway point of the game, he and his goons succeed in ambushing Sonic and his friends, demanding they hand over the Chaos Crystals.
WhileKnuckles, Amy, and Tailsall agree to do so out of fear, Sonic is the only one who stands his ground. This ends in disaster though, as Sonic is then blasted by a barrage of energy weapons and buried under a few feet of rubble, being utterly humiliated in the process. Though he does manage to get back to his feet and make amends with the gang, this was a bitter loss for Sonic to take and one that he kept in the back of his mind for the rest of the story.
4Merlina (Sonic And The Black Knight)
Sonic’s Attempt To Face The Dark Queen On His Own Ends In Failure
Merlina is an all-powerful being who acts as the antagonist for Sonic throughout much ofThe Black Knight, and while Sonic fancies his chances to take her down, he ultimately fails to even land a single blow. After Merlina turns into the Dark Queen, Sonic attempts to defeat her all by himself in an act of desperation, only to be blasted away and badly injured by the mysterious entity.
In the end, it’s only with the support of his friends and the resurgence of Excalibur that Sonic possesses enough power to defeat Merlina once and for all. This battle is an example of how Sonic’shot-headed and rash personalitycan often get him into trouble, especially when facing off against formidable foes who he has little knowledge of.
Though Robotnik is essentially the same character as Eggman, since he is often referred to as the “Classic” Eggman, similar to how Classic and Modern Sonic are usually separated, then his own feats can be counted here. Robotnik’s most notable triumph over Sonic comes at the end ofSonic CDas part of the bad ending, which players can acquire by failing to collect all of the Time Stones by the end.
In this ending, despite how much Sonic has gone through to save Amy and defeat Metal Sonic, Robotnik reveals the Time Stones in his hand, which he then uses to bring back Little Planet and proceed with his plan, making Sonic’s efforts all for naught. While a clever way to incentivize players to go back in for a second playthrough, it’s also a pretty miserable defeat for Sonic, who is forced to re-do everything to save Amy, and the world at large.
Believe it or not, there was once a time when Sonic was actually killed in a game, and his death came at the hands of Mephiles. The goal of Mephiles was to force Princess Elise, who had formed a strong bond with the blue hedgehog up to this point in the game, to shed a tear and release her seal on Iblis, allowing Mephiles to turn into the all-powerful Solaris.
Mephiles is undoubtedly one of the most powerful and intimidating villains in the entire series, so much so that even Sonic wasn’t able to defeat him on the first go around. In fact, even by the end of the game, it takes Sonic, Shadow, and Silver working in tandem to finally take down Solaris, proving that Mephiles alone was just too much to handle for Sonic on his own.
Dr. Eggman - Sonic’s arch-rival who has appeared in the majority of games in the series - is usually the one taking a loss, butSonic Unleashedwas one of the only exceptions to this trend. Duringthe intro cutscene, Sonic lands on an Egg Ship and proceeds to dismantle Eggman’s robots one by one, and even temporarily turns into Super Sonic to lay waste to Eggman’s base of operations.
However, once he comes face to face with the doctor, who at this point is pleading for his life, it turns out that Sonic has been lured into a trap. With a press of a button, Eggman saps the Chaos energy out from Sonic, which he then uses to split the continents of the world, while also turning Sonic into a Werehog and sending him back down to the planet face-first. Starting the game with an embarrassing defeat for Sonic was a shocking way to kick offUnleashed, and to this day, it remains Sonic’s most embarrassing defeat to his arch-nemesis.
