Last week, Sonic the Hedgehog was murdered (open in new tab). He was found in a bloodied heap in the dining car of the Mirage Express. This happened in the visual novel "Sonic the Hedgehog Murder" (opens in new tab), produced by Sega, which, despite its tragic and inappropriate subject matter, was something of an April Fool's gag.

Jokes aside, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is currently the highest rated Sonic game on Steam. In fact, it is the 62nd highest rated game (open in new tab) on the entire platform (at one point it was #61) and has surpassed 1 million downloads since its release last week.

The game has received over 11,000 Steam user reviews (open in new tab) at the time of writing, 98% of which are positive. This compares to the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection (94% favorable with over 10,000 reviews), Sonic Frontiers (opens in a new tab) (94% favorable with over 13,000 reviews), Sonic Mania ( (opens in new tab) (93% with over 18,000 reviews)), which are less popular with fans.

It's pretty funny, but makes sense, that Sega's most well-received Sonic game in years is a jokey, Poirot-esque visual novel about the brutal assassination of the protagonist (whether Sonic is really dead is a mystery you have to solve yourself). The game is genuinely funny, and its writing goes far beyond what is generally expected as a quick April Fool's gag. [Furthermore, who wouldn't do a double-take when they see a game titled "The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog" pop up on Steam with the Sega brand all over it? It's a quality title with a great hook, so it's no wonder it's captivating people.

God only knows, this will make Sega focus on new games of this kind. Sega, let me investigate Tales for tax fraud. You know that little guy is fiddling with the numbers somewhere.

How does Sega feel that a game about the top-rated and popular Sonic is fundamentally a joke, and yet it's about the murder of its iconic mascot? There may be mixed feelings, but ultimately, the company is probably pleased that Sonic is getting such positive buzz.