Ah, Valentine’s Day. A time for romance and epic declarations of love – which, if you happen to be Amy Rose, is basically every day. With her daily antics of chasing Sonic, we figured that the Rosy Rascal would be the perfect character to celebrate this February 14th! Now, who’s ever heard of a celebration without some cool knowledge? That’s right, nobody. So let us take a Piko (sorry) at some interesting facts about everybody’s favourite pink hedgehog.
Manga-Ga-Ga
Amy Rose’s first formal video game appearance was Sonic the Hedgehog CD in 1993, but her conception as a character can be dated as far back as 1992. In manga.
The original version of ‘Eimi’, as you see below, was created by Kenji Terada for various Sonic the Hedgehog comic books published by Shogakukan. Her first appearance was in the April 1992 issue of Shogaku Ninensei – she was introduced as the girlfriend of a nerdy young hedgehog character named Nikki, who had the power to transform into the super hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.
While most Sonic manga represented unofficial interpretations and storylines (and this was true of Eimi, who would later appear in a host of unrelated books including Coro Coro Comics Special and other ‘Shogaku’ series), the story goes that Sonic Team designer Kazuyuki Hoshino and the Sonic CD development team ‘adopted’ Eimi and redesigned her specially for her video game debut.
Mystic Meg
One of Amy’s little-known (or should that be, one of her few actually-known) hobbies include the mystical arts and fortunes. This extends to things like reading the future and tarot which, according to the Sonic the Hedgehog CD Japanese manual, she owns a deck of specialised cards. According to the Japanese storyline of the Mega CD game, Amy would have a premonition that she would have an encounter with Sonic on the Little Planet.
Since then, there have been little flares of mystic ability and influence in Amy Rose’s character. In Sonic Shuffle she actually ended up being transported to a fantasy universe, and in Sonic Rivals she faced the bitter irony of actually being turned into a card by Eggman Nega. Whoops.
Boxing Clever
Another past-time which is often overlooked is ‘Boxercise’ – which is a combination of boxing and exercise (obviously). Her interest in this fitness regime becomes apparent during the course of the story in GBA brawler Sonic Battle, in which her activity apparently helps her maintain her figure and prepare her for when she’s forced to fight.
When playing as Amy in Sonic Battle, you’ll notice that she deploys some rather meaty kickboxing manoeuvres, along with some jabs and uppercuts to get under her opponents. Probably not a good idea to challenge her to a duel even without her famous Piko Piko Hammer, then!
Hyper Rose
Amy can’t use the Chaos Emeralds, right? Wrong. In Sonic the Fighters, if you’re good enough to see the true final boss (spoiler alert; it’s Eggman, innit), a scene plays out where your chosen character will absorb the power of the precious gems and activate what is known in the game as a ‘Hyper Mode’.
By going Hyper, you will have an actual chance of beating the final stage, which requires you to think quick on your feet and defeat your opponent in mere seconds before having to escape the Death Egg Mk II. Sure, the Hyper Mode is a generic ‘special’ status for all characters who reach that far in the game, but it still counts – Amy’s one and only flirtation with Chaos Energy.
Rascal Rampage
Amy Rose, in her early years, was at times referred to as ‘Rosy the Rascal’. This is evident in Sonic the Fighters, which uses the nickname on the character select screen. But, while nearly all mention of her has disappeared since the dramatic redesign of the character in the late 1990s (to coincide with the release of Sonic Adventure), there is one medium that Rosy continues to thrive; the Archie Comics.
During the launch of the Dreamcast, and the Yuji Uekawa redesign of Amy, Sega insisted that the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog team adhere to the character’s new look. The problem is, the comic writers had long established their own canon for Sonic – part of this being that Amy Rose was eight years old in the comics. In Sonic Adventure, her official age is 12.
What resulted in the rush to be compliant (yet consistent) was a rather bizarre story arc that involved Amy wishing upon the mysterious Ring of Acorns (an artefact made by Nate Morgan and imbued with the energy of a Super Emerald) to age four years instantaneously. But to still keep the mind of an eight-year-old. Okay.
The cool – and even stranger – part of this plot was that it helped contribute to the descent to madness of Archie Amy Rose’s evil doppelgänger, called… Rosy the Rascal. Residing on Moebius, home of the Anti-Freedom Fighters, Rosy continues to work the classic Sonic CD Amy Rose design, coupled with a twisted personality. Try getting her a Valentine’s Card.
Something else you missed out with the Sonic Battle part. Amy boxercises with weights strapped to her arms and legs. She’s basically employing the Goku method of working out.
And haters say she isn’t bad-ass enough to stand alongside the other characters. X)”
Well…she isn’t. Has she done ANYTHING in the past decade of game titles?
Has anyone else have except for Sonic and Tails?
Not her fault the current writers are incompetent. 😛
She sucker punched Knuckles into a tree without trying… I think that counts :3
Yeah, I think that tree was scheming to become the next main antagonist. She used Knuckles as a weapon for great justice. X3″”
Yeah I remember that, I also find badass how she can create tornadoes with her hammer in Sonic Battle and Sonic Heroes and at some point in Sonic Battle story Sonic and Tails take a moment to appreciate how strong she has become.
I don’t even need to play as Amy in any future game…okay well that’s a lie, I’d really love that, but anyway, all I really want to see is her showing off her awesome skills in a cutscene or two at least just to show that she’s still got it. Many people forget that she was the first to bring girl-power to the Sonic series before mainstays like Rouge and Blaze were even thought up, and I’d really love to see a comeback for that alone…outside of a Boom context anyway (her Boom counterpart is a delight, I just love snarky snippy Amy. X3).
Amy really is one of my favorite Sonic characters, so it’s nice to see her getting some positive recognition this time around rather than the typical cynicism and snark that most people would use when talking about her. They’ve certainly used a lot of interesting things when it comes to her character, and I really hope they continue to do so in later games. Would have also liked to see her classic self be playable for the first time ever in Mania, but I guess that’s asking a bit much, so oh well. Still, a fan can dream.
Yeah totally!
Same here. maybe as DLC?
Maybe if we all just keep pestering Christian Whitehead really REALLY nicely it might happen. It’s the Amy Rose way, lol. X)”
…then again it’s yet to have worked on Sonic, so maybe a different approach would be better. X’)”””
LMAO, let nature take its course, even if Amy doesn’t appear in Mania I’m pretty sure sure they won’t resist the temptation to add more characters in the inevitable sequel, that’s where we could probably see Amy and the Chaotix.
That or wait until someone makes an Amy mod for Mania.
Nice article! I always like articles that dive deep in the lore of the Sonic cast.
I would also like to mention her Tarot Cards reading is an actual move in Sonic Chronicles, at a good level and when done perfectly it can make Amy over-powered to the point were enemies won’t land a single attack (not even the final boss).
i didnt know Archie’s Rosie was like that… i dont read Archie, the only thing ive read is Boom.
The normal Amy Rose was pretty much like her videogame self, actually she is better written in recent comics than she is in the games.
Rosie Rascal however was Amy Rose evil version from another dimension, in short she was like Harley Quinn but genuinely more threatening and unpredictable.
And her “love” for Scourge (Evil Sonic) was really more of a very twisted kind of hate for the guy. I like to imagine he must have hit on her the wrong way at some point in his past, lol.
But yeah, her comic self (at the very least from the beginning of the Ian Flynn era-onward) was pretty well written. For the longest time in the series, Sonic and Princess Sally were officially an item, and NOT ONCE did Amy ever try to interfere with that. Ever. She was respectful of their feelings, while still holding onto her own feelings for Sonic. If anything she tended to put her goal of being a team player ahead of her romantic goals and she was a genuinely helpful person. She’s even teamed up with Blaze on several occasions to help her out (She, Blaze, and Cream make a much better Team Rose than the Heroes version, lol), and she even looks up to and admires Sally despite her technically being her romantic rival. Did I mention that she fought off a group of paparazzi who were pestering Sonic and Sally on their date? Cause she did that. And yet was still secure about her feelings for Sonic and was just content with him being happy.
I SWEAR, WHY CAN’T IAN FLYNN JUST WRITE FOR THESE GAMES!? He clearly understands the characters and stories much better than Pontac and Graff ever could even if they spent the next 25 years playing every single Sonic game, twice! But I guess Ruby Eclipse being a staff member is about as much of a fan-dream-come-true as we’re ever going to get.
Absolutely agreed, I have some small issues with Flynn writing but overall I love the way he writes the characters, especially Knuckles and Amy whom have a shaky record regarding characterization even before Pontac and Graff came in, in the comics they are genuinely interesting and likable.
https://www.sonicstadium.org/sonicuniverse_90-5/
I actually really liked big in team rose , but blaze is my second choice if they don’t want to use big .
Let’s not forget that Amy can somehow make herself invisible! One of the cool things in Sonic ’06… And probably explains how Amy is able to sneak up on Sonic like that!
Oh, and, as mentioned in her DEATH BATTLE! against Ramona Flowers: Tornados, from the hammer! Ham-nado! XD
Oh man, if she had kept that, Sonic wouldn’t stand a chance. X’D
Hey Amy, if Sonic doesn’t want your Valentines card then I’ll have it…. why not
I’ll even take you out to dinner…. hell I’m up for anything at this point
I’m so lonely…. T_T
You could say you’re a…
“Single Player experience?” X)”
…damn it, I’m lonely too. T__T”
The Valentine’s Day post on the Sonic page on Facebook was a cute gesture involving Sonic and Amy compared to last year’s. Some people took that one a little too seriously.
Which one was that? The only SonAmy thing I remember seeing was a card with their classic selves on the cover, with a classic Eggman on the inside that said something along the lines of “Open Your Heart this Valentines Day”. I’m not really seeing anything else of that nature on there. :/
Amy is a lovely and criminally underused character! They should definitely take back the character and put it in the spotlight a bit more and maybe remember they were creating a really sweet character development and story arch in Adventures 1 & 2 instead of mindlessly insisting on the obsessed fan-girl
What resulted in the rush to be compliant (yet consistent) was a rather bizarre story arc that involved Amy wishing upon the mysterious Ring of Acorns (an artefact made by Nate Morgan and imbued with the energy of a Super Emerald) to age four years instantaneously. But to still keep the mind of an eight-year-old.
Amy is seeing fortune telling on Sonic Comic on Sonic Channel.
Amy was portrait as the Lady of the Lake a powerful wizard on Sonic and the Black Knight
They even brought up the tarot cards on sonic battle during Amy’s story and on her official comic strip on the sonic Japanese official website. So we alreast have confirmation that she still does that as a hobby.
They even brought up the tarot cards on sonic battle during Amy’s story and on her official comic strip on the sonic Japanese official website. So we atleast have confirmation that she still does that as a hobby.