With two movies, a successful 3D outing, and a newly launched TV series, Sonic the Hedgehog has seen a much-needed resurgence. So, Google Play celebrating the Blue Blur with fun Sonic trivia sounds appropriate and good fun. Except that everything the big, search company posted was bafflingly wrong.

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On April 27, Google Play took a shot at sharing some interesting Sonic factoids in a thread on X. It began with the somewhat odd message of “Sonic, but as you scroll he gets older and older.” Maybe that should have been a warning. What followed was a fever dream of wildly incorrect facts, inviting even the official Sonic account to step in and ask what the hell was going on.

https://twitter.com/GooglePlay/status/1784251162234880165

Sonic fans swiftly arrive to correct the king of search with their own fact-finding

It all fell apart with the first fact post. Unwarranted jabs at Sonic’s potbelly notwithstanding, the company appropriately began with a fact about the original game.

“1991 Sonic,” the message started. “The cover? Rotund. Husky. Still fast as lightning. The actual game? 8-bit GLORY.”

Right. Where do I start? In fairness, most of this fact is true; Sonic is quick and pudgy, and his outing began in 1991. But the game launched on the 16-bit Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, which left the 8-bit systems in the dust. The image paired with the words is also wrong. As X users quickly pointed out in the context window, the screenshot Google Play shared was from the 2013 mobile port of Sonic the Hedgehog 1.

At first blush, it’s innocent enough of a mistake for casual researchers navigating unfamiliar zones. But this is an official Google account. Oh, and it gets worse. So much worse.

https://twitter.com/GooglePlay/status/1784251168228585937

There are eight (EIGHT) posts much like the above, each one hilariously wrong. I mean, even the joke about MSCHF boots is dubious, especially if it’s referring to the $350 Big Red Boot that would look more in line with what Astro Boy rocks rather than Sonic’s kicks.

Sonic fans rushed to add context to each image in Google’s concerning experiment. But context be damned in the truly hopeless cases. Feel free to absorb this shot of Sonic Prime, mutilated by what could be an AI tool in an attempt to force poor Big the Cat to shuck his mortal coil:

Froggy, I don’t feel so good. | Image via Google Play on X

It didn’t take long for the thread to draw the eyes of even the official X account for Sonic the Hedgehog, which appeared a bit worried.

what are you doing

— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) April 28, 2024

As another X user pointed out, this isn’t the first time Google Play has been mistaken about Sega’s mascot. In 2020, the company shared a post that challenged users to guess the name of a game based on a blurry gif and a musical jingle. The game was obviously Sonic the Hedgehog, but it was paired with a pixel tune that had existed nowhere in the franchise. Someone later discovered where the song came from, and, no, it had nothing to do with Sonic.

I suggest you check out the thread in its entirety. It’s utterly bonkers in all the right ways. This, friends, is art.

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