This year's best Sonic game is Minecraft, apparently

Sonic's next big game might not be due until 2022. But to tide you over until then, the blue blur is tearing a patch across Minecraft in a 30th Anniversary DLC for Mojang's blocky sandbox.

Now, this isn't Minecraft's first crossover, but Sonic may be one of the more ambitious. Where most of these packs include a themed world, Mojang has really tried to make an honest-to-hedgehog Sonic game, crafting what sounds like a system to procedurally generate 3D Sonic maps—loop-de-loops and all.

There are ring and power-ups to collect, speed boosts and bounce maps to fling you around the map, enemies to stomp on, and multiple biomes ranging from chemical plants to the series' iconic chequerboard hills (which, admittedly, work extremely well with Minecraft's blocky look).

That said, Sonic and pals look bloody weird all Minecraft'd up like this. The artists have clearly put a lot of effort into making this work, but I'll never get over your man's cuboid spines. Couldn't hurt a fly with those things, never mind an egg-shaped supervillain.

Disclosure: I previously worked as a level artist on these kinds of DLC packs for Minecraft's console ports, several of which are now in Bedrock Edition.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.