Sonic Themes

Rings: One distinctive feature of Sonic games are the collectible golden rings spread throughout the levels. This gameplay device allows players possessing at least one ring to survive upon sustaining damage from an enemy or hazardous object; instead of dying, the player's rings are scattered. In most Sonic games, a hit causes the player to lose all rings, although in certain games a hit only costs a set number of rings. When the rings are scattered, the player has a short amount of time to recollect some of them before they disappear.
Some causes of death cannot be prevented by holding a ring, including being crushed, falling into a bottomless pit, drowning, and running out of time.
In line with many platform games, collecting 100 rings usually rewards Sonic or any other playable character with an extra life. Certain games in the series often reward the collection of 50 rings with Chaos Emeralds, access to the Special Stages in which the Chaos Emeralds may be obtained, or utilization of a character's super transformation.
In some 3D games, rings retained by the end of a level are usable as currency to buy things such as Chao food or special abilities. In some games, such as SegaSonic the Hedgehog, Tails & Eggman levels in Sonic Adventure 2 and the Werehog segments of Sonic Unleashed, rings can also be used to restore health. In the Sonic Riders games, collecting rings often increases characters' racing statistics.

Item Boxes: Known also as Monitors, TVs or TV boxes in the early games, these are containers that hold power-ups and appear frequently throughout the stages. An icon on each box indicates what it contains, and the player releases the item by destroying the box. In the early games, item boxes resembled television sets and could only be destroyed with an attack; in later titles, they became transparent capsule-like objects easily destroyed with one touch. The most common items in boxes include rings, a barrier (or shield), invincibility, high speed (or power sneakers) and 1-ups.

Ring boxes give the player the number of rings shown on the box. They come in 5, 10, 15, 20 and randomly-determined amounts between 1 and 40 Ring varieties. In games before Sonic Adventure, these boxes are "Super Ring"s and always give 10 Rings.

The barrier is a spherical energy shield which surrounds and protects the player's character from one attack; when hit, the barrier is lost instead of rings or a life. In Sonic 3 and later games, additional barriers were introduced which gave the player special abilities for as long as the shield is active. These included the ability to magnetically attract rings and double jump (Sonic 3 onwards), breathe underwater (Sonic 3 only, although the bubble bounce was reintroduced without the shield in Sonic Adventure 2), resist fire (Sonic 3 and Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island only), and even damage nearby enemies (Shadow the Hedgehog).

Invincibility temporarily covers the player character in small flashing stars (the star effect was dropped in later games) that protect against damage done by enemies and obstacles, and allows the player to destroy enemies by touching them. Ring count will not decrease for as long as the stars are surrounding the player. Death from crushing, falling, drowning and time-ups, however, are still possible. Typically, the game's background music is replaced by a game-specific "invincibility theme" for the duration of the item's effect. In the later games, the stars were replaced by a glow surrounding the character. High speed boxes give the player character enhanced speed for a limited time. In the earlier games, the background music increases in tempo for the duration of the power up, while in later games, a jingle plays during the speed-up.

1-up boxes display the face of the player's character and give the player one extra life. In the event that a player loses a stage, this enables the player to restart the level at the starting point, or, if one has been passed, close to the last checkpoint. Multiple lives can be collected, generally up to 99.

A specific type of item box, only available through debug mode in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, displayed a flashing "S" of the playing character's color palette. Upon opening this item box, the character would instantly gain fifty rings and would transform directly to hyper form in the case of Sonic and Knuckles, and super form for Tails.

Other item boxes featured include the Robotnik box (Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 2's 2-Player mode), which cause damage to whoever opens it, and the teleport box (Sonic 2's 2-player mode only), which swapped both players' positions. More recent games also have boxes dedicated to their specific in-game features.

Checkpoints: Checkpoints are items placed throughout the stages in Sonic games which serve mainly as progress markers. If the player runs through one, their progress through a level is "saved". If the player then loses a life on the same stage, they will start over at the last checkpoint passed. Checkpoints also serve other uses in various games, such as entering Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and leveling up in Sonic Heroes. In the 3D games before Sonic Heroes, the player can gain power-ups, usually in the form of item boxes, if they hold a certain number of rings after passing through a checkpoint. In the 2D games, checkpoints take the appearance of posts, while in 3D games they are either small gates or pads on the ground.

Giant Rings/Warp Ring: Giant Rings were featured in a few Sonic games, mainly from the 16-bit era. They served as a portal to enter a Special Stage, where the player could collect one of the Chaos Emeralds or, in certain circumstances, Super Emeralds. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, if all Emeralds have already been found, touching them rewards the player with fifty rings. In most games since Sonic Adventure 2, these giant rings have been renamed Goal Rings and serve in place of the old signposts as the end level marker, which ends the level upon touching it.

Springs: Springs are a staple in the Sonic series. They are scattered throughout the levels and serve to catapult the player at high speeds in a particular direction, most commonly upwards. They usually allow the player to proceed further in the level, although some are used to hinder the player, usually by sending Sonic towards a dangerous area. Most 2D Sonic games feature yellow and red springs; in recent games, springs are red and blue with white stars. Sonic Unleashed also features springs with Dr. Eggman's face on them that launch Sonic towards danger or hinder his progress. Springs serve as one of Sonic's special moves in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Animals: The Sonic the Hedgehog universe is populated with typical as well as anthropomorphic animals. These small animals (referred to as "Sonic's friends" in earlier games) are often used by Dr. Robotnik as "organic batteries" to power his robot armies. The trapped animals can usually be freed by hitting the robot and destroying its metal case. In Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, the small animals can be given to Chao, altering their appearance and attributes. The small animals were originally the major population of Sonic's world, before Sonic Adventure, which introduced human populations and cities.

A Flicky is one of the most prominently used animals in Eggman's experiments. This small bird's first appearance in a game predates Sonic. Flicky and its respective game were alluded to in Sonic 3D Blast.