The classic Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is turning 30 this year, and much like its titular mascot, it shows no signs of slowing down.
From a sequel to the hit live-action film to a trio of upcoming games, Sonic is continuing to expand and reach new audiences.
Now, the world's fastest hedgehog is breaking new barriers in a wild crossover with Minecraft.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ADDED TO MINECRAFT
In a new post to Twitter by the Official Sonic the Hedgehog account, a trailer was released for an upcoming DLC for Minecraft.
The tweet informs fans that "it's Sonic's turn to be yeeted into Minecraft."
At the end of the trailer, viewers are told the DLC is "AVAILABLE NOW" and are directed to the Minecraft website. There, fans can find a post about the new DLC, which will coincide with a two-week event on the Hive server-hub "featuring mini-games and a few festive surprises."
In images posted to the page, there are iconic scenes from the Sonic franchise. It looks like players will be able to take the form and abilities of fan-favorite characters like Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and, of course, Sonic himself. All together the DLC includes 24 new skins.
As with other licensed Minecraft DLCs, players will get to experience locations from the franchise too, with pictures detailing various areas like the Green Hills Zone.
YET ANOTHER MINECRAFT CROSSOVER
While Fortnite is often the first to come to mind in terms of big crossovers, Minecraft has been steadily building its own collection of officially licensed DLCs drawing on other games as well as films and TV shows.
November 2020 saw the release of a major Star Wars DLC featuring planets and characters from both the original trilogy and Disney+'s The Mandalorian. 2021 has seen more crossover content in the form of official packs adding material from Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon and the classic cartoon series Ben 10.
Ever since its acquisition by Microsoft, Mojang has been keen on keeping Minecraft as feature-rich and expansive as possible while finding ways to keep a game that was released in 2011 financially lucrative into the present day.
These DLC packs help add even more opportunities for creativity to the title, and it's exciting to see what the company will add in the future. Minecraft is the perfect platform for these types of additions, as they really let players' imaginations go wild, and that's what the game is really all about.
The Sonic the Hedgehog DLC is available now on the Minecraft Marketplace.