After Super Smash Bros. for Wii U introduced 8-Player Smash, the latest game in the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, continued to feature this mode. Instead of having only the standard four players previous entries in the series had, up to eight players can now play together at the same time. All eight players can even pick the same character. For the game's designers, that meant each character needed to have seven alternative costumes.
While some characters like Mario and Link have full alternative outfits, other characters simply have palette swaps. But even though Sonic the Hedgehog's looks are mostly palette swaps, they all contain hidden references from the vast library of Sonic games.
7 Purple
For the first alternative costume, Sonic's quills change from their iconic blue color to a dark purple. This particular shade of purple seems to be referencing the character NiGHTS, who has a mostly purple outfit. NiGHTS is the titular character of the NiGHTS game series, which was created by the Sonic Team and published by Sega. The first game in the series, NiGHTS Into Dreams, was released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and follows NiGHTS as they try to stop Wizeman the Wicked from destroying the dream world known as Nightopia. While this series has only had a couple games, it does have a large fanbase.
Although Sonic's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate outfits are mostly palette swaps, the cuffs on his wrists actually do change for each of the outfits. Instead of his wrists being covered by the regular fabric of his gloves, this outfit has cone-like cuffs around his wrists. Both these cuffs and his shoes are colored bright purple, which might be a reference to the purple Chaos Emerald or the pinkish parts of NiGHTS' outfit.
6 Cyan
If the player selects Sonic's cyan costume, both his quills and his shoes change into a light shade of blue. Unlike Modern Sonic's dark blue quills, these quills look to be the same color as Classic Sonic's quills. Classic Sonic is Modern Sonic's younger self from an alternate universe. While the two characters share plenty of similarities, Classic Sonic is shorter, rounder, and completely mute.
For this outfit, the cuffs change into a doughnut shape and shine a bright blue light. These cuffs might be referencing the Crystal Ring level-up item in the masterpiece Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, which look similar and allow Sonic to charge up the Light Speed Dash and the Light Speed Attack faster.
5 White
This third costume has gray quills and white shoes, and these colors might be a reference to Silver the Hedgehog. After his first appearance in the infamous Sonic 06, Silver has continued to be a reccurring character in the franchise. Since he is from the future, he typically meets with the rest of the cast by traveling back into the past to help them with their catastrophe of the week.
The cuffs for this outfit are silver bracelets that have a dark line around the middle and a shining light blue square. These cuffs could be a reference to Silver's glowing cuffs, but they also look similar to the blue Ark of the Cosmos from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, which are ancient bracelets that allow the user to manipulate gravity.
4 Black
There are several characters Sonic's black costume could be referencing with its black quills, black shoes and slim black cuffs. The most well-known option would be Shadow the Hedgehog, who was first introduced in what is often considered one of the best Sonic games, Sonic Adventure 2, and also has black quills. As one of Sonic's main rivals and allies, it would make sense for Shadow to be referenced, especially if the White outfit is referencing Silver. This outfit could also be referencing Sonic's dark super transformation in the Sonic X anime, because Sonic's quills turn black.
The most likely reference is actually Sonic's 2P Costume from Sonic the Fighters, which was a 3D arcade fighting game released in 1996. The colors of Sonic's 2P Costume, especially his shoes, match really well with this costume.
3 Yellow
For this costume, Sonic's quills change to a slightly dull shade of blue, and his cuffs and shoes change to a bright yellow. These cuffs look to be the thinnest of all the bracelets. Also, the bracelets have a dark line around the middle, which is similar to the cuffs in the White alternate outfit.
While this outfit does not appear to be referencing anything in particular, the cuffs could again be a reference to Silver's bracelets since they are also gold with a line in the middle. In Silver's outfit, however, the lines glow a bright blue. Another possibility is that the bracelets are meant to reference Shadow's gold bracelets.
2 Orange
The orange costume changes Sonic's quills to a different shade of blue compared to the other versions, and the shoes and cuffs change into a bright orange. For this outfit, the cuffs look doughnut-like again, but they do not glow like the second alternate costume.
While the color is not right, the cuffs do share a similar shape to the red cuffs worn by the hand sprite at the Special Stage checkpoints in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which is now available on the Switch. These Special Stages consist of the player running down a long half-pipe in order to collect rings and obtain a Chaos Emerald.
1 Green
For this final costume, Sonic's quills change into a dark purplish blue, which appears to be the same color as Sonic's in-game sprite in the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. His cuffs and shoes also change to a bright green color.
These particular green cuffs could be a reference to the hand sprite from the Special Stage checkpoints in Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. If a player had both a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge and a Sonic the Hedgehog 2 cartridge, then Sonic the Hedgehog 2 could be attached to Sonic & Knuckles, which would allow the player to play as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This changed some of the gameplay mechanics, and some of the sprites had different colors compared to the original.
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