New Sonic the Hedgehog visual novel lets you solve Sonic’s murder — and it’s free

What you need to know

• Sega released a new game called The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. 
• This visual novel tasks players with figuring out what’s going on with Sonic’s apparent death. 
• The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is available right now for free on Steam.

No, this isn’t a joke. 

In celebration of April Fool’s Day, Sega shared (opens in new tab) the news that there’s a new visual novel called The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog available on Steam (opens in new tab) for free. This would be your usual run-of-the-mill April Fool’s Day joke, except for one small detail: It’s a real game. You can check out the launch trailer below:

This point-and-click adventure has you playing as Amy Rose, who is holding a murder mystery party for her birthday. When Sonic appears to die though, things take a serious turn.

Due to the low requirements — the game requires a nugatory 2 GB of RAM and 500 MB of free space — you’ll hardly need one of the best gaming laptops to check out The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, just any basic Windows PC.

The game’s Steam page is appropriately self-aware, noting that this isn’t a Team Sonic title, but that you can believe in the power of headcanon. If you’re looking for a big change of pace after playing Sonic Frontiers, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is available right now for free.

Windows Central’s take

A large number of April Fool’s jokes done by companies simply aren’t funny. Every now and again there’s a real gem though, and that’s the case here. Well done, Sega. 

As a sidebar, because of how many companies dismissively use the genre of visual novels for their April Fool’s gags, it’s refreshing to see a company actually release the game in question. Visual novels can be really great and I honestly wish more companies would release small spinoffs or experimental titles using that format.