Gotta Eat Fast

It is April 2024, and the Sonic the Hedgehog team has partnered with IHOP to provide character meals and some downloadable content for games on the Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

There are six meals included in the Sonic specials. Six characters promote it: Miles “Tails” Prower, Sonic “Maurice” Hedgehog, Knuckles “Knuckles” the Echidna, Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik, Amelia “Amy” Rose, and Shadow “Shadow” the Hedgehog.

Each character on the menu is also partnered with a Chaos Emerald. There are seven of them in the games, so it is interesting that IHOP only made six meals for this partnership.

If it were me, I’d choose Big the Cat as the last meal to wrap up the seven Chaos Emeralds, and the meal would be one of the fish ones. In most iterations, Big is seen fishing or with a fishing pole, so it just makes sense, right? There’s a few fish meals to choose from to add him to.

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The Meal

I went one evening with a friend to experience the Sonic the Hedgehog IHOP collaboration, and decided to order the Knuckles (chicken) sandwich with the classic rings Sonic is known for.

Knuckles is the only character with a meal that is not a breakfast item, so that just reinforces the idea to add Big as another non-breakfast fish meal.

I did make one mistake when ordering: I chose a grilled chicken instead of crispy, and since there was sauce and avocado, it slid all around the buns making it a messy meal, and I think if I got grilled it would stay put easier.

Dessert

We got the Amy dessert at the end, and it was pretty good! Strawberries on a waffle with a scoop of ice cream was a good choice for dessert, and if I were to go back I think I’d try the Shadow chocolate pancakes for a dessert.

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The Games

One of the larger drawing factors that got me to go in was the items that we could get from the IHOP app after ordering. Most restaurants have some sort of “perks system” that builds up after every purchase, giving you discounts in the future. IHOP is no different. They can give you free pancakes after enough points.

The unique Sonic experience with IHOP allows you to get full games. Just for eating pancakes! Sonic Origins, Sonic Superstars, and Sonic Frontiers for Xbox, Playstation 5, and the Nintendo Switch. Buy pancakes to play games.

I already had all of these games, so this meant nothing to me. I didn’t come for them. I used my pancoins to buy the one thing unique to IHOP; Something that is completely unique to the restaurant and Sonic:

Amy in an IHOP uniform

Sonic Superstars had different skins for the characters you can download. Some are free, like LEGO Sonic and Holiday Sonic. Some are able to be bought, and some are able to be bought with pancakes.

I purchases it for the Nintendo Switch, and IHOP Amy is definitely worth getting if you had the game. This skin makes me want to buy all the pancakes and coffee.

If I didn’t already own the game, I would have gone to IHOP 50 times just to download Sonic Superstars from the restaurant, to make the whole game IHOP Amy Stars.

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Skins are just a unique way to play the game and does not change anything but the looks, but the fact that this skin was only available through the restaurant was very funny to me, and that meant that I just had to go visit and purchase it. Thankfully the skin is only worth 5 Pancoins, and my first purchase gave me 12.

If you like Sonic and breakfast food, I’d honestly recommend it. The menu is exactly the same besides the additional images, but it’s a fun experience to go fast and collect (onion) rings.

Dr. Eggman’s Benedict is also the best name of any Sonic related breakfast. I think whenever I go back I’m going to get that just for the name, as well as the Keanu Reeves Shadow the Hedgehog chocolate pancakes.

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I am not immune to propaganda.

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