Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.55: The Mobius 5000

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.55: The Mobius 5000

Original Air Date: November 17, 1993

Race car driving has been popular for many, many years but, as far as I recall, professional racing first became huge in the nineties. NASCAR was and is often mocked as the sport of choice for toothless rednecks but star drivers like Dale Ealehardt still made it extremely popular at the time. You know this is true, because there was even a cartoon show inspired by the brand. As you probably guessed, I never had any interest in this sport either... But car races do have a certain cinematic quality to them. There's been many highly entertaining carsploitation flicks made over the decades. Considering it's a franchise all about going fast, it's not shocking that Sonic and car races would be mashed up sooner rather than later. 

A conclusion we can see in "The Mobius 5000," the fifty-fifth episode of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog." Robotnik threatens to evict a porcupine orphanage unless they pay him 10,000 Mobians. This happens to be the exact amount offered to the winner of the Mobius 5000, a perilous 24-hour car race across the country. After the porcupines go to Sonic for help, he immediately decides winning the race is the best chance at getting that money. Dr. Caninestein whips up a car and they're off. But Robotnik has planned for all of this and has entered four murderous race-bots into the race alongside Sonic. 

As I said, putting the speedy Sonic in a racing context makes perfect sense. Sega touched upon this idea as early as 1994, with the Game Gear exclusive "Sonic Drift" series, and would continue to explore it in titles like "Sonic R," "Sonic Rivals," "Sonic Riders," and so on. It's a natural idea, is the point. Since "AoStH" had already done an episode based around a foot race, sticking Sonic in a race car was the next best thing. "The Mobius 5000" does a surprisingly good job of blending game elements with the race premise. The racers pass through the Chemical Plant and Casio Nights zones, those settings making ideal challenges for a race. (There's also an ice stage, predicting "Sonic 3's" Ice Cap Sone.) Sonic makes a stopover in the Special Zone, as a morally dubious short-cut to the finish line. It's a lot more than I was expecting. 

Also surprising is that the race-bots Robotnik cooks up to sabotage Sonic are... Kind of cool? They have slick, aerodynamic designs. Each has built-in gadgets, weapons, and cool code names. Scorpion has a laser shooting stinger, Scraper has a bulldozer blade, for flipping and damaging opponents. Cross-Moto is a motorcycle-style bot with a tank torrent-like head. Speedo... okay, Speedo doesn't have a cool name or gimmick but three outta four ain't bad. Most shocking of all, each of the Race Bots are treated like actual threats. They aren't goofy or ridiculous. They're actually totally functional villains. 

Furthermore, this is one of the few "AoStH" episodes were violence has actual consequences. Yeah, Robotnik gets squished with a wall. Scratch and Grounder are subjected to their usual humiliation, of being exploded and dismembered. But the Race Bots? Sonic kills all of them. Scorpion's stinger is tossed into an electric line. Sonic tricks Scraper into smashing through a frozen-over lake. Cross-Moto is flipped into the air and slammed into the ground. Speedo is straight-up sawed in two. They are never shown being reassembled or joking after their defeats. They're fucking dead. I really didn't expect this show to have as much in common with "Death Race 2000" as it did "The Cannonball Run." It's shockingly direct and brutal for this show.

Despite Sonic viciously dispatching his opponents, this is still a goofy slapstick show. Scratch and Grounder pop in from time-to-time during the race. There's an odd sequence where they decide to help Sonic. After he's buried in some ice, Scratch and Grounder become jealous of the Race Bots and decide to sabotage their success by freeing Sonic. (He repays them by burying them in the same ice, cause Sonic doesn't give a shit.) It's such an odd moment, since the two are back to trying to explode Sonic's car a few scenes later. I'd say the writers painted themselves into a corner but come on. Later in the episode, Sonic spins the car out of a pit of deadly chemicals. The hedgehog can speed-fuck his way out of any scenario. I sincerely think the showrunners just wanted to further develop this idea of Scratch and Grounder being needy, unloved kids desperate to please their dad/creator. 

It all adds up for a fairly entertaining episode, relatively free of the annoying quirks of this program. If "AoStH" maintained this balance of goofy humor, serious action, and game-derived story beats all the time, I'd enjoy the show more often. (It doesn't hurt that Caninestein replaces the more commonly appearing, and more annoying, Von Schlemmer here.) With only twelve episodes left, is the show going to end strong? Definitely not but I still kind of liked this one. I'm as shocked as you are. [7/10]