Sonic’s gallery of pals over the years has steadily accumulated more characters since
the character quickly rose to fame in the early 90’s.
Some of these characters, like Knuckles the Echinda, were big hits that have lasted the
test of time and remained as one of Sonic’s key supporting cast members.
But others, like the subject of today’s video, Ray the Flying Squirrel, have evaporated
into obscurity.
But Ray these days is set to make a pretty big comeback, which has inspired us to put
together this list – our top 10 ray the flying squirrel shocking facts.
10 Appearances Ray has only ever appeared in one game – SegaSonic
the Hedgehog, released in 1993 as a stand-up arcade game, never appearing officially on
home consoles.
Aside from that, he had a cameo in Sonic Generations.
According to an interview that previous appeared on the Sonic Central website, Sonic, prior
to Sonic Mania, does not know where Ray’s whereabouts is, along with a few other Sonic
characters that have disappeared over the years – Bean the Dynamite, Nack the Weasel,
Bark the Polar Bear, Chaos or Tikal.
9 SegaSonic the Hedgehog Let’s talk a little bit about SegaSonic
the Hedgehog, where Ray made his debut.
In the game, Ray, along with Mighty the Armadillo, are captured by Doctor Eggman on Eggman Island,
who plans to execute them until Sonic shows up and sets them free.
The trio then decide to work together to escape the island, which Robotnik destroys.
While the game was initially an arcade game, these days you can get yourself a rom to play
at home.
8 Cameos So how did Ray appear in Sonic Generations?
Well, he was on a wanted poster with Mighty the Armadillo that appears in City Scape,
which states he’s been missing since 1993.
Aside from that cheeky inclusion, the character has also made a cameo in a different series
of Sega’s – Gale Racer, which was the 1994 Sega Saturn version of the game Rad Mobile.
He was a keychain that appeared inside of your vehicle, similar to how Sonic appeared
in Rad Mobile back in the day.
7 Unusual Ray, along with Mighty the Armadillo, was
created by Manabu Kusunoki, who was a notable designer for Sega, and played a big role in
establishing the characters for SegaSonic.
When asked about creating both Ray and Mighty, he stated that he wanted to go with unusual
animals since Sonic as a hedgehog was already an unusual choice.
In addition to that, Kusunoki was the CG Movie Director for Sonic Adventure, and he worked
on the original character concepts for Knuckles Chaotix.
6 Personality Since Ray is pretty obscure character, not
much is known about his personality concerning the character that appears in the games.
The comics have embellished him more so, but we’ll touch on that in a sec.
Based on the SegaSonic the Hedgehog game and Ray’s behavior in it, he tends to be a bit
of a comic relief, and tends to be more fearful than Sonic and Mighty, which could largely
be chopped up to the idea that he is younger than the other two.
5 Pre-Super Genesis The Archie comics are distinguished by an
event called the Genesis Wave.
It’s a phenomenon created by Eggman to rewrite reality to better fit the user’s benefit.
Afterwards, a more severe version came to be known as the Super Genesis Wave.
So there’s some distinction in the comics prior and post the Super Genesis Wave’s
existence.
Anywho, Ray the Squirrel has two variations of his character – the most recent Archie
comics version, and the Pre-Super Genesis Archie comics version.
This pre-super genesis Ray went through two outfit changes – initially having red shoes
and gloves, but eventually switching it up to blue shoes and a blue shirt.
The events of the comic were similar to the events of SegaSonic as well.
4 Archie Comics After reality was altered, Ray and Mighty
became an adventuring duo, who were trained under Moss of Sloth, who had been responsible
for tutoring many a Sonic character in the ways of speed and meditation.
Aside from this, both Ray and Mighty were also no longer members of the Chaotix, although
still had friendly ties to the group.
3 His Voice A bit of a short one at this number – Ray
is one of the first characters in the Sonic franchise whose voice was audibly heard.
This occurred in SegaSonic the Hedgehog, alongside both Mighty the Armadillo and Sonic himself.
Ray’s is the one with the most distinction, and is high pitched and childish.
Check it out.
2 Sonic Mania Plus Luckily, Sonic Generations isn’t the last
of Ray the Flying Squirrel.
The character is set to appear alongside his pal Mighty the Armadillo as a playable character
in the extended edition of the hit game.
Also, fun fact - his character’s shoe design is actually from the Archie Comics.
1 His Feet Speaking of his feet, Ray is the very first
character in the Sonic franchise to be depicted with toes on his feet.
This can be seen in one of the animations he’s in during SegaSonic the Hedgehog.
So you can probably thank Sega for that as to why there’s so many weird Sonic foot
fetish fan art out there.
In addition to this, turns out Ray’s feet are one of the most interesting things about
him – which might be sad?
- some of the earliest concept art of Ray shows him wearing the same shoes as Mighty.
There we have it friends!
Are you fans of Ray?
Are you excited to see the character come back?
Or do you think it’s really pointless to reintroduce ANOTHER Sonic character back into
the mix?
:Let us know your thoughts in those comments below!
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