Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrilling gamers since his first appearance in 1991.
But around the internet, rumors persist that the blue, spiky-haired, ring-loving Sega mascot
has a darker side.
What is Sonic.EXE?
There are over twenty Sonic games since its creation, with the character making countless
guest appearances in other series.
But in 2011, a story started making the rounds on the internet, originally posted by a user
named JC-the-Hyena.
It told the story of a lost Sonic Game - one that had darker properties that would haunt
one young gamer forever.
And it all started with one foolish decision…
A young man named Tom was a massive Sonic the Hedgehog fan.
While he liked the newest games, he had a soft spot for the classics.
But he had never played any fan-made, hacked, or glitch-filled games before.
He was happy with the current game, Sonic Unleashed, but was snapped out of his gaming
by a package arriving in his mail.
Grabbing it and opening it, he saw that it was a CD box accompanied by a note from his
good friend Kyle - who had been off the radar for about two weeks.
But something was wrong with the message Kyle sent.
The writing was scratchy and poorly written, but the message was clear - Kyle was deeply
disturbed and was writing to Tom begging for his help.
He was desperate to get rid of the disk, and sounded like he was in a panic.
He said he couldn’t do it because he - something - was after him, and whatever it was, it was
much too fast.
He begged Tom to destroy the disk, and with it destroy whatever this entity was.
And he left Tom with a final warning.
Whatever you do, do not play the game.
It’s what HE wants.
Tom was freaked out, and he wanted to trust Kyle, but his curiosity got the best of him.
He looked over the disk, and it looked like an average gaming disk with the exception
of the words SONIC.EXE written in black marker.
And what was odd was, it didn’t look like Kyle’s handwriting from the letter.
Maybe Kyle had gotten this from someone else just like he had?
He was about to find out.
He turned on his computer and put the disk in, and the first screen looked almost exactly
like the original Sonic game from 1991.
Tom got excited, because he had been feeling a lot of nostalgia for the original generation
of games.
But as he pressed start, he saw something that made him nearly jump out of his chair.
It was his first indication that something was very wrong with this game.
It was only a few seconds, but the game screen turned into something horrific.
The sky got dark.
The title became covered in rust.
The Sega 1991 logo suddenly turned to Sega 666.
And Sonic...changed.
He became something disturbing, a twisted figure with black, bleeding eyes with glowing
red pupils that felt like they were staring right at Tom with a twisted smile.
And just like that, the horrifying figure was gone as the screen faded to black.
But it wouldn’t be the last disturbing sign from the mystery CD.
Tom was a huge fan of this game, and it didn’t take him long to figure out that something
was very wrong.
The save screen that popped up was from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, released several years later.
The background looked like a dark and cloudy sky, similar to a level from Sonic CD.
The music wasn’t from a Sonic game at all, but was from the role playing game Earthbound
- but seemed distorted somehow.
And all the save files just showed odd red static.
But when he got to the character selection screen, he got his biggest jolt yet.
There should have been three characters on the select screen for Sonic 3, and fan favorites
Tails and Knuckles were there.
But not present was Sonic himself.
What kind of Sonic game is it if you can’t even play as the man himself?
But equally bizarre was who was in his place - Sonic’s famous arch-nemesis Dr. Robotnik,
who has never been playable in any of the main Sonic games.
It was clear this wasn’t a normal or glitchy game - it had been hacked.
Tom didn’t get scared off easily, and so he chose Tails and started playing.
But before he could get started, the game froze, and he could hear a twisted laugh - almost
like the evil clown Kefka from Final Fantasy - who definitely did NOT belong in this game.
The game then cut to black, and eventually the game started.
It looked like the first level from Sonic the Hedgehog, the Green Hill Zone, but something
was off.
The music was slower and distorted, and it seemed to take ages to get anywhere - with
Tails running on flat ground for several minutes as the music got lower and lower.
And then something horrible came into view.
It was one of the little pixelated animals that made up the background - and it was dead.
As Tails ran on, more animal corpses came into view, all butchered terribly.
Tails even seemed to notice, having a disturbed and saddened expression on his face.
As Tails ran on, the deaths seemed to become more gruesome, with animals being displayed
on trees in disgusting ways or being dismembered.
Tom forced Tails to move on past the gruesome scene.
And then they saw something that stopped them dead in their tracks.
It was Sonic, and Tails stopped as soon as he saw him.
Tails seemed happy for a second, but Sonic didn’t react.
He stood there with his back to the screen as Tails approached, and Tom started to get
a sick feeling in his stomach as the static on the game screen got worse and worse…
And then Sonic turned around, and things got much worse.
Sonic looked like he did on that brief flash at the title screen, with black eyes and blood-red
dots in the middle.
Before anything could happen, the screen went to black again, and Tom was confronted with
another disturbing message.
“Hello.
Do you want to play with me?”
Tom knew he should just turn off the game, but before he could make his decision, the
game turned on again.
It was a new level, this one from Sonic 3, and it was titled “Hide and Seek”.
While Tom didn’t know what was going on, Tails did - and the little flying fox looked
terrified.
Tom could swear that the video game character was gesturing to him, begging him to get him
out of the area - but that wasn’t possible, was it?
Tails was just a video game character, and there was no way for him to break the fourth
wall, especially in an old-school game.
There was only one thing to do - run.
Tom pressed down on the arrow key, and tried to guide Tails through the level as quickly
as possible, as odd out of place music continued to play.
Suddenly, his blood ran cold as the odd laugh could be heard.
Sonic began appearing, those horrible red eyes visible in the background as he stalked
Tails.
Then, suddenly, he appeared - flying.
Sonic wasn’t supposed to be able to fly, but that didn’t seem to matter in this game.
And whatever he planned to do to Tails, he seemed to be enjoying it - with a twisted,
evil grin on his face.
Then, suddenly - Tails tripped.
The game cut to another cutscene as Sonic vanished.
Tom could only watch in horror as Tails lay on the ground sobbing.
Suddenly, Sonic appeared in front of him, blood dripping from his eyes.
He lunged at Tails, the screen went black, and there was an ear-splitting screech for
five seconds.
Then, a new text crawl appeared.
“You’re too slow, want to try again?”
Tom was quickly brought back to the character select screen, and he noticed Tails was no
longer playable, his orange fur now black with an expression of terror on his face.
Tom shrugged it off and chose Knuckles, and was quickly plunged back into the bizarre
game.
And this time, the game taunted him right at the start.
“You Can’t Run”.
He found himself in a strange new level with a sky background that looked like the main
menu alongside a construction zone.
Tom moved Knuckles forward in the new level, and it was only seconds before Sonic appeared
with the taunt “Found You”.
And making the scene even more disturbing, Tom recognized the music from the horror game
Silent Hill.
But Silent Hill had been created years AFTER these games.
It wasn’t long before Sonic tracked down Knuckles as well, but this time Tom actually
got to play.
The boss fight was short and impossible, as Sonic seemed to disappear and appear at will
- almost like he was taunting them.
Eventually, it went to another cut scene as Knuckles collapsed in a panic, and Sonic lunged
at him - and the screen cut to black as the next taunting message appeared.
“So many souls to play with, so little time...would you agree?”
It was like Sonic was taunting Tom, and he knew he had to walk away.
So he turned the game off, but as he tried to sleep, he could hear Tails and Knuckles
crying and begging him for help.
And as he dreamed, he was stalked by the demon Sonic who taunted him that he’d be joining
them - and Kyle - soon.
Had this horrible Sonic done something to Tom’s friend?
Tom knew he needed answers.
And there was only one way to get them.
He fired up the game again, with Robotnik now the only choice with Tails and Knuckles
greyed out.
This time he found himself in a level that he knew wasn’t in any of the Sonic games
- just a darkened hallway stained with blood.
Almost like it belonged in a Castlevania game.
Robotnik seemed nervous, but not as terrified as Tails or Knuckles did.
There didn’t seem to be any enemies in this level, just the hallway as it got darker and
darker.
Tom led Robotnik down the stairs and into another hallway, until he heard the laugh
once again.
Sonic was here.
This time Sonic appeared in front of Robotnik, and the game faded to red static for about
fifteen seconds.
Suddenly, Sonic appeared again, but Robotnik was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, Sonic looked far more realistic than he had before, with more detail than should
be possible in an old-school game - and he was staring directly at Tom as he smiled a
twisted smile full of sharp fangs.
And Tom could swear his fur was splattered with blood.
Tom couldn’t stop staring, hypnotized, as the screen went to black and he heard three
words.
“I AM GOD.”
Sonic leaped at the screen, the screen went black, and a final message came up, reading
“Ready for Round 2, Tom?” and then, just as quickly, the computer shut itself off.
No matter what Tom did, it wouldn’t turn on.
He desperately tried to make sense of the horrors he had just seen, and wondered what
had become of Tails, Knuckles, and Robotnik.
Maybe it was just a twisted game after all?
Maybe if he didn’t turn the game on again, it would be fine.
After a while, the computer turned on again, but the CD seemed to be stuck inside.
And then he heard the voice.
“Try to keep this interesting for me, Tom?”
The game wasn’t on!
Where was Sonic’s voice coming from?
Tom turned around in horror as he saw the Sonic plushie, looking exactly like the twisted
version from Sonic.EXE...sitting directly on his bed.
What happened to Tom?
No one knows.
The story went viral and spread around the internet, with many wondering if there really
was a cursed Sonic game out there.
While there wasn’t at first, other fans decided to fix that - with a fan-game based
on the creepy story being made not long afterwards.
But while the story was popular, readers still had many questions.
Namely, what was this horrible, twisted Sonic and where did he come from?
The original story had no origin for the demon Sonic, although many believe him to be a demon
possessing Sonic’s body to prey on his friends.
A second story would later be published, a prequel focusing on an unknown entity known
as EXE, and a young detective named Derek Green who was pursuing him.
As EXE committed murders by jumping from body to body, Derek became increasingly paranoid
and obsessed with the case.
He uncovered a secret cult and found EXE was contained within a computer disk.
He destroyed it - only to find that the cult had placed copies of EXE on countless disks
as backups, and he ultimately fell prey to the demon himself.
Is this cursed game actually out there?
Like most creepypastas, the answer is not likely.
But fans who want to get up close and personal with a demonic Sonic may find that their fellow
fans got a little too close for comfort with some of the recreations.
And anyone who reads this story might look at those old 16-bit Sonic games just a little
differently…
For another mysterious killer lurking around the internet, check out “X-Virus: Creepypasta
Explained”, or watch “The Most Scary Creepypastas on the Internet” for just how dark it can
get.