In response to Sonic the Hedgehog being "murdered" in his latest visual novel adventure, subsidiary company Atlus has suggested a possible replacement mascot to take place of the blue blur. For those uninitiated, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was developed and released as part of an April Fools celebration by the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter and social media teams, where it combines a murder mystery plot, visual novel style gameplay, and even mini-game platforming into one, with the player being tasked to solve a "who done it" mystery. The mystery in question is trying to figure out who murdered the titular hedgehog.As such, the announcement and release of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog took many by surprise, especially when it was a free game on Steam. With many fans running with the joke that the hedgehog was truly "dead," some have made their own memes and jokes about it. This includes one of Sega's subsidiary companies, Atlus.Atlus is best known for its JRPGs, with its most popular series of games being the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and its spin-off, Persona. Of all the demons and Personas that have been designed and included in each game, one in particular stands out among the rest and is considered Atlus' mascot That SMT demon would be Jack Frost, with the snowman first appearing in Megami Tensei 2, before adopting its most iconic design post Shin Megami Tensei 1. Since the frosty fellow's longevity worked for Atlus, the company's Twitter suggested that he could be Sega's mascot instead of Sonic.
This tweet was accompanied by a picture aping the original Sonic the Hedgehog title screen, complete with a new logo and pose that called him "Jack the Hee-hog," which is a pun on hedgehog and the Jack Frost's iconic "Hee-ho" catchphrase. A reply to this suggestion came from Sega's official Twitter account as well, simply stating "approved." Again, this is all part of the April Fools Day joke, but many fans wholeheartedly agreed with the suggestion, ironic or otherwise.
In terms of the visual novel itself, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog has been praised for being a fun low-stakes adventure that involves the Sonic cast. Many complimented that despite it being a free game, it treats the characters properly and doesn't flanderize them in any way, with some even stating that this was some of the best writing they saw for characters like Shadow the Hedgehog in a while as well. Maybe one day Atlus can join in on the fun and do a similar adventure with Shin Megami Tensei and Jack Frost.