Silver the Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog (シルバー・ザ・ヘッジホッグ) is a video game character in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. He made his debut for the series in the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Concept and creation
Silver was created in order to utilize the new physics engine added to Sonic the Hedgehog. His purpose was to be very different from the gameplay of Sonic and Shadow and allow for various different situations to be played out depending on the player. His abilities were designed to be similar to Sonic, but contain various new elements not present in any other character. The design team developed over fifty different concepts for the character, including using Sonic's "scarf like hair" with more volume, which led to Silver originally being a Mink. They felt that a mink wouldn't blend in with the rest of the characters, so they decided to make Silver a hedgehog instead.

Deciding the color was difficult for the team. Orange was their first idea, but they soon decided on white-gray. While developing the character models and textures, they focused on using the silver hardware to develop the textures rather than just use white-gray, which lead to Silver's color and name.

Silver's stages stray away from traditional Sonic elements as his stages center on the usage of his telekinetic abilities. Silver must use his psychic abilities to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. He is capable of altering surrounding environments at will, enabling access to various paths in the levels that other characters cannot, or require springs and other devices to reach. He is one of the three main characters.

Silver is considered another one of Sonic's many rivals and friends, as he is a main character in Sonic Rivals. His story involves him responding to a distress signal, though he doesn't know who is sending it. Over the course of the game, he finds out that Eggman Nega is linked to this distress signal. Silver states that he will bring Eggman Nega back to the future where he belongs.

Silver's abilities are similar to that of the other characters (Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and Metal Sonic) as the game is based on competition. He is able to confuse opponents by altering their controls. He is also given several alternate costumes. As the events of Sonic the Hedgehog never happened, Silver and Sonic are introduced to each other in the storyline for the first time ever.

Silver, along with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Espio, Rouge & Metal Sonic, appears in the sequel to Sonic Rivals: Sonic Rivals 2. He comes from the future once again to save both the past and his own time, somehow by collecting and hiding Chao from Eggman Nega. Espio, on orders from Vector, follows after Silver and eventually the two work together.

While Silver is not part of the story in Sonic and the Secret Rings, however he is playable in the game's Party Mode. He is unlocked by collecting 87 Fire Souls.

Silver is a playable character in the sequel to Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. He is a Flight Type character and his default gear is Psychic Wave, which can turn into an Air Ride to access new areas.

It has been revealed that Silver, along with various other Sega and Nintendo characters, was originally planned to be playable in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and his character model is available through hacking in the European version of the game.

Silver, along with Tails and Knuckles, can be seen running on the ramp of the stage of Green Hill Zone in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Abilities
Silver's primary ability is Psychokinesis. He is shown to use the powers in a wide variety of ways. Offensive uses for his psychokinesis include being able to lift and throw anything in his path including objects, enemies, projectiles, and even other characters. He can also fire shock waves that can paralyze and kill enemies. Defensive abilities include freezing incoming objects and altering the control scheme of opposing players, and making them forget how to fight temporarily. Other uses for Silver's psychokinesis are hovering, flying, and warping through time and space during a jump. There is a second type of Psychokinesis which is called Psychokinesis All and it grabs things in a wider range and everything is thrown at once in the direction that Silver is facing.

Silver at the beginning was shown to be slow at speed (due to a cut speed upgrade), compared to the other Sonic characters, but in the game Sonic Rivals he is shown to be very fast. This was shown during the first arc of the Silver story as well; when Blaze tells Silver that Iblis was back he flew in that direction at a very high speed. Silver also uses many of the standard Sonic moves and attacks. These include Homing Attack, Spin Dash, and Spin Attack. Silver is also shown to be able to use Chaos Control on several accounts to warp through time and space.

Silver is also the latest character to use super transformation. While transformed, Silver's eyes turn red and his fur becomes a white gold color, and his quills float in the same fashion as Knuckles's second transformation. In addition to the standard super transformation power ups, Silver gains a new ability called the "Shield of Light". This allows him to put a circular force field around himself and grab and throw any object (or objects) in that field. He is also able to use charged dashes.