Sonic the Werehog

Sonic the Werehog (ソニック・ザ・ウェアホッグ) is Sonic the Hedgehog's bestial werewolf like form in Sonic Unleashed. This form was created when Sonic accidentally absorbed a large dose of Dark Gaia's natural energy, although the transformation itself would only be triggered by nighttime. However his werehog form would remain active until it reaches daytime. Due to this form's unique traits, Sonic the Werehog is arguably a hedgehog/Gaia Gaia's Minion hybrid. Sonic lost this form permanently when Dark Gaia reclaimed the energy that caused the transformation.

Background
In the video games Sonic the Hedgehog shockingly gained this form for the first time when Dr. Eggman had used a machine to forcefully extract the power of the Chaos Emeralds from Super Sonic, with in which Eggman fired a specialized laser weapon at the planet, releasing and awakening Dark Gaia from the core of the planet. During the process, due to his close proximity to the Chaos Emeralds, some of Dark Gaia's energy infested Sonic's body, causing his transformation. The transformation is triggered at nighttime, which is when Dark Gaia's presence can move freely and affect people. When transforming into the Werehog (or transforming back to normal), light and a cloud of purple smoke envelops him.

Personality
He seems to have Sonic's exact personality but can get berserk when he needs to be.

Appearance
In this form Sonic resembles more of a werewolf, and he gains more muscle mass and weight. He grows slightly larger, while his torso becomes broader, his muzzle becomes longer, his hands get larger, and his arms grow thick, longer and muscular. Additionally, he grows nail-like claws on his fingers, he gains a lush and heavy dark blue fur, his skin becomes pale dark blue, and his teeth become fangs. He also gains fur in many places new places, such as on his arms and his chest. Traits of white fur also appear on his wrists, the end of his quills and on his chest. Likewise, his ears become more curved, and his lips become the color black.

For attire, Sonic loses his white gloves, exposing his hands, and his socks becomes slightly frilled in the back. The white stripe on his shoes is replaced with grey metal that has three spikes on the surface, while his soles are now covered with small metal spikes.

Abilities
Due to his transformation giving him increased muscular density,[3] Sonic gains a noticeable increase in physical strength, allowing him to open sealed doors and entrances; effortlessly pick up, throw, and swing large enemies and objects; destroy metal vaults with one hit; and even topple creatures several times his size, such as Titans and the Dark Gaia Phoenix. While he loses his trademark super speed, Sonic can still run faster than the average human by dashing on all fours. He also retains his normal lightning fast reflexes and agility, and a small degree of his jumping skills.

In this form, Sonic is able to stretch his arms over long distances in an instant. It is unknown how far he can stretch his arms. Sonic mainly uses this ability in combat, allowing him to increase his attack range, grab enemies from long distances, build momentum for his attacks, and create various forms of combat moves with the energy of Dark Gaia. He can even enlarge his arms and hands to increase the power and range of his attacks even further. Besides combat, Sonic can also use this ability to travel around, such as grabbing onto ridges and swinging from pole to pole.

Sonic the Werehog is capable of harnessing the energies of Dark Gaia, possibly due to the creature being the source of this form, for different applications. He can apply it in hand-to-hand combat to empower his attacks, put up a powerful energy shield when guarding, and harness excess Dark Gaia Force. Gathering up enough of this energy allows Sonic to enter his Unleashed Mode, a temporary state that increases his strength, speed, and durability.

Sonic the Werehog uses a type of feral hand-to-hand combat to fight his enemies. Basically, when using his fists, Sonic can deal greater damage, but only in a focused area and when using his claws, he can attack several opponents at once, but the damage will be much less.

In this form, Sonic is slower compared to his normal form, which makes him less able to outrun his foes and forces him to adapt a new fighting style. Sonic is also unable to control this transformation, since it automatically activates and ends according to the sun. He also cannot grind on rails, due to his lack of speed. The Werehog also often fails when trying to communicate with humans, since people usually are afraid of him because of his appearance, and therefore he cannot be very social, which takes a toll on Sonic, making him feel depressed and somewhat unable to face those he knows, as seen when Amy does not recognize him while he was a Werehog. Sonic also gains a sort of temper in this form, as seen in Night of the Werehog.

Video Games
Sonic the Werehog appears in the following video games:
 * Sonic Runners
 * Sonic Unleashed
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Quotes

 * "So when the sun goes down, I turn into...THIS?!"
 * "I need to find Eggman and make him fix this and FAST!"
 * "I'm fine... I just need to be careful who sees me like this".

Chip
He gets along with him but doesn't want to hurt him.

Trivia

 * Sonic's gloves were torn apart during the first transformation. Because of this, Sonic the Werehog is one of the few non robotic characters to not wear gloves.
 * Oddly, when he turns back into normal Sonic, his gloves magically repair themselves. In the 360/PS3 version of Sonic Unleashed, Chip will even acknowledge this if the player feeds him enough food by asking, "Where do you put your gloves at night?"
 * Sonic the Werehog is based on the famous mythical creature the Werewolf. Despite the term "werehog" being a compound derived from the words "werewolf" and "hedgehog", it is actually a misnomer. The word "werewolf" is the modern English continuation of a late Old English "wer(e)wulf," a compound of were "man" (cognate with Gothic wair, Latin vir) and wulf "wolf"; cognate with Middle Dutch weerwolf, Old High German werwolf. The term is literally "man-wolf," a man who becomes a wolf. Consequently, the term "werehog" would literally mean "man-hog," an inaccurate term that would imply a man who becomes a hog rather than a hedgehog who becomes a wolf. In actuality, a more accurate term for Sonic's lupine-like transformation would actually be "ílwolf" rather than "werehog," as the Old English word íl means "hedgehog". Incidentally, the words "hattefagol" and "hærenfagol" are alternative Old English translations for "hedgehog".
 * Due to this form's unique traits, Sonic the Werehog could be considered a hedgehog/Dark Gaia's Minion hybrid.
 * Sonic the Werehog's ability to stretch and extend his arms is a trait that several of Dark Gaia's Minions possess, especially the Nightmare variant. This might be due to Dark Gaia's energy being the source of both Sonic the Werehog's and Dark Gaia's Minions' powers. Additionally, the Nightmares are shown to guard like the Werehog, as well as execute the Wild Whirl.
 * Sonic the Werehog is the second of Sonic's transformations to have a profile on Sonic Channel, the first one being Super Sonic.
 * In the 360/PS3 version of Sonic Unleashed, if a player would press the jump button just as he grabs a ledge, the Werehog would perform a spin jump similar to Sonic's. This also happens when releasing a horizontal pole, grabbing an enemy while in midair, and jumping while sliding down a slippery path.
 * Sonic the Werehog is not the first character created by Sega to have elastic/stretchy arms: Ristar, another character conceived around the time of Sonic the Hedgehog, was the first in his 1996 debut Ristar the Shooting Star.
 * In 2009 a Sonic costume pack for Little Big Planet was released with a Werehog costume along with the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman costumes.
 * Sonic fought the Egg Dragoon as the Werehog at night. But moments later, when Dark Gaia becomes Perfect Dark Gaia, Amy states, "It was broad daylight a minute ago!", implying that it had been day for several hours. Amy was in Shamar, which is east of Eggmanland on the map screen, so it was at least sunrise in Eggmanland. If this is so, Sonic probably should not have fought the Egg Dragoon at night. Granted, he was far underground, away from the sun, and near a large amount of Dark Gaia energy.
 * In the opening of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic the Werehog's fangs are noticeably sharp, defined, and smooth. However, for the rest of the game, his fangs appear shorter and more in line with the rest of his teeth.
 * In 2008, Jazwares released a Sonic the Werehog action figure. This figure was the only one that was discontinued, due to the yellow card.

Voice Actors

 * Japanese : Tomokazu Seki
 * English : Jason Griffith