Secret playable Sonic game hidden in Nike YouTube advert is best 2D Sonic for years

Looks like the days of Sonic wearing Reebok DMX trainers are long gone. These days, he's wearing Nike, appearing in a new playable game on the trainer company's YouTube channel. The game is called Sonic X Vapor and is a massive geek-out opportunity for any Sega fan, being about as fan-pleasing as you can get. For instance:

It's based on an amalgamation of two games. The most obvious is the original Sonic The Hedgehog, from which the sprite art and level graphics have been borrowed, along with the title screen (which also has the flashes from Sonic 2).

Above: The game's title screen has an obvious influence

But while it looks like Sonic 1, it actually plays like the Sonic the Sketchhog minigame from the 20th Anniversary iOS app, which uses the original 'Mr Needlemouse drawing' in a Canabalt-style auto-run, one-button dash game.

Above: Sonic The Sketchhog in the 20th Anniversary app is similar - and brilliant

More nostalgia-tickling features? It also has the famous 'Sega' soundbite at the start, followed by a new one in the same style for 'Vapor'. Another nice touch.

Above: Vaaaaay-porrrrrrr

But the thing that makes this rather special and even teases something wonderful is the fact that there are new animation frames for the original Sonic sprite. Sure, he's clearly wearing new trainers in every frame, but look at the 'ready to dash' animation frame here:

Above: Forget the low-res shoe - look at Sonic on the left

That's a 100% authentic-looking new animation frame for classic Sonic. If someone, somewhere is still able to recreate that classic 2D Sonic sprite style, maybe one day we'll get the new 2D Sonic game we've been craving all this time. Until then, there's always Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II. Which, although good, doesn't quite recapture the feeling of those 16-bit classics.

It's worth noting that the Nike video says at the end:

Above: But we're nice and full from eating that 'tunnel', thank you

Have a go for yourself here. Look for this frame (see the timeline at the bottom for where it is) and click on the big boot on the advertising hoarding.

Above: Click on that big red and white sneaker when you see it in the video to play

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.

Latest in Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic Unleashed Recompiled
Sonic fans are leading the charge on a new preservation tool that can help give any Xbox 360 game a native PC port
Jet The Hawk, Shadow The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog, Knuckles The Echidna, and Tails The Fox race towards us on a variety of vehicles in Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, emerging from ring portals depicting various levels from Sonic history
Sonic driving a car in Sonic Racing: Crossworlds makes perfect sense, and after 30 years I'm sick of explaining why
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds announcement trailer proves Sega is coming for Mario Kart 9's throne with transforming cars and a closed beta this month
BioWare's Sonic The Hedgehog RPG "actually uses Dragon Age: Origins dialogue system heavily streamlined to fit on the Nintendo DS"
Knuckles
21 years on, Sonic Heroes voice actor reveals that Knuckles was responsible for the games' first curse word, not Shadow
Shadow brandishes a gun in Sonic The Hedgehog 3
With Sonic, Persona, and Yakuza under its belt, Sega thinks making a subscription service like Xbox Game Pass would be "very interesting"
Latest in News
People playing Finspan, the new game in the Wingspan series
The must-have fishy successor to Wingspan and Wyrmspan is discounted for the first time
Lego Mario & Standard Kart being held by a person sat at a table
The new Lego Mario Kart set is so much better than I was expecting it to be
a titanium watch with grey and orange features on the arms and face
You can look like Solid Snake with this Death Stranding 2 watch, but it'll cost you over $1,500
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree final boss Radahn stares into the camera, holding a sword in each hand.
After 423 hours and over 15,000 total deaths, Elden Ring player finally beats Shadow of the Erdtree without the upgrades FromSoftware urged everyone to use: "Never give up"
Daniel Craig in No Time to Die
James Bond will reportedly remain male and British under new Amazon management, as Pierce Brosnan says it's "a given" that the next actor must not be American
Monster Hunter Wilds trailer screenshot showing a young woman with long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail smiling slightly, pumping her left fist in the air
Monster Hunter Wilds' Gemma actor requests "tips for beginners" from fans of Capcom's action RPG as it's the "first MH game that I've ever played"