Sonic and His 2-D Friends 13: Marine the Raccoon

For better or worse, there is one character that you see a lot in Sonic Rush Adventure, and that is…

Marine the Raccoon

First Appearance: Sonic Rush Adventure, 2007

Who is she? She is what might be described as a “light Wario” for Tails. You know how Tails is young and smart and continually associated with flying? Well Marine is like that, but with water stuff. And she has that “drive for adventure” that propelled Tails to be Sonic’s sidekick, but she is a lot more likely to get herself into trouble as a result. She is goodhearted and generally has honest intentions, but she is basically Tails with a drinking problem. Also, to be absolutely clear, she is not Sticks the Badger. That is someone else.

What are her powers? Sonic meets Marine at the start of her journey of becoming a sailor/boat engineer, and her ship building skills advance to levels beyond your average 8-year-old raccoon during the adventure. And speaking of gaining skills, Marine learns during the finale that she has water powers that appear to match Blaze’s fire powers. Unfortunately, that comes so late that…

Why is she still relevant today? Marine is the poster child for “Sonic’s useless friends”. Marine eventually proves her worth during a pivotal moment when facing down egg wizardry, but she otherwise spends an entire game just gabbing and forcing minigames on Sonic. And this was a problem with many Sonic the Hedgehog titles! Sonic gets to run fast and have that classic gameplay you have loved since the 90’s, and then here’s this other animal that is forcing you into sidequests and a whole lot of talking. Nobody wanted more talking in Sonic the Hedgehog! Nobody wanted a submarine minigame! And Marine, like many an animal buddy before her, represents whatever is the latest, usually-failed addition to Sonic gameplay canon. Sorry, girl, but somebody had to take the blame on this one

Let’s Play 2-D Sonic the Hedgehog Games
Night 13

May 26, 2026

Random Notes:

• It’s Sonic Rush Adventure! The game where Sonic plays through some cool 2-D stages about 20% of the time, and the other 60% is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass with a jet ski. Who asked for this?! It certainly was not BEAT, Chromes, Caliscrub, Jeanie, or Cassandralyn! They are all innocent!
• BEAT is thinking about a furry Nintendo DS game that includes a mech. Can you figure out the title from the provided clues?
• Nobody involved can remember if they ever beat this game. Is it because of excessive jet skiing? Or the robot shark man?
• “The pterodactyl, the natural enemy of the hedgehog.”
• Please enjoy BEAT’s holistic theory on Sonic’s politics.
• Trynant clipped an excerpt of “Goggle Bob says sell crack to kids”. This has dashed my political aspirations.
• Cassandralyn’s local grocery store is being reorganized. She will probably starve to death.
• “Sonic does not respect private property.”
• “They’re just mogging or whatever.”
• BEAT is playing Pragmata and enjoying it. I am still stuck on a boat. No, the boat would not be enhanced by including an AI daughter.
• Why is early access gaming popular? We have some theories!
• Let us discuss the merits and possible sins of Oprah.
• “Say environment.” “Environment.” “Say water.” “Never.”
• Ostrich meat… looks pretty good, actually. Screw the haters, I am going to go eat a chocobo.
• Is Penny Arcade gay? No, not in the 90’s way. The 2020s way.
• Modern marketing schemes may include selling an email address you have entered on a job application. The future is terrible.
• “Kayin is Caliscrub’s friend. Let’s not deny Caliscrub that.”
• “I’m (busy) playing Sonic the Hedgehog. Somebody explain Dominic Deegan!”
• Having examined Helluva Boss with Chromes and won a submarine (unrelated), we are done for the night.

Next lap on Sonic’s Marathon: The fourth one