No running this time. Sonic bounces skyward on autopilot while you tilt the phone to steer him, in Hardlight’s remake of a 2005 mobile game, still on sale today.
ReleasediOS 18 Oct 2012 · Android 21 Dec 2012
DeveloperHardlight (Sega)
OriginalSonic Jump, mobile phones, 2005
ModesStory and endless Arcade
DownloadsAbout 8 million by July 2013
Available?Yes: App Store and Google Play (as Sonic Jump Pro)
Title
Sonic Jump (later Sonic Jump Pro on Google Play)
Platforms
iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), Android; a Facebook Messenger Instant Games version followed in 2018
Developer
Hardlight (Sega’s former Tech Group), with Goodboy Digital
Publisher
Sega
Genre
Vertical platformer
Players
1, with online leaderboards and a shared Global Challenge
Released (iOS)
18 October 2012 (US$1.99, £1.49, €1.59, A$1.99; Japan ¥360)
Released (Android)
21 December 2012 (US$1.99)
Facebook
21 March 2018, free
Availability
Still sold as of November 2026: App Store (US$2.99) and Google Play (as Sonic Jump Pro), both with in-app purchases
Based on
Sonic Jump (2005), developed by AirPlay and Sonic Team for Japanese phones (21 February 2005) and released in North America in 2006 and in Europe in April 2007
Overview
Sonic Jump turns Sonic on his side. Instead of sprinting from left to right, he springs upwards automatically, platform to platform, and you tilt your phone to steer him and tap the screen for a double jump. Rings shield him from harm and double as currency, item boxes hand out shields, magnets and bombs, and the bottom of the screen is a bottomless pit that follows you all the way up.
The game is a remake. The first Sonic Jump was a 2005 Japanese mobile-phone game by AirPlay and Sonic Team, sold in North America from 2006 and in Europe from 2007. In 2012 Sega’s newly formed mobile studio Hardlight rebuilt it from scratch for iPhone, iPad and Android as its very first release, with Story and endless Arcade modes, missions, levels, a shop and a run of free updates that added zones, characters and boss fights.
It did well. Critics compared it, mostly kindly, with Doodle Jump, Metacritic settled on 77 out of 100, and Hardlight said it had been downloaded about 8 million times by mid-2013 before following it with Sonic Dash. Unlike its own sequel, Sonic Jump Fever, it is still sold on both stores, as Sonic Jump Pro on Google Play.
Mountain Zone.Jungle Zone.Blue Sky Zone.
Jump, spin and smash your way into the sky as you battle Dr. Eggman with Sonic and his friends!
The store listing goes on to promise new arcade-style adventures, tilt-and-tap controls, Story levels and infinite Arcade modes, and a mix of new and classic Sonic locations. At launch Sega’s own blog called it Sonic’s first game designed specifically for mobile devices.
— Official description: Sega, Sonic Jump listing on the Apple App Store (read November 2026); launch post on the Sega blog, 18 October 2012. One sentence quoted; the rest summarised.
Quick Answers
The short answers, with the detail further down the page.
When did Sonic Jump come out?
The remake reached iOS on 18 October 2012 and Android on 21 December 2012. The original mobile game came out in Japan on 21 February 2005 in North America in 2006, and in Europe on 20 April 2007. More →
Who made it?
Hardlight, a Sega studio formed from the company’s former Tech Group; Sonic Jump was its first game. The 2005 original was made by AirPlay and Sonic Team. More →
How do you play?
Sonic jumps by himself. Tilt the device to move him left and right, tap for a double jump, and keep climbing without falling off the bottom of the screen. More →
Who can you play as?
Sonic from the start; Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge and Silver can be bought with rings once you reach set levels, and Blaze was the prize for the community Global Challenge. More →
Is it still available?
Yes. As of November 2026 it is on the App Store as Sonic Jump and on Google Play as Sonic Jump Pro, at a one-off price plus optional purchases. More →
How many people downloaded it?
About 8 million by July 2013, according to Hardlight’s technical director. More →
Was it well reviewed?
Yes: 77 out of 100 on Metacritic, with IGN, Pocket Gamer and Slide to Play all recommending it. The 2005 original had fared worse. More →
Is there a sequel?
Two, unrelated: Sonic Jump 2 (2008) followed the original on older phones, and Hardlight’s Sonic Jump Fever (2014) followed the remake. More →
Plot / Story
Logo artwork.Image via Sonic Retro
Dr. Eggman is up to his old tricks, and this time the only way to reach him is up. Each zone is a climb through a series of short acts, ending in a boss fight against the doctor at the top; the Story Mode sends Sonic and friends zone by zone after him, from the chequered cliffs of Green Hill to the machinery of Mechanical Zone.
The plot is told lightly, mostly through the goal at the end of each climb: break open the capsule, free the animals and chase Eggman onwards. As Sega’s own launch post put it, you already knew how fast Sonic could run; this game was about how high he could jump.
How it plays
Tilt to steer, tap to double jump, and never touch the bottom edge of the screen: fall past it and the run ends on the spot, whether or not there was a platform waiting below. Platforms crumble, flip or bristle with spikes, familiar Badniks such as Moto Bugs and Crabmeats patrol the way up, and item boxes, all marked with a question mark, give a random shield, Ring Time (which turns nearby enemies into rings), magnet or screen-clearing bomb.
Rings protect Sonic as usual, and any you hold at the end of a run are banked for the shop. Safes along the way let you bank them mid-level. Story acts are scored on a time bonus and graded from D to S, each act hides three Red Star Rings, and every sixth act became a boss fight in the December 2012 update. A three-hit Eggman battle ends each zone, after which you still have to climb to the animal capsule.
A promotional image.The S rank badge.
Story, Arcade and the Global Challenge
Story Mode is hand-built: fixed acts with a signpost at the top. Arcade Mode generates an endless climb at random, throws in hazards that never appear in the story acts, such as falling rocks in Green Hill, and marks your best height with a dotted line so you can see when you are about to beat it.
The November 2012 “High Fliers” update added a co-operative twist. The Global Challenge pooled the height climbed by every player towards one shared target, the distance from the Earth to the Moon, and reaching it unlocked Blaze the Cat for everyone.
Green Hill Zone.Mechanical Zone.
Missions, levels and the shop
Three missions are active at a time, from beating bosses to dying in particular ways, and each pays one to three points towards your experience level. Levelling up opens more of the shop. There, rings buy characters (2,500 each), single-use power-ups such as Bounce Back, which fires you back up after a fall, and Blast Off, a boost at the start of a level, as well as upgrades and wallpapers.
Rings can also be bought for real money, up to a bundle that unlocks everything at once. IGN thought this undermined the leaderboards and made unlocking things through play feel slow, while Pocket Gamer noted the irony of putting a price tag on Sonic’s golden rings.
Blaze.Silver.
Zones in Sonic Jump
Five zones in the version history Sonic Retro records; the first three shipped at launch and the rest arrived in free updates.
Green Hill ZoneLaunchThe classic opener, rebuilt as a vertical climb; in Arcade Mode it adds falling rocks and metal platforms.
Mountain ZoneLaunchA rocky ascent and the second zone.
Jungle ZoneLaunchThe third of the launch zones.
Blue Sky ZoneHigh Fliers update, 26 November 2012Twelve new story acts and a new Arcade level, added with Amy and the Global Challenge.
Mechanical ZoneLater updateEggman’s machine-filled stronghold and the last stop of the story.
Sonic Super Digest #5Archie Comics · 2013Ian Flynn wrote a short Sonic Jump story for the digest to tie in with the remake.
Facebook Instant GamesFacebook Messenger · 21 March 2018A free version playable inside Messenger, with rankings among your Facebook friends.
Sonic Jump (2005)Mobile phones · 2005–2007The original, with a full story about Eggman’s Brainwash Beam. See below.
Characters
Sonic starts alone; the rest of the cast is bought with rings once you reach the right experience level, or won through the community challenge. Dr. Eggman waits at the top of every zone in a boss act that loops until he has taken three hits (in Arcade Mode he can turn up twice but falls to a single hit), and Sonic Retro lists nine enemy types in his way: Batbrain, Bomb, Bubbles, Buzzer, Caterkiller, Crabmeat, Moto Bug, Spikes and Spinner.
Character
Who they are
In this game
Stats & abilities
Sonic the HedgehogAvailable from the start
The hero, here bouncing rather than running.
Chases Eggman up through every zone of the story.
Default character
Miles “Tails” ProwerLevel 17 · 2,500 rings
Sonic’s two-tailed best friend.
One of the three characters in the launch version.
Also sold as an in-app purchase
Knuckles the EchidnaLevel 20 · 2,500 rings
Guardian of the Master Emerald.
Part of the original three-character line-up.
Also sold as an in-app purchase
Amy RoseLevel 25 · 2,500 rings
Sonic’s self-declared girlfriend.
The first character added after launch, in the November 2012 High Fliers update.
Arrived with Blue Sky Zone
Rouge the BatLevel 28 · 2,500 rings
Jewel thief and spy.
Added in the December 2012 Boss Battle update.
Also sold as an in-app purchase
Silver the HedgehogLevel 30 · 2,500 rings
The psychic hedgehog from the future.
Joined alongside Rouge in December 2012.
Highest level requirement of the ring-bought cast
Blaze the CatGlobal Challenge reward
Princess of another dimension and Silver’s ally.
Unlocked for free once players worldwide had climbed the distance to the Moon between them; dataminers found her in the files before the challenge finished.
Not sold for rings
The people who made it
No full credits are listed by Sonic Retro or Wikipedia; these are the studios.
HardlightDeveloperSega’s mobile studio, formed from its former Tech Group; Sonic Jump was its first release and Sonic Dash its next.
Goodboy DigitalCo-developerCredited alongside Hardlight by Sonic Retro.
Chris SouthallHardlight technical directorGave the download figures in a July 2013 interview.
AirPlay and Sonic TeamDevelopers of the 2005 originalMade the first Sonic Jump for Japanese phones.
How it was made
Our original page held only the basic facts; this section adds the story of both versions.
The 2005 original
The 2005 game.Image via Sonic Retro
The first Sonic Jump was made by AirPlay with Sonic Team and released on 21 February 2005 through Sonic Cafe, Sega’s Japanese mobile portal, for i-mode, Vodafone Live! and EZweb phones. It borrowed most of its graphics from the Game Boy Advance Sonic Advance games and its zone themes from the Mega Drive classics, and finishing an act with 50 rings or more earned a piece of a Chaos Emerald.
Sega Mobile brought it to North America in 2006 and to Europe on 20 April 2007. The story was surprisingly full: Eggman kidnaps Tails, tricks Knuckles out of the last Chaos Emerald on Angel Island and threatens the world with his Brainwash Beam, then blasts off into space from a base in South America; Sonic follows him up, and when the satellite explodes the Emeralds scatter across the Earth.
Hardlight’s remake
The iOS icon.Image via Sonic Retro
In 2012 Sega’s internal Tech Group became Hardlight, a studio making its own mobile games, and Sonic Jump was its first. Sega teased it on 5 October 2012 and released it on iOS less than two weeks later, on 18 October, at US$1.99; the Android version followed on 21 December, the same week Sega gave the iOS version away free for a day.
Updates kept coming. Version 1.1 on 26 November 2012, “High Fliers”, added Amy, Blue Sky Zone, the Global Challenge and more music; 1.2 on 19 December added Rouge and Silver, boss acts and a stats tracker; 1.3 fixed bugs days later. Further versions followed until 2018, and the Android release now goes by the name Sonic Jump Pro.
Firsts: what this game introduced
What Sonic Jump brought to Sonic on mobile.
1Hardlight’s first gameThe opening release from the studio that went on to make Sonic Dash.
2Built for phonesSega billed it as Sonic’s first game designed specifically for mobile, the 2005 original notwithstanding.
3Sonic goes verticalNo running at all: the whole game is a climb.
4A shared goalThe Global Challenge pooled every player’s height to unlock Blaze.
Cheats & secrets
Our original page had no cheats section. These are the game’s unlocks, checked against Sonic Retro.
Character unlock levels
Tails at level 17, Knuckles at 20, Amy at 25, Rouge at 28 and Silver at 30, each for 2,500 rings.
Power-up unlock levels
Magnet from the start, Bounce Back at level 2, Bomb at 5, Shield at 8, Ring Time at 11 and Blast Off at 14.
S ranks
A Story act needs 35,000 points for an S, 32,000 for an A, 25,000 for a B and 16,000 for a C. Points come only from the time bonus, so Blast Off helps.
Checked against Sonic Retro, November 2026.
Glitches, exploits and oddities
No bugs are documented on Sonic Retro; these are the game’s quirks.
Blaze ahead of schedule
All of Blaze’s data was already in version 1.1, so players who hacked the app could unlock her before the Global Challenge was finished.
The unforgiving floor
Touching the bottom of the screen is instant death even when a platform is sitting just below it.
Shields that do not protect
Losing a shield to a hit does not give Sonic the brief invincibility that losing his rings does.
Videos & media
Sega’s launch trailer for the remake, and a longer look at the game in play.
From SEGA’s official YouTube channel.
A gameplay video from TouchGameplay, a channel that records iOS games.
Trivia & facts
The app icon.Image via Sonic Wiki ZoneThe game’s Japanese iOS price at launch was ¥360, against US$1.99 in America.
Pocket Gamer felt that, despite borrowing its idea from Doodle Jump, it felt more like a Sonic game than most of his recent outings.
IGN compared its difficulty curve to Super Meat Boy.
Every item box is a mystery box: all of them show a question mark.
The High Fliers update also added wallpapers to the shop at 5,000 rings each.
The 2005 original had a full story involving Eggman’s “Brainwash Beam”; the remake keeps things simple.
Media & artwork
Artwork, logos, zones, character icons and screenshots of both versions, from Sonic Retro and Sonic Wiki Zone. Select any image to view it larger.
Artwork from our original page.Logo.Logo artwork.Promotional image.App icon.App icon.Wide logo.Mountain Zone.Jungle Zone.Blue Sky Zone.Green Hill Zone icon.Mountain Zone icon.Jungle Zone icon.Blue Sky Zone icon.Mechanical Zone icon.Sonic.Tails.Knuckles.Amy.Rouge.Silver.Blaze.S rank.A rank.Sonic Super Digest #5.2005 logo.The 2005 game.The 2005 game.The 2005 game.The 2005 game.The 2005 game.A 2005 story screen.
Legacy
The remake started a run of Hardlight Sonic games and is one of the few early Sonic mobile releases still on sale.
Release history (both versions)
Sonic Jump (Japan, mobile)21 February 2005 – AirPlay and Sonic Team, via Sonic Cafe.
Sonic Jump (North America, mobile)2006 – Sega Mobile; IGN reviewed it that August.
Sonic Jump (Europe, mobile)20 April 2007 – Sega Mobile.
Sonic Jump 2 (mobile)20 May 2008 – Sequel to the original.
Sonic Jump (iOS)18 October 2012 – Hardlight’s remake.
Sonic Jump (Android)21 December 2012 – Later renamed Sonic Jump Pro.
Sonic Jump Fever10 July 2014 – Hardlight’s sequel to the remake.
Facebook Messenger21 March 2018 – Free Instant Games version.
Still on saleNovember 2026 – App Store (US$2.99) and Google Play.
Still available
When we checked in November 2026, Sonic Jump was still on the US App Store, now at US$2.99 with in-app purchases, and on Google Play as Sonic Jump Pro. Its sequel was not so lucky: Wikipedia records that Sonic Jump Fever was no longer downloadable from November 2016, and Sonic Wiki Zone notes that this leaves the 2012 remake as the only official way to play Sonic Jump.
What came next
Hardlight followed it with Sonic Dash in March 2013, which passed 20 million downloads within months, then Sonic Jump Fever in 2014 and Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom in 2015.
Sales & reviews
Downloads
Hardlight’s technical director Chris Southall said in July 2013 that Sonic Jump had been downloaded about 8 million times, a figure that includes free downloads. Sega Sammy’s 2013 annual report only gives a combined figure: more than 48 million downloads for Sonic on iOS, a total that takes in Sonic Dash and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as well as Sonic Jump.
77/100Metacritic (iOS)
73%GameRankings
8 millionDownloads by July 2013
Still on saleApp Store and Google Play, November 2026
Reception and review scores
Reviews of the 2012 remake cited by Wikipedia (Pocket Gamer’s score checked against the review itself), with the two scores for the 2005 original marked.
Slide to PlayOnline · October 2012
4/4
Pocket GamerOnline · 18 October 2012
4/5
IGNOnline · October 2012
7.5/10
Pocket Gamer2005 original · 20 April 2007
3/5
IGN2005 original · 24 August 2006
5/10
The remake won critics over. Pocket Gamer’s Harry Slater called it a tough, entertaining vertical platformer with enough Sonic touches to stand out, Slide to Play gave it its top “Must Play” rating and praised the free updates, and IGN liked the presentation and the steep challenge while grumbling about the pay-to-unlock shop. Almost everyone mentioned Doodle Jump.
The original had a harder time. IGN’s 2006 review found it dull, with sluggish and occasionally inaccurate controls, and Pocket Gamer liked the idea but thought the controls and difficulty would put newcomers off.
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet. Played it? Give it a score out of 10 and tell other fans what you think.
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources below. Sonic Retro pages, Sega’s blog posts and older press were read through Wayback Machine copies; store listings were checked live in November 2026. Download figures come only from Hardlight and Sega Sammy, as quoted.
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Sonic Super Digest #5Archie Comics · 2013Ian Flynn wrote a short Sonic Jump story for the digest to tie in with the remake.
Sonic Jump (2005)Mobile phones · 2005–2007The original, with a full story about Eggman’s Brainwash Beam. See below.
Sonic the HedgehogAvailable from the start
Miles “Tails” ProwerLevel 17 · 2,500 rings
Knuckles the EchidnaLevel 20 · 2,500 rings
Amy RoseLevel 25 · 2,500 rings
Rouge the BatLevel 28 · 2,500 rings
