Item Box

Various monitors in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Item BoxesMedia:SonicAdventure DC US manual.pdf (アイテムボックスMedia:Sonic1 MD JP manual.pdf), also called Item CapsulesMedia:SonicUnleashed PS2 US manual.pdf, and known in Western releases of earlier games as MonitorsMedia:Sonic1 MD US manual.pdf, are staple objects in Sonic the Hedgehog games, and are a means for the player to obtain a wide variety of items.

Description

Item Boxes usually take the form of computer monitors or circular containers which are to be broken in-game, awarding the player their contents shortly afterwards. For the latter design, all regions tend to opt for the term "Item Box"Media:SonicAdventure DC US manual.pdf, though this phrase has been consistently used in Japan since 1991Media:Sonic1 MD JP manual.pdf, and newer games that use the monitor design have used the term "Item Box"Media:SM PC DIGITAL MANUAL UK V10 LR.pdf in place of "monitor".

Traditionally Item Boxes are to be broken with some form of Spin Attack, be it jumping, rolling or moves such as the Spin Dash or Homing Attack, though in some later games, they break simply by walking into them. Item Boxes can usally be hit from all sides, though in the early 2D games, hitting one from below causes it to start falling until it hits solid ground. Once an Item Box is broken, it will remain as such until the player loses a life.

Common Item Boxes include the Super Ring (which awards 10 Rings), Shield, Power Sneakers, Invincibility and extra lives. They have also been used to denote checkpoints, and some cases (with Eggman Marks), even obstacles. In the 2006 release of Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails can throw Item Boxes as an attack.

Almost all 2D Sonic platform games contain Item Boxes, though not all 3D games include them, as the gameplay styles seen in Sonic Unleashed (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 version) and later Sonic Colours negated the need for them. Though items are contained in computer monitors in some later games like Sonic Generations, Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, they are referred to as "Item Boxes" in all regions.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog Bible

According to Sega of America's Sonic the Hedgehog Bible, monitors are in fact PCs placed around the planet Mobius by Dr. Ovi Kintobor, in an attempt to locate the "Gray Emerald" (and thus control the Chaos Emeralds)Media:SonicBibleDraft2 Document.pdf. They are described as part of a bulletin board service, where users could document any Gray Emerald findings, but after the accident that turned Kintobor into Robotnik, the information was wiped and their contents were replaced with "magical objects"Media:SonicBibleDraft2 Document.pdf.

List of Item Boxes

Due to the long list of games featuring Item Boxes, this list has been divided into two sub-pages:

Main article: Item Box/List of Item Boxes (1991-2006)

Main article: Item Box/List of Item Boxes (2007-present)