After making his debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Master system in 1992, Tails has become more than just a familiar face. The two-tailed, genius fox, often lost in Sonic’s shadow, is an admirable hero in his own right. Sure, Sonic is obviously the true blue hero of the franchise, but Tails can fly!
In fact, one could say they have a symbiotic relationship. Sonic’s carefree and reckless nature is the perfect complement to Tails’ need to overanalyze situations. Unfortunately, Tails often acts as Sonic’s one-man clean-up crew after he acts rashly, and consistently working to fill in the gaps of Sonic’s knowledge on various subjects. As such, he never quite gets his due, despite how much his character has grown. However, all of this ridicule ends now.
Updated May 26, 2022, by Gabrielle Huston: We all love Tails - but it can't hurt to validate our affections. These are some of our favourite reasons that Tails might be even better than his blue counterpart.
11 Overcome His Weaknesses
Being only 8 years old, it is often noted that Tails has not yet reached his full potential. He is smart but tends to make rookie mistakes. In addition, he isn’t as skilled in combat as other characters in the Sonic universe. In a one-on-one, close combat battle against a fierce opponent, he is likely to lose.
Instead of stubbornly taking on challenges that are beyond his skill set, Tails improves his chances of winning by building support devices that compensate for his weaknesses. For instance, in Sonic Battle, a fighting game that forces him to engage in close combat, he uses the Magic Hook to punch opponents and the Energy Ball to fire projectiles. His patience and desire to improve sets him apart from Sonic, who is so used to praise that he often acts without thinking.
10 Attack Enemies With His Tails
Tails may not be able to turn into a deadly spiky ball like his blurry blue mentor, but he does have quite a few tricks up his sleeves, or umm fur. We all know the little guy can use them to fly, but he can also use them as a deadly weapon (or, as deadly a game marketed towards children can be). Tails has several unique backside attacks. Meanwhile, Sonic's tail is so small that it's essentially useless.
In Sonic Adventure, his Tail Swipe attack debuts, and it is exactly what it sounds like. He spins around and smacks enemies in his path with his tails. If Tails performs this attack in Boost Mode, it becomes the much faster, Super Tail Swipe. But that’s not all! He can even chain the attack if he possesses the Rhythm Badge. Sometimes it pays to have two tails.
9 Attack With Dummy Rings
In the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, there are regular rings, which keep players alive, and then there are dummy rings, which look like normal but cause damage to enemies who touch them. Tails is one of two characters (the other being Rouge the Bat) who can use the rings to cause harm to others—unlike Sonic!
In Sonic Heroes, Tails uses an attack called the Dummy Ring Bomb, where he throws three dummy rings in front of him. When enemies touch the rings, they explode, causing paralysis and health damage. In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Tails takes his manipulation of dummy rings to the next level by actually sniping his enemies with them. In addition, he can also drop a dummy ring item box while flying above his foes.
8 Mechanical Engineering
We all know that Eggman is an evil genius of Biblical proportions. He is so smart, in fact, that it often seems he is without a rival. Well, sorry to bring you down to earth, Eggman, but Miles is right on your tail. Did you know that Tails' real first name is Miles? As we mentioned earlier, the kid is only 8 years old but he is already a skilled mechanic and inventor.
This is evident throughout the game as we see Tails constantly repairing and modifying Sonic’s airplane, the Tornado. He also built a submarine for underwater exploration and a space shuttle powered by Chaos Emeralds for getting to the Death Egg II. His most useful invention, though, is the Miles Electric, a hand-held computer that can be used as a radar, translate alien languages, and act as a control panel for the Tornado. Sonic can’t do that.
7 Sabotage Robotic Enemies
Seeing as how Tails is a mechanical genius, it is no surprise to any of us that he can take apart, reprogram, or sabotage the robots he encounters, much to Eggman’s chagrin. Sabotaging robots, in particular, is a skill that comes in handy as the Sonic and squad track down Eggman in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
During enemy encounters Tails can use the move Tinker to destroy the systems of enemy robots. If Tails is able to complete the attack successfully, he can inflict the target with Weakened and Distracted. Targets who are Weakened deal less damage and those who are Distracted are more likely to miss their target when attacking.
We know Sonic isn’t capable of such technological feats, and even if he were to try, he would probably somehow make the robots even more powerful and deadly.
6 Turn Into A Tornado
Yes, Sonic can run so fast that you probably feel a breeze as he whizzes past you. The sudden gust likely has enough force to knock you off balance. However, as fast as he is, he has never turned into a tornado in-game (and we don't mean his plane).
But do you know who can turn into a fearsome twister that gives the Tasmanian Devil a run for his money? That’s right, Tails! In Sonic Advance 3, when Tails is teamed up with Knuckles, he can use his Tornado Attack to pummel enemies. To perform the attack, Tails spins 360°, using his tails to attack. He rotates so quickly that he resembles a tornado as air currents form around him. Tails is literally a force of nature.
5 Ace The SATs (Or Any Other Test)
Back in the day, there was a show called Smart Guy about a 10-year-old whiz kid, T.J. Henderson, in high school. Throughout the show, it was painstakingly obvious that T.J. was smart enough to go straight to college, but for some reason, he decided to finish at high school (likely to have a social life). Similarly, Tails, for the sake of friendship and admiration, has decided to stick it out with Sonic.
However, we all know that Tails could skip adventuring and go straight to Harvard if he wanted to. He has a genius-level IQ, can read and translate hexadecimal and binary language, as evidenced by his ability to translate the Wisp language. In addition, in Sonic Lost World, he brags that he built a TV out of paperclips. Paperclips, people! He could ace the SATS with his eyes closed.
4 Understand All The Things About Chaos Emeralds
Within the Sonic franchise, there is one character who knows more about Chaos Emeralds than anyone else, and that character’s name is Tails. After Tails began to come into his own and stopped trying so hard to be like Sonic, he embraced the talents he was blessed with. As such, he spends a lot of time in his workshop nerding out over how things works.
He is particularly adept at unlocking the mysteries of the Chaos Emeralds. For instance, so far he has used the emeralds in his possession to track down Eggman after realizing that all them are linked to each other. He also once created a fake Chaos Emerald with the same properties and wavelength as a real one. Sonic was even able to use Chaos Control with the fake one. Tails can even reconstruct emeralds out of shards. Now that’s impressive.
3 Master Travel Between Dimensions
Yes, a little orange fox figured out how to travel between dimensions before we did. I mean, even the Doctor can’t do that in his little blue TARDIS (although it is bigger on the inside). Tails managed to build a machine capable of doing so in a matter of minutes, but why would he need to?
Well, in Sonic Rush Adventure, Tails and Sonic are randomly sucked into a hurricane while flying the Tornado and find themselves in Blaze’s dimension. After helping Blaze out, as a good hero should, Tails builds a watercraft-like vessel powered by both the Chaos and Sol Emeralds. It is their combined power that creates a tunnel between Blaze’s world and their own and allows them to return home. If only it weren’t illegal for an 8 year old to work at NASA.
2 Swim
Sonic can do many things. He is incredibly fast, can spin dash through his enemies, and can even transform into Super Sonic. When he is in your control, you feel like you can do anything. Well, anything except swim. His creator didn't think that real hedgehogs could swim, so he decided that Sonic shouldn't either.
In early Sonic games especially, water levels are a drag. Not only does Sonic move much slower in the water, but he also can’t hold his breath for long. Since he can’t swim, you are forced to walk and jump in a labored attempt to reach an air bubble before drowning.
Of course, this isn’t too much of a problem for Tails, as someone obviously made sure he took swimming lessons—unless he is self-taught. Either way, for our two-tailed sidekick, his underwater skills make it easier to reach air bubbles, and, subsequently, clear the level.