Chip as he appears in Sonic Unleashed.
Chip is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a small, mauve, brown-eyed flying animal who debuts in Sonic Unleashed. He has a white mohawk on the top of his head, similar to his tail, has tiny white wings on his back, and a green bauble on his neck. He was first seen in a Japanese manga adaption of Sonic Unleashed. In this, Sonic wakes up after Dr. Eggman's laser gun mutates him into a monstrous version of himself. Chip is seen lying on the ground nearby, and Sonic attempts to make sure that he is okay. Chip flies away, afraid at first, though he soon realizes that Sonic is good.
Sonic Unleashed
Chip loses his memory when Sonic lands on him after he falls from Dr. Eggman's spaceship and follows Sonic on his adventure to help regain his memory (though it's later revealed that he actually lost his memory because he was awakened prematurely, just like Dark Gaia). Chip loves eating and always brings chocolate around with him, even offering some to those he thinks need it. Sonic even names him "Chip" for the chocolate chips on the ice cream he's eating at the time (stating, "I gotta call you something, don't I?"), which he immediately takes as his "name". He is optimistic and cheerful, but has a strange power he sometimes uses to help Sonic. He also has a dark secret hidden in his memories.
Chip, as seen on Sonic Channel.
Light Gaia is Chip's real name. Born at the beginning of time, Light Gaia is the opposite of Dark Gaia, and is the representation of light, day, and rebirth. He awoke when Dr. Eggman split the world apart with his beam. Due to the premature awakening, he lost his memories, but regained them when Sonic restored the sixth of the Chaos Emeralds.
His purpose is to put the world back together when Dark Gaia destroys it. Dark Gaia dwells within the Earth's core for eons, feeding on the negative feelings and energies of the Earth's denizens, and emerging when it was grown strong enough. It is Light Gaia's job to defeat Dark Gaia and return him to the Earth.
To defeat Dark Gaia, he creates the Gaia Colossus out of the seven Temples of Gaia. In the end, when Dark Gaia is defeated by Super Sonic and resealed within the Earth's core, Chip throws Sonic back to the surface and is sealed within the planet along with Dark Gaia. When Sonic comes to, he sees Chip lying unconscious on the ground, similar to their meeting, but it turns out to be an illusion as he quickly disappears. However, his necklace remains on the ground. Sonic puts the necklace on as a bracelet as Chip assures him telepathically that he will never forget him, and that he will always be with Sonic, a part of the Earth he walks on. Due to his sacrifice, it is unknown if he will return.
Personality
Chip loves chocolate, which he carries throughout the story. He also offers many people a chocolate bar when he meets them. He loves food a lot, as seen in one cutscene in Apotos; Sonic is trying to talk to him, but he is distracted by an ice cream stand and completely ignoring him. When they work with Tails to save the kidnapped Professor Pickle, he is mostly concerned that the Professor might be starving to death, though Tails assures him that Eggman is feeding him; even Eggman isn't that cruel. Chip is playful and somewhat goofy. Before a boss, he will act threatening and scary (a contrast to how he isn't, as seen in Sonic: Night of the Werehog, where he is genuinely terrified of the ghosts in the mansion that he and Sonic visit and even faints dead away after Sonic teasingly scares him with a flashlight). Chip is one of the few people who can actually annoy Sonic.
Friends
Foes
- Dr. Eggman
- Dark Gaia
- The photographer ghosts (Sonic: Night of the Werehog)
Trivia
- Chip is the only character who doesn't wear shoes except Chaos and Mephiles.(only when Mephiles is in his crystalline and original black shadow forms.)
- In Sonic Unleashed, Chip uses the same camera in Eggmanland with that in Sonic: Night of the Werehog.
- Chip's role in Sonic Unleashed is very similar to Shahra the Ring Genie in which they both host the tutorial at the beginning of the games. They are both magical creatures. Both sacrificed themselves in some way to allow Sonic to live near the end of their games. Some form of jewelry is incorporated with them.
- Chip is the second Sonic Team furry to be shown with three toes, the other is Amigo the monkey from Samba de Amigo.
- Chip, while not his real name, is one of the many several Sonic characters to be named after a food, including the Honey the Cat prototype, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, and Chocola.
- Chip, Dark Gaia, and Black Doom are the oldest Sonic characters being over millions of years old (also taking into consideration should be the age of Solaris as it was the god of Soleanna).
- Sonic's naming of Chip after the ice-cream he was eating is similar in nature to how Sonic gave Emerl it's name (due to it's ability to absorb the Chaos Emeralds to become more powerful).
- Gaia is the goddess of the Earth, however, both Chip and Dark Gaia are considered male. Chip's Japanese voice, however, is voiced by a female.
- Chip's popularity skyrocketed because of his sacrifice to save Sonic and his theme song "Dear My Friend"
- Oddly, Chip has five fingers and three toes.
- After feeding a number of things to Chip, he will usually supplement his comments on the food with friendly banter or ask odd questions. Examples are "Sonic! You...You're not naked are you?!" and "You know how your arms stretch? You should see how far you can get them to go!"
- Chip is another Sonic character that may have swore at least once. If you feed Chip the Canned Horror from Holoska, his only comment on it will be "@@%%**%%!" However, this is left open to interpretation.
- It's possible that Tony Salerno (voice of Chip) and Pete Capella (voice of Silver) could be the same person, similar to how Dan Green is credited as Jay Snyder in Sonic Next Gen and Sonic Unleashed and Jason Griffith is credited as Adam Caroleson in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Sonic and the Secret Rings. The similarity is often noticed while listening to Chip's voice while he's telling his story on what he can remember before "everything just going all white!" in the second cutscene at the beginning of the game. However, this is unlikely, as Pete Capella no longer works for 4Kids.