#I legitimately thought this was made by SEGA

[tenebraevesper]

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Final Conclusion)

''It's been a long, rough road and I'm finally here. I move an inch forward, feels like a year. Everything I feel seems so unreal. Is it true? Is it true? I take one step forward and two steps back. Got a hundred thousand pounds sitting on my back. Up, down, all around, don't know quite what to do to get through. Well, I'm on my way...''

(Never Turn Back, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005))

Welcome to the Final Conclusion of my Shadow the Hedgehog's character analysis! It has been a long, rough road for me, but now I'm here to give you my final thoughts on Shadow the Hedgehog as a character in Sonic Prime.

So, shall we dive in for one last time?

I started this character analysis with the statement that ''Prime!Shadow is peak Shadow'', making it my mission to re-watch every episode of Sonic Prime to back up my argument, and I believe that I have succeeded.

When I had learned that Sonic Prime would have Shadow in it, I made sure to keep a close eye on him, as we know all too well just how tight SEGA's mandates around Shadow's character are, having seen him at his worst in the Sonic IDW comics. I had been hoping that Sonic Prime would let Shadow have more room as a character, let him breathe a little. He doesn't have to be just the grim Vegeta-type Stock Shonen Rival to Sonic, but he can also be a hero on his own.

So I waited and I hoped, and, oh boy, did Sonic Prime deliver!

With the placement of Sonic Prime in the mainline canon being deliberately vague (aside from obviously being set after Sonic Advance 3) we only had the knowledge of Shadow's backstory to figure out how his character might be utilized in the show, and let me assure you, I did not expect that Shadow as a character would actually go back to his roots.

As TV Tropes puts it, Shadow is the composite character of ''the intelligent, perceptive, and pragmatic (with good intentions) of Sonic 06'' self ''with the wrathful but good intentioned disposistion of Sonic Battle'' self.

In short, he is exactly the Shadow people wanted to see for so long, ever since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), which is considered to be the peak of his character (not counting Sonic Adventure 2). He is the grim rival to Sonic, but has a kind heart and the will to protect the world regardless of how people see him. He is not above using violent methods to achieve his goals, but has primarily good intentions, and will clash and work together with Sonic depending on the situation.

That alone is very impressive, but what makes Prime!Shadow stand out even above his Sonic 06 self is the fact that he actually undergoes through subtle, but legitimate character development.

As I had stated in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 1), Shadow starts out as a loner who prefers to stop Sonic from causing the end of world by fighting him instead of talking to him. This is kind of understandable, since Sonic also sucks at communication and listening to other people, including his friends, which is how the whole Shatterverse event starts in the first place, and gets punched by Shadow for causing this whole mess.

In Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 2), I had been pointing out how, after both Shadow got all the frustration he felt towards Sonic out of his system in the first half of Episode 09: Avoid the Void, he manages to convey to Sonic just how much damage he had caused by breaking the Paradox Prism, leading to the two to actually start communicating properly. Of course, it is not perfect, and Shadow certainly gets annoyed by Sonic over the course of the episode, but he is willing to talk rather than to fight.

However, it takes until the second half of the same episode, aka what I covered in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 3) for Shadow to finally realize that he needs Sonic if he wants to fix reality. But before that, we have a good old fashioned rival fight, where Shadow decides to save the world on his own, showing us that, even if the world is at stake, he won't miss a chance to enjoy his fight with Sonic. However, upon his failure to enter the Shatterspaces, he understands that he won't be able to do this without Sonic's help, as he's stuck in The Void. Of course, this is just the beginning of their attempts at proper teamwork and they still won't miss a chance to banter with each other.

Speaking of bantering, we slowly start get more and more of those, as covered in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 4), with Shadow snarking at Sonic while also trying to keep him on track. Not only that, but Shadow also plays a role in stalling the Chaos Council, showing that even if he cannot travel through the Shatterverse, he can still support Sonic in his own way.

When the Chaos Council arrives at Ghost Hill to take the Prism Shards, we finally see what it looks like when Shadow and Sonic team up and it's glorious. Even if their relationship hasn't started out well, you can see how they slowly become better and better as a team, protecting each other and coming up with plans to protect the Shards.

One thing that gets pointed out, however, is Shadow's distrust of other people. In Sonic Prime, Shadow has no friends, which is something Sonic teases him about when Shadow shows clear distrust of Nine. Shadow is right to be distrustful of Nine, pointing out to Sonic how he's not the same as Tails, especially due to how Sonic is projecting Tails onto Nine and treating him as if they were the same person.

However, Sonic is not wrong either in regards to his statement how Shadow needs to learn to trust people, and rest assured, it appears that Shadow actually takes this to heart, as he begins to trust Sonic.

This is seen in the first half of Episode 17: Grim Tidings, which I covered in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 5). Not only does Shadow not blame Sonic for losing the Shards to Nine, but he also keeps reaching out for Sonic, who is grieving the loss of Ghost Hill and his friends, protecting him from danger, reassuring him that they will get the Shards back and comforting him by complimenting him. It's incredibly sweet to see that side of him, a kinder, softer side which he appears to show only around Sonic.

This extends into the second half of the episode, covered in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 6), where Shadow keeps up with his mission to protect Sonic as they try to recover the Paradox Prism from Nine. Not only has their teamwork significantly improved, with both being incredibly in sync, but the moment Shadow realizes that Nine is after Sonic, he abandons the Paradox Prism and instead focuses on saving Sonic from Nine, eventually throwing him out of The Grim and basically sacrificing his own life for Sonic.

I absolutely loved seeing this protective side of Shadow, showing just how much he cares about Sonic and how much he has grown to appreciate him.

(Also, note how Shadow once again has beef with Tails, having fought him in Sonic X and Sonic Boom before).

What follows next is the battle against Nine, covered in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 7), which shows us Shadow and Sonic's contrasting personalities and ideals bouncing off of each other, while working perfectly together. They have now reached a new level of trust, respect and understanding, with Shadow showing complete loyalty towards Sonic, even if their initial methods of reaching their goals clash with each other.

Also, Sonic introduces Shadow as his boyfriend to his Shatterverse friends.

''Probably gonna regret that.'' ''I heart you too, Shadow.''

Oh, did you really think I wouldn't talk about the blatant Sonadow subtext in Sonic Prime? There is a reason why fans nicknamed the show Sonadow Prime.

These two dorks have so much chemistry in this show that it is hard not to ship them together, even if all instances of them working together as a couple were unintentional. Sonic Prime definitely shows the appeal of the Sonadow ship, and if you go by The Sonadow Special Bumblekast Interview with Ian Flynn, these two are probably one confession away from dating each other (even if the ship will never become canon, because SEGA says ''No'' to romance in their Sonic media - a wise decision).

Why am I saying this? Well, Ian says that, in order for Sonadow to be executed, there would have to be an understood vulnerability to Shadow, and he would have to open up to be more accessible at a personal level. He notes how it doesn't take much for it to happen, and that it just has to become established to build that bridge, especially with Sonic being so casual and accepting enough as he is, and he would allow Shadow to be who he is, which is kinda prickly and stand-offish. They would have the occasional moment where Shadow let's his guard down and is more empathetic and emotionally available, but otherwise, they would play it fairly cool and aloof.

Also, how would it be made official that they're together? Ian says how they're so cool and aloof in their own way that he cannot see either of them making some dramatic declaration or turn all mushy and lovey-dovey, as that's not who they are.

''[...] The adventure concludes, and they're standing side by side on the hillside looking at the sunset and the wreckage, and they share, y'know, a compliment, and instead of like, a fist bump or a 'See ya next time', and one of them runs off; maybe they throw arms around each other or something, just kinda stand there. [...] I see them just being very chill about it all.''

So, let me ask you something - in Sonic Prime, which character is starting to show his more vulnerable side, letting his guard down and and reaching out for Sonic, either to comfort him or to protect him?

Yeah, a simple screenshot speaks more than a thousand words.

Also, if you don't care about what Ian Flynn said, just take note of how affectionate Sonic is towards Shadow and Shadow in turn just let's him do whatever he wants. Sonic hugs him, and Shadow doesn't push him back. It's absolutely adorable and it gets even better when we get to the finale!

Episode 23: From the Top (covered in its full form in Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Prime, Character Analysis - Part 8)) concludes the battle against Nine, with the whole Shatterverse being reduced to nothing. Sonic decides to sacrifice his life to restore the Paradox Prism, and we see Shadow completely heartbroken when he sees that Sonic isn't moving, probably believing that he is dead. I don't think Shadow had ever shown an expression like this in any media.

Fortunately, Sonic is still alive, but barely holding on, leading up to a race against time, where Shadow carries a dying Sonic towards Green Hill.

''I never knew you were a hugger.'' ''Do you want me to save you or not?''

*shouting from the back* Just kiss already!

Hey, I mean, it isn't them throwing arms around each other, but we do have Sonic flirting with Shadow and Shadow responding before the sense of panic sets in when Sonic goes limp.

Fortunately, the day is saved, with Sonic and Shadow retaining their memories of what had happened and remembering what their learned from each other during their adventure (with the Shatterverse probably being wiped out because Sonic doesn't shatter the Paradox Prism).

''I am the Ultimate Lifeform. I go wherever I want.'' ''Wh-huh?'' ''CHAOS CONTROL!''

One thing I don't believe I had mentioned is how there is three times when Shadow declares his status as The Ultimate Lifeform. The first time is a response to Nine's comment about him and Sonic being twins, with Shadow pointing out his uniqueness. The second time he states it is when Nine is shocked to see him defeat Grim Alpha Sonic, with Sonic quipping how he's ''modest too'', showing off that he is adept to battling and will win the fight no matter the odds. And lastly, he states it once again before he teleports the Paradox Prism, noting how he can go wherever he wants, which I believe is him declaring his won freedom to not be tied to anything (like a certain promise) and doing things his way (not to mention the fact that he spent a good chunk of the show floating in The Void, unable to go anywhere).

Unfortunately, as I said before, the ending kinda feels like it's missing something, and while people might point out how it's either perfect the way it is or list a bunch of flaws or seek signs of an nonexistent sequel, the one thing I wanted to see is for Sonic and Shadow to have at least one more conversation.

''If knowing you has taught me anything, there is always another way.'' 'Wait, was that a compliment?''

I wanted them to meet up again and reflect on their adventure, as well as talk how much they have grown closer as a team, with Sonic even offering Shadow to join him and his friends at the beach for a couple of chili dogs. I'd have Shadow be reluctant for a moment, before accepting.

Maybe have Sonic ask Shadow what happened to the Paradox Prism and Shadow assure him that it's in a safe space. Perhaps they could also ponder on what happened to the Shatterverse, and whether it's gone or it still exists. As for Sonic's friends, they would probably wonder since when Sonic and Shadow are now close buddies, with Sonic about to tell them about their adventure in the Shatterverse before Dr. Eggman returns with another scheme and the adventure continues.

I really wanted some kind of finality to show their newly formed bond. After all, there is so much to talk about, like the fact that Sonic definitely had a traumatic flashback to Sonic Adventure 2.

Or have Shadow admit that he doesn't want to lose Sonic by just telling him not to get so reckless again when around another world-shattering stone.

*sighs dreamily*

Oh well, being a writer, I guess I might as well write this alternate ending by myself then. I might let these two have their moment, showing appreciation for each other in their own way.

Also, Shadow is a hugger. That's definitely canon now.

One last thing to mention before I finish this is - what did Shadow do with the Paradox Prism? Well, I have an idea for how this adventure might continue, albeit in a different universe:

Sonic Boom Shatterverse (Sonic Prime/Sonic Boom)

So, does anyone want to see how Boom!Shadow and Boom!Sonic handle their own universe shattering into pieces? Coz I do!

#Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer (Masterlist)

[randomthefox]

Omfg. Ya know what, I now believe you when you accuse these IDW stans of being cultists.

I was scrolling through some of your posts the other day and found this one talking about this Kotytang dude on YouTube, and I believe you now. Flynn and Stanley are just brainwashing these people to believe that the comics are good and the games are bad.

I was watching his reviews on the comic issues and let out a long tired sigh when he began to see Surge as his Waifu. but then I saw his posts. One that made me very angry was him saying: "A major problem that I have with Sonic x Shadow Generations is that we have no reason at all to believe that Maria has a genuine connection to Shadow."

Is he fucking serious? The more I scrolled through his comment sections the more I realized that you were right. He has NOTHING good to say about the games.

These people don't like Sonic, so they change Sonic into what THEY want him to BE. And sadly, Flynn and Stanley's asses do the same thing. hence why so many "fans" love these comics.

I fucking PRAY that IDW Sonic will burn and crash and die soon, because I can't take this shit anymore.

Sometimes I do engage in hyperbole. But nothing I ever say about Sonic comics fans is hyperbole or exaggeration.

If you think a single thing that I have ever said about Sonic comic fans is an exaggeration, then that just means you haven't seen what I've seen.

Fans of the Sonic IDW comics would MURDER ME for what I've said about the comic, if they thought they could legally get away with doing so. You think I'm exaggerating? You haven't seen what I've seen. I am being dead serious. And honestly for some of them, it isn't the fear of consequences that's stopping them. It's simply the lack of means.

That's them at their most extreme, their most rabidly cult like. Compared to that, my pointing out the OBJECTIVE FACT that they simply hate the Sonic video game franchise from the bottom of their heart is mild.

The ONLY REASON they like Ian Flynn is because he represents an ideal for them. He is an icon. The "big name fan" who infiltrated the franchise and now he has the keys to the asylum. They GENUINELY AND SINCERELY BELIEVE that Flynn can dictate the canon of the Sonic series, and is slaying the evil dragon of SEGA so that he can turn the franchise into Archie/IDW Sonic The Video Game. Because that's what THEY want to do. They are living vicariously through him.

They sincerely and legitimately resent the video games from the bottom of their heart, they hate everything from them and about them. They have nothing good to say about a single thing that originates from the video games, unless it's something that they claim was "fixed" by the comics and what they enjoy is the comics "version" of it. They derive no joy from the video games. To them, the video games are an albatross. A ball and chain. And yet at the same time, they want to coopt it and turn the video games into what they think the franchise should be i.e. the comics.

It's like they're so insecure and resentful of the fact that their stupid comics owe their existence to the video games that the only way they can cope is by constructing these delusional fantasies of destroying the video games and rebuilding them into interactive representations of the comic books. I don't even know what mental illness you fucking call that. I don't know what else to call that besides pure religious fanaticism.

It's going to be so fucking funny when IDW Publishing finally goes out of business and the comic fucking dies because of that, and everything from them is immediately forgotten about and never even acknowledged again. There'll be some cope for a little bit after it happens, some frothing at the mouth that a new comic publisher can just pick up the license and take over where IDW left off or that SEGA can just self publish the comic themselves, or that it just means the games are going to start adapting the storylines and cast of the comics. They'll deny reality for quite a long time. And it will be insufferable. But it will also be hilarious.

[thelediz]

Sonic Underground watchalong – final thoughts

So I watched all of Sonic Underground again, in the hope of finding inspiration for a fic I’ve been writing for years. Check out either the watchalong or the fic, if you’re interested!

Because I was writing notes, I was paying attention in a different way than I ever have before. It didn’t make me like it any more or less, but I think I was more aware of the way I was responding to it, and things I was thinking when I would normally just be passively watching. So now I have THOUGHTS.

First and foremost, I want to applaud the trashfire for its incredible use of show and tell. Because there’s a whole bunch that it told us, but there was also a whole bunch that it SHOWED, and sometimes those two things were completely at odds with each other. And I think that’s what’s resonated with me all these years. Because this was a very complicated world that it created, and yet the story it told was remarkably simple. And I found myself fascinated by it.

But GUYS. There was PLOT in this show. There were actual, important storylines that someone wanted to build up to something in future seasons!

The prophecy, first and foremost. Aleena could not reunite with her children until they were ready to become the Council of Four and overthrow Robotnik.

To do this, they had to learn to accept their divine rite (HMPH), but also understand the dangers of forgetting how to be kind and caring rulers.

Their medallions were driven by the Power of Harmony, and within that power was the ability to free people’s minds from whatever destructive force held it.

They needed to gather allies to defeat Robotnik, of which Knuckles was only the first of many. (Supposedly there was a French comic that continued this plot, but it died a quick death, from all reports)

There were two pendants that had both been split in two and hidden in distant lands. One had a map, the other gave Sonia the power to see what Robotnik was doing. The implication is that there would be at least two more.

Did they do any of this well? Hell no! But were they there? Hell yes, and I have Many Thoughts about how one could reboot this series to build them properly. Though I would lose the allies thread, and depending on Sega mandates, maybe swap it for a story about Sonic being destined for more than the crown. Because I like my Echidna Prophecies.

I’m shouting into the void, as I do, but if anyone is still reading and would be interested, hit me up on an ask and I will happily give you random character arcs and episode synopses that are whirling in my head.

But outside all that, I have some other thoughts:

It’s still a trashfire that I cannot defend, but dammit if someone didn’t care about this show.

I cannot emphasis this enough. Someone, somewhere, cared about this show and wanted it to be something. They didn’t succeed, but damn it did they try. There was no getting away from how cheap this show was, and how many sacrifices were made in the name of… well, what do I know they were made in the name of?

Because here’s the thing: I wasn’t there when it was made. None of us were. I joke and make statements about how this show was a quick cash grab, because that’s what it looks and feels like, but for all I know, this was someone’s first but legitimate attempt at making a new IP from the Sonic franchise. And yeah, they failed. They screwed up a lot. But I remind you that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as we currently know them, began life as a marketing strategy because no one could sell toys based on a gritty black and white Daredevil parody comic, and after the first season, SOMEONE cared enough to push for a second. And I bet there are plenty of badly aged episodes from that cartoon too.

It's poorly edited, messily written, and terribly paced, but there was something in it. And that something is worth celebrating.

I could have liked Sonia, if only.

Watching it this time, I wanted SO BADLY to like Sonia. And I can see exactly how I could have, with just… -gestures vaguely-

The problem I have with Sonia is that she is just immediately amazing. At everything. She goes from being a stuck up, sheltered aristocrat to the best Freedom Fighter in the Resistance without blinking, and the only reminder that she was ever anything else is that she’s a snob that likes girly things like fashion and makeup.

In the reboot (HAH), I would want to see her have to learn. I want to see her shoot for the first time and think it's easy, but then see her get shot AT, and see her panic. I want to see her sit in a strategy meeting, but then go out into the field and see someone get hurt because of an order she gave. I want to see her realise that not everyone lives like she used to, and that she WAS pampered, and she WAS spoiled, and she DIDN’T deserve everything she had – she was just LUCKY. I want to see her have a proper breakdown over Lady Windemere because robotocisation isn’t supposed to happen to good people. And I want that to be what spurs her into being a leader in the Resistance.

THEN I can handle her being the best at everything, and being so righteous with Bartleby, and smug with the boys. She needs to earn her skill, and she just didn’t.

Holy crap, MANIC. Just… MANIC.

I can recognise now that I liked what I was told Manic was, and what he could have been, more than the character he ended up being. Manic is supposed to be so complex and emotional, but they frankly didn’t have the time or possibly age rating to get into it, so he’s just…

He’s an eternal victim, but he’s also an eternal problem. He’s in over his head, and no one seems to notice except Sonic, who (in this series) doesn’t have the emotional capacity to deal with that properly. So I watched him this time with deep, tolerant breaths, thinking of young teenage boys that think they need to be tough or cool and don’t actually know how.

In the reboot (HAH), I’d want more time spent digging into that. I want him to get in over his head, I want that to be a problem multiple times, I want him to get mad about it and blame everyone else, I want him to rebel and hurt someone, badly, and for everyone, including him, to be horrified, and I want him to have to grow up and take the responsibility to make it better.

I want him to represent the people of Mobius, who turned their backs on the queen that wasn’t supporting them, only to find out they’d dug their own graves in doing so. And I want them all to get better.

The counters. I told you I’d explain them.

So when I think back on Sonic Underground, I often think of things that kind of annoyed me. Like Sonia’s love life. But as we can see from the counters, her love life doesn’t actually come up that often! BUT the fact that she has three (and a half – I’m still not counting Raphie) love interests in forty episodes, while Manic shows vague interest in one girl and one female robot, and the closest Sonic comes to ANY interest is some general campy behaviour that may actually just be his French animation showing is pretty significant.

Now, I’m showing my cards here, but I get very tired of romantic subplots in non-romance focussed shows these days. If they don’t contribute to the character’s story, I find it annoying and distracting. So in my reboot fantasy, I want to emphasise the Bartleby relationship, and get rid of EVERY. OTHER. LOVE INTEREST. Except maybe the fuccboi because I COULD MAKE SOMETHING OF THAT STORYLINE for the purposes of her character growth. But none of them (and especially not Knuckles) added to Sonia’s character, so it just felt like it was there because Girls Grow With Love, teehee, and screw you fiction tropes. I and every other little girl deserve better.

 The other thing that I remember is the inconsistent skills. Sonia has superstrength in (arguably – I was being pretty generous sometimes) in FOUR episodes. Of FORTY. WHY HAVE IT AT ALL? And Manic’s ability to pick locks or steal – it was more problematic than it was helpful, so why occasionally imply that he has ‘the magic touch’? And even Sonic! Can he take on a squadron of SWATbots single-handedly, or is Sleet looming over him an actual threat?

I was counting them because these were things that stuck with me, but when you actually count them up, they take up SO LITTLE of the story and the characters. It goes to show how quickly annoyances can overtake a narrative.

Sonic Underground was quietly and inconsistently beautiful

It was in its set pieces. It was in its character concepts. It was in its world building. Its opening scenes. Its bittersweet ends. Its side characters, who had so much depth and life outside of the main characters. It was in the heavily reality of its darkest moments, and the simple sweetness of its quiet ones.

Cyrus and his father. Manic and Sonic laughing as they played together. Sonic and Sonia exchanging glances with actual meaning. The birds that continued to fly in Robotropolis. Sleet and Dingo’s uneasy partnership, built on mutual goals and joined fear. Aleena’s irrational but all-consuming love, and her anger that echoed in two-sentence monologues.

This show had moments. And those moments have stuck with me. They will continue to stick with me.

There was beauty in this terrible show.

I can see Sonic growing from this show.

This is going to sound really weird, because on the surface, the character we see in Sonic Underground is almost unrecognisable from the character we see in contemporary games. There are flashes of him in Boom, and Lost World (nostalgia characterisation woo), but generally, he seems so different.

Until you dig in.

The more I think about Sonic as he is in Sonic Underground – about his situation, about the world he grew up in, about the relationships he has. The more I think about these things, the more I can see the tension and frustration and fear. And then I think about those things, and I compare them to the Sonic we know, who is free, and independent, and has friends he can trust to handle themselves…

I think about how hard that difference is.

And I know exactly where The Lost Prince came from.

And I know where I want it to end.

So if you’re interested… I mean, I have SO MANY reports I actually have to write, rather than spending time on fanfic, but… yeah, I think I’ll be finishing those last chapters this year. I hope to see you there.

[canyoufucksoniccharacters]

Honey The Cat! This is a bit of a niche pick, but I can roll with it. Fun fact about this one, she's only kind of a Sonic character, she's more like a fursona for Honey from Fighting Vipers! In fact, if I remember correctly, the engine for Sonic The Fighters was built off of the one for Fighting Vipers- that being the reason Honey was originally meant to be implemented as a secret character, only to be scrapped, fully functional, until the console re-release, where she was made fully, legitimately playable. All that aside, her origin might help us answer-

Can you fuck Honey The Cat?

Hey, that's our third cat in a row!

First, I must warn that I am not very well versed in Archie content, which is where this character got most of her content. Her game of origin has pretty much no character dialogue whatsoever, and she only gets a few non-speaking cameos in IDW. So, I will mostly be looking around online for potential relevant information.

Let's start with solely Sonic-related information first. We'll look at Fighting Vipers later.

In Archie, apparently she's the founder and CEO of a clothing and accessories company- although considering this is Archie we're talking about, this isn't that particularly good of an indicator of age. This could very much be a Seto Kaiba situation where a character, by simple cartoon/anime logic, is a CEO of a company at an unreasonably young age. Her behavior also leaves very little to be gathered about her age- not particularly childlike, but not exactly all that mature either. From behavior alone, she could be anywhere from a teenager to a young adult.

So, that doesn't exactly help. Let's look at her human counterpart from Fighting Vipers for help!

In Fighting Vipers 1, she's listed as 16 years old- which is... Very, very concerning considering the contents of this game! As both her armor and skirt are breakable. Incredibly creepy behavior from Sega aside, this isn't the only game where she appears; as Fighting Vipers got a sequel! In fact...

Said sequel takes place 2 years after the original game, placing Honey (the human) at 18 years old. Problem solved, right? Well...

There's a bit of a release date problem here.

As you can see here, Fighting Vipers 2 only released after Sonic The Fighters- so, Honey The Cat is based on the 16 year old Honey from Fighting Vipers. If we're to assume that they share the same age, that places Honey firmly at 16 years old at the time of Sonic The Fighters.

Although... We've got to account for the fact that STF is a classic series game. And as of the release of Sonic Origins, the classic series is, in fact, set in the past. No, it's not an alternate/parallel universe, fuck off Ken Pontac.

So, if Honey were to appear in a modern game, logically, she should be an adult- by how much is unclear, but she could easily be around the 20 range.

So, if it's game Honey we're talking about, unless they aged her down for STF, she should, in fact, be fuckable.

As for Archie, though... I'm unsure. The arc she appears in is an adaptation of Sonic The FIghters- the game where she was presumably 16. Again, her position as CEO doesn't exactly change much here, and if she was 16, that'd put her solidly around the same age range as all the other post-SGW characters that aren't outright children. Much like anything Archie-related, it's a mess.

So, with all that considered, from the perspective of both the games and comics-

Can you fuck Honey The Cat?

Well... I'd be cautious. Unless there's confirmation from Ian Flynn or someone else who wrote for her and is a reliable source, and unless she appears in a modern game, it's a bit of a risky endeavor. Sure, we can assume she's 16 during her debut game, a classic series game, but there's no guarantee whatsoever. She could have aged down, they could have just not thought of her age, it's all rather unclear.

So, until we get confirmation one way or the other, which we likely never will considering the nicheness of this character, it's about a 50/50, and a very unlikely chance for Archie, where she actually gets some personality and her own identity.

Verdict;

Proceed at your own discretion.

There's a chance you can fuck her, but there's also a chance she is, in fact, a minor, much like the character she was based on at the time of her creation. Really, there's too little to say for sure. I probably won't judge you if you go for it, but there's also more than enough reason for someone to want to steer clear.

This is possibly our most complicated case thus far!

... Thus far.

[otakween]

Digital Monster ver. S - Final Thoughts

Wow, another game that took me exactly a week to beat, how punctual of me! So that's another 10-15 hours in the bucket, not bad at all. This game is ~special~ because it's the first digimon game to ever be released (not including v-pets). It came out in 1998 for the Sega Saturn and was never translated. As such, it's really not that popular and I couldn't find a ton of guidance on how to beat it. To make matters worse, Sega Saturn games do not emulate well. If you look closely, you'll see that all of my screenshots have ugly lines on them. The sound was also hit-or-miss, sometimes cutting out or making terrible screechy noises. None of that was disruptive enough for me to give up though. I persevered and ended up having a lot of fun!

The best guide for this game (as far as I know) is in Japanese. Google translate + some Japanese knowledge are recommended to fully benefit from it.

Notes:

-This gave me some Digimon World 1 flashbacks. I ended up with Numemon as my first champion and for awhile there it felt like I would never get a good digimon. The way to the success in this game (just like in DW1) ended up being gym upgrades which made digimon rearing a LOT less painful. Unfortunately, I didn't really stick around to get the coolest digimon. My best efforts yielded me: Vademon, Birdramon, Leomon, and a Devimon at the end there.

-The main objective in this game, earning 5 medals from the different arenas, ended up being pretty easy. You can definitely get by with a champion level, which is what I did for 3 out of 5 medals. Of course I also did some save scumming, because this is another RNG-rather-than-skill based game. If you don't cheat a lil, you're just meaninglessly prolonging the game imo. Sometimes I ended up winning against big bosses without even needing save states, so yeah. Not super challenging.

-The "bonus" objective, I guess, would be to tame all possible digimon in the game (70 in total) which involves some jogress-ing too? I ain't doing that for multiple reasons. Number 1: I already did it in Digimon World and it took a million years WITH a guide. Number 2: I couldn't find a guide on how to trigger certain digivolutions for this one. I know it follows the v-pet logic, but I'm really not sure how the care mistakes/training rules work. Number 3: It doesn't seem like it would be very rewarding. There's really not much going on post-final boss in this one. Same as with Anode/Cathode, why should I care that I have these cool digimon if there's nothing I can do with them?

-The best part of this game was definitely the UI! So nostalgic, so 90s, so immersive! I especially loved the "Net" portion with email and the little Botamon mini-game. I love email replying mechanics. Very Dot Hack. Also, the Japanese was very easy to understand which is a plus.

-The digimon are so cute in this game. The little squeaky noise they make when they're happy, their different sleep animations (the plant digimon go underground or sleep in pots!), the joy when you give them their favorite food. So many great little touches. I guess the one thing that would be nice about taming them all would be seeing all the different animations. Maybe I'll just look those up lol.

-Definitely some frustration with digimon dying abruptly and digimon not digivolving as I expected. I worked hard getting my Leomon to 15 battles (the requirement for Ultimate level) and he still died! I honestly have no idea why and feel cheated out of a Megadramon.

-The final boss was legitimately a LadyDevimon named "Nice Body" and my reward for defeating her was a "sexy" wallpaper (displayed in one of the screenshots above). Lol

-The internet and shopping tracks were very nice. The internet one almost sounds like lofi

-I can see how this game would seem amazing if you're coming from the v-pet. You can raise 4 digimon at once, which feels super efficient, even compared to DW1. Between this and the Wonderswan ver. I'm feeling less motivated to buy a v-pet because it's basically the same thing but lower quality. (Although that might be kinda fun).

-I felt bad about abandoning my remaining digis (like my Neopets and my Nintendogs lol), but I left them with robots to take care of them, so at least there's that.

Honestly with the context of this game being so old and having the goal of being an enhanced v-pet, I think it achieved that mission very nicely. I'm wavering between a 6 and a 7, so I'll give this a 6.5 out of 10.

[ollyou]

It's seriously so annoying to see you constantly stir up drama, please stay on twitter. You send your followers after people and even if I block you the entirety of PMTOK rides your dick over everything you say and it's on my fucking feed anyways. Being in a server with you was seriously hell. Not saying who I am, so you get to guess. Get a fucking job. (Still in your server BTW, but I'll leave soon <3)

(Not a genuine response; talking about a silly dream I had under the cut)

I had a dream about us last night where you were this cool artist I admired the art of (who doesn’t exist outside the dream world) who was following me and we DMed each other on Discord all nicely sometimes, but over time you grew increasingly hostile and mean towards me and my art skills until some day after sending this ask, you just DMed me confirming it was you, and blocked me. But for some reason, you were able to keep sending me DMs and I just wasn’t able to respond, and you just kept DMing me ranting about me and how you hate me over and over again every time I thought you were done, but I eventually realized I could just react to your messages with letter emojis, and after a long time of not knowing what to write, spelled out “dummy” (but like, with a weird N emoji for the second M). You then proceeded to explode at me, in shock I would be so “rude” to you, but then I realized I was somehow able to just type full sentences using letter emojis on Discord. I kept writing responses and you read them, although I took a very long time pressing each button, making several spelling errors, but I talked about how I still think your art is cool, but what’s not cool is how randomly rude you started getting to me. I said I liked your Olivia design, which you apparently had, and posted it somewhere you could see (I kinda forgot the details about this one). You saw the drawing, and went silent before you unblocked me without telling me, and sent a transparent edit of the Olivia drawing I made. You said you liked it, and thanked me, and a minute later, it was your profile picture. I was REALLY surprised and confused about your sudden change of heart, but we kept talking for a bit, and somehow got back on good terms. You said you actually don’t mind me now, and want to be friends, so we became friends! We shared PMTOK art with one another and even eventually hung out irl, somehow (everyone I know in my dreams is capable of meeting me irl easily, for some reason). I wound up telling Sega about this, and we were just relieved we had someone who we could respect. I think you might’ve even drawn ME fanart, but I don’t remember!

The end 😇

(OH YEAH ALSO it’s probably worth it to mention i dont send my followers after people nor do i frequently get into drama unless it’s asking someone to take a post involving me or sega down ((MOSTLY TO ART THIEVES)) idk what sort of stuff this anon has been looking for but no one’s left my INACTIVE server i havent checked since January 26, 2023 and im pretty sure this is a troll)

(Oh also also @ anon: if you’re not trolling and want me to give you a legitimate response then just like… DM me dude i dont bite I’d be more than happy to help with whatever problems my existence is causing you /hj? gen? idk LOL just dm me you’ll be fine)

[blazehedgehog]

Is it just me or is there a noticable pushback against criticism towards Frontiers? I don't know if it's toxic positivity necessarily but I remember the fanbase being a lot more critical than this. It's really alienating.

Nope! This is totally normal and business as usual as far as I've encountered.

An amusing "get a load of this guy" story I like to tell (and I've probably told it here before) is that during my time at TSSZ, I wrote an article called "I'm Worried About Sonic Forces." Sega was finally starting to open up about the game just a few months before its release, and I wrote an article that was pointing out that things weren't feeling quite right. What Sega was telling us and what Sega was showing us didn't line up.

A friend (or someone) later turned me on to a video on Youtube called "Why I'm NOT Worried About Sonic Forces." Some dude spent 20-30 minutes fighting back against "haters", using my article as a focal point to channel their message. They thought Sonic Forces was going to be a great game, and were tired of people dumping on Sonic games.

I poked him about using my article as a rebuttal and he seemed to get pretty flustered. I don't think he expected I would have left a comment on his video. He tried to play it off, and after some back and forth I decided it would be better if I just left the dude alone.

Of course, 9 months later, I checked back in on his channel to see if he was happy with the finished product, and he had a handful of "Ugh, Sonic Forces sucks!" videos.

Sonic as a series has a very nebulous quality where even the bad games often have appealing things about them. Even if the gameplay is an unpolished trainwreck, there are always other elements that go super hard. People get attached to those, enough that they're willing to put up with the bad stuff.

And it's hard to articulate that. It's hard to articulate why you like some things. Criticism is always easier. Always has been, always will be. If you're sitting uncomfortably, it's always pretty obvious. You're in pain, your muscles are too tight, you feel a pressure point and so on. But if you're sitting comfortably, the point is that you forget it's there. Pain is a constant nag. Comfort fades into nothing. Comfort is our default state of being, and pain is the thing that interrupts that.

Sonic games, (sometimes) for better or (more often) for worse are built differently, and people have a hard time talking about that. I mean, right now, there's a thread on Resetera called "How does Sonic keep being so popular despite the lack of quality in games?" Not only are there a variety of legitimate answers from people trying to figure it out, but there's a bunch of awful drive-by posts from clowns thinking this is them lining up for a shot at the dunk tank.

There is an ebb and flow to this stuff, and whether you're in the flow or against it really just depends on where you're looking.

Going back to my Sonic Forces article, I even tried to anticipate people pushing back on me for being too negative. A common, easy way to forgive unreleased Sonic games was to say that preview builds are not meant to be judged. I've never agreed with that, so I tried to head those people off at the pass:

"Sonic Team is keeping the game very close to their chest, making it hard to accurately get a picture of what the completed product will look like. While some may say that could be grounds to avoid passing judgment, it’s also important to keep in mind that the entire reason companies like Sega put out trailers and demonstrate the game at trade shows is to entice [you into] pre-ordering. That, in itself, is a form of judgment, and one Sega is deliberately encouraging.

Preview material is simply made to be judged, or it wouldn’t exist at all."

This is just the way things have always been.

[crusherthedoctor]

Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?

I tried to cram in a lot, so I hope this satisfies you. :P I tried to stick to the ones that I haven't brought up quite as often, since by this point, we all know that I think IDW's storytelling is dire, SA2's story is overrated, X Eggman is an embarrassing portrayal (at least from season 2 onwards), Blaze shouldn't be handcuffed to Silver, Shadow's backstory had issues with or without the Black Arms, Neo Metal Sonic looks silly, etc. But anyway, here we go:

- Knuckles may be tricky to incorporate into plots that don't relate to Angel Island, but making him obsessed with his duties is no better than having him forget about Angel Island entirely.

- I like Marine, and never found her annoying. Oh, I understood what they were trying to do with her, but I honestly wasn't put off by her, and found her Aussie lingo more endearing if anything. Since her debut was during the period in my life where where I couldn't stand Sonic himself, I instead thought he was irritating (and hypocritical) for getting annoyed with her for doing shit he would often be guilty of.

- Silver is just as guilty of being shoehorned into games and plots as the Deadly Six are. Having more fans than the latter is irrelevant, since we're still talking about a character who constantly has to time travel in order to be present.

- Speaking of Silver, if he has to stick around, please do something different with him. They've pulled the doomed future routine multiple times now, and it's been boring every single time. I wasn't interested when it involved Iblis. I wasn't interested when it involved Knuckles drinking the edgy Kool Aid. I wasn't interested when it involved a council of dumbasses... give it a rest already.

- The Tails Doll can work as a mildly creepy thing, with maybe more to it than meets the eye when it's time for a boss fight or what have you. But the memes about him stealing your soul are just dumb, and I thought it was dumb even back in my teenage youth.

- “Eggman is supposed to be clownish!” Yeah, well he's also meant to be a genuine villain with a 300 IQ. These qualities don't have to be mutually exclusive.

- “Sonic is supposed to have attitude!” Yeah, well that's not the same thing as being an absolute cunt. Sonic was only ever meant to come off as having an edge compared to Mario. He was never meant to be a GTA-tier protagonist.

- Rouge is not a villain, and never was a villain. Literally the whole point of her role in SA2 was to reveal that she was working against Eggman and Shadow the whole time, albeit using sneakier tactics to do so. You'd think all those people who exult SA2's story would remember this, but apparently not. She barely even qualifies as an anti-hero, since aside from stealing the Master Emerald, she rarely does anything morally questionable otherwise. She's got a lot more good in her than people give her credit for.

- Captain Whisker is a better Eggman Nega than the actual Eggman Nega. And as far as robot characters in this franchise go, Johnny's design is pretty underrated.

- I don't like Iblis or Mephiles, but I DO like Solaris, and it annoys me that it was out of focus for most of the story due to all the time spent on its less interesting halves. Had they kept the backstory with the Duke and his experiments, and worked from there, I think they could have provided an interesting contrast with Chaos (since Solaris can also qualify as a monster with a sympathetic backstory) instead of recycling the surface level schtick.

- Black Doom may technically be just as bad as Mephiles, Nega, Scourge, Mimic, etc, since he's yet another villain with one-note characterization and fucked over Eggman. But because he never gained a disproportionate fandom, he doesn't annoy me to the same extent. It's easier to ignore him by comparison, and his Dr. Claw voice and face shaped like a lady's delicate part make him enjoyable to mock.

- Likewise, while Lyric is also on the same level as these other villains, it's easier to dismiss him because I was never invested in the Boom games anyway, and being an obvious alternate universe (compared to Sonic X or IDW, which retain the Modern designs and plot elements), it never had an effect on the main series. I also unironically like his design, and if nothing else, at least this snake didn't start a hypnotism fetish across the internet.

- Sally - and the rest of the Freedom Fighters for that matter - have had their importance in the franchise severely inflated. They may have been lucky to be the face of popular media (SatAM and Archie), but they're not these magnificent entities that the game characters are but a speck of dust in comparison to. Having a “legacy” doesn't make them more entitled to shit than any other character, old or new.

- Conceptually, the treasure hunting gameplay is one of the better alternate gameplay styles IMO. But it was let down in SA2 by its one track minded radar (the levels may have been big, but I don't think that would have been an issue on its own if the radar was better). If they brought it back and made it more like SA1's treasure hunting, I'd be all for it, although it would probably be better suited for a spinoff title.

- This goes for a lot of games, but when it comes to 2D, I prefer sprites over models. Not that the Rush models are bad (though the ones in Chronicles sure as fuck are), but the sprites in Mania and the Advance trilogy are just so charming and full of character.

- I actually like Marble Zone. Yeah, the level design is a bit blocky, but I love the concept of an underground temple prison, mixed with lava elements in a zone that otherwise isn't a traditional volcano level.

- I also like Sandopolis Zone. Again, completely understand why it's not the most popular zone around, but I've been a sucker for the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic since childhood (you can thank Crash 3 for that), and Act 1 is visually stunning.

- I prefer the JP soundtrack for Sonic CD over the US version overall... but I also prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything.

- SA2's soundtrack isn't bad by any means - I love Rouge's tracks, and The Last Scene is one of my favourite pieces of music - but as far as variety goes, it's a step down from SA1's soundtrack.

- If Sonic X-Treme had been released, it probably would have been unenjoyable and confusing. Whatever your thoughts on SA1, it was probably the better option between the two as far as Sonic's first legitimate translation into 3D goes.

- I have no qualms with Modern Sonic and the other Modern designs and characters, but I also fully acknowledge that changing gears from Adventure onwards - and doing it with a great amount of fanfare - was always going to create one of the biggest divides in the fandom, and fans shouldn't act surprised that this happened. The fact that they felt the need to hype up a new design and direction in the first place (compared to Mario, who has mostly been the same since the beginning, with only the occasional minor change with little fanfare) also indicates that they weren't confident enough in Sonic and his universe being the way it was, which often gets ignored by all the “SEGA have no confidence!!!” complaints you see with their recent games.

- Unleashed did not deserve the incredibly harsh reviews it received back in the day... but it doesn't deserve its current sacred cow status either. It had more effort put into it than '06 to be sure, and I can respect that, but much of it was misguided effort, and even if you like the Werehog, you have to admit that the idea came at the absolute worst time. The intro cutscene may be awesome, as is the Egg Dragoon fight, but 2% doesn't make up the entire game. Chip was also quite annoying, and I wasn't particularly sad when he pressed F in the chat at the end.

- On the other hand, while Colours definitely has its shortcomings, and people have every right to criticse those shortcomings, a lot of its most vocal detractors tend to have a stick up their arse about the game because people actually enjoyed it, and it had a gimmick that people actually liked. Yes, it may have been the first game to have those writers everyone hates, but then SA1 was the first game to give the characters alternate gameplay styles and have other villains upstage Eggman, so...

- Forces is absolutely not on the level of '06. It's nowhere close. A game being flawed does not make it the next '06, clickbait YouTubers. Or should I say, the game they want to retroactively apply '06's reception to, since they've been trying hard to magically retcon '06's own quality...

- To echo @beevean, ALL of the 3D stories have their issues. SA1 is probably the most well-rounded of them on the whole, but even that one isn't perfect.

- To echo another opinion, although I do love SA1, I'm not crazy over the idea of a remake, and would prefer them to just take Sonic's gameplay from SA1 and work from there. Because with a remake, you're stuck in a hard spot: Do you keep it the way it is bar the expected graphical upgrades, and risk accusations of not doing anything to actually improve the experience? Or do you try to address past criticisms, and risk the wrath of the fans who will inevitably go on a #NotMyAdventure crusade about it? What people fail to consider is that the Crash and Spyro remakes were accepted gracefully because their original iterations were still unanimously beloved for the most part, whereas SA1 - and especially SA2 - have always been divisive, and have only gotten moreso over the years.

- People take their preferences for the character's voice actors too seriously. I have my own favourites like anyone else, but I don't make a big deal out of it.

- And with fandom voice actors, they usually focus too much on doing a basic impression of their preferred official voice actor, and not enough on the acting. So you end up getting a lot of fan voices who sound like decent impressions of Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith on the surface, but they sound utterly empty beyond that impression, because there's no oomph or depth to the actual emotions. They think about the actor rather than the character, when it should really be the other way around.

- The thing with Ian Flynn is that he is capable of telling a decent story, and he can portray some characters well. But he's proven time and time again that everything will go off the rails if he's given too much freedom (ironic, given how quick he is to point the finger at mandates when something goes wrong).

- Ian Flynn and Shiro Maekawa are not the only people in the world who are allowed to write for Sonic. I understand that one should be cautious when seeking out new writing talent, but for all the fandom's accusations of playing it safe, they sure aren't in a rush to experiment outside of their own comfort zone.

- And of course, the big one: You don't fix the franchise's current problems by crawling back to its previous problems. It's much more helpful and constructive to discuss the good and bad alike with each of the games. Less “THIS GOOD, MODERN BAD”, and more “This could work, but maybe without that part...”

[pedanticat]

Five Things I want in a new Sonic Cartoon

When it comes to animated series featuring Sonic, it has been hit or miss. There have been series that are loved, series that are hated and series that are very divisive among the fanbase for a number of reasons. However, while I did grow up watching Sonic X, I truly grew to love the Sonic franchise when I discovered the Archie Sonic comics about six years ago. While I haven’t read every single issue of the series, the majority of what I read shaped the way of how I viewed the franchise and its characters with me using the comics as an example for how I believed  the characters and the game series should be handled. A series about compelling heroes and villains with layers them instead of them being them base selves, thrill-seeking, hair raising stakes and more. Now that’s not to say I don’t mind the series being goofy, after all, I really enjoyed the Sonic Boom comics and to a lesser extent the tv show, but I just have a view over how things involving the characters and franchise as a whole should be handled, especially in an animated series. So, in no particular order, these are the five things I would want in a new Sonic animated series!

Number Five: Evil Eggman

Ever since Sonic X, animated series of Sonic have opted for Eggman having a frenemy relationship with Sonic instead of the two being bitter enemies. While I do know they are Eggman fans who hate this more friendly version of Eggman, I don’t mind it too much since it does allow for some fun interactions between Eggman and Sonic, especially in Sonic Boom. However, I find evil versions of Eggman such as his Archie and IDW counterparts to be more enjoyable since underneath his goofy nature, he’s a monster who takes great joy in causing mayhem and misery. Not beating Sonic and his friends in a soccer game misery. I’m talking about putting chips into organic soldiers’ brains that will explode if they disobey him and turning people into robot zombies’ level of misery! Eggman isn’t a good guy nor does he have any good qualities. He’s a sadistic genius who shows no remorse and commits horrible atrocities with a smile on his face and that is what makes him both a great character and villain. Even when he has to team up with Sonic and the gang, he’s just waiting for the first moment to betray them. This version of Eggman comes off as a legitimate threat and can be downright scary due to how sadistic he is with him providing an actual challenge for Sonic and his friends. I don’t know why they’ve opted to make Eggman more of a joke in the last two shows and not make him an actual threat, but I would like to have a series with a sadistic and threatening version of the mad doctor.

Number Four: Action-oriented half-hour series

Now while I don’t have anything against 11-minute episode segments, the Sonic series as a whole is all about adventure and action and I think the nature of the series is what makes it perfect for a half hour series. Heck, even Sega must realize that considering how half of the Sonic cartoons are half hour shows. Furthermore, I want it to be like Sonic X and SatAM in which there’s an overarching storyline with twists and turns as all the episodes actually lead up to somewhere. I know there’s already a bunch of those kinds of shows currently airing, which you can expect me to talk about in another video, but Sonic really lends itself to that kind of storytelling because of the kind of series it is. It would also allow to give more character’s times to shine, explore the world and keep viewers engage since they would want to see what happens next in the show.

Number Three: Utilizing Sonic Characters

The Sonic franchise have a very large roster of characters with the roster only growing as the years have gone on. However, there are many characters from the games who have never made an animated debut which I think is a huge shame. Sure, a lot of them have been better utilized in the comics such as the Hooligans, Blaze and Silver, but I think having them be a part of an animated series would provide many interesting story possibilities along with fun interactions and getting more exposure. For instance, Eggman isn’t the only villain from the Sonic series yet he’s the only villain from the games that have ever been used in the Sonic cartoons. Now while I don’t have anything against new original villains being made for the shows, I think that a new Sonic series should use other villains from the franchise such as the Hooligans and the Babylon Rouges since it would serve as a nice change of pace of always having Eggman be the antagonist while also giving underutilize characters time in the spotlight. It certainly would have made more sense for Sonic speed rival who rode a hoverboard in season 2 of Boom to be Jet the Hawk instead of making a discount version of the character. 

I’ve also read many stories involving the Hooligans and I found them be an enjoyable gang of villains due to their dynamic. So I would honestly love to see them make the jump from the games to an animated series. Fun fact, originally, I thought they were characters exclusive to the comics until I learned years later that they actually originate from the games. So yeah, characters like the Hooligans really do need to be used more since the fact that I didn’t even know they originated from the games demonstrates how poorly Sega treats a lot of their character. Furthermore, having those characters along with others like Silver, Blaze and Marine, yes I like Marine, sue me, appearing in an animated series would allow for them to be fleshed out more and given more character since nothing of note have been done with them in the games for years.

Number Two: Exploring Sonic World

Despite many games taking place on Sonic world, very little is actually known about it and Sega don’t seem to have any interest in properly exploring it any of the games. They’ll flesh out more of the human world then they will with Mobius. Yes, I know it’s not officially called Mobius, but I rather I call it that instead of saying Sonic World all the time. The only times Mobius have actually been fleshed out are in SatAM, Underground, and the Archie Sonic comics. I think it would be a nice change of pace to actually explore Mobius in an animated series with viewers actually getting to know about the culture and lifestyle of the planet, all the different types of Mobians that reside on it and just make the overall world of Sonic feel more alive and lived in. I want to have that kind of world in a Sonic series instead of the characters traveling to our world or having them stay on a primary spot in the world and constantly reuse the same locations over and over again.  

Number One: Proper Characterization

If there’s one thing every Sonic fan can agree on, it’s that they hate it whenever a character they love is written very poorly. Now this is a bit tricky since everyone does have a personal preference for how a character, they love should but the best way to avoid that is to not flanderize the characters and have them act in a way that makes sense with the character. Like Amy having a crush on Sonic is fine and that trait has provided many funny moments in the comics and shows. However, if Amy is Sonic crazy like she was in Sonic X, that may end up annoying a lot of fans. Likewise, despite taking place in an alternate universe, Knuckles was made into a total idiot in the Boom series which many people hated since while Knuckles may not be the smartest guy in the series, he’s not an idiot. For me, I just want the characters to actually be recognizable for who they are with them being written in a way that makes sense for their characters while even adding layers to their character that aren’t often explored.

[aquillis-main]

I think that if you directly went to Yardley or one of the artists laughing at his edit and called them out for disrespecting Uekawa they'd say something equivalent to "what the fuck are you talking about" because that angle legitimately would've have crossed their minds

Still. If either enough people get upset over it and tell Yardley off for this, or SEGA comes down to tell them to ‘knock it out’, I’m not going to cry about it. Not saying this to mean that I want them gone, I’m mad that they thought it’d be a perfect idea if Yardley made an edit that could be fetish material onto a character whose part of a series meant for children. It’s also disrespectful to Uekawa-san, who worked on that image for a good while, and that edit is going to follow that image now.

[journaloftomfooleryandjapery]

All the TOP 10 OF THE DECADE posts made me want to make one of my own, so here’s my 10 fave games this decade:

Yakuza 0  Shovel Knight  Nier Automata  Metal Gear Rising  Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger IX Final Fantasy XV   Scott pilgrim vs the world the game Undertale Persona 5  Doom

Danganronpa 2, New Vegas, Touhou Luna Nights, Katana Zero and Mario Odyssey all only barely missed out, and it was a tough decision not to include them. I loved the shit out of those games but thinking it through I decided they were just slightly less loved by me than the above.

Below the cut are some extended thoughts (of varying length) on the games included:

Just CTRL F if you wanna find a specific one

Yakuza 0

Every Yakuza game is delightful and this is definitely the best one, in my opinion. The Yakuza games appeal to me for a lot of reasons: the combat, the story, the variety of activities, the look of it all and the music. I feel like its a very unique game experience with its blend of weird in-depth side activities, serious crime drama, manly man masculine combat friendship melodrama, metal gear-esque convoluted conspiracies and a surprisingly compassionate view of the world it takes place in. 

The combat is what drew me in initially because it just feels good, the feedback of stomping on a dudes face in yakuza is delivered perfectly, and the attacks are brutal, hard and flashy. Its a very solid and satisfying combat system and in 0 its the best it has ever been. The ability to switch between 3 different and equally fun fighting styles on the fly really lets you mix things up and adapt your approach, every style feels fun and useful. If i had to pick a favorite it would be slugger, but its a tough choice, and they are all very viable and FUN.

Yakuza 0 also gets big points for having the best story in the series. The protagonists feel much more interesting in this era, the fights feel more earned in this game than others, the relationships are incredibly touching (I’m almost mad majima didnt stay with makoto) and the substories (and some parts of the main story) are the funniest they’ve ever been. Stuff like the quasi-stealth mission where you have to make sure women don’t see you buying a porn magazine for a child, and the extended scene of kiryu trying to guess the right business manners for a meeting had me laughing so much i was i was almost in physical pain.

The extensive business and host club substories get you tons of extra game content and are good enough to almost be there own game. The other games in the series have extended side activites of varying quality, but i think 0 had a rare case of all of these being, basically, perfect. The team obviously agrees since host club management came back repeatedly, but never as good as it was here.

Being set in the 80s elevates almost everything in the game because of the outfits, money flying out of every enemy you attack, the classic sega games you can play at the arcade (Outrun is so much fun and I’d have never have given it a proper go otherwise) and the disco minigame everyones made a meme out of (that music is so catchy).

As a final note this game has the best boss fights and music in the series, which is a very high standard to surpass when you look at the rest of the series. The dual final boss fights, the recurring boss for kiryu and almost every majima fight are highlights of the entire series for me. 

0 is going to end up being one of the few games I’ll never sell my copy of because i want it available for me to play forever, its a complete delight.

Shovel Knight

This game has been analysed to hell and back, so i wont have much original to say i suppose. Admittedly i did enjoy the first campaign but it didnt completely win me over, plague knights campaign and beyond was what really made this an all time greats for me. It’s one of very few games that gets the NES+SNES platforming appeal 100% right and essentially surpasses most games of the day, with almost perfect pacing, challenge and level design. IT helps that the whole world and story and look is charming as all hell. It’s an easy game to love and the more you play it the more that feels justified. Being PACKED with great content is also a plus. If you liked the first campaign you can just keep going through a set of campaigns about as good that only really rehash some level assets. I would say its one of the best 2D platformers ever for me, if not quite my true number 1.

ALSO JAKE KAUFMAN KNOCKS IT OUT THE PARK WITH THIS SOUNDTRACK

Since i have little else to add to the shovel knight discussion, here’s my ranking/thoughts on each campaign

Plague of shadows. BEST storyline, great levels with a really cool gameplay gimmick, the characters are all cute and the ending really makes me feel for him. both sorry for him at first and then a very real AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW for LOVE

King of cards. king knight is just fun as hell to play as, he doesnt have that many tools but his movement is just crazy fun and i love the flair in all his animations. also has that rad final boss. joustus is ok i guess.

Shovel of hope. uuuuuuh what can i even say about this. its good, and the melancholy dream bits add a lot to the mood of the story. we’ve already analysed this campaign within an inch of its life i dont think i can say anything new. wish we could fight the battletoads on pc.

Specter of torment. still fun and i appreciate the tone change, but i didnt care as much for the characters and the mega man-esque level select doesnt suit shovel knight imo. specter knight has a lot of fun movement options though. mainly i just love GRINDING and the diagonal slash. i dont give a fuck about reize

Nier Automata

I feel a tiny bit ashamed i have so little to say about this considering it is one of the most emotional experiences i have ever had with a story. If i lsten to the final version of weight of the world i still cry just from remembering this game and how it made me feel. i think its one of the greatest narratives of the century but i can barely get across the appeal to anyone who hasnt already played it. its a story about hope, despair and the nature of the human race that never feels like its preachy or pretensious or taking on more than it can handle. it made me feel all kinds of emotions deeply and intensely, it genuinely made me burst into tears about 10 times, maybe more. even putting aside the ggrand narrative, theres so many cool character moments and bits of world building and visual eements and tragic little side stories that you would need a whole book to talk about them all while doing any real justice to them. i loved it so much that im paying £70 to see an orchestra do the soundtrack live. I want to hug and kiss 2b and 9s better. i just love it deeply and i find it hard to explain why it makes me feel that way, but its a dark beautiful and hopeful story where every moment feels earned. the despair of the story giving way to genuine hope with the rest of the world helping you fight for it is such an intensely emotional moment that you could never replicate outside of this kind of story and medium. how the fuck do i explain that to anyone that doesnt already get it. I’m glad this game exists

Metal Gear Rising 

Well, complete tone shift here. Platinum made a lot of great action games in the last decade that all dig into that same itch for DODGE SLOW MOTION BANG BANG BANG alongside great soundtracks, visuals and awesome set piece moments. Just intense, flashy, awesome combat. Picking a favorite of the decade was the hard part, because a platinum game had to be one of my faves of the decade. The closest was transformers, but mgr has a couple of things about it that put it above the rest of the platinum catalog for me.

The story actually works very well at still being metal gear while in the platinum formula, its about the cycle of violence and FINDING YOUR OWN PURPOSE and it works weirdly well. The strangest part is that it feels like a legitimate sequel to metal gear 4 tonally while still being the crazy action game it is

Raiden is just super fun to play as, while I’ll always miss the DODGE SLOWMO in a platinum game parry and zandatsu give a great flow to fights and there’s real exhilaration to parrying a hard chain of attacks and tearing out a bunch of enemies spines at once every time

raiden is also just  a fun protag, it truly allows me to embrace that kind of stereotypical edgy cool anime swordsman he embodies

BEST PLATINUM SOUNDTRACK DO NOT @ ME

Bosses just rule

one of the best final bosses ever, in my opinion? maybe that’s controversial, but armstrong gets an insane amount of characterization and pure PRESENCE out of such a small amount of screen time and the fact he feels like such a perfect rival to raiden so quickly is kind of nuts to me. within about half an hour you are ready for the ultimate final showdown with everything at stake, and then the gameplay 100% delivers on that with a fight that is challenging as hell and just feels climatic and intimidating. its a little thing, but having this dude just smack you around with his hands and almost no fighting skill after a game filled with crazy flippy cyborg ninjas makes him feel TOUGH and the way you finish him off? it just rocks, plain and simple. I don’t think i need to justify slices a massive dudes chest open and ripping out his giant still beating robot heart as the music climaxes and our cool edgy protag literally says WE’RE DONE HERE. truly, it has to be this way.

Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger IX 

For fast twitchy 2d platformers this barely beat out Katana Zero and Touhou Luna Nights, but i think its just a little better. The skill ceiling on this game is high as hell and once you really get to grips with it, its an experience you cant find anywhere else. its just satisfying as hell to be able to get through the point where you can ZOOM  through these levels by making use of copen’s dash and lock-on and weapons well enough. once you get good enough to get through a hole level without touching the ground, you just cant go back. I liked this enough to get an S rank on almost every level. this game just rules, man.

story, art and music are all great as well. but they pale in importance next to zippy jetpack zoom zoom fun time.

also great for having a cool twist that i genuinely did not see coming at all

Final Fantasy XV   

For context, my experience of FFXV was not the base game so i cannot personally address the concerns of the version at launch, which i hear from others was a total mess! The game has been updated and changed so much that it is probably almost unrecognizable aside from the absolute base aspects of it. The version i am talking about is, as far as we know, the “final” version released right before Episode Ardyn. There was of course an update after this, but it only added DLC compatibility and a few items, so it means very little in the grand scheme. I also played all of the dlc and watched all the periphery material to get the full, messy disjointed experience. it is also worth noting that the only other FF game i have played is the classic title Mario Hoops 3 on 3 Basketball. I feel it important to tell you this before getting into things so that you can have a full idea of the perspective i come at the game from.

This was chosen over Mario Odyssey and someone will probably kill me for that. I just think its a great emotional story that does a fantastic job of making you care for all the characters, and the world feels massive and full of cool stuff to see. It’s my favorite open world game and i love The Boys.  its not the kind of thing i usually play but i think it genuinely had a great story and its a very fun game to just explore and spend time in. ffxv truly understands the emotional bond between The Lads and it is fun to kill big monsters with your party

(they kinda ruin the last cutscene in english, in japanese he says I LOVE YOU GUYS and it makes me cry but in english he goes U GUYS ARE THE BEST which just isnt the same. a small nitpick though. a lot of this game made me cry regardless, its just great at creating an emotional bond)

I admire the insane level of ambition in the visuals and scope, and i bought every dlc for it because it was just that good. the ifrit boss fight and all the giant monsters are just amazingly epic in scale. the “found a cool rock” post is what i truly admire about this game summed up. 

all the ancillary material for the game is great and worth getting into, with the exception of the Comrades multiplayer expansion. Everything else adds depth to the story and the world without being entirely necessary for you to get through the story. the anime and the dlc all really feel worth getting into without being something you have to see to get The Full Experience

the giant monsters are cool

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game

Being from 2010 this game only just makes it in, but it was my favorite beat em up this decade and a source of great nostalgia for me. It had a pretty big impact on music and art tastes in regards to games, and in retrospect this games existence was very much a dream team scenario. Paul Robertson is a great sprite artist who does a lot of good work, Anamanaguchi have gone on to become one of my favorite bands (another winter is still one of their best tracks imo) and at the time this came out i was obsessed with scott pilgrim. That plus the beat em up gameplay makes this kind of a perfect blending of a lot of my specific tastes. Playing this brings me back to the time in my school life that i played it very distinctly, a more comfortable time in my life for sure, and i think the game still stands up excellently. I hope that someday it will get a rerelease so others can enjoy it. I give this another play through every year or so, but i wish id gotten the dlc while it was still available

Doom

ITS VIOLENT ITS FAST ITS FUN ITS METAL

i like this game because of the intense adrenaline rush and violent catharsis it gives me, essentially a constant dopamine rush

fun game good

Undertale

I’m glad i got to this before the massive wave of spoilers and popularity came about. It’s a great story with some fun gameplay, and i think SANS UNDERTALE was one of the best boss fights this decade. Its a shame that for so many new players this experience is going to be ruined by spoilers

Persona 5 

Danganronpa 2 and fallout new vegas were close contenders for this last spot. I actually made a post about my thoughts on this game before https://journaloftomfooleryandjapery.tumblr.com/post/184341270554/nue-is-great-love-his-goofy-design-when-life-will but essentially 

Essentially, its got a great cast of characters, a cool slick look, great monster designs, a fun gameplay loop of collecting monsters and grinding stats while waiting for the next big event, and a surprisingly good story

No idea if royal is any good, but its on a pretty small list of games that i might actually take the time to replay

[notajinn]

My Top Games of the Decade - Number 4: Sonic Mania

When crafting my top games of the 2010s, my initial idea was to look at my top games of each year posts. I had been recording these for a few years on Tumblr, so they were easy enough to grab.

But looking at the list was...really unusual. There were games I barely remember in some of the top spots. There were games I still have remember fondly in lower spots. It was all over the place, and I think what's important is seeing how my feelings for these games have been affected both by distance, and my changing tastes.

So instead of saying "Here's my top game of 2010, of 2011, of 2012" and such, I thought back at what I feel like were the most important games of the decade. This time, I'm also limiting it to games that came out between 2010-2019. Some of these on the list aren't exactly my 10 favourite games of the decade, but they are all important to me. And rather than going into pros and cons, I'll be talking about why each game was important to me both at the time, and from my current distance.

4. Sonic Mania (2017)

I think Sonic Mania is the only universally praised Sonic game not only of the decade, but since the Genesis trilogy. There's still a lot of divisive opinions on the Adventure games and everything that followed, but nearly everyone who likes Sonic also liked Mania.

And that in itself is a big accomplishment. As a Sonic fan, I have unfortunately had to see people continuing to bash the series for my entire Internet life. Whether they are legitimate criticisms, weird complaints, or trolls who claim Sonic was always bad. If I see Sonic being discussed online, I always have to brace for some complaints thrown at something I love.

But I never see that with Mania. I'm sure it exists, but nowhere near to the extent of any other post-Genesis game. It's given me a little bit of optimism in Sonic's reputation.

Of course all of this is because Sonic Mania is one of the best Sonic games, and one of the best 2D platformers period. It's not the first time they tried to do 2D Sonic again, but it's the first time it felt really perfect. From the visuals that look like a cleaner version of the classics, to the seamless addition of a new mechanic with the Drop Dash, and giving us so many playable characters including Mighty and Ray after so long...they really went all out with this game. It's clear this was made by fans who really love the series, and I'm so happy it was both a critical and commercial success.

It's cheap, it doesn't take too long to do one playthrough, and it's got a great level of challenge. It's everything a platformer aspires to be.

I had so much fun playing this, and will absolutely go back to try with different characters once I've cleared up my backlog again. The real question is how much Sega will learn from Mania, and I'm hoping the great sales convince them to keep making gems like this.

[the-desolated-quill]

Sonic Movie Does A U-Turn - Quill’s Scribbles

Okay, so I’m actually writing a whole other Scribble about the Sonic the Hedgehog movie and about live action/CGI hybrid movies in general, which I’m hoping to have finished by tomorrow, but some news has come out and I know for a fact people are going to use it as a stick to try and beat me with even though it’s completely irrelevant to what I have to say, so I’m going to talk about it now.

So live action Sonic the Hedgehog is hideous. That’s pretty much an objective fact. He looks like something that came out of Andy Serkis’ arse after he ate the mo-cap dots and gave himself a stomach bug. Well apparently the fan and critical backlash has been so extreme that the director Jeff Fowler has gone on Twitter and vowed to change the design.

Now this isn’t the first time a movie was changed in post production in response to audience feedback. After the critical failure of Batman V Superman, Warner Bros and DC hired an editing team that usually does movie trailers to recut the film Suicide Squad to make it more like Marvel, which of course resulted in the misogynistic technicolor shitshow we ended up with. (In other words, it’s exactly like a Marvel movie. OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!! I’M SO EDGY!). But Sonic feels significant because of the amount of backlash and the sheer size of the change the filmmakers are now having to implement. We’re not talking editing scenes or doing CGI touch ups. We’re talking a full remodelling of a very prominent CGI character. That’s going to take quite a bit of money and overtime to complete before the November release date.

So this is good news I guess. We’re getting a live action Sonic that’s closer to the iconic design from the games. That’s all well and good... but only if it’s worth the extra effort and let’s be brutally honest, it really doesn’t seem like it.

Sonic The Hedgehog Of The Opera is really just one problem in a sea of problems. You’ve all seen the trailer, right? Yes Sonic The Hedgehog Of Notre Dame is hideous, but what about all the other shit in the trailer? The unfunny jokes? The generic premise? The cringeworthy music choice? Jim Carrey being an obnoxious tool? A Sonic redesign isn’t going to change that. Those bits are still bad. Honestly I think this film is dead on arrival and it’s not really worth the effort fixing Sonic at this point. You only get to make one first impression and this was it. This is without a doubt one of the worst trailers I think I’ve ever seen and everyone involved in this movie, who worked on this movie or are even associated with this movie should be incredibly embarrassed by this. And that’s including Tim Miller. 

Yeah! The director of Deadpool is the executive producer of this film! Not only that, he approved the design! In an interview with IGN, he said:

"It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It's part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature." 

Tim... he’s wearing running shoes. I think the boat has sailed on the realism front, don’t you?

Apparently Sega and Sonic Team weren’t too happy with the design, particularly the eyes, and that’s really the main thing about all this that’s confusing me. How the fuck did this design get approved? Did no one on the production team or at the executive level say ‘hang on a minute, this looks a bit iffy’? Did no one at least question why they were making such a drastic change to such an iconic design? What about Sega? Why didn’t they put their foot down when they saw the initial design? It’s not like they’re powerless. They’re co-producing this thing. Guys... what the hell happened?

Now there’s a bit of a conspiracy theory going around suggesting that this is all a marketing ploy. That the trailer and Sonic design was deliberately shit in order to drum up publicity. I can see why people think that, but I very much doubt that’s the case. For one thing, it’s one hell of a gamble releasing a trailer that’s deliberately shit just to get people talking. Like I said, you only get to make one first impression. Even if and when they reveal the revamped look, they’re going to have a heck of a job winning people over again, especially those who weren’t really sold on this film to begin with. But also it doesn’t change the fact that the studios are going to have to spend time and money redesigning Sonic and implement the new design into already completed footage. There’s no way any studio would waste that much time and money on a concept they didn’t think was saleable. And that’s really the source of this whole conspiracy, isn’t it? People understandably can’t wrap their heads around the idea that the filmmakers legitimately thought that this design was good. It’s simply mind-boggling that anyone would approve such an obviously bad design, and yet wonders never cease.

So there’s a chance Sonic might actually look like Sonic in a few months time. That’s nice. But it doesn’t matter if the film isn’t good and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my doubts. Based on that trailer, this looks set to be this generation’s Super Mario Bros movie, which is a shame because out of all the movie adaptations of video games we’ve had, Sonic is the one with the most potential to succeed. I think the premise would translate so well to the big screen. If only the film was being made by competent filmmakers.

Sigh. I don’t know. Fingers crossed, eh?

[sonic7ischaos]

Ok, needs to be said...

WHAT THE FUCK SEGA?! How did you let things get this confused and fucked up for Sonic?! Like, There are legitimate criticisms to be had of both Adventure games but NEVER ONCE have you made a game that tried to iterate on them! The Adventure games themselves are 3d iterations of the main series 2d games before them. They continue the design philosophy of the 2d games (in their own ways but they both owe their gameplay to their predecessors). What happened to that?!  Why did you abandon what drew audiences to Sonic games in the first place? It took fans to start trying to show the world how Sonic works in 3d for a serious attempt at it to even be made post Adventure 2 (See earlier posts for my thoughts on why 06 doesn’t actually attempt to continue said lineage). Y’know why Nintendo doesn’t have this problem with Mario? It’s not because they’ve got the right game specific Ideas. Not because jumping on enemies doesn’t work in 3d or because “this one doesn’t have the F.L.U.D.D” or whatever. It’s because, above all, they make good Mario games. That is, they make good games that have Mario IN them, and the Mario games they make are good AS Mario games. They fit the gameplay of the series as a whole. Literally all it takes. What made Sonic 1 work? What made Sonic 2 work? CD? Sonic 3k? Adventure? Adventure 2? What did these games have in common? What were their design focus (What were you doing in game and how were you doing it)?

Honestly, I hope you make me eat my words here with your next game. Make me look like  a jackass because I want the next 3d Sonic game to be great. Not, good. Not “ok”. Not “kinda fun”. No, GREAT. Like the classics. Like the best parts of the Adventure games. Like Parts of Heroes (the art design, music, character interaction, and antagonist), LIKE MANIA. TRULY Great. Sonic is your flagship series and doesn’t deserve any less positive recognition than Mario, at least on paper.

[neeseeart]

Yakuza 6 PSA

I thought I posted this already but I guess it slipped my mind, so here, copied and pasted from my Facebook page yesterday:

Sooooo……..the Yakuza 6 demo was released on PSN today. It was taken down after a few hours because they accidentally included THE ENTIRE GAME in the demo, with the official release still 2 months away.

Naturally, my SO and I downloaded it the minute it was available, not knowing any of this yet. We just started the second chapter, confirming that we’re one of the people that have the full game now. Sega made it seem like a few people "unlocked" the full game from the demo using some kind of exploit or illegitimate means, but this is false. The reality is that the "demo" released on PSN in North America was indeed the full game, obtained legitimately, if accidentally.

I understand that most people will probably play through the whole game while they can. I just want to ask that any of my followers who also have the full game, if you choose to play through to the end, please be respectful of other fans who don’t have it by not posting spoilers, and please be respectful to Sega by not streaming the full game or distributing its content in any similar fashion. I’m keeping this digital copy on my PS4 as a memento (like PT) having bought the game 6 months ago, planning to buy a second copy later, and having NO intention to leak any of its content for any reason.

Again, please please please be respectful and don’t distribute content related to the full game until the official release. Posting spoilers after a game comes out is to be expected, but doing it now is just plain unfair since most people don’t currently have access to a legitimate copy. And leaking official content before official release can hurt the sales of the game when it comes out. This series deserves so much better than that. It's brought so much happiness into my life and made me a better, happier person, and affected so many other people in the same way. It would be a tragedy for this unfortunate mistake to slow its progress just after it caught its footing in the west. Please be nice.

tl;dr: To those who have the full game on your PS4: Please do not distribute content before official release. I implore you to keep your preorders intact or buy the game after it comes out. Be considerate of other fans and respectful to the developers. And to anyone who doesn’t have it, I thought I'd warn you about this so you know to tread carefully on the internet for the next 2 months. My blog and page will be 100% spoiler-free of any Yakuza 6 content.

[moomingitz]

who do u think are worse? Sega Sonic purists or American Sonic purists?

Sega Sonic purists. Or to be more specific, Sega of Japan purist Sonic fans. Years ago I used to think it was the more Western canon side of the fandom who had more of the obnoxious purist types, but allot of them have since chilled out over the years.

And when I say purist, I don’t mean fans who just simply prefer something over another thing. I’m talking about people who think one thing is the ONLY true and valid thing in a series or franchise and if you don’t even prefer it over the other than you are not a “true” fan". I know these type of fans exist in pretty much every fandom, and the Sonic fandom is no exception.

Listen, whether you do or do not like or prefer things from the more Western side of Sonic lore in the franchise, there is a legitimate reason why even to this day the more Western side of the Sonic franchise has it’s fan base:

Up until Sonic Adventure, the Western adaptations/spin-offs and it’s characters were really the only things Western audiences(who Sonic was made to appeal more to) had in terms of actual lore in the Sonic franchise. Not only that, but when you compare them to the many Western produced video game cartoons back in the 90s, most of the Western produced Sonic media was either not half bad or even pretty good even today despite them being pretty dated now.(Save maybe for Sonic Underground, but it’s flaws come from a technical standpoint if anything.) And that’s just animation. There was also the Archie comic series that were available, or if you were in the UK there were the Fleetway comics.

Until SA came along, there was really no plot in the games themselves beyond, “We gotta stop this fat guy!”, and whatever other plot and lore there actually was on the Japanese side of things you had to really go out of your way to find it, or import, because even the OVA wasn’t released outside of Japan until Sonic Adventure was released in the states. Which most people in the Western side of the fandom couldn’t because they were either still kids, too young to afford to import shit from Japan or their families couldn’t, and the internet had yet to fully take off to what it is now. Whatever extended cast that existed within the game canon back then only appeared in spin-off games that weren’t on the main Genesis console games, or in the Archie comic series. Hell, I didn’t know that Amy even existed until I first played Sonic Adventure in 2000, because me and my family did not own a SegaCD, Saturn, or GameGear, and I couldn’t afford them, and I didn’t have access to read the Archie comic series growing up; so of course I thought Sonic only had Sally as a love interest up until that point!

That’s what gets to me the most about the Sega of Japan purists. It’s like they look down on other Sonic fans who like or prefer the more Western interpretations, because how dare they or their families couldn’t afford to import things, afford expensive ass consoles, not go on a treasure hunt for hidden obscure lore info, or not live in Japan. They, especially now, come off as very elitist, with having double standards on what is apparently okay and not okay to do in Sonic, they think they believe they’re so open minded, and think they know what makes something “true Sonic” when they’re really just as biased as every other fan out there. They’ll excuse all of Sega of Japan or Sonic Team’s slip-ups, but will hiss at spin-off material doing the same things. Sonic SatAm is trying toooo hard to be dark and grimmy-grim especially with it’s story about overthrowing a fat ass dictator- but it’s okay when Sonic Team does nearly the same thing with Sonic Forces, and not even do it any better than SatAm. Sally and Chris are horrible clingy and selfish monsters who just want to hold Sonic back from his freedumb and Sonic should have given them what for- But Amy acting no different from a jealous and controlling boyfriend in Sonic X is just so quirky and endearing, and Sonic is just a jerk for refusing her advances or not returning her feelings. Every time I see these type of fans spouting that whole, “SATAM WAS NEVER GOOD”, shit, as if the show never had any merit, I wouldn’t be surprised if they never stopped and considered everything I just said above.

Doesn’t help how at times, especially now, I can’t help but feel that Sonic Team and Sega of Japan hold not only fans of past Western Sonic iterations and any other past Sonic spin-off in general, but even towards fans of the games of themselves, in contempt or resent them. With them being very insistent on wanting to try and purge anything remotely tied to any past spin-off media in the past couple years, especially with the recent cancellation of the Archie comic series, with not-so much as even a mention or proper send-off, as if they never existed. Or how they don’t seem to really care much about even properly developing or having some form of basic consistency in whatever lore the games still have. Could you seriously blame long time fans for feeling like becoming invested in something was all for nothing? I sure as hell have been feeling like that lately concerning the Sonic franchise.(But that’s for a post for another time.) Oh, but all of the Japanese Sonic purist types get to feel validated in all of their smugness, though.

So, yeah. I used to think it was the Western purist side of the Sonic fandom who were more insufferable, but over the years it’s become the Japanese purist side. There’s my, I guess, hot take.