#and I really want to play Sonic Unleashed at some point

[essycogany]

Rare But Not So Rare Sonic Moments

Flaws

This may get controversial.

I welcome anyone else’s view point on this topic. If you don’t agree I’m okay with that. Just because I have a different perspective doesn’t make what I think right or wrong. You don’t have to change your mind. Whatever your opinion is, I respect it. Besides, it’s fun to have different views on something we both love. It gives us a way to see different sides of the coin.

Disclaimer: I’m a person who didn’t grow up with this franchise and only recently got into in early 2022. I have no biases towards any version of this character. Making my opinions about his characterizations mixed.

By the way, I’ll only use Sonic games as examples (for the most part) because this analysis would be too long if I talked about other medias.

In short. Most of his flaws do stir into different medias as well. To be honest, Sonic’s other variants aren’t as different as some may think, but that’s my hot take.

Times The Blue Blur Messed Up

Riders: Sonic lunched Amy along with Eggman into the air with his wind abilities. While knowing Amy’s safety would be at risk. Then left her. Which was the reason she was so angry and aggressive afterwards. He didn’t ever apologize either.

06: Exchanged a chaos emerald for Elise even after Tails warned Sonic not to.

Unleashed: Was distracted by taunting Eggman.

Sonic: “Well, this is new. Showing remorse Eggman? If you played nice, I wouldn’t have to break all your toys.”

Then became the Werehog. All because he wanted to boost his ego.

Secret Rings: Shahra used Sonic to collect the world rings for Erazar Djinn. Even though it should’ve been expected because she said, “They use to work together.” Ended up not being true.

Black Night: Was tricked into helping Merlina who wanted to create a world that would last forever.

Lost World: Tails once again tried to warn Mr.Impatient about the conch in Eggman’s hand, but kicked it anyways. Then warned Sonic about another trap, he didn’t listen, ended up getting the fox captured instead.

Frontiers: Accidentally helped free The End despite Knuckles and Sage’s suspensions. If his friends, Eggman, and Sage didn’t help him…..Well, it’s in the villain's name.

Side Note: In Secret Rings, Black night, and Frontiers Sonic was rude at points.

Sonic Sassiness

Sonic Sassiness Part 2

Sonic’s Overall Flaws/Mistakes

Some may be from his general characterizations throughout his history.

Sonic rushes into things without a second thought. (Impulsiveness) Sonic can be too reckless, brash, or not take situations seriously.

He’s impatient. (Which was his core trait since his idle animation in Sonic 1)

He doesn’t listen to his friends warnings. Sonic can be too cocky at the wrong moments. He causes or contributes to world ending consequences. The blue blur can also be too trusting and naive.

Sonic doesn’t worry about his own physical or mental state and internalizes his emotions. He isn’t able to express himself very well. Therefore doesn’t put the right words together when speaking sometimes.

Sonic can be stubborn and a bit of a jerk.

Sage: “You are short tempered and short sided.”

And that’s about it. If I missed anything, feel free to let me know.

My Thoughts

A few of these can be seen as Sonic’s strength and weaknesses. Like his willingness to harm himself if it means to save his friends.

The reason Sonic never learns from his mistakes in the games is because he gets away with them. Which is not a good or bad thing per say. (Besides Sonic Riders. There’s no excuse for that.)

The stories never really given him an arc. But I don’t think Sonic’s a perfect or flawless character. If the examples I’ve shown are evidence of anything.

I’d say he’s static, but not consistently. Most static characters I’ve seen rarely stays static anyways.

I also don’t believe Sonic himself thinks he’s perfect. Sonic probably thinks he doesn’t have to change because he’s so sure he should be able to manage things without issue. Everything does eventually go his way. Why should he change?

I do understand Sonic influences people, but why can’t there be a balance? It’s been done plenty of times with other characters. In books, movies, and tv shows. Animated and live-action.

Movie!Sonic in Sonic 2 inspired both Knuckles and Tails. Helping them better themselves with advice and encouragement. While also going through his own arc of growing up and being responsible.

Tails:“You’ve inspired me. To leave my village. To find you and help you on your mission.”

Despite him learning how to slow down and plan things out, Prime!Sonic also inspires the different variants of his friends. Thorn, Dread, and Nine. Helping them grow into becoming better people.

Even in Unleashed Sonic was at his most mature, but it was only after his cocky attitude got him into trouble. So, yes. Inspirational characters can have flaws.

I’ll just say this

Everyone has their own views on how Sonic should be characterized, drawn, played, voiced, animated, and showcase.

It’s fine if you don’t like a curtain interpretation of a character, but to say the character (Especially if they weren’t very consistent in the first place) isn’t acting like themselves now, it’s really hard to argue what self there is to come back to. Because even in the games there are so many different selves for these characters in their own canon universe. From Classic to Adventure, Unleashed, Colors, and Frontiers. (If that makes any sense)

It’s hard to find one place to be in because Sonic’s been in too many places at once. He shouldn’t be held down to one characterization if he’s already been all over the place from the beginning of his existence.

AKA Sonic’s first two shows ever. TAOSTH and SATAM. In both shows Sonic had flaws as well, but never learned from them. Which means he’s been like this from the start. Like everything else about this franchise, his personality is an ongoing experiment that’ll probably never be solved. And I kind of love that. Even if it can be stressful and has it’s own up’s and down’s

All of these unique stories from the games, comics, tv shows, and movies people grew up with are what made this franchise so popular. This is the main reason I became a Sonic fan. Because I learned so much about characterization from this franchise and how to love the different variations of its characters. Finding an appreciation for each of them.

Conclusion

Everyone’s opinions are valid at the end of the day. At least we all have a version of this character we can love and appreciate. Whether you agree or not I’m grateful you’ve made it all the way to the end. You’re a trooper!

Stay Creative! 💜

[amy-rose-warrior]

These magic rocks have OPINIONS!!!!!

Master Emerald:

Chaos Emeralds:

I used this template! I had to manually add Trip, Dark Gaia, and Pachacamac, though.

Master Emerald notes:

The vastness of the love the Master Emerald has for Knuckles is lovecraftian in the way that it is incomprehensible to mortals and even gods. The real reason Knuckles wasn't in Unleashed is because Dark Gaia has been sharing a planet with the Master Emerald long enough to know not to fuck with that.

Originally, Rouge was nearly on par with Eggman and Pachacamac for the Master Emerald. Over time, the Master Emerald has grown to find her deeply amusing, even if it is often equally exasperated with her.

When it comes to Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Rouge, while the Master Emerald loves and respects them as individuals (it is particularly fond of Sonic), a lot of the positive feelings it harbours towards them stems from their relationship with Knuckles. It wants to set them up on playdates with him.

Tikal's feelings have rubbed off on the Master Emerald when it comes to Metal Sonic. You don't have to do this. I hope one day you realize that.

Chaos Emerald Notes:

Sonic the blorbo from their shows their funny dog their best friend they freak the fuck out whenever they see him YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!! They have what the Master Emerald has for Knuckles for Sonic except it's parasocial as hell. Sort of. The Chaos Emeralds are very flighty but they have the deepest connection with Sonic, they just don't always know what to do with it do to their innate nature. Sonic is special enough to them that it may just change something fundamental about their existence.

Trip is their second favorite after Sonic, they just don't get to hang out as much.

Generally the Chaos Emeralds love people who try to destroy the world (or just generally cause problems like Eggman), it means they get to hang out with Sonic and have some fun. There are some exceptions like Dark Gaia, Infinite, and Perfect Chaos who they despise.

The Chaos Emeralds hate other magic rocks, especially the Master Emerald. They also get super jealous. They adore Blaze and want her to play with them instead of those icky Sol Emeralds.

On the jealousy thing, the Chaos Emeralds hate all of Sonic's friends. They humor them for Sonic. Knuckles is their biggest point of contention, but Tails is a close second. Emerl got the worst of it when he was alive, what do you mean you're just going to leave us with this guy we want torn to shreds. Part of the reason Sonic managed to beat Emerl in the end (besides being Sonic) is because the Chaos Emeralds wanted this infant dead and in the ground.

Silver keeps messing up perfectly good and fun timeliness. The Chaos Emeralds don't really comprehend death so they're mostly just waiting around for Sonic to swing by and have another adventure. Also every time Silver shows up the Chaos Emeralds barely get any action or their funny adventure is erased from the timeline.

[askagamedev]

I feel like I or someone else asked you this, but do you think that gameplay will ever get to the point where it looks like the fancy prerendered cutscenes? Even the outstanding visuals we have now, don't really look like say, Sonic Unleashed's opening cinematic from.....Christ, 2008 was really 15 years ago. Anyway, Is there a way to match that that look in style and fidelity or is it just kind of a "physics" thing where that's basically not possible? What stops that if that's the case.

I don't believe that gameplay will ever look like fancy prerendered cutscenes because gameplay has certain needs that cutscenes do not, and cutscenes have certain needs that gameplay does not. Here's what I mean.

When you're watching a cinematic in a game like Spider-Man, what are you seeing on screen? Usually what you want to see is Spider-Man doing some amazing, spectacular action. Something like this:

Note how closely pulled-in the camera is, so that you can see all the details of Spider-Man's body and posing. The camera zooms in to see him narrow his eyes. Look at how the camera movement can barely frame him, conveying how fast he is moving. You're not looking for where to go next, because it's all pre-planned out for you - the purpose of this short cinematic is to tell a story - Spider-Man has to get out of here quickly.

Let's compare that to what you see on screen when you are playing Spider-Man:

See how the camera is framing everything very differently? Spider-Man takes up a very small amount of the screen. The vast majority of the information being conveyed here is showing the player exactly where Spider-Man is going and how fast he is getting there. We're seeing him move acrobatically through the air, but we're not seeing his emotions or his face. We're focusing on what matters - navigating through the city to wherever we (as the player) want him to go.

The needs of gameplay are different than the needs of cinematics. Even if the technology improves to the point where everything is beautiful and gorgeous, it still won't look the same because the purpose of regular gameplay and the purpose of cinematics is different. Gameplay visualizes the things the player needs to see and engage with at any given time. Cinematics visualize the aspects of the story that the designers want to tell. Even if the tech can do it, the purpose of the visualization isn't the same so it won't happen.

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Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[ouroborosorder]

Can you tell me more about the negators mapping to fighting game character archetypes? I don’t know much about fgc archetypes but I love UU and this sounds super interesting.

alright so groundwork. Totsuka is a massive fighting game fan. UU is fucking full of references to street fighter already, and he's said before that he wanted to make a manga about fighting games. Dude loves them, so I'm not saying this baselessly. It's to the point where my conspiracy theory is that this started as a hypothetical fighting game roster.

I'll just go through the first few in order and then some notables:

Andy - Shoto. A mixed fighter who specializes at having good tools for any distance. Usually featuring a long-range projectile (parts bullet), a wide reaching mid-screen poke (Crescent series), and an approach option (Fucking flying.) Also, many Shotos have an "install" form, where they unleash a dormant power and transform into a more dangerous, aggressive version of themselves. Come on, dude has a Victor install. Also, "cocky immortal" is a very common fighting game archetype narratively, and one of my personal favorites tbh.

Fuuko - Setplay debuff character. Usually relies on defensive play, mixups, and pokes. When you come to understand the target well enough, you can push your luck, find their pressure point, and land a single glancing hit that applies a debuff that allows you to steamroll the opponent. And like. Falling in love with the opponent and then using that love to understand them is exactly how Fuuko fights. Characters like Londrekia from Under Night are a good touchstone here.

Shen - Chinese stereotype martial artist. This is a common thing in fighting games. Also, they tend to focus really heavily on mixups, forcing the opponent into making bad calls by faking one move and going for another - finding the truth through untruth, as it were.

Void - Bigbody close-range brawler. The dude literally walks into the boxing ring dressed like Balrog from Street Fighter. I mean, come on.

Gina - This is where my theory gets Weird but bear with me. Gina is the bigbody grappler. Grapplers in fighters are slow-moving, highly defensive, and focus primarily on forcing pressure by existing. Grapplers are scary because they don't have to change their position at all to force you to have to play differently. Plus, Gina is associated with her big barrier around her at all times that limits her movement and would make her hitbox larger. Also, her giant Unchange hands are a phenomenal grappler tool. Also, when fighters try to be subversive and make a grappler that isn't a massive guy, they almost always do it by making it a small girl who plays identical to a big guy.

Top - Obligatory rushdown fighter. His new 101 interpretation feels basically tailor-made for rushdown play tbh. Give him a rekka series and we're fucking good.

Rip - Motherfucking CHARGE CHARACTER BABY. This one is entirely because Rip literally has Guile's flash kick and a sonic boom, he does them on screen.

Phil - Full screen zoner. Also the amount of fighting games that have just one extremely weird robot character is absurd, he's basically tailor made to be the obligatory One Robot.

Billy - Copycat fighter. These aren't common anymore, but used to be more common back when sprites were frequent and tracing over another character's sprites was way faster than making a new animation. A character whose entire premise is using other fighters' moves, copying their abilities into an entirely new kit. Mechanically, these characters tend to have weird, disparate kits with a lot of unique options that otherwise would never be on a kit together, allowing them to adapt their playstyle to be the exact perfect enemy to whoever they're facing. Also "bouncing gunslinger" is a very very common fighting game trope, since fighters tend to balance out guns' innate power with weird firing angles.

Juiz - Midrange bait and punish swordfighter. Prioritizes pokes from every angle, allowing you to react and punish everything your opponent can do. Usually calm-collected fencers personality-wise. Maps perfectly to Unjustice's idea - wait until you know what your opponent's intent is, then negate their Justice.

Julia - Protege character who takes after two other members of the cast - being Fuuko and Juiz. Their fighting style usually is a mix of the two, combining their best aspects, copying their moves exactly sometimes, with their own unique aspects in there to show her own persona growing alongside their influence.

Latla - Actively a reference to Rose from Street Fighter. So. Rose from Street Fighter.

Backs - Joke character. You lose to this in bracket, you're going to be posting some real scrubquotes shit.

I can do this for almost every single Negator in the entire manga. The only characters I can't find easy maps to are Chikara, Sean, Tella, Ichico, Lucy, and whatever Unchaste's name was. (this may change if Unchaste actually ever appears again.) But they're all not fighters anyway, they're all support characters or literal children dying of an incurable disease.

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

hi hello i haven’t played sonic unleashed but i watched gameplay years and years ago but its been a minute so bear with me here

so i stayed up all night reading through this entire comic in one sitting and i absolutely adore the way you showed the panel borders distorting and even becoming monstrous themselves as Shadow reaches his breaking point (which is symbolically shown through the icy walls fracturing around them during his and Sonic’s argument leading up to the fight) and the way the influence of Dark Gaia becomes more prominent as purple flames to emanate from him, growing more and more vivid

and then the rising action reaches a fever pitch when Sonic says he has no heart and we see Shadow finally reach his breaking point when the borders of the panel shatter around him

and while he processes this the borders soften (although not entirely) and we see Sonic realize the mistake he made and his regret, but it’s already too late because we can see the color red slowly start to overtake the borders as Shadow is overcome with rage

and we can see the red borders turn to pink and the glimpses of pink in Shadow’s text bubbles take over completely as the force that’s corrupting him takes control of him in this vulnerable state

it tries falteringly to communicate with Sonic, a desperate plea for him to fix what was broken and to make Gaia whole again

in this moment Dark Gaia as an entity is effectively lashing out and it latches onto Shadow’s rage here especially because that’s something it can empathize with, or at the very least something it recognizes given its own circumstances. Dark Gaia seems to understand (at least within the constraints of its limitations as one part of a whole) that it is fundamentally broken and in order to make that right it wants to be “fixed” but it doesn’t know how and it can’t really do that on its own

I don’t know if Dark Gaia even knows that it can’t mend itself by itself and if its just sort of reacting to the cosmic existential horror that is being split into two separate entities (i’d be cranky too if that happened to me regardless of whether or not i was some sort of ancient deity)

but then in a pivotal moment, Sonic reaches out to Shadow, to Dark Gaia, and the borders straighten out once more. They’re still pink mind you, but Sonic has managed to ground Shadow/Dark Gaia or at least shock him long enough to absorb the darkness within.

Sonic promises that the lies stop here and that he and Shadow/Dark Gaia are going to make this right together and in an eruption of purple flames, we cut to Shadow’s time on the ARK.

It’s a brilliant transition and the pay off for this moment is amazing as it was set up spectacularly via foreshadowing (ha get it) in earlier issues of the comic.

The technical aspects of the comic continue to blow me away during this sequence as we as readers are able to measure the passage of time through the timestamps in the upper righthand corner of each panel.

We see Shadow’s turbulent upbringing and the unrelenting kindness that Maria showed him. We see how his unpredictable powers affected his life aboard the ARK and how his struggles mirror the ones Sonic has been grappling with throughout the comic.

We even see Shadow start to embrace his own innate capacity for violence at one point and not in a good way. After months of testing, covered in blood, Shadow calls himself a monster and to the reader (and perhaps even Shadow himself given the abstract nature of the background in this panel) At this point it’s not immediately clear exactly what he’s done, but the blood is a pretty good indicator that it can’t be good.

Finally, reality sinks in when someone begins to shout and Shadow sees the look on Maria’s face. As members of G.U.N. close in on him with their arms outstretched to seize him, Shadow’s body language (particularly his ears and his face) tell us that Shadow is horrified by what he’s become and so he runs.

Maria calls after him, desperately trying to quell his fears and I love the framing of Maria in the next page and how she stands in the doorway, surrounded by light while Shadow is hunched over in the darkness, staring at the hands that he used to take away the lives of those soldiers.

Shadow is crying when Maria approaches him and places a hand on his shoulder. The light and the dark meet and with tears in her eyes, Maria utters the very same words that were spoken earlier in the comic when Shadow comforted Sonic (well not the very same because they’re speaking german here but i digress)

Color returns to the pages anew and just like Sonic, we see Maria in a brand new light both symbolically and literally. All of this happens before the purple flames we saw earlier can even dissipate and when they do we see him holding Shadow, cradling the ultimate lifeform to his chest.

As we return to the present, the background gradually returns, fading in from swathes of blue. Sonic expresses his remorse for his blatant misunderstanding of Shadow’s character, crying as he holds him close.

With Shadow in his arms, Sonic restores the chaos emerald and through the chaos emerald we’re able to catch a glimpse of Sonic’s daytime form shining through and we see that at the end of the day, he’s still Sonic the Hedgehog in spite of all these changes as he and Shadow exchange a friendly glance and the scene ends.

Have I mentioned how much I love this comic? I literally cannot stop talking about this comic. The fact that you’ve been working on it for 6 years is just incredible. Thank you so much for all your hard work. I love what you’ve done with the story. This is one of my all time favorite fan works and I will never shut up about it.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my hastily made analysis on issue 7. I love your work. I don’t really know how to end this so yeah *fucking dies*

this is so wonderfully said thank you so much augh im so happy people appreciate the complex subtext i put into my art ♥

also man. that really happened issue 7 huh. time flies. i remember drwing that scene like it was yesterday

[skaruresonic]

So I seen some people justify Shadow retracing the same development he had in his game and Battle in Shadow Gens with the excuse "well it's just to reiterate to newer people who don't know him about his character and reintroduce the character to a new generation" what do you think of that?

Didn't know older Sonic games had expiration dates. By that logic, nobody has any real reason to play Sonic 1, Sonic 2, S3&K, CD, Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes, '06, Unleashed, or Colors again when Gens is right there.

...So they're okay with new fans getting the Diet Coke version of Shadow's arc? I thought we were all about ~raising our standards~ in this Chili's.

They're acting like nothing of value happened in either Battle or ShTH, which is a riot considering Battle is the only game we have to prove that "Shadow is not a weapon of war." Likewise, ShTH stressed "Shadow is not defined by his blood and determines his own destiny."

I'm certain a game whose mechanics hinge on Shadow manipulating his genetics Parasite Eve-style will more than suffice to emphasize those two points. Cue Iizuka saying "Shadow doesn't need a weapon because he is the weapon."

SxS Gens can protest "b-but Shadow is more than his blood" all it wants, but it's like, if that really doesn't matter, why the fuck do you keep bringing it up, then?

"Don't think about the polar bear; the polar bear doesn't exist. Polar bear, polar bear, polar bear. Why are you thinking about the polar bear?"

"Shadow's genetics don't matter. We think it matters so little, in fact, that we made gameplay mechanics hinge on it.

"Shadow's past doesn't define him, but here, have an entire-ass game that acts like rehashing his past for the millionth time just moved one inch to the left is the only way he can have depth of character.

"Omg why are you all writing 'Shadow was tortured on the ARK' fics? Who could have possibly foreseen this shocking development?"

Sounds like an excuse not to play previous games to me. And at this point I don't really have patience for it considering you don't even need to play Battle. Everything you need to know about the game can be gleaned from watching it on YouTube or, failing that, reading the script. But I suppose if Sega doesn't re-release it, it might as well not exist. :v

[softchassis]

Re-breaking the Tumblr Ice with a "25 Games To Know Me" post!

Reasons why each game is important to me are under the cut.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 -- I love Sonic in general. I think across the entire history of the franchise I can only really point to two games I dislike, or three if I'm feeling particularly uncharitable. But Sonic 2 was the first game I ever saw at a store and said "I want that one". As for how I feel about Sonic 2 itself, it's actually not my favorite Sonic game or even my favorite classic Sonic game--those distinctions go to Sonic Unleashed and Sonic CD--but without Sonic 2, I may never have given the blue hog a chance.

Spark The Electric Jester 3 -- The most recent game on this list certainly but it deserves to be there. It's so confident and unashamed of what it is. It *knows* it's a Sonic fan game underneath its yellow blorbo skin, but it never winks at the audience about it. You just get to do some really incredible, high speed 3D platforming and mix in some DMC-lite combos in there too. It's good, it's fun, it's sincere, it's beautiful. All the Spark games are.

Cave Story -- Before Cave Story I only had a vague idea of the concept of "single person makes game all by themself". I'd certainly played plenty before, from the Shareware era on DOS and Windows 95, but Cave Story made it feel approachable. Plus, on its own, it's just a great little game.

La Mulana -- Cave Story and La Mulana share the same space in my brain. It may be a little weird to say this, but I typically don't enjoy 2D Metroidvanias. The only ones I've beaten are Super Metroid and most recently Nine Sols. But something about La Mulana just tickles me. It feels like the entire map is one big Rubik's Cube I'm beating my head against, which is more satisfying to me than "I found the thing that lets me do the thing I couldn't do earlier."

DOOM (2016) -- I love the entire Doom franchise but DOOM 2016 is my favorite standalone experience. Otherwise I have played untold hours of classic Doom mods, my favorites being Reelism, Demonsteele, and Doom Infinite.

Sekiro -- A really great experience all around. I enjoy Dark Souls and appreciate its storytelling, but most everything in Dark Souls feels too distant for me to appreciate, whereas in Sekiro, the history both is recent and ongoing, and the Shinto and Buddhist mythology informs the story in real time. And It's just so fun to actually play. You never forget your first Lady Butterfly.

Dynamite Headdy -- Most everyone loves Treasure but to me no game is more Treasure than this one.

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure -- One of the earliest plays on the RPG genre. A typical RPG hero is going around slaying monsters to level up, but that person isn't you. Instead, you go around reuniting the souls of slain monsters to revive them, and learn a lot about the heartfelt and unique world they once inhabited. A really beautiful and important game.

Worms Armageddon -- Still the best 1999

Avernum: Escape From The Pit -- A remake of Spiderweb Software's first game in the "Exile" series. Avernum tells a great fantasy story about an underground cave society, where undesirables are exiled by the empire who scorns them. Instead of laying down and dying in the caves, its new residents name it Avernum and create their own society... and they don't intend to take their punishment laying down. A really fun and atmospheric CRPG with great, Vonnegut-esque writing and a lot of heart.

Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver -- I played this one pretty recently and was shocked at how forward thinking it was for 1999. I played the entire Legacy of Kain series back to back, but Soul Reaver stuck out to me as the best one. If you can't tell by some of the other games on this list, I adore games that feel lonely and isolating but still have a distinct goal and stakes. Soul Reaver is incredible and finally contextualized just why I saw Raziel all over Playstation magazines as a kid--it's because he's fucking cool!

Marathon Infinity -- play the entire marathon series right now stop reading this

Lemmings -- Huh. What's that doing here

Pikmin -- The first Pikmin is the best one in my opinion. I love the time limit, I love the simplicity of the scope compared to the rest of the series, it's a fun game to just pop in once in a while and just blitz through. I also just love microworld settings. And the creature design! And the puzzle design! Ohh Pikmin there's nothing like you.

Klonoa: The Door To Phantomile -- I have a lot of fond memories of this one, but specifically of playing the demo over and over on a Playstation Magazine demo disc with my sister. I wouldn't actually play the full game until much later, on an emulator. I did later rent Klonoa 2 and finish it before that though. Klonoa is good.

Rayman -- I love this game. I love how fucking mean it is while looking so bright and poppy and silly. I first played it when I was like 8 years old and it was a really humbling, eye-opening experience. But jokes aside it's just a really good game. But yeah, it's hard. If you've never played it before and don't want to tear your hair out, you should play Rayman Redemption, a fan remake of it that makes it a bit more approachable. If you ask me though, you should try the original first.

Ecco: The Tides of Time -- I also played this one when I was really young and it was also a humbling, eye-opening experience. I just liked dolphins, I wasn't expecting to have rented the hardest game in the entire fucking store. Having revisited the Ecco series many times since then, though, I think Tides of Time is the best one. It's just gorgeous and both versions of the soundtrack are amazing. I prefer the CD one though, except for Moray Abyss and Tubes of Medusa.

Splatterhouse -- Kids love horror and kids love forbidden things, so when I saw a Splatterhouse ROM on a romsite as a kid and was immediately told I wasn't allowed to download it, of course I fucking did when no one was looking. And my brain was altered forever

Earthbound -- I very briefly had a stepbrother who had a SNES and Earthbound and I wasn't able to play it myself (no open save slots) so I just watched, but I was fascinated by it. I would eventually play it myself later on good ol ZSNES. I have nice warm memories of watching the snow on the ZSNES menu while it snowed gently outside, in between bouts of playing Earthbound and Yoshi's Island.

Yakuza -- Okay the PS2 boxart is here as a stand in, I love the entire Yakuza series dearly. I did own Yakuza and Yakuza 2 when they were new, but lost them when our PS2 and all of its games got stolen.

Sonic Robo Blast 2 -- Another Sonic game? But this one's special. I've been playing SRB2 for over half of my life at this point. I've played countless mods for it and have watched it grow from a basic little Doom platformer into a great platform for expression. It's also just fun.

Bomberman 64 -- The 3D bomb-stacking and bouncing stuff in this game is so cool and is the exact kind of finicky, almost-accidental-seeming mechanical depth I love in video games. I can't believe they only made one of these.

Psychonauts -- Kind of a stand-in for Double Fine and LucasArts in general, but definitely the best game still out of both companies. I love 3D platformers and I love what this game does. There's still not much out there like it.

Rayman 2 -- Another Rayman game? Well yeah, I can't say I love 3D platformers and just not put the best 3D platformer ever made on this list. Not an exaggeration!

Final Fantasy XIV -- I get to play as a hot lion woman now. Have you seen her? Well, now you have

[doggendoodle]

It's especially interested how bad the Minecraft movie feels when you compare it to other video game movies nowadays.

Like. For example, the Mario movie in concept was simple. Adapt the basic structure of what a Mario platformer is (person gets kidnapped and Mario saves them) with Mario's alternate backstory of being from Brooklyn as an excuse to make him an easier viewpoint character. And Super Mario is THE video game franchise so it's an easy money grab.

Except they didn't make an easy money grab. They made a kid's movie that respected the kids who play the games, they made references to the games and incorporated them into the movie in a way that enhanced the story, and they did this while still understanding the spirit of the franchise.

Mario and DK being rivals but still coming together to fight a greater evil. The Bros.' relationship being the emotional core of the movie. Bowser being portrayed perfectly as a goofy yet still threatening villain. They even incorporated Mario Kart into the story without it feeling tacked on. They took the world of Mario seriously and treated it with respect - they made a world that's goofy and charming but still lived-in, without making it edgy or "realistic" just to "appeal" to adults.

Most people apologising to Minecraft Story Mode are probably doing it as a joke, but like. They already understood this and worked through it. Even in the first game which features a grand adventure, the adventurers are people from the world of Minecraft, and the epic invasion was a horror unleashed by accident, like the Wither it's based on.

Later episodes and seasons play more into the inherent fantastical elements of Minecraft, with the Far Lands and the End as eldritch, alien places. They also reference the community aspects of Minecraft: power-hungry server admins, fan-created games like Spleef, fantastical redstone contraptions, even the Minecraft YouTuber murder mystery.

And even being a movie instead of an episodic game isn't an automatic death sentence - hell, if you really wanted to stick to the base game of Minecraft, you could showcase the joy of exploration that is a much more common and more core experience than big epic boss fights.

That moment in the trailer, where there's a log floating in the broken tree and the boy reaches out for it? The one at the start where they're looking around at the world and the camera lets us see the surroundings? Those are great moments, because that's how it feels to play Minecraft. I've seen and heard kids play the game, I know that's still how they experience it. If you're going to make it into an epic, make it into an epic journey and show off the world. The vistas we've seen do genuinely look gorgeous, like someone transplanted

Even the visual design plays into this. The weirdly realistic mobs Detective Pikachu/Sonic style do not work. Detective Pikachu still looks uncanny to me, but the world of Pokémon is meant to be similar to the human world, and Pokémon are meant to be animals. The world of Sonic is Earth, and the redone design for Sonic and the other animal characters is beautiful; it really does feel like Sonic exists in a world overlaid on ours, more fantastical but still in reach.

The Minecraft movie trying to have its blocky cake and eat it too just feels like a shoddy compromise. The wolf howling at the moon doesn't look epic or awe-inspiring, it looks bad - in fact it's not even on model. They deliberately made it look blockier, for some reason. The invading piglins have realistic armour, and clothes, but their bodies are desperately trying to fit the voxel shapes and it all feels at odds. And of course the pink sheep and llama look god awful.

Combined with the human characters being Regular Humans, it feels more like some random friend group making a home movie than a fucking big budget production - and honestly, it loses some of the fun and appeal of portal fantasy.

I will say, it does look like they will visit the Nether at some point.

[ID: screenshot from the trailer. The scene is dark and lit by lava waterfalls originating above the frame, but the scenery resembles a Bastion. There are several piglins staring at the young male main character, whose head is peeking into frame. End ID]

Given they're shooting for the "marauding piglin" angle it's probably too much to ask, but the scene cuts away at this point instead of transitioning into that standard shot where all the mobs roar at the main character, so part of me is hoping that maybe this scene won't be at the climax, and we'll get to actually experience the piglins as nuanced mobs.

[moomingitz]

Been thinking about this recently, when it comes to how people have view games in the Sonic franchise and their expectations of them even all the way back in the 2000s. I honestly believe the price the games originally retailed for has a lot to do with it. I'm saying this as someone who came in late to play the most prominent "dark age" Sonic games, and the games that came after them. And I'm only referring to the console games here, not the handheld ones.

The first time I played Sonic 06 was back in 2013. I bought it brand new and still sealed for $10, and I did it because I wanted to get an actual informed opinion of the game, and as a strange curiosity in general. The game is definitely unfinished and very buggy. However, I did get some enjoyment from it(even if not for the intended reasons), I actually liked the cutscenes for most of the part, and I do see some redeeming qualities underneath it's scuffed to hell surface. But, again, I only paid $10 for it, so not really a loss for me. But when it originally came out, it was not only $60, it was also this big grand anniversary game, meant to be a drastic new direction and refresh of the franchise, and it was released on then-next gen consoles. So I think you can start to see a more full picture of what I'm trying to get at, here.

Same thing also applies to the games that I think are good, or at least better. Sonic 06 wasn't the only Sonic game I played for the first time around that time. Before 06, I bought and played Colors in late 2012 for around $15. While I still believe that it's a good game, it's very short and doesn't have much else to do after you beat the main story. I don't think it has enough content to justify the price it originally retailed for.

The lack of a significant amount of content offered outside of the base games is honestly why I miss games like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. Whether these games have actually aged well or not, there was so much you could do on the side. I would play these games religiously growing up, wanting to find and unlock everything I could do. I even %100 completed SA2 at one point. Sonic Adventure gives you hub worlds to explore and mess around in, and the Gamecube port even gives you the Gamegear games to unlock. In SA2 you could unlock costumes/skins for characters in 2 Player VS. mode and unlock other characters to play in it, among other things you could also unlock by completing missions and getting emblems. SA2 even had a timed boss rush. And, of course, both games had the Chao gardens.

It might be something of a meme to demand the Chao Gardens make a return. But fans, me included, want them back for a very good reason. Not only is it fun and relaxing to raise Chao and customize them to your liking, but the Chao gardens incentivize you to replay stages in order to find things like certain small animals to use for your Chao, or to scrounge up rings to buy things at the market.

As someone who played both Sonic Adventure games, when both their Dreamcast and following Gamecube ports originally came out, I really do feel like both the base games, and the amount of content provided outside of them, made them worth the price tag they had during their initial releases. The only games that have been able to scratch that kind of itch for me afterward is Unleashed and Generations. And before anyone asks; I can't comment on Frontiers gameplay wise because I still haven't played it yet.

[clowngames]

so I've been playing Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) and I think I understand why the game feels slippery to control, even though that word doesn't strictly describe the movement.

In comparison to Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow's acceleration is faster and his top speed is higher. That in itself is no problem. He stops near instantaneously if you let go of the control stick, or try to reverse directions, which is what ShtH fans always point at to say that he's not slippery, since that kind of stick is exactly the opposite of slipperiness.

The big problem, IMO, is the difference in turn radius. In SA2, the speed characters have a tight turn radius but lose some speed in the process. In Shadow the Hedgehog, your turn radius scales with your speed, and unless you move the control stick specifically in a way to slow down Shadow maintains speed. This compounded with high top speeds means that Shadow takes wide turns.

And unlike, say, Unleashed, where wide turns are a specific feature of the level design, ShtH's levels aren't designed for wide turns. They're designed for you to slow down when you need to change directions on a dime, and when enemies are firing bullets at you you don't really want to slow down.

This leads to a lot of situations where Shadow feels like he's magnetized to obstacles; you swerve away from one only to run headfirst into another even though that one was much farther away.

Ironically, the wide turn radius that maintains speed would work better in SA2, while the tight radius that slows you down would work better in ShtH.

[marshemillow]

Heyy Marsh! Sorry about this but I wanted to enquire that I sent an ask once asking you about sonic and idk if you got it? It wasn't urgent or anything, while I was curious and would be glad to have had the question asked I also was just hoping asking you about a media I knew you liked would brighten your day a bit or just be nice. I hope that doesn't sound idk manipulative or anything, earnestly I was just attempting happy small talk about an interest you might share. If you actually did see it but didn't feel like answering that's also very okay! But if there was something you didn't like or appreciate about it I just want to know so I can like, avoid it next time, or if you don't want to receive asks like that at all please let me know, I'll get out of your hair!

There's also the chance it got swallowed up or something, but I don't know if that actually happens on tumblr anymore and I didn't want to come in passive-agressively, completely assuming such if you actually did see it and weren't interested y'know? Ah but this has gotten long. Uh. Just wanted to know which one it was, Tumblr Glitch or Disinterest, really don't mind either way. And if it was a glitch then I'll just summarize my original ask as; What's your favorite thing about the Sonic franchise? And how'd you first get into it? And did you watch the two cartoons that used to air at the same time during the, I think late 90s and 2000s? :3

Have a lovely day! <3

Yeah, sorry about that. Asks do tend to get buried in my inbox, mostly just because I tend to want to stay away from tumblr for long periods of time because I fucking hate social media.

Please don't take it personally if I never answered your ask, I probably just never saw it. My inbox is pretty full these days. No need to apologize, this ask is very polite and I appreciate that. I could stand to recieve a few more gentle reminders over things I've missed honestly.

So yeah, I think your ask is literally just one I missed, because I will take ANY opportunity to ramble about my boy Sonic!!! I love him so much!!!

I actually remember pretty distinctly when I fell in love with the franchise because I didn't exactly "grow up" with it. I played Mario games and random games on the Wii when I was really little (De Blob, anyone?), and before that I played Banjo-Kazooie on the N64. I'm still pretty damn good at Mario Kart Wii, not to brag or anything. I do remember playing Sonic and the Secret Rings when I was around 7, and I was really intrigued by a commercial on TV I saw for Sonic Unleashed, but that's pretty much it. I only had some interest in the franchise by this point.

It wasn't until I was around 12 when my mom got me Sonic Colors on the DS, and I COMPLETELY fell in love with it. The high-speed quick-reflexes gameplay was exhilerating to me, almost lowkey addictive, and I spent a lot of time replaying levels trying to get higher and higher scores.

That was the game that made me a gamer. I wanted to become a collector after that, and now I have a whole shelf full of games and a steam library that borders on cluttered. I learned everything about Sonic lore, I played a bunch of games in the franchise and loved pretty much all of them, and I was really touched by story elements like Sonic being protected from Dark Gaia by his own self assurance and Maria having a rare terminal illness that made her unable to explore the world like she wanted to.

As for my favorite part of the franchise as a whole, it's really difficult to pick just one thing because there's so much I love about it, but if I had to pick one, it's just that it's so unapologetic. The lore is a rabbit hole of details, the gameplay changes often so there isn't really a set "Sonic Formula" (aside from going fast at least sometimes), the characters are so memorable and amazing in their own ways, it's just crazy and it's totally self-aware of how batshit it is and embraces it with total sincerity.

I'm afraid I don't really have an opinion on most of the Sonic cartoons though because...well, because I never watched them. I'm not really much of a movie or show person, it's video games that are my forte.

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

Played most of Sonic Unleashed for the first time recently.

Genuinely one of my favorite Sonic games. Favorite games in general even. The 3D level design in the Day stages is some of my favorite in the whole series. Not a single main stage I dislike.

The Werehog is an interesting take on the gameplay, and I appreciate what they were going for here, and also realize that something like the Werehog is mechanically necessary, since it's kind of impossible to market and sell a Triple AAA game that would be like, 2 hours at most if the Werehog wasn't there. Also, it is kind of fun to experience a gameplay style that contrasts so much, a slower puzzle platformer that still keeps with what Sonic's about, while having a fairly fun beat-em-up gameplay style to boot. Of course this pales in quality to the Day stages, but that's kind of what it's meant to do in a way. It feels like the entire team KNEW the Day stages exist at the peak of what Sonic the Hedgehog is. It gets to a point where I can get an S Rank on the level, and then play it again just for the fun of it, because this is some of the most fun I've had in a video game period. The changes in routes that happen at light speed, the intelligent emphasis on high-stakes to keep your run engaging, while making it all the more satisfying when it goes smoothly, and just like. Everything about it. Wow.

Also. This game honestly has a Final Level that puts most of every other Sonic game to shame. Nothing against things like Sonic Adventure 2's Final Rush, or Shadow Generation's Radical Highway, but really, they pale in comparison, in my eyes, to the apex that is Eggmanland. Eggmanland feels so brilliant to me because it by all means, feels like a burst of excitement like no other, excitement that they finally get to create Eggmanland, after teasing it for so long, after having it's construction a main motivation for Dr Robotnik ever since right around his first inception, has finally been created, and it lives up to that buildup and more. A level that combines all of Unleashed's gameplay styles into one in a beautiful way, all in a Dystopian Theme Park/City hybrid, which is so big it takes up most of the space on the small continent Dr. Eggman took as his own. The music, just like all of Unleashed music, is perfectly fit for the stage, and is just such an incredible music composition, with both the Day and Night themes shouting at you that this is the end of this game, a grueling romp through Eggman's cartoonish dystopia that is Eggmanland. It fucking rocks.

Genuinely this game is so fucking good. Always wanted to play it ever since Sonic X Shadow Generations got me fully back into Sonic, and by god does it deliver...

Even if the biggest issue to this game is the pacing issue the medals present, it kind of ends up feeling insignificant once your at the final act, because Jungle Joyride into Eggmanland is probably one of the strongest one-two punches I've seen a Sonic game do. Hell, games in general. Also, the Werehog does have some things that undercut some sauce he could have, I feel like the lock-on range for platforms is a bit too narrow, and he should be able to lock onto platforms after an attack, to give more cool movement/skipping opportunities that have always been a huge part of Sonic's identity. Either way, it does very well for what it is, and is a nice side-dish that complements the main course, a main course which is one of the best I've ever tasted. Fantastic game.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 63: Clip show to set up two-part finale 

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! Well it’s taken me a long time to get here - I first started this series back in December of 2022! But we’re almost at the end of our investigation at long last.

Episode 63: Clip show to set up two-part finale 

This is a trope you see in media from time to time - they’ll make the second-to-last story of the series a clip show, recapping what happened earlier in the season. This serves two purposes - to catch viewers up on what’s happened so far, and also to save the crew time and budget that they can put towards making a spectacular finale instead. That said, the first purpose is probably a little rarer these days as almost all shows that have a serialised story will have a “Previously on…” segment at the beginning of each episode, and a longer one that recaps the entire season for the finale. Some shows really lean hard into this - take Supernatural for example, which set all 15 of its season finales to the music of, “Carry on My Wayward Son,” by Kansas.

In my opinion, the best ever pre-series finale clip show was done by Avatar: The Last Airbender. Instead of doing a typical clip show that re-used footage from previous episodes, Team Avatar attended a play that retold the story of their adventures up until this point. This episode leaned heavily into a lot of the show’s memes, such as the play acknowledging that it would be best to skip over The Great Divide, what most fanss feel is the worst episode of the series. Aang and friends were upset with the way the actors on stage were portraying them, with Aang being outraged he was being played by a bald woman, Sokka annoyed that his actor’s jokes weren’t funny, and Zuko and Katara insisting that they don’t spend all day long talking about honour and hope, respectively.

The only exception was Toph, who was delighted to be portrayed by a gigantic buff dude who overcame his blindness by using echo-location screaming.

But what about in ArchieSonic? Sure, we had clip shows. And we had a number of different stories one could count as series finales. But we didn’t really get a pre-finale clip show episode. So what did we get instead?

While it wasn’t in the final ever-published issue of Sonic the Hedgehog, the story “Panic in the Sky,” which ran in issues 284 - 287, more or less serves as a finale to the series. I’ll go into that more when I get to it. Today I want to talk about the issue that came before those, Sonic #283. Taking place right before the climax of the Sonic Unleashed adaptation, at this point of the story the Freedom Fighters had managed to get their hands on all the Chaos Emeralds and Gaia Temple keys, and were preparing to launch their plan to restore the planet. Rather than visiting each of the Gaia Temples across the world one at a time like in the game, the Freedom Fighters planned to take advantage of the Gaia Gate to access all the temples at once from a central location. The idea was that they could quickly slip inside via the gate, avoiding Eggman’s armies that were guarding the temples and restoring the planet before Eggman even realised what was happening. But to do this they needed help, so Sonic and Sally did a Discord call with their friends and allies around the world. 

This had the benefit of also acting as an almost-clipshow for the readers, catching them up with what had been happening and preparing them for the climax. 

Everyone in the call agreed to help and the Freedom Fighters signed off in good spirits, confident that they had managed to pull one over on Eggman. However…

Tails Doll was able to spy on the broadcast without the Freedom Fighters realising it, and so Eggman quickly found out about their secret plan.

While initially furious that the Freedom Fighters had tried to trick him, Eggman quickly realised he could turn their plans against them and got to work hosting his own secret Zoom call.

How did this turn out for everyone? I’ll get into that next episode!

There was of course another story that was originally intended to be the grand finale for ArchieSonic, and that was the Endgame arc that took place in Sonic #47 - 50. While the series obviously didn’t end there, I feel like we should have a look at that one too. So did we get a clip show in the previous issue, Sonic #46? Well… not really. 

The closest we got was Uncle Chuck presenting video evidence to the Freedom Fighters that Robotnik had sabotaged his original roboticiser design. Notably this included footage of Sonic’s own father being roboticised, which bizarrely Sonic didn’t seem to notice or comment on.

That seems like quite an oversight. Who wrote this anyway? Three guesses it’s-

…oh. Well, I was partially right at least. 😛

While this issue wasn’t really a clip show, it did have a lot of set up for the Endgame arc.

This included the resolution of Knuckles’ quest to find King Acorn’s missing sword that could supposedly restore his health…

…the introduction of the Wolfpack Freedom Fighters (who had previously only been seen in SatAM and were making their first appearance in the comics)...

…and the revelation that there might be a spy among us.

Sorry, I had to. 😛 Seriously though, the suggestion that someone among the various Freedom Fighter groups might be a traitor was a pretty serious allegation, especially right before the big Endgame event the readers knew was coming. And there were numerous candidates for who the traitor could be.

Geoffrey pointed the finger at Uncle Chuck, whose spy network had failed to notice the coming of the Death Egg and had already had one confirmed traitor working for them.

Antoine accused Geoffrey, who he claimed had stolen the D’Coolette family’s legacy of the Rebel Underground.

Also, the way he attempted to execute Sonic just for punching him in the face certainly didn’t make him look any less suspicious.

And then there was Drago, a new character who had been introduced in that same issue, who wasn’t even part of the SatAM Wolfpack, and who apparently had a habit of wandering off unsupervised. Hmmmm…

HMMMMMMMM.

But wait! The following issue hit us with the possibility that Sonic himself might possibly be the traitor! …more on that later though. For now, let's finish our discussion of #46 with my very favourite moment:

Leave it to the dragon to have the sick burn! :D

One other clipshow that I wanted to address - and haven’t previously in either of the other two episodes I dedicated to this topic - comes from Sonic #72.

I think I did bring this one up at some point in a different topic, but not in the context of a clipshow episode. This story was about King Max making a broadcast to his people only for the airwaves to be hacked to instead show a pirated broadcast telling the life story of the late Dr. Robotnik.

This clipshow wasn’t set prior to a finale, but rather just before the beginning of a new era in the comic - the rise of Robo-Robotnik (or as he would later be called, Dr. Eggman). This was very cleverly done if you ask me.

It not only reminded the readers of Robotnik’s backstory but also of his encounter with Robo-Robotnik back in Sonic #22, hinting at who the new villain’s real identity so that the big reveal in #75 didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. On top of that the clipshow also foreshadowed things to come in the next year or two in the comic, such as the return of Overlanders to the planet, and specifically, Robotnik’s brother.

Well played, Karl Bollers!

Are there any other clip shows that I missed, in this episode or any of the previous ones? Let me know in the comments! Next time I’m going to start wrapping things up, because it’s finally time to talk about the two-part four-part finale! See you then!

[aotopmha]

On my Sonic revisit, I'm now almost done with Sonic Mania, I revisited some of Sonic Adventure 2 and I haven't really been able to get back to Sonic Advance 2.

Firstly, I just haven't been able to get back to Sonic Advance 2 because I've wanted to play other games more. I absolutely like Mania and SA2 more, even if Advance 2 was fun in its own right.

Secondly, I love Sonic Mania aside from a couple of annoying bosses (the Flying Battery boss in particular) and some of the later stages starting to feel a little bit too long. It's not wholly original, but it has such strong gameplay identity between all of the stages.

And this strong gameplay identity between stages is what still keeps me interested in trying Sonic Superstars (despite how annoying some of the bosses look), some of the stages themselves look really good. I just hate that Superstars is still so expensive and it doesn't look like they've ironed out any of the jank.

There are sales here and there so I think I will eventually get it via those, but it's still crazy how you can get Sonic Mania for 6th of the price and not have kind of a mess of a game on your hands.

I do, however, wish for them to iterate on Superstars, just like Frontiers so I could maybe get their better, more polished sequels. They at least seem to have strong foundation to build upon even if I actually haven't played them.

Thirdly, I made it to Mission Street in the Sonic story of Sonic Adventure 2.

The Sonic stages of Sonic Adventure 2 are still evergreen. Every single one has been a blast to play and replay.

I also think there is something very evergreen about the awkward, poorly acted (and this absolutely is direction because Heroes sounds much better to me), but very fun and sincere story. It's great anime cheese.

I also actually don't mind the shooting or treasure hunting stages at this point. Treasure hunting is annoying because of the horrible radar, but all of it controls fine.

Shooting can even be a bit fun with the targeting combo system. I just rather would've had everyone have Sonic-styled stages with their own touch. I really do value how Sonic stuff tries to keep it fresh, but it's always in such imperfect ways.

The Adventure games are such wild games because I think they have the most discrepency out of all Sonic games I've played on which parts of the game I engage with after the first playthrough (that I actually like, I think the Wii version of Unleashed technically fits this, but in hindsight I do not think any of it was beyond alright, with Sonic stages being really simple and barren and the Werehog stages just overwhelming regular Sonic gameplay with just really standard platforming stuff).

I spent hours on the Sonic stages in SA1.

And I spent hours upon hours replaying the Sonic and Shadow stages in SA2.

They alone made the game worth it for just how evergreen they were to me and for just how much I played them.

In SA1 at least there were fewer stages for the other characters, so the less good characters also had fewer stages as a result, but it isn't even a 3rd of the game in volume in SA2 because the later treasure hunting stages can last so long.

But I have fond memories of these games because I had so much fun with this one aspect.

I haven't played the 360/PS3 version of Unleashed either, but I suspect I would feel the same with that game because the day stages look so much fun, but they're so uneven in terms of playtime.

Hoping for an eventual good PC port, seeing as how much of a mess the Colours port ended up being (and also did not end up entirely fixed) and also how imperfect the SA2 port is (still very fun to me, tho).

All of this said, looking at upcoming Sonic stuff, I think Shadow Generations looks really good as a game, but it's also once again fairly expensive, especially for a remaster with an addition to it that is supposedly not as long as the original and for a game that wasn't a full-priced release to begin with when it first released.

(This time it at least makes much more sense than with Superstars, however, considering they got a movie tie-in element with *Keanu Reeves* in it out of all actors. I actually still find it wild he's voicing Shadow in the third movie.)

I also expected Superstars to be really good and that absolutely came with its own issues that made me not want to get it right away at release price, so expensive or not, I'm just waiting for impressions.

Generations is probably my favourite 3D Sonic game, though. The Adventure games control better, but Generations is a game I really enjoy all the way through with the exception of maybe the last stage being too long and the final boss not being that good.

It's short, but sweet: a collection of infinitely replayable stages that are really fun to perfect and speedrun.

(Now do that, but with Adventure controls.)

So this is a game I really hope is really good and justifies its price (and also stops the series of janky rereleases).

Finally, I also watched the newly released animation for Shadow Generations, which was really good because it leaned into the sincere elements of Shadow's character as in SA2, rather than the unfun Shadow the Hedgehog stuff. (I even actually kind of liked some of Shadow's stuff in the 06 story more than anything in ShtH.)

If they somehow make any of that work better in hindsight, I'll applaud them.

[vioyume]

Sonic's dark era was really onto something, it just needed some major fine tuning when it comes to game play and some of the writing. It's also the era with the most stunning cut scenes.

Obviously the biggest turning point was 06 and that made Sega afraid to try anything that ambitious again (Mostly because they shot their own foot in speeding up development and cutting the team in half). You can clearly see what the team wanted the game to be, the story can leave an impact if you ignore the glitchy and questionable game play. There is a reason why some people like the game, and I'm pretty sure this is one of them.

Though the games after it were overall decent, I think Unleashed was good game play (and content) wise, and Black Knight was good for story. Though that can be debatable. Everything afterwards was meh in my opinion until Frontiers (I'm looking forward for what this era will offer, and frontiers still has its flaws). Forces has nothing to offer besides the concept of Eggman taking over and Sonic being imprisoned for barely half the game.

Sonic doesn't need a big story line for every game, and I am one to play games for story/world building. The characters themselves can carry a simple plot if written well. The classics era is proof of that, while the story is pretty straight forward, the manuals with the little character info cards gets you engaged in the world and imagine how these characters will react with their surroundings.

I don't know where I'm going with this. All I'm saying is that the dark era of modern sonic had more meat than the games afterwards. I liked Colors, but Sonic was mostly "ha ha baldy nose hair, right Tails?" while not really convincing me to play more of the game, also one of the missed opportunities to have him fight Tails. Still a charming game if you only care for the game aspect of it, but it's pretty safe.

[skaruresonic]

I was going to make a broader overarching point about how IDW's version of the characters seem more interested in virtue-signalling than in proving their goodness through their deeds, but I got a bit tuckered out. Anyway. Tl;dr for the wall of text ahead: the games still win in this regard. By a landslide.

In Unleashed, Sonic can accept a sidequest from a little Mazuri girl named Yaya. Normally, Yaya is shy, perhaps even nonverbal, and will flee if you attempt to talk to her. It's rare to see her during the day, so when you spot her out in the open, cowering but attempting to communicate to the best of her ability, it's a clue that she wants something badly enough to risk her fears. After several false starts, Yaya manages to ask Sonic to get her a chocolate sundae. She doesn't explain why, nor do you immediately receive a reward when you give it to her. It's only later, after Yaya's mother recovers, that you learn the reason for her odd request. Mom was sick, and Yaya wanted to give her a sundae to help make her feel better. Despite avoiding you until now, she managed to swallow her fears for the sake of her mother.

It's sweet, as well as a humanizing moment for Yaya, her mother, and Sonic. As a good deed, it's nothing grand. Giving someone food when they're sick isn't nearly as lofty as air-dropping food to a nation in need, certainly, but in Unleashed, you at least see the tangible effect you've had on the people you helped. You just brightened the day of a mother and her daughter.

Through sidequests like these, Unleashed shows us that no act of kindness, however small or inconsequential seeming, is wasted.

Conversely, one of the... myriad reasons this panel rubs me the wrong way is that it achieves almost the opposite effect. The people of Mazuri are instead objectified. They're a monolith, a statistic, to help polish the Restoration's reputation to a sterling sheen. In this regard, they might as well be props.

We hear about this aid nearly secondhand, as it's something Silver, Blaze, and Jewel intend to do but haven't yet. All the scene is intended to do is make the Restoration look good, as though by mere dint of being called the Restoration, we couldn't put 2 and 2 together and figure it out.

The one time we're informed of their humanitarian aid, we're not shown it. So really, what was the point of bringing it up, if not to stroke the heroes' self-righteous boner?

Inaccuracies to the games aside (which is par for the course for the book), there's all sorts of... unsavory implications at play here. Blaze "was touring" Sonic's world when she happened upon Mazuri's plight. Because we're not given much detail other than "poor crops this season," we have to assume Blaze took some initiative to ease the situation.

Take a moment to think about this. Blaze hails from a water world. How would she know what constitutes sufficient crop failure to warrant shipping aid to a completely different clime than the one she's most familiar with? How does she know what "poor crop season" looks like in Mazuri? How does she know she doesn't have any biases about the way people in Mazuri should approach their agriculture? Does she understand they eat more than just crops, and sell fruit and broiled ibanga as well as confections? If this is her first time touring Sonic's world, how does she approach the government of its denizens? Did she do this respectfully? Did she confer with Mazuri's Elders? Did the people seek her help? Did they say Out Loud With Their Mouths that they'd accept her help, or did she presume their needs? We don't receive answers to any of those questions. She "was touring" the area when she saw a problem worth correcting. The thought starts and ends there. The people of Mazuri do not merit a voice or agency in the matter, because all that really matters here is that you know how virtuous Blaze, Jewel, and Silver are for helping the less fortunate in their time of need. (Which is really ironic, considering Surge calls Sonic out for speaking over her and Kit when they're standing right in front of him in the exact same issue.)

Add the connotations that Flynn frequently describes Blaze as "the imperial princess of the Sol Empire" instead of "duchess" or "guardian of the Sol Emeralds"... Marry them with the implication that she's butting into the business of a foreign nation when we don't know the specifics of their plight, they're just Objects to show us how virtuous our heroes are, and this whole onion of suckage starts to reek.