#name other bad games aside from sonic 06

[sunvisetrip]

what a badly made game looks like as described:

[simplyofthestars]

I'm yapping about some sonic shit i came up with (maybe a fangame if i actually knew how to game develop but im learning)

Okay so everybody knows and loves shadow right? and then there's Shadows shadow who every one knows is Mephiles and Mephiles doesn't get shit from Sega.

Yeah he might be in some games but that's just as playable skins and makes cameos every now and then (correct me if im wrong). His main role as an antagonist went to one of the worst Sonic games in history and I personally believe that he deserves something better than that.

HE'S SUPER COOL

He was a big bad who was a sun god split in half like how cool is that? And his design was fucking awesome, like look at this:

Even just by looking at him you're like "This guy is up to no good" cause he's so evil and icy looking which is the opposite of Iblis (still evil looking but fire related instead)

Now I don't give a flying FUCK that this guy is canonically dead, it's Sonic 06 so nothing is canon (aside from the managing to actually kill sonic part, i wanna keep that in)

You rn: "Okay pump the brakes yapfest, the tags promised me sonadow and rouge the bat. What do they have to with Mii-files."

Me: "SsssshHHshHSHsHHHHHHHhhhh. I getting to that."

Now imagine this with me Rouge stans,

✨Evil counterpart that is like the Rouge version of Mephiles✨

"Oh but that can't happen cause Mephiles wasn't originally a copy of shadow he just took that form"

"Mephiles didn't even meet Rouge"

"Mephiles is dead"

SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP, LET ME DREAM

EVIL ROUGE

Rouge is a boss bitch who's such an under-used concept in Sonic games and she deserves a game when she's the STAR and not on the sidelines.

Like you can't be serving this much cunt and just be a side character

So Mephiles was named after Mephistopheles who's a german demon guy (either that or Mephitis which is poison gas from swamps and volcanos and stuff) So why not give evil Rouge a name that'll make half the christian population angry? (And to the chill christians who're fine with that, you guys are cool i like you guys)

So I was thinkin: "Hmmmmmmmmmm. Rouge wants the chaos emeralds for her own gain and cause they look pretty. I mean that would sit her somewhere under Envy (cause she WANTS that shit, also im not calling her mammon(greed) or belphegor (sloth)) so that's Leviathan. I would have to re-name her into something that still lets you know 'yeah that's rouge' but also lets you know 'that's not our rouge' so I guess I'll make it Levia (Leh-vee-ah) or Levia (Leh-v-eye-ah)" (ya'll choose which pronounciation ya'll like)

THE STORY OR SOMETHING

So Levia and Mephiles are like "Okay, brother we ain't having that shit, time to kill everyone" for no reason (my excuse is cause I haven't figured it out yet)

Sonadow fans: "LIAR"

Me: "FINE I'LL EXPLAIN THE SONADOW PART"

SONADOW SEGMENT

Everybody knows how fruity they were in Prime and the fact that Sonic (sort of) HUGGED Shadow and he was just like "yep this is happening" and didn't force Sonic to take his hand away like in the past was a dead giveaway

Now obviously they're still arch enemies (what's he arching? his back? okay I'm done I'll get back to explaining) but they would obviously be closer after the past 23 YEARS that they've been fighting. And everyone knows that when it comes to fighting each other they don't hesitate (I mean maybe Sonic does) but then an even bigger evil shows up (Mephiles for example) and they work together.

EXAMPLES:

Nines in Prime (Working together to get their univese back)

Black Doom (Stopping Shadows evil dad from killing all of humanity)

Mephiles and Iblis (Trying to stop them from forming Solaris)

Eggman in fucking everything

Okay I'm out of examples since I know Sonic stuff but im not THAT much of a nerd

So yap yap yap, yada yada yada, they gay

BACK TO THE STORY OR SOMETHING

Levia and Mephiles build a giant evil omega (no i'm not calling him Alpha or Beta, im tired of those jokes) who is basically as big as eggmans death egg in the 2nd movie (but like half the size since he still needs to go everywhere with Levia and Mephiles)

He doesn't actually fight or that would be unfair so he just puts his arms around the battlefield, smacks them down every now and then to shake the ground and keep you on your toes and just sits there.

Now for obvious reasons, Mephiles changes his form a little since he can't look like Shadow forever and learns how to sustain himself without Iblis and fights like a champ but Levia is like "Dude, we can't do nothing without the chaos emeralds if we want to destroy this world and it's meaningless purpose" and Mephiles is like "Ight" and that's as far as I've gotten

I'm going to draw them maybe and ya'll sit tight 🫡

[crusherthedoctor]

Out of all game character-related discourse, Silver's is probably the one that drains my energy the quickest, even more than the most infuriating of Eggman-related misinterpretations. Because when you're monstrously apathetic towards a character even when they're actually portrayed correctly, it's really hard to defend them against OoC portrayals with the same level of resolve that you'd have if it were a character you were invested in.

So I'll defend his "honor" out of obligation, and for the sake of being fair and equal, because I still hate it when a character is blatantly not themself. But hand on heart, I don't believe Silver is a great character ruined by Archie/IDW. I believe he's a mediocre character made worse by Archie/IDW.

With other mainstay characters I'm less-than-100%-adoring towards, there's usually still a significant upside for me to latch onto. Sonic has a lot of traits that I can admire. I like Amy conceptually, and I can love her when she's at her best. Shadow has a game to his name that isn't good (including the story, despite what some fans claim nowadays), but is very ironically enjoyable to fool around with. Silver? Aside from a good boss fight in Generations, and a nice moment against Infinite in Forces, there's just nothing going on with him on my end.

It's to the point where, when fans say he's earned his place in the franchise because of how long he's stuck around, I always think... has he? Has he really earned his place as a recurring character, or was he just lucky to have debuted in a mainline game, even if that mainline game was '06, rather than a spinoff where he'd be more likely to be used once and then barely ever again? Yes, being in a mainline game doesn't always guarantee this for sure with its characters, but with how hard they pushed Silver as essentially the next Shadow, there was no way they were going to abandon him outright, no matter the backlash to '06. And while it might not be fair to judge him for that single Mephiles-trusting appearance alone, I don't think he's done much to elevate himself since then either, instead he keeps hanging around because... because. His journey to stardom, if one can call it that, always felt artificial and unearned to me, not unlike Zavok and his post-Lost World appearances. And if it's fair to criticise the latter, then well...

I don't know. I don't outright hate Silver like I do with certain other characters, but it feels like the unspoken agreement that Silver was this top tier character who was ONLY let down by the comics is something that I'm just expected to agree with without question, similar to the common insistence that there was nothing good about the Pontaff games, or that Flynn is the best Sonic writer because reasons.

It also probably doesn't help that I had a lot of bad experiences with Silver fans back in the day. I try not to let that cloud my judgement since most Silver fans I see nowadays are thankfully much more friendly and reasonable, but... yeah, shit happens. And maybe I might be bitter that so many characters I do really like rarely get used by comparison.

[ramblrthebloghog]

Shadow Fall ‘Review’

Due to discourse around the way Shadow was in IDW, I have decided to go through Shadow Fall from Reboot Archie. The way Ian Flynn seemed to want him to be done while being a little more mindful of the games, with slightly less restriction than IDW. With these different rules, I aim to see if Ian is in the right about Shadow or if maybe he just isn’t great with him. I don’t think there’s a point in looking at Preboot because of how different things are there. At least Reboot tried to act like it considered the games’ portrayals and rules. While I’m primarily looking at Shadow, I’ll also be looking at other things that stood out that I found incompatible with game lore or with game characterizations. Not posting a page means I didn’t really find an issue worth bringing up. It should go without saying but I don’t hate Ian or anything. Just critical of his work.

Something I’d like to note about Omega. It continues even to this day in IDW, but Ian writes Omega as purely a comic relief character. Omega was never a comic relief character (aside from the non-canon Chronicles, which was an outlier that got plenty of other things wrong aside from Omega only being “LOL MEATBAGS”). He had one or two comedic lines in Heroes, but was otherwise very straightforward. I’m not going to call out every instance of Omega the Jokebot in this arc, but if it’s relevant in a page I post, I’ll bring attention to it again. I think this ultimately harms the way Ian approaches Omega—he may never be able to write an Omega on par with 06 if he only sees him as a vessel for laughs. With all that being said, the idea behind this particular instance isn’t even that bad. Omega requesting they dock faster in order to proceed to the mission quickly (and thus get to the destroying/proving his strength) is fine for him, but not in this ‘excited child’ manner.

I don’t know for certain if there being another Black Comet with more Black Arms violates game lore, since as far as I know it’s never been stated and shown explicitly, but I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt that the pitch for this story being approved at all means it doesn’t really violate anything. I like Eclipse anyway. But we’ll get to him.

On a separate note, we’ve reached one of the largest elephants in the room. Team Dark and GUN. I’ll say this now: I don’t believe Sega is wrong about Team Dark from what we’ve heard secondhand courtesy of Ian. The trio doesn’t call themselves ‘Team Dark’ in Heroes, 06, or Forces. They call themselves that in racing competitions—Free Riders and TSR, and the latter actually cuts mention of that name in the JP version. That name IS a ‘brand’ for promotional stuff and merch. Arguably, all Team names are a ‘brand’ except for the Chaotix, since in-universe they run their agency, and the Babylon Rogues, since they are known widely under that moniker. Them being ‘friends’ or not is a different discussion, but I will say that calling them friends vastly oversimplifies their dynamic. Shadow doesn’t call people friends, he calls them ‘ally’. They are together because they constantly work together, not because we have evidence they hang out like Sonic and Tails. Additionally, they’ve only worked for GUN in one game, and that was 06. Maybe they’re working for GUN in Forces or TSR, but it’s not said, so it can’t be assumed for certain. I see the appeal behind making them work for GUN and understand the misconception behind the idea that they do, so I won’t say it’s a huge issue that Ian writes that to be the case here, but it’s also not an issue that it’s barred from IDW. In short, forcing Team Dark bad, putting them with GUN fine. I’ll call out any other instance that I find particularly egregious/not in-line with the games.

I guess I should give praise where it’s due, and so far there’s nothing wrong with Shadow’s dialogue and stuff.

And lastly… Omega again. Whatever.

They’re trying to set up something of a dilemma as Shadow faces his own kind, but there’s no reason the Shadow who eliminated the Black Arms at the end of his game would have this quandary about that now. Quite a bit of the Shadow the Hedgehog game feels straight up rejected despite this arc acting as a sequel to that game. I suppose I should praise Omega being pretty good here. And Rouge’s concern for Shadow is good.

Shadow would never say that. It’s little stuff like this that I bet today’s Sega would take issue with, and for good reason.

The issue of this gas is a little tricky. This technically follows what the game says… in English. In Japanese, the gas is only harmful after a chemical reaction from mixing with Earth’s atmosphere. A minor issue, as this wasn’t corrected on the page and it was a lot harder to know what the games were like in Japanese back then than it is now.

Another tough issue here. Shadow’s Chaos Control and the status of if it can be used without an Emerald is a topic still hotly debated even today. This is also something that is somewhat forgivable, since it was working off the reasonable fanon notion that Shadow can realize that power in a small amount (essentially Chaos Snap) without an Emerald. So long as everyone understands this wouldn’t quite fly exactly the same today, all is good. So far I think it was just Issue 6 of IDW that saw him use Chaos Snap without any Emerald.

Onto Issue 2. Black Death describes using humans and Earth for food. I’ll talk more about it later, but reducing the goal of the Black Arms and Doom to this is stripping them of depth, to say the least.

I’d like to offer a moment of praise here though. Omega was done right, being funny even though he was just speaking factually. And a simple line like Black Death talking about consuming other races adds to the legitimacy of the threat the Black Arms pose, and gives some nice optics to humans for their tenacity.

Not quite a compatibility criticism, but it’s not super clear on how Black Death created a being as strong as Eclipse, in comparison to other regular Black Arms.

Anyway, I love everything about how Eclipse tries to tempt Shadow, and it’s poetic that eventually him trying to do that and giving him that chance will doom the remaining Black Arms. But we soon run into another problem page.

Two massive issues here. Black Doom is supposed to be the head honcho and this arc respects that, but Shadow was able to resist his mind control.

And that’s his direct father. Eclipse just talking to Shadow mentally and showing him things would’ve been fine, but directly exerting control is not something that should’ve happened. Black Death also shouldn’t be able to have control over him. I get the intent that maybe combining their powers helped it work, maybe you can pretend that Eclipse’s powers as a countermeasure combatted Shadow’s resistance, but it really isn’t a thing that should’ve happened regardless. At least, in my opinion. The other big problem is of course Shadow’s motivation. That promise that supposed Shadow ‘fans’ still cling onto. I’m going to say something that’s not up for debate: Shadow should not still be motivated by Maria and her wish after his game.

It does not get more blatant than throwing that photo away and proceeding to a song about how you’ll never turn that way again and move on. This isn’t just about Maria, it’s about every facet of Shadow’s past. Gerald, Doom’s evil wishes, Maria’s good wish, all of it is behind him after killing Black Doom. That is what needed to be maintained and this arc and later Total Eclipse will fail to maintain that. Maybe it makes everyone else clap because they think Shadow should still be motivated by Maria and her wish, but it’s stuff like this that makes me believe that Shadow Fall is a rejection of his own game. It’s fine to be a rehash, but it’s not fine to toss aside what the game itself was beating you over the head about. (I know some people may try to use Sonic Battle as an argument for Mariadow, but that game was written before Shadow the Hedgehog, so it should be viewed under a special lens and be retrofitted to work with this direction. Every other game followed this direction anyway.)

In terms of a story criticism, I found it a little weird that Eclipse is so chill with having Shadow controlled for him to return to the Black Arms. I thought that him having free will meant he wanted Shadow to freely choose to stand beside him as well. But I guess he’ll take what he can get. Anyway, I’m man enough to admit that mind-controlled Shadow is at least cool.

Onto Issue 3. Another instance where Omega is both funny while not completely compromising him for a laugh. Something to mention is that last issue drew the Chaos Spears correctly, but this page reverts to the Archie version of literally making it a spear. It’s never been like this in the games and it was annoying to see IDW do that too.

I haven’t brought up Rouge, but that’s because so far I found her to be good, completely fine and in-line. Here’s where that kind of ends though. This moment isn’t as great as it’s trying to be. Rouge has never really dealt with Shadow using this harsh of an approach. I get that it was “what was needed” to get through to him under mind control, but… it shouldn’t have been? I just don’t think it really accurately represents how Rouge handles wrangling Shadow or supporting him in rough times. That being said, this is adjusted within the next two pages.

This page is so mixed for me. In Rouge’s case, it starts out really well in those top three panels. That’s the tenderness and support I thought was missing, and I can tolerate her playful teasing about dredging up Maria. Shadow and Omega drop the ball here for me though. Omega is unfunny here, and they’re both forced into this “team moment” that is exactly the kind of thing that fans want and Sega doesn’t. I get it. Team Dark’s bond is super appealing. But people need to remember that the development they underwent in 06 does not carry over. They won’t act like that again unless directed to undergo a trial like that again and let it stick. If not, they will act as they do in Forces, which matches Shadow’s “all-business” attitude at the beginning of his 06 campaign. This page is obviously trying to do something close to the effect of 06-esque Team Dark bonding and I think it falls flat. I don’t think them standing around professing their love for each other like this is good or sensible for them. It’s not in-line with the games and how they’re supposed to act. The 06 moment works largely because of its context. Trying to recapture that magic here feels like it didn’t understand what made that moment work, even though I do see value in making them affirm their trust in one another—hence why Rouge’s part is so good.

I don’t think Shadow would call them partners. I think it’s more fitting if he were to call them allies here. This is the Ultimate problem with Ian and the Ultimate Lifeform. He’s far too heavy-handed, and I think to write Shadow well takes a degree of nuance. And I think it’s a matter of nuance based on how we heard from him that Shadow’s monologue in IDW #31 wasn’t approved until they were thought bubbles contained to his mind only. Ian’s not the only one to struggle, of course. This isn’t worse than Boom or even Generations. But it’s not good either and I think that needs to be said. Ian is not being held back from greatness by Sega in regards to Shadow. Ian has just never really gotten Shadow as well as someone like, say, Knuckles.

When Sega says Team Dark isn’t a team or that they aren’t friends, it’s because this inaccurate portrayal is the exact kind of thing they’re aiming to prevent. Shadow is never gonna say “Team Dark, roll out!” in IDW and that is for the better. Of course, that’s a little harder to argue when disparities like this exist.

Credit where it’s due, this is the best from Shadow in this entire arc. This is how you handle him. He will complete his goals and won’t hear otherwise, and he’s made his own choices. And of course this looks badass.

Finally, Issue 4. Black Death’s powers are pretty cool. His attempt at swaying Shadow falling on deaf ears is exactly what should be happening. Shadow himself here is good. Once again reiterating ‘choice’, and even having the cool stoic ominous statement of “make your peace before the end”. That being said, it all goes to ruin very quickly with the next page.

When people think of Shadow Fall, they think of this page. This page is quintessential Shadow Fall, and is probably why a lot of people really resonate with this arc. And I’ll admit the cool factor here is pretty obvious. But I’ll go so far as to say this is the worst page of the entire arc.

Firstly, THIS is peak ‘Muhria’. No post-Shadow 05 agency, nope, he’s doing this because he made the promise. I get that it makes people clap, but it’s wrong. 06 was able to handle Shadow in a compelling way without dredging her up, and we all kind of agree that’s the best Shadow aside from SA2, so why is this so hard to emulate? When I look at stuff like this, it makes it hard to believe Ian is writing a proper Shadow that big bad Sega is striking down and leads me to instead believe that he falls into fanon traps that need to be stopped. This reliance on Muhria is one of them.

Secondly, this is exactly why I say they stripped the Black Arms of their depth. Shadow’s answers here—“destruction of everyone else”, “see everyone as fuel”, “thousand ravenous monsters”—fly in the face of Black Doom’s nuance. 

Black Doom believed he was giving humanity a good purpose, salvation, via turning them into an energy source for Black Arms. This way they wouldn’t destroy themselves. Now, it could be argued that this larger goal was cast aside once the Black Arms’ numbers were reduced, but I’d believe that if it were ever acknowledged at all. If Black Death ever referenced Doom’s larger plan and said they weren’t in a position to act like that. I may not have liked that either, but it’d at least be acknowledging Black Doom’s real plan as opposed to just… sanding everything down. Ian’s talked about the Black Arms on Bumblekast a few times and doesn’t seem to view them or Doom as anything more “they eat people”.

Lastly, maybe it’s because it’s easier to draw, maybe it’s because that’s how Archie did it before, but that is not the way Shadow’s Inhibitor Rings work in Sonic X or in 06. They aren’t bracelets that snap on and off like that, they’re bangles that slide off. I’m certain if we saw the Rings come off in IDW, they’d appear like this to actually be respectful to the source material. This disregard for the source material in such a small way is emblematic of larger problems with Archie.

Just wanted to say I did clap at “SU062”. Monster Form is cool. Omega’s first speech bubble was good before his second and third devolved.

I’d like to call to attention that Shadow removed his Inhibitors here and won the fight. While I can’t speak definitively, it adds credence to a personal theory I have that Shadow’s Inhibitors being removed during IDW’s Metal Virus was denied because he would’ve lost, and that’s simply a no-no regarding the Rings.

I’d also like to say that poor Eclipse in these pages did a really good job of making me feel bad for his situation and the annihilation of the rest of his people.

Final nitpick? I’m not sure what Rouge meant by “unprotected” in the vacuum of space. Being stuck there or falling is dangerous, but it’s not like they wear space suits or have a problem breathing there.

All in all, it’s a nice arc, but it shouldn’t be seen as evidence that Ian can write a proper game-accurate Shadow. On the contrary, unfortunately. I don’t think I have anything more to say beyond what I’ve said thus far. Thank you for reading. I will cover Total Eclipse in the future, but I highly doubt it will be this lengthy when I do.

[beevean]

You know what? All the key characters of the series got shafted aside in Sonic 06. The “supposed” anniversary game.

Sonic was sidelined while Shadow got the better role.

Eggman wasn’t even much of a threat or big boss which went to the poorly executed Mephelis.

Amy got horrible reception for siding with Sonic over the world while everyone was applauding Rouge and Omega who were saying the exact same thing towards Shadow. Just worded differently.

Tails and Knuckles where just clutter and had little impact to Sonic’s story unlike Blaze was to Silver or Rouge & Omega for Shadow. Seriously, the fox and echidna should’ve had something meaningful with Sonic in that game. How about THEY express they’d stay by Sonic’s side despite chances the future would be ruined like Silver (falsely)accuses him for?

I’m not upset with 06 about the gameplay or story. I’m upset that the characters who should’ve got better treatment in 06 were downplayed in favor of others who should’ve got the back burner or made little sense.

100% agree

This is the main reason I cannot defend '06's story. That, and how needlessly convoluted it gets thanks to the non established rules of time travelling.

You can tell the game was made at the peak of Shadow's popularity because he's literally the only character who's given proper respect. He gets the best scenes, the best lines, he's the smartest by far, and he's the most proactive. This game is literally ShTH 2, except nowhere near as funny.

The way Sonic is shuffled to a side plot in an anniversary game named after himself is simply embarassing. He's literally on the same level as Big in Adventure 1! Big is artificially made relevant to the macroplot because he keeps chasing Froggy, who has a Chaos Emerald and a part of Chaos inside it; Sonic is artificially made relevant to the macroplot because he keeps rescuing Elise, who has a Chaos Emerald and the Flames of Disaster inside her. Wow. Poor Eggman too, not only he's barely important to the plot, not only he randomly dies in a mundane accident, but even Mike Pollock sounds bored out of his skull when voicing him. Everyone sans for Shadow (and arguably Rouge) is so bland and lifeless here!

Tails and Knuckles are just sad. Tails gets Wave Ocean 2 for literally no reason other than to pad out the already long and padded game. You could literally edit Knuckles out and nothing would change, you'd just get less headaches because you wouldn't need to surgically remove him from the walls. And while Amy at least gets some cute scenes (although yeah that "if I had to choose between the world and Sonic" scene got heavily misunderstood, it was part of a recurring theme!), Blaze was written in a way that you could really think she's a mere figment of Silver's imagination.

And we all know by this point that Mephiles, the new big bad guy in town, comes off as a giant idiot for how stupid his 4D chess playing is. Again, the time travelling in this game is lazy.

I get that the game was rushed to hell and back, and I'm sure that it affected the story too, but some things can't be justified by rushing, like the amount of importance Shadow got.

[bulgariansumo]

The Messy Relationship Between Sonic and Localization

Ask any Sonic fan and they’ll tell you that the fandom is one of the most fractured things to ever exist. It’s a miracle whenever we can all agree, and that usually comes from us collectively hating something (Sonic Movie’s original design, Ken Penders, etc.)--and even then, there’s a dedicated few who disagree. Many of us have such differing opinions on what the series “should” be, that satisfying all--or even a majority--of Sonic fans is next to impossible. How did it get this way? I think it has a lot to do with localization.

Classic Era

The 1990’s wasn’t the best decade when it came to localizing anything, especially not video games. Often, some creative liberties would be taken when adapting a source from Japanese to English.  The Sonic franchise was no exception to this. The first split comes from the game manuals. Me and @rontufox​ already made a post discussing this, but the Japanese manuals gave a little background info on the series’ lore and worldbuilding. The English versions gave a bare-bones description of the premise of each game, but that’s about it. There were no mentions of an apocalypse caused by people misusing the Chaos Emeralds, of Sonic finding the ring that would foreshadow Knuckles Chaotix, or of Knuckles thinking the Death Egg was a ‘Dragon’s Egg’ described in ancient legends. Sonic went to a bunch of colorful zones, beat up Dr. Robotnik, collected some magic stones, and maybe a new character or two would tag along, but there was nothing else to it. There was no dialogue and few cutscenes in the games at this time, so the English localizers could get away with this.

Since there wasn’t much to go on games-wise, English fans at the time got their perception of Sonic and his world from various comic and cartoon adaptations. The American-produced ones portrayed Sonic as an in-your-face smart aleck who was almost completely full of himself. The UK-produced Sonic the Comic starred Sonic as a self-described “cool guy” who cared little about the people around him, including friends. Whatever worldbuilding these adaptations had either didn’t exist or diverged completely from the games, because the writers, even if they did care, didn’t have much to go on. There also weren’t a lot of Japanese Sonic adaptations at the time, and the only one that got localized was Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (aka Sonic OVA). To English-speaking fans, Sonic was an arrogant but funny hedgehog who despite everything, got the job done. Aside from Dr. Robotnik, other characters were an afterthought and could be replaced as needed.  

Adventure Era

Sonic Adventure released in 1998 with fully voice-acted cutscenes, and localization differences started catching up. Some things were easy to fix, such as Dr. Eggman (Robotnik’s name in Japanese) being a nickname for Dr. Robotnik. Other things weren’t that simple. For instance, some of those little things mentioned in the Japanese manuals started showing up again, specifically the apocalypse caused by people misusing the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic Adventure was a soft-reboot, where most previous characters and worldbuilding are still there, but some details are left behind so that newcomers have an easier time entering the series. There also might be changes in the series’ tone. For example, Sonic Adventure was somewhat more serious than previous games could be, but still overall lighthearted. This was also the first of many mainline games during this time to have an ensemble cast. Instead of just playing as Sonic, or maybe Tails and Knuckles, you were required to play all three of them plus other characters, with different stories and gameplay styles. This was a tall task, but these games pulled it off well enough to be very popular at the time. Themes of friendship became very prominent in the games around this time, and to further cement it, Sonic X, a Japanese-produced anime came out and got localized in the United States. Sonic was still a little cocky in English dubs of the games and anime, but he was also free-spirited and very supportive of his friends instead of being preoccupied with being the coolest person in the group. For the most part, his English and Japanese portrayals were nearly indistinguishable. Other characters also got more screentime and focus on their personalities, and popular new characters like Shadow and Rouge were introduced to the cast. All was going great.

Then 2006 came around. Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (aka Sonic 06) came out, ushering in a period of very poorly received Sonic games, the latter being seen as a contender for the worst game of all time. Shadow the Hedgehog was an attempt at explaining why the titular character was alive after apparently being killed off Sonic Adventure 2, but the gritty and somewhat melodramatic tone was seen as ill-fitting for the Sonic franchise. The gameplay was also lacking, in part due to other characters tagging along with Shadow and repeatedly telling him hints and mission objectives. The problem of characters talking a lot mid-gameplay was present in Sonic Heroes, but the gameplay itself was passable enough that the game didn’t completely suffer for it. Shadow the Hedgehog tied up the last plot threads the Sonic Adventure series left behind, so the series had to go somewhere different. Sonic 06 was another soft-reboot, so that newcomers wouldn’t have to study up on the games from Sonic Adventure to Shadow the Hedgehog. Because the game was rushed for the holiday season, it was glitchy, didn’t feel good to play, and the writing was… very flawed. The game’s tone was slightly lighter than Shadow the Hedgehog, but still a little too melodramatic for most fans.

With all of these changes in mind, further splits in the English-speaking fandom occurred. Many vocal Classic fans were thrown off by the series being heavier on plot, worldbuilding, and Sonic’s friends. They wanted to go back to a time when none of that existed, and when Sonic was just an arrogant jokester--a time that only existed in 90’s US and UK. Newer, Adventure-era fans grew up with these new changes and loved them, though many of them were also not happy with Shadow the Hedgehog and subsequent games’s handling of these things. Because of Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06’s spectacular failure in handling different characters’ gameplay, one sentiment was repeatedly echoed--that only Sonic should be playable. Since then, with very few exceptions, only Sonic has been playable in mainline Sonic games. This still wasn’t enough to save the games. Games after Sonic 06 often had a core gimmick to them, many of which weren’t received well, and the ones that were got replaced by the next game. The writing had the same feeling to it, though. It shied away from the melodrama of the most hated entries, but still retained the sincerity of entries like Sonic Adventure.

Modern Era

That changed in 2011 with Sonic Colors. Instead of Sonic Team writing the games, they hired Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, two American writers known for working on Happy Tree Friends. Neither had much knowledge of the previous games’ characters, worldbuilding, or stories, but this was intentional. Sonic games sell less in Japan, so Sega probably wanted to put more focus into pleasing audiences in America and Europe. The two went off some basics about the characters and setting, and what little they knew previously. There is some supervision by Takeshi Iizuka, a longtime Sonic Team member who is currently the head of the series after creator Yuji Naka left in the mid-2000’s, but he is interested in the series going in a new direction. Sonic Colors was another soft reboot of the series, but because of the writer’s lack of knowledge about the series a lot more details were lost and changes made than in any of the previous ones. The writing is lighthearted, but most of the sincerity has been traded for attempts at comedy, which tend to be hit and miss. Sonic as a character retains his free spirit and some kindness towards his friends, but some of the self-importance of his English interpretation is making a comeback. Many of the characters from previous games make returns, but they’re written oddly (“Y’got this, Sssonic!” - Shadow, Sonic Generations (2011)) and the writers don’t quite know how to integrate them. Sonic Colors was well-received for its gameplay, and even the writing was praised at the time, but most subsequent games have middling reception. None are considered outright bad (except Sonic Boom, but that was a spinoff that Sega contracted a different company to do) or outright good (except Sonic Mania, which Sega contracted a team of fans to do.)

Conclusion

As it stands now, the Sonic franchise is a strange hybrid of the Japanese and English interpretations of Sonic. A lot of the Adventure Era fans are old enough to start noticing the changes in the writing in the Modern Era, and some aren’t big fans. Some are, though. Some of the Classic fans are satisfied with these changes, others aren’t impressed either preferring the Classic or even Adventure Era. Some people like the Classic Era, but not the English interpretations of the series. There are likely Modern fans who grew up with this version of the Sonic franchise and love it, but there may be ones that have seen previous iterations and prefer those better. There are many differing opinions and few can agree on what would be good for Sonic. Would things have been different if localization had been handled differently in the 90’s? Who can say? All we have to go by are ripples from the errors of the past.

[mobius-prime]

260. Sonic the Hedgehog #191

Metal and Mettle (Part 1)

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Josh Ray

A few days after Scourge and the Suppression Squad have taken control of Freedom HQ, Miles alerts Scourge to an interesting and unexpected visitor - namely, Metal Sonic, through whom Eggman is speaking and watching.

Yeah, don't underestimate a fellow evildoer, Scourge. Meanwhile in New Mobotropolis, Sonic and Knuckles stand before the Council of Acorn to try to get permission to take the base back. Unfortunately for them, the council votes four to two to leave it for the time being, as they don't see Scourge as that big of a threat, and want to focus on taking New Megaopolis from Eggman before going after smaller holdings. Sonic, of course, does not take this well, and tries to talk to Knuckles about it once they exit the building.

Oh, Knuckles. You have to stop angsting about this, my dude. Sonic leaves the city on his own, musing as he races back to Freedom HQ about how despite their recent successes in battle, and many gains against Eggman and his forces, he can't help a strange feeling that overall they're losing ground. He hopes that kicking Scourge out of the base will cheer him up, but is brought up short by the sight of Scourge and Metal Sonic battling it out on the grass outside. Miles stands nearby watching, and not-so-subtly tests Scourge's leadership by asking if he wants help against Metal, as surely the others helping him would only be an insult since he conquered his planet on his own. Sonic, uninterested in any of the politics, merely barrels in to help, offering Scourge a truce to take Metal out, but Scourge angrily refuses, and both he and Metal turn on Sonic to attack. Meanwhile, Julie-Su finds Knuckles brooding on a bench in the park, and when she presses to know what's bothering him he snaps, yelling that he can't trust himself or anyone else, as no matter what he does, someone always ends up hurt, and he can't bear to face the few remaining members of his family. Julie-Su reaches for him, looking at first like she's going to comfort him, but then…

I mean, all things considered, Julie-Su, you make a fantastic point. Your family's loss has been largely glossed over until now - I don't think she was even given a single panel before now to mourn the deaths of her foster parents, despite how delighted she was to rediscover them before - and as you point out, it's not like Knuckles is suffering alone. Back at Freedom HQ, the fight continues, with Eggman telling Metal to hang in there as he's putting the "finishing touches" on some backup. Sonic and Scourge briefly wind up fighting each other without Metal's interference, during which Sonic criticizes Scourge for taking his advice to better himself to a brutal, negative extreme. Scourge merely mocks Sonic's restraint, pointing out how much more powerful he is as a king than as a hero.

Ooh, dramatic parallels to their prior talk! I love it! Metal interrupts before Sonic can respond, and as the fight continues once more we move this time to Angel Island, where Knuckles is having a talk with Archimedes while Charmy sits nearby.

So something that needs to be pointed out is that inexplicably, this is Archimedes' last appearance in the comic, ever. Unlike all the other characters who have disappeared from the comic, there's no reason given - no genocide, no dimensional portal to swallow him up, no deaths or sudden decisions to leave and find himself on another continent, nothing. He just… never shows up again. It's disappointing, as y'all know how much I like Archimedes, but again I really do think this stems from Ian's weird, irritating habit of erasing a lot of Kenders' contributions to this world. I know that he's trying to make the comic's world more like the games, and that in the games, Knuckles is the last echidna and isn't embroiled in all these politics, but dammit, there's nothing wrong with comic Knuckles being so different from game Knuckles! Personality-wise, he's still similar, still recognizable, it's just his circumstances that are different. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be blaming Ian for all of this - for all I know, Sega themselves ordered him to get rid of all of this stuff. I dunno, man, I'm just some random fan with a blog. Speaking of controversial decisions by Ian, though, it's nice to see him doing his best to treat Charmy's brain damage with respect here. He certainly acts more childlike than he once did, but he's doing his best, and isn't a punchline, still actively participating in missions and helping Knuckles sort his own problems out.

Anyway, Knuckles, encouraged by his mentor's words, uses his warp ring to head back to the city, where he and Julie-Su give a curt apology to each other with an agreement to sort things out more fully later, when he's had more time to work through his emotional distress. They consider heading to Freedom HQ to help Sonic, but Knuckles believes that Sonic can most likely handle the situation on his own. Of course, we know better - Sonic might be able to take on Scourge or Metal individually, but both at once is a real challenge. He kicks Metal aside, only to be startled by the sight of another robot coming to join the fray - a robot that looks exactly like Scourge. Wow, Eggman, you really didn't waste any time on that one, huh? How many Metal Sonics do you think he has lying around in his base just ready for a paint job and a new assignment?

Though there's another story in this issue, we won't be covering it. Why? Well, it's the first real installment of "In Another Time, In Another Place"! I've mentioned it before, but it's basically what Ian decided to do when it was clear he couldn't keep putting in half-adaptions of random games anymore, but still needed to do tie-ins for newly-released games. With the pattern we've been taking with these tie-ins lately, you'd think this one would be for Sonic '06, but nope! For whatever reason, Sonic '06 goes completely unacknowledged within the comic verse (at least for now), with the sole exception of Shadow joining up with GUN. However, as I've mentioned before, Ian did state somewhere along the way that Sonic '06 did in fact happen somewhere during the course of the comic's plotline - it's just that due to the very nature of the game's story, the events of the plot are entirely reset and erased from the timeline at the end, meaning an adaption doesn't even have to take place, as technically, even though those events did happen, they also… didn't.

But all that aside, the tie-in in today's issue is actually for the little-remembered DS title, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, which was an RPG developed by Bioware of all companies (and yes, they did include one of their trademark Bioware romance sidequests, though it's probably of little interest to anyone who doesn't ship Sonamy). While again, we're not covering it due to it being non-canon, it's an important thing to note regardless. For one, these In Another Time, In Another Place installments became pretty commonplace throughout the comic as new games were released, but perhaps more importantly, this was the game that apparently really got under Kenders' skin. The problem is that after all he'd done to develop the world of the echidnas and all the political and military factions thereof, this game's plot ended up heavily centering around a band of echidnas in dark armor emerging from a parallel dimension where time moves more slowly, with an intent to take the Master Emerald and use it to cement their place of power in the real world once more, though one female echidna realizes the error of her people's ways and abandons her army to side with Knuckles against her megalomaniacal and powerful male leader. Gee, sound familiar? While I don't believe that Bioware or Sega actually copied Kenders' ideas outright - the way I've described it makes it sound similar, but there's a ton of differences in the plot and presentation that definitely indicate they're two different ideas by different people - Kenders certainly seems to think it's a rip-off, and this was from what I understand at the core of all his problems with Sega that led to his eventual lawsuit that forced the reboot of the comic. It sucks, too, because even aside from losing all the years of history in the preboot, the plot of Sonic Chronicles was actually quite fascinating and it ended on a cliffhanger, which will never, ever be resolved because Sega doesn't even want to touch that can of worms after everything that happened. I think the game has actually been quietly stricken from canon, too, because the cliffhanger literally involved Eggman having taken over the world while everyone was away, and there's just no way to solve something like that offscreen. Just a bad time all around, folks. As they say in the fandom - thanks, Ken Penders. Still, though, we have quite a ways to go before we hit the preboot's end, so let's forget about the negative stuff and keep trucking on.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Team Rocket

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

“Prepare for trouble! And make it double!”

I feel like there are few anime villains who are quite as iconic and memorable to the current generation than the bumbling trio of Team Rocket: Jessie, James, and Meowth (that’s right!). These three have appeared in nearly every single episode of the anime, indisputably being main characters on the level of Ash and his pals. Hell, they actually have more of a right to being main characters than franchise staples like Brock, Misty, or whatever girl of the season Ash has tagging along. Team Rocket are pretty omnipresent.

Of course, they’ve had many ups and downs over the years. From some poor showings to voice actor changes to being so overexposed it’s hard not to get tired of them to some absolutely awful decisions the characters make, Team Rocket are just as imperfect creations as most of the other characters in the show. Still, I find Team Rocket to be more consistently enjoyable and even for the most part more compelling than Ash Ketchum. It helps that, unlike him, they have rather interesting backstories and characterization.

Actor: Originally, the trio were voiced by Rachel Lillis (Jessie), Eric Stuart (James), and Maddie Blaustein (Meowth), though in the case of Blaustein and Stuart they actually weren’t the first in their respective roles; Nathan Price and Ted Lewis were the first to voice their characters. Blaustein and Stuart are easily the more iconic voices, however, so I’m going to focus on them.

Lillis is also the original voice of Misty, as well as Jigglypuff, though she has a pretty prolific career in anime voice acting outside of Pokemon; her performance of Jessie really cements her as an abrasive, stuck-up witch who constantly sounds like she’s talking down to everyone; you can practically hear the sneer in her voice, it really is something.

Eric Stuart you may know as Brock or perhaps Seto Kaiba, or perhaps as Meta Knight from Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Or maybe you know him from his music career. Either way, you know that he gave James that sissy, foppish charm that we all know and love.

Maddie Blaustein… She was easily the most talented of the bunch here, and that’s really saying something. She was a woman of a thousand voices, to the e point where you’d never know she was voicing someone unless you saw her name in the credits. Like, can you believe she was Solomon Moto and Sartorious in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise? Or Omega in Sonic 06? She was one of the greats, and as such is it any shock she delivered the best performance possible to the sneaky little wise guy mascot of the bumbling trio? Her presence is definitely sorely missed even today.

Of course, these three really made the characters who they were, but they did eventually get replaced, and while I don’t think Michele Knotz as Jessie, Jimmy Zoppi as James, or Carter Cathcart as Mewoth are bad by any means – they still manage to give great performances and keep the characters lovable  as ever – I do think that it really is hard to live up to the iconic originals, especially in Blaustein’s case.

Motivation/Goals: Team Rocket are introduced as menacing, competent criminals very early on in the anime, with the same goal as any Team Rocket member would have: stealing Pokemon. Of course, after their fated encounter with Ash and the witnessing of his Pikachu’s incredible power, they become single-mindedly obsessed with nabbing Ash’s Pokemon pal and using him for their own nefarious purposes, and the rest is history. Of course, Team Rocket occasionally finds time to look for other goals, such as getting food or money, but most of the time they just try and find new ways to steal Pikachu and fail at doing it.

Personality: Their personalities are really what sets them apart and makes them so interesting. Jessie, for instance, is definitely the more evil of the three; she’s willing to keep going at Team Rocket goals even when there’s no need, while her teammates are far more willing to just abandon stealing Pokemon if better opportunities arrive. Jessie can be callous and cruel, she has an extremely short temper, she’s loud and brash, but even with all that she truly does love her teammates. Even Wobbuffett. Jessie really epitomizes “jerk with a heart of gold.”

James is flamboyant and just as willing to take part in evil schemes to steal Pokemon, but out of everyone in Team Rocket James is easily the nicest guy. He’s sweet and doting to his Pokemon, he has quite a few morals, and he has a lot of the more genuinely compelling emotional moments. All of this also leads into him being probably the smartest and most level-headed of the group, for what that’s worth anyway.

Meowth is snarky and loud, but he has a lot of depths, much like his colleagues. I mean, this guy taught himself how to talk (at the cost of being able to learn moves like Pay Day), so he’s gotta be at least a little smart, right? WELL… while Meowth does have some smarts, especially street smarts since he grew up on the mean streets of Hollywood, Meowth is also the looniest of the three if you can believe that. Have you perhaps seen the numerous fantasies of Giovanni doing something ludicrous with some random Pokemon? Guess who is the person responsible for thinking most of those up. Go on, guess.

There are things all three members of the group share: all three are incredibly friendly to the point where they’re only villains because of their loyalty to Giovanni; they’re as likely to be friendly with Ash and the gang as to be trying to steal his Pokemon, o the point where they’ve not only helped him, but have directly had a hand in saving the world on quite a few occasions. All three are pretty hilarious in their ineptitude as well, and all three are actually very competent at disguising themselves. They all tend to be pretty hammy as well. All in all, the three are really enjoyable and fun for what they are.

Final Fate: Whenever these three do evil, there is only one fate in store for them: blasting off. Still, they always end up somehow coming back in the next episode to cause a ruckus.

Best Scene: In a series as long as this, it’s hard to single out one scene among the hundreds of thousands of scenes they’ve had. Still, the entirety of “Go West, Young Meowth” counts as one for Meowth, culminating with him taking out a Persian by himself, as well as Jessie and James coming to Meowth’s aid before said duel.

Best Quote: I hardly think it is possible to overstate how good their original motto is:

Jessie: Prepare for trouble!

James: And make it double!

Jessie: To protect the world from devastation.

James: To unite all people within our nation.

Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!

James: To extend our reach to the stars above!

Jessie: Jessie!

James: James!

Jessie: Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!

James: Surrender now, or prepare to fight. note

Meowth: Meowth, that's right!

From 1998 to 2006, this was how they announced their arrival on the scene, and while they’d go through other mottos and songs and whatnot over the years, nothing can top the original.

Final Thoughts & Score: Team Rocket are some of the most memorable antagonists in all of anime, despite amounting to what would just be nameless, faceless mooks in the game series the anime is based on. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine the anime without them involved, and even when they introduce more serious villains they rarely ever match up to Team Rocket. Hell, even other members of Team Rocket fail to live up to their entertaining standard; does anyone remember Atilla and Hun, does anyone actually care about Butch and Cassidy?

In fact, it’s pretty easy to say that in many ways these three are even more interesting than Ash. You see, we know from the start Team Rocket is going to fail in whatever evil schemes they have going on in any given episode, so unlike when Ash inevitably loses the championship, Team Rocket losing is expected, making their victories sweeter as opposed to Ash’s victories feeling like inevitable buildup to failure. It also helps that unlike Ash, all three have pretty interesting, compelling, and even tragic backstories, with Jessie following in her mother’s footsteps as a Rocket grunt, James fleeing from an abusive arranged marriage and tossing aside a life of riches for crime, and Meowth learning how to talk by itself and growing up on the streets. Team Rocket just ends up feeling so much more interesting and fleshed out than the main character of the show, though considering the amount of screentime they get they easily could be considered main characters.

Jessie, James, and Meowth across the board get 8/10. I’d definitely say it’s the high end of 8, but they are held back a bit by some truly dumb decisions they’ve made over the years, dumb decisions to rival Ash’s, such as the frequent letting go of Pokemon the audience has likely grown to know and love, with Arbok and Weezing being the most offensively egregious example. Still, this gang has stuck around for over 20 years, and the show and series at large just wouldn’t feel the same without their continued presence. Good, bad, it doesn’t matter; Team Rocket’s iconic trio is a core part of the franchise, and their impact can’t be ignored.

“Meowth, that’s right!”

[wizardofbits]

Sonic Forces. Hoo, boy.

Strap yourselves in, folks, this is gonna be a long one. I have numerous thoughts about Sonic Forces. The latest "modern Sonic" game from Sega to use the "Boost formula", Sonic Forces saw a multiplatform release on November 7, 2017. It features three playable characters: Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic, and a new character called the Avatar, as they work together to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik (fuck you, that's his name) who has already taken over the world, with help from the mysterious Infinite.

Ask a diehard Sonic fan and they might be hard-pressed to find anything good about this game. More likely, they'll probably say "Nothing about this is good, Vector. That's why it's called war." And then laugh at themselves for their oh-so-creative sense of humor, repeating memetic lines from the game. But the game is a good game, just not a great one. It's a step down from Generations and in that respect a bit of a disappointment, but it's not terrible. It's definitely not going to take Sonic soaring to new heights either. Still, I would much rather play Sonic Forces than play a long list of Sonic games. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Adventure 2 (yeah I went there)... The real problems with the game break down as follows.

The Levels Are Too Fucking Short

The average Modern Sonic or Avatar level is about as long as Metal Harbor from Sonic Adventure 2. That was a... really short level, in a game that had too little Sonic-gameplay content as it was. But while that was just one level, the entire game is like this in the case of Sonic Forces. Classic Sonic levels are, maybe, about the size of an act from Sonic 1. The thing is, we're used to bigger stages than this. In Sonic Forces, you reach a point where you're finding a groove through a level and having a good time, and then whoops! It's over. The game makes up for it somewhat by packing in a lot of stages (30 to be precise), but I'd rather have 12 memorable stages than 30 forgettable ones.

The Level Assets R Bored ._.

One of the really remarkable things about early Sonic games is what vaporwave kids call A E S T H E T I C S. Early Sonic was aesthetic as FUCK, borrowing cues from the trends in the late 1980s and very early 1990s in graphic design, and especially, old-school CG. If you've ever seen the old Mind's Eye videos and things of that nature, you know exactly where those polygonal palm trees and Escher-esque birds and fish come from. This sort of eye for detail made the early games absolutely beautiful to look at, with the levels boasting streamlined curves and maze-like layouts, bursting with color and exhibiting harmonious balance that was pleasing to the eye. Even the backgrounds were gorgeous -- who could forget Green Hill's shimmering seaside, with mountainous islands and white puffy clouds in the background, or the steel industrial towers rising into the sky in Oil Ocean from Sonic 2, with a heat wave effect around the searing sun above?

What do we get in Sonic Forces? A bunch of boring, rectilinear bullshit, that's what. In fact, the Green Hill stages (way to come up with new locations, guys) just have different-sized checkerboard boxes in the background. Sure, there are some ramps and slopes in the level itself, but they're either straight or just use the same few curves over and over. It's not quite Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric bad, but it's not very good. Also, the same gimmicks are used over and over, level after level, and most of them were taken from Sonic Colors, the first game to feature all-Boost gameplay. Jesus Christ, there's a level called Chemical Plant but it doesn't use the Chemical Plant assets aside from some of the glass tube ramps carrying blue liquid. The elevators, in particular, are samey rectangles instead of the unique Chemical Plant lifts. It's not quite as bad as the bland, depressing, rushed aesthetics of, say, Shadow the Hedgehog, but Sonic Mania and Sonic Generations set our standards higher, with mind-blowingly creative takes on old and new locations.

And the level layout doesn't make any sense because it's not themed to the stage. It's just the same boring shit as every other level. Take Casino Forest, for example. If you remember Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2, you will recall that the entire level was laid out like a giant pinball machine. The slopes and curves seemed to funnel Sonic into the slots when he came across them. Sonic Forces, no such luck. It's pretty much "let's use the same rectilinear corridors and rooms we use for every other level, throw in a couple of ramps -- oh shit, this is a casino level isn't it? Well, we'll throw in some bumpers and slots here and there. Done!" Oh yeah, there's the fact that you can't steer Sonic into the slots very well because you don't have the same level of precision and control. Which brings us to...

The Physics Are Glitchy

Modern Sonic controls like ass. So does the Avatar. They either don't move when I want them to move, or shoot off in a direction I didn't want to go in. Their acceleration curves on the ground are janky as fuck, and when they jump you have to wrestle with the control stick to get them to go where you want them to go. And Classic Sonic isn't much better. He feels "sticky", like he doesn't really want to move when you hit a boost pad, spin dash, or roll. To be fair, none of these are too bad. They don't make the game play like Bubsy, or Sonic '06 or anything. It's just... when old-school Sonic physics is coded into your muscle memory, it can be hard to get used to these foibles in the game's physics and tune your stick and button responses to them.

My biggest complaint is that, particularly in one late-game level, the road curves ahead of you, and with no guardrails to keep you on track, if you aren't holding right hard as you dash along this stretch of track, you will crater to your death. But then there's another stretch of track where the game dynamically adjusts your trajectory to keep you on the track as long as you hold Up, so if you take what you've learned from the previous stretch of track and try to turn Sonic into the curve, you will again fall to your death. That's probably the biggest fuck-you in the game, but it's just in that one level as far as I can tell, and overall the game has a much lower cheap-death count than Adventure 2, Heroes, or Shadow -- let alone '06. (Fuck you, '06 and fuck the fans who say it's good or it can be made good. It's broken.)

The Boss Battles Suck

So Infinite, supposedly, is more powerful than Sonic. Shouldn't that be reflected in, you know, the boss fights against him? Instead we get two boring, relatively easy fights against him where all you have to do is dodge his straightforward attacks and mash the jump button when he's in range. Sonic games used to be known for neat boss fights. There was one at the end of each zone, and each one was based around Robotnik in his egg vehicle, but they all featured different weapons and upgrades to the vehicle, and thus different attack patterns and vulnerabilities. Later games would bring midbosses at the end of each zone's first act. This formula would be abandoned for the Sonic Adventure series, and I really wish it'd come back. But even then, Sonic Adventure 2 had a variety of interesting bosses, even if they weren't all Robotnik.

Things went really off the rails with Sonic Heroes, which had boring, samey bosses up until the last one or two, and this seems to be the pattern Sega feels comfortable in now. Which is fine, except no, it's not, it sucks actually. And it's particularly galling because this is the game where Robotnik finally takes over the world. It should be fraught with peril and danger for our heroes, and they should have to square off against terrifying robots and creations the likes of which the world has never seen before. But no, it's run down a corridor, hit the guy a few times, dodge his telegraphed attacks and fucking repeat until dead. This is even true of the final boss, which is just a ripoff of the final boss from Sonic Colors. That one was fun the first time, but come on. Even Sonic and the Secret Rings had an imaginative final boss.

Oh, another annoying thing: there are encounters which look like boss fights because they feature huge enemies that must be defeated, such as the giant snake from Luminous Forest or the giant crab thing from that one Avatar level with the giant crab thing in it. But you've been trolled because a couple of quick time events later and you fucking beat it. Jesus Christ, Sega.

So those are the bad points of this game. Here are some good points:

Your Name, the Hedgehog

I like the Avatar. More than I expected to. Full background: the Avatar is a custom character created using the in-game character creation facility. The character creation tool is very basic, allowing you to pick from among seven species, two genders, and a variety of head and eye shapes and base skin and fur colors, but that's it. Then again, it's still about as wide a range as the imagination of a typical Sonic fan can muster. Completing missions allows you to unlock accessories to decorate your OC with -- but aside from the Wispon (a gun powered by colored Wisp energy which grants one attack ability and one sub-ability) these do not affect gameplay at all. In fact the only variables that do affect gameplay are species (each species grants a different, specific perk; for example birds can double-jump and cats can hold onto one ring when they get hit) and equipped Wispon.

Adding the Avatar was a brilliant marketing move by Sega. They know what's up. They knew that diehard fans would piss themselves at being able to make their fursona canon in a Sonic game; and ironic hipsters would attempt to recreate Coldsteel or Sonichu in the character editor. Sega also resisted the temptation to decide for us that what we really need is another, vastly different, playstyle from the go-fast modern Sonic style we've gotten used to by now. Accordingly, Avatar levels are Boost levels with a different moveset. You can homing-attack enemies and swing from grapple points with your grappling hook, use your Wispon to clear out groups of enemies, or collect Wisps of the appropriate color to enable an otherwise inaccessible form of locomotion -- like launching yourself into the air with the Burst Wispon or doing a light-dash along rings with the Lightning Wispon. They're not as zippy as the Boost levels, but hey, there can only be one Sonic. Some levels let you play as Sonic and the Avatar together, successfully merging the gameplay of the two characters by putting Sonic in the lead when you press the Boost button and the Avatar in the lead when you attempt to grapple or use Wispon attacks. It's quite seamless, even less clunky than Sonic Heroes, and I love it. They could make a whole game out of this style of play. There are moments when Sonic and Avatar together do a "Double Boost", plowing through enemies and sweeping up rings at hyper speed, but these sections last about ten seconds apiece, in keeping with the game's general theme of frustrating shortness.

Finally, the Avatar is perfectly integrated into the game's cutscenes, giving them a critical role in the unfolding story.

Plot and Theming

So the plot goes like this: with the power of Infinite and the Phantom Ruby (that weird rock he dug up in Sonic Mania), Dr. Robotnik has succeeded in defeating Sonic and taking over the world. A band of rebels called the Resistance -- led by Knuckles and bearing quite a few parallels with Princess Sally's Freedom Fighters from Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series), aka "SatAM" -- seeks to track Sonic down, wherever he's being held, and retake the world. In Sonic's absence, a new hero (your Avatar), a survivor from one of Infinite's assaults on the population, steps in to help the resistance.

Meanwhile, "Tails", presumably wracked with guilt after Sonic's capture, re-connects with Classic Sonic (the version of him from Mania) and the two eventually lend their help to resisting Robotnik as well.

It's a fairly basic plot. It goes back to some dark themes -- like war and torture -- that we really haven't seen in a main-series Sonic game since Shadow. But there's no self-conscious attempt to be grimdark and edgy, no characters brooding about their past, no "damn fourth Chaos Emerald", and no human-hedgehog shipping. Everything is, still, pretty lighthearted and fun. Which gets pretty weird when you're told Sonic has been "tortured for months" aboard the Death Egg, and yet all he says to his torturers are the usual lighthearted, sarcastic quips. But what the hell. He's a blue cartoon hedgehog. This idea of cartoon animals in a war-torn world reminds me of nothing so much as the North Korean propaganda cartoon, Squirrel and Hedgehog, which even Western viewers admit has a sort of bizarre charm about it -- and that's where Sonic Forces is. Although not with the anti-Western propaganda of a repressive dictatorship.

I like how each of Sonic's friends has a specific role in the resistance: Knuckles is the leader, Silver the second in command, Amy the data analyst, Shadow and Rouge are the recon agents. "Tails" has gone underground to conduct his own search for Sonic. Sonic's cast has grown quite a bit in the past few years, and it's good that they found something for all these characters to do without burdening the story with needless exposition or a surfeit of unnecessary "gameplay styles".

Another thing I like is that they managed to keep Sonic's sarcastic "attitude" without making him a jerk. Looking back on 90s Sonic media, it's noteworthy how Sonic is an asshole even to his friends, and gets away with it because he's the hero. In "SatAM" and the Archie comics, for instance, he never passes up an opportunity to make fun of Antoine. In the British "Sonic the Comic", he's constantly mocking "Tails". In this game, Sonic manages to save his jokes at others' expense for his actual enemies and is quite charitable to his friends (especially "Tails" and the Avatar). At multiple points in the game, upon hearing a report of impending defeat from Resistance fighters, he says something like "You've done more than enough already. Good work, everyone! I'll handle it from here."

That's another thing: they actually found a use for in-game quips from the main character. Rather than Bubsying it up and having him say "there's a bounce pad!" or "I love rings!" every time some game event is triggered, Sonic Forces does a fair bit of story exposition with Star Fox-like radio chatter from the main characters before and during the game's stages, as well as cutscenes. The chatter can be turned off at the player's discretion, but I don't find it too distracting, and some of Sonic's lines are genuinely funny.

If there's anything wrong with the plot, it's that sometimes they seem to raise the stakes, but don't follow through and the situation is resolved in like a minute. Sonic is thought dead in the early game, but a couple of stages later, he's alive. Worse, there's a scene where Robotnik banishes Sonic and Avatar to "Null Space". Ten seconds later, they're back out on the street.

Boost Gameplay

The Boost levels are the most fun ones in the game. When you're barreling down the track at a zillion miles per hour, you don't notice the odd bit of minor physics glitch (except when it sends you clean off the track; I'm looking at you, Metropolitan Highway...). They didn't keep up the standards set by Generations, but they didn't kill all the fun in the game, especially the Boost bits, either.

But that just provokes the question: why didn't they keep up the standards set by Generations? I liked this game a fair bit, but I wanted to like it a lot more. Hell, I want to like every Sonic game as much as I like 2, 3, and & Knuckles. But this is where we are. Sonic has just gone from consistently good, to consistently bad, to just plain inconsistent. Why can't he just stay good?

The problem with Sonic is, I believe, a problem with Sega. It ties back into what I said about the franchise in the past: Sega just doesn't understand which values the Sonic brand represents, from a gameplay perspective. They use him as a media icon, but they have no vision of what the player should expect when they boot up a Sonic game. Hell, the players have a better idea than Sega does, which is why an effective fan game (Sonic Mania) got the highest praise the main series has seen in literally decades!

But here's the thing, Sonic fans: It's easy for you to say that a particular game is bad, and even -- as I've done here -- point out what's bad about it. It's much, much harder for a game developer to find and fix those bad things. Say "the physics are too glitchy", or "the jumps are too floaty" to a game dev, and you may was well say "tighten up the graphics on level 3". Take jumping for instance. There are quite a few variables that go into a game character's jump. A jump can be modelled as an impulse that sends a character's velocity upward followed by acceleration back downward due to gravity. But how big should the impulse be? How quickly should they accelerate back to earth? Do you want to have jump aftertouch (changing directions in midair)? How much aftertouch? What should happen when you jump off a slope? Should the impulse still be straight up, or should it be perpendicular to the slope? (Classic Sonic went with the latter; Sonic Rush went with the former. And now to this day I still can't take Sonic Rush seriously as a platformer in the classic vein.)

Getting games right is hard. Hell, getting slopes right is a test of mettle for any 2D game programmer. What needs to happen is the developers, once they have the basic engine put together, need to sit down and test and tweak, and test some more and tweak some more. Because that's what it takes to make a game "feel" right. And what they found out as they made these tweaks needs to be noted for future developers; it needs to become institutional knowledge.

The big difference between Nintendo and Sega is one of institutional knowledge. Quick, who do you think of when I say "Mario"? Well, Mario himself, but who in real life? Shigeru Miyamoto, right? Gaming's Walt Disney. What if I told you that Miyamoto, who had been producer or director on most Mario titles to date, only had a light touch on Super Mario Odyssey? And Super Mario Odyssey is the best damn Mario game to date! That's because the info on what makes a Mario game good and how to make a good Mario game has become institutional knowledge at Nintendo, passed from employee to employee and generation to generation. It is the ultimate mark of success of any genius that they eventually make themself obsolete, so that their successors can benefit from their knowledge without them when they die, retire, or quit. And Shigsy is coming up on retirement age...

Sega, er, didn't bother preserving that institutional knowledge from the first few Sonic games. And today, the end result is like they forgot it. It's like retrograde amnesia. While playing through Sonic Forces, I was reminded of nothing so much as early, 1980s Sega platformers, like Alex Kidd and the Wonder Boy series. In fact I have the modern remake of Wonder Boy III on my Switch, and the janky movement and floaty jumps from Forces all feel specifically familiar to what I remember from that game. But back in the 80s, you could sort of give them the benefit of the doubt. Nintendo basically invented the modern video-game-character jump with Super Mario Bros., and they weren't exactly forthcoming with that information back then because it was a competitive advantage for them, so other game houses had to either figure out on their own what made the Mario jumps so satisfying to use (Capcom), or else do without them and use a lesser mechanic (Konami, Sega).

But here's the thing: when Sega set about creating a better Mario in the early 90s, they succeeded. Sonic was everything Mario was at the time, and more. But in the early 90s, Sonic Team wasn't really a thing. It was just whoever had worked on Sonic 1. There wasn't a Miyamoto at the helm to set the standards and guide the trajectory for the series as a whole. Yuji Naka doesn't count, and neither does Naoto Ohshima. Later games would be passed from team to team, and while the basic engine remained the same, high-level knowledge of what went into that engine may have been lost along the way -- I'd say the best candidate for such a loss was the "Sonic Winter" of the late 90s, when Sega would go a whole console generation without developing a current-gen, native main-series Sonic title. (Sonic 3D Blast was a Genesis port, and the only other games in the franchise for the Saturn were Sonic R and Sonic Jam.) It was a time of tremendous upheaval for Sega, as they had to recover from the setbacks they suffered from the botched Sega CD and 32X launches, and the failure of the Saturn against the PlayStation and N64. This was also the time when Sonic fandom began to coalesce, and to be frank, the fandom which eventually formed couldn't give two shits about gameplay. So by the time the Adventure series appeared on the Dreamcast, already you could see a break in continuity of vision for where the series was going from a gameplay perspective. Bereft of the franchise's moorings, Sonic Team endlessly tried new things, wanted you to try new things, wanted you to like their experiments. But ultimately what they were trying to do was catch lightning in a bottle, and they failed at it. That's why I call the series "tryhard".

If I were the head of Sonic Team, I would instruct my subordinates to do what the fans already did: go back to the original Genesis games. If I can't find the original source code, I'd have them disassemble and reverse-engineer the ROMs. (That is what the fans did!) Part of the problem with updating OG Sonic physics for today may be that the original games were 2D and pixel-accurate, and largely used integer math to calculate the game state, whereas a modern 3D world would be built from floating-point coordinates in 3D space. Nevertheless, I would try to map the integer constants of Sonic's 2D world into 3D space, fit acceleration curves to what's observable from the 2D games, etc. I would have a model of Green Hill Zone Act 1, or a part of it, built in the 3D engine, and if Sonic does not control exactly as he does in the original Sonic 1, I would order more refinements to be made. This can be checked both through play-testing and by running side-by-side versions of original Sonic 1 and the modern engine, sending them synthetic button events, and seeing whether they match up. Once they do match up, only then would I add modern features like the boost, homing attack, etc.

I would have the programmers take careful notes on the refinements they made, and instruct them to put these notes into a company- or team-wide wiki. I would have them bring in their sons, daughters, or little siblings to play-test it. I would reach out to Sonic fans and select candidates for a limited beta test from among their number.

It's going to take effort and commitment for Sega to rescue Sonic from the scrappy heap. What Sonic Forces showed me is that Sega is not ready to make that commitment. It may be time for them to cut Sonic loose, to sell him to Nintendo or WayForward or somebody. I don't think they'll do that, though, because Sonic is the thing that's keeping their name in the limelight.

[beevean]

Love your new icon, cute yellow fluff ball!

Also, what are your thoughts on 06 (in short), for both gameplay and story?

Hehe, thank Sonic Origins and Tyson Hesse <3

Oh man, the big question. Okay, so. I haven't played the game, I tried to on emulator but my PC nopes out of there.

The game still looks like a boring mess to play. Admittedly, subjecting myself to the tortures that were Megaman X6 and X7 recalibrated my definition of "bad game", but still, if X7 made me rage due to the clunky controls and atrocious loading times among other things, I don't doubt that '06 would elict the same emotions :\ honestly the whole game is just slow and padded, which is a shame because you can tell that the levels would be very fun to play with the Adventure engine and without pointless stuff like Tails in Wave Ocean or missions like Who's the Captain.

The definitive version is P-06. It fixes many of the game's problems, and leaves you with a very solid level design, the best thing '06 had to offer aside from the godly music <3

As for the story... man. I like Elise, the CG cutscenes are both beautiful and fun, and Shadow has some cool scenes. That's it. Where do I begin with it? How about the fact that Sonic is treated like a side character in the game named after him? How about how boring and repetitive his plot is? How about how badly the game comunicates Mephiles' plan, making him look like a giant dumbass? How about the mediocre voice acting and uncanny animation that makes the cutscenes a chore to go through? ShTH is hilarious at least, I really can't stand '06's story.

So yeah. As I said, I haven't played the game, so take this post with a grain of salt. If you want to try it, well the game is going through a reinassance period where fans are now swearing that '06 was a good game and y'all are just mean (and tbf, I wish people didn't mention '06 everytime they want to shit on Sonic, it's been 16 years ffs let it rest). I still recommend P-06 :P

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Heroes: Sweet or Shite? - Part 1: SILVER

There are some heroes I like. And there are some heroes I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a series in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the heroes in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves over the course of time. Two things to keep in mind:

1. These reviews will be focusing mainly on game portrayals. Though alternate media will occasionally be mentioned, it'll be for the sake of adding onto a point if a portrayal is similar enough, or to compare and contrast if a portrayal is different enough.

2. These are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, I decided to challenge myself by starting off with a complicated one. Born from the future, and never content to stay put in said future, it's the saviour whose debut came from the most unfortunate game... Silver the Hedgehog.

The Gist: Once upon a time, in the distant future, there was an idealistic young hedgehog named Silver, gifted with the power of telekinesis for reasons unknown. With his amazing potential, he was truly destined for a wonderful, prosperous li-just kidding, it was shit.

“All two of us.”

For as long as he knew, the world was forever plagued by Iblis, the terrible Flames of Disaster. Cities stood in ruin, flames stood high, the floor was lava... it was a bitter life to be certain, all thanks to Iblis. Not even defeating the titular creature did much good, since it would simply come back to be a shitty boss fight another day. What was he - and his friend, Blaze, a character we definitely never saw before and definitely didn't have a completely different backstory before - to do?

Trust the first person he sees, of course. Even if they look like they might be related to the same Flames of Disaster that he fights so constantly.

If he had eyelids, he'd be winking at the camera.

This mysterious fellow, Mephiles the Dark, informed Silver that if he were to wipe out Iblis for real, he would need to take a trip into the past, and eliminate the root of the problem... Sonic the Hedgehog? That was what Mephiles claimed, yes. What was his proof? There was no proof.

That was good enough for Silver.

Oh look, it's Fleetway Sonic.

After an elaborate series of events, which should sound exciting but really isn't because it was just Silver going “Iblis Trigger grrr” in varying tones of voice, he was finally able to corner the blue hedgehog... twice! And despite having less fighting know-how than the hero who saved the world plenty of times, he effortlessly came close to killing the blue hedgehog... twice!

This looks like a jobbing for...

Why twice? The first time was halted by Sonic's friend Amy Rose, who Silver had met beforehand after she mistook him for Sonic, an understandable mistake that even the keenest of eyes would be forgiven for making.

The second time was also interrupted, this time by Shadow the Hedgehog. There's only room for one controversial non-blue male hedgehog in this franchise, sonny boy. Actually, his reasons were more benevolent than that: he wanted to show Silver the truth about what was going on, by time travelling to the incident that gave birth to Iblis. Why was one able to to this, so long as more than one Chaos Emerald was present? No one knew.

That was good enough for Silver.

“I challenge you to a dumb-off.”

As it turned out, Iblis was one half of a sun god called Solaris, the other half being the aforementioned Mephiles. The Duke of Soleanna wanted to reunite with his late wife by harnessing Solaris' power, which succeeded from a certain point of view since he's dead now too. The resulting blunder split Solaris into two halves. One half was all brawn, with little capacity for intelligence. The other half was Iblis.

Understanding the error of his ways, and after making peace with Sonic, Silver went back to the future to try something different, which consisted of doing the same thing he always did. Luckily for him, the script decided it would work this time, albeit at the cost of Blaze sacrificing herself... Maybe? Sort of? It’s not entirely clear what happened to her, and it’s not like this was the last we ever saw of her.

~La laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, heading to a better game, la laaaaaa~

But ohhhhh nooooo, turns out THAT didn't solve anything either! In the present, Sonic was killed by Mephiles, after the latter realised he should probably do that already if he wanted to make any progress at all with his plan. This incident led to Iblis being brought into the present, and they fused to become the omnipotent Solaris once more. Such power... such divinity... such devastation...

Actually, he was really easy. The antlion from Underground Zone was harder.

Manchild robots - 1, god of time - 0.

With their super forms in tow, Silver, Shadow, and the revived Sonic joined forces to defeat Solaris, with Sonic in particular going the extra step in retconning Solaris out of existence entirely. Since time itself reset, meaning Iblis was no longer a memory, Silver's timeline was given a second chance. What was he to look forward to in this new, promising future?

Shit.

The Design: Let's take a closer look at Silver's appearance, shall we?

Or rather, a certain thing that's wrong with it.

He's holding up fifteen fingers.

Yes, you all know what I'm pointing to: the hairstyle. Let it be known that I'm very aware of the intention behind this design choice. It's supposed to be based on the Japanese Red Maple Leaf, which holds a lot of relevant symbolism for Silver's character. This is a fine idea in theory, and I can respect the intent and the creativity.

But here's the thing: If it looks like a ganja leaf, people are going to say it looks like a ganja leaf. I know some fans will gnash their teeth at me saying this, but the fact of the matter is that intentions and ideas, no matter how good they may be on paper, don't always translate well into the final product. Unleashed Secret Rings Black Knight Sonic '06 in general is certainly no stranger to showcasing examples of that, and Silver's hairstyle is no exception. There are ways to incorporate symbolism in a character’s design without making them look like meme bait in the process, and no amount of “umm ackshually” will change that, I'm afraid.

That said, there's another reason why I'm staying clean of Silver marijuana: it doesn't work for a hedgehog character. With the other hedgehogs, their hairstyles are simple and get the point across: Sonic's goes without saying, Shadow's is more angular to befit a slightly rougher hero, and Amy's is a cute bob cut of sorts. But Silver? Even without the ganja, you've still got the two tentacles making up the back of his head.

I'd rather not be reminded of hentai quills, thanks.

“I thought Crusher-san would like it :’(”

I do find it hilarious that they went through numerous designs for Silver, and this was what they chose to go with. Some of his prototype designs may have fared better had any of them been used instead... but we didn't end up with any of those ones. We ended up with this one, therefore I'm judging this one.

But don’t worry, it’s not all bad with Silver...

The Personality: As far as actual character goes, Silver's personality is as straightfoward as most characters in the series, yet it's no less interesting, because it took a while for it to fully evolve to what it currently is. The seeds of his character - a good-natured yet awkward and rather insecure kind of guy, who doesn't fully understand how the present time works - have always been there, but it was often downplayed in earlier titles due to him being hungry for Iblis Trigger blood... or being an arsehole for no reason.

Although to be fair, everyone in Rivals is an arsehole for no reason.

Eventually though, after the writers gave him a Snickers, these traits got more opportunity to shine. Mostly in side media admittedly, but it's been noted in the games as well. With no Iblis to angst over, he's proven to be a surprisingly bubbly chap, who just wants to know how you're all doing, fellow anthro kids. And whereas his naivety was previously used for intended tragedy to benefit the evil plan of a guy who thought taking the -istoph- out of Mephistopheles would make him inconspicuous, now it's been used for a bunch of low-key contexts that do a much better job at endearing him to the player.

Finally, something I can relate to.

Hell, he even seems to have learned from the Mephiles incident, as he was quick to make it clear to the next shadowy deep-voiced anthro with demonic eyes he met that he wasn't gonna fall for any of them fibs no more, ya hear?

“YouTube and Twitter don’t count.”

All in all, it works well enough, in my opinion. His personality does pave the way for some funny and wholesome moments, and since they’re no longer trying to build him up like he’s Shadow 2.0, he's nowhere near as much of a tool as he was before. So I guess you could say... I like it?

Does this mean I can say that I like the character as a whole then, design and '06-induced idiocy aside?

Well, not quite...

The Execution: This is where the complication part comes into play. We know now that I like his personality, not so much his design, but that's only the half of it. It would be more accurate to say that I like his personality... and dislike everything else.

Aside from that, obviously.

For starters, the creation process for his character and story was summed up with, in their own words, “Think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z”. So he comes off as rather lazy and uninspired. Now I'm not expecting my Sonic characters to be 100% unique, there's always going to be similarities to other franchises no matter what you do, even if subconsciously or by complete coincidence. Taking inspiration in itself is no big deal at all.

But... was that it? Copying a DBZ character to such a blatant extent? Was there no other thought put into it?

Naturally, this ties into an overarching problem: the franchise's mid-00's habit of trying way too hard to be the anthro Dragon Ball Z. Sonic has had DBZ influences since the early days, with the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic, but it didn't assimilate itself into every waking aspect of his universe. It was merely an additional flavor that added to the complete package, in the same way that a Death Star with a moustache didn't mean the franchise was suddenly Star Wars the Hedgehog.

But come the turn of the millenium, nearly every main title in the series ended with Super Sonic and/or Super Shadow saving the day, while everyone else either stood around being useless, or only helping in ways that no one actually cares about. Including the in-universe President apparently, since only Sonic and Shadow were featured in the photo on his desk.

Amy smiled. “I guess the rest of us can go fuck ourselves, huh?”

This reached its peak with - of course - Sonic '06, with Silver in particular being an obvious result of this then-ongoing trend. And yes, it would be unfair to use him as a scapegoat, considering it was already a problem long before he turned up. But moreso than even Shadow, it's an era that Silver is forever a relic of, for better or for worse.

But it doesn't stop there. Since Silver is considered a mainstay character, his gimmick of being from the future also creates problems of its own, because in order for him to make further appearances, he keeps turning up for little explained reason, and thus he suffers the Deadly Six problem of being shoved into places where he doesn't belong, for fanservice's own sake. Take Sonic Colours DS for example, where he went back in time JUST to check out Eggman's theme park... Okay...?

On one hand, I’d visit it too, since it's made by Eggman. On the other hand, I’d stay clear of it, since it's made by Eggman.

And when there IS a justification with more weight to it? It's just recycling the '06 routine of trying to avert his ruined future, which isn't much better. The cause may differ depending on the story, but if his future is a permanent shitehole for one reason or another, he might as well cut out the middle man and stay in the present altogether, since that's where his friends are anyway. But they seem intent on not doing that, despite the future schtick being a noose around his neck at this point.

In hindsight, maybe this was a hint to how the rest of the arc would turn out.

And then there's his dynamic with a certain purple cat... No, not Big. The other one.

“I’m here, by the way.”

Simply put: I don't like this dynamic. At all. Or rather, I don't like how they keep milking it. Blaze's backstory was radically changed to justify her presence in Silver's future, and it really shows, since she barely even shows up half the time, as if the developers themselves forgot she was in the game. But her backstory has since been restored to her original alternate dimension interpretation, so hanging around with the grey hedgehog is all good now, right?

To be brutally honest, I probably wouldn't care for this dynamic regardless. But I would be more willing to tolerate it, and I'd refrain from groaning every time they're seen together... if they weren't intent on playing it up so much in spite of '06 being wiped out, sometimes with a bit of commentary involving their thoughts and memories, which only succeeds at making things more confusing. If Blaze is around, Silver will be nearby, and if he's not at first, he will be soon enough. This franchise does have a problem in general with restricting who's allowed to interact with who (I personally believe Sonic Heroes may have led to this, or at least it accelerated it), but I'd argue it's at its most insufferable here, with Blaze's potential and her entire world taking a backseat to being the sidekick of Ganja Man.

And you might say “Well, it's part of the franchise now, so you'll just have to accept it”. To which I ask: Have you accepted Two Worlds? Have you accepted Solo Sonica? Have you accepted Sonic's friends not doing much as of late?

Yeah. That's what I thought. “It’s just how it is” doesn’t mean you can’t criticise it.

Meanwhile, Marine is lucky enough to get so much as a shout out.

So yeah, I have quite an extensive list of grievances involving poor Silver. But... very little of it has to do with him, right? They're all indirect problems that he just so happens to be linked to, as opposed to someone like Chris Thorndyke, who is genuinely a shit character through and through. This is more comparable to Tails being bitchy in Lost World, or Amy being manipulative in Chronicles, or Sonic being a smug dumbass in IDW, or Shadow not wearing a Hawaiian shirt in Boom. Frustrating, regrettable, but not really the character's own fault.

Yet even after all that, there's one last kick in the teeth... How do you fix all this? And how do you fix it when he's since gained a sizable fandom, many of whom like him for these very attributes? If you leave it as it is, you're stuck with this big, awkward mess that everyone pretends to ignore. If you try to do something about it, you'll get complaints about disrespecting the True Silver Spirit, and you’ll get questions about why you didn't create a new character instead... And if you did use a new character for the sake of a clean slate, THEN you'd get complaints about not using Silver.

It's a tough call to be sure, and it's such a shame because like I said, I do appreciate his personality, so I can't say he's bad outright. But with all this... clutter, I can only put him in the average category. So, in he goes.

Crusher Gives Silver a: Thumbs Sideways!

Well, I'm glad this one's out of the way. Putting my thoughts into words with Silver was harder than it should have been. I do slightly regret starting this series off on a rather downer note, but rest assured, it's a lot more positive from this point onwards, since while I have higher praise for some heroes more than others, the hero characters as a whole fare a lot better than the majority of villains not named Eggman.

I guess you could say that I hope to show why Sonic's friends aren't as shitty as the haters would suggest. ;)

[crusherthedoctor]

The beach trope: another one that often comes early in Sonic's quests, and this one's no different, though expectations are very mildly subverted by making it the third zone instead of the very first. (Careful Crusher, you had the audience on the edge of their seats there.)

More importantly though, it's possibly one of the most famous and celebrated level tropes in the series. Emerald Coast is undeniably iconic, Seaside Hill is just as iconic while also merging with the Green Hill setup, and Wave Ocean... is a poor man's Emerald Coast, but it's probably better than most levels in '06 by comparison, so it too is iconic, from a certain point of view. We can't forget Jungle Joyride either, even if that's mostly because we got to see the frame rate die before our very eyes.

So how do you make your interpretation stand out? How do you prevent having a Wave Ocean 2: Wave Oceaner on your hands? Well, it's actually very simple...

Creating Zone 3: Coastline Resort

3-1: Shining Shore

Remember when I said that sometimes all it takes to make an environment feel different is the time of day, or a change in weather? This is one of the first major examples of putting that philosophy into action, as compared to previous beach levels, which were usually content with taking place in the bright sunny daytime, this one takes place under a pleasant purple sunset.

This of course contrasting heavily with not only the blue sea, but also the sands, which although given a mild touch of purple courtesy of the sunset, cannot fully hide their natural shade of white.

And of course, waterfalls.

We can’t forget the waterfalls.

Despite being a true blue beach level first and foremost, there are also a few hints of plaza, further setting it apart from the Emerald Coasts and Not-Emerald Coasts of old times past. This aesthetic in particular is based heavily on the seaside town of Whitby.

No doubt Sonic would admire this place, at least when he's not forced to go deep underwater. Maybe when the adventure is over, he can come back here and have a relaxing moment with... someone. Dunno who though. I doubt Eggman would be interested, and not just because he's actually in-character. Oh well, plenty more horses in the sea.

Speaking of, what about the underwater sections? Shining Shore does have them after all, in full 3D, as opposed to making them bottomless pits in disguise. Unsurprisingly, everything's a lot more blue than purple down there, gorgeously so, but the coral reef provides its own variety of colour.

The local fishies don't seem to mind you being in their line of sight... nor do the Badniks, but probably for a different reason.

Since we're three zones in, you might have noticed by now that each zone, regardless of their overall colour scheme, has one element in at least one act that goes all rainbow with the colours than everything else. You had the flower patches in Gleaming Meadows, you had the wood barriers in Tricky Tropics with their rusting paint jobs, and now we have the coral reef in Coastline Resort... any reason for this?

Alas, the answer is a mundane one: it's just a little way of tying all the zones in Viridonia together. As this quest revolves around the mystery of the elusive Ethereal Zone, this seemingly inconsequential aspect is a way of ensuring that it will always remain at the back of your mind. It may be relatively more subtle and easy to miss than, say, a giant moon glaring down angrily at you no matter where you go on the map as it literally comes closer and closer to killing everyone, but the intention is effectively the same: the central meat of the setting and story is always present in some form, however indirect, even if the characters aren't currently discussing it.

Also, shout out to the lighthouse that helped our heroes by inadvertently blinding the pursuing mechanized orca.

You really put a dent in Heavy Gunner's strategy.

First Section (calm): Lagoony Tunes (Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced) Peach Field (Mario Hoops 3-on-3)

Second Section (adrenaline): Lost Palace (Team Sonic Racing) Hang Eight (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back)

3-2: Crazy Rapids

Being a whimsical water park, made even more whimsical to fit the video game format, this one explains itself in a lot of areas. But let's go over the finer details anyway, shall we?

As mentioned in the fic, the park has been made to fit in seamlessly with the ruins present in the area, thus creating a Good Future-esque wonderland of nature and technology in harmony. For an idea of how the ruins aesthetic would work, imagine something akin to the Sunset Beach Resort in Jamaica, particularly the long bridge and archways you can see in both of these shots:

Kind of has an Aquatic Ruin vibe, doesn’t it?

Even then, that only applies to half of the architecture, as the other half breaks up the yellow with some white, reminiscent of a certain OTHER watery location in Sonic's past...

We also have the giant fountains sprinkled around the place. There are two types of fountains to be exact, both of which may seem familiar to the attentive eye...

The difference? They're larger. MUCH larger. As in, you can actually platform your way on and around them.

As for what’s inside? It's exactly how you'd imagine it to be, albeit exaggerated even further to befit a Sonic level.

And in-tune with the beachside mood, the Chao Garden found nearby would take a page from the one in Station Square...

...with a little extra flavor of this...

...complete with miniature water slides and the like for the adorable inhabitants... the inhabitants that Eggman currently has an unexplained interest in. How do the Chao factor into his latest plan?

Heh heh, only I and those I've discussed it with in PMs know that for now.

First Section (outside): Windy and Ripply (Sonic Adventure) Ocean Palace (Sonic Heroes)

Second Section (inside): Data Select (Tee Lopes) Wii Shop Channel - Mii Channel (Super Smash Bros. Wii U)

3-3: Aquarium Gallery

Disappointed that Crazy Rapids lacked that smooth red-on-blue contrast that Aquarium Park from Sonic Colours had? Well we can’t all be in the same league as Eggman sadly, but fear not, for the similarly named Aquarium Gallery gets right in on the action, combining red walls and an overall upper class aesthetic...

...with the expected quantities of shimmering blue that comes with the aquarium setting. And with glass tanks of great size, comes great fishies to go along with them.

The black and white checkered floor would also be a must. It's a Sonic game, we gotta have a checkered pattern somewhere. It just works. /ToddCrusher

Don't worry about the living conditions for the fish here, by the way. Eggman mechanizing them aside, the people who work at the park - and those who visit it - make sure to treat all the marine life with the utmost respect and kindness. Just a shame that they're apparently not so willing to lend that same understanding to Trudy... but it does provide an early hint that despite the few genuine bad apples who are outright antagonistic towards Trudy, most of the folks ignorant to her condition are exactly that at worst: ignorant. Meaning, despite first impressions, most of them are not bad people at heart, and with a little help and persistence, it's not entirely impossible that they can eventually learn to understand and sympathise with Trudy's situation.

In other words, they have more dimension than the background characters in Sonic Boom, where they're all mostly a bunch of one-note arseholes with little redeeming qualities and don’t deserve to be saved by Sonic in the slightest.

Anyhow, eventually, after a trip through one of those sweet underwater tunnels...

...we find ourselves in the cavern area, where red is exchanged for turquoise, and there are reflected ripples galore. Since the Marble Caves in Chile already look halfway to being a Sonic level due to its unique formations, that's the best comparison I can make here.

Too blue, you might say? Well, the sunset from earlier would be poking through the holes in the wall, adding some warm to the cool once more... the giant seashells everywhere help spice it up too.

Like these, but bigger than Ken Penders’ ego.

If that’s even possible...

First Section (aquarium): Rooftop Run - Night (Sonic Unleashed) Coconut Mall (Mario Kart Wii)

Second Section (caves): Sea Shell Shenanigans (Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex) Dire, Dire Docks (Super Mario 64)

3-4: Hydro Plant

The outside structure for this place is shaped like a giant wall, which predictably brings the Hoover Dam to mind:

And that applies inside as well, at least initially. The similarities indoors come mostly from the generators, as well as the sheer size of the place.

Since it's considerably rustier however, we have darker lighting in place, with the sunset outside preventing it from being too dark inside. There’s also a copious amount of daring graffiti caused by hoodlums... or maybe Eggman, since he'd probably be the type to do that to any property that isn't his. Some of this graffiti would look very impressive...

While others would... uh...

Look, they tried, okay?

With all this graffiti, that means there’s opportunity for a generous helping of cheeky references to previous installments if you’re able to find them... and if you can understand them. To this day, the typo in “make belif reborn” has not been corrected. Absolutely disgusting.

But as the fic dictates, the further you go on, the tidier and more high tech it becomes. Simply put, this section would remind one of Aquatic Base from '06, mainly because I've always liked the idea despite its characteristically terrible level design, so why not salvage the concept and give it a second chance?

With some added flavor to make it less monotone, mind you. Like actual water sections, some green lights to break up all the blue, giant crab robot threatening to kill you... the works.

Sonic may be glad that this zone is behind him, but little does he know, it's not the only zone with intense water action around these parts. Luckily for him, that won't be for a while, so he can breathe a sigh of relief for now. Still, we know Eggman has other ways of keeping the gang on their toes...

First Section (rusty): Wily Stage 2 (Mega Man 7) Pokey Pipes (Donkey Kong Country 3)

Second Section (high tech): Ocean Base Act 1 (Sonic Advance 3) H2 Oh No (Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex)

[beevean]

So what are your overall thoughts on Forces storywise? Positives and negatives? Where do you think the story ranks in the series?

Maybe it’ll be easier to just list positives and negatives (warning: long post):

Positives:

- Even by watching a low-quality stream of the Switch version, I can say the game looks gorgeous. It does suffer a bit from the Adventure 2 syndrome, where the art direction can bet too dull for you to appreciate the graphics, but some stages are breathtaking. Egg Gate in particular looks amazing.

- While the plot on its own doesn’t belong in this section, I appreciate the simple fact that they actually dared to break from the lighter and softer approach that’s been going on since 2010, and the fact that they remembered that the cast isn’t just made of Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot. The concept was awesome! The tone was perfect, serious but not depressing and too try-hard! There was some action! It’s a step in the right direction, and I hope people will criticize the plot for the right reasons and not because “lol sonic shouldn’t try to be edgy”.

- Shadow will be playable. Even if he’s at his core “Sonic with a OP Light Speed attack” this is very important.

- While at first I was annoyed at seeing old levels again, I’m actually happy with what they’ve done. They’re not just rehashes, they’re treated like actual dynamic environments. Green Hill is not just “hey remember this level”, it’s a place dear to Sonic that was ruined by Eggman. Chemical Plant is also ruined and repurposed as a space port, almost like a Sonic CD Bad Future. Only the Death Egg is pretty much the same, although I admit, the Classic level using the same gimmicks as the S3&K version was a nice touch that I forgave because it made sense in-universe.

- The dialogue! Aside from a couple of stupid lines, mostly by Sonic, there was no trace of childish, jarring humor, nobody was OOC or treated as simple comic reliefs, and the interactions between characters were genuine and believable. Some parts kinda reminded me of the Boom cartoon. “See, Infinite, now we het to know each other! So what’s your favorite color? Do you enjoy long, romantic walks on the beach? What’s the source of your powers? You can skip the first two questions if you like” “Maybe he’ll have more friends if he stopped talking about himself in the third person.” (maybe I just have a bad sense of humor idk :V)

- Eggman and Knuckles were perfect. We didn’t see them a lot, but their characterization was on point. Knuckles was just full of charisma and he radiated confidence, a far cry from the butt monkey he’s been since Sonic X. And Eggman was actually smart, with some clever ideas like having backup sources for the Phantom Ruby, rightfully chewing out Infinite for not killing Sonic, and… well, we didn’t see it, but I like the idea of him keeping Sonic alive in his cell just so he could see what happened to the world thanks to his absence (that’s perfect fanfic fuel). And Mike Pollock managed to sound badass in certain parts. “The sun will fall upon you. Boom! The end. Your pathetic lives… are over.”

- Speaking of Pollock, the voice acting was some of the best in the games this far. I can count on a single hand the times someone sounded fake or unconvincing (mostly Silver, sadly, and Sonic was a bit oscillating). I think I gushed about Liam O’ Brien enough, he clearly had so much fun with Infinite. I can’t wait to hear the Japanese version

- And finally I love Infinite way more than I should. His design, his voice (especially his voice

- I like that thing Infinite did in Capital City. You know, when he mind raped everyone in the city by conjuring those abominations of nature. That was a clever use of his powers.

- The last shot of the game, with the Resistance hideout shining under the sun’s light and a single flower at the center, with the instrumental version of the credits’ song in the background, is honestly moving. Even after the huge disappointment that was the ending, this part made me feel satisfied and like I accomplished something (and I didn’t even play myself). It reminds me of Wiosna from Katawa Shoujo, and if you played it you know how it feels to hear that music after finishing a route.

Neutral:

- The scrapping of lives. I’ve seen people complaining that it makes the game too easy, but

1) there’s still some punishment if you lose a life, just like in Unleashed the timer doesn’t reset and of course you lose all your Rings, so if you die you can kiss that S rank goodbye;

2) lives have been pointless since the introduction of save files. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you got a game over in a game that saved your progress? And what was the punishment for a game over? At worst you just have to restart the level you died in.

So while I’m not particularly happy, I’m not disappointed either and I welcome the change.

- The music. I put it here because it’s kind of a mixed bag, there are tracks that I hate with a passion and tracks that I can’t get enough of (and I’ve only heard a tiny fraction of the whole OST). So overall I would say it’s average-to-good. 

I really wonder why they’re insisting of forcing Ohtani to compose whole soundtracks - the guy is seriously talented and I admire his work, but why can’t he be helped by someone else? I know Kenichi Tokoi and Naofumi Hataya also worked on the soundtrack, but afaik their roles are minimal.

- The Avatar himself. I’d enjoy the idea a lot more if 1) they talked, and 2) the characters stopped shilling them just a tiny bit, especially since everyone else was relegated to the background. Still, the concept of a muggle wanting to help the heroes is cool, as it goes against that sort of “elitism” in the Sonic series. And I just grew too attached to Gadget the Wolf :)

- The level design, the thing people trashed for months on end… it’s okay. Is it good as Generations’? Absolutely not. Is it bad? I don’t think so, because when I think “bad level design”, I think of Knuckles’ Chaotix and Sonic CD. 

Forces is inoffensive in this regard. On one hand, it’s not as linear as it looked like, there are multiple paths and some nice platforming sections. On the other, the 3D parts are few, short and in general not that engaging, and yes, Classic Sonic’s stages are supported by too much automation because the physics engine can’t handle him apparently. In short, if you’re okay with shallow fun and you thought Colors was fine, then you’ll be okay with Forces. (and while we’re not supposed to judge the developers as people, considering the level designers were all newbies I’d say they did a good job)

Negatives:

- the fact that you can’t recollect your rings unless you’re playing as the hedgehog Avatar. That just flies against the very core of the Rings concept.

- The sheer lack of “show, don’t tell”. Most of this game is just told, in fact most part of the plot is told via walkie talkie convos. The majority of the cast is just there to comment and guide the characters during the levels, only Silver is shown actually doing something. The most offensive example is how Eggman conquering the world is “shown” by a simple text box (people are already speculating it’s another sign of troubled production). And we don’t even see that much of the conquered world, either, aside from City (no seriously that’s the name of the area).

- What happened to you, Tails? What happened to the boy who wanted to be more than Sonic’s sidekick? Why the mere sight of Chaos 0 sends you into a panic when you fought Chaos 4 before? Why thinking Sonic is dead makes you “lose it”, when the same thing happened twice already (or once, if you want to discard ‘06) and in both cases you were devastated but still managed to kick ass? Why are you just an exposition fairy? Who hates you that much in the writers’ team? :(

- THE. RUSHING. Oh my god I could rant for hours about how the game not only is too fast-paced, but outright misses chunkes. I already mentioned the text box part, but what about the part where Infinite sends Sonic and the Avatar into null space… and they get out of there in literally ten seconds? What about Fake!Chaos and Fake!Shadow being dispatched like that, without even the simples of boss fights? What about Silver, Shadow and Omega just appearing out of nowhere? What about the “fake sun” plan being thwarted simply by the Avatar after less than ten minutes? What about the relentless teasing of Infinite’s origins, all culminating in a big fat nothing (he didn’t even take off his mask for fuck sake)? What about Eggman just vanishing after the final boss? What about the fact that two thirds of the final boss are rehashes, and at this point I’m seriously insulted by seeing Egg Nega Wisp for the third time?

- Going hand-to-hand with the rushed plot, the wasted potential. Sonic gets tortured in isolation, so you’d expect some consequences to his characterization. Nope! Not even a reveal that he was just hiding his fear by acting tough. Why are Shadow, Chaos and Zavok on Eggman’s side? Lol, they were just illusions, the real Shadow is fine and the others just don’t appear. All the cool hints about a tragic past for Infinite in his own song? Nothing mentioned in-game. He’s an experiment, that’s it. The connection with Mania? Just an excuse to justify the presence of Classic Sonic, whose only purpose in the plot is to snap Tails out of his depression. This game is just begging, “Rewrite me, please!”, and if I could write decently I’d do it myself, I’m that disappointed.

- What’s the deal with Aqua Road? It’s the only gimmick level in the game and it looks like the unholy child of those horrible bingo tables in Bingo Highway and this part in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC.

- Very minor, but if Eggman could see the fake sun, that means he would’ve been incinerated too. Considering how smart he was otherwise, that seems like a huge hole in his plan.

That’s everything I can think of. So, in conclusion, the game is generally good but overall mixed, and I dread the coming of November 7th because I can’t even imagine the kind of reception this game will get (and since it’ll come right after Super Mario Odyssey I don’t think it will sell well :\). 

I would personally play it if I had the chance because the game doesn’t look broken, boring or frustrating, and if I can manage to have fun with ShTH Forces will definitely be entertaining :V but it’s clear something went seriously wrong during the production and it feels like there are bits of the game missing, bits that could’ve elevated the quality from “good” to “excellent” - which is also why I hope Sonic Team doesn’t throw everything away but keeps the good parts and expands on them to create an even better game next time.

So if you’re planning on getting Forces, ask yourself what do you want to see in a Sonic game, because that’s the thing that makes the difference between “it’s not perfect but I can have fun with this” and “this game is absolute trash and Sonic doesn’t deserve this”.