#or at least the one for sonic superstars did

[sonknuxadow]

mannn when is the episode coming out dont these things usually drop in the morning

[randomthefox]

I'm sorta on the fence about your take on Amy's strength. Mostly I'm confused on how the Piko Piko hammer works if it's just a toy. Is Amy's momentum what destroys robots, then? Not strength but speed? (I suppose that makes sense, considering she's a speed type character.)

What do you make of the giant hammer she wields when paired with Knuckles in Advance 3? That one seems to make a weightier sound than the others.

Also, what do you make of the weights she wore on her ankles and wrists while boxercising in Battle?

I mean, I did make a comparison to John Wick killing a dude with a pencil lol. You can fuck someone up with anything if you're badass enough. Vin Diesel killed a guy with a teacup in that terrible Chronicles of Riddick movie.

The fact that I'm saying the Piko Piko hammer is just a lame toy that isn't special at all is actually me being MORE complimentary of Amy's strength and prowess as a combatant than trying to pretend the hammer is special is some way. Amy filled a plastic toy with *dreams* and she makes it work.

I say that as a joke, but Sonic Battle does actually provide evidence that Amy is SO UTTERLY DELUSIONAL that she can manifest her psychosis into physical power and fight as if she is tag teaming with Sonic. (Rouge still wins). So like, I really do think she is just that fucking crazy that she can dismantle a killer robot with a plastic hammer.

I don't think she can lift a hammer that's bigger than she is and weighs at least a ton, and I don't think she can crack an entire building into rubble single handedly. But she can definitely fuck up Eggmans robots. I personally put Modern Amy in terms of power scaling at where Sonic was in the classic Genesis games. So anything Classic Sonic went up against, I think Amy is easily capable of fighting just as well.

The hammers on Sonic Advance 3 are a product of the tag team mechanics of that game. The giant hammer specifically is from her teaming up with Knuckles. So I interpret it that Amy is able to swing a hammer that big specifically because Knuckles is lending her his strength. The credits of Sonic Rush reusing the giant hammer sprite for a gag notwithstanding.

Sonic Battle is too, shall we say, limited in its visual representation for us to have a proper understanding of how the boxercizing weights worked. A lot of people seem to interpret it as meaning the golden wrist bracelets weigh a billion pounds or whatever. Even though she's still wearing them in the cutscene and during the gameplay afterwards. But again, the game leaves almost too much to the imagination for us to know for sure. They're definitely just working on Dragon Ball logic though.

Certainly nothing is ever said about HOW heavy they're supposed to be. There's a screen shake effect when they're taken off, but how much are we supposed to read into that? Are we supposed to visualize it like she's Rock Lee?

I dunno, that seems like reading into it more than what's actually present in the text of the game to me.

I don't doubt they're heavy but they're probably a lot more subdued than people assume. Again, it seems very much a Dragon Ball moment to me.

I could definitely believe that Amy could have been wearing maybe 200 pounds in weights on her wrists and ankles for the sake of a boxercizing weight loss regiment. She was able to carry Trip around no problem during her unique level in Sonic Superstars after all, with that heavy armor on Trip was probably 100-150 pounds give or take. Which, sure, for you and me, that's a lot. But is it a lot by anime cartoon animal standards? Would it be a lot for Sonic and Tails or Knuckles? I don't think any of them would even notice an extra 200 pounds.

Amy's real strength does not come from how PHYSICALLY strong she is. Amy's strength comes from being crazy her spunk and determination. That's how I see it anyway.

[skaruresonic]

I want to like Amy but her fans make it difficult.

Every other moment they're throwing another character under the bus to make Amy look better when that shouldn't be necessary. It's like they're playing victim over something that people don't do anymore.

If Amy is perfect like they claim then they shouldn't feel this threatened whenever another female character gets any kind of attention or praise. But without fail every single time another female character is girly, kind, brave, or anything else you can think of, it's somehow an attack on Amy.

Imagine if Sonic's fans got mad everytime there was a new character who was confident and athletic. That's how ridiculous this is.

Normally I'd say it's not really equitable not to give a character a fair shake just because their fans are being obdurate, but I can sympathize with your mindset when it comes to how folks gas up Sonamy. If they were chiller about it, I'd probably like it more. While I appreciate Sonic and Amy's dynamic as friends, I swear people portray it as an issue of life or death, and it's so freaking tiring.

Despite not posting about her much, Amy is actually tied with Maria for the third spot in my favorite Sonic characters list. Both girls are great characters for similar and different reasons. It doesn't make much sense to me to claim Maria is boring when Amy displays many of the same traits.

Heck, I kind of think people exaggerate how bad her Battle portrayal is, making it out to be the bad apple that spoils an otherwise good bushel. It's not fantastic, pretty Yikes(tm), actually; yet you'd think she singlehandedly ruined the game based on the way folks hone in on her portrayal at the expense of ignoring the others. ...and idk, I still laughed at a few of her lines. :v

Amy sits in the same boat as Shadow in that everyone holds their own interpretation of the character close to heart and will get defensive if you say otherwise. I've noticed a certain stubbornness among Amy fans that is also shared by Shadow fans. One time I said "I'm an Amy fan, I don't need a crash course on her character" in response to being linked a thread on her character, and got hit with "oh you're just saying what everyone else says." Like? bruh?

I'm just not one of those fans who's like "AMY DESERVES EVERYTHING EVER." She has her flaws and foibles, just like everyone else in the cast. She has a tendency to step on toes, be a bit whiny, overbearing and one-minded... and it can be simultaneously true that her kindness wins over hearts. Amy contains multitudes.

But it's almost like, for many people, taking her as she is isn't enough. She needs to practically be shown curing world hunger in order to be considered as valid as the boys or something… Which I kinda find more offensive to her character than dismissing her outright.

Why does Amy need to star in everything before you're happy, even though of the female cast, she's technically enjoyed the most screentime? Again, not to pit two bad bitches against each other, but Maria's representation isn't exactly sterling, especially considering how often folks objectify her as Shadow's morality pet or treat her death as something to shock non-fans into thinking the series is Deep and Dark(tm). If you're really for better female representation, you should be arguing for better representation for every girl character, not just saying "let Amy get hers and fuck the rest." This shouldn't be a competition. Everyone can have a seat at the table.

First the fandom consensus was "Sega sucks because they didn't include Amy in Origins." Then when they actually did that and included her in Superstars to boot, fans proceeded to move back the goalposts. Superstars doesn't count, apparently, because (insert spurious reasons here).

Maybe it makes me a bad Amy fan or whatever, but I find her crush on Sonic to be the least interesting aspect of her character in part due to how much emphasis people put on it. She and Sonic cannot have a single conversation without fans being like "OMG OMG THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER SONAMY IS CANON," even if canon implies that Amy is imposing on Sonic, such as SatBK's manual describing Sonic preparing for their date as "awaiting a stressful encounter."

Although I can acknowledge that Amy's crush is integral to her character, the way people talk about it makes it seem like female representation in the series as a whole is at stake every time she's mishandled. There's apparently a hashtag trending on Twitter called #letamylove that was made in response to what people perceive as Flynn's mishandling of Frontiers!Amy, FFS. They can't just say "Amy sounds too depressed in Frontiers," no, it has to be blown up into a near-political issue.

The other thing is that people who ship Sonamy often ignore Sonic's feelings and comfort in the matter. Ohshima's tweet that Sonic isn't a "real man" due to his reluctance to express his feelings towards Amy exemplifies this. It's like Sonic is considered some sort of prize that Amy earns through personal growth, when really, folks should be arguing for Amy's personal growth for her own sake.

[cartoon-buffoon]

Sonic X Shadow generations came out and cool but just as I expected I am beyond disappointed with the inclusion of metal overlord because it feels like fan service that somehow manages to slap the fans of metal sonic in the face at same fucking time. Now my main gripe with the fight in general is it's inclusion because ultimately—NO MATTER WHAT SHADOW IS NOT GETTING NOWHERE NEAR TO BEAT METAL, THE RED AND BLACK AND BOZO WOULD GET KILLED THE SECOND HE TRIED TO 1V1 M-OVERLORD!

This is gonna turn into a VERY LONG ramble of why I love metal more than anything however if you wish to indulge the words of a lunatic who loves a fictional metal anthropomorphic hedgehog then bear with me because this makes me IRRATIONALLY MAD! I have no reason to be this worked up yet I still am, shut up I'm allowed to be stupidly passionate about this. Also I would like to note the criticism that I have is gonna be located at the VERY END OF THIS (gonna reiterate) VERY LONG RANT and the criticism I have is gonna disappoint but I don't care and ultimately you should take my words with an ounce of salt because I'm a stupid cartoon yelling on a soap box here and if this nonsensical blame my ADHD.

Anyways disclaimer done: my main gripe with the fight as stated is it's inclusion because of the premise of what Metal Overlord is. Metal Overlord is the final form of Neo Metal Sonic which is Metal Sonic that was upgraded to the point he gained a voice and intelligence enough to know he did not need Eggman. With an understanding of his new powers and the ultimate goal of killing sonic to be the one true sonic (his metal empire plan was 100% second place to killing sonic lmao) he threw his own creator in a closet, locked him in there, and then proceeded to lead the sonic heroes on wild goose chases just to collect their bio data to perfect himself which—his perfection is the Metal Overlord form. That's at least what Metal Overlord is in a really quick summary that can be taken with only a quick look at what it is but the reason for metal doing all this ultimately stems from character development that kind of just happens off screen? Like I know there's Archie and the OVA which is forever gonna be the best sonic movie in terms of both plot and animation because holy fuck it is peak (go watch the Sonic OVA it's free on YT and it will help you understand why metal is such a great character) but ultimately his appearance in the comic and the OVA in general is non-canon to the mainline games and exists as side media. Metal's first appearance and really main appearance outside of heroes is Sonic CD which he acts as Sonic's first proper fake, look alike rival who stems to destroy him and help Eggman.

Metal naturally loses the race he challenged Sonic too and from there he moves onto his second appearance which is in Knuckles Chaotix where—I don't even know if that game is canon because it is a spinoff that DOES connect to CD because Metal Sonic's appearance as the villain of the game is if I remember correctly supposed to be after his loss in CD but it's never referenced or talked about like, ever? Anyways—Metal Sonic does appear in that game and he fights Knuckles and the Chaotix (and Mighty + 2 robots who presumably just die as their never referenced again) yet he still once again loses even after obtaining a pretty cool powerful form called Metal Sonic KAI. From there the events of Mania happen which we don't really know where it does because Mania IS CANON but on the classic timeline with superstars it's kind of messy, but it definitely does come sometime after Knuckles Chaotix because in Sonic mania metal gets his giga form which is directly based on his KAI form from Chaotix although his giga form is a sort of perfected version it using the Phantom Ruby. In any case his appearance in mania isn't as important as the series of short animated episodes called the "Sonic Mania Adventures" that were made because metal is in them and it gives us a clear idea of Metal's hatred for losing.

In the shorts Metal plays as a helper to Eggman as per usual with his main goal being to help the doctor track down the chaos emeralds, very standard setup. Once Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Ray arrive to get the two emeralds back from Metal and to stop Eggman from getting them all this turns out to be just one big trap and we see Metal use the power of the chaos emeralds to go "super" (not proper super like Mecha MK. 2 does but he does get a yellow aura) and single handily hold off Sonic, Tails, Ray, AND MIGHTY WHO IS STUPIDLY STRONG! Like Mighty iirc is stronger than Knuckles but he is more of a pacifist who prefers not to actually get into fights but is still more than capable of crazy feats of strength. The only reason why Metal loses is his systems were hacked by Tails who freezes him, knocks the emeralds outta him, and then once Metal tries to recover by harassing the master emerald power he gets suprise attacked by Knuckles stopping him before he could do that. From there we get a very sweet animation where we see Metal at first abandoned by Eggman although through Amy's help he reunites with his creator who manages to accept him back—however a small detail many misinterpret/don't catch is the start of Metal's tragedy and what I believe is the turning point for him.

In the 6th and final Sonic Mania Adventures short which takes place after the first 5 installments Eggman throws a temper tantrum after his defeat that takes place in the aforementioned previous 5 episodes. In this temper tantrum Eggman kicks Metal once out of frustration because he is an egotist and can't accept defeat thus naturally blaming the ineptitude of the things HE creates. Now after the first kick Eggman doubles down and kicks Metal more forceful the second time around, however I believe this kick wasn't out of anger and moreso as motivation and a way to say "get up! We have to go rebuild and come up with a new plan"

Now this doesn't work and Metal goes back to lying face down in the dirt, and I see a few people misinterpret this entire thing as Eggman getting mad at Metal and leaving him behind which is—in my firm belief—NOT the case! As evidence by Eggman's next expression once Metal goes limp he seems thoroughly surprised and only then does he get angered and storm off, almost wishing that Metal DID get up but he has no time for the angst of a creation who's not even old enough to be considered a teenager.

Now there is of course the argument to be made Metal was too damaged to get up and walk and Eggman didn't wish to bother with his creation which ya know, does effectively mean he abandoned him. However considering he does repeatedly move his head and DOES move his joints/body like when Amy saves him where he's on his hands and knees before getting knocked back down it does seem like Metal isn't damaged beyond the point of moving but it's moreso he doesn't care (that first kick probably did become engraved into Metal's memory and was probably a key factor into Eggman getting thrown into a closet in heroes though lmao). In any case it seems both by Eggman's reaction and the display of Metal moving that Metal simply lost all hope and fell into a sort of robotic depression. Only once did Amy physically drag him to Eggman's base did Metal finally go back to his creator, although once again if the context clues point to metal once again be PERFECTLY CAPABLE of movement then metal could at ANY POINT WALKED/FLEW BACK, but he didn't. He didn't go back because that defeat right there was what broke the camel's back, after the repeated loss after loss did metal finally be able to take no more and accepted his defeat. Cold, alone, and partially broken he remained there with nothing to do other than look through his memories because nothing points to Metal going into a sleep mode so we're sort of led to believe metal was turned on for that ENTIRE duration of time when he was in the dirt. And what does Metal's memories consist of? Oh that's right it's practically only filled with the repeated times he lost by the hands of someone who he deems inferior to the point he believes himself to be the superior version. I feel like this is the moment where the true bitterness brew, his choice of words as Metal Overlord demonstrates just how much Metal despises Sonic.:"Long time no see, Sonic, my loathsome copy!" Is a line that I always felt like so much power because Metal doesn't hate sonic, he LOATHES him. What was simple hatred grew into something so much more because reminder Metal's entire purpose is to beat Sonic and kill him yet never being able to do that ultimately lead to something more than just him merely serving his purpose, no, Metal's feelings towards Sonic turned personal.

Also really quick Metal does appear in sonic adventure which is after the classic era. He is playable in the DX version but he has no proper story and is merely a fun reward you get for getting all the medals, but his main appearance even in the OG version is in this vat in the egg carrier. It's possible Metal is still turned on during this considering his eyelights ARE on meaning he still could be thinking but there's no evidence to support he's awake or in stasis and because this model is ripped directly from SA2 battle which ya know, has him turned on. Still something neat to note but probably not important.

Anyways with all that being said the mania adventure shorts is something we got in this modern era to provide some lore on Metal Sonic and just some neat filler stuff that adds world building. Back then there was no little extra bit of talk or content regarding the canon game material with Metal as a character but stuff is still implied with all the dialogue written in Sonic Heroes where we see Metal in his ULTIMATE FORM. With his new Neo form Metal gains the power to copy the biological data of whatever life form he can thoroughly assess and he uses this power to scan everyone's data as well as the biological data of the primordial god of chaos which is in the form of Froggy who holds Chaos' tail and Chocolate which is a chao which are kin/apart of Chaos or at least the master emerald. Once with all the data in tow he transforms into Metal Overlord which is not only the pinnacle of Eggman's hubris but also a manmade god capable of adapting to whatever is thrown at it and becoming stronger. It's a learning machine that simply gets smarter and stronger the more you throw at it until it gets the power to best you with it now able to copy what you threw at it. It is such a threat that once Eggman sees this he truly realizes that he was Icarus who flew too close to the sun and is paying for it in the form of his creation which power far outclasses that of the chaos emeralds. As said by doctor Eggman himself who is known to be a man full of ego and pride he still understands how truly fucked they all are upon seeing Neo Metal transform with him saying "it's useless! Metal Sonic has combined your data with the power of chaos and super strong! We can't defeat it!" Even when he groans about the singular possible chance of being able to fight Metal with all the 7 chaos emeralds upon seeing them he doubles down on Metal Overlord's power by saying "even with the emerald's power our chances for victory are slim! It would take a miracle!"

Eggman himself makes the clear statement of even with the power of all 7 emeralds and the capability of 3 users of the power of super the odds are SLIM and dawg says it would take a god damn MIRACLE if they wanna win. Not to mention he says this with the most genuine fear ever because as I remarked before, my man is regretting the time he kicked metal and probably real quick turned from a man of science to one of religion and started praying to Gaia that he doesn't go to the Sonic universe's version of hell. Bottom line is Metal Sonic is ridiculously powerful and team Rose, team Chaotix, and team Dark which includes Shadow—AND FINALLY GETTING BACK TO WHAT THIS RANT STARTED OFF AS— can't do anything but hold him off while Sonic, Tails and Knuckles charge up. With all 3 teams attacking Metal Overlord doesn't really falter as all they're doing is catching him mid-transformation and simply fighting to buy time because as Metal states himself "You all are useless now that I copied your data!" And even Shadow understands this because after holding him off with Team Dark Shadow says "Sonic! We're counting on you!" Because he too registers that if Sonic, Tails, and Knux don't pull it off they are all totally fucked. Oh this is also not mentioning that after the 3 teams held him off Team Sonic could only hurt Metal in his overlord with team blast which was 3 people hyped up on chaos juice jumping him all at once! I don't need to go on with just how powerful overlord is as a transformation yet this is all a prerequisite to understand SHADOW IS NOT FUCKING TOUCHING METAL OVERLORD NO MATTER THE UNIVERSE OR WHAT NEW POWERS HE GETS!

Metal ultimately is better than Sonic but somehow can never come out on top. Despite being faster he still somehow loses races to his "loathsome copy". Metal is a cold calculating robot who can analyze whatever is being thrown at him and adapt even if not in his Neo form we see in the mania shorts without the chaos emeralds supping him up he goes for the master emerald trying to improvise and fight on the fly. Unlike Sonic who bleeds and will eventually fall to time and age Metal won't, metal will stay constant in his prime only ever getting stronger with each encounter and fight he's in with Sonic but in the end he will still lose. With his jet propulsion system and overdrive attack Metal is easily capable of out speeding Sonic, beating him at what he does best and being faster than the fastest thing alive, but his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. While it's true Metal is faster than the fastest thing alive ultimately that's what makes him inferior, his lack of life and a soul with the capability of only doing what he has ever known. Even when betraying his creator and getting free will he doesn't for a second stop his goal of being the one and only Sonic, in the process LITERALLY turning himself into a monster (which he acknowledges) but that doesn't stop him from trying and leads to his defeat.

AND THEN WE GOT SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS WHERE THIS RED SON OF A BITCH COMES OUTTA NOWHERE AND BEATS HIM IN A 1 v 1!

get the fuck out with this SHADOW FAVORITISM BULLSHIT SEGA! Do not fucking tarnish Metal's character by giving Shadow the ability to suddenly face him! Like I'm gonna go as far to say FUCKING BASE METAL outclasses Shadow because Metal is still capable of evenly matching what Sonic can output to the end, he's Sonic's lesser by a tiny margin and the idea that Shadow—WHO IS NOT STRONGER THAN SONIC MIND YOU—can magically fight the form that can be implied is stronger than fucking chaos is laughable and bullshit. So much bullshit in fact that I could create a healthy and thriving fucking garden in my front yard which is more dead and lacking of nutrients than the Sahara fucking desert's land! That's how much bullshit there is! Oh but of course the people who love riding that hedgehog's hog will go and say "um shadow also has a soul so wouldn't he be able to beat metal?" And my response is: IT WASN'T JUST SONIC'S SOUL THAT WON HIM THE METAL OVERLORD FIGHT! Sonic would of died there if not for Knuckles and Tails who are A KEY PART OF SONIC'S CHARACTER! The use of only using team blast to fight Metal is more than simply a game mechanic to prolong the Metal Overlord fight, it's also a key display of who Sonic is as a character and his development. Sonic had grown from a lone wolf character who was as free as the wind to now a complete extrovert who cherishes his friends and allies with his life, it's his friends who truly make him who he is because it's the power of friendship, their words, and the knowledge that their all counting on him that helps him press on, and having two of his closest friends fighting right by his side is just the push he needs to give it his all. That sounds cheesy as fuck but Sonic has always been a cheesy franchise and character, what's a chili dog without some cheese on top huh!?

Now with all of THAT being I'm sure a few people will ask "okay smartass would you prefer metal overlord to be totally forgotten and not included at all?" And to that I say: kinda yeah. But if you're looking for genuine criticism of mine then I do have one: remove Metal Overlord's wings and make him the imperfect overlord as seen here↓

... That's it. That's truly it, my one complaint and my correction.

"did you really write an essay as to why you hate this boss fight only to give the smallest design correction and nitpi—" I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF THIS IS A NITPICK THIS MATTERS! Metal has always been my favorite character and it's made VERY CLEAR his perfected overlord form is one of the most terrifying and potentially powerful things in the verse and I'm not gonna have all the character and depth behind it GO TO HELL FOR THE SAKE OF FAN SERVICE! It's not fan service, it's a fucking fan DISSERVICE! It's such a little change and would of been SO FUCKING EASY, they could of made Metal simply levitate or some shit with several jet engines as to make it different and diverse from the original Metal Overlord fight. This would also make sense because shadow did NOT fight perfect Overlord and instead fought imperfect Overlord when he was still connected to the egg carrier and properly processing things and powering up. Like did they forget that or did they just truly not give a fuck and decide to disregard the deep complex story behind as to why Metal Sonic is a giant monster because the design change isn't too drastic but even the untrained eye can see THE ONE ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT ARE TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS!

Like I made this entire fucking thing for this simple complaint which one may call childish which granted is kind of fucking childish but I don't fucking care anymore because I will NOT STAND FOR METAL SLANDER NO LONGER! I've seen people suddenly thinking Metal Overlord is some bitch ass transformation that shadow can single handily take down which is NOT the case and the implication that he could is dumb! I don't give a fuck if it's the year of Shadow Metal is one of the longest standing villains right next to Eggman and he gets fucking cucked for this red streak, speeds by, weaker than Sonic fucker who ISN'T EVEN THE FUCKING ULTIMATE LIFEFORM BECAUSE MAY I REMIND YOU SHADOW HIMSELF SAID SONIC MAY BE THE TRUE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM WHICH WOULD OF BEEN THEMATICALLY FITTING AND WOULD TAKE AWAY NOTHING IF SHADOW LOST THAT TITLE!

"are you just bitching about Shadow now?"

yes the fuck I am because this pisses me off to no end. I've GENUINELY got a headache as I'm writing this because Metal Overlord's inclusion irritates me beyond belief. Whatever you get my point, ramble over and Toon out I'm fucking tired

[mariadalila27]

{🧡Ulala🧡}

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Hello everyone!!!

I’m here with a new drawing! This time, I decided to draw one of the first Sega characters I discovered when playing Sega Superstars Tennis (aside from Sonic): Ulala from Space Channel 5!

Sega Superstars Tennis was my introduction to Sega and all of their IPs. And while the famous character of the game is Sonic, the others are very memorable and it takes me back to some good memories of that game. Ulala, Aiai, Amigo, Nights, and Beat are great characters and they all stand out to me because of their character designs! Sadly, I have never played any of the games they are from, but I did recently watched gameplay of the first Space Channel 5 game! And hopefully, I can watch gameplay of Nights and Jet Set Radio!

Coming back to the drawing, the fact I started it at around 11pm of May 5th and finished it at 1am of today (May 6th) really showed that 1) I can be a fast artist, 2) I didn’t had anything to do, and 3) I really wanted to draw something xddd. But, the drawing itself came out amazing!!!! I drew her so well and I had so much fun!!! Also, I decided to come back to my previous form of shading/lightning as I wasn’t liking the recent one xddd. But that’s alright, at least I got to try it out!

Hope you all like it!

[archoneddzs15]

Sony PlayStation 5 - Sonic Frontiers

Title: Sonic Frontiers / ソニックフロンティア

Developer/Publisher: Sega 2nd Development Division (Sonic Team)

Release date: 8 November 2022

Catalogue No.: ELJM-30201

Genre: Open Zone Action RPG

Talk about Sonic the Hedgehog's equivalent of a glow-up from Phantasy Star 4 to Phantasy Star Online right here. To be honest, I was getting sick of the PS5's somewhat lacking amount of quality titles that make it worth the investment, and then Sega dropped a bombshell by releasing this game right here. And yes. That's right - my first-ever PS5 game review! I was coming into this game with low expectations and while the game initially did not wow me judging from all the IGN FIRST hands-ons I watched pre-release, I have to say that I was mighty blown away at the final product. This game actually reminded me of a cross between Sonic Adventure 1, the Final Fantasy Sonic X flash games as well as the newest Final Fantasy games, and if you are old enough, the epic cinematic (though dull to me) intro to Burai Hackigyoku no Yuushi Densetsu on the Mega CD, as well as Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast.

I was sorta flip-flopping on whether it was good or bad but personally, having played it for some time and even 100%-ing it with the Content Updates (Update 1: Sights, Sound and Speed; Update 2: Sonic's Birthday Bash; Update 3: The Final Horizon) that Sonic Team delivered, the game itself is mighty excellent for PS5 Sonic game standards. I am personally playing this game using Japanese audio and English text and I think that language combination works wonderfully. The English story is written by Ian Flynn of IDW Sonic Comics and Bumblekast fame, and while the story is a major improvement over the Happy Tree Friends vibe that Ken Pontac and Warren Graff gave I still have yet to play it again on English audio though. Sonic controlled weirdly for the first time I played, but I pretty much got used to the control scheme after learning through it and configuring the settings to my own personal preference. The in-game soundtrack is all sorts of excellent. A mix of melancholic mixed with hard rock, and ONE OK ROCK did a stellar performance with the in-game version of Vandalize. Shame I did not get to see their December 15 2023 concert in Kuala Lumpur though.

The graphics are not the best compared to all the PS5 exclusives (this game is also on PS4, Switch, and PC - at least in my country the XBOX version is not sold here) but for my first ever (and probably only) PS5 experience, it's not bad. Could've been Spider-Man 2 great though, but that would be me pulling the Sony fanboy card. Instead, I'd say, it reminds me of the Shenmue games mixed with Ridge Racer 7, Sonic Generations, Phantasy Star Online, and Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012.

Here is something cool. My copy of Sonic Frontiers for PS5 also came with a flyer for Sonic Movie 2 (a great Sonic movie honestly), and a promo sheet that I forgot even existed. That promo started players off with extra Blue Defense Seeds, Red Power Seeds, and Skill Points.

Overall, if you are looking for a great Sonic game for your new PS5, why not look at Sonic Frontiers? I mean, with Sonic Superstars and Sonic X Shadow Generations doing quite well, the 2020s is probably going to be a wonderful Decade of Sonic. Next up on my bucket list is to collect the two Sonic Frontiers soundtrack CD's that were released.

[lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom]

Political Themes In Mario

So there are people nowadays that complain about "politics" being "forced" in media such as Mario, whether or not this is the case. They often go on to say they just want things like Mario to be an escapist fantasy and to keep politics out. So I wanted to talk about political themes in Mario games similar to how I did for Sonic.

So to start off we have the 2 kingdoms the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdom which are constantly in conflict bringing monarchies into the mix. Peach in particular has asked Mario and Yoshi to help the Jewelry Land out from Bowser's conquest in Yoshi's Safari.

She also has at least tried to met with the goodwill ambassador of the Beanbean Kingdom in Superstar Saga, she tried to deal with blorbs outbreak in Inside Story when she held a meeting, and has met with other Kingdom rulers such as Prince Florian.

There is also several kings she rulers over and vast amounts of land that make up the Mushroom Kingdom such the Eastern and Western territories.

There is also the themes of exchange rates of coins and borders established in Superstar Saga.

We also can't forget about the entire Koopa Army's existence.

In Odyssey it is established places like New Donk City hold elections for mayors as Pauline was elected to be the mayor.

Meanwhile in on Isle Delfino has an entire jury system that convicts Mario, alongside law enforcement.

In Super Mario Sunshine Bowser Junior pollutes Isle Delfino which Mario gets blamed for and has to clean up. This game as such themes are pollution ruining a beautiful island and disrupting the lifestyle of the islanders.

Speaking of pollution we can't forget about the Kremlings and how they not only polluted DK Island with Kremkroc Industries, but their homeland. As seen in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Crocodile Island has a been almost completely ruined by the Kremlings create a dark polluted atmosphere.

All of this creating an environmentalist theme to these games.

Now while some people might say environmentalism shouldn't be regarded as political which I agree with, it has been made political by other people. With many of the people who complain about politics in media often complaining about environmentalism viewing it in media as inherently political. This is why I am including it.

On top of that there is the hypothesis the Kremlings and K. Rool particularly in the Donkey Kong Country 1 could possibly represent a real world event and person.

More on the environmentalism theming, there is the existence of the Wild Yoshi Sanctuary and possible rewilding of Yoshies.

Plus dinosaurs are often made inherently political by some people because of prehistory and evolution.

Also, of the Kremling, pirates are also political because of their connection to monarchies historical, especially being true for the Kremlings.

Finally Mario and Luigi are immigrants which should be self explanatory. In the games they lived in New Donk City for a time, while in the movieverse they are Italian-American immigrants living in Brooklyn, and many continuities.

Mario and Luigi are plumbers and went through many working class jobs in the past like construction, bottling, and cement.

On top of that Mario fought in an unnamed war as well in Mario Bombs Away.

And one extra thing Bowser especially in the movie can represent toxic masculinity, and someone who can never take no for an answer. Such a theme is often made inherently political by some people.

Also, the way Peach is described by Miyamoto can also be viewed as inherently political by certain people who hate the mere thought of someone like Peach being like that.

[the-starlight-project]

So, in this AU, I guess Mania, or at least the encore mode, the comics, Superstar, the tv series, etc. don't exist?

What is a part of the in-universe sonic franchise? Just the main games, as tv shows?

I've answered this a lot, so I think this'll be the last time I answer one of these BUT!

To be crystal clear, only the main series Sonic games are considered canon actual TV shows that the studio helped produce with Sonic as the main protag. Any other spinoff you can think off - Boom, Superstars, etc etc - are either animated TV shows, actual spinoffs that have nothing to do with Sonic, or simply do not exist.

For example, Sonic Underground doesn't exist! It's not an animated TV show or a spinoff, it just .. doesn't exist! SatAM, however, did exist as an animated TV show.

Maybe eventually I'll put together a masterlist of what exists and what doesn't, but for now, I hope this clears things up.

[sonicjustbecause]

Shadow the hedgehog before 2010 - joy.

Sega Superstar (2004)

I like this one, he gives the vibes of a character who is very reserved and who takes things seriously, but there are hints of friendliness .

OG Shadow barely smiled and yet his gestures felt so sincere.

Sega Superstar Tennis (WiiMote already came ☹ unfortunately)

He might not smile but surely when he was happy he did let you know

He is way more confident, a bit too aggressive perhaps. But at least he is untied.

Sonic Riders 0 gravity (2008)

Another unleashed Shadow

Joy

[therummesoccupied]

IDW'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, KNUCKLES' 30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL - THOUGHTS

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD

It's that time, friends.

The year is 2024, and SEGA has declared it to be the Fearless Year of Shadow, making a big show out of showering the dark hedgie with all kinds of love over the course of the year.

This was certainly done to promote the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, but I can't help but feel that it's a bit unfortunate that the movie's release, and therefore the Year of Shadow, happened when it did, as 2024 is the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog 3 game on the SEGA Genesis - a game that marked the first appearance of Knuckles the Echidna. And so, where this could have been a year all about Angel Island's lone guardian, instead the spotlight has been dedicated to Sonic's other main rival for the bulk of the year.

Rad Red wasn't forgotten entirely, however, as just as they'd done with Tails and Amy over the past couple years, the folks at IDW gave us a nice little anniversary special dedicated to ol' Knux.

This story is not as strictly dedicated to Knuckles as the Tails and Amy specials were to their titular characters, however, as they also use the comic as an opportunity to commemorate one of the series' more recent releases with Sonic Superstars.

A good deal of this story centers around Trip the Sungazer, a new character introduced in Superstars who was the guardian of the game's setting, The Northstar Islands. I like Trip, if only because she's the first totally new playable character we've had introduced in a main series entry since Silver first showed up in Sonic '06, seventeen years before Sonic Superstars was released. It was really cool to get a new character with their own perspective on the adventure after such a long time, and they even got their own unique Super Form to boot! It was one of those little steps that helped make me feel like the series was going in the right direction again - or at least a direction I appreciated.

The story, penned by Ian Flynn, largely centers around Knuckles offering some one-on-one training to Trip in order to help her become the best Guardian she can be. He's an old pro, after all.

(Side note: I really adore this nod to Tyson Hesse's old "Knuckles is Great at His Job parody comic. That thing is comedic gold and this panel got a genuine cackle out of me.)

It's really interesting to see the comic run with this premise mere months after the Knuckles TV show premiered on Paramount+, centering around Knuckles training Wade Whipple in the ways of the Echidna warriors over in the movie universe.

The difference is this is good, though.

I know a lot of people were somewhat disappointed to see this Knuckles special dedicate so much of its time to Trip, especially after the Tails and Amy specials both put their titular characters in the spotlight to save the day from some kind of crisis, but I really love everything Trip brings to the table here.

Firstly, her presence gives us some really solid worldbuilding. I feel like, before Frontiers, it'd been entirely too long since we'd gotten a solid "Explore the Mysteries of an Ancient Civlization" story, and I feel like Sonic is often at its best when running with that idea.

When you think about it, that's kind of what Knuckles represents for this series. Stories about him are often the ones that do the most calling back to the lost peoples of old, the ones that really put in the work to establish this world's lore. Sonic 3 & Knuckles gives us the Master Emerald and gives us our first real storyline with the Chaos Emeralds at its center. Sonic Adventure tells the story of Chaos and the Echidna Tribe. Sonic Frontiers has Knuckles discovering the connections between Angel Island and the Starfall Islands, home of the Anicents who first brought the Chaos Emeralds to Earth.

This time, however, we're not strictly dealing with some long-lost society...

This was a delightful surprise to me. When playing through Sonic Superstars, I - like many others - thought the Sungazers were like the Echidnas: A bygone people all but wiped out in some kind of cataclysm, presumably related to the Sungazer Dragon, and that Trip, like Knuckles, was the last of her kind. Here, we learn that there just are other Sungazers around! Their civilization isn't gone at all! I think this is the first time we've gotten to see one of these ancient societies still existing in the modern world, and it's a really nice touch!

I do wish there was some variation in their color schemes, however. All of them using the same brown color palette kinda leaves a very... Ken Penders taste in my mouth. Blech.

Regardless, their designs are very nice and I like them, despite their shared palette.

As much as I like Trip and the Sungazers, the comic thankfully does not solely focus on Trip. Knuckles here does get his due.

The comic does a great job at displaying the juxtaposition between Trip and Knuckles, and how they approach their shared role as Guardians - Trip, who is just starting out in the Guardian gig and has plenty of people to help her learn and support her, and Knuckles, who has been a Guardian his entire life and lives alone on an isolated island with no one to help or teach him. Between this and his shared story with Blaze in the 2023 Annual Special, I really love the way IDW has been taking the opportunity to have Knuckles interact with other Guardians and offer his perspective into the way they approach their duties.

Through this, we also get a nice little peak into Knuckles' heart, and the way he approaches social interaction after being on his own for so long.

We get to see some of the difficulties he's faced understanding others after having to fend for himself for his entire life. In turn, we get to see how he's grown, and gotten genuinely closer to his newfound friends as a result.

We see him look back on the lessons he's learned, and use them to help Trip find her way as best he can. It's kind of beautiful that, between Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, Knux is the one most suited to an action story, and yet he's the one out of the three whose anniversary special centers entirely around him opening up and making a connection with another person.

Of course, Aaron Hammerstrom thoroughly knocks it out of the park with his pencils. The man is a juggernaut. It doesn't matter if he's trying to portray a style reminiscent of Yuji Uekawa or Naoto Ohshima, he absolutely delivers every time. I'm so happy we've gotten to see so much out of him lately.

His art is elevated by the lines of Rik Mack, whom I've been noticing more and more often lately, and the colors of Valentina Pinto, who does a phenomenal job with a comic that almost feels tailor(heh)-made for Reggie Graham. It's awesome to see them getting more opportunities to show their stuff.

All-in-all, I do wish we could get some more intense, action-driven Knuckles stories, but these introspective little bits of worldbuilding are also very nice, as was the opportunity to see Trip expanded as a character after her debut in Superstars. At the end of the day, I'm just glad to see Knuckles' 30th anniversary recognized among the tidal wave of Shadow love happening right now.

I do hope Shadow gets one of these stories himself one day, but it's tough to imagine him getting a dedicated 30th anniversary story when his 30th anniversary would also be the franchise's 40th. We'll see, I guess. In the meantime, we have a Chaotix 30th anniversary special on the horizon!

I'm super curious to see how that'll pan out. Will it be a Classic-era story, ushering the very first reappearance of the Chaotix's Classic designs since their original debut? Or will it be the first of these 30th anniversary specials set in the Modern era? Whatever the case, we're definitely going to be breaking some new ground. Before that, though, Issue 75 drops in about... eight minutes for me. So I'm gonna go get ready for that.

As always, thanks for reading!

[sonknuxadow]

between the sonic frontiers final horizon update and the final boss for trip's story in sonic superstars i think that everyone on sonic team woke up one morning and decided they were going to cause sonic fans immense pain and suffering in late 2023

[randomthefox]

Oh come one there were thousand of better idea they can't even come up with only one those idw suck man

The IDW storylines so far:

Sonic Heroes But Shit

Archie Sonic's Aborted Leftovers

Meet Belle The Puppet

Look At How Great Belle Is Isn't She The Best

Belle Goes Camping With Friends Look At Belle Don't You Just Love Belle

Oh Shit We Never Resolved What Happened To The Deadly Six Did We?

Scourge The Hedgehog Gets A Sex Change From A Doctor Who Binge Watched The Android Saga Of DBZ The Night Before

Sally Acorn Is Back But Now She's A Sheep

Somehow Fucking Up Slice Of Life Misadventures

Sonic Riders Infinity War But Thanos Is A Throwrug

but don't forget the mini series's:

Tangle Is Functionally Retarded Also I Haven't Played Metal Gear Solid

Eggmans Jilted Ex Boyfriends Go On A Crappy Road Trip

The Birth Of Rule 63 Scourge The Hedgehog

and of course last but not least

Ian Flynn Pisses All Over Sonic Superstars So He Can Feel Like It Belongs To Him

[team-chaotix-week]

The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog did have Knuckles interact and show friendship with Vector and Espio. With Vector playing arcade with Knuckles to Espio being petty by speed reading and spoiling the ending to Knuckles. Knuckles even help defend Espio when he was excuse of murder. I did like how the game give our interactions and friendship with some cute background info without Sonic's presence.

I do admit that Knuckles did have good interaction albeit small (besides the Misadventures Arc between them, I do like how Knuckles is concern of Espio during the Metal virus). The mandate of Knuckles is one of the beneficial among the other mandates since it wouldn't make sense for Knuckles to leave Angel Island without reasons (I'll give Forces a benefit of a doubt for why Knuckles join in because of the 6-month war) but this prevent him from being part of some of the adventures and even interact with the cast especially the Chaotix. I do appreciate the Knuckles 30th special with his interaction with Trip and how they can give a excuse on why he left the island.

Now that I realize, Knuckles kinda left during TMOSH. Maybe just a birthday and wants to celebrate her birthday that's all and the game is a good gateway to those unfamiliar with the Sonic Franchise and only seen familiar characters like Knuckles.

Aa for Archie, I do appreciate his interaction with the Chaotix but I wouldn't say much mostly because some of the writings were really questionable especially in the early writings. While I like the Archie Chaotix especially the Archie characters, the stories and writings made me not to give much opinions and just felt bad about them in my honest thoughts. I'll do understand why some of it is like that since Archie Comics were around before Sonic Heroes to give much characterization. It's only the Pre-reboot by the way, I don't know much about the Post-reboot. Saffron and Julie-Su are good characters but given their background information and the questionable writing, it might be hard for me to see much about them to which I feel bad.

Also yeah I like Don and Nite, it's nice for the Chaotix to have friends outside of Sonic's friend group (they have a picture of them and the Chaotix in the issue where Sonic was saved by Don and Nite). Showcase they have their own lives with other people to make them more real. Phantom Riders Arc is there best screentime on how they show concern where the detectives are and will do anything to save them. I do like how Nite treated Charmy like his own child especially holding him and Nite's cold words towards Clutch is so awesome. Them being a couple helps out and while they are explicit and implicit opposite to one another (colors, names, personalities, species) that they do love each other. It's also important that they don't have much screentime and it's good thing because it also help give room for others, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate their time.

As for Ray and Mighty, I do wish they at least give some interaction in the IDW either classic or modern. I feel like the only reason they didn't is because the Chaotix didn't appear much in the classic era except their debut game the same way Mighty and Ray didnt appear in the modern games. Like if they appear in classic games like mania or superstars, I'm sure they can give them interactions. It might be the reason why the 30th special have them in modern versions, because not many people seen their classic designs compare to Amy in her CD design. Archie has some issues but I will give them a benefit for their friendship and even their own stories especially during the Sonic Universe Arc about them and callback to Fleetway since I heard that Espio and Mighty have some rivalry.

Oh yeah! TMOSTH slipped my mind!

I did actually really enjoy those few interactions they had. Knuckles and Vector got to hang out and play games, and the Espio pettiness made me laugh. Honestly, good on Knuckles for not punching him because I would not be happy if someone spoiled a book I was reading.

And oh yeah, Archie writing is definitely... something. My knowledge of it is only from Sonci Universe and various memes, tumblr posts and stuff like that for now, but oh boy do they make questionable choices. I totally get what you mean about it being hard to see much about Archie canon charcaters, I'm finding it hard to properly start the main Archie comics. I think it's got some interesting stuff going on, but as a whole it isn't quite my thing. But that's just my opinion.

Yes!!! The picture of the Chaotix in Nite and Don's van! I was looking for Chaotix screenshots and that issue lists the Chaotix as being in it and the only hint I found of them was that small picture (yes, it will show up in the screenshots eventually). I love that they have their own lives, and that they both believe Sonic was innocent and help him out. And then of course Don's rescue of the Chaotix is so fun, and that if he didn't he'd never hear the end of it from Nite. I agree that it's good they don't have too much screen time, this way their appearance are all the more special!

Yeah, that could be it for why Mighty and Ray don't show up. It's kinda sad they're stuck in classic era (I'm glad they're at least showing up there). I honestly really hope they at least get mentioned in the 30 year anniversary Chaotix comic. But yeah, unlike the other characters that showed up in classic, the Chaotix haven't been depicted as such since pre-Heroes (I believe, don't quote me on this. I've not gone through all existing sonic media yet). Probably doesn't help that most people first encountered the Chaotix in Heroes (or anything after that) and not everyone knows about Knuckles' Chaotix.

[un-pearable]

okay post sonic symphony post recap :D

1st mezzanine sweep (could see both the orchestra + the singers excluding when they went in the audience at one point) + we were right next to the projector (cool!!!!) and some of the speakers (ouch)

orchestral:

setlist (as best i remember, i wasn’t writing it down, PLEASE correct me):

sonic 1

sonic cd

sonic 2

sky sanctuary

sonic mania

“welcome to 3D”

believe in myself/it doesn’t matter medley

chao garden

“three new ones”

rooftop run

aquarium park/planet wisp

frontiers medley w/ stuff from third DLC

i was so excitedly surprised to see the new visuals!!! they did a really great job combining the new origins cutscenes with gameplay and the timing was INCREDIBLE esp for a live show. infinite kudos and honestly i can appreciate them waiting two years to actually do this since the cutscenes really tied to first few medleys together

conductor absolutely CRUSHED IT dude was very understanding that the audience was going to be Losing It consistently and he made it work. so much love to that orchestra they did a stellar job and im so sad they’ll get overshadowed by the vocal parts (which. yeah obviously. but they did SUCH great work and the conductor did a great job directing the audiences applause to them)

felt bad they had to stop between every single medley for applause but such is life . also experiencing live audience reactions for stuff like the chemical plant zone drowning trap and amy being playable in the metal sonic race was amazing

enjoyed the sky sanctuary medley even though it took the place of the sonic 3k music overall, so much kudos to the video team that was SO cool (AND IT HAD THE FRONTIERS ANIMATED SPECIAL!!!!! YEAHHHH WIN FOR KNUCKLES FANS EVERYWHERE)

the believe in myself/it doesn’t matter one’s are always so sweet to me i love how they frame them using the cutscenes from each of their respective stories + the end card 🥺 now do that for everyone else’s themes!!!!!!!!!!

i’m definitely forgetting at least one bit in there but it was so delightful all around, the new arrangements were so fun, unleashed sweeps as always but one guy near me was SUPER passionate about aquarium park im glad he was happy. the frontiers medley ended w/ the new supersonic form and having not watched that trailer this was the BEST possible way to see that new content holy SHIT!!!!!!!!

intermission: that was the single most positive bathroom i’ve ever been in and i mean that in the least weird way possible. everyone was so so so excited and complimentary (ty to the person who liked my pins and whose fiancé liked the tails one. i like it a lot too :]) also kudos to the stunning wave cosplayer i saw she was killing it!!!!! molly whoever you were i hope you enjoyed the second half as much as i did

vocal tracks:

setlist (i actually did write this one down):

i am all of me

what i’m made of

open your heart

knight of the wind

escape from the city

(new!!) superstars intro theme

his world

reach for the stars

fist bump

endless possibility

(fake out ending)

break through it all

undefeatable

live and learn

the fake out of having only the orchestra on stage and then l having i am all of me just START even before johnny + jun got on stage. incredible. we were all so distracted i have to find a clip of the audible chaos when the music started going and everyone clocked it was SHADOW FIRST. anyway so so so funny they only showed cutscenes from shth . no gameplay. gee wonder why

interesting structure too, compared to the order of the OG one in 2021 (which focused more on ramping up to the classics + live n learn at the end) this order bookended some of the less popular songs (reach for the stars and the new superstars theme particularly) with the BIG names

you should have heard how much people lost it when johnny said “you are… what i’m made of” i’m so proud of you sonic symphony audience. we are all sonic heroes appreciators

oh also johnny + everyone’s clumsy attempts to name drop/imply song names in their inbetweens. hilarious. astounding. i’m glad we’re your knight johnny

^ re: prev i NEED a recording of that it was glorious. if anyone has one hmu

literally two minutes before the second half started i was telling my beloved friend i dragged along that all i needed to be happy was for them to have kept knight of the wind and it was the FOURTH SONG . WIN FOR JAY. 3 of my top fives within the first twenty mins of act 2. incredible

obviously escape from the city floored everyone. i think that got the most people singing but we were all already exhausted vocally it was very funny hearing what lines people mumbled. but it DID have the most call and response, with the biggest songs they would really just shut off the mics and let the audience sing a lot of lines it was so so fun

johnny took his leave from the stage (and complimented + thanked dave vives and also the fandom), said goodnight, and sometime around now tomoya ohtani was brought on (he deserved more applause and did eventually get it)

superstars theme was cool!!!! but right after city escape was funny bc . no one knows it. you go from most singable theme imaginable to everyone sitting as upright as possible and the half that wasn’t already recording to whip out their phones to capture it especially as they introduce it as “the first time this song has EVER played on this side of the ocean” lmao. hope you liked it london i’m glad you took us down a peg

his worrrrrrlddddd we all love it. we were all so tired. also we kept fumbling the lines bc we all like the zebra head version and rappings hard. i get it. video team did a fun job remixing the visuals for sonic + shadow + silver focus sections though it was really cool

reach for the stars really had people peetering out over the length partly bc we were all exhausted vocally and partly bc it’s sadly less iconic

i could not take fistbump seriously bc they had our beloved ian jr front and center for the whole video. it was glorious. they started w gadget for the opening bit and then bam ian jr everywhere. amazing . got a whole games worth of cutscenes with his beautiful face you did your creator (who was IN THE AUDIENCE) proud

good break before endless possibility though

possibilities are endless. ‘nuff said

jk the video was STUNNING and a lot of it was the opening cutscene which remains some of the best sonic animation ever to this day. and this song REALLY showcased how well the orchestra worked simultaneously with the band it was glorious . the use of the werehog transformation scene in time with:

mwa. stunning choice. and once again damn the band’s vocalist (dave vives) CRUSHED IT. johnny gave him a shout out for being a worthy successor at the shows he can’t attend and it was so so so deserved y’all are in for a treat

around here my ears + voice started genuinely feeling weird. the sacrifices we make for an absolutely wild experience (it’s all fine now though dw <3)

at this point they thanked everyone for coming + the band walked off stage and they turned all the lights off for a joke. me knowing they wouldn’t leave w/o live and learn was skeptical <- totally forgot they had a whole other guest star who hadn’t done his signature contribution yet

“one more” chanting ensued and my bro says he thinks they definitely had someone planted to say that but like. they did way more than one more. no way that was an intentional phrase

the band returned!!!! KELLIN QUINN KILLED IT

it’s dead. it’s dead and gone . my hearing and also the ability to play sonic music it’s been forever changed . hearing those incredible songs from frontiers + a full live orchestra backing up the astounding vocals (HOW) was incredible. this is when i could feel the literal balcony shaking . my vocal chords are going to kill me tomorrow

obligatory “just one more” was undefeatable and ngl im so glad they did it second, the hype up with break through it all made it even better despite them going the opposite in the game . should have used the cooler going supersonic clip from the trailers rather in game though . no one is immune to undefeatable + the extending music video was crazy good

ANOTHER “one last one” in which johnny was called back on stage, pretended to not know what people were asking for/what he was supposed to sing, got the ENTIRE crowd yelling the name of the song, and then and he + kellin absolutely crushed live and learn

it’s live and learn. it’s the perfect end note ft. quinn’s unparalleled vocals. what more do you need

they showed the really funny still shot of shadow overlaid on the moon for the last shot of the video and i know it’s the actual ending but it lingered for like 15 seconds and i couldn’t stop laughing . they showed all the dialogue captions leading up to him dying so i though they were going to show him falling to earth but nah. stock render brain store ass pose

still COOL AS HELL!!!!!!! they had us congratulate EVERYONE and all the individual band members and the orchestra and im so so so happy with how it went . one million thanks to these wonderful people they did a great job

a couple literally got engaged in the lobby. one group started belting sonic underground on like the third floor of the stairway. it was incredible. the oscar’s could never top this ty dolby theaterrr

absolutely incredible all around . special shout out to: the people lowkey cosplaying while still in formalwear (woman in a beautiful white dress wearing a rouge hairpiece i salute you. guy in blue suit and guy in orange suit you’re amazing. woman in the fanciest amy rose dress i’ve ever seen im in love). the people with awesome t-shirts i am among your ranks we love a fandom with cool shirt designs. people in full on cosplay i am so so happy for all the diversity in characters i saw. the line for merch that stretched all the way back into the theater at the end: what was the theater staff doing that was bonkers. the people handing out stickers that i missed i Will be stalking your online stores. all the people in normal formal wear carrying their plushies? amazing. the world is beautiful. goodnight everyone

[lunastars21]

Ok but like, on the topic of the Fang miniseries

I'm getting premonitions. I am seeing possible futures and with the way the series is heading, it's highly likely that Bark and Bean are just going to leave. And what's worse is the fact that IT WOULD HELP TIE THE COMICS INTO SUPERSTARS. IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY THAT SEGA DECIDED FANG SHOULD WORK SOLO FROM NOW ON BECAUSE OF SUPERSTARS. And that is devastating.

IT REALLY Is SOBBING

The reason I got into sonic was because of this trio! If they break apart it'll break my heart!

IAN reaaallly needs to think if this as a good idea

There was a user in Twitter that I saw that was absolutely anti-hooligan. They hated them working together. But every time they posted something like that, many people would comment on how stupid it would be to separate them, so many people have proven they love this team!

They can't possibly think that one person hating it that they would split them apart! Not after this trio being together for years and rarely getting any content!

That's why many I've spoken to don't believe they'll just break up, and if they did, it would only be temporary. But still, it just bothers me that they would go in that direction, and I hope it wasn't because of one person being a piss baby about it! The reason I think that person is a reason is because I saw one of the writers gave them a full green flag to review this comic in the comments when they were complaining about the miniseries.

So that's why I'm paranoid, but I'll still not make quick assumptions, there's two issues left where fang can turn this around! The writers said that they think this series is cool. So far, it's just sad, but perhaps it's most likely the build-up! Plus, I'll give credit that the two issues do have their funny moments! So there's still a possibility that things can change, and Fang can at least get better. Would he still be a jerk? Yes, but hopefully, give his teammates more respect, or else team hooligan is done.

I'm totally not anxious right now :"3

[blazehedgehog]

As someone who I know is intricately familiar with Genesis music and the FM synth it uses; why is it that many people (including myself) enjoy the Genesis era Sonic music but when Jin Senoue tries to emulate that sound using Genesis synth samples (Sonic Superstars being the most recent example) it just doesn't sound very good? I know it's literally become a running joke in the community that Senoue uses the Genesis synth too much but it's not like Sonic 1 or 2 had bad soundtracks even though they used the same instrumentation, and Senoue is obviously a very talented composer, so I don't really understand why his attempts to emulate the Genesis soundtracks always turn out so mid.

The general theory I subscribe to is that with the soundtracks to Sonic 1, 2, and presumably even Sonic 3, those games were composed by people who were just writing "real" music. They would pick out real world instruments and write for that sound.

If you've never heard it before, for the 20th Anniversary, Sega put out a compilation soundtrack for Sonic 1 and 2, which included the original demo tracks Masato Nakamura wrote for those games.

Now these are basically just MIDI files, because they didn't need to be anything more than that. But you can tell he was thinking in terms of horn sections, bass guitar, and so on.

Nakamura would submit these MIDI songs on cassette to Sega, and Sega's sound engineers would transcribe those instruments into something that sounded appropriate for the Genesis hardware.

Now, Jun Senoue did the same thing, to a degree. Jun's first major Sonic soundtrack was Sonic 3D Blast on the Sega Genesis, and Jon Burton (of Traveler's Tales) revealed Jun's own demo cassette. If you listen to Jun's tracks, they're all done on the Honky Tonk/Rhodes piano. There's no attempt to utilize real world instruments or have any kind of sound diversity. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Instead of writing music for a band, he wrote music for an individual playing a keyboard.

Worse still, it has eventually been revealed as of Sonic Origins that Jun Senoue had very little awareness of how to make Genesis sounding music. Again, he only submitted his songs on cassette. He was not responsible for the FM Synthesis conversion, just the raw notes, which were all written on, and for, a keyboard.

(throwing the rest of this ask under a "read more" tag because it embeds a lot more videos and even some images)

So when it came time for Sonic 4, and they had Jun Senoue do the retro style soundtracks for those games, he was probably pretty out of his depth. He was writing for style of music he did not really have a nuanced understanding of.

So we get this crunchy, grating, disassociated "this is what the Genesis sounded like, right?" sort of sound. The musical equivalent of one of those early 2000's "How to Draw Manga" books: somebody who thinks they know what they're doing, has actual talent in other adjacent areas, but doesn't actually get this particular niche.

This is one of the reasons why I'm actually a little warmer towards Classic Sonic's music in Sonic Forces -- it's not Jun Senoue. Somebody on that project understood enough and had Naofumi Hataya handle a lot of Classic Sonic's music. He has actual experience with chiptunes and wrote something that feels like it belongs in a Sega System 32 arcade game or something.

Not every single one of Classic Sonic's songs are stone cold bangers in Forces, but at least they sound more authentically retro than Jun's attempts, because they were written by someone who knew what they were doing.

Beyond that, I don't know why Jun doesn't just, like... do better, in a sense. I suppose I don't know his composing environment and how easy or hard it is to slot in what he'd need to sound more "authentic." I just know from my own perspective how easy it is to grab a VST or a soundfont for common Genesis/Yamaha instruments.

But even then, more authentic instruments aren't going to solve the problem that this style of music doesn't seem to be his strong suit, even if somebody at Sega keeps pushing him to do it. Thankfully, I think somebody finally realized it, given how Sonic Superstars seemed to be full of his Sonic 4 style fake-retro music and most of it got replaced at the last second.