Sonic The Hedgehog

[Spark Of Spirit]

I was kind of disturbed by it too, until I noticed he was freeing flickies from their robot prisons (which is what Sonic was originally doing until badniks vanished between SA1 and Colors) and it made a bit more sense.

But yes, I did enjoy the Saturday Morning style plot. "What's that wacky Eggman up to his week?" followed by Sonic foiling said evil plot. Sure it wouldn't hurt for them to be a bit deeper with better jokes, but the actual tone was pretty dead on in Colors.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

For what its worth, even though the Sonic Adventure games have badly written stories and dialogue, I still kind of get enjoyment out of them if only because they do feel like they have a lot of genuine heart to them, if that makes any sense, and they still tried to keep Sonic as a humorous and fun character. Of course now that I'm a full grown adult, I can see everything that's wrong with them, but I still have to admit that I don't hate them like how I hate everything that came after that. The dark story-telling in games like Shadow the Hedgehog felt like they were just trying too hard to be cool and gritty to attract kids who really wanted to play the popular shooting and action games but weren't old enough to, and it came off as more horrendous than even the stories of the Adventure games for that. And Sonic '06 had a story which made it blatantly clear that Sega was actually trying to market a Sonic game to the Final Fantasy crowd. Needless to say, it was absolutely abysmal and took the series to an all-time low not just in terms of gameplay but even in terms of story. The stories in previous games might have been bad, but none of them made me downright hate every Sonic character the way that '06 managed to.

[Nel_Annette]

Well, Adventure 2 still works as far as "dark" goes, because beyond Shadow's story arc and the last story it was still pretty light-hearted. It's forgivable in the Adventure games because it really does feel like they were trying. And the characters still felt like themselves. Hell, Knuckles still had a reason to be involved in the plots in those games. XD

But really, I think the standard Adventure 2 set should be as far as the series ever goes into "dark"/"mature" territory again. Anything further just makes the whole thing into a giant joke.

And I hope if we keep seeing humans that they maintain the style we saw them in in Unleashed. The cartoonyness just works.

[Spark Of Spirit]

SA1 is decent for a first attempt at a deeper story, and SA2 was also fine for the first proper "dark" plot. But unfortunately, like everything else in the Adventure games, Sega never actually improved on anything and it took until Unleashed before it seemed they finally had an inkling of what they were doing wrong.

For what its worth, even though the Sonic Adventure games have badly written stories and dialogue, I still kind of get enjoyment out of them if only because they do feel like they have a lot of genuine heart to them, if that makes any sense, and they still tried to keep Sonic as a humorous and fun character. Of course now that I'm a full grown adult, I can see everything that's wrong with them, but I still have to admit that I don't hate them like how I hate everything that came after that. The dark story-telling in games like Shadow the Hedgehog felt like they were just trying too hard to be cool and gritty to attract kids who really wanted to play the popular shooting and action games but weren't old enough too, and it came off as more horrendous than even the stories of the Adventure games for that. And Sonic '06 had a story which made it blatantly clear that Sega was actually trying to market a Sonic game to the Final Fantasy crowd. Needless to say, it was absolutely abysmal and took the series to an all-time low not just in terms of gameplay but even in terms of story. The stories in previous games might have been bad, but none of them made me downright hate every Sonic character the way that '06 managed to.

There seem to be two sets of fans in regard to the story and I sort of blame the fact that there were two cartoon series with wide exposure at the same time offering two different takes on the character (being AOSTH and SatAM) and that recent fan movie sort of confirmed it for me.

Some fans want dark (SatAM, Sonic CD Bad Future, SA2, tyrant Robotnik, and convoluted plot), and other fans want lighthearted (AOSTH, Sonic CD Present/Past, Colors, wacky Robotnik, and straightforward plot) which is sort of the way Sega seemed to want it back when the classic games were sort of bare plot-wise. Heck, some dark and light fans both use S3&K as ammo for why their style works better. Not to say dark is always good as Shadow and 06 proved, and light isn't always a winner either as Heroes and Secret Rings showed.

Ironically, I like SatAM way more than AOSTH but much prefer the lighter stories. Even though SatAM snubbed Knuckles and gimped Tails to useless

[Foggle]

I don't see why they can't have a serious story with multiple layers that also happens to be light-hearted and fun most of the time. Like, somewhere in between SatAM and AOSTH. That would be the best kind of scenario for something like Sonic IMO.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm sure SatAM is great for people who grew up with the show. But, as for me I just couldn't get into it as I don't believe its a cartoon that time has been very kind to.

Now, to be fair, the same would apply to the Adventure games. While I do enjoy those stories because they have heart to them and they never went overboard with trying to be too deep or too dark, they are still badly written stories and if I didn't grow up with them, I wouldn't be able to get into them either.

In terms of tone, I feel that the Sonic OVA (or movie, as some might call it), is what I'd like to see for a Sonic story. That's not to say that it had a good story, but if it got anything right it was the tone, which was mostly light-hearted but still managed to have a villain that could be taken just seriously enough to mean something other than a joke, in the form of Metal Sonic.

[Foggle]

I'm sure SatAM is great for people who grew up with the show. But, as for me I just couldn't get into as I don't believe its a cartoon that time has been very kind to.

Now, to be fair, the same would apply to the Adventure games. While I do enjoy those stories because they have heart to them and they never went overboard with trying to be too deep or too dark, they are still badly written stories and if I didn't grow up with them, I wouldn't be able to get into them either.

Agreed 100%.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sonic OVA is the gold standard to me. The art was bright and vibrant enough, but still willing to be dark in tone at times and it still kept the jokes up.

But after Sonic 06, Sega seems to be very conservative with how Sonic is portrayed. I can't exactly blame them since if Sonic stops selling they're basically done. But maybe after a few more Colors style successes they'll feel more confident in shaking it up. I wouldn't expect it any time soon, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sonic OVA is the gold standard to me. The art was bright and vibrant enough, but still willing to be dark in tone at times and it still kept the jokes up.

Ever seen Sage's review on the OVA? Peg that as yet another reason why I can't stand that guy (or at least his outlook on game and video game stories, even though this technically isn't a video game and just based off of one). The OVA is not a really good story by any means, but its not meant to be. Its meant to be fun-spirited like the games, and terrible English voice-acting in the dub aside (which I'd argue made it more enjoyable in a so bad its hilarious sort of way), it did its job well in that regard. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were all fun characters (granted that Sonic was kind of a douche in the beginning), and I really enjoyed the rivalry aspect between Sonic and Metal Sonic. It was just meant to be a fun romp of a Sonic story that clearly wasn't taking itself that seriously to begin with, but apparently Sage didn't get that.

[Avaitor]

I mean, SatAM doesn't really hold up at all, but anything is better than the bullshit of AOSTH.

I can't speak for the OVA since I haven't seen it in years though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The OVA should totally get a new dub with the current VAs.

But the story itself wasn't anything special, it was the execution that nailed Sonic perfectly.







I mean, it hits all the marks it should. It's a shame it was never picked into a full series, it was way closer to proper Sonic than X was. But that is basically what I would like to see from a modern game execution-wise.

[Avaitor]

Oh wow, the artwork reminds me of the "Sonic Boom" OP and ED from Sonic CD. Now THAT'S something I'd like to see more of.

[Foggle]

Wait, is Sonic flipping off the audience in that picture!?

It's a shame it was never picked into a full series, it was way closer to proper Sonic than X was.

Don't even SPEAK of that abortion...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh wow, the artwork reminds me of the "Sonic Boom" OP and ED from Sonic CD. Now THAT'S something I'd like to see more of.

If I'm not mistaken, part of the animation from that opening is taken DIRECTLY from footage in this OVA. Also, the ending animation of Sonic CD was done specially for the game by the same animators of this OVA.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Wait, is Sonic flipping off the audience in that picture!?

No, just Robotnik.