Where Sega messed up with Sonic

[Diosoth]

This has been a sort of recent discussion on the Sega forums- Sonic the Hedgehog's "canon" story. Not that there is much to begin with, but lately, Sonic Team's been just going off in random directions. But it seems as if there are two separate GAME continuities running right now. This diesn't count comic books, cartoons, whatever, which are all separate.

Start with the Genesis games. Move on to the Sonic Adventure series, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 2006, the storybook Wii series and Unleashed.

Second canon? Ooh... probably started with Sonic 1 for Master System, ported to Game Gear. Basic rule seems to be that anything on the handheld systems is separate from the consoles. Mostly. The Sonic Advance games seem to replace Adventure in this canon, with Sonic Battle and Sonic Rivals following up. This canon seems to "officially" exist with Bioware basing Sonic Chronicles almost entirely as a sequel to Sonic Battle, which itself was a sequel to the Advance series.

Things tend to pop up in one game that are never referenced again. Contradictions happen constantly. The real deal breaker here is Blaze the Cat. In Sonic Rush, she's a princess from another dimension. In Sonic 2006, she's from the future. This isn't really possible within one canon. Not to have two separate but the same characters. Eggman Nega is another- in rush he's from another dimension. Rivals, from the future. Then Silver shows up in Rivals again.

Rush can't fit in with Rivals. Forgoing goofy explanations, and Sonic 2006's erased events ending, it's possible that two Blaze the Cats exist separate. Ignore HOW they exist.

Sonic Heroes contradicts Knuckles Chaotix. Charmy is 16 in the KC instructions, but is only 6 in Heroes. The Chaotix have never met Knuckles. MAYBE this old game takes place more recently?

Rouge the Bat. Two different personalities. In the console canon she's mostly intelligent and actually takes her job as a secret agent seriously. In the handheld canon, she's written as a creepy pedophile who flirts with numerous underage boys, she has no brain whatsoever and is always thinking about stealing stuff. It's why people draw gangbang pics of her, because she behaves like a total whore. In short, the handhelds treat her as most any Japanese game treats women.

And why has this happened? Because Sega kept crapping out Sonic games. They hired other companies to make them. They've put out, since and counting Sonic Adventure, 10 console titles and 9 handheld titles. 19 games in about 10 years, not counting re-releases or compilations. No thought to the story, no tought to making the games of quality, just rush them to market. Not that this is new... the Game Gear titles, Sonic Fighters, etc. Put out a game with a meaningless story and hope no one notices.

[Graham Mitchell]

Sega screwed up with Sonic when Yuji Naka left, and Sonic's been demoted to an icon to slap on the cover of overpriced shovelware. This is not news. His list of retarded friends is nebulous, and the characters are extraneous, at best.

But why do they keep making 6 Sonic titles a year? Because people buy them. From the detailed knowledge you're providing about the games, it appears that you bought them too. If you don't like the way they're going, vote with your pocketbook, dude. Or just grow up and realize that Sonic has become a franchise for children, and accept that it's not going to provide much of interest to you. A children's franchise can't possibly be expected to have a coherent storyline, especially when it involves anthropomorphic furry animals chasing after rings in the woods. Accept this. It will prevent you from being disappointed when you drop $60 on this shit.

[Sonicwolf]

I think the initial point of degredation in the franchise started with the release of Sonic R and cancellation and replacement of Sonic Xtreme with a 3D blast redo. It almost picked itself up with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 but, aside from GBA, its been one big downhill disaster after another.

[Berserker]

Who cares about canonical contradictions and inconsistencies? Even if everything meshed up perfectly, it was still a bad idea in the first place to waste any significant amount of time, effort and money into developing it that much.

Sega took a character and game series who's main advantage was the aspect of quick, pick-up-and-play action, and get-up-and-go speed, and then proceeded to bog it down with layer upon layer of story, canon, fifth-wheel furry friends, and a bunch of other stupid shit nobody gives a damn about.

Instead of trying to adapt to newer platforms while still trying to hold above all else what the original Sonic games had going for them, they got caught up in trying to mutate it into some sort of traditional, story-based canonical franchise, and failed horribly. They played exactly against the strength of the original games, and that's where they messed up.

[Sonicwolf]

And now Sonic is a bloated, rotted, milked franchise in its final pain. A pain shared by those people who have been playing the games for a long long time.

Unless the franchise is reset in a spectacular and worthwhile way... Sonic should not be a part of video games anymore.

[scooterb23]

Sonic games had a story?

They completely lost me when they tried to go 3D.

[Haoie]

Really sad to see, isn't it?

But maybe it's just the nostalgia in all of us.

[HYB]

I really think they should have stopped adding new characters and messing up the storyline up after SA2. Everything about the series is messed up and there's little you can do to save it (or well, more like you could just deny some games ever existed in the canon like they did with Castlevania but I don't see that happening).

The first sign of Sonic spiraling into certain doom was Heroes. I mean, after I got SA and SA2 for the cube I was anxious for a new game, but what we got was a pile of shit. I still think that what pisses me off the most is the overly futuristic city levels since there were no overly hi-tech levels on either adventure games, and I don't count the earlier game stages as such either. Plus Charmy's age and the way they ruined both Shadow and Rouge. I'm embarrassed to say I own it, since everything about it seems to suck.

There's not really much you can do since people keep buying the games. Unless someone sensible manages to worm up their way into the place where they make all the decisions considering the franchise, but that's highly doubtful.

[Nebagram]

The entire Sonic canon needs a nuke dropping on it. Get rid of all the characters except Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, drop any pretention about it being on a planet populated by humans (besides of course Robotnik- ROBOTNIK, not Eggman) and put out a SSF2HD style remake of Sonics 1, 2, 3 & S&K complete with maybe a few extra levels and/or expansions somewhere. Provided it's done well and not like the abortion that was Sonic Genesis. Include cut-scenes if needed but never any longer than 30 seconds. Keep the action at the forefront of the game.

Oh, and don't ask Sonic Team to make it.

[RCM]

I've been more than thrilled with Sonic's portions of the 3D titles, and the GBA and DS games are amazing. Sega still knows how to make a fantastic Sonic game, but have a hard time cutting out everything else. And that's what they truly need, to cut out everything but Sonic. Sonic titles don't sell on the strength of the other characters...I hope.

[Gentlegamer]

May I ask what may be a heretical question?

What if Nintendo took over Sonic? Do you think Nintendo would be able to "save" Sonic (do a Sonic game "right")?

[Kevincal]

Sonic Adventure was not fun to me at all. It's almost as if they decided to make the most kick ass intro to a videogame ever, and everything else was an afterthought. Sure the graphics were pretty in the game. But the gameplay was lame, camera broken & overall I just didn't have any fun with it...

[obesolete]

I was never impressed by any sonic game after the genesis.

I didn't understand any sonic adventure/had the patience to play for more than 15 mins.

what ever happened to the simple story of evil doctor turns animals into robots, sonic must save them?

[BetaWolf47]

Not that this is new... the Game Gear titles, Sonic Fighters, etc. Put out a game with a meaningless story and hope no one notices.

Hey man, leave Triple Trouble out of this!

[darkslime]

they ruined sonic by making it have a storyline other than the basic kill eggman.

[Sonicwolf]

they ruined sonic by making it have a storyline other than the basic kill eggman.

Robotnik... Not Eggman. Eggman in name was a creation of the dark ages of Sonic.

[Baloo]

Robotnik... Not Eggman. Eggman in name was a creation of the dark ages of Sonic.

Not really. They just got sick of translating Eggman into Robotnik and took it from the Japanese and forced us to use it over here as well.

[Sonicwolf]

Not really. They just got sick of translating Eggman into Robotnik and took it from the Japanese and forced us to use it over here as well.

It was originally Eggman? hm. Didnt know that... I always found Robotnik to sound a little more sinister than Eggman though.

[thom_m]

Since they changed the official Sonic design from the cute and cool one found on Genesis games...



...to the "I'M SO RAD AND X-TREME!!" on SA and beyond...



...things went downhill. You can't imagine how I hate that stupíd grin on his face.

[shopkins]

I agree with many of the others. The fact that there is enough of a storyline that people can have these detailed complaints about continuity and canon is itself the problem.