Post by Von Dawning on Feb 11, 2014 4:33:20 GMT
Sorry about the provocative title but I didn't have enough space to clear it up.
Recently I've been on a nostalgia run, particularly of the early nineties. I was just reading through a scan of an early issue of STC (hello, by the way) when I realised: The western expanded universes are just the best things about the Sonic franchise.
Obviously Sega win points for creating Sonic in the first place. The Mega Drive games have so much heart and enthusiasm in them, as does Sonic Adventure and, to an extent, Sonic Adventure 2. My problem with them is that not long after that, they became obsessed with appealing to 'the kids'. Now, that's a good business model, and I can't criticise it as it makes money. But the problem I have is that they did so in a very sub-par-Dreamworks way. Silly facial expressions, "Oh look how cool!" etc etc. Sonic deserves Pixar not Dreamworks. ;.;
Shortly afterward, Sega began a campaign, with Sonic 4, Sonic Generations etc, where they seemed to want to get the "old fans" on their side, but honestly? It almost felt like propaganda. I played these games, but they didn't feel like a homage, they felt like "we've roped them in with the classic stages, now let's get them hooked on the modern stages!" The part in Generations about, "Robotnik!" "Hah, nobody calls me that anymore, right?" "That's right Doctor Eggman!" just cemented that for me. Sega seem to be flailing wildly at the "CGI franchise" wall, hoping to make something stick, but it doesn't seem to have any heart.
This was when I realised how much of my lifelong Sonic fan...ness I owe to the western projects. Okay, some of them might have had their downer moments (much of AoSTH ) but when they hit, they /hit/. Sonic the Hedgehog, the cartoon, had so much emotion. Characters that were surprisingly fleshed out, that had problems and goals. Sonic the Comic obviously, that expanded Sonic's world (with a strip of the same name) so much that as a young reader you wished you could jump into the pages and help. Even things like the gamebooks stayed with me. So many of the games slip by these days and yet it's things like this that really stuck in the memory and, more importantly, the emotional side, the nostalgic side. I remember getting up at 6am to watch Sonic the Hedgehog on CHannel 4. I remember seeing issue 1 of StC in a newsagent. I remember feeling for such deep characters in both of those products such as Sonic (obviously), Sally, Bunnie, Shortfuse the Cybernik, and the very well fleshed out Tails and Amy in StC. They are what my youthful self invested in, the western products and the Mega Drive games. Nothing else.
I think a very good example of this - the best example, perhaps - is Super Sonic. Sega /think/ he's the equivalent of when Superman wins at the Fortress of Solitude at the end of Superman 2 (excellent movie moment ^_^), but to StC fans, Super Sonic is a symbol of how Sonic, past his superficial attitude, is a character that could actually suffer stress, worry, and even ill will toward his friends because of it. That was, and is unheard of in franchises aimed at kids today.
So, erm, yes. ^_^; Agree?
Recently I've been on a nostalgia run, particularly of the early nineties. I was just reading through a scan of an early issue of STC (hello, by the way) when I realised: The western expanded universes are just the best things about the Sonic franchise.
Obviously Sega win points for creating Sonic in the first place. The Mega Drive games have so much heart and enthusiasm in them, as does Sonic Adventure and, to an extent, Sonic Adventure 2. My problem with them is that not long after that, they became obsessed with appealing to 'the kids'. Now, that's a good business model, and I can't criticise it as it makes money. But the problem I have is that they did so in a very sub-par-Dreamworks way. Silly facial expressions, "Oh look how cool!" etc etc. Sonic deserves Pixar not Dreamworks. ;.;
Shortly afterward, Sega began a campaign, with Sonic 4, Sonic Generations etc, where they seemed to want to get the "old fans" on their side, but honestly? It almost felt like propaganda. I played these games, but they didn't feel like a homage, they felt like "we've roped them in with the classic stages, now let's get them hooked on the modern stages!" The part in Generations about, "Robotnik!" "Hah, nobody calls me that anymore, right?" "That's right Doctor Eggman!" just cemented that for me. Sega seem to be flailing wildly at the "CGI franchise" wall, hoping to make something stick, but it doesn't seem to have any heart.
This was when I realised how much of my lifelong Sonic fan...ness I owe to the western projects. Okay, some of them might have had their downer moments (much of AoSTH ) but when they hit, they /hit/. Sonic the Hedgehog, the cartoon, had so much emotion. Characters that were surprisingly fleshed out, that had problems and goals. Sonic the Comic obviously, that expanded Sonic's world (with a strip of the same name) so much that as a young reader you wished you could jump into the pages and help. Even things like the gamebooks stayed with me. So many of the games slip by these days and yet it's things like this that really stuck in the memory and, more importantly, the emotional side, the nostalgic side. I remember getting up at 6am to watch Sonic the Hedgehog on CHannel 4. I remember seeing issue 1 of StC in a newsagent. I remember feeling for such deep characters in both of those products such as Sonic (obviously), Sally, Bunnie, Shortfuse the Cybernik, and the very well fleshed out Tails and Amy in StC. They are what my youthful self invested in, the western products and the Mega Drive games. Nothing else.
I think a very good example of this - the best example, perhaps - is Super Sonic. Sega /think/ he's the equivalent of when Superman wins at the Fortress of Solitude at the end of Superman 2 (excellent movie moment ^_^), but to StC fans, Super Sonic is a symbol of how Sonic, past his superficial attitude, is a character that could actually suffer stress, worry, and even ill will toward his friends because of it. That was, and is unheard of in franchises aimed at kids today.
So, erm, yes. ^_^; Agree?