Post by Beeth on Nov 7, 2010 15:43:34 GMT
Here is an occasional item that will be completed in due course, my top 10 worst Sonic characters of all time. Enjoy the read, and cue a predictable piece of background music to accompany it:
10: Tails
This is where it all started to go downhill for the Sonic franchise: with the introduction of what would be the first of many sidekicks and hangers-on of the Sonic universe (multiverse?). Miles Prower (hur hur, miles per hour, geddit?) was included in Sonic 2 for no other reason than to give the game multiplayer capabilities, with a 2-player mode seemingly shoehorned in to the game and a character who, despite being massively different to Sonic in every possible way, initially controlled exactly the same as the titular main character. They even had the gall to give him the “unique” characteristic of being able to fly, by giving him an extra tail, and then stopped the player from being able to use this ability!
Despite initially being a Sonic doppelganger, nowadays the character is nothing of the sort, instead serving as more of a counter-Eggman with his amazing tech capabilities he acquired from nowhere. It’s as if Sega tried to make a Mary Sue character, but couldn’t be arsed and gave up a little way in. Despite being one of the most oft-cited characters after Sonic, and possibly Eggman, Tails’ role has gradually diminished over time to other characters, and he has seemingly now been relegated to side-character status with no relative quests based even slightly around him.
If Tails were to disappear from the franchise it would have very little bearing on the direction of the series, that’s how useless he is at the moment. Any skills he has or had more or less exist in other, more featured, characters nowadays, with a fair few being able to fly to some degree at least, and technological capabilities in many forms existing elsewhere also. Not that the heroes should need tech to save the day any road. If they do, it tends to be just conveniently lying around.
9: Espio
Oh dear. Ninja guy with dignified mannerisms, suave voice and is a member of a detective agency does not automatically a cool character make. You see, what they’ve essentially created is a purple Shadow (hence all the fangasming when they were teamed up with each other in Shadow’s game). And that’s all he is really. Espio is a testament to Sega’s increasingly lazy character design department.
Introduced in Knuckles Chaotix with no background or personality whatsoever, Espio has gone on to appear in more games than any other Chaotix character due to him just happening to best fit the basic template of a Sonic character more than his cohorts. What little potential the character had to be a decent addition to the cast went out the window upon his return in Sonic Heroes, spouting cringe-inducing cheesy lines such as “Spirits unite!” and just generally behaving like a high-and-mighty stuck-up arse towards his teammates.
Sega also took the easy way out of giving him ninja tools, rather than more obvious characteristics relating to his features as a chameleon, such as his underused camouflage abilities and his even less-used tongue abilities which, to date, have only appeared in Sonic the Fighters. But then I’d imagine Sega would be scared of including that in case some fans start to write “lemon” fanfics relating to it..... oh, wait. They already have.
8: Knuckles
After Tails, Sega really started getting lazy in terms of design. Not quite at the point of adding extra hedgehogs to the cast, they decided to create a character who looked like a hedgehog, but wasn’t a hedgehog, and who could be distinguished as a sort of rival to Sonic. Hence, Knuckles was born, the first true “anti-Sonic” of the series. Hell, the first time I saw him, I was initially referring to him as “Red Sonic”.
Since his initial appearance in Sonic 3, in which he was tricked by Dr Robotnik into thinking that Sonic was the bad guy, they have since decided to base the whole character around that idea, and have turned him into an eternally gullible, hotheaded butt monkey who, despite his ever-deeper reaching elusive backstory, is constantly envisioned as the comedy relief of the series. This is a seriously risky, maybe even heroic clash of personal features which shouldn’t work.... and predictably, it doesn’t. This is down to the fact that the game makers always err on one side, either serious or comedy, depending on the game scenarion. They never mix the two together, making it seem like there are two different Knuckles characters altogether. That, or he has a split personality.
One thing that’s never really helped the character’s cause is his ability to climb walls, which essentially gave him a marked advantage in terms of the exploration aspect of the 2D stages. This has been rectified somewhat in the transition to 3D with character-specific stages, but the potential for glitches and exploits has always been a problem with this. Just look at his ’06 appearance, and be thankful it wasn’t like that in every game.
Stay tuned, more to come.
10: Tails
This is where it all started to go downhill for the Sonic franchise: with the introduction of what would be the first of many sidekicks and hangers-on of the Sonic universe (multiverse?). Miles Prower (hur hur, miles per hour, geddit?) was included in Sonic 2 for no other reason than to give the game multiplayer capabilities, with a 2-player mode seemingly shoehorned in to the game and a character who, despite being massively different to Sonic in every possible way, initially controlled exactly the same as the titular main character. They even had the gall to give him the “unique” characteristic of being able to fly, by giving him an extra tail, and then stopped the player from being able to use this ability!
Despite initially being a Sonic doppelganger, nowadays the character is nothing of the sort, instead serving as more of a counter-Eggman with his amazing tech capabilities he acquired from nowhere. It’s as if Sega tried to make a Mary Sue character, but couldn’t be arsed and gave up a little way in. Despite being one of the most oft-cited characters after Sonic, and possibly Eggman, Tails’ role has gradually diminished over time to other characters, and he has seemingly now been relegated to side-character status with no relative quests based even slightly around him.
If Tails were to disappear from the franchise it would have very little bearing on the direction of the series, that’s how useless he is at the moment. Any skills he has or had more or less exist in other, more featured, characters nowadays, with a fair few being able to fly to some degree at least, and technological capabilities in many forms existing elsewhere also. Not that the heroes should need tech to save the day any road. If they do, it tends to be just conveniently lying around.
9: Espio
Oh dear. Ninja guy with dignified mannerisms, suave voice and is a member of a detective agency does not automatically a cool character make. You see, what they’ve essentially created is a purple Shadow (hence all the fangasming when they were teamed up with each other in Shadow’s game). And that’s all he is really. Espio is a testament to Sega’s increasingly lazy character design department.
Introduced in Knuckles Chaotix with no background or personality whatsoever, Espio has gone on to appear in more games than any other Chaotix character due to him just happening to best fit the basic template of a Sonic character more than his cohorts. What little potential the character had to be a decent addition to the cast went out the window upon his return in Sonic Heroes, spouting cringe-inducing cheesy lines such as “Spirits unite!” and just generally behaving like a high-and-mighty stuck-up arse towards his teammates.
Sega also took the easy way out of giving him ninja tools, rather than more obvious characteristics relating to his features as a chameleon, such as his underused camouflage abilities and his even less-used tongue abilities which, to date, have only appeared in Sonic the Fighters. But then I’d imagine Sega would be scared of including that in case some fans start to write “lemon” fanfics relating to it..... oh, wait. They already have.
8: Knuckles
After Tails, Sega really started getting lazy in terms of design. Not quite at the point of adding extra hedgehogs to the cast, they decided to create a character who looked like a hedgehog, but wasn’t a hedgehog, and who could be distinguished as a sort of rival to Sonic. Hence, Knuckles was born, the first true “anti-Sonic” of the series. Hell, the first time I saw him, I was initially referring to him as “Red Sonic”.
Since his initial appearance in Sonic 3, in which he was tricked by Dr Robotnik into thinking that Sonic was the bad guy, they have since decided to base the whole character around that idea, and have turned him into an eternally gullible, hotheaded butt monkey who, despite his ever-deeper reaching elusive backstory, is constantly envisioned as the comedy relief of the series. This is a seriously risky, maybe even heroic clash of personal features which shouldn’t work.... and predictably, it doesn’t. This is down to the fact that the game makers always err on one side, either serious or comedy, depending on the game scenarion. They never mix the two together, making it seem like there are two different Knuckles characters altogether. That, or he has a split personality.
One thing that’s never really helped the character’s cause is his ability to climb walls, which essentially gave him a marked advantage in terms of the exploration aspect of the 2D stages. This has been rectified somewhat in the transition to 3D with character-specific stages, but the potential for glitches and exploits has always been a problem with this. Just look at his ’06 appearance, and be thankful it wasn’t like that in every game.
Stay tuned, more to come.