Will Sonic's reputation ever be adequately restored?

[azoo]

I really never liked Sega's infatuation with focusing more on Sonic as a brand than focusing on him as a game series. I get that they do it to get by, but all it really does is confirm that Sega doesn't really care about their franchise as much as about the money it makes. After all, its the only series they can still afford to make.

 

But yeah, Sonic's doing great as a brand. He's got an upcoming TV show with an unnecessary set of tie-in games, an upcoming film that follows strictly to the "any attention is good attention" and "we're doing it for the kiddies" mindset instead of efforting to make a good product, is still running a comic series (that admittedly is getting better), and is the face of a load of shovelware iOS games. Merely putting his name on something sells the product, and that includes the main game series that gets caught up in the whirlwind of all of this.

 

Yeah, it makes for a really mediocre/terrible cash cow franchise that suffers from some serious brand inconsistency and leaves any integrity it could have in shambles, but it's still very successful due to being just accessible enough for children and having just enough to suck the old fans back in.

 

...........

 

Off the subject of the Sonic brand, the games have to be incredibly good and consistent for Sonic to be seen as a good game franchise again. If he could at least do that, things like these TV shows and live action films could be ignored just as one could say that they still love Pac-Man yet ignore every facet of the Ghostly Adventures show and tie-in games.

 

The only problem is that Sonic Team doesn't know what consistency is. They are the remnants of a studio that made what are considered some of the greatest games of all time, and yet are somehow so inefficient at consistently making something of honorable quality . Of course, it seems that all the talent lies in the team of artists and musicians they have, but the game designers seem completely lost in some bizzaro world where the ideas and mechanics that made Sonic so widely loved to begin with fall on deaf ears.

 

And even if we sometimes get gold nuggets from them, we're just as likely to lose them by the next game as we are to keep them. Believing in Sonic Team is like believing in a deck chock full of wild cards.

 

So no, there isn't much hope for Sonic to get adequately restored. I always tend to look on the bright side of things and I honestly hope for the best, but there isn't much basis for that hope anymore. It's a crappy feeling, but maybe playing other games will help get away from it.

[Soniman]

I hate being cynical, especially with Sonic, because ive always been on the other side of the cynicism when it comes to the franchise, especially with games like SLW and bits and pieces of Boom as a whole.

 

But no. Sorry, never gonna happen 

[Stritix]

Sonic's reputation can absolutely be restored. The series was starting to get a good reputation after Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. Sonic Lost World was just awful though, and did poorly both critically and commercially really damaging the reputation the franchise was building up. Lost World also took too much from Mario, and no one is interested in a lame Mario clone when they can just play the real thing. SEGA in general have geared a lot of Sonic games to very specific audiences of other franchises for a while now instead of building up their own unique audience. Sonic Colors was aimed at Nintendo fans, Sonic Lost World was aimed at Mario fans, Sonic Boom is aimed at Cartoon Network fans. The classic and adventure titles were mostly focused on being their own thing, and were all extremely successful. I believe SEGA should go back to creating unique Sonic games that stand out and aren't doing what others are doing. People will care, and if done right, will put Sonic back on the map with a good reputation.

[Splash the Otter]

I think it's entirely possible in theory. Unfortunately it requires Sonic Team to stop being idiots first, and who knows when that's going to happen?

[Chaos Incarnate]

People are never going to forget about games like 06, which still plague him to this day in the eye of the public, seeing as how no one, especially gaming journalism, knows when to shut the fuck up about it.

 

It's entirely possible that with a developer that knew what they were doing, Sonic Team or otherwise, Sonic would be back on track with receiving well received games. Yet still, even with "good games" under his belt, I still feel Sonic would be the butt of jokes among many. Like seriously, do you truly think anyone's ever truly going to forget his share of fuck ups in the past?

[Diogenes]

On the one hand, I don't think the series can ever entirely wipe away its mistakes. No matter how many good games come out, The Dark Ages will still have happened. That doesn't imply the death of the series, but it does mean it won't be looked at as having a flawless record.

On the other hand. I do think it's plenty possible for the series to mostly repair its reputation. I think people do ultimately respond to good games over a bad reputation. In spite of my feelings about the boost games, they did help restore Sonic's reputation after games like ShtH and '06. If Sonic Team can pull together and continually put out high-quality games, they can definitely put the worst behind them.

On the other other hand...I can't say for sure if it ever will. The boost games helped, but they weren't enough. And with SLoW's relative failure and Boom looking like a serious disappointment to a lot of people, we are not looking at the brightest of futures at this point. There's no way to tell if this is just a bump in the road or another sheer drop, or anything about how the series is going to be handled in the future.

[Nepenthe]

I've always felt the time for a resurrection comparable to his initial golden years has passed, or at the very least is narrowing further and further every day, if only because no one really gives a shit about platformers anymore. It's already a waning genre in the console sphere, which makes it harder to bring specific characters back from the dead as well as bump up others back to superstar status. If you're not gone or floundering, people are comparatively more bored with you than they used to as we look to other genres, series, and titles.

 

If anything, I'm in Azoo's boat: I'd rather Sonic become less of a brand and more of a video game series where the focus is on making quality games every so often, or at least making iterative progress towards something or even some things that would ultimately be more permanent. People keep saying that everything in Boom could have been thrown into the main series, and they're right. The main series has more than loads of potential just waiting to be taken advantage of. The issue is that that potential is being held by a team that is either excessively incompetent, limited by an ailing or ignorant corporate body, or a bit of both. Either way, at this point it's difficult to find them producing something that entertains me like Unleashed but has the polish and consistency of something like Generations. It's almost like they have to sacrifice one or the other to get something out the door (and unfortunately for me, I'd rather play a fun game than a technically-competent one).

 

Either way, I've stopped worrying about it. Sonic is alive and financially successful still in a day when I can't even get a fucking Conker or Crash game. That in and of itself is miraculous and a testament of the joy he still brings and how much people still believe in him. Besides, it's more fun to speculate what the upcoming games will be without always having to acknowledge that it's never going to be enough anyway; I just refuse to be that cynical.

[mikeblastdude]

Unfortunately, I think that the damage that was done during the "dark ages" (Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 2006) was so bad for Sonic's image, that it'd be extremely difficult to get Sonic's reputation back as being "good" again; nearly impossible almost. There have been so many people that I've talked to who just stopped paying attention to Sonic games after Sonic 2006 and other stuff from that era, and I can't really say that I blame them. Although, on a brighter note, I've shown Sonic Generations to a lot of people who ended up loving it, and it seemed to have possibly even sparked a little bit of interest for Sonic back into them. Like others have said, the series would just need a constant stream of good games. Sonic Lost World kind of broke the "good streak", and Sonic Boom doesn't look like it's going to start another one. Here's hoping for 2015...
 

If nothing else though, Sonic will at least be remembered fondly as a retro gaming icon for the 16-bit games. The fact that the classic Sonic merchandise continues to sell at places like Spencer's helps prove this. I always love seeing people around my age (in their 20's) wearing classic Sonic shirts or hats.

[Ferno]

Probably not. I think it's a little late for that in the general sense, but as long as you can squeeze some personal enjoyment out of the series in any media it branches off into, then that's still ok. Being a fan of something obscure isn't always fun, especially when it used to be the talk of the town and something that was "cool" to like, but unlike alot of obscure things, this franchise still has a good number of fans hanging around, so it's not like we're lonely over here or anything, could always be worse.

[Willsy]

In short:

Hopefully, yes. Realistically.....I'm leaning towards no. Not with the way SEGA and Sonic Team are treating Sonic at the moment.

I'll echo that SEGA needs to pull their heads out of their asses when it cones to this franchise.

[PKGaming]

Not anytime soon I don't think. Sonic Boom's not looking too good and most non-Sonic fans just shake their heads at it. I feel like Sonic Team needs to make a good continuous stream of good Sonic games for people to finally see him for more than a failure. Sonic Colors and Generations wasn't enough. 

[Celestia]

For me, personally, I'm not really that fussed about the reputation of stuff I like. Not in the sense that I don't think it matters at all, but on a personal level, it isn't really something that I think about.

 

It's why nowadays I find the defensiveness of fans over fictional works whenever someone dares to criticize them really, really obnoxious. I remember back when Generations came out I was all in favor of the people getting super mad over reviewers that "pulled an 8.8". (That is, gave it a score that doesn't even suggest it's a bad game, but fans were mad anyway over stuff like 7s (IIRC), because...????) 

 

But then, about two years later and after I had changed quite a lot as a fan, Lost World came out and it was rather polarizing, even when I picked it and (with some missteps aside) enjoyed it, instead of being upset, I just kind of shrugged and moved on with my dang ass life.

 

All that being said, it would be cool to see the Sonic franchise earn more goodwill. I do love the series, after all. But I'm not going to lose sleep over people "outside" the fanbase shoving Sonic fans into lockers or whatever it is we think they do. It doesn't affect me. If anything, I'm more concerned with the way people in the fanbase treat each other.

 

...but as for if I think the series reputation could improve? I really don't see why not. I don't think Sonic's in that bad a place right now.

[MamboCat]

*sigh*

 

I'm past caring about supposed "reputability" of Sonic. I accept that a lot of people don't like the series, and tbh whenever I have mentioned the series IRL I have always been responded with "lolwut you really like Sonic?! Laaaame!" and it has been that way since I was a kid. In the 90s; Sonic's supposed "golden years".

 

Like Nepenthe said, at least Sonic is still around.

[Kenny_Glover]

However, while Sonic's reputation with gamers has gotten pretty bad, his reputation as an icon and in general is still good. His fanbase is still big and he's still profitable. After all, he's just a video game character. Most people aren't as critical to Sonic as many gamers are. 

[Krockhead]

With the widely-accepted quality of Colors and Generations, we've gotten as close to a fixed reputation as we'll ever get. Thanks to Sonic 06, the reputation will never be fully restored, people still bring that game up to this day and act like every game in the series is Sonic 06. Just look at every Sonic-related thread that pops up on NeoGAF and you'll see what I mean. The fanbase will never have a restored reputation either. Despite the fact that most of the stereotypes about us are exaggerations, the (true and honest) Christan Weston Chandlers of the world will always be the first thing people think about.

 

It's a lost cause to hope for the series to be taken seriously in the mainstream eye once again. What we should focus on is the series getting its shit together. We've been burned by Sonic Team so many times, and Sonic Boom is looking very bad too. People who aren't us may never be able to take the series seriously again, but we can still hope the series will return to greatness. It probably won't, but who knows.

[Voyant]

I agree with Azoo and Nepenthe on this one. As long as Sonic is treated as a brand instead of a gaming franchise...things are not going to change. Sonic Boom is something that should have never happened really when you have a main franchise that has been starving to realize its true potential. 

 

I'm still a Sonic fan a heart and I don't think thats really going to go away for even the most cynical of people. I just think everyone wants a really good Sonic game, just one fucking game. Everyone literally tapping their foot everyday expecting the next one to be "The One" and they completely miss the mark every fucking time. Sonic Generations for example is a testament of this. Generations should have been much much bigger than how it was treated. Sure we have had fun games, but we have yet to get a Sonic game that feels like a wholesome package like Mario Galaxy for example.

 

Its really damn sad too, because with Sega starving for money, if they honestly created a triple AAA Sonic title it would sell like crazy due to the strong word of mouth that Sonic has. This is why I said a while back I'm a SONIC fan, but my faith in Sonic Team and SEGA in general is tarnished at this point.

 

Sonic Reputation could be easily restored if Sonic had his own Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 and be labeled as the best games of all time, but this will never happen with SEGA mindset and Sonic Team's inconsistent.

[Dizcrybe]

Put me down for "no" on this.

 

Unless ST releases a huge string of great games (which is very unlikely, by the way), no one outside the fanbase is gonna forgive them for Sonic 06 or SHtH.

 

I'm not hopeful for Boom's success, either.

[Noiz]

With how Boom looks, I know it won't win me over so with the bulk of people, I have to agree that Sonic's reputation won't be restored.  They keep milking him like a cow with crappy games that little kids without taste want.  Least, that is how I see it.

[Dizcrybe]

 They keep milking him like a cow with crappy games that little kids without taste want.

 

*ahem* Um, exactly which games are you referring to?

[Tsukine]

I'm seriously more worried about the franchise getting its shit together rather than if most gamers now care about it or not, as long as Sonic's still around and we get decent games that's what matters to me.

While I'm not particularly hyped for Sonic Boom, there's plenty of people in the fanbase and such that are. I'm interested on the tv series though since it's been some time since we had Sonic on the tv and that will help horde more fans , like kids :heh: into the franchise.

 

Another reason I think Sonic Boom is not such a bad idea (as long as its not that bad and doesn't kills the franchise) is that it actualy lets Sonic Team breathe for once, instead of releasing a meh game every year they'll now have more time to try and do something decent and polished with the main Sonic series, so here's to hoping that we'll see the light in 2015.

 

About Sonic's reputation, well it can definately be improved, we just need good games to come out and to have critics and basicaly everyone to stop saying every new Sonic game is the new Sonic 06, that sure would help. Yeah sure 06 is a big stain on the franchise, but no franchise is perfect in all honesty and there's people who like those kind of games so there's that. Though I think if they start building up Sonic's reputation and such then 06 will just be that point in time where we had a bad game and everyone will just laugh at how silly it was at the time, like you know, Zelda CDI games and yet the Zelda series is sucessful and has a good reputation but everyone knows or remembers those old "gems".

[Sonicstitch]

First off we need every one to except the fact that the Sonic Time line is irreparably damaged do to too much time travel.

This will excuse all the inconsistency’s.

[Froggy]

Isn't it only people in their late teens and older that make you think Sonic is considered a laughingstock? If you asked some random kid if he likes Sonic he'd probably say yes and would most likely own and enjoy Colors. 

[Ryan Ohreally]

I think it's important to remember that '06 came out 8 years ago.  Nearly a decade.  It's not because of one bad game that Sonic's reputation is utter horseshit, it's the steady stream of mediocre to god awful ones.

 

Because of that I agree SEGA should just focus on making good games and stop treating Sonic like Mickey Mouse.  One good game is enough to get something started but it takes somewhere around 3-4 for his reputation to even reach decent levels.  It was only a few years ago when the hype for Generations was going on and I remember people really starting to treat the franchise like it was making a comeback - a slow one mind you - but a comeback nonetheless.  And then Lost World fucked that up....but the funny thing is, despite Lost World generally being negatively received by fans, it had a lot of hype leading up to it.

 

That's because the games before it received positive to great reception:

Unleashed

Colors

Generations

 

I'm highly doubting Boom is going to get a lot of support from the fanbase, much less critics.  So yeah, we'll just have to wait and see what Sonic Team has in store.  Hopefully they've finally decided after about 10 years to pull their head out of their ass.

[Dizcrybe]

I'm not getting my hopes up

[omote23]

Edited : Deleted. (sorry)