Sega DogTagz

In a cute nod to Sonic being an impressionable little kid, Sonic slid under a bus with a travel ad for Paris France right before he threw the ring to go there. It was literally the last thing he saw, so it makes sense it was the first place he'd think to go. I thought that was a nice touch. ^^

Not sure if anyone has asked this yet, but considering that we've seen a good bit of Dr. Starline it seems like it is worth asking. What "game inspired" ability could a trio of villains including Starline have in common? (or complementary powers that would make them an obvious team). Starline's warp topaz doesn't strike me as all too "game inspired"... its comic inspired if anything. Unless you want to count it as a riff on the Chaos Emeralds, and the next two cronies will each have their own unique gemstone of power... What goes with Warping?

I don't think the context around that quote allows for you to come to this conclusion. While she did state that she did not believe Sonic was capable of bringing about such devastation, she immediately qualifies her infamous stance with the precursor - and I am directly quoting her here - "Even if that was true". There is no other way to take that then to accept it at face value. That is not a mis-spoke or a poor choice of words. That is direct intent to quantify the significance of what she was about to say next. She meant every word of what she said. The stance is given further contextual clarity, as it foreshadows the exact events of the game whereas at the end, Elise is given that same very specific choice, and makes the decision Amy can't. Unless you want to claim full on translation error, I don't think the English language allows you any wiggle room in defending that claim. I'd be interested in a direct hard translation from the Japanese version if anyone is capable of doing that.

Just to provide a spot of clarity to anyone who didn't play the handhelds In Battle Amy more or less forced Cream to participate in a few Boxersize matches, to which Cream was a vocally unwilling participant (which was even more jarring considering this was Cream at the height of her pacifist persona). Boxersize was essentially sparring, so Amy was forcing Cream to defend herself in combat, in the name of getting fit enough for Sonic to notice her. Amy was so focused on getting fit, that Creams objections fell on deaf ears and Amy's own health took a turn for the worse due to over-exertion. In Rush, Cream introduces Amy to Blaze and remarks that her adoration of Sonic makes her short-sighted, to which Amy responds violently. She makes a clear threat and chases her with her Hammer. Cream shouts something along the lines of "Not Again!" making it appear that this is not a rare occurrence. The altercation is short lived.

Well I can't speak to that. Never happened to me. This I can speak to. There are without a doubt a collection of cheaters in this game. Just yesterday I ran into a user named "Hacker" and his Shadow character took off like a rocket the second the match started. Like he was boosting with no aura. Wasn't even using the skating animation. By the time the other 3 of us made it to the first row of item boxes he was already well beyond our range. Using the minimap on the sidebar, he finished the level before any of us made it halfway. Other cheating is much more subtle, but that was outright blatant. Good players learn the blind spots in each map. There are sections on almost every map that can be abused by savvy vets. Loops and corkscrews being the most obvious. Its completely possible to take advantage of the game and screw over the poor souls behind you with something they have no way of dodging. Planting traps on steep hills or declines can also make them impossible to jump over, turning something that is easy to dodge, into a nightmare. The inclines and sharp turns messes with the hitboxes. I remember having quite a bit of salt before I figured that out. I felt like the game was missing my jump or dodge inputs - but in reality, the hitbox manipulation meant I was doomed whether I jumped or not. Tails' Tornado trap is a death sentence on a corkscrew. The funny thing is, that its almost all Human players that take advantage of those tricks. AI bots don't really have that move in their playbook. They mostly stick to laying taps that are perfectly aligned with natural obstacles or item boxes. (It super easy to tell when your playing against an AI Rouge because of that lol). I think the handful of AI players that populate some of the races get away with more. I've seen them run through some traps w/o a penalty.

To be fair, wouldn't the law of averages dictate that the higher you are on the rankings, the more likely you are to be put in a match with someone who is cheating? Those guys who cheat constantly win and are very much more likely to be hanging out in the highest tiers. Therefore, legitimate players are more likely to run into them when they start reaching that upper echelon. The game doesn't "curse" you, it just matches you with people around your reputation level and the likelyhood of being matched with a cheater is higher once you reach that elite threshold. As is the likelyhood of getting matched with very strong and sometimes overleveled legitimate players. I don't think the game manipulates races to keep you from advancing. I think there are certain ranges where you are just hella more likely to run into cheaters. I've also noticed that playing during certain times of day also greatly increases the odds of running into cheaters and grossly over-leveled players from other parts of the world. That's where losing streaks come from. Its hard to win when the other races have a higher footspeed, more attack opportunities and greater resistance from your atacks. The deck is just stacked against you in those races. Sometimes its just better to fight the urge for one more race to end on a good note, and cut your losses and come back in a few hours when the playing field is more level.

The balancing feature works both ways. If the matchmaking throws you into a lobby where you are outranked by the other contestants, then the penalty for losing is severely minimized and the reward for winning is almost doubled. Getting curb-stomped by someone who had 300-500 more reputation than you has almost no impact on your own reputation. even if you come in 4th. (However losing to someone with significantly less rep than yourself leads to massive losses). The game only really punishes you when you lose matches that you have no business losing. I don't get the unplayable chatter. Sure its got that Mario Kart vibe to it where you can get robbed at the last second via an item, but I've never had a problem winning at a decent clip. I made it up to the Elite tier without a problem.

Rush handled it best. You had to downright ace every mechanic to earn the top rank. A fast time alone wouldn't do it. Collecting all the rings and not getting hit wouldn't do it either. The only way to champion a stage was the find the optimal path, with the most rings, the most trick jumps and all the while completing a flawless speedrun all at the same time. I think Rush was the last game I played where I felt I had to outright earn my S rank. Nowadays they get handed out like candy for avoiding death. I understand the viewpoint against ranking systems. Nobody wants to get scolded by Sonic - but at the same time I feel like avoiding that misses out on the charm of the character. If the player isn't making him look like a beast, he's the kinda guy who will let you know. And its not like the difficulty curve of any of the modern games is so great that children can't muster up the skills to tack on B or A runs with a little practice, short of Eggmanland. If you hide behind the concept of not making the player feel bad, then you'll miss out on the charm that can be added by that. The out-of-tune Orchestra in Unleashed is a perfect example. Omega stating that he was falling short of Gamma and Beta was another. You loose that by coddling the player. The ranking system in recent games has been watered down to the extent that it doesn't even matter anymore. I want to see the rankings re-balanced so that those fancy S ranks are reserved for only the truly elite passes. One solution could be re-balancing the ranks between modes. Offer a score attack for people who want to play that way. A time attack for pure speed. And the story mode could be a middle ground. That way, people won't feel too punished for playing their way, and everyone else has options to push their limits in the appropriate avenue, without being held back by the casuals.

I think looking for the missing gap in inspiration between Gerald and Ivo does a disservice to how much he actually does have in common with his grandfather. Both have an unavoidable, seemingly magnetic attraction to forces beyond their control and both have made repeated trips down that road. Gerald with the Gizoid, Immortality and the Chaos Creatures. Eggman with Chaos, Gaia and nearly everything else he can get his mitts on. Eggy clearly duplicates Gerald's ambitious scientific nature, studies and specializes in much of the same craft (robotics, ancient lore, chaos energy) and reaches the same pitfalls that come with those. Gerald builds Eclipse cannons grafted to space stations. Eggy builds Final Egg Blasters tied onto Death Eggs. They come up with the same ideas in a vacuum. As was brought up before, Eggy may have been too young or even not even born at a time to really get to know the kind of Man Gerald was. The only thing left for him to take inspiration from, the only thing that he could look up too and emulate was the legacy of what he built. Space Stations. Mutos. Chaos Energy. Robots. Power. I think the good Doctor checks all those boxes.

Big. By a country mile. Its not even close. Its not like I don't give the guy a chance. I always come back around an re-assess my take of all the characters after a decent amount of time has gone by. 99 times out 100 I end up hating the ground Big walks on. Everything from his "why is that here" gameplay in Adventure to his slow, dim-witted personality traits just is designed to make me not like the character. I can't fathom why anyone thought his concept was a good idea. He's just a waste of space and his slow speech pattern means he overstays any welcome the second he opens his mouth. I thought there might be a teeny bit of hope for him after that TSR overdrive short. I thought he was charming and well implemented there - but any and all goodwill that established immediately got nuked to high heck and back by his role in the game itself. Every cutscene in TSR that involved Big was a painful bore. I get it. He's simple and pure. I don't need to slog through him cloud watching to get that to sink in. I think my main issue with Big is that he brings nothing worthwhile to the table. Other characters I dislike, like say Hamlin for example actually contribute. The bring contrasting visions and are developed enough to at least give them a purpose as to why they behave in a manner I dislike. Big is just... simple. There is no reason for him to be around. His companionship isn't thrilling. His skillset can be replicated elsewhere. He's just here. Its frustrating.

Even if they can't get the rights to it, I fully expect a gag or two involving a white envelope w/ red stamp. Maybe Tom casually throws a bundle of mail on a table and you can see it sticking out in the background or something with a postman looking at a stack of un-deliverable mail tagged to Sonic with the distinctive letter sitting prominently. You could even have Tails loudly reading off Spam emails on his handheld device and laugh at something called "Smash Bros" before sending it to the recycle bin. that would be funny ^^

Mimic doesn't need to try and copy someone with a superpower or a well known complex personality to be effective. What's stopping him from swapping places with Lanolin and squealing all of the resistance plans to eggy? Whats stopping him from rigging Chao races by turning into one? It might be easy to see something is off about your best friend, but that ball is in another court if Mimic takes the form of some random Joe. Even if Whisper were to warn everyone that a shapeshifter was in play, you literally can't be suspicious of everyone. Especially considering that half the cast is known to be reckless and will jump headfirst into situations without thinking.

After Eggman's Dozen I am 1000% on board with devoting some issues to flushing out the fuzzy villain cast. Even better considering is another mini and we won't have to de-rail the main comic to do it. Mimic is a bit too... uh... "busted" for lack of a better word, so I am interested to see if they attempt to balance him in any way shape or form. Evan will be fine stepping up to write. She's done good work in the past.

The Argus event is all the proof you need to say the Nocturn clan was punching in a weight class above the Knuckles clan. They wouldn't have gotten pulled into a pocket dimension unless they were a global superpower that threatened the natural balance. To say nothing of the Gizoids - which we already know have world busting potential. That is some serious tech. On top of that, time flows differently in the Twilight Cage. The technology they exhibit when Sonic and co arrive likely isn't too far off from the tech they arrived with. Plus, they would have had to of been strong enough to fend off the other races since day 1.