Kazhnuz

I'll be honest : I didn't recognize most of the song reference xD (except some Unknown for the ME during the Archie times). I don't know enough the lyrics of Sonic's song to recognize them.

As they have for now just the main serie + bonus stuff and that they already announced the Annual here for March, they certainly don't want the annual and the mini-serie to overstep each-other. They might do like for the first mini-serie : preparing it in the annual.

That's the kind of point that is true if we are talking about the real world, but I really don't see why he did that in a fantastic world. I don't blame him though : it's a choice that can makes sense (I would name the two city differently though, maybe with saying that the mention of Central City in Shadow was just a level name and not the city name - except if it's mentionned in a cutscene, that I really don't remember). But eh, it's just for the moment my pet peeves. It'll certainly go away the day Flynn can show his human world, if he ever can… But I don't think that the ST would really be angry about that, they seems to be mostly about characters than lore, so it might be possible. Well, I technically don't really have to answer that as my point wasn't that "Sonic was alien/mythical before", but that you loose that imagery in the story context you say possible with just continent separation. Remember that originally my point was telling what kind of story can be done in a better way with two-world, not what "Sonic is supposed to be". I don't really care about "what was first". We have enough of our version of "back to the roots" in Sonic like that for me, so just going back to "what was Sonic before" isn't for me that relevant, especially with such a rich history (that's why I don't want Sonic to be a rendition of "funny 90' earth", especially the "90" parts, which would just participate to make Sonic less and less relevant, exactly like the current "nostalgia" trend in the IP is doing). For me, in the first games, the "anthros" wasn't supposed to be really anything important, it was just a way to represent the main characters. The first games didn't have stuff like "anthro civilisations" and stuff like that, and only showed the main/important characters as anthro (and some statues because artistic stuff). It was a bit of a bugs-bunny-like worlds. But I don't feel that we should work only with this way. What I personnally want is interesting stories and that they start to build something. The foundation is mostly a point of detail, as there are so many friggin foundation possible with the weird-but-interesting interpretations of this saga. I still feel that it would make many stuff awkward. One world needs more mixed location/place to be interesting. For me, about that, the really best one-world interpretation was Flynn's in ArchieComics second timeline.

"For most part" is the important part, which mean that they are free to say that it didn't follow 100% the games. For the moment, Flynn showed only what he wanted, and already did things that are totally contrary to what the few people that thought about two-world theorized (for instance having Central City in Sonic's World… and I'm sure that this one is because of Flynn himself, as SEGA don't care much about Central City nowaday). Not to mention that the Chaos Emerald and the Master Emerald, could be basically top secret before Sonic Adventure, and that most of the Chaos-stuff could be coming from Angel Island (as there is several interpretation of what exactly in the Mystic Ruins are parts of Angel Island or not). Honestly, it would be pretty easy to make it work within what's shown in the comics. Heck, the whole deal of magic that people got increasingly since Sonic Adventure could be in itself a story. The "classic era not allowed" stuff is for me basically a different problem, and in a "meta" level, as it involve a separate CONTINUITY and stuff. You can have both the "two world" and character from both world interacting. Most of the problem is that SEGA say that without creating a real universe, and most of the problem happens BECAUSE it's not really a universe that is being done, but just a "rule". As I always says, Sonic isn't one or two world : it's zero-world. And about why I think that saying that those stories would be the same with one-world : I really prefer in this case having two separate world as LITTERALY separate worlds. Just being in another continent for those stories wouldn't be as nice for several reason : - You lose the "alien"/"magical creature from elsewhere" imagery. Coming from another world create a whole new level of difference, that is the point that you should explore. - You also can make more logical that they mostly didn't knew each other for a long time. - Remember that Sonic's character are giant talking ANIMALS. I really would prefer that they didn't create stories of confrontation between "humans from the modern continent" and "animals from the old continent". Having them from another "world" separated from mundane life make you draw from the folklore, mythical or sci-fi imagery (they instantly become more separated from human kind, more "other-ly", which mitigate most of the problem I'm talking about by not making it "real earth racism with animals instead of other humans"), having them from a mysterious unkown continent make the fact that they are animal way too much of an awkward metaphor for that kind of stories. That's simple : in one-world setting, I would prefer them to drop most type of story talking of confrontation between animals people and human, as Sonic isn't the kind of story that can make it works that well... ( For having used it in a short novel (I used it to talk about the question of bioethics and of what we can call an "animal" or a "human"), I had to adress the existence of racism to avoid this problem of it looking like "real earth racism with animals instead of other humans". For me, it isn't really suited for Sonic, especially if they are targeting children) - The extreme separation can also make that sometimes humans and mobian would have a point in seeing the other as not being their problem. I'll answer another remark about that, to explain what I exactly mean like that : I feel that them having a point about why they weren't involved is way better than just making it "more fraught"… I prefer conflict when both side can have a point (GUN mentioning that the logistic of an interdimensionnal/interplanetary war would be too big, and that they prefer to use all of their fleet to protect their planet, and that as thus they prefered to give only Rouge and Shadow) I can understand why one would dislike the two-world (and I don't say that anybody should like it or not, or that people are "wrong" to dislike something - there is no good or wrong tastes for me), not see it as very "elegant", or stuff, but I really think that it's also a really rich storytelling source. But tbh, it's a bit difficult to get a lore that wouldn't be a good source of storytelling with only his rules and concepts - even if I think that characters always matter more.

And you can do other kind of stories : - How the human world react to all those magical elements coming from another world ? Do they see the mobian as aliens, especially after the OTHER alien invasion their world suffered ? Do some politicians use mobians as scapegoat, that would be pretty easy after what… 4 big crisis happening in their world since they started to come frequently ? (I don't count 2006 because it revoked itself). - What are the differences of cultures and traditions between two different world (it was done better in Sonic X where the mobian world was way wilder). Has stuff that "travellers" know affected the mobian world ? (we know that they don't have money, it could become the foundation of very interesting stories - Why did GUN not interfer during the Eggman's War in Animal World ? How will Sonic and co. react if their reason is "not our problem, won't act", especially as they saved earth a LOT of times ? As they have the mission to protect THEIR planet and that the heroes have another vision, both could clash a lot. Especially after the animal world was pretty wiped out by the zombot crisis. I think more interesting to have one camp that was tranquilly in their own world and that could get a new conflict about that in a future story, while the other world suffered two world-level crisis. - Related to 1 and 3 : Do humans want to interfer with the another world ? Do some human see that as a new "frontier", a new "blank state" compared to their civilisation ? Do they even come into the Animal World ? We could tell a lot of stories with human coming to the animal world, either seeing themselves as "civilizators" (or entrepreneurs that see that as a big opportunity), or them being attacked because most people in Sonic's World see humans as "like Eggman" ? With going to different dimensions/planet we can do the kind of dynamics that are pretty impossible in a "near-future" world like the Human World : a place that is difficult to get with current technologies. It can be the source of a LOT of stories. - We can extend that to mobian deciding to live in the human world : do they prefer the human world ? For what reason ? It would be even more interesting to see someone being so fed up with something in their live that they go in a completely alien world. Is adjusting to such a complex world as "our" is difficult for them ? Sonic X didn't really go into that, but they had interesting concepts about how at first people from the mobian world didn't even understand many concept of the human world, like when Robotnik told everybody to "get him see their leader" and was annoyed by such a complex way of command - and with the IDW Sonic world that just seems to have town elder and stuff like that, it seems pretty logical. - Are the heroes the first to travel between worlds ? Do some civilisations spanned on both world ? Did Gerald travel to the mobian world ? Basically : every world and vision that you have will both limit you and introduce new possibilities. One world create more mix-up of situations. Two worlds create more extreme differences and stories about the worlds own organisation. I think that limitations (and especially those) are mostly good for storytelling, because the writers needs to think more instead of going the easy ways. This one is just a choice of universe, that is basically nothing and just "change" the kind of stories (and by "the kind of stories", I mean basically just a very small parts of the stories). So : yeah, some stories can't be told in this format. Some can't be told with another format. That's storytelling. The most you create a world, the most you'll be limited in the kind of stories you can tell. But at the same time, it offer new kind of stories, that are directly based on the world structure. Said in another way : a good writer wouldn't be affected by this, and it won't change the quality of the story-building of the final product. If someone can't write good stories in a story structure that is large enough (and with many things blurry enough), whatever this structure is (yeah, I know that someone could try to get me just by showing some extreme type of world that are impossible to make stories with, but I'm not saying that I would be this "good writer" :p), I think that it's mostly them that lack a bit of imagination.

Yep, I 100% agree with that, Helen could have created better contrast with Sonic, and it could have helped explore even more the character of Sonic, especially his softer side. I don't exactly remember how were her parents (if they were ever shown), but they could have made a contrast with the freedom of Sonic by making them a tad overprotective (and it wouldn't make them asshole-ish if done right, as we would be able to understand why they would be afraid for her). And just wholesome stuff like Tails adapting the Tornado than she can fly with them, etc, would have been nice. And with her personality, I feel that the bonding with Tails, Amy and Cream would have been nicer too, and as she don't have a whole cast of supporting character already, it would have been interesting to see how her personnality is influenced by bouncing with those wacky, fun heroes. And as you said, the relationship with Shadow could have been way more interesting because of their similarity, with Shadow having to understand that he won't get back the friendship he got with Maria, but would be able to grow a new one that would be important too. (and it would have been a nice interesting twist to the whole "Maria" deal).

Well, it's logical that people fight more for the character they want to return, and not for every one that exists. It's not a question of "top privilege" or anything, it's just people advocating for their own favourite character. (EDIT : and as many other people said : nobody here is saying that other characters or continuity shouldn't happens, exactly like nobody say that they should be main character or whatever). Though that I totally agree that IDW should use a bit the PostSGW!ArchieSonic way of adapting characters from older continuities into the modern world and creating good expy for those that aren't possible (Madonna Garnet totally made me in awe for the triple-reference… and I'm not even talking about that genius Von Schlemmer in a "robot form" in Silver future, that was just so fun xD) to spice things a bit. I would love to see another try at adapting Naugus, Breezie or the SSSSS, or tries around other characters. There might be some right limits about some because SEGA is SEGA, but salvaging some interesting parts of the "dead" continuities could really lead the comics to present interesting new twists around these characters. They should be a bit less "extreme" about it, though, and not introduce a new character full team of characters every two comics.

I'm pretty interested to see what could be the modification made to make them more "ModernSonic-y". As many people, I think that it wouldn't be too hard for him (TBH, I think that most character from older cartoon or continuity could be implemented in Modern Sonic if done right. Modern Sonic is large enough, with enough different character, concept and theme to have new really different character. TBH, after having seen him make works Von Schleemer and Naugus into Modern Sonic, I've got no trouble at all to imagine him making them work). I also think that "making them work into Modern Sonic" might also mean using some of the design philosophy used to design Tangle and Whisper : design them around a type of gameplay/concept a bit more (Antoine and Bunnie would be the two easiest in that kind of philosophy xD) ? Maybe using some more "fake roboticized Tails" elements for Bunnie's robotics too ? ( And I hope that if the FF get into IDW, and that Antoine get a redesign, they use some inspiration from the great second design he would have get in the unreleased Sonic Universe, with a cape and a gauntlet - especially as the Black Knight reference would be cool xD ) They'll certainly not be anymore "the main group" as most have already thought in many discussion about the FF since IDWSonic's beggining xD With the backstory based on Forces, the Metal Virus saga and the Restoration existing, it shouldn't be too hard to make them a new backstory. (the following text is spoiler-ed because it's too much of "what I think they should do with them", which isn't that interesting.) About the Archie's design, I'm not surprising. Seems that after all the Archie problems, they are off-limit for at least a while. It makes me thing about something though : doesn't that mean that the Archie-exclusive Nicole mobian form would be off-limit too, and that if she appeared in a mobian form, she would be designed from scratch ? Well, I'm not really afraid if ever they have to do that, but I wounder what really is her status.

Honestly, I won't download it just right now, I'm waiting for the levels, not just a test level. I'm honestly not that interested anymore in downloading tons of engines that show promises and good potential but that might ultimately not be utilized to produce anything. I'm not against him releasing his test build though : I just don't have much fun in a test level, and prefer to wait for actual content, even unfinished, and to know his actual plan for the game (because the engine are just one part of the game, and often even the fangame with good engine are kinda lacking in the rest). And I wish him all the good luck, because I'm interested to see what will be his game. And for an actual criticism about what I'm seeing from the engine : the gameplay seems a bit cluttered by the number of ability. Stuff like having both the the homing attack, the stomp, the bounce attack AND the drop dash seems go a bit against the principle of simplicity of the engine (especially stomp + bounce attack). One mistake that Sonic World also do, imho. Other than that the physics seems pretty nice, and I like the polished feeling of the engine. Tail's bombs are really cool too, and the feeling seems better than GDK, base bumper engine or World, and that's a good point. The feeling seems on point, too.

I really liked this issue, for several points.

TBH, I wouldn't infer that it's necessarily a problem with the artists that created the delay. We don't know anything about the "behind the scene", and it's perfectly possible that it's simply something happened that delayed the work (not necessarily a big problem, but maybe just a some things that take times). And the problem being during the artistic process doesn't mean that it can't be an administrative/whatever problem directly in IDW. Or that they had to change something at the last moment because of some reason, etc, etc. It can be a lot of reason, so I wouldn't jump on the soap box just for that. And if tbh, I'm pretty sure that the editor will give them interior work if both (the colorists and the editor) wants it. And TBH, as colorists are also really important for the comics (and that's the colors are especially a strong point of the IDWSonic comics), I can understand why they would want to keep some excellent colorists as colorists first.

Mmh, 4 artists that do the interior, nearly one month of delay… Seems that there have been some production problems during the drawing process (either the pencilling or the inking, as I'm not sure which did what). I just hope that it's not that a problem happened in the life of one of the artists. So, talking about the actual preview :

Sonic Pocket Adventure is a pretty small game made reusing past level and concept. I really doubt that the game have any importance in the lore, nor that they really wanted to show the transition, especially as they won't care at all about this game in the future. Samewise for Adventure, I think that all the reuse of "Classic" assets was simply because it was what they got, not to indicate that the character mysteriously all changed of appearance at the same time. For me, Sonic Adventure show way more that they didn't care about how Sonic looked like "in-universe" and that for them it was just a design change to adapt Sonic to the new time.

Basically, I think that the current Modern timeline state is "imagine that Sonic had green eyes during the classic games" (basically like the Sonic Adventure cutscenes). I think this is as far as the two dimensions are different atm. Maybe that some "obscure for the larger public" classic game aren't considered canon, but even that I'm not sure, with SEGA being sometime somewhat random with canonicity. TBH, I think that the goal isn't to separate the classic games from the post98 games (especially as in Forces they reused locations and elements from those games, so sure they are canon), but to separate the classic and the modern DESIGNS (and the brands). For a long time, I think they considering it not as an in-story change of how Sonic looks, but as a simple different way of how he is shown. For a long time, as far as SEGA was concerned, Classic Sonic wasn't even a "younger Sonic", it was just that the game happened to have this design (that's why Sonic 4 used Modern design, or that all cutscene of the Past in Sonic Adventure used the Modern design.). That's also why Flynn had never got any trouble to show the events of the Classic games in his stories post-SGW, while he couldn't always show the Classic Design : because of that. Another way of saying it was that for them "Classic Sonic" wasn't "canon" and was just a representation. It only really changed with Generations, and I think it's a bit because of the fanbase, as we were the one making "canon" the Classic design. As Generations, Classic Sonic became officially the past appearence of Sonic (so not just how it happened to look in the game, but how he "really looked" in Universe)… and I'm not sure that what they wanted. And I think that the "two dimensions" stuff is a way to : - go back to the pre-Generations status quo where "canon-wise" (as far as a "canon" is possible for Sonic…), Sonic always looked like Sonic - have two brands to try to market more nostalgia-related product. Long story short, I think that the current situation of the modern timeline is basically how Sonic was before Generations, were the games are still canon, but with Classic Sonic not being a "younger Sonic" instory.

This affirmation isn't sourced on the wikia. Honestly, for me it's just a fan that added their theory here, because I don't remember any mention of that in any game nor interview.