Sonikko

Because they're cool 

The first time I saw Sonic, it was the American art. I was thoroughly put off by it until I had the opportunity to actually play the game.

@A crocodile This is bad art.

@Pawn I was incredibly turned off by the American and European artworks as a kid too. Not to mention the USA cartoons, I found all the western media related to Sonic incredibly off putting and disorientating.

That one is bad yes, but they're not all like that. I don't even think that's from Greg Martin.

When I'm talking about the cool ones I'm talking about Greg Martin. Like this. 

This kind of stuff appeals to me, but I think my sensibilities are slightly different from some of yours. I find this old United States art appealing after the endless ocean of stuffy people going on about how "Toei Sonic is the greatest evarrr" 

I grew up with it ?

I can see both sides, even in that "good" example above, there's a lot of wonky anatomy and stuff compared to the clean, disciplined Japanese artwork (like, look how long Tails' torso is).

But at the same time, nostalgia is a factor and I can see how many might enjoy or prefer the slightly more chaotic style of the US artwork, it certainly goes hand in hand with how he was marketed, his personality in US spin-off media, etc.

Yeah, I figured nostalgia would be a big factor in this equation, but I used to think the USA artworks were ugly (and nothing like the ingame/"official" stuff) even as a very young kid.

I guess it varies from person to person, but I'm still convinced that Western Sonic is an abomination lol. It only remotely looks good when it's closer to the Japanese counterpart (in the artwork posted just above for example).

I agree that there's plenty wrong with the style, and there are some downright ugly pieces, but some artwork has a certain legitimate charm and appeal. Also, to be honest, I just grow tired of how people overreact about how bad it is, to the point where it causes me to like it more.

There also should be delineation between the actual USA classic Sonic artwork (which was a different style from the Japanese but generally consistent with itself), and the bad attempts to copy it that the European releases got that I'm pretty sure that Tails is an example of.

Apart from glimpses of the Sonic 1 box art, I didn't really see that much of the Japanese artwork when I was younger so I grew up with the US artwork (e.g. Sonic 2 [both versions], Spinball, AoSTH/SatAM) or even European (e.g. StC, Sonic 3, that yakky Sonic 3D render). It's only from the Adventure era that I got to see the Japanese box arts of the games as well as the rarer Sonic games, aside from the odd import of Sonic 2 when I had the Internet. Considering that I was a fan without seeing those glorious artwork, it doesn't matter as much. Except that Sonic 3D render but that's not American, in fact the American one looked quite nice for an early CG rendered artwork.

Some like Sonic 1 (Genesis, Game Gear not as much) and 3 do bother me a bit with their design but don't mind the Sonic 2 ones, Spinball, Mean Bean Machine, Sonic 3D/Blast. Plus one of my favourite box arts from a Sonic game is American (Sonic Triple Trouble). I think a lot of the faults regarding US Sonic artwork until 1994 is actually to do with the Sonic 1 title screen, like how people mocked that one pose of the Mania title screen. One of the poses matches the typical US face while the others don't. I guess Greg Martin and others used that one pose as a reference.

Also Richard Elson's Western Classic Sonic is bloody fantastic 

The US box art for Sonic 1, 2 and CD were great

The US Sonic 3 boxart is my favorite boxart in the series ._.

Some have preferences and likes that differ from that of ourselves no matter how impossible we think it could be for someone to like or prefer said thing. Same thing with opinions. If we all liked and disliked and thought the same thing the world would be much less interesting. 

As for the style in question this was the only Sonic that I knew of until 2010 and by then I was already deeply attached to the character in both appearance and personality so it was okay and even influenced my drawing style at the time as I loved what I saw with Sonic. 

As someone who grew up with Heroes as my first Sonic game and therefore my first glimpse was always Modern based art, I can't stand the US art for Sonic. It's the same way I really dislike the SatAM and AoStH designs, they just don't look appealing aesthetically to me. Sonic's designs usually end up screaming as a desperate attempt at attitude and Knuckles usually ending up looking like a smug arrogant prick, which I get might be the point but it was more trickster than arrogance in Sonic 3. 

It screams of an era I dislike a lot and when I first saw the Japanese artwork, I just liked how much better I think it looked from an design viewpoint. Not to mention the designs just looked better IMO.

@Tornado That Tails artwork is American, actually.

But yeah, the European artworks were much worse than the American ones, I'll give you that.

My point is that the American artworks do a very bad job at depicting the games, they're almost completely different. Not only in character appearance.

Look at this bird from a Sonic 2 USA Artwork.

Or this Crabmeat which is supposed to look like this 

And stylistic choices aside, while the backgrounds look good and are usually very detailed and lifelike, the characters themselves have obvious issues with perspective, and they hardly have a clear design, it varies from pose to pose. It's heavily inconsistent.

There's also this one with the realistic rabbits. I honestly like the uncanny nature of it all, at least just in the context of itself. 

""That's it! I've come up with a new Emerald!"

Can't be that bad

I swear I feel alone when I say I loved FFXV

Then what do you call FFXIII

I liked it. Not perfect, but the combat was fun and I loved the characters.

What? Do you spend a third of the game as Black Mage with poor controls and terrible NES-ish music?

@Ryannumber1gamer

Join the club mate.

Mmm. Interestic