Rebooting the Franchise: Good or Bad?

[Soniman]

You can bring a significant amount of positive change to the series without starting everything over.

[Kuzu]

No one is saying that at all

That's why I said "General Consensus"

and I generally think the fact that people are arguing with you says that yes, they do indeed believe the idea of rebooting is a bad idea, we really wouldn't be arguing if we thought it was a good one.

Except nobody has explained to me why it's a bad idea in the first place, I've only heard people's personal problems with it, and that tells me nothing why it's bad, only that you seem to not like it.

Again, no one is attacking you personally as I've seen nothing but level headed criticisms from the people who oppose the idea.

I did say it's how I personally feel right, and not something anyone has said to me.

You can bring a significant amount of positive change to the series without starting everything over.

You can do it by bringing change too, I don't see why change is suddenly considering a terrible thing in this case.

[KHCast]

It's a bad idea because all the progress that they have done that is good would be flushed down the toilet all for the sake of generally small things.

[Bright Eyes]

What's really hilarious is that we are debating something that is never going to happen. I can imigane the conversation now:

SEGA Boss: Hey, we are losing a lot of money and have had to close branches to keep asurface.

SEGA Worker: Hey I've got a great idea! Do you know Sonic? Our money spinner? Yeah, let's just get rid of him and reboot a new version of him and make something completely new that our nototiously conservative fanbase will accept happily.

SEGA Boss: Good idea! I have no idea why this would not work!

Edited September 22, 2012 by Bright Eyes

[Vertekins]

Sonic Team are too subservient to the will of the press and the fans and as a result, take two steps backward for every two steps that they take forwards.

We got writers with a great degree of potential? Let's keep 'em on a leash and stop 'em from making ambitious plots and truly making good use of characters other than Sonic, Tails and Eggman. Musn't piss off those who scream about how "shitty" Sonic's friends are and how Sonic "Doesn't need a story"!

We've developed a fascinating world that the series takes place in? Can't piss off those who'd rather be speeding through levels than investigating a developed world full of eye candy! Let's place a series of disjointed levels in a white void devoid of personality!

Classic Sonic is back for a one-game gig? Let's pander to the fanbase to the most idiotic degree and satiate those who hold a completely warped interpretation of him by making him mute! Doesn't matter if we betray the reality of the series itself and complicate Sonic's characterization!

[Komodin]

Not so much elaborate, it's more they fucked up a respectable character's backstory.

Aye, they did. But, is it really that bad a fuckup that warrants a reboot, though?

Yes, and for a good few years before Iizuka said anything on the subject, we were pulling our hair out trying to make sense of this shit.

Well, now that we got our answer, is it really necessary to elaborate upon it?

If it's a retcon, what did Eggman use to demonstrate the Eclipse Cannon then?

The Moon, silly. The retcon came after the fact.

I did say that's not the only reason for it, and there are other possibilities than just getting rid of the bad stuff.

Aye, you did. We're just not down with the idea of a hard reboot, is all.

And honestly, this is a problem with the series now, everyone is so afraid of change; that the slightest alteration to the series is always met with either enormous amounts of cynicism, or outright rage. It's because of this Sonic Team aren't taking any risks themselves.

You know, mon, just because we're not down with the idea of a hard reboot, doesn't mean we're opposed to any change for the series...

[Chooch]

You can do it by bringing change too, I don't see why change is suddenly considering a terrible thing in this case.

I'm pretty sure the main point here isn't that "Change = Bad" it's that "Change = Unnecessary." At least in the sense of change being a reboot.

Ultimately both parties want change, just not in the same way. A reboot is a large structural change and the opposing party is insisting that that large of a change is not needed.

[Kuzu]

I'm pretty sure the main point here isn't that "Change = Bad" it's that "Change = Unnecessary." At least in the sense of change being a reboot.

Ultimately both parties want change, just not in the same way. A reboot is a large structural change and the opposing party is insisting that that large of a change is not needed.

I understand that, what I don't understand is why is such a large structural change not necessary? Most of the characters in the series are unnecessary, but that doesn't stop people from arguing to keep them in the series. So how is this any different from that? What's necessary or unnecessary is dependent entirely on that person's POV. I don't think a reboot is needed, but I don't think it's pointless either.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Ragna the Bloodedge

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I understand that, what I don't understand is why is such a large structural change not necessary? Most of the characters in the series are unnecessary, but that doesn't stop people from arguing to keep them in the series. So how is this any different from that? What's necessary or unnecessary is dependent entirely on that person's POV. I don't think a reboot is needed, but I don't think it's pointless either.

Depends on how large we're talking.

Obviously, we're not advocating deleting everything so I'm pretty sure that should be clear. But there comes a degree with these things. Making most of the unnecessary characters necessary isn't as big a change as you would expect, or at least I don't think so. You're really giving the character more of a use, which is what they've been doing before Unleashed.

But a reboot just has bad connotations to it ever since it's been done on series like Spyro and DmC.

[Chooch]

Most of the characters in the series are unnecessary, yes. Ultimately, even Tails is completely unnecessary. You only need Sonic and an opposing villain and it's still Sonic. You can fix that problem by making them necessary? I don't get what is so difficult.

Knuckles immediately becomes relevant again the second the writers bother to write him in a scenario where he is relevant. It's the same with any other character. They just haven't bothered yet. That doesn't mean that they can not do it at all ever without a complete restructure.

It means what it means. They haven't done it yet.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Chooch

[Blackbell]

Rebooting Sonic would be like rebooting Mario - unwanted and unnecessary. I doubt Sega- who released a game based on all previous games- would reboot a series like Sonic. They're doing exactly what Mario did-Take the best game we have and re-release it again under a different title with better graphics and making it simple again. Sonic 4 is evidence to that.

Rebooting a series should be a last resort option- Sonic is an icon, the same as Mario. Spryo, which has rebooted 2 times already, ran it's course. And we all know Sonic's not gonna stop running it's course so easily.

[Multikaris]

Let me do this:

Overview: The games are open-world, as opposed tho the incredibly claustrophopic levels of newer games. The focus on momentum based physics returns, like in the classics. The games are much darker than the older ones, and are rated "T" (except for "Sonic the Hedgehog", which is E10+)

Sonic the Hedgehog:

The game focuses on Sonic's rise and fall. The game is open-world, as opposed to the downright claustrophobic level design of newer games. The story begins with Sonic training with Chirps (yes, the small animals now use their western names). Then, a mysterious tendril grabs poor Chirps and drags him off. Sonic then sees a Motobug. Sonic defeats the Motobug and saves Chips. Chirps then tell him of a mysterious "egg man." Sonic the Hedgehog then goes through Green Hill to find this "egg man." Along the way, Sonic hears of the dissapearances of animals on the island, and odd robotic creatures. Sonic saves the animals and finds the "egg man." the "egg man" attacks by ramming Sonic. Soon, he flies away. Sonic decides to call him "Eggman". A few days later, all the animals are vanishing. Sonic then runs through Green Hill again and finds "Eggman", who brings a wrecking ball to fight him. Sonic goes through the other Sonic 1 (8-bit and 16-bit) zones in any other bar Sky Base, Labryinth, Scrap Brain, and Final. Eventually, Sonic finds out "Eggman"'s name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Then Sonic and Robotnik duel in Final. Soon, Robotnik takes Tails to the Crystal Egg and Sonic goes after him. Sonic must confront the "Bionic Sonic." Tails becomes a "party member" (but not playable yet). Then, Robotnik starts to make a Death Egg. Sonic and Tails go to Angel Island and Tails becomes playable. Knuckles is tricked and manipulated by Robotnik. Later Robotnik reveals he has done this to numerous youngsters much like Knuckles, and Knuckles becomes playable. Then, the three meet Amy, who is taken by Metal Sonic. Upon her rescue, she becomes a party member (she's not playable until game completion). Then Sonic's fall begins when Robotnik takes all of Sonic's pals bar Tails and Knuckles. After finally destroying the Death Egg, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles go their separate wayes. Sonic falls from grace when Robotnik exiles him, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy to Station Square.

Sonic Adventure:

Sonic discovers word of what appears to be a zombified young woman. Sonic then sees Tails again, who's plane the Cyclone crashes. After saving him, Tails believes Sonic may not be as fast anymore, builds him a car (Speed Star). The Speed Star is infact able to fly and be a boat. Tails also made similar vehicles for Amy, Knux, and himself. The group later hear that Knuckles is back on the island. However, they meet Amy, who is stolen by ZERO. ZERO goes to Angel Island along with the group. Sonic and Tails stand near the shards of the broken Master Emerald. Tikal and Chaos's ghosts have escaped. Sonic and co then go rescue Amy, but are pursed by ZERO. When they get there, they find Chaos. Upon his defeat, Robotnik explains him, Sonic sees the zombified woman from the photos. The brainwashed maiden, known as Blaze, then attacks Sonic. however, ZERO has taken all of Sonic's pals. Blaze runs off and Sonic follows her. Sonic finds himself on the Egg Carrier, and finds the robot Gamma. Amy tells Sonic Gamma is her friend. A black hedgehog appears and kills Gamma. While Amy mourns her death, Tails goes to the city, Knuckles goes to his island, and Sonic continues to pursue Blaze. Sonic then meets Tikal's ghost, who tells him of the Chaos disaster. Sonic is then falsely arrested. Meanwhile, Knuckles meets a thief named Rouge and her pet robot Omega, who break the Sol Emerald Knuckles had been keeping. Sonic is helped out of prison by Amy. Sonic goes to the jungle, where Blaze lay prone at the Black Hedgehog's feet. The black hedgehog is of course Shadow. After Shadow's defeat, Sonic grabs Blaze and makes off with her. When Blaze wakes up, she reveals that Robotnik had done this to her. Knuckles gets in a fight with Rouge, who almost dies but is rescued by Knuckles. The whole party arrives on the Space Colony ARK. Fang holds Cream at gunpoint. Robotnik realizes he only has six emeralds, but Eggman Nega gives him the last. Robotnik then gives them all to Chaos, who goes Perfect. Tikal gives him a warning about Chaos. The Biolizard is unleashed at the same time. Super Sonic and Burning Blaze take out Robotnik's new mech, while Shadow goes against Perfect Chaos and the Biolizard. Shadow seems to have died, but in reality is not. Tails rescues Cream. All is well except Rouge becomes evil again. Knuckles fights her again. Upon her defeat, a demonic gray hedgehog floats out of her. This creature then merges Chaos and Biolizard into Finalhazard. Upon it's defeat, Chaos becomes at peace and goes off with Tikal. Eggman Nega and Fang then talk with the demonic gray hedgehog. The group then go their seperate ways again.

Sonic Adventure 2:

Sonic and Tails are stuck in a mysterious elevator to Robotnikland. Upon arriving, they go through the Sonic Colors stages in any order before fighting Eggman Nega. Nega has Rouge by his side. However, she seems to be horrified. Then, the demonic gray hedgehog comes out of her and takes her away. The same creature haunts Knuckles on his island with his Rouge-napping. He takes the Chaotix for ransom, and lets a mysterious trio of theives called the Babylon Rogues steal the Emerald. Amy also meets the creature, and tries to befriend it. The demonic gray hedgehog tells little Amy a little lie: he was a hedgehog named Silver, and he lost his friend Blaze to a creature called Ifrit. Amy then shows him to Blaze. Silver harasses Blaze (like sniffing her hair), and Sonic catches him in the act. However, Fang silences Sonic and drags him off. Sonic then encounters the Babylon Rogues. Fang's in league with them. Fang reveals he willingly joined Robotnik. Knuckles finds that Rouge is performing increasingly sucicidal actions. Knuckles finds "Silver" is responsible. Silver then kills Tikal and Chaos. Horrified, Knuckles finds Sonic (but he takes Rouge with him). "Silver" shows up on South Island and completely destroys it. Soon, "silver" reveals his name is Mephiles and he seeks Iblis. He claims Tikal, Chaos, and all of South Island were sacrifices to Iblis. Soon, Mephiles becomes Solaris and is destroyed by Hyper Sonic.

I admit, this is absolutely awful, and I feel like I can do better.

Edited September 29, 2012 by miru

[Komodin]

I admit, this is absolutely awful, and I feel like I can do better.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Dude, lampshading your awful thing doesn't make it any less awful...

I kinda want to read it, but I don't want to at the same time...

[Milo]

words

.......... :/

Can you at least try to come up with something coherent the next time you want to make an irrelevant post of your fanfiction?

[Burnt Ash]

@miru

There are far too many characters to make some sort of brief, concise, yet well-told story in your SA1 and SA2 arcs. The Sonic the Hedgehog arc was okay, though.

[Wraith]

Might as well write down my own Reboot while we're at it.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Story

Welcome to the Land of the Sky, a peaceful series of islands high in the sky. Nature and technology have come together to create this world. Sonic the Hedgehog is an inhabitant of this world. He is known on his home island for his impossibly fast running abilities, and while is island is one of the largest around, he longs for some more space to run around in. A new world to see.

The tutorial mission involves Sonic chasing off some of the local bullies after he finds them messing with a few kids. Tails and Cream are introduced. A few days later, robots start appearing on Green Island and attacking the inhabitants. Sonic, Tails, and the rest of the inhabitants chase them off, but one of them manages to run off with Cream, retreating below into the Land of Darkness, Eggman's domain.

Sonic, eager to have an excuse to explore the dangerous domain, volunteers to head down. The inhabitants warn him about the dangers of the world below, saying that nobody who has gone there ever returned, but he ignores them.

After dropping to the surface, Sonic, with Tails as his radio contact, begins to explore Freedom Forest in search of Cream.

Gameplay

Sonic the Hedgehog basically plays like a classic game in 3D. Sonic himself is equipped with the jump, homing attack, and Spin Dash. There are also abilities you can find and equip to traverse the terrain easier.

Sonic is the only playable character, the rest just being part of the story.

The Zones have 7 acts each, 3 of them being mandatory, 3 of them being "Secret Acts" that can only be found by locating keys, and one of them being a Sanctuary, a hard as balls level that truly tests your skills. Sanctuaries can only be unlocked by finding the Sacred Keys that lie in each hidden act. At the end of a sanctuary lies a chaos emerald. Those are needed to get the best ending.

The Zones are layed out so you can take as many different paths as you want depending on how skilled you are and what abilities you have equiped.

There is a giant hubworld that connects the different Zones known as the Land of the Sky. Sonic and Tails can fly around and visit the many different islands to talk to different NPCs ala Wind Waker. Most of them have missions you can complete for some extra cash, which you can then give to Nack the Weasel, a shady merchant, for items and abilities.

Zones

Freedom Forest: A seemingly peaceful forest. As Sonic makes his way deeper inside, Robotnik's activity becomes more and more clear. As you move deeper in, you see Robots cutting down trees and large factories. After Sonic obliterates one of the factories, he comes face to face with one of Eggman's strongest servants..

Boss: Shadow the Hedgehog

Magma Mine: A mine inside of an active volcano. As Sonic rides minecarts and dodges Eggman's deadly creactions, he finds out Eggman seems to be searching for something important in these mines. But what could it be?

Boss: Egg Chaser

Shattered Egg Zone: a wrecked facility located out in the middle of nowhere. Sonic steps inside to face Eggman and retrieve Cream, but his overconfidence may be his downfall.

Boss: Dr Eggman

Ancient Waterway: After underestimating Eggman, Sonic is dropped into an underground ruin filled with water. As he slides down treacherous water slides and fights his way through Eggman's machines, he comes across an ancient power that had been lost for centuries.

Boss: Enchidna Gaurdian.

Abandoned Skyscraper: After his escape from the pit, Sonic finds out that Eggman's greatest weapon is about to be launched. In order to catch up with it, he cuts through an abandoned, pollution filled metropolis that is in the midst of being converted into a robotic cityscape.

Boss: Egg Pheonix

Showdown Summit: Sonic must climb to the top of a large mountain to catch up with Eggman. Braving through the treacherous cold in this verticle level, the only thing standing in Sonic's way is his old rival...

Boss: Shadow (Rematch)

Death Egg Hanger: Sonic and Robotnik face off for the final time. (Can be accessed with zero to 5 chaos emeralds.)

Boss: Boss Rush.

Sky Sanctuary: After finding 6 of the chaos emeralds in the 6 santuaries, Sonic is teleported to the final emerald's resting place. The Land of the Sky.

Death Egg: Sonic must face his hardest challenge yet as he rushes towards the center of the great aircraft.

Boss: Death Core

Extras

The game would have cameos from different Sega characters. For example, If you look out the window at the right time during the Death Egg stage, you can see Ristar flying through space. You can also race AiAi to get the most Bananas as one of your missions. Little stuff like that.

[WarioBone]

Boss: Enchidna Gaurdian.

wat

[Wraith]

wat

I forgot to mention that Ancient Waterway would have a bunch of allusions to Echidna culture.

[WarioBone]

I forgot to mention that Ancient Waterway would have a bunch of allusions to Echidna culture.

I was making a joke at your atrocious spellin', broham.

But other than that, I like it. I don't particularly care for the exclusion of Knuckles, Amy, and Metal for the likes of Cream(?) and Shadow, but other than that, it sounds boss.

[Wraith]

I was making a joke at your atrocious spellin', broham.

But other than that, I like it. I don't particularly care for the exclusion of Knuckles, Amy, and Metal for the likes of Cream(?) and Shadow, but other than that, it sounds boss.

Oh.....damn it.

Metal was actually supposed to have Shadow's spot, but how could Eggman have created Metal Sonic without knowing who Sonic was yet?

[WarioBone]

Oh.....damn it.

Metal was actually supposed to have Shadow's spot, but how could Eggman have created Metal Sonic without knowing who Sonic was yet?

I think he'd be cool as either the penultimate or final boss (or just replace the rematch with Shadow). It'd be the product of Eggman studying Sonic the entire game and they could have an awesomecool reveal like in the OVA. Besides, games that end with a "Fight yourself!" boss are cool.

[Wraith]

I think he'd be cool as either the penultimate or final boss (or just replace the rematch with Shadow). It'd be the product of Eggman studying Sonic the entire game and they could have an awesomecool reveal like in the OVA. Besides, games that end with a "Fight yourself!" boss are cool.

Yes. I like this idea very much.

I also came up with a bunch of ideas for Silver gameplay, but he pretty much doesn't fit in anywhere.

[WarioBone]

I admire your attempts to use the less popular characters. -rubs chin-

[Wraith]

I admire your attempts to use the less popular characters. -rubs chin-

I figured that we might as well try and make people like them again.

Speaking of less popular characters, Silver + Wii U touchpad = Not shit gameplay.