Popular and unpopular Sonic opinions you agree and disagree with!

[Your Vest Friend]

Actually, the thing about the hammer is that Sonic Team adopting something from a spinoff game without their involvement (ie what Fighters was) was really unusual, even at the time. I suspect the hammer is older than we think.

[Sonic Fan J]

7 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Actually, the thing about the hammer is that Sonic Team adopting something from a spinoff game without their involvement (ie what Fighters was) was really unusual, even at the time. I suspect the hammer is older than we think.

Now there's a thought that is potentially worrisome for someone who isn't fond of the hammer. On the other hand, I wonder how much truth there can be in it since it didn't appear in Sonic R, even as a cameo, I think I read somewhere that if Amy had appeared in Sonic X-treme that she would have attacked by throwing rings which kind of implies that there was still no definitive gameplay style attributed to her or that her hammer had become an integral part of her character yet.

[E-122-Psi]

3 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

TThis fan affiliation reached probably its strongest representation with the Rom Hacks of Amy in Sonic 1, 2, And 3&K where a fan (I believe they go by the handle Psi-121) put her advance moveset in those games using her classic design and the hammer from Sonic the Fighters. For all of the praise I hear for these hacks however I find it peculiar that no one ever looks at the side of the argument that introducing that moveset ignores the design concept in use in those days. Consequently, from a legal standpoint, those hacks are actually a good reason for SEGA not to do the same for say Mania as it could come across a stealing a fan idea, and unlike a forum post these hacks are well known amongst the community which would force SEGA to come up with a distinct moveset for Amy if added to Mania. At least that's my opinion but since Hoshino, Amy's original designer for the games, is still with SEGA he would be a good person to start with to imagine something if he were to his mind back into the mindset he had when working on Sonic CD years before a hammer in any form appeared.

You mean me? Well truthfully I'd hope that isn't the case (though SEGA have been REALLY edgy about potential property division recently, I won't sue guys, I promise :P), from what I know all fan content is at SEGA's consent, meaning they technically own it, hell they even authorised fan hacks with their Steam service. What can I sue them for, stealing my idea which I stole from Advance? It's pretty much just a direct 'what if' of implementing the exact same gameplay from that title into the old games.

I think people connect the hammer to Amy because not only was it the concept that ended up taking on and being used in other games, but because, well, it was a lot more distinctive to use. Stuff seen in other medias like a crossbow or throwing rings around may have been a workable gimmick, but they don't connect to the character as much personality wise. A giant toy hammer on the other hand not only looks wonderfully bizarre and cartoony but fits Amy's bubbly, childish, but anime Tsundere-ish personality (at least SHADES of which had already been established in her classic form, if lightly). Same for how you could IN THEORY give Sonic a gun or martial arts as a gameplay, but the spin attack is just WAY more unique and distinctive and dashing around like a pinball befits the humorous juxtaposition of his species' characteristics with his hyperactive speed obsessed character.

It's the same reason I stuck to giving Sally NICOLE abilities in my hacks over the comics' laser blades. Not only is NICOLE a very unique weapon, but Sally hacking, sniping and relying more on stealth and manipulating her territory fits her methodical character to me more than headfirst combat.

[Sonic Fan J]

1 minute ago, E-122-Psi said:

You mean me? Well truthfully I'd hope that isn't the case (though SEGA have been REALLY edgy about potential property division recently, I won't sue guys, I promise :P), from what I know all fan content is at SEGA's consent, meaning they technically own it, hell they even authorised fan hacks with their Steam service. What can I sue them for, stealing my idea which I stole from Advance? It's pretty much just a direct 'what if' of implementing the exact same gameplay from that title into the old games.

I think people connect the hammer to Amy because not only was it the concept that ended up taking on and being used in other games, but because, well, it was a lot more distinctive to use. Stuff seen in other medias like a crossbow or throwing rings around may have been a gimmick, but they don't connect to the character as much personality wise. A giant toy hammer on the other hand not only looks wonderfully bizarre and cartoony but fits Amy's bubbly, childish, but Tsundere-ish personality (at least SHADES of which had already been established in her classic form, if lightly).

It's the same reason I stuck to giving Sally NICOLE abilities in my hacks over the comics' laser blades. Not only is NICOLE a very unique weapon, but Sally hacking, sniping and relying more on stealth and manipulating her territory fits her methodical character to me more than headfirst combat.

Sorry I got your name (and that I've never played your hacks but mods are an iffy subject to me with my nigh nonexistent computer abilities). 

 

I probably am a bit paranoid but after all the times I've seen it said that SEGA can't use fan ideas for legal reasons it's hard to think your hack wouldn't have some effect on their decision making (for better or worse) no matter the simple reality of their ownership of all the concepts that you used.

 

I really have no good argument for the distinctiveness of the hammer though I do wonder how many people may start thinking she took the idea from DC's Harley Quinn (though admittedly toy hammers and mallets date back to even before Bugs Bunny which kind of takes away the distinctness in a way). I will though say that from the perspective as someone who perceives Amy as a genki girl who chased after Sonic it always seemed more logical to me for her to take on Sonic's move set like Tails did (of course these days in the games Tails doesn't even have a moveset outside of a number of cheerleader shouts if you stick to the modern games). Her hammer seems out of place to me both within universe and in regards to her Sonic chasing. If I look at her as the tsundere to yandere that some fans do I can see her hammer being useful for abusing Sonic and anyone who gets near him but that is totally out of alignment with the boundless energy, goodwill, and optimism I expect from a genki girl. It's one of the things I don't like about how Ian Flynn's portrayal of the character is his way of handling her sometimes feels smarmy to me (tbf a  lot of characters in his hands have moments of feeling very smarmy to me).

 

At the end of the day I guess the truth of the matter is that I really do perceive Amy so radically differently from how most fans do my viewpoint is incompatible. At least though I've been able to have civil discussions about it here though unlike in the past on another forum where sharing these thoughts got me ostracized and so I'd like to take a moment to thank the SSMB community for being so open and willing to discuss ^_^. It really makes me feel good to discuss it like this and see how different I am as well just how truly ingrained the imagery of the hammer is with most people. Thinking about it after a lot of this discussion I feel like the only way to make an image of her without it would be to build Amy up using her Rosy the Rascal moniker like I've been doing with the redesign I have in my avatar, but considering the connections Archie fans have with that name that'd be a whole new can of worms to deal with just to salvage SEGA's original nickname for the little pink rascal.

[E-122-Psi]

15 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

If I look at her as the tsundere to yandere that some fans do I can see her hammer being useful for abusing Sonic and anyone who gets near him but that is totally out of alignment with the boundless energy, goodwill, and optimism I expect from a genki girl. It's one of the things I don't like about how Ian Flynn's portrayal of the character is his way of handling her sometimes feels smarmy to me (tbf a  lot of characters in his hands have moments of feeling very smarmy to me).

I admit that might be one of the problems with the hammer. The hammer gag is somewhat based on anime's penchant for tsundere abuse; girls abusing boys out of temper or petty slights. This especially came into play in Sonic X, where Amy slowly just devolved into another violent, bad tempered 'scary anime girl' that screamed or threatened abuse onto most of the terrified male cast whenever she remotely didn't get her way. I have no qualms with Amy having a temper, but the hammer being there made it too easy to flanderise it from something like an ineffectual kid tantrum into something far more abusive.

Archie had the same problem but subdued. The more serious tone tried to shove it under the rug, but it became obvious after a while that everyone on the team just saw her as their dopey rabid guard dog, keeping to the idea that Amy was this outright little sociopath constantly swishing about a dangerous weapon at the drop of a pin. I suppose this was a side effect of the comics 'mood whiplash' and trying to merge both serious realistic concepts with very cartoony ones without trying to translate them to mesh better. I didn't keep full track, but I think the reboot downplayed it a fair bit.

Boom, perhaps due to characterisation changes, was among few that kept control of it for the most part, even if the lack of any of her childish personality at all made it's use feel more generic. Amy was ironically pretty much the Sally Acorn of the Boom series, so the hammer combat fit her less compared to a more methodical utility.

[Sonic Fan J]

15 minutes ago, E-122-Psi said:

I admit that might be one of the problems with the hammer. The hammer gag is somewhat based on anime's penchant for tsundere abuse; girls abusing boys out of temper or petty slights. This especially came into play in Sonic X, where Amy slowly just devolved into another violent, bad tempered 'scary anime girl' that screamed or threatened abuse onto most of the terrified male cast whenever she remotely didn't get her way. I have no qualms with Amy having a temper, but the hammer being there made it too easy to flanderise it from something like an ineffectual kid tantrum into something far more abusive.

Archie had the same problem but subdued. The more serious tone tried to shove it under the rug, but it became obvious after a while that everyone on the team just saw her as their dopey rabid guard dog, keeping to the idea that Amy was this outright little sociopath constantly swishing about a dangerous weapon at the drop of a pin. I suppose this was a side effect of the comics 'mood whiplash' and trying to merge both serious realistic concepts with very cartoony ones without trying to translate them to mesh better. I didn't keep full track, but I think the reboot downplayed it a fair bit.

Boom, perhaps due to characterisation changes, was among few that kept control of it for the most part, even if the lack of any of her childish personality at all made it's use feel more generic. Amy was ironically pretty much the Sally Acorn of the Boom series, so the hammer combat fit her less compared to a more methodical utility.

I think on a whole the abusive nature it enables is the one thing that most people would agree is bad with the hammer. The funny thing is though that is part of the reason for the sound effect since the toy hammers it is based off of makes that sound  to imply it's not dangerous and I've even seen footage of Japanese children whacking each other with them playfully. The problem with Amy's use is there is nothing playful about and it is shown to a force of destruction that is nearly unmatched. Making it worse, it only looks like the toy it is based off of in Fighters where most of the (outside of the utterly merciless Metal Sonic) attacks come across as playful and comedic to begin with. By the time you get to Boom! not only are there no signs of Amy's genki girl traits but the hammer itself is just a pink sledgehammer that i don't even remember ever making the distinctive 'piko' sound to remind you that it is a playful bit of harmless fun. Looking at it like that I think it actually highlights another problem I have with it as it not only enables an abusive and very negative portrayal of Amy but it also takes what should be a toy that's playful and harmless and shows it used as a weapon intended to actually do harm. That comes across as a very inappropriate message in a kids' franchise (I'm not saying the series should be kiddie just that it should be a bit more aware of it's intended audience when approaching certain subjects) and might be one of the reason's why the design was changed to not resemble the accordion-esque toy it is based off of when it became a staple of Amy's character from Adventure 1 on.

[Your Vest Friend]

I've got a couple of kinda new ones. 

1. I really do not like the mobile ports, having now played them. The fact that the direction is controlled by a virtual joystick and not a virtual gamepad renders it practically unplayable to me because I cannot do any sort of precision movement at all with it. 

2. Sonic Channel seems to be less a reflection of the franchise nowadays and more just a space for Uekawa to let loose because his art design work isn't really utilised in the franchise nowadays. 

As such, the site (like, the official art sections moreso) seems to have a bias for stuff he created. Actually, I don't think that's the right angle to take it from; stuff he didn't have input in has less presence because he might not necessarily be so comfortable with drawing their designs.

-Vector and Espio are really good showcases of the idea of not being used to drawing them. Their designs in Sonic X (where Uekawa would have laid out their design first, at least in the way he did them) were, quite frankly, pretty terrible and full of weird mistakes. The 2006 stock art is better than that, but still off in several areas, even for their designs at the time. And while still not perfect, the 2014 wallpapers show that he's much closer. 

-Omega he hasn't even attempted outside of the official stock art...until a week ago. That's a long time to not draw a character. Bear in mind that's he's drawn Tikal more in that time, a character who is not recurring. That being said, he probably picked up Omega quicker because a lot of Omega's design ethos was taken from Gamma, who he designed.

-Silver's weird because while Uekawa isn't explicitly credited as a designer, one of the concept arts for Silver looks very much like his work, so either he could have been involved with him or someone went out of their way to see how Silver would gel with Uekawa's style. Hence why Silver is seen far more often and appears to be much easier for Uekawa (plus he's a hedgehog, there's not that much unusual deviance in the first place).  

As a result, you get situations where characters like Cream (who is pretty much on the same level as the Chaotix, especially in recent years where they've had a way stronger presence than her) are repeated year in, year out while others (like said Chaotix and Omega. Especially Omega though) are lucky if they get art in half a decade. 

[Big Panda]

5 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I've got a couple of kinda new ones. 

1. I really do not like the mobile ports, having now played them. The fact that the direction is controlled by a virtual joystick and not a virtual gamepad renders it practically unplayable to me because I cannot do any sort of precision movement at all with it.

This. This is exactly what stops them from being perfect, and why they desperatly need console ports.

[Skull Leader]

Personally, I don't think that Knuckles has much to add to a team dynamic involving Sonic and Tails, which is funny because, for all the merchandising and promotional material out there, I don't believe I've seen him interact with Tails that much to actually have that supposed three-way interaction you'd expect in a team that a lot of people consider to be very united. Heck, I think the only group to achieve this are actually the Chaotix in the modern/legacy interpretation that Heroes introduced for them.

I know some will probably say that Knuckles is sort of like Piccolo from DBZ, yet I disagree for one key factor: Piccolo had an actual reason in the form of Gohan, that little boy he intended to use for his evil schemes and with who, without realizing, started to warm up and care for to the point of giving up on his evil ways and become part of the group. I don't think there was ever such a transition regarding Knuckles, especially with how pretty much after Sonic Adventure, the guy was just there for lip service due to being one of the three characters of the Genesis trilogy rather than for actually having something to contribute either to the team or to the stories, which was made only worse when other characters (like Amy in SA2) were screwed in favor of the echidna's seniority.

Frankly, I see much more credibility in Amy for not just having as much of a valid motivation as Tails to join Sonic on his adventures, but also because as a character, Amy has some neat things to contribute both to the team and their cause:

* Sonic is the guy who believes in himself because he has the means to make a change. Tails struggles with his self-confidence, but when needed, he can be very brave. Amy is the character that believes in YOU (as in, "you" being those she meets and helps out). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how Amy would be a very supportive friend for Tails, while Tails words might actually resonate more with Amy than with Sonic, given how while Sonic prefers to do things his way, Amy is much more inclined to be a team player if she can be of better help that way. Add that both share in common their caring for the protagonist and you could imagine how it would be like when they talk about their insecurities regarding their respective relation with Sonic.

* Both of Tails and Amy are the characters who look up to Sonic the most, and unlike other characters who join Sonic because of the mission at hand, they join because they care for him. Plus, where Tails is a character whose most important contributions revolve around his intelligence (the brain of the group), Amy's are more about her compassion and empathy for others (the heart), which is especially helpful when she manages to do what others can't: make bad guys switch sides to fight for the good guy's cause.

However, I wouldn't want for Amy to be enclosed as "sidekick 2.0", since I feel that would sacrifice her versatility to branch out of the group to go helping others, not to mention that as much as I like the idea of seeing more of Amy working together with Sonic, her very best is seen when she is actually working with other characters that she helps out.

 

[DabigRG]

You know, I always wanted to come into this thread, but the 200+ pages kept intimidating me. Yet I also felt inclined to read some of them to be in the groove, so I finally decided on a compromise: I read the last 9-10 pages before doing a post of my own.

So, here's some Unpopular Opinions:

• U: Cream the Rabbit has always(?) been something of a lowkey favorite of mine game-wise. Kinda wish she regained some of her previous recurring status.
• U: I like most of the Deadly Six Zeti and always thought/hoped they could provide distinct alternative villains [who stay villains] besides Eggman in the series. 
  • P: Except Zeena.
• U: I really liked Thrash the Devil and wish he got to properly appear/do more.
• U: Having actually thought about it recently, I don't really care much for Perci Orthos the Bandicoot.

[Nicky Nicardo]

One popular opinion that I absolutely disagree with is that Sonic Forces is a disaster of a game, or worse than '06, or some sort of embarrassment of riches. The reviews and the general consensus outside of the Sonic fandom don't reflect this at all (from what I've seen) - a game being meh/middling/mediocre does not equal it being awful, terrible, or complete garbage. It just doesn't. And it's very annoying to see that kind of sentiment all over the place when it doesn't match up with what the majority of the views actually say. It's not a fact that Sonic Forces is trash. Period.

[SBR2]

I like Cream but I don't really buy the idea of her being an unstoppable power house outside of the context of gameplay.

She never really struck me as being totally down to fight. She seems more like she will if she has to but it isn't her go to.

[Muscles Maximum]

2 hours ago, SBR2 said:

I like Cream but I don't really buy the idea of her being an unstoppable power house outside of the context of gameplay.

When was Cream ever meant to be an unstoppable powerhouse? She's always been meek and doesn't like to fight. And in the context of gameplay Cheese more than anything is what's broken. Nothing about Cream herself.

[Iko]

I always thought Cheese should only stun enemies instead of killing them... this and special powers such as create wind, copy animal's traits (Chao Garden like), and wathever the developers can think of.

Cream's main method of attacking should be the regular roll into the enemy and her ability to bounce onto them from above like in Advance 2 when you cancel the fly (flying should be used more as a way to attack from above than for platforming, Tails already exists for that).

I'd also like something like the Bunny Boost from Sonic Forces Speed Battle to be implemented in her main gameplay (if she will ever come back as playable), since it's unique to her and it's a reference to her animal speices (kinda like rolling into a ball for Sonic); maybe, it could work similar to Amy's bunny hop in Sonic Advance 1 with the difference that doing it multiple times makes her gain more speed (I mean as a replacement for the spindash; like a Super Peel-Out that you charge in movement instead of by standing in place, but you are vulnerable while doing it).

[Skull Leader]

*I personally think that the introduction of the spindash took away some of the challenge that existed in Sonic 1 where speed was a reward for players that not only demostrated skill, but understood how the game's momentum mechanic worked. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I always preferred Amy over Sonic and the others in Advance, since it allowed for a more "involved" game experience.

*I don't think Tails should follow Sonic 24/7 like Sonic Team has been doing this past decade. If anything, I believe that Tails comming off of that pedestal would be of great benefit not only for the other characters as it would allow them to rotate appearances and have the room needed to do their thing, but also when it comes the turn for Tails to appear, he would play much better parts than what he currently has.

*How strong/powerful a character is or how much lore they have behind them should never be reason to automatically give them the focus on stories where different characters group together. Sometimes the more humble characters that lack on those aspects can provide a more humane and interesting perspective.

*I often frown at how many people think that for a character to mature, they have to strip them of those quirks that made them entertaining in the first place, and such a move is just as much of an extremist idea as reducing the characters to a one-note gag.

*Having played Sonic the Fighters not long ago, I realized just how much charm this franchise lost when ST decided to take things more seriously, particularly with stories like SA2, which given the implied cartoony aspect of the characters' designs, feels so very out of place.

[RedFox99]

• Rush's writing is pretty lackluster since many of the characters became flat versions of themselves for the sake of Blaze. Plus, the gameplay's not that good.
• I feel that Rouge should interact with people other than Knuckles and Shadow.
• I think Elise should get another chance at being a likable character.

[Cuz]

• Just what about Forces is supposed to be "super dark, serious business"? People keep attributing these traits to it and outside of the marketing which hyped the hell out of that notion, it's failed to deliver a narrative that deserves those titles. It really feels to me like people just fell hard for the marketing material and haven't bothered to accurately examine a game that ended up being no more serious in tone or writing then Colours or Lost World.

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Cuz

[Stephen Rodriguez]

I don't agree with the common viewpoint that Generations' story is boring and uninteresting. It's not the best story, but I just don't think it's as uninteresting as commonly thought to be either. I mean, the concept of two Sonics from two different eras becoming displaced in time by a mysterious entity, reliving memories, and experiencing new ones in order to restore their timeline to normal just seems quite fun and interesting to me. 

[Skull Leader]

I don't think that making things easy can lead to a rewarding experience.

For example, who doesn't remember how in Sonic 1's Green Hill there were these loops that at the top had a monitor with a 1up that apparently looked out of reach for Sonic?

While with a character like Tails you can simply tap the jump button to make him fly and reach that high spot, it doesn't have that feel of accomplishment as when the player solves the question of "how do I use Sonic's speed to jump high enough to reach that spot?"

Now enter the spindash, a movement that many players can't imagine being without on their 2-D games. Frankly, I feel that some of the challenge that the first Sonic game for the Genesis/Megadrive had was lost, as now players could simply activate this move that gives them a near-instant boost of speed that they did not earn to clear obstacles like the loops instead of actually building speed on their own.

Enter Amy Rose in Sonic Advance.

The irony here is that now the roles are reversed, and the question changes to "How do I use Amy's different jumps to gain speed?"

And that is why I find Amy with that particular gameplay that lacks rolling or spindashing to be more rewarding IMO and personal experience when speedrunning (or just playing normally), as the results are reflection of my own ability as a player, as well as how the use of jumps instead of rolling for me is a more engaged approach that allows me to better appreciate the perks of the Genesis style physics thanks to constantly interacting with them, while with Sonic (or other characters derivated from him like Tails and Knuckles), all you do is just press down and watch them roll downhill.

[Sonic Fan J]

On 4/28/2018 at 3:02 PM, Skull Leader said:

*I personally think that the introduction of the spindash took away some of the challenge that existed in Sonic 1 where speed was a reward for players that not only demostrated skill, but understood how the game's momentum mechanic worked.

This is probably an unpopular opinion but I rather much agree with it. Mastering building speed and how to utilize the roll is pretty much meaningless in the face of the Spin Dash. That said though, I do believe there is a benefit to it that I'll address in a moment.

13 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

I don't think that making things easy can lead to a rewarding experience.

For example, who doesn't remember how in Sonic 1's Green Hill there were these loops that at the top had a monitor with a 1up that apparently looked out of reach for Sonic?

While with a character like Tails you can simply tap the jump button to make him fly and reach that high spot, it doesn't have that feel of accomplishment as when the player solves the question of "how do I use Sonic's speed to jump high enough to reach that spot?"

Now enter the spindash, a movement that many players can't imagine being without on their 2-D games. Frankly, I feel that some of the challenge that the first Sonic game for the Genesis/Megadrive had was lost, as now players could simply activate this move that gives them a near-instant boost of speed that they did not earn to clear obstacles like the loops instead of actually building speed on their own.

Enter Amy Rose in Sonic Advance.

The irony here is that now the roles are reversed, and the question changes to "How do I use Amy's different jumps to gain speed?"

And that is why I find Amy with that particular gameplay that lacks rolling or spindashing to be more rewarding IMO and personal experience when speedrunning (or just playing normally), as the results are reflection of my own ability as a player, as well as how the use of jumps instead of rolling for me is a more engaged approach that allows me to better appreciate the perks of the Genesis style physics thanks to constantly interacting with them, while with Sonic (or other characters derivated from him like Tails and Knuckles), all you do is just press down and watch them roll downhill.

While I agree with the top half of this the second half brings to mind a phrase from the fighting game community that I think is appropriate for an all ages platformer like Sonic; easy to pick up and play but difficult to master. When I look at the original formula it is extremely simple and extremely intuitive making it one of the all time easiest to to pick up and play game I know of. Mastering said gameplay style though takes a much longer amount of time and practice though it is very rewarding to do so. However, for selling as many copies of the game as you can you want the game to be even more accessible and as much as it lowers the ceiling for mastery the Spin Dash accomplishes that easily. Of course without creating levels with a plethora of challenges, obstacles, and secrets that require mastering the Spin Dash and understanding how it reacts to the physics and slopes results in a dull experience that minimizes interactivity and removes any need for the player to experiment.

 

Now, more addressing the Adv.1 gameplay of Amy directly, while I have never played the game due to it only ever releasing once on a handheld I never owned (a testament to Sonic 2 which has been re-released numerous times, has a remaster, is the top selling game in franchise history, and was the debut of the Spin Dash) I have seen plenty of complaints of her gameplay being difficult, unintuitive, and too drastically different from the others as to come across as counter-intuitive. I've also seen counterarguments which have always usually just boiled down to insulting the players for finding Amy difficult or generally saying "git gud". To be fair I've also seen others describe playing as Amy as playing hard mode, but have seen interesting counters from that from parents or those with younger sisters who want to play as Amy who say that her difficulty of play is an unnecessary barrier which hurts Amy's popularity due to her being inaccessible. In short, she does not fit the mold of easy to pick up and play but difficult to master. Instead she fits more the mold of difficult to pick up and play, and even more difficult to master. For a grown man like yourself who has been playing games for a long time this may not be a problem but one has to consider the core demographic of the game; children. Combined with SEGA's desperateness to get new fans even at the cost of older long time fans and becomes little wonder that the gameplay style has not seen the light of day again since arguable (due to gimmick) Adv.3.

 

Looking at the above though, I can actually see why the hold X to win method of the boost games is so popular and why they have so stringently stuck to Sonic only gameplay; the inherent simplicity makes it easy to sell as nearly anyone can pick up and play a boost game.

 

On 4/28/2018 at 3:02 PM, Skull Leader said:

*Having played Sonic the Fighters not long ago, I realized just how much charm this franchise lost when ST decided to take things more seriously, particularly with stories like SA2, which given the implied cartoony aspect of the characters' designs, feels so very out of place.

I have no argument about the franchise loosing it's charm from SA1 on, but I disagree that taking things more seriously should have been the cause of that. If anything, I feel not taking the world of the franchise seriously and turning it into a meta-joke-fest has hurt the franchise more than helped it. Further, I think the OVA is a nice balance of a serious story with risks without sacrificing the more playful nature of the franchise. It's why I've enjoyed Sonic Mania Adventures so far as the world of the franchise is taken seriously and as such the in world antics have a naturalness to them that doesn't require you to know the latest meme and point of reference for any and all self-deprecating jokes which are in overabundance. Still though, if Sonic Adventure had been an evolution of Fighters graphic style it would have been a lot more charming.

[AngelSlayerN64]

Sonic Forces had the best representation of Silver. I really enjoyed the idea of Silver being an optimist and a realist, which is a huge step-up from how he was characterized in 06, the Rivals series, and even the Archie comics. He isn't that one goofy/dorky kid who constantly gets his information wrong about a traitor, nor is he the whiny/naive imbecile who got kicked in the back of the head like a wimp. The Silver that I saw in Sonic Forces was much more mature and competent than what I've seen from past games/comics. When the IDW comics introduces Silver, I truly hope that the writers stick with this characterization, because I don't want him to be any different than how he is now. 

[DabigRG]

11 minutes ago, AngelSlayerN64 said:

Sonic Forces had the best representation of Silver.The Silver that I saw in Sonic Forces was much more mature and competent than what I've seen from past games/comics.

Eh, true. I still like how the Archie Comics empathized his initial appearances, though..

[StaticMania]

He shouldn't be so mature...that's like the point of his character.

[DabigRG]

3 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

He shouldn't be so mature...that's like the point of his character.

Tbf, the part of that point of his character hasn't been relevant since maybe Rivals 2.

[AngelSlayerN64]

6 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Eh, true. I still like how the Archie Comics empathized his initial appearances, though..

I'll admit, he did get better during the Post-Reboot era, but I saw so little of him during that time which made me realize that he didn't leave much of an impression. If he appeared in more issues after The Silver Age, my stance on his character would've been much more positive.