Sonic Live Action Movie Thread (Read OP for topic rules) "Trailer 2 on Page 482)

[Splash the Otter]

4 minutes ago, Tarnish said:

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke comment or a serious one.

I'm serious. Sonic was Mario's equal at one point. That needs to happen again.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

No it doesn't. All Sonic ever needs to be is a quality product well-made.

[Tara]

29 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I honestly find it frankly hard to believe that this would be considered appealing to anyone, because despite the one or two conflicting reports, I’ve seen the wide majority of people say they’ve shown this to others and gotten responses of non-recognition, to people saying that isn’t right. And I can join them, because I’ve shown the design to someone who fell out of the series after Lost World, and someone who knows little to nothing about Sonic, and the first response was about how bad the design was, while the second response was about how it looks creepy and nothing like Sonic.

On both sides, I feel like these "I asked other people what they thought and they thought X" anecdotes to be... non-contributive, honestly.  They're not quantifiable metrics that we can use to gauge audience reactions, and serve very little purpose in reinforcing the actual appeal of the design outside the core fanbase.  Especially when, as these arguments continue to come out, counter-arguments will continue to be made such as "You're not asking the right people; I mean GENERAL audiences," the definition of which gets narrower and narrower from "People who aren't core Sonic fans" to "people who were once Sonic fans" to "people who aren't familiar with Sonic" to "people who don't play games" to "people that agree with me."

I asked my brother, whose taste in games tend to lean on the mainstream side of the spectrum and whose understanding of Sonic extends very little beyond "that cartoon hedgehog that Tara likes."  His actual words were "What the fuck is that?"  I also asked my friends who not only know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about Sonic outside of his name, but are completely absent from the gaming community in any shape or form and their responses ranged from apathetic to echoing that it was gross looking.  But nothing about that makes my point and more or less valid.  Because I can't quantify their response, or prove that I didn't present the design with an obvious bias or skew in mind, or that the people I asked didn't formulate their answer based on what they thought I most wanted to hear or what would be the most popular answer among my group of friends.

What I'm saying is "I asked X group and they said they liked/hated it!" as it pertains to how it is used in this thread is really starting to sound like the defense you would find on a playground more so than a respectful discussion.

(Not referring to you specifically, I should add.  Just saying that the trend in general is like this.)

[StaticMania]

Quote

I'm serious. Sonic was Mario's equal at one point. That needs to happen again.

It does?

That's a real benefit.

It doesn't need to happen.

[SaturnWolf]

I don't want Sonic to play yet another futile, years-long game of catchup. I want consistently good games without the series trying to constantly one-up another. No more, no less.

[Scritch the Cat]

3 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

I'm serious. Sonic was Mario's equal at one point. That needs to happen again.

That isn't likely to happen until Sega fesses up to poor management screwing over multiple Sonic games since the series' heyday and makes a sincere effort to turn over a new leaf.  Sonic Boom was supposed to be its big attempt at a return to prominence among esteemed childhood brands, but because Sega sprung a bunch of stupid shit on Big Red Button, the core game sucked and the spin-off eventually failed.  Well, that and choosing Cartoon Network to promote it.

[Tarnish]

2 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

I'm serious. Sonic was Mario's equal at one point. That needs to happen again.

Sonic is Mario's b*tch at this point if you ask me. There's probably a reason why Mario's name is first in the 'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic' games.

[Blacklightning]

Okay guys, dial it back.

This is a thread about the movie first and foremost - let's try and save the game-related tangents for another thread, K? K.

[Tarnish]

Guess it's back to the waiting game then until that trailer hits.

[Splash the Otter]

4 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

It does?

That's a real benefit.

It doesn't need to happen.

Being Mario's equal is why Sonic was created in the first place. If it doesn't happen, what reason does he have to exist?

2 minutes ago, Tarnish said:

Sonic is Mario's b*tch at this point if you ask me. There's probably a reason why Mario's name is first in the 'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic' games.

That's the problem!

[SaturnWolf]

18 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

Being Mario's equal is why Sonic was created in the first place. If it doesn't happen, what reason does he have to exist?

That hasn't happened and that's a dream that died with the Dreamcast.

Even if Sega were to hypothetically try and have Sonic rival Mario again, this movie is a terrible way to go about it.

[Tarnish]

40 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

If it doesn't happen, what reason does he have to exist?

I'd take an awesome niche franchise over a crappy mainstream one any day.

But I don't think we should be pushing this topic any further.

[Splash the Otter]

2 minutes ago, DreamSaturn said:

That hasn't happened and that's a dream that died with the Dreamcast.

Even if Sega were to hypothetically try and have Sonic rival Mario again, this movie is a terrible way to go about it.

You didn't answer my question: what reason does Sonic have to exist if he's always going to be inferior to Mario?

[KHCast]

Anyone else expecting them to do a few shots in a classic 2D perspective, kinda like how the Doom film suddenly was a 1st person shooter for a few minutes?

[SaturnWolf]

3 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

You didn't answer my question: what reason does Sonic have to exist if he's always going to be inferior to Mario?

Why does anything exist? To make money. If not chasing after Mario means, in this case a better movie,  then so be it. But evidently this movie is more interested in chasing after the Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

[Tarnish]

4 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

what reason does Sonic have to exist if he's always going to be inferior to Mario?

Sonic Mania was never gonna outdo Mario in any way, but it was still good in its own right. That would be more than enough for me: for Sonic to be good in its own right.

[Blacklightning]

1 minute ago, Splash the Otter said:

You didn't answer my question: what reason does Sonic have to exist if he's always going to be inferior to Mario?

Oh for fuck's sake, it isn't 1999 anymore - Sonic's livelihood doesn't depend on whether or not he can push hardware sales or whether or not he can compete with other now completely unrelated platforming mascots, and even if it did this kind of fanboyism still wouldn't have any place in this thread or this forum as a whole. Stop that.

[Scritch the Cat]

57 minutes ago, DreamSaturn said:

That hasn't happened and that's a dream that died with the Dreamcast.

Even if Sega were to hypothetically try and have Sonic rival Mario again, this movie is a terrible way to go about it.

The really sad thing is that nothing is stopping Sega from making a fully animated Sonic movie.  Game-wise they aren't ready to compete with Mario, but if only they cared about Sonic's world enough to put it in a movie's focus, I think I actually has more potential for a good story than Mario's does.

Granted Nintendo doesn't have much choice; thanks to the first attempt trying to do another live-action Mario film would invite mockery.  However not being Mario hasn't spared Sonic that mockery.

[Red Hot Jack]

(Hasn't read recent posts)

Meh, obviously I don't like the design, like everyone, but I'm just losing interest, in fact you don't see me writing full essays on why the design and the movie suck, I'll just focus on other things that I actually like. I'm just pissed that Pokemon get a good movie while Sonic doesn't. Meh.

[Rowl]

2 hours ago, Splash the Otter said:

I'm serious. Sonic was Mario's equal at one point. That needs to happen again.

That was a long time ago. Sonic kinda now just tries to survive at this point, desperate to find a way to stay relevant.

And you know what? Sonic wouldn't really have these problems if the series did not try so freaking hard to out beat Mario in terms of being cooler than him. Crash, Spyro, Kirby, DKC and Ratchet & Clank all of them just did their best in what they can do and didn't try so hard to be cooler, hipper and edgier than Mario unlike with Sonic.

Sonic is now in the position in being a complete laughing stock for the whole industry. No one takes him as a serious game icon anymore, no one really sees his game as worthy to buy and the whole internet makes fun about him. The Sonic brand is now associated with being a joke. Only exiting so that people can laugh at it. This could have easily be avoided if Sonic just stuck to his own style and tried to be a good game series, instead of desperately trying to be just the cooler mascot. 

[Rabid-Coot]

8 months to go now and we'll see how this does with the general public. Thankfully box office revenue is publicly posted and frequently so we will know fairly quickly.

[Splash the Otter]

2 minutes ago, Blacklightning said:

Oh for fuck's sake, it isn't 1999 anymore - Sonic's livelihood doesn't depend on whether or not he can push hardware sales or whether or not he can compete with other now completely unrelated platforming mascots, and even if it did this kind of fanboyism still wouldn't have any place in this thread or this forum as a whole. Stop that.

FINE. Sorry!

12 minutes ago, Rowl said:

Sonic is now in the position in being a complete laughing stock for the whole industry. No one takes him as a serious game icon anymore, no one really sees his game as worthy to buy and the whole internet makes fun about him. The Sonic brand is now associated with being a joke. Only exiting so that people can laugh at it. This could have easily be avoided if Sonic just stuck to his own style and tried to be a good game series, instead of desperately trying to be just the cooler mascot. 

So is there any way to fix that? I don't want Sonic to be a joke!

[Scritch the Cat]

13 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

FINE. Sorry!

So is there any way to fix that? I don't want Sonic to be a joke!

Step 1 for me would be a show of goodwill from Sega in the form of open betas.  If not as downloadable demos, then as beta builds you can go into their studios and play.  The only thing that would convince me they aren't going to do anymore bullshit like Sonic 2006,  and Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric is adopting a policy of transparency that will make it possible for people to call them out if they dare try.

But to keep this thread from going too far back to games, the upcoming cartoon could help.  We'll see.  IDW could help.  This film...I don't expect it to help, but if only the series had something else to show, it wouldn't really hurt anymore than that old Mario movie did.

[Rowl]

48 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

So is there any way to fix that? I don't want Sonic to be a joke!

Good question... I'm not really sure if this is already too late. The Sonic brand is really damaged at this point. A lot of mediocre or downright terrible games, movies, and TV shows that confuses the image of Sonic even more and at Sega, no one really cares about this series anymore. 

I think the first thing Sega needs to change about Sonic is by given the series a clear image. This series must finally make up its mind what it wants to be. If you look at other series like Mario, Zelda, DKC, they never really changed the core elements of their brand that much. The world, style, characters etc. All of them are pretty consistent. The Sonic brand tried way too hard to be everything at once, which just confuses the people.

This is what I would do first. Finally, decide the image of Sonic. I think this is one of Sonic's biggest issues. That is is a very confusing series. 

[Jango]

1 hour ago, Splash the Otter said:

I don't want Sonic to be a joke!

Kiiiiiinda late to the party, son =\ Sorry. I at least hope we get a Mania sequel afterwards to clear the sour taste from our mouths...