Sonic Boom announced (Wii U/3DS)

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Heres a question.  Who do you think is writing the story for Boom.  A mixture of people, is Pontac back in the chair or have we got some new writers?

Here's what we know so far: http://www.tssznews.com/2013/12/13/database-reveals-more-sonic-boom-tv-writing-producing-credits/

 

Names from Simpsons, Drawn Together,  Adventure Time Involved

 

For a while, we’ve known about Dave Polsky’s involvement in Sonic Boom, leading many to point to his experience with the My Little Pony franchise as a sign of trouble for the 52 episode series coming to television next year.  But thanks to IMDB’s Sonic Boom listing, we now have a better idea of the wide variety of talent coming to the table for this project.

For starters, the IMDB listing shows Evan Baily and Bill Freiberger as showrunners.  Baily has producer credits to many projects, including the animated 2007 revival of George of the Jungle. Freiberger’s resume is much more varied, and includes a writing credit for a 2001 episode of The Simpsons, and an executive producer credit for Drawn Together, the adult oriented Comedy Central series that lasted three seasons.  Freiberger also co-EPed the ill-fated FOX show Greg the Bunny, and was a consulting producer for Disney’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

On the writing side, Mark Banker is on board.  Banker has writing credits to 40 episodes of Adventure Time, the popular Cartoon Network series, as well as various roles on Duck Dodgers, The Brak Show, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, among others.  He also was a segment producer for 23 episodes of the Comedy Central series Crank Yankers.  Other writers include Donna Friedman and Sandrine Nguyen.

EPs on the show include Baily, Nguyen, Friedman, Freiberger, and Boris Hertzog, his first known EP credit for a show.  He joins Jane McGregor, also as a first time EP.

On the voice acting side, there is no worry there.  It appears the core cast of VAs are all on board for this project, including Roger Craig Smith as the voice of Sonic, and Mike Pollock as Eggman.

The bottom line: A variety of talent from a variety of backgrounds will have a hand in this project.  We will keep you updated on any more relevant developments.  Thanks to Barak for tipping us.  If you have news to share, be sure to share it with us.  Click Send Tips at the top of every page, or tip us on Twitter.

So yeah, writers, from MLP FiM, Drawn Together, Duck Dodgers, the Simpsons , etc. Not a bad lineup.

[SuperLink]

I firmly believe it is impossible to have anything Sonic related where the general consensus is that its good, because too much has been split.

I firmly disagree. No matter how much people are split, a game that's really amazing is going to be liked by the grand majority of them.

 

Regardless of your tastes, people will willingly admit that various games are good games. Sonic is an exception to that because it hasn't had a Mario Galaxy, Uncharted 2, MGS3, or any kind of "magnum opus" for a really long time. If Sonic had a game near as good as the "gaming masterpieces", people would generally like it regardless of the split.

 

EDIT; So like, the split makes it harder to appeal to everyone, but it's still totally possible to do that.

[BonkersTheAutomaton]

Is it really that split though? Because that just sounds like a copout to not worry about this and just let the series do whatever it feels. 

 

Well no.  You right the fan base isn't that split.  But it is split enough for both Sonic fans and devs alike to not fully know what to do with the franchise because they don't want to p off that big amount of the fanbase.

 

(Unrelated)  Well looks like my second thoughts video for Boom isn't going to be up until tommorow, still have 299 minutes left of it to be uploaded.

[Soniman]

Is it really that split though? Because that just sounds like a copout to not worry about this and just let the series do whatever it feels. 

Well its a seperate series so why not?

 

It really is like Mega Man, if you like only one series then just stick to that series. Dont care for the darker tone of the X games, then just stick to classic. Not crazy about the RPG elements of EXE then stick to X and so on. I frankly dont see why I personally should worry so much about a series thats already been stated to have no effect on the main canon of games, especially when they already have a clear cut idea of what they want to be.

[Nepenthe]

It's possible to be objective about something's quality regardless of how well it personally appeals to you. There's plenty of games I don't really care much to play because they don't interest me, or games that I do want to play failing to appeal to me all the way, that I still consider objectively good or great. If you take into account that people saying they didn't have as much fun as someone else isn't always equivalent to saying a game's a piece of shit, and if you broaden your scope of things past the narrow consensus that is the SSMB, then we've long since had well-received 3D Sonic games.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Dave Polsky's a definite confirmed writer though.

 

Sonic Boom (new Sonic the Hedgehog with MLP writer)

Dave Polsky is a writer for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and he's one of the more infamous writers on the show for writing some of the most divided and/or controversial episodes of the series. He's joined the rest of the cast and crew from the show in visiting various cons, including one TrotCon, which took place from June 14-16 at Sheraton Columbus at Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio.

So here's the thing; if you check Dave Polsky's TrotCon 2013 info, you'll find this:

http://trotcon.com/guests/#davepolsky

Quote:His credits range from features (Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2) to animation (South Park, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,

Sonic Boom

, Class of 3000) to sitcoms (Pair of Kings) to late night (The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show) to daytime (The Donny and Marie Show) to sketch comedy (Frank TV, Cedric the Entertainer Presents). Add that to the fact that he got his start in game shows (Singled Out) and you have a textbook case of a) versatility or

terrible career management... take your pick. Dave created and executive produced Disney's The Buzz on Maggie, in addition to writing other pilots for Disney Channel, FOX, CBS, Castle Rock Entertainment, and Nickelodeon.

Apparently, at his panel, he revealed more about the show:

http://www.tssznews.com/2013/06/15/sega-...m-cartoon/

Quote:Moments ago at his Trotcon Q&A Panel, Polsky revealed more information about “Sonic Boom” – we're still waiting to see if our source can elaborate more, but early reports indicate that it is a “Pony-esque reboot of the cartoon series”. What, exactly, that means is currently a mystery – Sonic has had no shortage of cartoons over the years, and each one of them involves completely different settings and supporting characters. Any one of them could be rebooted, and it's worth mentioning that one of Polsky's contributions to MLP was, apparently, writing music for an episode, so not even Sonic Underground is out of the question at this time.

UPDATE: Our source caught up with Dave Polsky back stage after the panel and was able to get a little more information out of him regarding “Sonic Boom”. All Polsky would say is that it involves Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose, and would lean towards “comedic in style”, making it sound unconnected to any previous Sonic cartoon.

...Well, color me interesting. Although with Dave Polsky, you never can tell... Still, a new animated series, one that ISN'T an anime, that'd be a nice change!

Still, I don't know what to make of that "Pony-esque reboot of the cartoon series"... Because My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a LOT of things, and can be enjoyed for multiple reasons, so saying this new show will be "like that" tells us nothing about what it'll be like.

[Kuzu]

I firmly disagree. No matter how much people are split, a game that's really amazing is going to be liked by the grand majority of them.

 

Regardless of your tastes, people will willingly admit that various games are good games. Sonic is an exception to that because it hasn't had a Mario Galaxy, Uncharted 2, MGS3, or any kind of "magnum opus" for a really long time. If Sonic had a game near as good as the "gaming masterpieces", people would generally like it regardless of the split.

 

I dunno. Generations is widely considered the "best 3D game" ,and still gets average to meh reactions from most. So how do we know when a game is truly good or not?

[Mauro Fonseca]

Well its a seperate series so why not?

 

It really is like Mega Man, if you like only one series then just stick to that series. Dont care for the darker tone of the X games, then just stick to classic. Not crazy about the RPG elements of EXE then stick to X and so on. I frankly dont see why I personally should worry so much about a series thats already been stated to have no effect on the main canon of games, especially when they already have a clear cut idea of what they want to be.

 

I've no idea why people are touting this argument as anything reassuring. If Sonic's Classic Mega Man and Sonic Boom is X, does that mean I now get to have about two more SEGASonic games before seeing a decade pass with no SEGASonic and Sonic Boom getting all the laurels?

[Nepenthe]

I dunno. Generations is widely considered the "best 3D game" ,and still gets average to meh reactions from most. So how do we know when a game is truly good or not?

 

From most people or from most people on the SSMB? Most "people" consider it awesome.

[KrazyBean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2FwQmlIMzE

 

Dem 'colourful' opinions.

[Soniman]

I've no idea why people are touting this argument as anything reassuring. If Sonic's Classic Mega Man and Sonic Boom is X, does that mean I now get to have about two more SEGASonic games before seeing a decade pass with no SEGASonic and Sonic Boom getting all the laurels?

 

You can if you believe that's what I was somehow implying which im not....at all...

[Mauro Fonseca]

I know it's not, I'm just amused people are pointing to Mega Man as some sort of perfect example of how great it can be to let a franchise split when Mega Man's an awful example

[Kuzu]

From most people or from most people on the SSMB? Most "people" consider it awesome.

 

Most of the people who've played the game are from SSMB, the Sega Forums, or any other Sonic affiliate. I do not know a single person in real life who still plays Sonic games, and NeoGaf is more or less against anything Sonic soooo.....

 

 

So once again, when do we consider a game actually "awesome"?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Good job cutting off the part where I explained why I chose those pictures.

 

 

It didn't really help out your argument. :v

I read that part. I cut it out 'cause I didn't want the quote in my post to be too long. My point still stands that you were excluding other games outside of those 4 which don't adhere to your proposed "Sonic Style". Hell, Black Knight and Secret Rings both came out around and during the time of those 4 games. And quite frankly, I can still see Boom still fitting in, even with your definition.

[SuperLink]

I dunno. Generations is widely considered the "best 3D game" ,and still gets average to meh reactions from most. So how do we know when a game is truly good or not?

General consensus outside the Sonic fandom is that it's good, and within the Sonic fandom a surprising amount of people did enjoy it. Like, it's not a masterpiece, but it's generally pretty-liked by classic and modern Sonic fans alike.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

So this is the first Pontac-less Sonic game since Unleashed then? This should be intresting to see.

More like, since Sonic and the Black Knight.

[Kuzu]

General consensus outside the Sonic fandom is that it's good, and within the Sonic fandom a surprising amount of people did enjoy it. Like, it's not a masterpiece, but it's generally pretty-liked by classic and modern Sonic fans alike.

 

That much I understand, so I'm under the impression that if the games were at least the quality of Generations that we'd be good?

 

And there is always something I have to ask about Generations; how much of the praise is it on the merit of being an actually good game, or because its an anniversary game mostly driven by nostalgia?

[BonkersTheAutomaton]

That much I understand, so I'm under the impression that if the games were at least the quality of Generations that we'd be good?

 

And there is always something I have to ask about Generations; how much of the praise is it on the merit of being an actually good game, or because its an anniversary game mostly driven by nostalgia?

 

Well I barely had any nostalgia when playing Sonic Generations (mostly because I grew up in the dark age of Sonic) and I still found it to be better than Colours and Unleashed.

[MegasonicZX]

That much I understand, so I'm under the impression that if the games were at least the quality of Generations that we'd be good?

 

And there is always something I have to ask about Generations; how much of the praise is it on the merit of being an actually good game, or because its an anniversary game mostly driven by nostalgia?

Well I can't speak for everybody else but its a pretty darn great game, even without the nostalgia goggles on its pretty fun and the modding community gives the best support for it.

[SuperLink]

That much I understand, so I'm under the impression that if the games were at least the quality of Generations that we'd be good?

 

And there is always something I have to ask about Generations; how much of the praise is it on the merit of being an actually good game, or because its an anniversary game mostly driven by nostalgia?

If Generations was a standard of some kind in terms of quality, then probably yeah. Nostalgia plays a part of it, but it's also not very flawed? It may not be what everyone wants out of the series, but on its own merits it's a smooth experience which is comfortable to play for the majority of people, and not really anything completely wrong with it besides things like length and plot which the average gamer doesn't worry about too much.

 

The standard is all over the place though and that's one of the reasons we have a split in the first place.

[Gabz Girl]

Eh, Sonic Generations was fun but it had a lot of wasted potential with the story and character interactions. Not to mention the worst final boss in Sonic game history. That's just my opinion though.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Story and Character although needed for a game are not the key, though, even if maybe the part you enjoy most of it.

 

Generations is a good game lacking the extra polish to make it great.

[Kuzu]

If Generations was a standard of some kind in terms of quality, then probably yeah. Nostalgia plays a part of it, but it's also not very flawed? It may not be what everyone wants out of the series, but on its own merits it's a smooth experience which is comfortable to play for the majority of people, and not really anything completely wrong with it besides things like length and plot which the average gamer doesn't worry about too much.

 

The standard is all over the place though and that's one of the reasons we have a split in the first place.

 

 

If they had stuck with Generations, I honestly think we'd be a lot better off actually; yea some people didn't like it, but that comes with any fanbase, and like you said, its possible the rare game that the general community thought was good.

[Nepenthe]

Most of the people who've played the game are from SSMB, the Sega Forums, or any other Sonic affiliate. I do not know a single person in real life who still plays Sonic games, and NeoGaf is more or less against anything Sonic soooo.....

 

 

So once again, when do we consider a game actually "awesome"?

 

First, there are not enough people on the biggest Sonic affiliates to account for even a quarter of actual numbers these games sold across the world. Sega insists as of March 2012, the game sold 1,850,000 copies across all platforms and territories. Out of SSMB, Retro, and the Sega forums, there are only 217,926 members which A.) Doesn't represent all active members, B.) Doesn't fully represent individual members, C.) Doesn't represent everyone on these sites who bought the game, and D.) Doesn't represent all who actually dislike the game. Thus, the percentage of people who don't like Generations on these sites is actually smaller than the number of people who own it in an already small percentage of total buyers.

 

Second, your anecdotal evidence doesn't trump my anecdotal evidence. You don't know anyone in real life who plays Sonic games. I know several from my college, and they all love Generations for obvious reasons.

 

Third, you've not visited NeoGAF in awhile. A good contingent of GAF considers it a must-buy. Furthermore, let's not discount its critical reception either. Metacritic reveals around a general scoring in the high 70s for the high-tier versions, with an average user rating of 8.1.

 

Overall, I can't believe I have to argue that Sonic Generations was a critical success, a decent financial one, and is a popular game in the series.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Nepenthe

[Kuzu]

First, there are not enough people on the biggest Sonic affiliates to account for even a quarter of actual numbers these games sold across the world. Sega insists as of March 2012, the game sold 1,850,000 copies across all platforms and territories. Out of SSMB, Retro, and the Sega forums, there are only 217,926 members which A.) Doesn't represent all active members, B.) Doesn't represent everyone on these sites who bought the game, and C.) Doesn't represent all who actually dislike the game. Thus, the percentage of people who don't like Generations on these sites is actually smaller than the number of people who own it in an already small percentage of total buyers.

 

Second, your anecdotal evidence doesn't trump my anecdotal evidence. You don't know anyone in real life who plays Sonic games. I know several from my college, and they all love Generations for obvious reasons.

 

Third, you've not visited NeoGAF in awhile. A good contingent of GAF considers it a must-buy. Furthermore, let's not discount its critical reception either. Metacritic reveals around a general scoring in the high 70s for the high-tier versions, with an average user rating of 8.1.

 

Overall, I can't believe I have to argue that Sonic Generations was a critical success, a decent financial one, and is a popular game in the series.

 

 

Fair enough, like you said, we both have different experiences with this sorta thing and number don't lie.