Mania/Classic series and the lack of characters

[Red Hot Jack]

SEGA seems really happy with Mania, its success and I think they want to turn it into a sub-franchise like they planned for Boom, which failed.

One problem I have with Mania at the moment is the lack of characters, yeah they brought back Mighty, Ray and the hooligans plus introduced the Hard Boiled Heavies, but it's not enough in my opinion.

If there is a Mania sequel, and I definitely think there will be, not only I want Amy to be re-introduced as well in a possible Classic themed tv show, but they should really add more characters, even playable, I have some ideas:

A brand new female character, since there is currently a lack of girls, with some kind of new ability that adds something new to the gameplay.

They could also potentially introduce spin-off characters or comic characters to fill the spots, I know this is gonna be unpopular, but maybe Sticks? You guys know I love her, but she really works well in 2D gameplay, she adds more with her controllable boomerang ability, as for comic characters, Tangle has proven to be popular so she could work well in the classic sub-series, using her tail to grab enemies and then throw them, it would be pretty cool.

Another unpopular opinion here would be to introduce the Freedom Fighters in the classic sub-series, since they are forgotten characters now like Mighty and the rest were before Mania, SEGA doesn't care about those but they have seen how much people want them back, they ask for them A LOT, so it's an idea at least.

Now, the Chaotix, I would NOT want them back with their Knuckles' Chaotix designs, SEGA doesn't want to acknowledge them and I agree, they are way too different from what the trio should be, I also don't want them to bring back Mighty into the Chaotix because I like those 3 as they currently are, so either they stay in the modern branch of the franchise, or they get brand new classic redesigns.

As for the rest, like Shadow, Silver, Blaze, etc. they should stay in the modern series, if that's still a thing (I hope so), I only said I'd like to see Sticks in the classic branch because she currently doesn't appear in the modern games outside of spin-offs.

But in general I'd like for them to keep the 2 cast of characters separate, so I'd rather have brand new "classic" characters.

What do you think? Do you want to see a couple more characters in a possible Mania sequel or the classic branch in general? Who would you like to see?

[Red Hot Jack]

My point is... why can't they expand the cast of the classics? Using more forgotten or spin-off exclusive characters, or brand new ones. I mean, for Mania, it's fine, but they could potentially introduce more in the future, can't they?

Not necessarily playable I mean, but if Mania/Classic series is the future of the franchise, I definitely want a bigger cast in it.

[Diogenes]

If the classic series does stick around, I'm sure its cast will grow over time. Considering what happened to the modern series, though, I'd prefer they don't try to rush it and bloat the cast. Once Mania Plus is out the game is going to have five playable characters, and knowing Sonic fans I know a lot will be expecting all of them and more to be playable in Mania 2, and that there'll be a whole lot of complaining when that doesn't happen. The kind of cast growth and character usage that fans got used to between SA and '06 just isn't sustainable. So I'd rather they take it slow and try to focus on creating/reintroducing and using characters responsibly, rather than treating a larger cast as an end unto itself.

[Blacklightning]

I mean Mania Plus is only a Big short of SA1's cast size so it's not like we're especially lacking, but Mania is already a pretty complete game without it. About the only regret I have is no playable Amy, but if they breathe new life into Mighty and Ray I honestly won't care. Having more playable characters is pretty much just a bonus at this stage.

[Pawn]

A new female character or two is a good idea, as the cast could really do with more diversity. It's best not to bloat out the roster with too many heroes though, as we know all too well from the 3D games. I think with the ones they've reintroduced now, there isn't much need to go creating many more for a couple of games. The Hard-Boiled Heavies and Fang, Bean and Bark already provide us with more potential for recurring villains than the Modern series can boast.

[Salamander]

I think the key to not having an unstable, unwieldy cast is to make more of a habit of introducing once-only characters, friends and enemies who won't ever show up again unless they happen to genuinely be wildly popular.  Along similar lines, I'd be more than open to alternating character appearances so that not every character, even if recurring, appears in every game - even including playable characters.  I don't need any potential Mania 2 to feature Mighty and Ray as playable characters; I'd be happy for the Hard-Boiled Heavies never to appear again as they're tied to Mania's plot specifically.  I would even be happy to put Knuckles on a break; to stick him on Angel Island for a few titles until there's a premise where it makes sense for him to put in another appearance.  It's not how many or how few characters you have, it's how you use them; and sometimes less is more.

Conversely, I would be quite willing to put Rouge in the Classics as a villain, even as a Hooligan.  No particular reason why Cream or the Chaotix wouldn't work, either.  But you shouldn't put in more playable characters in particular just for the sake of having more.  Sonic + guests would be my rule.

[Tracker_TD]

Introduce more characters if and when they're actually needed. Quality over quantity, innit. 

I mean in the Classic series we have

- Sonic

- Tails

- Knuckles

- Eggman

- Amy

- Metal Sonic

- Mighty

- Ray

- Fang

- Bean

- Bark

- Those Sonic R Guys if you're so inclined

- The Chaotix

I mean, that's a fine roster right there. Not too bloated, but not necessarily limited to super specific cases like the Babylon Rogues either. Could do with some more female rep, but in that case bring in characters like Honey the Cat or something. 

[GentlemanX]

I'm not eager for completely new classic characters honestly. The Heavies are okay, but I'm not attached to them like others are.

There are a lot of potential non-playable characters they could use as fan service like Fang, Bean, and Bark were used last time. There's the villains from Tails Adventure and Tails Skypatrol, the Chaotix cast should Sonic Team change their mind about them, Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles, Honey, Hip and Hop, and Robo Sonic and Mecha Sonic. You could also argue Scratch and Grounder or the Freedom Fighters might also be viable in some regard due to Mean Bean Machine and Spinball. That's a ton of characters that could be brought back over time - you're not going to see them all in Mania 2. Nor should you, that'd be a cluster.

As for more playable characters... I don't know. I'd like to see Amy and Metal Sonic playable in the next game. Amy because I think her position in the franchise warrants it and I'm sure Whitehead and his team could come up with a compelling play style for her, and Metal because he shouldn't be that hard to design and having him playable opens up a lot of room for what they could do story wise. It'd be the classic equivalent for what SA2 did with Dark Story. Up to now the closest Classic has done to that effect has been Knuckles which... well he had already been made a hero when he became playable in S&K. Besides them though, no one immediately sticks out. I think it'd be really cool to play as Fang, Bean, or Bark - but none of them seem fast enough to maintain Classic Sonic's core gameplay like Mighty and Ray can which I'm sure would rub some folks the wrong way. The Chaotix are more viable, but as stated earlier that would require Sonic Team to retcon how they've approached them since at least 2003. So yeah, I'd be fine if playable characters tapped out at seven, at least as far as platforms for the foreseeable future. The Mania team can feel free to prove me wrong though.

In short, the Classic series has no shortage of characters to pull from already and I don't see a reason to be worried about it.

[Mega]

If they wanna add a new female classic character...

What about Honey or Tiara Boobowski?

[Iko]

Honestly I wouldn't mind seeing some modern characters redesigned into classic characters. This is part of the reason why I dislike the idea of Classic Sonic being Sonic from the past, because it limits the content that could appear in the classic games; if it was just an art direction thing without canon value, you could make classic games set in the modern universe plot-wise.

Such as Amy who has a different design in the 2 sub series, I'd like to see more modern characters reinterpreted into classic (and the other way as well).

[Kuzu]

The series already has five characters, how many more do you think they need to add? Mania actually has the most playable characters to date being beaten only by the Adventure games.

 

I'm not against the idea, but ya know...cast bloat is part of the reason the modern cast aren't exactly looked at fondly, I'd rather that not happen to this series. I'd say characters should only be introduced if they serve a specific purpose and not keeping them around simply because they got a little popular. Part of the reason this series has such a hard time using it's cast is because most of them were only designed for one off appearances and Sega only ever kept them around to appease their fans, but never bothered to write them organically into the series. Which is why you get games that have a large cast, but only a handful of them end up mattering. 

[Jango]

lol We got more playable characters in Sonic Mania than any other main series game in 10 years. Be patient. This is only the beginning. It almost sound like ingratitude, we asked to play as Tails and Knuckles for yeeeeears, Team Mania delivered, and their gonna ice that cake with 2 more characters, and "it's still not enough! :V". Like, holy shit. Calm down.

[Wraith]

I understand the hesitation toward adding new characters, but any series you can think of is constantly adding new characters all the time. Sticking to the same cast is a good way to get stale, especially with characers as deliberately one note as the core Sonic cast.

"If and when it's necessary" is practically an empty statement. If you want to tell a new story that goes beyond Sonic and Eggman scrapping, you'll need new characters. I would argue that it made sense to add new characters most of the times the Modern games came forward with them.  There was no one in the cast that could play the role of Shadow, or Blaze, Or Merlina or whoever.

Even the classic games added new characters. "Iconic" characters you love now were new additions. 

Granted they all don't need to come back very game.

[Emerald Chaos]

To be honest my personal preference is to see them develop each individual character over adding more characters to the games.

Depth > Breadth

[Kuzu]

26 minutes ago, Josh said:

I understand the hesitation toward adding new characters, but any series you can think of is constantly adding new characters all the time. Sticking to the same cast is a good way to get stale, especially with characers as deliberately one note as the core Sonic cast.

"If and when it's necessary" is practically an empty statement. If you want to tell a new story that goes beyond Sonic and Eggman scrapping, you'll need new characters. I would argue that it made sense to add new characters most of the times the Modern games came forward with them.  There was no one in the cast that could play the role of Shadow, or Blaze, Or Merlina or whoever.

Even the classic games added new characters. "Iconic" characters you love now were new additions. 

Granted they all don't need to come back very game.

Most series and franchises get by with their core players and very few supporting characters. I don't know why Sonic is seemingly exempt from this.

Like, I don't see anybody getting (notably) tired of seeing Mario scrap with Bowser, or Link scrap with Ganon, or Mega Man scrap with Wily, etc etc. 

[Wraith]

3 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Most series and franchises get by with their core players and very few supporting characters. I don't know why Sonic is seemingly exempt from this.

Like, I don't see anybody getting (notably) tired of seeing Mario scrap with Bowser, or Link scrap with Ganon, or Mega Man scrap with Wily, etc etc. 

You haven't noticed all those franchises get called out for being repetitive constantly? Zelda doesn't get it as much as the other two, but that's because each game literally come with a new cast of characters beyond LInk, Zelda and Ganon and a lot of them don't feature Zelda or Ganon at all. 

[JosepHenry]

I'm just happy that the forgotten cast is back in a main series Sonic game.

I think if they just add Honey to the mix I wouldn't be too bloated. We need at least one more female character...

[Kuzu]

5 minutes ago, Josh said:

You haven't noticed all those franchises get called out for being repetitive constantly? Zelda doesn't get it as much as the other two, but that's because each game literally come with a new cast of characters beyond LInk, Zelda and Ganon and a lot of them don't feature Zelda or Ganon at all. 

But does that stop those games from being good? Like,does not having say, Wario & Waluigi, really detract from Super Mario Odyssey?  

I want to clarify that I'm not against adding more characters on principle, I'm against adding more characters for no reason. Which is often the case for this series. 

In a plot-lite series like Mania, I think having a minimal cast works to it's benefit since the structure of those games doesn't really allow for having a large supporting cast compared to the more plot driven modern games.

[Your Vest Friend]

The Chaotix are still off-limits for classic as far as anyone knows. Literally every other character (from a Japanese game, or ones with SoJ in the concept stages) is viable. 

6 hours ago, Mega said:

If they wanna add a new female classic character...

What about Honey or Tiara Boobowski?

Tiara seems to have some rights snafu, so she's unusable period. Ian tried to secure her for the Archie comic, but ran into an issue that forced him off that. 

[Multikaris]

1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

The Chaotix are still off-limits for classic as far as anyone knows. Literally every other character (from a Japanese game, or ones with SoJ in the concept stages) is viable. 

Tiara seems to have some rights snafu, so she's unusable period. Ian tried to secure her for the Archie comic, but ran into an issue that forced him off that. 

We still don’t know if this applies to the characters from games like Spinball yet. Sound effects from Spinball can be used, but not MBM, which has actual Puyo sounds instead.

[Scar]

As Dio said, we don't need more characters just because. I mean if we take an honest look at the supporting cast....most of them aren't even what you'd describe as good. Allowing some of them to fall by the wayside for a while and relegating them to spinoffs like SaSASR or Mario and Sonic is fine. Means that when they are reintroduced, a lot of the baggage and negativity associated with them will have had time to die down.

Except Big. That guy is a meme. A legendary meme.

[Iko]

I think that they should think carefully before adding new characters.

Adding new characters who are meant to be there for the plot of a specific game is fine, if after the story is finished, all the said characters leave the cast; it may be a one time villain (deadly 6, or at least they should have been an one time thing), a temporary friend (Chip, Prof. Pickle), or a minor side character (Sonicman).

But when a character is introduced as a new member of the main cast, and maybe returns in some other games after its debut, then you can't scrap it completely; maybe you can keep it out from a bunch of games, then it's supposed to at least appear again; when you make an enstabilished recurring character, people get fond of it, it gets a fandom, people expect it to come back.

So I'm not against introducing new characters, but if they do, they should introduce them as one-offs or if they decide to make an addition to the main cast, they have the responsability to bring those characters back occasionally; adding too many "main" characters would make those characters harder to bring back, and it would ruin the series, fans of said characters would feel offended by not seeing their favorites returning; scrapping characters based on popularity makes sense on a marketing point of view, but it's extremely unfair in the eyes of the fans of those characters, no matter how little the fandom is.

If a recurring character is bad written or bad designed, but some people love it, just redesign it, rewrite it, don't scrap it.

[Waveshocker Sigma]

6 hours ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Mania actually has the most playable characters to date being beaten only by the Adventure games.

Yup, because Advance 2 and 3 don't exist and didn't already have 5 playable characters way before Mania or anything! =D

Wait, what? There was a game with technically 12 playable characters? "Sonic Heroes"? The hell is that? ¦D

Dropping the facetiousness for a moment, there's also Knuckles Chaotix that has more than Mania if we wanna get REAL technical.

Sorry, not going against your point, cause you have a good one. I just felt like nitpicking you for being inaccurate. No harm meant. <3

[BlueFlare]

I'm good with the current cast. I mean it was a huge relief to see Knuckles being playable in Mania. For the future titles I wouldn't mind Metal Sonic and maybe the Chaotix to be unlockable bonus characters, but not necessarily involved with the story. Just for funs. 

[Marcello]

Give me as many playable characters as you can. Make Classic versions of Modern characters. Create new ones.

And make more main villains. Or bring back old ones. Eggman doesn't need to be in every game.