Sonic Appears in OK K.O.! (Crossover Episode on August 4th)

[Shadowlax]

24 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I'm really surprised how much I liked Tails here, because I usually don't care much about him at all. Why is it that everybody but the main creators can make me care about him.

Because and I believe this to be the issue with everyone right now, they are being written in a way that is trying to appeal to the widest base possible instead of an interpretation and going with it. This isn't to say interpretations cannot be bad, but how they are written now , lets say tails for example is simultaneously trying to please the people who like him being more independent and tech savy and everyone else who just wants him to be a cute flying side kick. And these interpretations are kinda contradictory in some regards, and you usually get an uninteresting character who explains the plot has a tech maguffin and not much else. 

15 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

This is why the portrayals pre-Colors bother me. Adventure made Sonic a bland nothing character who spouts stupid shit like "Real Super Power of Teamwork" when from inception he was supposed to be all attitude. He's supposed to be full of himself in spite of his good qualities. Now that can go the wrong way (STC, Penders) but still having an ego is a part of who he is but because he had zero personality for nearly a decade once he starts actually showing signs of one it's considered "Out of Character". I'll take jerk with a heart of gold over Super Power of Teamwork anyday.

The issue with that for me, and I feel the people who claim that its out of character and why they prefer the other is that is never challenged. The whole thing about having a jerk ass character is that reality is supposed to push against him, that's where the interest comes in. Its why sonic boom, to me is the only successful version of that characterization taken up a notch. Because no one gives a shit about him in that universe, he's often wrong and gets shown up often. That makes him more compelling because then he goes from jerk , to trying his best. Which is... a lot more interesting for modern audiences.

Modern audiences is a key here. I get the feeling younger folks just want nice relatable characers. There were threads recently on twitter in response to the last issue of the book by younger people talking about how they liked sonic was kind to characters and seemed like a pretty chill dude. Sonic's characterization from jump is a guy who is supposed to be cool, and in the 90's that was a shades wearing asshole. It isn't the 90's anymore, its 2019 and our goku is green and cries are spiderman is a pure baby and our protagonists are relatable. And in a sea of people who younger people can relate to in these trying times, some guy from the 90's spouting off about how cool he is , especially when his games have been lack luster and he's a meme for being so bad isn't appealing.

So that's where I think that's coming from. Maybe if he had push back from the universe itself, and had better games people would be reasonable towards sonic being more smug. But it doesn't ( unless you are one of a few designated characters allowed to do so ) , and ... well looks at forces well yeah

[Dejimon11]

17 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Was Heroes the only game you played in the 2000's or what?

I'm not going to say that Sonic was the most interesting character back then, but that's blatantly false and more conjecture of how people meme'd him back then, 

So I’ve been recording footage for Heroes and Sonic is still cocky as ever in that game. He only has a few corny teamwork lines and that’s like at the end of the game. People need to stop over exaggerating when they come across their points. 

17 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Was Heroes the only game you played in the 2000's or what?

I'm not going to say that Sonic was the most interesting character back then, but that's blatantly false and more conjecture of how people meme'd him back then, 

So I’ve been recording footage for Heroes and Sonic is still cocky as ever in that game. He only has a few corny teamwork lines and that’s like at the end of the game. People need to stop over exaggerating when they come across their points. 

[CaptainRobo]

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So here’s an idea of how deep the references are. I’m fairly certain they even reference Chronicles. At one point, specifically when attacking Boxman, Sonic and Tails do a variation of a POW move. In game, the move is called Blue Bomber and Sonic is lifted by Tails and Tails drops him, allowing Sonic to go into ball form and dive bomb an enemy.

The two do the exact same thing here.

[Wraith]

Sonic is actually the most stiff and straightforward in the first Adventure game. He loosens up in the games afterward and carries that cocky attitude pretty consistently up through Unleashed. 

He's just the type that'll pretty much always do the right thing in the end. That might be boring to some, but It's been how he is since the classics. That part of the character hasn't changed even as they dial the knob up and down on his attitude. 

 

[Plasme]

Gonna be honest, I thought the episode was quite mediocre. The references were great, but some were so on the nose they were a bit cringey, like "live and learn" and "there's only one Sonic". The best ones were the more subtle ones, like Tails coming back on screen and the Knuckles Chaotix' special stage reference. 

Also, I agree with @Diogenes that Tails comes off as more cringey in his neediness here than in Lost World. It was really melodramatic in Lost World, but at least there was more to it than Sonic meeting some random kid and becoming friendly with him. In Lost World, it was understandable that Tails could become insecure when Sonic started working with Eggman, especially because Tails and his skills overlap and they've been rivals for years.

1 hour ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Was Heroes the only game you played in the 2000's or what?

I'm not going to say that Sonic was the most interesting character back then, but that's blatantly false and more conjecture of how people meme'd him back then, 

He acts like a mundane robot in Heroes, Sonic 2006, the Storybook Games and Adventure 1 aside from a few scenes. He's better in Adventure 2, but that's mainly because that game has better writing, despite being incredibly OTT, melodramatic and off base on tone.

[SBR2]

1 hour ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Was Heroes the only game you played in the 2000's or what?

I'm not going to say that Sonic was the most interesting character back then, but that's blatantly false and more conjecture of how people meme'd him back then, 

I'm sorry but Sonic was exactly that bland for the entire decade. He barely had any sort of distinguishing characteristics and the majorityof his dialogue was exactly that lame.

[Kuzu]

 

@Plasme *Shrug* That's your take, but I definitely don't agree with it. Sonic has always been a pretty straightforward hero, even if he's had a few flaws. I know a lot of people find that boring and wish he was more "relatable" but I don't see why he can't be flawed and still a great hero at the same time. I know we all have different ways on what that actually means, but I'm really not understanding what's so boring about a straightforward hero in a simple series like this. 

2 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I'm sorry but Sonic was exactly that bland for the entire decade. He barely had any sort of distinguishing characteristics and the majorityof his dialogue was exactly that lame.

That's an extreme hyperbole and generalization, but ok lol. 

[SBR2]

28 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

@Plasme

That's an extreme hyperbole and generalization, but ok lol. 

I'm sorry I just can't stand Sonic in that era. He's so boring. I'd rather have him the way he's been since Colors.

[sonic 1-derful]

i'd be interested in knowing how you all would describe sonic's personality in 'adventures of sonic the hedgehog'

[Sega DogTagz]

Spoiler

I'm kinda surprised that of all the things that attacked my nostalgia in that episode, it was Scratch's old laugh that hit me the hardest. I was so not prepared for that and it caught me flush on the chin. T.K.O.

 

[StaticMania]

Sonic in SA1

Sonic in Sonic Nex Gen

Sonic in Sonic Rush Adventure

I'd call those boring, by comparison of the other games at the time.

[Kuzu]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

I'm sorry I just can't stand Sonic in that era. He's so boring. I'd rather have him the way he's been since Colors.

That's fine, I just don't understand what's so terrible about him, and I speak as somebody who likes him the way he is now too (albeit when they don't lean too far into the irony part).

As @Wraith said before, Sonic has been a pretty straightforward hero since day 1 before Sonic Adventure. Some shows exaggerate his "attitude" more than others, but him being a hero is constant. 

 

So it's weird to hear someone hating him for what's been a consistent character trait of his since 1991.

[Scritch the Cat]

4 hours ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Was Heroes the only game you played in the 2000's or what?

I'm not going to say that Sonic was the most interesting character back then, but that's blatantly false and more conjecture of how people meme'd him back then, 

I agree.  Sonic in SA2 was quite entertainingly flippant.

[thumbs13]

 I've never heard stuff about Heroes Sonic being bland. The usual problem is people exaggerate the "real superpower of teamwork" moment and pretend the whole game's like that. And Heroes Sonic did do some jerky stuff in that game, like the Team Rose fight, so I don't even think that argument's that true either.

[Cuz]

Eh, Hero has got a handful of  cutscenes that can be summed up as over-exaggerated cheese, not just one meme-able moment, between "The real superpower of teamwork", or "Because, we're Sonic Heroes! (tm)", or Amy just plain deciding fisticuffs are the best way to a hedgehog's heart. Amy instigated that fight as I recall, and we could argue the merits of Shadow's "then it's a date to die for". It does start to look like a sizable chunk of the game.

 

So, they used Hall of the Mountain King, AoStH Robotnik's theme, to great effect. Did they manage to fit Flight of the Bumblebee anywhere? 

[Kuzu]

The entire fucking series is ham and cheese; there's one or two memes from every game. Saying one game does it more than others is ridiculous because every game does it besides the classics. 

[Sonictrainer]

Awesome fanart created by uno_yu_ji on Twitter

[Cuz]

1 hour ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

The entire fucking series is ham and cheese; there's one or two memes from every game. Saying one game does it more than others is ridiculous because every game does it besides the classics. 

It's a question of how serious does the material take itself? I feel like when a work name drops it's own title like that, it's reached a new level of camp. 

 

[Silvereyes]

Honestly, I've always had the opinion that the Sonic franchise is one where for some fans, its "come for Sonic, stay for the side characters." I like Sonic, but there are at least a dozen characters all over the place that has made me really love the franchise. I get the feeling that happens with other franchises like Harry Potter and Steven Universe, where the side characters are often far more interesting that the main protagonist.

So when it comes to Sonic himself, especially when you consider the many interpretations of his character, I think OK KO's is pretty good, and I think for a comedy, going for Sonic's ego is a good move. Again though, it is 11 minutes, if this Sonic was to be in a proper full length game, then I'd maybe have issues. But for what it is, I think Sonic is fine, I think he is fun in this.

[thumbs13]

2 hours ago, Cuz said:

It's a question of how serious does the material take itself? I feel like when a work name drops it's own title like that, it's reached a new level of camp. 

 

"Because, we're Sonic Adventure 2!"
"Because, we're Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric!"
"Because, we're Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the Gamegear"
I feel like that wouldn't work in any other game, and can't really be used as a metric.

[StaticMania]

It's not really any different than when a movie drops its own title.

*Reference*

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Ah, was a fun episode.
Disliked the first half with it just being a grocery list of references and the "hyper happy fanboy" angle I'm not fond of, but when the plot started moving it became a lot better.
It's energetic, that immediatly helps.

But man, that last joke with Sonic Sez surprised me. Sonic lecturing against sleeping or you'll miss out on adventure, was that a stab at Boom Sonic?
Sonic being more itnerested in eternal napping rather then any adventuring has been one of my key complaints about that show, the lack of energy.
I mean heck, that visual of the main characters being asleep/ irritated while there's obnoxious "FREE ICECREAM!!!!!" signs everywhere for fake excitement is the exact kind of visual I'd use to sum up the worse Pontaff/ Boom moments.


Also, can't help but notice that practically every fanservice parade we had this decade besides Generations is squarly focused on 90's Sonic with Sonic Adventure being the cut off date for further references. Only exception being a stab or two at Shadow/ Sonic 06. Even Forces didn't step beyond Sonic Heroes, outside of Zavok, Orbot and Cubot's cameo's.
You'd think the younger audiences want to see the Sonic games THEY grew up with to be represented, like Colors or Boom (Sonic Boom's 5 years old now, that's an eternity from the perspective of a kid) Didn't spot any post 90's references outside of Tails communicator from Colors and one mention of Cream in this cartoon.
 

[StaticMania]

12 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

You'd think the younger audiences want to see the Sonic games THEY grew up with...

You really would think...but what is there to really reference in the modern games besides characters?

Sonic X seems to have been the cutoff point for references in the episode.

[Scritch the Cat]

9 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Ah, was a fun episode.
Disliked the first half with it just being a grocery list of references and the "hyper happy fanboy" angle I'm not fond of, but when the plot started moving it became a lot better.
It's energetic, that immediatly helps.

But man, that last joke with Sonic Sez surprised me. Sonic lecturing against sleeping or you'll miss out on adventure, was that a stab at Boom Sonic?
Sonic being more itnerested in eternal napping rather then any adventuring has been one of my key complaints about that show, the lack of energy.
I mean heck, that visual of the main characters being asleep/ irritated while there's obnoxious "FREE ICECREAM!!!!!" signs everywhere for fake excitement is the exact kind of visual I'd use to sum up the worse Pontaff/ Boom moments.


Also, can't help but notice that practically every fanservice parade we had this decade besides Generations is squarly focused on 90's Sonic with Sonic Adventure being the cut off date for further references. Only exception being a stab or two at Shadow/ Sonic 06. Even Forces didn't step beyond Sonic Heroes, outside of Zavok, Orbot and Cubot's cameo's.
You'd think the younger audiences want to see the Sonic games THEY grew up with to be represented, like Colors or Boom (Sonic Boom's 5 years old now, that's an eternity from the perspective of a kid) Didn't spot any post 90's references outside of Tails communicator from Colors and one mention of Cream in this cartoon.
 

Team Sonic Racing Overdrive, if it counts, goes a bit deeper and also references Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes.  A few games between those and Sonic Colors might as well not have happened.  One canonically didn't.

I can accept that for the sake of a positive episode, KO would focus on what Sonic was before the dark ages.  But it still seems really weird to do that in a show aimed at children, to whom it doesn't really explain the jokes.