Thoughts on SEGA unifying the Sonic brand

[Rabbitearsblog]

So lately, SEGA has been trying to unify the Sonic brand, in terms of trying to have all of the properties of the Sonic brand stay consistent with each other, like how the comics have to take place in the settings of the games and how some of the characters should be characterized.  Now there are some positives and negatives to SEGA unifying the Sonic brand.

The positives of SEGA unifying the Sonic brand is that the brand will be much more consistent.  Part of the issue with the franchise over the years was that because there were so many different interpretations of Sonic's character, it was hard to pinpoint what Sonic's actual lore was and therefore, it caused the Sonic brand to have a bit of an identity crisis because of the many different takes on the character.  Heck, even nowadays, even when they are trying to unify the brand, there's still some inconsistencies with the lore here and there.

However, there are some negatives to this.  A major negative is that it prevents other mediums from trying to write a more successful story for the Sonic brand.  There are some mandates that SEGA has for the Sonic franchise that wouldn't fly with another medium like TV, movies and comic books.  The biggest case of this was how SEGA wanted Shadow to be portrayed in the IDW comics and while Shadow being portrayed as a loner who only wants to fight opponents might work in the games, it might not be as effective in the comics or in the movies if the writers are not allowed to delve further into the characters themselves.  Also, some of the mandates might seem a bit outdated and that might hinder the franchise if SEGA doesn't change them up to make the franchise more accessible to a wider audience.

So, what do you guys think?  Do you think it's a good idea for SEGA to unify the Sonic brand or do you think it's a bad idea?

[Wraith]

It seems like it's for the best, but it will never feel genuine as long as the movies are still allowed to do whatever they want with no regard for the core material. Those are bigger than any comic or saturday morning cartoon ever has been, so if the fear is misrepresentation of the brand, Sonic might be worse off than ever in that regard.

[Kuzu]

The ironic part is that the movies are probably what are causing them to double down on unifying the brand to begin with given how many newcomers will come into the series from it. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

21 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

The ironic part is that the movies are probably what are causing them to double down on unifying the brand to begin with given how many newcomers will come into the series from it. 

Although, I do wonder how the newer fans will react to the games having a completely different continuity and characterizations from the movies.

[Blacklightning]

A lot of my issues with other Sonic branches usually amounts to "this is nothing they couldn't have done with existing branding, and a lot of the differences between them are wholly unnecessary". The movies are the closest I've come to feeling otherwise, given that there are necessary compromises to making essentially a cartoon character in a live action environment, but even then I still feel like it would have been more effective (not to mention much cheaper) just to make a wholly CG movie from the start to skip past the need for any such compromise. So yeah, for the most part I see that as a good thing.

The cynical side of me, though, doesn't see it as a consolidation of their resources so much as pretending that all but one, maybe two of them, for a lack of better description, "don't count". After all, throwing babies out with the bathwater is pretty much Sega's modus operandi already when it comes to Sonic - just as they would make a new gimmick every game rather than iterate and polish on what works, I could see them just dumping whatever doesn't already happen to fit their mold rather than reworking and/or retconning the outliers into something that does. And although my experience with the comics and shows is admittedly pretty limited, I still think it's pretty plain to see they've already done such a thing on at least one occasion. And as mentioned, Sega are really stingy or strict on some details that really just don't fucking matter, lest we forget that the reason Sonic's costumes suck so much in every Smash game is because they apparently can't bear to see him in any colour besides a slightly different shade of blue.

It feels like another one of those things that only grew as bad as it did because executives live in an echo chamber with their heads planted firmly up their asses, and they're only attempting some kind of course correction now because they've realized that against all apparent odds, the movies have actually made a shitton of money, and money is all these assholes are ever interested in chasing.

[Diogenes]

It's probably better than the alternative, when spinoff media could go wildly off course with little to no oversight, but consistency is only as good as what you're consistent about. If a series ends up cementing a bunch of boring or bad ideas and spinoffs aren't allowed to stray very far from it, we just end up with every version of it being bad. As much as I prefer the game continuity over most others, I've both got my criticisms of it and enjoy some alternate takes that wouldn't have existed if they always insisted on consistency across the brand.

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

The cynical side of me, though, doesn't see it as a consolidation of their resources so much as pretending that all but one, maybe two of them, for a lack of better description, "don't count". After all, throwing babies out with the bathwater is pretty much Sega's modus operandi already when it comes to Sonic - just as they would make a new gimmick every game rather than iterate and polish on what works, I could see them just dumping whatever doesn't already happen to fit their mold rather than reworking and/or retconning the outliers into something that does. And although my experience with the comics and shows is admittedly pretty limited, I still think it's pretty plain to see they've already done such a thing on at least one occasion. And as mentioned, Sega are really stingy or strict on some details that really just don't fucking matter, lest we forget that the reason Sonic's costumes suck so much in every Smash game is because they apparently can't bear to see him in any colour besides a slightly different shade of blue.

This is an issue I had with SEGA in regards to the Sonic franchise.  I wish that SEGA would quit jumping to one new idea and not try to improve on the older ideas they had.  Like for example, they could easily bring back the werehog concept and just improve on its gameplay style in future games.  Every time SEGA tries to do something new with the Sonic franchise, they only make things worse because they won't go back and improve on the mistakes they made with past games.

[Starnik]

8 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

This is an issue I had with SEGA in regards to the Sonic franchise.  I wish that SEGA would quit jumping to one new idea and not try to improve on the older ideas they had.  Like for example, they could easily bring back the werehog concept and just improve on its gameplay style in future games.  Every time SEGA tries to do something new with the Sonic franchise, they only make things worse because they won't go back and improve on the mistakes they made with past games.

I can’t imagine bringing back the were-hog of all things. It’s very specific to the story in Unleashed. Making Sonic a werewolf in future games would be strange or random. 

[DaBigJ]

There's a cynical answer to the question this. I won't say it, but it exists.

 

Genuinely, though, I'm okay with it as long as quality isn't impacted or anything like stricter mandates on, say, the movies happen

[Starnik]

 

I think they should have been strict from the beginning. Other successful mascots have strict guidelines that are followed. (Mickey Mouse, Mario,etc) But once you open the Pandora’s box, it’s hard to close it. Sonic has an excessive amount of continuities. 

 

[Mega]

I don't like it mostly in that like... I feel like there's a lot of missed potential in throwback material for fans of older Sonic iterations, assuming there aren't big legal hurdles.

Like... to me, it's a bit of a shame? In that it could alienate people who got into Sonic through other venues, e.g. the western cartoons, Fleetway, the Japanese manga, etc. Obviously, some of these are tied up in big legal/rights issues that might make it expensive to deal with, but it really does feel like SEGA wants to erase anything that isn't their vision of Sonic, which they have every right to do, but it's sad to see when other franchises like TMNT, Transformers, DC, Marvel, etc, tend to benefit from those kinds of throwbacks in terms of nostalgia and stuff.

I think it's fine for the games and IDW to be consistent with each other- it works well for IDW, and I think the world the IDW team has crafted is quite cool. I just think there's something neat about there being alternate continuities that provide something different.

[Kuzu]

This isn't too different from how Nintendo manages Mario in all honesty. Japanese companies tend to be very protective of their IP's, for better or worse, way more than Western IP's.

 

Look how much they dictated Sonic Boom despite the fact that is supposed to be an alternate continuity.

[Mega]

Oh, I have beef with Nintendo's handling of Mario, too. Especially with how much they restrict Paper Mario these days. xD

I just think there should be a bit more open mindedness. The core continuity is not erased just by other continuities having existed.

[Kuzu]

I've talked with someone who's lived in Japan and their thoughts on this; it seems to be less "being threatened by" and more a pure lack of interest. They didn't create those details and western properties, so they don't feel it would be right to mess with them and focus on their own things. It seems like a, very shortsighted, sign of respect. 

[Starnik]

33 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

I've talked with someone who's lived in Japan and their thoughts on this; it seems to be less "being threatened by" and more a pure lack of interest. They didn't create those details and western properties, so they don't feel it would be right to mess with them and focus on their own things. It seems like a, very shortsighted, sign of respect. 

If Sonic Team touched the western properties or characters they didn’t make, and ruined them, the fans would be understandably mad. 

[Kuzu]

36 minutes ago, Starnik said:

If Sonic Team touched the western properties or characters they didn’t make, and ruined them, the fans would be understandably mad. 

They're mad right now for not utilizing them, so that's hardly a difference. 

[Starnik]

1 minute ago, Kuzu said:

They're mad right now for not utilizing them, so that's hardly a difference. 

I rather Sonic Team not ruin something they didn’t even make. Sonic as a franchise wouldn’t be hated so much if it ended in the 90s with Sonic 3 and Knuckles. But instead Sonic Team ruined Sonic’s legacy with poor games. Why would anyone trust Sonic Team with the western part of Sonic they didn’t create. They would ruin any positive memories fans had.

[Rabbitearsblog]

4 hours ago, Mega said:

Oh, I have beef with Nintendo's handling of Mario, too. Especially with how much they restrict Paper Mario these days. xD

I just think there should be a bit more open mindedness. The core continuity is not erased just by other continuities having existed.

What's Nintendo doing with the Paper Mario series?

 

[azoo]

It should’ve never got like it did in the first place if you ask me.

There’s always the argument of “but what about this continuity that did good things and I like?” but it just leads me to imagine a show with shared elements of what we got but better. Like for SatAM and AoSTH, they were originally one show that didn’t split its tone in half, and even an early version of the latter contained various badniks and Emerald Hill Zone! Just imagining all these things coming together more with more honor to the games theyre based on could’ve been a peak 90s game adaptation show, but instead it’s just… two weird things happening at the same time, and neither are like the source in any way. I mean, they’re still better than DiC’s other offerings in quality…

Yeah idk. Hate something like the movies had to get as wild with the material as they got to wake up Sega. 30 odd years late but better late than never.

[Kuzu]

The very nature of this type of thing just means that people are going to hate the media that "ruins" the original, but I don't really care about those people.

You can dislike the movies or SATAM for "poisoning the integrity of Sonic" or whatever, and even I'll agree a lot of the extra material could be better, but I also feel like that's extremely reductive of the positive impact that stuff has had. 

 

Fans wouldn't be talking about trying to get the Freedom Fighters into the main series almost 30 years after the fact if they didn't leave some type of impact. The movies having the impact they've had wouldn't have happened if they didn't resonate with someone out there.

 

Yea, they could have made material that's more in line with the games, but they didn't at the end of the day. And I'm not interested in thinking about the  "could haves" or "should haves". Id rather look at the end result. I don't entirely love all of these alternate versions of Sonic, but I'm not gonna deny the impact they've had either.

 

Their impact validates their existence as far as I'm concerned. And yea, it kind of sucks that Sega are content to deny that as opposed to mining it for obvious profit. Its dumb when Nintnedo does it too.

[Starnik]

5 hours ago, Kuzu said:

The very nature of this type of thing just means that people are going to hate the media that "ruins" the original, but I don't really care about those people.

You can dislike the movies or SATAM for "poisoning the integrity of Sonic" or whatever, and even I'll agree a lot of the extra material could be better, but I also feel like that's extremely reductive of the positive impact that stuff has had. 

Fans wouldn't be talking about trying to get the Freedom Fighters into the main series almost 30 years after the fact if they didn't leave some type of impact. The movies having the impact they've had wouldn't have happened if they didn't resonate with someone out there.

Yea, they could have made material that's more in line with the games, but they didn't at the end of the day. And I'm not interested in thinking about the  "could haves" or "should haves". Id rather look at the end result. I don't entirely love all of these alternate versions of Sonic, but I'm not gonna deny the impact they've had either.

Their impact validates their existence as far as I'm concerned. And yea, it kind of sucks that Sega are content to deny that as opposed to mining it for obvious profit. Its dumb when Nintnedo does it too.

I don’t think the Freedom Fighters will ever return to the franchise. If that much time has past already, the odds are not high they will be brought back. Holding on to that hope would be actively harmful. 

[Kuzu]

48 minutes ago, Starnik said:

I don’t think the Freedom Fighters will ever return to the franchise. If that much time has past already, the odds are not high they will be brought back. Holding on to that hope would be actively harmful. 

When has that ever stopped people?

[Starnik]

2 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

When has that ever stopped people?

It hasn’t. But that misplaced hope turns into resentment and bitterness. 

[Kuzu]

Just now, Starnik said:

It hasn’t. But that misplaced hope turns into resentment and bitterness. 

How is that any different from how most fans feel right now?

[Starnik]

1 minute ago, Kuzu said:

How is that any different from how most fans feel right now?

That’s exactly how I would describe the diehard fans. So no different honestly. I don’t think Sonic Team or Sega will ever do what they want and they will always disappoint them, whether out of incompetence or ignorance.