Sonic Runners announced (Sonic Team/Mobile)

Well I recently jumped on the Runners bandwagon.

If anyone's heard of the JXD GamePad, I got hold of one recently to overload with Emulators up the wazoo (it's like a Wii U gamepad that runs on Android). Turns out it can run Sonic Runners wihout setting on fire, so that's a real plus.
Was running at a lovely 60fps with minor frame droppage in Streamlined mode until recently. I do have to say though, frames have been dropping more frequently since the NiGHTS update kicked in.

Also, fuck the Roulette, hard. Seeing 50 Red Rings go down the drain is heartbreaking. Especially since I just missed Omega... How's everyone's luck been with getting characters on there?

 

I managed to get rouge and max out that Nightploian for whatever it was.

 

I know it's a poor consolation, but Omega is garbage anyway. Blaze seems like a much better replacement, but power characters in general are garbage.

 

I really want Blaze, but its almost too discouraging for me to even care.

If you're gonna monetize your game with a bunch of ads anyway, why do you need such an oppressive micro-transaction policy? It just pisses people off.
Also, I wish they would at least PRETEND to care about canon.

 

They do. There's a pretty beefy documentation about the series internally. There are a few weird things that most people don't know about.

Mind you, I only know of their plans circa 2012. That documentation certainly changed by now, but most of it isn't as indepth as you may think it is.

 

SEGA has never cared about canon in Sonic games before, they're not going to now. At least not without a reboot. It's pretty much impossible to fix the canon anyway with the amount of inconsistencies there are.

Though like Gene said, there actually is a Sonic bible with some stuff that hasn't been adapted in the games.

EDIT: Oh, apparently Ruby already said that this is a thing on the SEGAbits podcast so here goes: Sonic actually takes place on two worlds. A human world and a world with only animals and stuff. So there you go canon fixed. By the way, this also means that Sonic X is at least partially canon. :v:

But seriously, you really shouldn't give a fuck about consistency in the Sonic canon cause there is none.

 

But why doesn't he remember The Secret Rings? Why is Blaze "formerly" the protector of the Sol Emeralds?
And on that note, why does Sega still group Blaze with Silver? Blaze's presence in 06 clearly isn't canon.
You'd think they would at least try to make it all fit together a LITTLE.
Whatever, I can just head-canon it all together in my psychotic little brain. :v:

 

Welp

 

They still haven't fixed clipping into the ground?
In all honesty I shouldn't be surprised :v:

 

I don't know how this hadn't ever happened before, but I some how landed down from a jump right in between the spring and the wall. Thinking I just feel victim to a cheap death, I was surprised when nothing happened. I had to burn up my items to use the laser to get out of it.

 

Is there a copy of the documentation available on the net? If not, then how do people know about it. Thanks!

There's a scene in Sonic Colour where they meet each other and become friends. There's even a reference about them being friends in another time (a nod to 06?).

Iizuka said at the first Sonic Boom event that although they throw in little references to tie the games together, they don't want fans to over think the connections, because the stories are separate.

 

Well, I think regarding any kind of canon or continuity, a mobile game like this would sit at a very low rung of the ladder. I wouldn't be surprised if Sonic Team purposely ignored certain events (or where they stand in the canon) in order to make the game more accessible.

The plot has been absolute bare bones so far and more akin to "Slice of life adventures with Sonic and friends. Plot twist: Eggman runs away and everyone has Tea and Cakes. See you next week!" and I'm pretty okay with that. It's sitting in it's own bubble of stoyline, only doing it's homework when necessary rather than out of some obligation to the fans.

Also, I'd be pretty pissed if I found out a mobile game played a key part in a series' continuity, especially if it became no longer available... I'm looking at you, Before Crisis.

 

As far as I know, it's not online. They're considered highly classified books and have IDs on them to track down who leaked it in the event scans go out. To the general public, we know it exists as some of the devs have mentioned it. I've seen one circa 2011-2012 and while it's mostly how to correctly draw the characters, there are several really interesting design and story specs in there.

The ones I can confirm are the ones Iizuka addressed in public:

-The Super Emeralds and the Hyper forms are non-canon. They may never be referenced again.
-Only male hedgehogs may have Super forms. Blaze is the exception because of her position as (now former(?)) guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and her power up is just called Burning Blaze to get around that. This is why Knuckles lost his super form.

And as Ruby stated, there are indeed two worlds in the Sonic-verse and they're separated by a gate: the human world (Sonic X (somewhat), SA2, Shadow, Unleashed)) and Sonic's World (Colors, Lost World). Blaze's world is separate from this paradigm. One thing that somewhat gets me there is when you consider Angel Island and Station Square are in the same world, and it's said humans don't live in Sonic's world, so...?

I know of a handful more things that may or may not be true now but don't know if I'm at liberty to share them. One thing I would like to do, as a site, is work with SoA and seek permission to reveal some more of these fun trivia. I think the fanbase at large would get a kick out of them... or be somewhat enraged. I can think of one particular hidden fact that may anger people regarding a certain planet...

 

It would be great if more of these things were in actual words (as opposed to just re-tellings of what people said).

The problem with re-tellings is that they add meanings that may not have been intended. Ruby's comments about the two worlds are a good example of that. He makes it sounds definite that there are two worlds, whereas when Sonic Team talk about it in interviews, they leave it a bit vague. That's not to say either Ruby or Sonic Team are right or wrong, but just to point out that subtleties do get lost in retellings (although as much of the Sonic story is written in Japanese, it's always going to be prone to this).

Sonic Team have confirmed that the story is just supposed to be a bit of lighthearted fun, so while fans should enjoy the fun of forming theories and having "passionate" debates over these, getting angry over it is ridiculous.

 

It already has; the game treats Sharha and Merlina as new characters and sort of skips over some more there things I've totally forgotten. It completely disregards their appeances in their respective games. The game is also clearly set in the same locations as Lost Word with even the names being the same, but apparently... Its not set on the Lost Hex? It just cherry picks whatever it needs and rewrites this and that for the purpose of being a simple and accessible mobile game like you say. But even so, it manages to give a hand-wave excuse for the Wisps that Lost World couldn't even manage.

I really hate the current approach to the series continuity, as in the fact that it barely has any now and how stories are virtually non-existent. But Runners is a silly mobile game. Its not an issue.

EDIT: In the regards to the whole "Sonic's world" and "Human World" thing, my own interpretation is that while they're all a part of the same canon and universe in the games, the different world's just reflects the flexibility of the series and not literal different world (I.e. Not different planets). The Classics, Riders and Heroes with their futuristic cities, hover cars and supposed lack of humans exist the same universe and time as '06, SA2 and Unleashed with their levels of realism and human presence. Its just how they chose to show the world for any given game and story. In Lost World and Runners, Sonic Team is focusing on showing the cartoony and humanless "world". You could argue that they're irrelevant now, but you can connect the Classics through to ShTH like this as there's indisputable continuity between them.

 

The story book games are the strangest part of Sonic Runners, as Sonic doesn't remember the characters, but Omochao does (and the bot even makes references to Sonic saving Sharha in secret rings).

To be fair, in Lost World, Amy and Knuckles don't go to Lost Hex, but the unknown location they are in looks identical to Windy Hill (especially in the last few cutscenes).

 

Oh, it's definitive alright. I'd put more trust in what Ruby says than whatever bullshit Iizuka spouts sometimes. I mean, it's pretty obvious that Sonic Lost World wasn't inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk. :v:

 

We both know how people react about this series that as much as they say that, it's simply not going to happen.

 

Nah, it's definitely a different place. They're not even really vaguely alike being both being grassy fields.