I just wanna say, I don't know what it is, but Knuckles' teetering sprite in 3&K never sat right with me. It looks weird and feels like they were going for a faux-3D effect? I dunno how to explain it, but I will say it sucks.
While we're nitpicking about sprites, am I the only one who always found these low-color neon sprites kinda... baffling? I guess they look like that due to palette limitations, but still... they look so tacky and out of place. Every time I see that canary it makes me think of a Super Flicky.
The game or the series? 'cause the game's running sprites are definitely awkward, since it looks like Sonic's breaking his knees.
I always felt that at least Advance 1's sprite has Sonic looking forward at full speed. Advance 2 and 3 always looked like he was looking at the ground due to how they had his head angled downwards. It was always weird.
I also don’t like how some of the Sonic 2 sprites have the American mohawk design in them. Given that it was developed in America at STI I can see why Sonic would have that in some of his sprites. These sprites for the corkscrew animation in particular are the most egregious example of that mohawk design creeping in. They did this same thing in Mania where they shaded Super Sonic’s sprites with black. It clashes so noticeably and I think they should have shaded using either a darker yellow or brown color. I’m sure for Sonic 2 they did this due to limitations so I’m not sure why Mania did the same thing. By the way, I'm one of the people who actually prefer the Sonic 3 sprites. I was disappointed that for Mania they instead went back to the Sonic 1 sprite style since I feel they should have either fleshed out his Sonic 3 sprites or done an entirely new sprite style instead. I would also like to point out that in some of his Sonic 3 sprites he has 4 fingers instead of 5. This can mostly be seen when compared to the Sonic 2 crouch sprite so I suppose this can be a downgrade. I read this somewhere and I just wanted to point this out for others. For Tails it looks like they were going to completely redo his sprite set as well for him but more than likely due to time constraints it is only seen in some instances while in the majority it's just his Sonic 2 sprites. It makes me wish to see how all of Tails sprites would have looked like in the Sonic 3 style. For Knuckles I always thought his ledge animation looked goofy. The way he looks down, leans back, pauses briefly, and then circles his arms around makes him all look over dramatic. I'm glad Mania redid his ledge animations. I'm not sure how to explain it but I've always thought he looks more like a dog in these frames too. Speaking of looking like a dog that reminds me of this: [Image] For another game I think Knuckles Chaotix has a sprite style that I find very pretty. It's very colorful. My favorite location aesthetics are Botanic Base, Marina Madness, and Amazing Arena. However, I don't like how pink Knuckles looks in the game. I love Mania's sprites because of how smooth they look in motion with all the added frames to create fluid animations. They also do more squash and stretch. Here's a video describing all this: Although I will admit I don't like how brightly colored they are and with that it makes Knuckles look pink again. Now it's time for the informative segment of my post in regards to Sonic Mania’s sprites The sprites for Sonic were done by Tom Fry as he says here: [Link] He worked on the Sonic 2 HD fangame so I guess he was already familiar with doing animation work on Sonic himself: [Image] Paul Veer was the one who made the Tails & Knuckles sprites as he mentions here: [Link] Paul also did Mighty's sprites: [Link] He didn't bring up Ray in that so I'm not sure if he also did him as well but given that he did the rest of the characters excluding Sonic it is very likely he did. A part of Paul's story of how he got involved with Mania is that he first made a Sonic 1 styled Knuckles sprite which he showed to Christian Whitehead. If interested in hearing the rest of his story you can find it from the launch stream of the official Sonic channel: [Link] I believe this may be the sprite he showed to Christian: I found it here on a NeoGaf thread. The username is pietepiet and Paul's Twitter username is also pietepiet so they are definitely from him: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/sonic-the-hedgehog-community-ot2-battle.515306/page-121#post-58052564 https://archive.is/yRCjp#selection-5961.0-5965.53 I could have sworn that I also remember seeing that sprite in this forum in a thread about the 2013 remaster of Sonic 1 but I don’t feel like searching around for that at the moment. Also check out his own sprite style he made for the characters. I kind of wish to see these be used for an actual Sonic game. https://twitter.com/pietepiet/status/1315018425379381248 https://archive.ph/a0KO8 Lastly, how can I pass up mentioning Fat the Kookaburra when talking about Paul’s other sprite work. https://twitter.com/pietepiet/status/893949637588992000 https://archive.vn/xAjLD https://twitter.com/pietepiet/status/1017516730027991040
I like sprites which are based on Naoto Ohshima's images. For example, he created many pictures of Sonic during development of the first game, and many of those drawings ended up being reused in other games. You can see some examples here: https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...pired-sonics-animations-and-more.41540/page-4
Knuckle's sprite in chaotix is when you stop referencing the 3d model directly and go a bit more free with drawing the sprite first. I still think sonic 1's sprite is charming and was super well done for 1991, it's my fave of the lot for sonic.
https://gamebanana.com/mods/416705 This is a great sprite mod for AIR players if you love the 1/2/CD/Mania style. Only this mod makes that style look like it belongs in Sonic 3.
My reaction everytime I see those I agree OG Sonic will always stand on it's own pedestal I voted Ahh those Knuckles sprites warm my heart, Tails too. Seeing fan art of Mighty and Ray is glorious Though in Mighty's case I personally prefer him in the modern designs
I'll give my opinions on a game by game basis. Sonic 1: It's a great sprite... to start with. There are a few mistakes (on the shoes) but the fluidity and the limited motion compared to later sprites are the biggest problem. I'm also not too fond of his indigo-esque color palette. Sonic 2: I like the overall improved sprites, but why did they have to use the horrible American design with the Mohawk. Yes, I know it comes from Ohshima's drawings a bit, but still it's terrible. It's even worse in the older prototypes bc Sonic has more frames and therefore the animation is more fluid, but in tradeoff you have the shitty, inferior american Mohawk design very clearly present. Other than that the sprite set is much better drawn in Sonic 2. The vibrant blue Sonic has is a great change over the muted indigo-esque one from S1. Tails' sprites are a bit lackluster overall in S2 and his yellow-brown pallete looks awful. Sonic CD: This is the S1 sprite but with some changes, some for the better and others for the worst. The walking sprites make Sonic look like he "slides" as he stars to run, but on the other hand, EVERYONE, likes the jumping of a spring with horiz. rotation. Also the Peel-out looks great (fuck you Naruto, Sonic did it first) Sonic 3(&K): This is my preferred sprite of the Sonic's classic era design. I have the somewhat baseless theory that the "pre-rendered" were made initially by manually recreated by taking the renders and redrawing them to fit with the sprite limitations, In the middle of this they also improved the proportions (but I think they over did it a bit on a few sections). The general roundness is more on-model from the original character sheets, and I don't get why some people prefer the smaller, more angular design of previous sprites. The shininess comes from the intended "pre-render like" look and uses the palette more effectively. Tails looks better here not only bc his palette changed to be more yellow, but also his new and improved sprites, again, are in line with character illustrations. Knuckles is the weakest. For starters, he was made from Sonic's sprites and that carried his own issues, like the half-moon crest on his chest that should be white, but is instead it's flesh colored. The attempts at making original sprites for him leads into bad animations like the teetering off the edge one. Chaotix: It is a step forward but also a step back. Mostly with Knuckles that has a previous sprites but in this game he got worse. In general the animation is fluid but it could be better. Heck, there's a ton of unused sprites on the game like almost twice of them. Advance: I'll be blunt, it's hard to adapt the uekawa artstyle to such small and limited resolution like the GBA has. That (and not the GREEN EYES) is why I find these ones underwhelming, although some do get better in 2 and 3. Mania: Why did they go back to the S1 design? I wish that they would've iterated and improved the S3K style instead, but Sonic having a brighter palette, reminiscent (or based of) the prototype one for Sonic 1 that is present in CD's time travel sequence somehow. The fluidity is top notch and the higher resolution is well used otherwise. Tails's are a straight improvement from S3K but Knuckles got worse than ever somehow. Mighty and Ray look great. Worst sprites: Spinball, no doubt. All angular crap with no in-betweens. Just awful.
Sonic's sprites look the best in Sonic 3, no contest. Mania should have used his Sonic 3 sprite with a updated color palette, I don't like that they went back to his Sonic 1 design. I also think Tails and Knuckles looked the best in Sonic 3 as well. As for the 8-bit games I ironically liked Sonic's sprites from the beta version of Sonic Chaos over all the other 8-bit titles. I say ironic since they're based around his Sonic 2 16-bit sprites.
I absolutely don't like S3 style and love S1 style. Sonic 1 Sonic so cute, so.. Sonic. I like this dark colours, even with mistakes on his shoes. Sonic CD updated It and present to us a lot of extra sprites (even sprites, that will be base for barrel sprites in S3K, lmao). Sonic 2 is good, but not perfect. Not big fan of long legs and hands. S2 beta style looks neat for me. Something like alternative style of S1, with smoother walk, and funniest run. Sonic spinball is funny. I can't say that it's bad. It hasn't enough love from community. Sad Sonic 3 and Knuckles...... I don't want to offend anyone, anyway, it's just my opinion, but... WHAT THE DUCK IS THIS?!? It's perfectly combined with game, but comparing with previous games- this is the Worst. Sprites. Ever. Weird big fists, stupid big shoes, silly face.. it's doesn't looks like Sonic! What did you done with my pretty boy?! I'm happy, that Mania developers take a S1/CD sprites as basis. Oh, and Chaotix sprites...
Best sprites? Sonic 3. It's the perfect evolution, round and full. I never liked Sonic 1 and 2 sprite's - and when Mania came out, using this design, I was just disappointed. Also - CD Sonic sprites should be just based on Toei/Junio Sonic. I'm glad you can just mod these into the 2011 remake. As for Advance sprites, I've never liked them in the first game, but 2 and 3rd were really good. The perfect Adventure transition if you ask me. The worst sprites are in Sonic 1 GG. It's such a stepdown from SMS. Sonic looks like he has no nose.
I really don't know how I feel about Sonic 3's sprites. I can't imagine the game with any other style, but I kind of remember being slightly put off by them as a kid. I definitely think they mesh better with the more detailed environmental design of the game than Sonic 1/2/CD's would, though I just can't say for sure that I would like them in a vacuum. I was slightly disappointed that Mania reverted to the earlier style though, so maybe that's evidence that I do see them as an improvement.
Sonic Mania was specifically made to be as if the Sonic 4 that never existed. We know, from Chaotix/Crackers, that "Sonic 4" would've returned to the Sonic 1-2-CD shaping of characters. I'd say that's why Mania went for that style- it's the most iconic Sonic look and is, as far as we know, what the historic attempt at Sonic 4 in the 90s would've used.
I don’t think this argument holds considering 1) Chaotix was the product of a completely different team. 2) I find it unlikely that Naka would have allowed a return to an older style when he always pushed to do new things. 3) Yes, Mania is using the style because it’s the most iconic representation of Sonic, but it’s because the game is meant to celebrate the classics, not build upon them. That’s my issue with Mania as a concept. I love the product, but it’s basically a classic Sonic Generations rather than a Sonic 4. Using what is basically an enhanced Sonic 2 sprite was pretty indicative to me that the game wasn’t trying to be a successor which is what I didn’t appreciate.
Agreed. Mania is a recreation of the classic formula, rather than a significant evolution of it like a 90s Sonic 4 would have been. If anything, it feels like S3K with different levels, better graphics (for the most part) and some enhancements. Which is why the sprite choice feels out of place to me.
