Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: Ross-Irving - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

Okey-dokey. I've only heard like little bits and pieces from different songs before, but tonight I finally listened the OST of Jet Set Radio, from beginning to end. It's not half bad, to be honest. I have to admit, it's pretty solid. Like, steel wall solid. While most of the songs are not in my taste, the consistency in quality is a constant high, whereas other OSTs I would initially favor over JSR only have two or three songs that I like. I like seven songs from JSR. I couldn't find one song that was so abysmal that I had to stop listening to it. There were maybe one or two songs that felt a little overindulgent in their sampling though, particularly "Rock It On" and "That's Enough". "Sneakman" was the first song where my ears perked up a little, and "Funky Radio" actually made me feel a little good on the inside. Oh, and a plus here—I was concerned that there would be plenty of songs with chipmunk vocals due to Naganuma being composer. Thank the stars only one song really has these throughout, "Let Mom Sleep".

All in all, I'm impressed. I've heard that a lot of regulars love JSR's soundtrack, but I wanted to know about why that is in more detail.

I created this topic for a reason. There's been a lot of buzz about this new Sonic game coming out next year, and it says (unless they're falsely advertising like with Sonic '06) that they're really, honestly, truly going to take him back to the classics. We don't want any real story for the game in the same vein as the modern games, because the cutscenes are usually so awful. Even if this new game will be great, cutscenes seem iffy. Now someone else has already made a topic concerning character/universe development, but for the games. I'm thinking for a television special or series that doesn't have to be canonical.

I wondered if anyone else here thought about what could be some important discussion points should a tv special or new animated series ever be made. I'm leaning more towards specials because you could away with more in them and you don't necessarily have to be a slave to the horrible game scripts. Who would voice the characters? What the show's mood be like, how would the animation and pacing reflect that mood? How often do you want to look at character development (suppose it could be good character developent), and then cut to actiony scenes with Robotnik/Eggman?

Try and keep the fanfiction out about how you would develop each and every character, though. Just the facts, please.

-Voice actor/actress (or a general idea of how they're voice would sound)
-Any style of music associated with them (doesn't have to be a motif or specific song), very brief explanation of character and relation to others.
-What specials or episodes could center around
-Mood, pacing, show or tell? etc


Sonic- I honestly have no idea who would voice Sonic. At first, I thought of some mix, Jaleel White's voice inflections with Ryan Drummond's core voice (yeah, I made that term up). Think of Sonic CD type music for his appearances, except instrumental. Character will probably develop as someone goes along developing him, don't want him to be a laid back hero with a sense of justice, but not like a Bugs Bunny prankster, either. It will take work and not everyone will agree on how he should develop.

Tails- I have a better idea on what direction to take him. He would be voiced by someone who can sound like Linus from the Charlie Brown tv specials. This is what I'm talking about. His voice actor would change every three or four years. I can't think of a style of music that would fit him at the moment. Tries to get Sonic involved in an intellectual pursuit of some sort and keeps failing, to his frustration.

Dr. Robotnik/Eggman- Someone who sounds as close to Long John Baldry as possible. Voice inflections could be inspired by George Carlin and Orson Welles. Bad guy, with much chance to show his humanity. El Gran Gordo has done a good job at covering this in length in his own topics. Romantic classical music could accompany him, think "Wing Fortress" from Sonic 2.

Knuckles- The deep voice from SA, SA2, Heroes sounded neat, but I didn't think it absolutely fit him. He's an islander. Maybe his voice could be relatively the same. Maybe thicken it with a Native American sounding voice, think of Chief Bromden. Nothing but enthralling solos of tribal drums to accompany him.

Amy- Think of the SA, SA2 voice actress. I think she just had to trip over bad dialogue, direct her with more natural, fun sounding dialogue and it can work. Can't think of any music to go along with her. I would say teeny-bopper rock, but every character deserves to have music that's bearable to listen to. A real fussbudget and a brat, close-minded. She will scuff with Tails quite often. Don't even get me started on Sonic.

Rouge- Think of her SA2, Heroes voice actress. Now imagine her saying lines the same way Sonic did in the OVA. Mainly a serious jewel thief, but has a silly side in which she playfully teases people, especially Tails since his buttons get pushed easily.

Shadow- No angsty tough guy to voice him. Think of one of those deep voiced 1940s-50's educational video narrators. Dramatic, instrumental stock music to accompany him, especially piano music that hits low chords. Not angsty, but more of a robotic "Yes sir", kind of guy. Resolute.

Cream- Another Charlie Brown example. Skip ahead to 5:44. Seriously, Cream's voice could be very similar to Sally's, except without the anger found in that scene. The inflection, the delivery, it all works to me. Don't have an idea for music. Polite of course. Likes Sonic, but thinks that Sonic is already taken by Amy. Amy is the more dominant one when they are together, but Amy is friendly towards her.

Wave- Guess what? Skip to 4:58 and watch for a minute or so. The voice seems perfect for her. A know-it-all, socially aloof bitch.

Blaze- Whatever woman can sound like Mandy, except a little more mellow, a little bit of Gaz for good measure. Somewhat reclusive, socially awkward, rarely blinks.

Silver- Andy Berman (Dib) from Invader Zim, that is ALL. Chiptune music would follow him and Blaze around.

For the show's mood, I'm thinking of something slow-paced, but very focused on characters interacting with each other, body language too. Occasionally some actiony sequences to have them really stand out as being fast. I say slow-paced because for a wide audience to be reached, the actiony sequences of things blowing up with him blazing through will only hit one small group of viewers. Character development is popular with any demographic if done well, which I think it can, despite the growing cast of characters.

So that's pretty much my idea. Does anyone have an idea different than mine for how to cast the voice actors? Mood, pacing, etc? I think everyone has their own idea, and I'd love to hear it. For me, voice actors were the main focus, but someone else can talk about the other stuff (keep out indulgent fanfiction, though). I think this topic could be really fun.

First off, apologies if this is in the wrong section of the forum or if this site already has answered this question in some way. I Googled this, couldn't find too many helpful resources. Also searched the forums.

I know that the Sonic Retro project died two months ago, and I don't know squat about hacking Sonic games. I still would love to make level tilesets and try to get an understanding for how that works so I can actively contribute to any future project Retro considers working on. I've heard that it either follows 8x8, 16x16, 64x64, and even 128x128. Which one is right? Also, do the boss machines follow any sort of tileset, because I wanted to make some of those, too.