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A Brief History of Michael Jackson's Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by ricdesi, Oct 20, 2016.

  1. ricdesi

    ricdesi

    WiteoutKing, back from the dead Member
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    Hello again, everybody. Thought that I'd drop by to talk shop about ye olde days of Michael Jackson theories and that fertile time in 2006 when pretty much anyone who'd even so much as HEARD of Sonic was trying to connect its music to the songs of Michael Jackson. As I've been moving through the Sonic franchise with my team for The Super Sonic Let's Play, we've reached Sonic 3 in the franchise timeline, and as such, I couldn't ignore an opportunity to talk about the revelations of 2006 made by Qjimbo, and all the theories and confirmations that have come in the decade since.

    For some of you, there may be very little new about this. For others, this whole thing might be pretty much a brand new mindblow.
    Either way, I hope you guys enjoy A Brief History of Michael Jackson's Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
     
  2. TheKazeblade

    TheKazeblade

    "Our Life is More than a Side-Effect" Member
    This was a great compilation of all the details we've learned about MJ's involvement in Sonic 3! It's good to have all of the more recent discoveries in one place.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think MJ was encouraged by his lawyers to distance himself from a children's game during the allegations, and while he may have been unhappy with the Yamaha2612, I think it was ultimately just a convenient excuse to cite for leaving the project, which I'm sure Sega at the time would have been relieved to accept as an official excuse so they wouldn't be thrust in a negative spotlight upon revelation of his involvement.
     
  3. ricdesi

    ricdesi

    WiteoutKing, back from the dead Member
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    Hey, thank you! Yeah, I've wanted to cover this for a long time now, but anytime it crossed my mind, there was so recent a "here's everything we know" that it didn't make much sense. Ironically, I had already started compiling info when Qjimbo's 10th anniversary video dropped, but by that point I was more or less all-in on making it, ha. Plus, honestly, I just love doing music comparisons. We have a lot of those throughout our Let's Plays, so this was a great chance to go bigger with the idea.

    I think your idea holds a lot of water - and ultimately the only person who really, truly knows for certain all of the reasons why is no longer with us, so at least that aspect of this is likely to stay a mystery forever. Plus, at the end of the day, I think we all get a bit wrapped up in the idea of a "single answer", where there may be none. Maybe it was just a coincidental combination of the Yamaha chip, the allegations, stress over the Dangerous tour... the timing was just not great amidst everything else, and sometimes deals just fall apart (hell, when we put up our first Sonic 3 video today, part of it has to do with Sega's collapsing Nike deal at the same time.
     
  4. Dissent

    Dissent

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    This is a great video, both in terms of information displayed and style. You earned a sub.

    Edit: My only complaint is that the timeline should have been displayed on screen while speaking about it to help visualize.
     
  5. Xilla

    Xilla

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    As I mentioned in the other topic: MJ apparently, as reported by Sega Power magazine, signed on to produce music for Mega CD games in 1993, and he may have assumed Sonic 3 would be one of those. Hence his disappointment at the quality of the final product.
     
  6. JaredAFX

    JaredAFX

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    This is awesome. And what great timing, too. In clarinet studio a selection of us present different musically related things each week, and I decided to be a nerd and talk about Sonic and audio sampling. I was going to make it about Michael Jackson's involvement in Sonic 3, but I decided to go against it because of it taking more than five minutes to explain (as you clearly mentioned in the beginning of the video, now that I mention it). I am planning on briefly touching on it at the end of my presentation, and I will absolutely plug your video. I think you did a great job.
     
  7. Qjimbo

    Qjimbo

    Your friendly neighbourhood lemming. Oldbie
    Really enjoyed the video - I think it was actually a lot more fun than my 10th anniversary vid. I also had no idea it was you who realised the connection to Blood on the Dancefloor (google let me down there) so I apologize for not crediting you in my video for that find. Great stuff, real shame we were never able to get that interview with Cirocco.
     
  8. hxc

    hxc

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    How do people mistake my username? it's 3 letters!!
     
  9. Sapphire

    Sapphire

    It's like boo! Member
    Fantastic video! Everything was incredibly thorough and so well put together. Hearing info about this whole MJ in Sonic 3 involvement is always so fascinating to me. I agree with you ricdesi though in that we may likely never truly know the reasoning behind MJ's "distancing" from the project, but maybe that's part of what makes the whole involvement such an interesting mystery. Again, great job with the video!
     
  10. Simply fantastic, ricdesi! I'm a real sucker for history and background information about games and music and such. I hope more people get to see your video. I can't imagine it not getting the attention it deserves, though, just becuz of how popular (I assume) this subject is.

    I agree with Sonicandtails, though. A visual timeline would have aided in your recap of the events. For me, it's like a waterfall of information being thrown at me. I guess I'm a "visual" person.
     
  11. ricdesi

    ricdesi

    WiteoutKing, back from the dead Member
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    Oh my god, I am the absolute worst for totally abandoning the thread after starting it. Been a busy couple weeks (Halloween in particular), so I haven't quite landed back on my feet yet.

    Oh man, that sounds awesome! Hope it went/goes well, it's a really interesting subject (with more than a few if not nearly all of its roots right here and back in Sonic CulT), and I appreciate the plug! The video's been pretty amazingly successful, at least compared to the rest of our channel - it's about to crack 3600 views, which makes it our second most-viewed video of all time (and in only 20 days, that's insane!).

    Considering our most watched video ("The Top Ten WORST Zelda Games (so far)") is because everyone hates our picks, I'd say that makes this our most sincerely popular video, so I can't complain!

    Thanks Qjimbo! And no worries, ha. I was actually a bit anxious about presenting the "Blood on the Dance Floor" and Credits/Final Boss bits as my own discoveries, since I wasn't 100% sure no one had mentioned them before then, but I couldn't find anything earlier so I made the leap -- if it turns out I wasn't first to the finish line on those, I'll definitely amend the video to say as much, but I can hardly blame you for not stumbling on those ancient forum posts (I almost missed them, too)

    Funny story. I actually recently made contact with Cirocco again. I don't want to promise anything, but later this winter I'm considering trying to touch base with him one last time and see if there's anything left to unveil.

    Oh god, did I fuck it up? D:

    As far as the visual timeline a few of you have mentioned: yeah, I fully agree. I was getting pressed for time at the end, and the timeline visuals I wanted to run with would literally have been another full day of editing that I wasn't sure I could devote to it at that point :( If anything comes of the reconnection with Cirocco (or if I expand on the video with more of Sonic & Knuckles brought into the story), I'll be making a point of bringing a visual timeline into the mix. I actually kind of don't like that I mentioned HIStory so early in the timeline, when I could have saved that and dropped the big bit about five out of six Sonic 3 musicians being involved then.

    Anyway, thanks for watching, guys! I'm glad it's been going over so well, and I'm thrilled to be able to help bring this stuff to a new generation of Sonic fans and Michael Jackson fans alike!
     
  12. itsstillthinking

    itsstillthinking

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    Makes me wonder if at anypoint down the road is Sega will officially acknowledge any more facts. Aaron Webber has repeatedly declined to comment as with the Sonic Mania team in recent memory so for the time being no. If sometime down the road (i highly doubt it sadly) if Sega re releases a hd port of Moonwalker then we might see more details merge but im going to assume that would be a costly venture
     
  13. Beltway

    Beltway

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    It was pretty easy to not have to say anything about MJ and his involvement as long as Sonic 3 / Sonic 3 & Knuckles was still getting new ports / re-releases.

    However, it's now 2018, and the 2011 Steam release still remains the last time Sonic 3 / Sonic 3 & Knuckles was re-released in any format. If I recall correctly, not even the Sega-licensed AtGanes Genesis microconsole from a couple of years ago has Sonic 3 included, even though all of the other major Genesis Sonic releases --Sonic 1, 2, & Knuckles, Spinball, 3D Blast, and Mean Bean Machine-- are intact on the device.
     
  14. itsstillthinking

    itsstillthinking

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    Correct me if im wrong but i think the 25th anniversary AT games console and the TecToy consoles had Sonic & Knuckles, im going to guess that since in generations all the Sonic 3 & Knuckles stuff was just from Knuckles and in Mania it's the same. This means to me that they are intentionally avoiding 3 as a whole so not to possible get in any legal troubles. Even without Michale's involvement there are some hig profile credits and that probably cost's more to Sega than its worth
     
  15. hxc

    hxc

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    Everytime I watch this it makes me angry that he can't say my three letter username correctly.
     
  16. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck

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    I'm pretty sure Hydrocity Zone is in Sonic 3.
     
  17. Mastered Realm

    Mastered Realm

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    The only thing I don't like about that video is that you imply choosing Masaru Setsumaru as the person to digitize the songs is a bad idea because he's supposedly a bad musician.

    Wtf, the guy was some kind of programmer/technician that had great expertise in how that chip worked and he was the best to do it because he could code his own instruments to replicate the originals on tape. Also, he went to be a nice composer himself some years later and composed no other than the final boss of Sonic 3D Blast and all the themes from Sonic Jam.
     
  18. f2bnp

    f2bnp

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    This just in. Sorry if it's been posted in another topic already!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZZzagC00fQ
     
  19. ICEknight

    ICEknight

    Researcher Researcher
    Well, the Stranger in Moscow ending does seem to have some digitized boomboxing as the drum samples, so maybe it was MJ's voice?
     
  20. McAleeCh

    McAleeCh

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    Generations 3DS' "Big Arm" boss fight is also from Sonic 3 - it's only the home console version which didn't feature anything from Sonic 3 directly.