Obscure, irrelevant things you find odd in Sonic games

...This bothered me a lot more than I ever thought it could.

 

this drove me nuts and I am glad I am not alone. I also immediately noticed the "extra" animations in origins and it really....really bothered me. It looked so out of place.

 

It's hard to know what the original intent was, but Sonic Adventure's rings weren't too offensive from my point of view.

The problem comes from the games that actually make them golden. I don't know if "gold rings" is an Americanism (i.e. did the Japanese lore actually mention a colour), but to me it looks like there was a conscious decision in Sonic 1 to make the rings yellow so that they'd have a chance of standing out against the background. Some games seem to forget this (and actually make them reflect the surroudings), so they're no longer super obvious.

The strive for "realistic" materials in a game about blue anthropomorphic hedgehogs has always been an evolutionary dead end. Like when they give the characters fur - take people off character art duties and have them make levels that aren't a Green Hill Zone rehashes.

 

Maybe it's so he doesn't burn the vehicle with the jet engine?

I also think it's because he's making a precise landing. Helicopter drop off.

 

Man, the more I look at it, the more off-putting the original rings look.




Due to the quarter-turned frames being the same sprite flipped, and the middle one being symmetrical, the full circle one not being like that makes it jarringly pop in.
The Mania one has it's turning sprites be an amalgam of the original full circle and quarter-turned sprites, and changed it's own full circle to glisten and transition between the flip more naturally.

 

I meant that, in the original games, they're the kind you can put on your finger, or stayed similar to that in the case of 3K. Now 3D enters the scene, and tubular circles are easier models to make, but then that becomes the de facto standard and Mania keeps them that way. That's what I'm complaining about in terms of shapes: I'd say nothing if they didn't change them to a less detailed shape, or even if the least detailed shape was the original, but both exist and it was a downgrade.

Regarding colours, I think the yellow vs. gold isn't really an option in 16-bit, yellow is golden enough and grey/silver would look dull. What went wrong in 3K was the metal lighting, regardless of the colour chosen. Also, agreed "mirror" rings are weird considering this all, but at least they look cool and used as goal rings it's kind of a different case because they have a star in the middle too.

 

This discussion about rings amuses me and I love seeing discussion on things like this. It also brings to mind that I find the coin sprites of the New Super Mario Bros U style of Super Mario Maker to look weird for similar reasons. Something about the way it shines and the way it loops feels a bit uncanny to me in a way I can't describe.

 

I haven't played it in a minute but didn't the rings in SegaSonic actually look like rings and not golden donuts? Granted the game is older than Adventure but I always thought it looked pretty neat aesthetically speaking.

 

I don't know, I don't particularly like that Mania rings now look like this popular snack:



Besides I won't ever be able to explain this but the original ring seems to glisten more.

 

Here in the flyer we can see them, and they seem to have taken the opposite direction, being quite flat and with a bigger hole in the middle. I'd say the closest to these in regards to proportions or shape are the giant rings in S1/CD, but I'd also say they went a bit too far for my taste. I can't judge the lighting in these properly just with the flyer, so I'll leave that to those who bother checking the spritesheet.

Oh, and in Sonic 3D, even the small rings are already donuts.

 

why is this true. tghe s3 rings are like fat??? but why? the big ring from 1 and CD are fine but like...? idk. i got know clue why im hyperfocusing about big rings in a blue rat game but you have opened my mind

 

Well, 3K ones are fatter but not so fat. I've been checking out and my conclusion about their lighting is they are hidden in dark places and the light is meant to come from the window you usually see them through, but I'm not buying it, it's still weird. Can confirm Knuckles' Chaotix is also home to donut rings of all sizes and colours, and Sonic Chaos has big donuts too. Not sure if rings in the special stages of 3k are standard or donut shaped, as those are hard to guess just by their sprites.

 

I think they put them in the less bad place, there are better ways to put them but would probably interfere with Sonic's base design.

 

I remember trying to do that Sonic 3 level select code from the February, 1995 Gamepro Magazine and it took me forever to do it, I was so happy when I finally did it. Later on, I discovered that if you do the level select code from Sonic 2, then do the cartridge tilt trick, put in Sonic 3, then you’ll automatically unlock the Sonic 3 sound test option without doing the code.

 

Sonic uses this pose a lot in artwork.

Spoiler

 

Running away from Kishimoto

 

cool pose

 

Wouldn't know where else to post this, but--

So my brother made his first fangame, which is Breakout/Arkanoid, but Sonic-themed. I was immediately reminded of the Collision Chaos boss is a pinball match through and through, but man it sure is a bummer that the Wacky Workbench boss isn't an Arkanoid level. It would've worked so well!