His Sonic Channel profile confirms that Eggman reprogrammed him to be obedient again after Sonic Heroes. The Rivals games take place after Sonic 2006. Metal Sonic is working for Eggman, whilst Eggman Nega has the black and yellow Metal Sonic 3.0. Sonic Free Riders had him acting independently again to defeat Sonic. In Sonic Runners his character blurb says that he was once rebellious but is now back under Eggman's control. I'm not sure whether he showed up in the story at all?
Fuck, Metal Sonic could be such a cool character if Sonic Heroes ended up being the beginning of an arc. But of course, that would require Sonic Team to take their characters seriously, so it will obviously never happen.
That animation in that trailer got me thinking that Sega of Japan has got Sonic's appeal all wrong on an objective level. I don't mean that as a general "lol SoJ just doesn't fuckin' get it" criticism (although it's true), but as an observation of what they think is important about Sonic as a character. Since it's nigh impossible to avoid the comparison, look at Mario. His design is timeless, and the only times when you could say they might have missed that mark is when they deliberately went out of their way to portray Mario in a manner that conveyed a more focused emotional theme. Like with the Super Mario Strikers art style. Could you imagine if Nintendo took that fierce style and made it franchise wide? They'd be doing another redesign before the year was out. Mario's normal aesthetic is just "cute" though. Cute never changes. You can convey different emotions with cute too. Cute can be tough. Cute can be cool. Cute can be sad. Cute can be a lot of things. Which brings us to this trailer. It's cute! Cute!! But Sonic is still cool. And we're all in love with that trailer. Even people that don't really care about Sonic think the trailer was cool. I can't help but feel that this is the way the brand should be going forward. Not that I hate Modern Sonic (I like the way he looks right now quite a bit), but it's not really...timeless.
Honestly, I think Sonic's current design is boring as hell. It just looks generic and souless to me. There's so much personality in the design of classic Sonic, as shown in the trailer. I think Sonic's current design can be much better - even the Adventure style has more personality and style to it.
Yup. Metal would challenge Sonic but he was working for Eggman. The story would set up everything for a Metal Sonic vs Sonic race, but then for some reason, Eggman would step in and battle Sonic (I guess they didn't want to create an extra boss stage).
I agree with this almost completely, I would love to see this style of Sonic being used in future as well, it is so, so well done. You can tell that everyone who is working on Mania understands exactly what it is that makes Sonic Sonic. The animated segment of that trailer was beyond fantastic! When Sonic meets up with Tails and Knuckles and gives that wink with the thumbs up, it just feels perfect. I personally have nothing against the Modern Sonic design either, but part of me wonders if his generic-ness comes down to having a voice? Whenever Sonic has his voice taken away he seems to become so much more charismatic because he has to be - all of the classic series, the CD animations, Night of the Werehog, Classic Sonic in Generations and now this Mania trailer all worked incredibly well and he never utters a word. I'm very curious to see how Classic Sonic comes across in Forces. On a side note, it's my first post here and I have to say how excited I am for Mania! With everything that we have seen so far there hasn't been a single thing that's made me doubt the quality of this game. Got the CE edition pre-ordered and bought the digital version on Xbox immediately after watching that trailer. Should a physical copy ever be released, I will most definitely be picking that up too *hint hint*
Classic Sonic has a timeless design, but Modern Sonic is not that behind. When Adventure came out you could tell Oshima and Uekewa really took into consideration on how to take his design to the next level. The problem is that when Oshima left you Sonic lost something. In the promo art for SA2 he's already more rigid and less expressive. Then he started reverting back to this weird mix of classic and modern proportions and Uekewa started losing ideas on poses for 2D and CGI art. Anyways, can't wait for E3 and the inevitable soundtrack announcement.
I can attest to that. I was surprised to see a very non-gamer guy I know share the animated trailer shortly before I posted it on Facebook. He loved the classics as a kid but, as far as I remember, he never showed any interest whatsoever in the modern games. He seemed to be extremely excited about this, even adding at the end "In 2D!!" with a "crying with excitement" emoji. :O
Always thought this. Couldn't agree more. I think part of what makes it cute is that he's being cool. With this design, him being cool is cute, because he looks cute, but acting cool (in a totally non-contrived way like modern). It's all very cute.
Are you sure there's a real timeline for Sonic games, besides the "this game came after this other one" thing? I mean, It's not like they care that much about it, even if sometimes they've tried to tie some games together. Even the anime show we had in times of Shadow was left behind, and that was still a modern game thing. About Mania itself, there's no real need to place it in a timeline either. That game is a celebration, something like a "greatest hits" album for a music band, or better said, a commemorative concert with new tracks and remixed themes. It's a place for memories about classic Sonic and classic Sega, so no worries if they don't give us a real plot for the level selection, they just have to make our dreams come true (yes, it was a necessary pun).
Tax has gone on record saying that the narrative will sort of expand upon the established canon in the classics. Levels won't just be retreads for the sake of it, but there will be a reason Sonic and Co. go back to these areas. And while the canon is never really pushed in the games, there are elements of world building and consistency in each of them (mostly Sonic 3). So I don't think it's too far fetched to try and figure out how they'll play with the lore this time around.
Amazing on so many levels. Boss fights look a little over-the-top though. Gotta love the animated bits for this trailer. Complements the past few months very well. Sonic Mania nails the concept of a retrospective. Can't help but get hyped.
Tyson tweeted a cleaner version of the animation at the end of the Sonic Mania trailer: https://twitter.com/tyson_hesse/status/871107384977932288
That's so cool! Such an interesting personality he gave to classic Sonic! He's cool and badass, but slightly goofy too. Fits Sonic perfectly!
Yeah! Its like Sonic is a bit clumsy from moving so fast, but since he can move so fast he gets to play it off real cool.
It sort of reminds me of Sonic in the OVA. He had a tendency to clutz up and make a mistake here and there, but he'd always save face, and look self assured as a result. That's the perfect characteristic for a someone like Sonic.
Omg I secretly want Sonic Forces to be the biggest flop in Sonic's timeline, so this can give Sega a real wakeup call. Man this looks so nice!
I do have to admit, I want Mania to be a roaring success and Forces to get a middling reception. Mania encompasses everything that made me fall in love with this franchise in the first place, from the gameplay to the music to the visual design. It is Sonic. Forces just get everything wrong. It's difficult to know where to begin. Regardless of anything to do with Classic and Modern, I want SEGA and Sonic Team to look at Mania and see exactly why it's getting so much praise. I mean, I don't want Forces to outright fail or anything. Certainly not. The character creation system could very well have its place in a spin-off title. But that in a main game over actual characters that I've grown to love over the years, the poor gameplay, the total lack of an understanding about the Classic and Modern branches of the franchise... ugh. No. Forces feels like something designed by a focus group with SEGA trying to superficially appeal to everyone. Mania is everything Sonic should be.
I not-so-secretely want the same thing. I mean, if the classic Sonic gameplay was still going strong, I honestly wouldn't care about a parallel series with modern-style gameplay, but since 2D Sonic (GOOD 2D Sonic) has been forgotten for so long, a nice slap in Sega's face would be ideal to make them see how powerful Sonic can be in a proper 2D game. I just don't want Mania to be a one time thing, so if a modern game flopping is what it takes for Sega to see what they're missing, then so be it.