Im surprised cream was so popular to play as in the beta. Sonic and shadow make sense, theyre the two most popular characters in the franchise, but cream is more niche. Guess its partly because of the novelty of her being a newcomer to the racing games
I think it's just because this is Cream's big come back in a new major title. She's been been cast aside ever since 2010/11, getting her final appearances as a cheerleader in Generations, Colours DS and everybody's least favourite game Free Riders. Since then it's just just mobile trash and she's been overlooked in all the games where you might expect to see her. Dream Team gets a special mention for being gatekept. No joke, I'm actually really disappointed that Omochao isn't playable in Crossworlds because TSR seriously endeared him to me. But Cream has been been sorely absent for so long when she was such a stable of the series from 2002 to 2011. Crossworlds reintroducing Cream is just delighting to all the fans who haven't had the opportunity to engage with her. Big had a similar period of absence after being a standard character and it only made people fonder in the long run. Seriously, Big coming back into the main series the way he did in Frontiers was just perfect. Such a brilliant dose of humour and use of his character in the most inoffensive way.
I'm not too surprised. Her debut games were Advanced 2 and Heroes, with Heroes giving her the most exposure. She's been on and off even in spin off titles like Olympic games so she's been missed. TSR ditching her was a shit move. People are just glad to have her back. EDIT: I'm too slow...
I wonder who designed them, they seem so out of place. Granted, a lot of Sonic characters do, there hasn't really been much consistency.
They don't have much visual personality, I don't think they were designed with Sonic's "flair" in mind. Most other characters were, before and after. They remind me of duplo
I think I'd like the Zeti if they got minorish redesigns to make them look less like toys, and majorish characterization reworks to give them some level of depth. IDW had some decent stuff with Zavok. I do really wish Sonic had a wider rouges gallery outside of Dr Eggman and some robots built by Dr Eggman. Most non-Eggman enemies are either demigods who completely disappear when defeated, or "not really a bad guy, and they become friends with Sonic afterwards". Or they're in another dimension like the Storybook games. I want Eggman to be the big bad, but I just wish they had more toys in that toy box when it comes to making game narratives. Who knows, they COULD do that with the Zeti with some effort. We all used to hate Big until he found his purpose, no? That's part of the reason why all the various comics over the years ended up creating new villains. It can't just be "Then Sonic fought Eggman, then Sonic fought Eggman... then Sonic fought... Eggman" issue-after-issue. Bringing Black Doom back was a good start.
I'm glad characters like Big and Cream aren't outcasts anymore. Maybe it's because I got into the series through the Advance games but I've always had a soft spot for Cream and she definitely appeals to younger kids too. Between the Advance games, Rush and her appearance in Sonic X I feel like there was a brief period of time where she was straight up like the 5th main character alongside Sonic, Tails, Knuckles & Amy lol.
Cream was hated for a long while, I'm told, because she was too "kiddy." But I have a hard time identifying how Cream is definitively more "kiddy" than Classic Amy
Sonic Team's dedication to keeping the Zeti alive is something I've never understood. A quick google search says Lost World was one of the worst selling games in the franchise, and it has middling reviews on steam. Other characters from poorly received games have been swept under the rug, for example Sticks and Infinite. Yet for some reason they keep bringing the them back. I really wonder what Sonic Team sees in the Zeti that I don't.
I've no idea if there's any merit in that. But if anyone felt that way, just look at when Cream was introduced. It's when the series was going through it's edgy teen and anime phase. And back then, the Classic arm of the franchise was well and truly dormant too.
Funny you say that, I was making reference to one post here from 2004 bemoaning a perceived "kiddy" direction the series was going in. Wonder how they felt about Shadow's game.
Heroes being kiddy was an exception to rule. I guess X was aimed at children too, but even it was still had "cool anime vibes" for the time. Between the shift to third party gathering a whole new audience and general 2000s trends, SA2, Shadow and 06 were pursuing a more "mature" angle for the series. Anyway, we're getting way off subject here.
Cream is "super easy mode" in Sonic Advance 2. You press a button and Cheese solves the problem. It felt like they were trying to court the little girls demographic or invent something to address the gender balance in Sonic Heroes. She's never really offered much to the world.
I don't like then either but i kinda understand why the keep them around, they are the last "group" of characters introduced, it's easy to get one or two characters from them to fill up rosters -and really, when you think about it, they only bring those 2 so may as well rebrand them as the deadly double, even sonic team think that not ALL Zeti are worth bringing back-
I think it's because there's really no other active threat besides Eggman and his minions, so the Zeti fill that role as an independent enemy group for now. It would've been interesting if they had taken more inspiration from the Nightmarens in NiGHTS for their design. That could have preserved the otherworldly feel they were going for while still fitting within the Sonic universe. The Lost World DLC, where Sonic fights the NiGHTS bosses, made me think that approach could have worked well. I also suspect they’re figuring out how to introduce Sticks into the mainline games. As for Infinite, I get the feeling he’s "dead" for now, but they might be keeping him in reserve for a future big game. (Which is a shame—he could have been a great rival for Shadow in Sonic x Shadow Generations. Since they already had Shadow in Sunset Heights, they might as well have had him fight Infinite. They still introduced the conundrum of why Shadow didn’t mention seeing the destruction of Eggman’s invasion beforehand anyway. Or they could’ve kept Infinite’s identity hidden with a dark silhouette, preserving the mystery.) That said, as I mentioned earlier, I wish they would take the opportunity to use more of their existing characters for these kind of games. Just bring back Chaos, Tikal, Black Doom, Neo Metal, the Classic cast, Infinite, Elise—whoever. And if anyone asks why they’re there, just say it's a kart racer outside of continuity and have fun without worrying about canon.
