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Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) movie

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Dark Sonic, Dec 7, 2013.

  1. Jay T.

    Jay T.

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    Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the movie confirmed before Mania got released?

    It doesn't help that the fanbase is so insanely divided that SEGA is trying to appeal to as many fans as possible, which is doing more harm than good. I do wonder how much creative control SEGA had here, since they hated the direction Big Red Button was originally gonna take with Sonic's design in Boom. But then again, BRB was just a tiny new studio where Paramount Pictures is, well, not obviously. Plus we've seen the reactions from those who have or still worked for or alongside SEGA, and it's not good. Things are gonna get more rough for the fans, again. SEGA is probably gonna distance themselves from western studios and what-not after getting burned twice like this (IDW being the exception). Whatever SEGA's announcing at SXSW, it better be big and exciting.

    As for my thoughts on the design: The head is OK, everything else, not-so-much. Still bad, but I did expect much, much worse. Honestly almost feels like ripping a band-aid off here. Though I am curious to see him in motion.
     
  2. doc eggfan

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  3. Pengi

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    This is a licensing/branding thing. When Sonic X was around it had its own branded products as well, despite being 95% the same as the mainline Sonic. The new animated show won't necessarily use a radically different design.
     
  4. Icewarrior

    Icewarrior

    I'm a member of S.T.A.R.S !!11!!!1!! Member
    And now for something else...
    https://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/10/2/1551791029-d040herxqaedwnm.jpg
     
  5. LordOfSquad

    LordOfSquad

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    This would have been close to bearable if he had socks and gloves, and his arms weren't blue. As he is now, it just looks like a cheap knock-off that didn't pay enough attention.
     
  6. Mastered Realm

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    The shared images are prototypes, made in a bitmap-based app (probably Photoshop) used in internal approval with SEGA. The final design in 3D GGI has adjustments.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Hez

    Hez

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    This is such garbage. This is the biggest "Fuck you" that Sega has ever done to its fans. It approved this monstrosity for money. They even got rid of HIS ICONIC SHOE DESIGN so they could sell Nike shoes. For fuck sakes. This shows me that they give zero shit about anything but money.

    Don't get me wrong, I understand a company needs to make money, but this is next level whoring.

    And for everyone thinking they "like it". You don't. You shouldn't have to even second guess yourself. It's like being an abused girlfriend trying to justify their boyfriends actions at this point. Ya'll sound like battered women.
     
  8. nineko

    nineko

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    While it's true that it could have been even worse, it doesn't mean that it's not bad, yeah. I don't know what that thing is, but it's not Sonic.

    It's a good thing that we have Mania Adventures on Youtube if we want something good to look at.
     
  9. Mastered Realm

    Mastered Realm

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    I think you got the trophy for 'most absurd example used without relation to the topic'.

    Fanboys always like their franchises no matter the quality, it's to be expected actually.

    This movie will obviously fail, but some Sonic fans will like it. Just accept that.
    The brand isn't sustained by the fans only. This won't happen again just because not enough people will see it, hopefully.
     
  10. Snub-n0zeMunkey

    Snub-n0zeMunkey

    yo what up Member
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  11. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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  12. Powpuck

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    Gotta shill, phil!
     
  13. Zephyr

    Zephyr

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    They've been lacking in a "coherent vision" for much, much longer than 2014. Sonic Team's early 3D ventures culminated in Sonic Adventure, which saw an admirable attempt at comporting the Classic games' physics into a 3D space (meaning, they weren't finished; there was still a lot that needed to be done), but with Adventure 2 they said "eh, fuck it, good enough!" and have been drifting farther and farther away from that since. Team formations and tedious combat? Guns and vehicles? Mach speed sections and "omg next gen physics!"? Half of a racing game, half of a Fisher Price God of War bootleg? Blocky 2D platforming with new powerups (because the old ones weren't good enough)? Classic Sonic is back? Parkour shit? Which games shove Sonic's Shitty Friends™ down our throats? Just from the standpoint of gameplay mechanics alone, the mainline series of games has been most clearly characterized, more than anything else, by an abject lack of vision; experimentation for experimentation's sake.

    Need I describe how utterly schizophrenic the story, tone, and setting were during that period? To be very brief (and a tad reductive): "Is Sonic a story for edgy furries, or for toddlers?" "Is Sonic in the real world, or surreal fantasy land?" Hell, we can go earlier: remember how wildly different the story bits in the instruction manuals were in the 90's? Sonic CD's American manual was talking about Princess Sally. "Does Sonic live on Earth or on Mobius?" "Eggman or Robotnik?" How about the different boxart designs? We had 3 cartoons, and an OVA in the 90's, all mutually exclusive. Even after Adventure set the record straight on a lot of this shit in the video games department, we still had two different comic series going, plus, as someone pointed out earlier, Sonic X (and then a Sonic X comic). I can't think of a single individual time that this brand had a singular coherent vision.

    Releases are staggered, but different teams are working on different games simultaneously. Boom came out while Forces was being "worked on". Mania hadn't even been pitched yet. I'd rather different teams handle different experiments, so that each can be refined over time, each with its own space to breathe, rather than one studio trying to cram it all into one game every time, depriving each style of the necessary time, R&D, and polish to flourish and grow. Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces very neatly show the folly of trying to do two radically different things at once: the classic gameplay is a bafflingly paltry imitation of decades old mechanics, and the Boost gameplay is taking the Adventure 2 approach of "we could go all the way, but we won't". I'd rather we get a Mania game from, say, Evening Star, and a game that is solely the Boost gameplay from "Sonic Team", or Sumo (actual racing game developers). It's not difficult to see which studio is behind developing each game. I know some people don't know Taxman and Stealth from Big Red Button, but surely you do?

    Mania Plus came out less than a year ago. Have a little bit of patience, my man.
     
  14. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    Not quite a like-for-like match, but still makes you think.



    It's hard to believe that once upon a time the Sonic on the left was one of the worst renditions of the character.
     
  15. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Know what the worst part is?

    [​IMG]

    These are real, Nike-branded shoes. They could have used these, but they'd rather throw away one of the most iconic accessories of any video game character.

    Jesus Christ this entire debacle is hot garbage.
     
  16. LordOfSquad

    LordOfSquad

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    Seeing everyone bitching about the lack of proper shoes makes me think he's going to get the REAL pair at some point in the movie, probably towards the end.

    But WHITE HANDS is inexcusable lmao
     
  17. Beltway

    Beltway

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    In order to have "a hundred stratified sub-branches," the series needs the capital and popularity to pull that off in the first place, neither of which it has. Sonic only sells to franchise enthusiasts as of this decade, he's no longer the respectable seller he was during the 2000s, let alone the mainstream force/killer app series of the 1990s. Sega as of late has also visibly pulled back on their support of the series, production values for Sonic games have been gradually watered down since Unleashed and Sega of Japan's currently(?) in the process of transitioning control of the brand over to Sega of America. Sonic's still Sega's mascot, but they arguably no longer see him as a top priority they need to spend AAA budgets on or churn out (multiple) annual games for.

    Go look at Megaman. Hundreds of games divided across various branches (Classic, X, Zero, Battle Network, Star Force, Legends, etc.), featuring their own gameplay, artstyle, timeline, protagonists, etc. But you can count on one hand how many standalone Megaman games in the entire series actually sold over one million units. It got to the point of Capcom near-completely shelving the series for a good part of a decade (outside of mobile ports and social games) after Inafune left and they couldn't find anyone else interested in helming the series for the time being. It's just not sustainable at all.

    I'm not asking for one paradigm, I'm actually mostly content with the pre-Adventure/post-Adventure split they're now somewhat trying to do (and arguably what they should had done in the first place, once they settled on making Adventure the way they did). I just don't know why they can't just focus on those two labels and rebuild both sides of the brand, instead of continuing to try and do "new things" to get "new audiences" (part and parcel of what led to the series' decline in the first place); and I'm sure I'm not alone when I say this. The entire performance of the Boom brand, a series specifically designed to garner "a new audience", speaks for itself.

    The weirdest thing is that there are Nike trainers (Ultra XT) that while not Sonic-branded, actually look similar to his iconic shoes, but they went for some standard red trainers you could probably find anywhere.

    [​IMG]

    And technically, Sega didn't so much give their approval on the movie than they did wash their hands of the movie. They sold the movie license and have some sort of creative consultant role (which the production team are on the record for more or less handwaving) but they don't have any real input.

    In some ways, it's Rise of Lyric all over again in that Sega just let BRB run wild with making a Jak and Daxter clone that happened to star Sonic, before trying to creatively reign them in to make it closer to the main series. Except with the movie, it doesn't look like that's going to happen...

    EDIT: Welp, Overlord just ninja'd me with the Nike Sonic shoes response.
     
  18. SpaceyBat

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    Here is a palette cleanser from one of my favorite artists on Twitter:

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    Source
     
  19. Black Squirrel

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    Fun bit of history - when Sonic & Knuckles was announced in the first half of 1994, this was the only image Sega released. This logo carried the entirity of the game until September/October time when screenshots began to emerge. It's still front and centre of the box in all regions.

    Sonic is represented solely by his interconnecting eyes. Not even his spikes are emphasised - it's his eyyyeeesss.


    [​IMG]

    In 1997, Sonic Team decided to remind its audience that Sonic existed with its Project Sonic inititive. They put it on game covers and advertised with it in magazines, and it later turned up in Sonic Pocket Adventure.

    You are drawn to the the interconnecting eyyyeeesss.




    [​IMG]

    When Sonic Adventure was getting teased in the August of 1998, Sega released this one image to entice you into a special event at the Tokyo International Forum where the game would be revealed.

    It is pretty much just interconnecting eyyyeeesss.



    Sonic's shoes were a thing of course, but lest we forget - Sega never really nailed down on a design and they were considered expendable in Sonic Adventure 2. The eyes though? Pretty important.
     
  20. VectorCNC

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    Somehow this is exactly what I imagined, so it really hasnt shocked me. I guess I don't mind it, it's ok. But my expectations were so contoured from the start. I guess I'm feeling that it could have been worse... But it's not ideal. Ideal would have been complete CG. Given they chose the hybrid route, actually using the modern Sonic form would have also looked wrong. They probably tried it and decided against it. I can see how they landed on this model. Would be interesting to see someone create something better given the parameters.

    Edit - ok, someone did that, but I'm not convinced it would have looked correct in the film alongside humans.