Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

The question is if by the numbers they were successful against their cost of production. I haven't really done the numbers on them.

 

Well again. The Crash trilogy did well enough to garner a new sequel. And that did well enough to get another one in development. It's just that the development completely collapsed in on itself and the game got canceled, because as I said, fuck Activision. Maybe that mess was expensive enough to turn them off another new game, but it wasn't the consumer's fault.

 

I am aware it has been debunked but still too similar for my liking. Considering how much Aladdin borrowed from Richard Williams's The Thief and the Cobbler (original unfinished/unreleased version), I definitely hold some reservations or suspicion about what Disney may or may not have done with The Lion King in regards to Kimba, although I don't believe it was a direct ripoff.

 

Can I just ask for potential very future reference...

What's the policy on spoilers in this thread?

Just use the standard spoiler commands or no spoilers at all?

Edit: Obviously this is for when press NDAs expire and the reviews/previews go up.

 

MegaMan had since then a lot of collections, and the big capcom leak in 2020 suggested a new one was at development too, also what is said here:

rings true for Mega Man 11 specifically, Inafune was what keeping the series alive in general, he left, then suddenly there wasn't anyone who was pushing heavily for a new one, until one of the designers stepped up to make MM11, which was successful, the most successful traditional MM game in fact, and MM collections continued after it, i still believe we should see a new MM game in the future, regardless if the leaked game was cancelled or not.

Crash tho, it had the misfortune of being under Activision, a company that is only interested in COD nowadays pretty much, that they chose to let the Crash and Spyro teams work on COD rather than making them make their own projects

Toys for Bob were actually pushing for Crash 5, made a lot of material and was in pre-production with tons of concept art and general story and even some prototypes before eventually cancelled, there is a detailed video about it's history with all those concept arts, it also goes on the development history of Crash Team Rumble, which reveals that it was in development before Crash 4 in fact, and when they were designing tutorials levels for it , they thought a new single player Crash game built on material from those tutorials stages would work and went on with it

 

In general, I think the courtesy is to use spoiler tags for at least the first week or so on the main thread. If a dedicated spoiler thread goes up, that tends to be a bit more free game (though leaks might still be tag-worthy even there, I'm not sure).

 

My personal stance on spoilers is waiting a month. I don't think most people are going to be able to see a movie in its first week necessarily, and I think doubly so with Sonic 3 since I imagine many are going to be preoccupied with Christmas stuff.

 

Reminds in Latin America movie will release 5 days after the global release.

 

I personally avoid reading the forum until I manage to go to the cinema. I will, but almost certainly not on day one.

 

Mega Man 11 got greenlit because someone at Capcom managed to leverage the fact that Mega Man Legacy Collection sold a million copies. Mega Man 11 sold very well, and other collections that sold very well followed.

The leaked game in question is Rockman Taisen, but it's been presumably cancelled.

More importantly, the guy who championed Mega Man at Capcom left, so there's reason to believe we're not going to get any new games.

 

I see Sonic the Hedgehog like I see Batman. A character I love to see just being themselves, no matter where.

I am enamored by their character and charisma that as long as they act like themselves, I'll follow them in any type of story or setting. Be it SATAM, Archie, Boom, or the movies for Sonic.

Just like I love the Nolan Trilogy, Batman TAS, and Brave and the Bold for Batman despite all being tonally different.

I wouldn't say I could do the same for someone like Crash or Megaman because their personalities don't lend themselves for a large variety of stories in different sorts of worlds.

Sonic is just a character that's easy to adapt into multiple settings and as long as he's himself his fans will follow that character anywhere.

 

I'm gonna echo Boxer's original thinking. I think that's largely thanks to SEGA's early multimedia efforts and the chaos of that resulting with Sonic being in the public space for years to come.

In contrast to something like Mega Man, he had one cartoon that was cancelled along with its toy line and mostly stayed dormant in the wider public space. The Mega Man brand revival in the 2000s came from the success of Battle Network, which was a complete reinvention of the character, they're not even remotely the same. There were some Japanese only manga attempts but all of that targeted smaller niche audiences. Whenever they did flesh out the world of Mega Man, it was an offshoot series loosely connected or not even connected to Mega Man.

There was never any real major groundwork to branch him and firmly establish his character to the masses. I think he has a pretty cool premise to work with based on the small bit of material presented in the games. Capcom just never ran with it or let others do the heavy lifting and build that legacy. Tthey just kept diluting him.

 

Well using the two examples I mentioned. Sonic is a cool dude with an in your face attitude, who never gives up, and always figures out his way out of any situation. That's a character with an inherent appeal, even just with merchandising potential.

Batman is a detective who fights crime and gets involved in both grounded and fantastical superhero adventures going anywhere from murder mysteries to big scale globe trotting adventures with fantastical friends and villians. I could probably talk all day about Batman stories and series because they are so varied but the character is able to fit into all those stories perfectly.

Rock from Megaman is...a really nice guy who doesn't like fighting but does so because he has to. That's a good character and has a purpose when it needs to but that's not really a character that has that wish fulfillment or power fantasy Sonic or Batman have. And Sonic and Batman will pave a way in any story they get involved in, making sure their presence is felt, Rock's literal goal is to only help when he needed and live quietly and peacefully otherwise (though I must concede taking your opponents abilities is really cool).

There's an appeal to Rock's way of living, but it's not a character you can just place in any setting and easily make a story. And furthermore that's not a character I see having the inherent appeal of Sonic and his love and freedom and will to fight for his beliefs, no matter what anyone says.

 

It's not just fighting for peace. It's stepping up beyond your limits and doing what's right. You can definitely flesh out a good character and scenarios with Rock's sense of justice, but he wasn't given the same leeway as Batman and Sonic. I think the fact that he's still around and resonate with people of multiple generations shows that the potential to build off it was there, but just never fully realized. Based on the previews, it seems that the Amazon show nailed Rock. It's just a shame it's 30 years too late.

Any further discussion in the defense of Mega Man from my end be purely hypothetical at this point so I'm bowing out. I'm not looking to drag this out.

 

I genuinely believe that branching out into other media like TV shows and comic books was probably the smartest decision SEGA made for Sonic's longevity.

In the 90's, Sonic's main goal as a brand was to be a flagship title for SEGA's consoles the same way Mario was for Nintendo. When SEGA stopped making consoles, their priorities shifted in a major way and they treat Sonic more as a multimedia brand now which has totally worked in keeping him known. Sonic will always be recognizable in some way. MegaMan/Crash Bandicoot/Rayman/Spyro/Banjo-Kazooie/Scrimblo Bimbo pretty much live and die as video game characters.

In the case of Crash Bandicoot though, Activision really fumbled the ball hard. If I told you that Crash routinely outsold Sonic during the 90's and his revival period from 2017-2023 would you believe it? Crash is insanely popular but had the misfortune of belonging to a company that just didn't care about the IP and weren't smart enough to know what to do with it.

I've always had a soft spot for Crash. CTR was the first game I ever played and Crash 2 is still one of my favourite platformers of all time. That being said, I always thought that it was depressing as hell that the main selling point of Crash during his revival was the "nostalgia factor". I understand why they market him that way and it obviously worked, but it feels so reductive and gives the impression that he doesn't have a future. I think when you lean so hard into the nostalgia angle you risk alienating new or younger players who don't have that attachment to the character. Crash has a timeless appeal, I think it was really misguided to heavily portray him as a throwback character.

Mario and Sonic also lean into nostalgia stuff too but I feel like those characters will always continue to exist and have a future.

 

Also rings true for Soulcalibur, too.

 

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Surprised that they actually went with the lookalike stuff from SA2 when they had the option to write it out this time around and with Terios not being a factor. Though I suppose Shadow's dark blue sheen is much more evident in Sonic 3...
Also the "You jumped out of the G.U.N helicopter, there's nothing to talk about." line is so good.