Unpopular Sonic Opinions

This is an opinion I feel like I have expressed here multiple times lol.
We REALLY don't need a correct answer to these things.
Discussing these esoteric lore and manuals is cool and all, but let's not pretend it's history.

 

I have officially switched sides. “Sonic is Sonic” is stupid.

I am very opinionated. Have been for a long time. And you take someone as opinionated as I am and as…

Kind of a jerk as I am sometimes andmittedly and put that with people who are also kind of jerks but of different views and it doesn’t always go well.

I think such disagreements and controversy is what kind of breeds this desire for a widespread adoption of the “Sonic is Sonic” mentality. Just accept all of it.

In fact, I used to have a very similar view. Because frankly, all these iterations and adaptations of Sonic, while wildly different, you can find something to enjoy is most of them. I myself like quite a bit of them to some degree. However, just because I do like most of them despite their differences in interpretation doesn’t mean that that makes them acceptable to everyone else….

And they don’t have to be. Who cares that much? It’s a fictional series about a talking blue rat that runs fast. Does it REEEEEEALLY matter that we can all agree on this? Is it really that important?

But moreso than “It doesn’t matter,” it just reasonably, logically doesn’t make sense. People don’t like games and stories and stuff for no reason. They like it because it has qualities and aspects they like. So yeah. If an iteration of something doesn’t have those things you like about the thing, logically you’re not going to like the thing as much. It’s not going to be what you want.

In the case of Sonic, it’s not going to be “Sonic” to you. And that just makes sense. And especially when Sonic Team and Sega and who ever else just straight up freaking annihilates the version of this franchise that had the things you liked about it, replacing it with something that doesn’t and that you can’t see appeal in, of course you’re not going to be satisfied with that. Yeah, you’re probably going to have complaints. Just…

Logically, that’s just what makes sense.

So Sonic shouldn‘t be Sonic in name only. It should be Sonic in that has the freaking things you like about Sonic. At least for you to like it.

There is a right way to Sonic, a correct way. There is no ONE right and correct way to Sonic, as this is highly subjective stuff. But in the sense I have described. there are correct ways to Sonic.

Yeah, if people could enjoy more things everyone would be happier. But it’s not like in all cases they’re CHOOSING to not like it. They just don’t like it.

 

Sega have compromised the integrity and essence of Sonic to such a degree that controversy is just inherent in the franchise at this point. People are going to bitch and moan no matter what happens because things aren't how they want them to be.

So instead of getting into weekly dick measuring contests with a bunch teenagers/young adults on Twitter, I've opted to simply look at each individual Sonic product in terms of what it's attempting to do and if it succeeded in that.

Now if you want my personal opinion? Sonic is fucked beyond repair. There is no salvaging it as it currently is. It's rotten from top to bottom, and the attempts to salavge it are just actively making it worse for everyone, but people have too much emotional attachment to the rot to ever let it go, so this is what we're stuck with.

Now if it were up to me and Sega actually had a vision for this series and what it should be, I'd throw the baby out with the bathwater and start from scratch. But that would undoubtedly alienate a significant portion of the base and probably cause far more harm than good and simply isn't viable as a business strategy.


Conversely, all of these different takes on Sonic cannot really co-exist like people think, otherwise they're just gonna start cannibalizing each other and cancel themselves out.

 

toot toot sonic warrior and cosmic eternity (instrumental versions excepted) are the worst songs on the cd jp soundtrack, and are vastly inferior to the corresponding versions of sonic boom in every way, especially lyrically. i resent them so much because as someone who believes the jp soundtrack is stronger overall, the 2011 version doesn't allow for soundtrack selection per-song, so i either have to put up with the horrible intro theme or a weaker selection of overall tracks. i occasionally will just play cd with the us soundtrack on just so that i can have the obviously superior intro and ending themes, even if i generally prefer the jp level songs.

they really ought to have backported the generations style soundtrack collection to cd, but i suppose only bonafide freaks like myself care enough about having granular control of the soundtrack for them to seriously consider that feature request

 

If you're playing the 2011 version of CD couldn't you start a new save with the US soundtrack and then after the intro quit to the main menu and switch the soundtrack to JP for the rest of the game? You could even switch back to US on the last level so you can hear the ending version of Sonic Boom.

 

While I vehemently disagree with nearly all of this because I love those two songs, I will say that the lyric actually being "toot toot Sonic warrior" is unimaginably stupid and a part of me refuses to believe that's what is really being said. SUPER Sonic warrior, right? This is all just an elaborate joke, right?

 

If I recall correctly, the US soundtrack being in the 2011 version was a last-minute implementation (since rights clearance was initially uncertain), which would explain the lack of per-song controls.

 

Does it need to make sense? I think it's a jam even though I have no idea what half the lyrics mean.

 

I legitimately like Sonic Robo Blast 2 more than games like Mania or Superstars. In fact, I would argue it's the best "Classic" Sonic game ever made, and it's ironically completely unaffiliated with Sega. Playing it makes me wish the Thok was a move in actual Sonic games. Also, the soundtrack for levels like Greenflower Zone Act 2 and Techno Hill in general are top tier Sonic music, and I wish the music for SRB2 would be acknowledged more in general.

 

The lyrical Sonic CD songs (I refuse to call them by those names) are practically infamous among the fandom for not having any actual consensus regarding what the lyrics even are. On both the Sonic News Network and our wiki, it claims that there's some misinterpreted lyrics while also saying the SONICTEAM "PowerPlay" and 20th Anniversary booklets have differences.



From the sounds of it, though... I have a mild inkling that the lyrics weren't actually handed over back in 1997 and those who were transcribing the lyrics were just winging it. It's a total mystery as to what the song's actually saying even with repeated listens.

Similarly, the boss theme had vocals that were unclear for the longest time until a dedicated stem project by Nuclear [NUKELEDGE] managed to transcribe what they were.

 

My assumption is that NUKELEDGE just happened to use this site (or something close to it):
https://www.lalal.ai/

Heck, I use it myself when I want some clarity on non-vocal stems, including from Sonic CD. I've never bothered with the OP/ED themes, but I'm sure someone could drag and drop them over if they really felt so inclined to get answers, so to speak.

 

I feel like Toot Toot is probably one of the clearest songs out of anything with lyrics produced at that time and has been solved for ages. Idk why those two went with "your hour is never at hand", it's pretty clearly "near at hand" which is a common enough phrase.
They're also missing "[you've got to survive no matter what you do,] you gotta do for you"

Overall the song's just saying "here's this dude, he's fast, that's so cool, he's gonna do a time travel now" and doing it with just a little bit of what feels like "engrish" but it's actually just slightly abstract lyrics.

 

I don't really really care about deep meaning in the lyrics or whatevre, I just love the melody of the song and how beautiful Keiko Utoku's voice is.

It's a very energetic song.

 

I always thought the JP soundtrack was a bit too energetic for the visuals, Toot Toot especially. Sonic Boom puts better emphasis on Sonic's determination and the setting being established.

 

Now you got me all thinking of this other song that goes "toot toot".

I found it funny how when they re-recorded "You Can Do Anything", they made "save the planets" sound less like "shake" (or "shave") "the balance".

 

So, I first heard that Live And Learn song just a few weeks ago. I'd heard so much about it over the years, I was really expecting it to be enjoyable to me.

I fucking hate it.

 

Sonic Boom is a magical experience.
the credits version where the singer just goes "Sonic boooom, sonic booooOooOooooom", magic.

 

Hot take -> the best version of the Sonic CD opening is the fake one with Bad Religion - Supersonic that dominated early Youtube

 

The world doesn't want or need a Sonic Adventure 3, depending on what your definition of an "Adventure" game is either Sonic 06 or Sonic Unleashed are as SA3 as you're gonna get and they were both panned games, even if 06 had been finished it would still have received mediocre reviews.