What was Sonic's personality like pre-Adventure?

Boy people sure enjoy being dicks in this thread... Sure maybe this isn't most popular types of discussion around here, but it is possibly an interesting thing some users might want to discuss.

Plain and simple is that Sonic's personality has changed throughout the years. One thing I find interesting though is that back in the 16-bit days Sonic showed a lot more personality than Mario did in games. Mario just smiled the whole time where Sonic looks determined, annoyed when waiting, surprise when damaged, and smiles and gives you the finger waggle at the end of the level in S3K. You didn't see that kind of expression much from games back then.

 

Well, I always kind of imagined him as something like how he turned out in the Adventure games and Unleashed, really, but I suppose his personality in the U.S. cartoons may've influenced that perception.

Although if you're talking in terms of just the games, there isn't much of anything to go by. It was kind of up to the player to work out the finer points in their imaginations... one of the cool things about not having any verbal storytelling. The only truly concrete thing was that he was the good guy. To be honest, I think it's easier to get a direct read on Eggman's personality than it is to get a read on Sonic's, because Eggman's comes through in his actions and, particularly, in his inventions.

Did posts get deleted between Strange-And-Beautiful and Skaarg, by the way?

 

I always saw Sonic as impatient in the games. Sonic would stare at the player when left alone and would an expression that says something like "What are you doing? Let's go already!" Remember, he even runs out on the player if the player leaves the game for too long in Sonic CD.

 

If you cast your mind right back to 1991, before any of the cartoons or merchandise, Sonic was more in the cheeky rapscallion archetype. More in line with Felix the Cat, old school Mickey Mouse (before he became the poster boy for family values), and Jerry from Tom & Jerry.

In fact Jerry is probably the perfect example. There is a childlike innocence in Jerry, a naivety where you can tell he's not really aware of the fatal consequences if Tom ever catches him. He sees it as a game, a fun game that he enjoys playing against Tom, oblivious to the mortal danger he is in. And the fact that he is mute also amplifies the characters charm. This is what Sonic used to be like in the beginning.

If you compare that against the personality that followed, they changed it so Sonic was aware of the dangers in facing Robotnik, but he was arrogant and smug about it. He's the fastest hedgehog alive, what has he got to worry about? It doesn't make him cool, it makes him a dick. The character became thoroughly more detestable, and I never really liked any of the cartoons or merchandise that followed.

 

Sonic had as much personality in the early games as Mario: none. He was the avatar of the player, any emotion he displayed was to mirror what the player was feeling (or the other way around, to make the player feel that emotion). This was in part due to the limited hardware, and in part because it helped immersion in the game. Even the Sonic CD cinematics didn't push past this. The winposes in Sonic 3 were already a step in the wrong direction, but they were necessary due to the cartoon/comic shitfest. Then the 3d games came out and Sonic turned into an arrogant dick, because he could outrun any problem, so why give a damn at all?

 

I think Sonic Unleashed hit the nail on the head with Sonic's character. He was sympathetic, but also cocky (mainly towards Robotnik though),
Its a shame the script in that game was pretty 'meh' at the best of times

 

What I liked about the earlier Sonic games (Pre-Adventure) was that, even though it was established that he's an impatient character as well as a need for speed, you could use your imagination to make Sonic a nice guy or a dick if you wanted to. Sonic 3 went into further detail with character interaction by making Knuckles a douche-bag, who keep getting in your way by destroying bridges, cutting the lights, even throwing a boulder down a flight of stairs.

That was a great thing about 2D games back in the day, as they could only express so much compared to today. Nowadays, everything is mapped out for you.

EDIT: Sorry if this post is half-baked, gotta leave soon.

 

I dunno, the determined look on Sonic's face in the old games makes me think he was more aware of the danger back then than he is now... although now, he's beaten Eggman like, how many times? It's easy to understand why he treats it like a game...

 

Sonic was cute and cool too, at the same time, or at least that's how I see him. The sprites and the japanese artwork reflect this imo. He was this in AOSTH because of his brother relationship with Tails but not in SatAM, where he was just a lackey and even more awful imo, downplayed as a moron which doesn't like to think because it hurts (amongst other things). Fleetway Sonic was in whole different arrogant league, not everyone's cup of tea.

 

I always thought the main character in SatAM, was Sally. She was the smartest, she led the freedom fighters. She did preactically everything.
Sonic was downplayed A LOT, he was made to look slightly stupid, and overly reliant on Sally. I'm not saying it was bad, so don't start hating on me.

Fleetway....oh Fleetway. Sonic called Tails "Pixel-brain" in that comic, if I'm not wrong. He was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch, and you're absolutely correct in saying its not everyone's taste, caus he was just an asshole. I loved it though, brought about some......realism, cause lets face it, the average 15-year-old boy, wouldn't really be a cute, courageous, polite person now would he...

 

I really like this comparison. Robotnik also bares some similarities to Tom, in the fact that he comes up with all of these ingenious schemes to catch one elusive rodent, and yet always fails. The rivalry even developed to the point where both sides began treating the whole ordeal as if it were a game, both in (some aspects of) Sonic, and in Tom and Jerry. Hell, I could even throw the rivalry between the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in and explain the similarities there as well.

But I digress. Today, Sonic's personality seems to be more focused on playing the cliched anime protagonist (Goku, Naruto, etc), than creating timeless character traits that the whole family could enjoy.

 

And as in Tom and Jerry, the series promptly went to crap when Sonic and Eggman became friends. :specialed:

 

Well naturally, in a sense, yes. It makes the series harder to enjoy when the timeless game you came to watch (Sonic and Eggman fighting) is no longer being played.

 

Ayup. Part of why I liked Unleashed's story so much. Sure, Dark Gaia steals the spotlight, but the Sonic-Eggman relationship was spot-on in that game. (Hell, everyone's unusually in-character in Unleashed, compared to the games that came before it...)

 

Unfortunately, anytime this relationship is shown, Sonic promptly ruins the scene by opening his mouth and saying an extremely corny line in a futile bid to sound cooler than he actually is, or needs to be.

 

Bah, I like his dialogue in Unleashed, but whatever. To each their own.

At least he's not saying "[insert any given SatAM line of dialogue here]" :specialed:

 

My personal least favorite line ever is at the beginning of Sonic Adventure:

Aww yeah! This is happenin'!

 

That line is made worse by the fact that it is the first line Sonic ever said in a game.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddvK_3pzfH8

I like this cutscene because Sonic only says one thing. Only thing that ruins this cutscene is Chip, who tries to act like the poor man's Daxter