My unpopular opinion today is: Sonic is a children's franchise and there's nothing wrong if you enjoy it as an adult (as long as you're not annoying about it.)
re: the "rough transition into 3D", I've always disliked it because it's wrong. Sonic Adventure is jank as shit in nearly every way, but when you compare it to many other attempts at 3D platforming in the PS1/N64/Saturn era, it is not even remotely in the same ballpark as those. People still laugh at Bubsy 3D but IMO there were more games like that then there were ever actual decent ones. And of all of those "first attempts at 3D for their series and/or dev teams", Sonic still exists, and exists unironically (which is more than Bubsy can say). It still gets new 3D games as opposed to just ports to PC too, which is also more than nearly every PS2-era platforming series can say.
I'd say it's always been for children from 6 to 13 year old primarily, maybe very foolishly trying to go a bit older with games like SA2, ShTH and 06. That's just my guess. Nowadays though it's also for adults that have been with the franchise since they were in that primary group. It's not bothering to attract brand new teenager/adult audiences, but it's definitely trying to keep ahold of people that were engaged with the series in the past. Basically, it's for children and man-children.
I think Sonic is really more of an all-ages franchise than something specifically targeted at children. But, nothing wrong with liking a children's franchise as an adult as long as that doesn't entail acting like a child. I am curious to know what the ideal is for the "rough transition to 3D" crowd. When I think of other kind of early 3D console games like, Super Mario 64 or OoT, games regularly lauded as some of the greatest ever, is Sonic Adventure as good as those? Perhaps not mechanically, but I can't fault the presentation or vision of Sonic Adventure at all. I can't recall anything similar from that era that even comes close to the intro to Sonic Adventure in sheer bombast and production value. If anything, my only issue with SA1 besides the jank and glitchyness is that I wish it had been more ambitious. I wish Station Square had been 10 times larger with interesting architecture to run through and secrets to find, and that the levels had been more open ended like the Windy Valley prototype.
This is a rationalization. Like Blue Blood said, it's always targeted adolescent children as it's primary demographic, it's just the older fanbase refuses to let it go. Like any long running franchise nowadays. I'd argue the movie did a great job of attracting a new audience, but yea it's for man-children too sadly.
No it isn't. There's a difference between something that has cross-generational appeal and something that doesn't. Few would question an otherwise well put together looking adult sporting a Batman shirt. Most wouldn't question a Sonic shirt. Most people probably would find it weird to see a 40 year old man wearing a Caillou or Teletubbies shirt. One could argue, and no doubt will, that the other franchises I mentioned are aimed at a younger audience. But that isn't a rebuttal, either. It may just be that stuff targeted at babies doesn't appeal to the whole family as effectively.
Most wouldn't question a Batman shirt because Batman has been targeting 14yos and young adults for about 40 years now. Wearing a Sonic shirt in public on the other hand would have mixed results, because while it does have cross-generational appeal, it's still intended and targeted primarily at 5-10yo children. If you wear something like this: Then it's fine. It invokes nostalgia and is artistically stylish, indicating you have a fondness for childhood memories while still being fashionably conscious as an adult. Wear something like this, on the other hand: This would get a few strange looks. Looks from people questioning whether you have a disability, or at the very least, are socially immature. Its bright colors, lack of creative liberties, and blatant advertisement for a recent and modern product shows that you're putting your desire to show your love for a children's franchise above your desire to look presentable and approachable in public. This reaction would not happen if you were wearing a shirt showing off, say, 2022's The Batman.
I did think of that, and I think you have a point. I think it fits what I said before about liking something made for children vs. acting like an actual child.
My mistake. That came up when I searched "Sonic t-shirt men adult". Here's a shirt that IS for adults, but would still be weird to wear in public:
Now I think of it, it's not that Sonic is (exclusively) for kids, but those tasteless shirts definitely are.
Those are some really tacky shirts lol, of course people would look at you weird if you wore them. They're ugly. Re: homing attack convo, I think the move is fine. The range in some games is way too much, thinking about some areas in Colors and Gens where you can skip a decent chunk of level because you can home into an enemy or spring 2000 ft away. I don't really agree that the games don't implement it well since there are enemies in some games where just using the homing attack without thinking gets you hurt. I do like some stuff like Gens making it work with rails, Unleashed and frontiers playing around with proper timing, and Colors Ult's perfect homing attack, more things like that instead of homing chains over death pits please
I don't think a 3D rendered design couldn't work... but 3D definitely seems to show up more on lazy throwaway merch/marketing
If you have a chip on your shoulder about the phrase "Sonic is for Kids" then you need to do some soul searching, because it's true. This isn't an issue. It's just something that comes with 3D action games. It's why goombas usually trend bigger in 3D Mario. It's why the majority of 'humanoid' enemies in Elden Ring still stand over a head taller than you. It's just so you can see past your guy and clearly what the enemy is doing, along with making them easier to hit.
