So That Poll That Resulted in ShTH...

Blue Blood · Oct 28, 2012

I've been playing a lot of ShTH lately. God knows why, it's a truly horrible game. But it has got me thinking. Does anyone else remember that poll SEGA ran in 2004 or 2005 before the game was announced? It was quite a big thing, asking the fans directly what they wanted the next Sonic game to be after Heroes. And it was specifically focused around characters other that Sonic himself. I think it was Amy, Knuckles, Tails and, obviously, Shadow. Back at the time I voted for Knuckles to star in his own game with a story about the echidnas or the Master Emerald. Something along those lines.

I'm having a fair bit of difficulty finding any info surround the vote however. Did anyone ever document all the potential answers? It was a closed poll so we don't know how the results really went for sure beyond the fact that Shadow won. It would just be really interesting to look it because it was such cut and dry market research that resulted in one of the biggest stains on the franchises history.

And just for fun, who did you vote for? Did anyone here want a dark game starring Shadow back then?

Dark Sonic · Oct 28, 2012

Ah yes, the poll. I voted for Knuckles as well (I wonder if Shadow actually won, or if they just said "fuck it we're making a Shadow game either way"). I wonder what kind of game they would have made if it was a Knuckles solo adventure.

I did vote for the name "Shadow the Hedgehog" though. They named it that, and honestly despite how awful the game is, I'm glad they named it that.

MykonosFan · Oct 28, 2012

Nowadays if a similar poll popped up, I'd easily vote for Knuckles, but I honestly thought Shadow was one of the coolest things ever for years when I was a kid, so I would have voted for Shadow easily. Oddly enough, the game itself really turned me off from Sonic for a while. I didn't even play it, I just saw magazine ads, the game in stores, etc. Even as an 11 year old knowing that the Sonic characters were running around swearing, and knowing that Shadow was suddenly this very scary character just really put me off from the series. I didn't play another Sonic game until I got caught up in the Unleashed hype and played that in late '08. Then I went back and played Shadow, which affirmed my suspicions. :v:

That really is an interesting time in the series to think about, though.

Blue Blood · Oct 28, 2012

Hogfather at SSMB was able to find this:

Of the characters listed below, which one would you most like to see starring in a new game?

Miles "Tails" Prower
Knuckles the Echidna
Shadow the Hedgehog
Dr. Eggman

If a game was developed based on these characters, which game name would you like best?

Tails: The Flight of the Fox
The Adventures of Tails
Tails the Two-tailed Fox
Sonic and Tails
Tails and the Giant Machine

Knuckles the Echidna
Knuckles: The Red Warrior
Knuckles: City of Chaos
The Adventures of Knuckles
Knuckles: Fury Fists

Shadow: Renegade Hedgehog
Shadow: Rebel with a Cause
Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow the Hedgehog: Chaos Unleashed!
Shadow: Sonic's Nemesis

Dr. Eggman Strikes Again!
Dr. Eggman and the Lost Emeralds
Dr. Eggman: Robotnik's Revenge
Dr. Eggman: Out of Control
Dr. Eggman: The World's Not Enough
Click to expand...

Dark Sonic · Oct 28, 2012

Dr Eggman: The world is not enough sounds like an awesome game.

Also Sonic and Tails is a game, silly Sega of America.

MykonosFan · Oct 28, 2012

Dark Sonic said:

Also Sonic and Tails is a game, silly Sega of America.
Click to expand...

To be fair, so was "Sonic the Hedgehog". :specialed:

SpaceyBat · Oct 28, 2012

Please, give me The Adventures of Tails or Knuckles the Echidna. Otherwise I'll use Chaos Control to suspend time in the outside world while I pick one of them to make with SonicGDK. :v:

It would have been super cool to see Tails star in a 3D version of Tails Adventure where he can collect and use various gadgets to get around the stages - something akin to Ape Escape but with larger, more spaced-out levels to accommodate the little guy's speed. xD Knuckles also has a lot of potential story-wise and it would've been nice to see him branch off from Sonic and the gang for a while to discover the real truth behind his race and their history.

Of course, given Sega's current phobia with introducing playable characters other than Sonic, I'll just consider it a pipe dream and go back to work on FP.

ashthedragon · Oct 28, 2012

I remember voting Tails back then, and "Tals: the flight of the fox" as the name. I was angry shadow was the chosen one, as I really wanted ( and still want) a solo Tails game.

JaredAFX · Oct 28, 2012

ashthedragon said:

I remember voting Tails back then, and "Tals: the flight of the fox" as the name. I was angry shadow was the chosen one, as I really wanted ( and still want) a solo Tails game.
Click to expand...

...I'm going to take it you don't count Tails' Adventures for some reason.

Blue Blood · Oct 28, 2012

We have the poll! I'm saving it now for future reference.

The poll is from February 2005, a very early ShTH was shown at E3 2005 and then was released in November 2005. Clearly that's a horribly short development time. Do you think perhaps that SEGA had an unnamed Sonic game in the works that this poll shaped into ShTH?

JaredAFX · Oct 28, 2012

Blue Blood said:

We have the poll! I'm saving it now for future reference.

The poll is from February 2005, a very early ShTH was shown at E3 2005 and then was released in November 2005. Clearly that's a horribly short development time. Do you think perhaps that SEGA had an unnamed Sonic game in the works that this poll shaped into ShTH?
Click to expand...

I think they just REALLY wanted to implement the branching path levels, which was originally planned to be in SA2. Besides that, they wanted a game to appeal to American audiences, which, apparently has to have guns. It's a bit offensive, actually. BrainScratch, as a matter of fact, is doing a ShTH commentary right now, and have already gone over their opinions on that.

ashthedragon · Oct 28, 2012

JaredAFX said:

ashthedragon said:

I remember voting Tails back then, and "Tals: the flight of the fox" as the name. I was angry shadow was the chosen one, as I really wanted ( and still want) a solo Tails game.
Click to expand...

...I'm going to take it you don't count Tails' Adventures for some reason.
Click to expand...

I count it, but I want another, a 3D one. With Flying sections ala Starfox.

Flare · Oct 29, 2012

We can blame 14 year olds for the screwing up his character... though if they took as much care with the game as they did I am glad it was only Shadow.

Quarterman · Oct 29, 2012

I would love to see a Knuckles game. It ain't happening now, but still.

I would also love a 3D remake of Tails Adventure.

Metal Man88 · Oct 29, 2012

Hm, let's see. According to my knowledge, the poll actually had no deciding power and they were already working on Shadow the Hedgehog at the time. Furthermore, it was the actual Sonic Team people who screwed Shadow up, not the wishes of 14 year olds. Finally, the game was actually fairly playable, but few people are willing to hold their nose and ignore the smell of bad plot, and I can't really blame them.

It's fairly execrable all around.

LordOfSquad · Oct 29, 2012

I really really want a Robotnik game. At the time, I voted for Knuckles, I believe.

Vantoggle · Oct 29, 2012

I still wonder how different that game would have been if it starred Robotnik instead and the studio was in better shape.
I mean, he's intentionally supposed to be an attention grabbing jerk . You'd play as the oldschool jovial villain in various cartoony mechs beating up the generic grim-dark villains of modern gaming.

Since the subject was brought up, I stumbled across this on the Shadow character page on the retro wiki.

“The fact Shadow uses guns in Shadow the Hedgehog was based on suggestions mailed to Sonic Team, where kids were asking for a game where Sonic could use a gun. Feeling it out of his character, they decided to give the ability to Shadow, hoping to both fulfill these requests and broaden their playing audience.”
Click to expand...

If this is true, anyone remember where this is from?

qwertysonic · Oct 29, 2012

Since the subject was brought up, I stumbled across this on the Shadow character page on the retro wiki.

“The fact Shadow uses guns in Shadow the Hedgehog was based on suggestions mailed to Sonic Team, where kids were asking for a game where Sonic could use a gun. Feeling it out of his character, they decided to give the ability to Shadow, hoping to both fulfill these requests and broaden their playing audience.”
Click to expand...

If this is true, anyone remember where this is from?
Click to expand...

I remember reading that. It may have been on the old Sonic HQ site. I remember when SA2B came out Shadow was so popular they changed it to Shadow HQ for a while.

AnimatedAF · Oct 29, 2012

I remember this poll, I voted for Robotnik hahaha.

Mike Arcade · Oct 29, 2012

I don't think ShTH is a bad game (it's Mediocre at best), but they REALLY should have held off it until the next gen, the Heroes engine just doesn't work for it and the in-game models were that of Heroes, which is too bright for a game based around Shadow, not to mention the horrible, HORRIBLE tacked on "Multiplayer" wiith TWO LEVELS, honestly if Sega were patient they could have had a next gen Spin Off that had decent gameplay and maybe Online Multiplayer, I'd call for a remake just because of how much potential this game had.

On second thought have Plantinum Games make a Shadow game and give them total creative control, seeing their track record that would turn out A LOT better then the Original ShTH.

As for other Spin Off games if they ever do another one, either have Tails, Knuckles, or Mighty and Ray be the star of it. I always thought they could make a Mighty and Ray game with other Unused characters and have some kind of new adventure with a new villain and have it seperate from the Sonic games, but that's just me.

So That Poll That Resulted in ShTH...

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