Well.. it's time I come clean... I... well.. I am ~gasps~ A Sonic Nerd! D:!!!!!

Yes that's right, the adorable lil fennec is in fact a sonic fanboy T-T well... mostly... could say "used" to be...

Recently I've been finding it.. hard to enjoy sonic. The new games, the new TV shows, even the new comics... feel.. different.. they've fallen victim to the trap of modern cartoons.

It all started with a lil TV show called Sonic X, witch before it's release promised a revival in the style of Sonic SatAM, giving us back the cartoon we grew up with for a new generation... what they didn't tell us was that instead of reviving the lovable characters that had been well established in many... MANY games, TV shows and even a very epic movie... they were "Re-imagining" the characters... into modern stereotypes.

Yes... the once Hyper speedy sonic who rarely thought of himself and put others and his friends first became a lazy selfish speedster who got bored if things weren't quick and exiting.

The lovable but shy Tails who was known for craving approval by those around him became the classic Nerd who was overly independent for an 8 year old, and seemed to have lost his love for junky looking but surprisingly useful machines in favor of sleek and shinny jets.

The brooding and forgetful Knuckles who was known for using his fists hist and easily loosing his temper became a sutophilosopher who creapaly followed people around and made CLEARLY stupid choices on his own.

and so forth...

these re-imagined personalities took over for the characters in both the games and the comics after this show hit the airwaves, leaving me to wonder why...

now I'll admit I'm not well studied on the new characters and games, in fact I've found myself hatting the new games so much I've mostly started to ignore them completely.

So.. here's my view.

I FUCKING LOVED the Adventure style games for sonic... that is Sonic Adventure-Sonic Adventure 2-Sonic Heroes-Shadow The Hedgehog, those games were all GOLDEN in my opinion, yes they could be corny, yes they had their own problems in plot holes and game play, but they plaid well, they had fast paced levels with good simple puzzles and platforming, AMAZING music, and best of all, a multy character multy arch story that came together in the end to create something that truly felt... epic. and I mean EPIC, the stories just came together so well.. best examples are in Sonic Adventure DX, and Sonic Heroes, each with multiple stories you could follow, each having their own plot, development and climaxes, but all coming together in the end into one final showdown revealing that all those little clues and hints you could have spotted in the background were leading to something spectacular.

Then came "Shadow The Hedgehog" a game that so many people hate, but I absolutely loved it for two main facts... the game play was BEAUTIFUL and was so smooth and perfect, the controls were easy and flowed perfectly.. it was the accumulation and knowledge taken from everything they learned building the first three games put together into a masterpiece. and Second, the storyline was just excellent... what I consider the Last act in the Adventure saga, tying up loose ends and giving Shadow a solid and well flushed out backstory.
It was the cap on a four game Saga that went out with one goal... make a the world of sonic come alive, and it worked.

Then what happened?

Well for one they threw out their work... all of it.. story building, character arches, game play, and even control. This was the release of Sonic 360, a supposed fifth game in the Adventure saga... I don't even know what to say on this game... mainly cause I never plaid it past the first level... for an "Adventure" game it sure didn't have anything from the other games and the controls sucked, usually sending a character off a cliff then where you wanted them to go.

and that was it.. that game made me put down my controller and stop playing sonic games for a wile... I kept tabs on them sure.. but I noticed a rising trend from there on out... sonic became a novelty... one of those characters that game companies put in stranger and stranger situations just to see what sells and what doesn't.

And to me.. this killed Sonic...

so, in my opinion.. RIP Sonic (1991-2005)

What would it take for me to accept another sonic game? well a few things...
1. an epic, well written story that leaves the player with the feeling that his actions matter, that your actually saving a world.
2. well balanced game play, where puzzles and platforming run fluently together to the point that the player NEVER has to stop moving. (as any sonic game should have)
3. self parody, sonic has ALWAYS been self aware, it's always given itself at least some 4th wall breaking comedy, let that happen just a little bit.
4. last and most important.. NO NOVELTY... I couldn't emphasis this enough... sonic should NOT be reduced to a novelty character... yes it worked to a point in Heroes with team gameplay and even in Shadow with the guns and moral system but those were balanced with an amazing story and friken near perfect game play... but none the less... a new game in this style needs to be free from this kinda of experimentation if it is to be the golden egg in the basket of rotten ones we have today.

sooo... yeah... fuck modern sonic, long live the Adventure Saga :p oh! also.. 5. BRING BACK CHAO RAISING... I remember hours and hours and hours and hours spent at my GameCube raising Chao...

I'ma Nerd, and I know it...