I've been poring over older Sega games as of late (as a result of getting excited over their upcoming DS releases), and there's several questions that have come up that I'll ask over the course of a few posts. Here's the first one: Did Sega fail Sonic or vice-versa?
Sega, as you may know, has a tainted record, filled with useless new additions (SegaCD anyone?) and bad support (PSO version 1 (free) anyone?). I bring examples of things that Sega has done with all of their new games.
-When's the last time you've seen a "gimmick-free" version of Sonic? Although this is only an opinion, the only good gimmick I've seen was in Sonic 3(not sure?), with the 32x add-on.
-Blast Processing, the hype word for the Genesis, was (again an opinion) the last one it truly had (excluding Segata Sanshiro, which was CLASSIC!). Sonic, by the time it reached the Dreamcast, failed to seem any different or faster than the days of the SNES
-Speaking of the Dreamcast, it was a great system marred by naive assumptions about piracy. Sega screwed up pretty bad with all the iterations after the Genesis.
However, how about their mascot? We can now agree, in this day an age, that video game mascots of yesteryear might not hold up if they came out now, but perhaps Sonic might be part of the problem.
-First of all, Sonic isn't human. This might not have meant much in the beginning, but it leads to a few problems. First, there can't be any hint of romance in any of the games, even G-rated. Mario rescues the princess, he gets a kiss, that's okay, he's a "human plumber". Sonic gets a kiss from anyone in the cast, that leads to furry fanfics (-_-). Secondly, there's that element of suspension of disbelief. If you were a gamer as a child or watched cartoons, at some point you might have wanted to be like Mario. Mario, Megaman, all of your video game heroes were theoretically possible, defeating some monster of an enemy. Even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular, because they liked human things: pizza, skateboarding, funky kung-fu. But Sonic? Sonic moved at speeds you couldn't, looked funky, and the only thing you could relate to was his fascination with chili dogs.
-Secondly, Sonic has probably the lamest cast EVER. Sonic was awesome, tails was understandably a sidekick, and maybe Knuckles was cool as an anti-Sonic. You could even make a case for Amy as a love interest, but see the above point for why I disagree. But c'mon...Big the Cat? Cream and Cheese? Shadow? Rouge? I'm not even getting into the obscurer, one-game-only characters, and already it's getting too convoluted for words. There's a reason why Mario has such a limited cast: it's so that you don't have to try and identify who's who every time.
-Third, Sonic's story was limited until it became convoluted. All video games had a very simple story, of course, but it allowed for immense variation. You knew that Megaman was going to fight towards Dr. Wily, but the eight robot masters and their levels were always different. Mario was the same: Bowser was always the end, but where you went to find him was always different. (Yes, I know there are exceptions, but I'm trying to prove a point). Sonic, though, had a finite limit: he had to stop Eggman/Robotnik from gathering the Emeralds, and eventually would accumulate these for himself. So rather than try and find another mascot for another generation, Sonic's story branched out in so many strange directions. Chaos Emeralds? Chaos (the pets)? Emerl (The robot, not Bam!)? GUN? I'm not even familiar with Sonic lore that much, but already this is getting too complicated.
So, what do you think happened? Most likely it's a combination of both, but do you think that Sonic was a poor mascot, or do you think it was all Sega's fault?
Sega, as you may know, has a tainted record, filled with useless new additions (SegaCD anyone?) and bad support (PSO version 1 (free) anyone?). I bring examples of things that Sega has done with all of their new games.
-When's the last time you've seen a "gimmick-free" version of Sonic? Although this is only an opinion, the only good gimmick I've seen was in Sonic 3(not sure?), with the 32x add-on.
-Blast Processing, the hype word for the Genesis, was (again an opinion) the last one it truly had (excluding Segata Sanshiro, which was CLASSIC!). Sonic, by the time it reached the Dreamcast, failed to seem any different or faster than the days of the SNES
-Speaking of the Dreamcast, it was a great system marred by naive assumptions about piracy. Sega screwed up pretty bad with all the iterations after the Genesis.
However, how about their mascot? We can now agree, in this day an age, that video game mascots of yesteryear might not hold up if they came out now, but perhaps Sonic might be part of the problem.
-First of all, Sonic isn't human. This might not have meant much in the beginning, but it leads to a few problems. First, there can't be any hint of romance in any of the games, even G-rated. Mario rescues the princess, he gets a kiss, that's okay, he's a "human plumber". Sonic gets a kiss from anyone in the cast, that leads to furry fanfics (-_-). Secondly, there's that element of suspension of disbelief. If you were a gamer as a child or watched cartoons, at some point you might have wanted to be like Mario. Mario, Megaman, all of your video game heroes were theoretically possible, defeating some monster of an enemy. Even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular, because they liked human things: pizza, skateboarding, funky kung-fu. But Sonic? Sonic moved at speeds you couldn't, looked funky, and the only thing you could relate to was his fascination with chili dogs.
-Secondly, Sonic has probably the lamest cast EVER. Sonic was awesome, tails was understandably a sidekick, and maybe Knuckles was cool as an anti-Sonic. You could even make a case for Amy as a love interest, but see the above point for why I disagree. But c'mon...Big the Cat? Cream and Cheese? Shadow? Rouge? I'm not even getting into the obscurer, one-game-only characters, and already it's getting too convoluted for words. There's a reason why Mario has such a limited cast: it's so that you don't have to try and identify who's who every time.
-Third, Sonic's story was limited until it became convoluted. All video games had a very simple story, of course, but it allowed for immense variation. You knew that Megaman was going to fight towards Dr. Wily, but the eight robot masters and their levels were always different. Mario was the same: Bowser was always the end, but where you went to find him was always different. (Yes, I know there are exceptions, but I'm trying to prove a point). Sonic, though, had a finite limit: he had to stop Eggman/Robotnik from gathering the Emeralds, and eventually would accumulate these for himself. So rather than try and find another mascot for another generation, Sonic's story branched out in so many strange directions. Chaos Emeralds? Chaos (the pets)? Emerl (The robot, not Bam!)? GUN? I'm not even familiar with Sonic lore that much, but already this is getting too complicated.
So, what do you think happened? Most likely it's a combination of both, but do you think that Sonic was a poor mascot, or do you think it was all Sega's fault?
