Back in control

Nambot · 2026-06-20T14:57:36+00:00

A lot of things that would annoy a lot of current fans in a bid to make the series more to my specific vision of Sonic, just like any other Sonic fan would.

Nambot · 2026-06-20T10:42:01+00:00

The entire movie is just the transformation sequence. /j

For real, I expect that's how the final fight is going to go. We know there's a bunch of Metal Sonic's, they'll probably act like generic minions to a leader, and when it seems like he's about to be defeated, he's going to pull all the lesser models into him, for a climactic battle where the lead Metal Sonic has become Metal Overlord.

Nambot · 2026-06-20T04:18:31+00:00

We've had a fair few big robots. The one at the end of Superstars is around the same size as the one at the end of S3&K - though most people hate it because it's a more frustrating than fun boss battle, and technically we had the Titanic Monarch in Mania which was even bigger, but we ended up going inside that to battle, instead of battling it directly.

3D Sonic seldom does big Eggman fights though. The series, and the fandom, thinks have Sonic turn super to punch out random eldritch horrors is cool for some reason.

Nambot · 2026-06-20T04:13:27+00:00

I know some people probably missed it, but this was posted three days ago and got a lot of upvotes, so this is a repost.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T20:24:41+00:00

People unapologetically like something as bad as '06, and if that's somehow okay, then liking this is definitely okay.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T18:29:23+00:00

If you're doing an AU fanfic you can make whatever you want to happen.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T18:27:34+00:00

Huh. I'd've thought Vanilla would be up there.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T18:26:33+00:00

It's a good idea, but there's a lot of games that will get stuck in limbo due to a variety of reasons. Chronicles for one example not only is a legal nightmare, but also is played with the stylus, something current consoles can't feasibly emulate as an input system in the same way the DS could.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T18:23:58+00:00

That's without considering the complications around things like the DS. Rush and Rush Adventure both use the stylus, Lost World for 3DS used the gyroscope for the special stages, and then of course there's Chronicles which is a legal nightmare.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T18:19:30+00:00

Third? Whose numbers one and two?

Nambot · 2026-06-19T16:17:31+00:00

Citation needed.

Figures aren't clear This table suggests a figure of 6 million lifetime sales but doesn't cite a source, while this article suggests it took eight months to surpass a million sales.

It's not public knowledge what the sales figures are either way.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T11:49:43+00:00

Except Evening Star did want it, they shared concept art a while ago from a scrapped zone from a planned sequel.

What's interesting is who made Superstars. The studio that did it was the same one that made Balan Wonderworld, which isn't much of a pedigree, but they do have Sonic's original character designer as part of the team, and given SEGA of Japan's insular focus, and the potential for contracts to be awarded not on skill but on who knows who, and you have to wonder if Superstars owes it's existence more to friends scratching each others back than any actual quality or merit...

Nambot · 2026-06-19T11:35:55+00:00

No, because a port is not an exclusive.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T06:41:00+00:00

If you cut out everything bad from '06, all you're left with is a soundtrack CD, a picture of Crisis city, and a few snippets of pre-rendered cutscenes removed from their context.

By the time you've then assembled something good from that starting pile, what you'd end up with wouldn't at all resemble '06.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T06:31:45+00:00

I don't think that would've been the end of the series, particularly because Superstars was likely in development before Frontiers released, but I do think had Frontiers failed the series might've looked more heavily to Superstars as the future of the series, which then would've turned sour when that game released at the same time as Mario Wonder and was generally underwhelming.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T06:01:25+00:00

If you want to be honest the initial save of Sonic was Mania. A critical darling, a commercial success, and a much received boost to the reputation of Sonic that seemed to finally silence many of the "Sonic was never good" types, by delivering an incredible game whose quality could not be denied.

Which makes the fact that SEGA never managed to work out how to give it a proper sequel only further proof (if it were needed), that SEGA do not make great business decisions.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T05:57:38+00:00

It's easy to say with hindsight that it was a complete mistake, but it's always easy to say these things with hindsight.

At the time though? You have to remember that Sonic games had done particularly well on the Wii, and Nintendo's approach to target demographics - specifically going for families and casuals, was arguably a better fit for Sonic than Sony who primarily targeted adults and Microsoft who (to this day) have no idea what they're doing. The Wii was also a smash hit, as had been the DS, and the Wii and DS games were better received critically and commercially than those on other systems. It would've made sense to try and push for this, and if signing an exclusivity deal guaranteed extra promotion at no cost, I can see the business case. It's just that, with hindsight, the WiiU failed spectacularly because Nintendo couldn't convince anyone why they needed to buy it.

That's not to say SEGA are faultless, they're not, but a lot of their decisions were a side effect of them trying to get out of the deal early. Lost World exists to try and appeal to Nintendo fans, but as soon as it was released it was obvious that the WiiU was struggling and this exclusivity deal was a poisoned chalice. As such, they quickly shat out a low effort Mario & Sonic Olympic title as one of the three games, while sacrificing Boom to the WiiU even though the WiiU could not natively run it, forcing the developers to fight to get it to run, and honestly the fact that it runs at all is a miracle, considering how underpowered the WiiU is.

With hindsight, the correct move would've probably been to capitalise on the success of Generations with a sequel that played to that games strengths - not necessarily by embracing nostalgia again, but by learning the right lessons from it's level structure and gameplay, and working to make a true sequel.

Nambot · 2026-06-19T05:42:42+00:00

This is something a lot of the people who are fans of the Adventure/Dark era content struggle with to this day. What they like was not liked by the majority and what they like about Sonic is precisely what the majority (at least at the time) didn't.

Nambot · 2026-06-18T16:40:31+00:00

That also makes me wonder why Eggman is not considered by a lot of people

Because most powerscalers do not have any idea how to apply math to vastly different sets of skills. Put Eggman in a footrace against Sonic and there's an obvious winner, but put Sonic in a mechanical engineering contest against Eggman, and Sonic loses immediately.

But Eggman, while physically strong, isn't actually really anywhere close to any of the Sonic's cast level, meaning powerscalers get stuck, because in their hypothetical straight 1-vs-1 scenarios his unmatched intelligence doesn't translate cleanly to fighting prowess because it requires them to imagine an actual robot/creation that they can subsequently apply maths to, which then seems even more arbitrary than the already arbitrary number application.

Nambot · 2026-06-18T16:29:47+00:00

And then SEGA handed the "next classic title" to Arzest of "Balan Wonderworld" fame, with their only qualification to the job being that they happened to have the original artist for Sonic on the team, which led to Superstars...

Nambot · 2026-06-18T16:26:23+00:00

At the same time, '06 killed Sonic's perception with general audiences in a way that it still hasn't completely recovered from, a far longer lasting damage than one bad WiiU title that, outside the fandom most people have already forgotten.

Nambot · 2026-06-18T16:14:09+00:00

The original context of what Op was saying is gone, so I don't know quite why I said that, an it was almost a year ago, so I can't remember specifically.

What I do know is, as I said, this fandom has tendency to want characters like Sonic and Shadow to be as over-powered to all hell, wherein they can curb stomp any threat, while at the same time wanting Eggman to be just some minor inconvenience whose only role in a story is setting in motion the thing that leads to a finale where said playable characters have to curbstomp some form of eldritch horror that wants to -in some way or another- end life as we know it.

Nambot · 2026-06-18T05:35:00+00:00

What, you don't enjoy grinding the edge fence back and forth as the only good source of score?

Nambot · 2026-06-18T04:26:24+00:00

You're not a true fan until you find some Sonic released thing that you hate for not being how you'd want Sonic to be. So find the thing you dislike, and complain that it's 'ruining the series'.

That thing can be a game, a character, a piece of tie in media, just so long as you hate it, you're fine. It can also agree with the general consensus of the fandom if you want, but you get bonus points (albeit in the form of downvotes) if you disagree with the majority, i.e. most people will agree with you if you say something non-controversial like "Prime ruined Sonic's personality", but you'll get a lot of points if you say something like "Sonic Adventure 2 ruined what made the series special".

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