Yesterday night i watched this video essay about SA2's plot (specifically Shadow's role in it) and it was so good that i got. Genuinely upset about how the Adventure era became such a joke in the 2010s. Like, upset enough to spew paragraphs about it to a friend.
How were we, as a people, convinced that SA1 and SA2 were a mistake? How did we decide that multiple playstyles, complex themes, spoken dialogue and even 3D GAMEPLAY were the issues? How did we believe it so hard that even Sonic Team seemed to believe it?
I'm so sad that it went on for years. I'm so sad that we're still feeling its effects—from humans and G.U.N. being in off-screen limbo, to people looking at this Dragon Ball Mickey Mouse shit and only seeing the Mickey Mouse. (It's both!! It was meant to be both from the start!! It's when one overtakes the other that it stops feeling like Sonic!!)
Anyway I guess Sega heard my ramblings last night cus boom. "Shadow is cool and looking to him for inspiration is cool too. Also it's his year and we made his motorcycle real."
And the response?? On here and Twitter, people are talking about how they relate to Shadow and the kid in the video!! Yeah, there's still other people making fun of it, or are just confused by it... but they're being drowned out by the sincere stuff. That's so fucking wonderful.
Shadow enthusiasts: enjoy your year. You've more than earned it.
TL;DR: this shit dropped just in time to stop my supervillain arc 💙
Hi, y'all. I'm currently shifting from "terminally online and aware of every little Sonic fandom happening" to… well, the opposite. And I wanted to offer up a little something before I go.
A few months back, I made two new tags and retroactively added them to old posts. And I mean old--some of my tag commentary from back then hurt to read, lol. But I did it anyway, and the record they make has helped me as both a reminder and a comfort. I look at them when I need proof that the strange, invisible, unnecessary pain was real, and that there's never been a better time to recover.
The tags are #NeverGoodCore and #OneWayDreamCore. Hopefully the names are self-explanatory; I've talked so many times on the subject and if I get to talking again, this post will need a readmore cut. I hope they can serve at least one other person the way they've served me.
Sonic fandom… I love you all so goddamn much. Possibly too much.
Try to receive each other with critical eyes, gentle tongues, and open hearts. That's all I ask of you.
[The following is a transcript of a ramble Mardiculous, aka Matt The Owner Of Tails’ Channel, went on after watching Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence. I transcribed it because he touched on a very real pain that’s hard to describe, and also because it’s long and I’m tired of listening to it even at 2x speed.
If he or anyone close to him asks me to delete this post, I will do so.
The ramble begins at the 6:30 mark. Some stutters and filler words have been removed for readability. Bold and italics were added by me for emphasis.]
———
So, I’ve gotta—I’ve gotta say something.
So—you know—I am crying. I’ve been a mess lately. I’m really hyped about Sonic Frontiers, but there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that I can’t really talk about right now. But [...] it can be kinda summed up with ‘seasonal depression.’ That’s kinda why I don’t look as [well-kept] as I usually do.
But... I’ve been waiting so long for this. It’s simple, right? It’s just—It’s action shots, it’s detailed, it’s the characters being in character.
...You guys wanna see the characters on-screen. Let me get the characters on screen here.
Yeah, so, the references to Sonic Adventure—yes, I’m biased. I love the game, okay? I love Sonic Adventure a lot. But I love Sonic Adventure because it was the first time that they could come out and have the characters speak, and tell you about how they feel about certain things. They had dedicated theme songs to each character.
And so—Let’s not even talk about the game, right? Because we’re talking about the story here. Adventure just—really—when you’re a kid that loved the Classics already, it just opened the floodgates to understanding these characters you already loved on a deeper level. And it’s just been so long since it mattered.
[Silence for 8 seconds]
[sigh] I don’t even know if I should post this. [sigh] Because this is just Knuckles. This is just Knuckles in this. And it’s new, but it’s also familiar, which is what we’ve been asking for. It’s so simple.
[Silence for 21 seconds]
After years of being ridiculed for being Sonic’s friends, right? Like, here’s a whole special about one of Sonic’s friends, and it’s excellent. ...Why am I so emotional, bro? I wasn’t even like, this upset before—like, I’m not upset! It’s just...
Flickies are there, right? And like, Lost World had Flickies, but like, it was just Flickies. So it was just Classic Sonic stuff, with Modern Sonic there, in a game that looked like Mario. It still felt ashamed of what it was. This is... everything.
[Silence for 14 seconds]
I’m in a weird place with Sonic right now, where, like I said at the beginning—Well, no, I didn’t say it. Um...
Frontiers isn’t gonna be perfect, doesn’t look perfect, has flaws. And the people on the outside are not gonna understand... not gonna get it.
[Silence for 10 seconds]
There’s so many people who loved Sonic, that were like, alone. And I was growing up when Sonic was ashamed of itself. And I had to just keep focusing on what I loved, hoping... hoping that it would matter at some point. And for the longest time, it felt like it would never matter. And the reason that this is so powerful is that I know that Tyson Hesse played a hand in this. Fans... know... what people like I’ve been through, what fans have been through.
And, again, this is not insane. This is not, like... There’s better animated shorts out there, yeah. And the fact that I even have to say that sucks, because I’m here experiencing pure joy. But that’s how the Internet is. I have to conjure up fake, totally real people to answer to, and rob myself of enjoying this thing I’ve waited years for. And the thing is, I’ve waited years for so little. ...They didn’t cut away right when the action came in. It’s the Modern cast, it’s fully voiced, it’s connecting to new lore but it’s using previous lore to give us something truly beautiful.
I didn’t even think I’d see Tikal floating around. Like, what’s that, Tikal still floats around and guides Knuckles? Like, I didn’t even know that that was still a thing, but now it matters. Sky Sanctuary is actually seen near Angel Island. Like, that was disconnected, even in Sonic Adventure. And now it’s all connected, and Knuckles is still thinking about his responsibility, right? Like, he hasn’t talked about this since Adventure 1. He just shows up and it’s like, “where’s the Master Emerald? Oh, you’re carrying it with you now?” Like, they just haven’t done anything.
They’ve done nothing with Knuckles, because of what happened—the way the games were received. Every single time they tried to focus on the other characters, the sentiment at the time was like, “I just wanna play as Sonic! I just wanna play as Sonic!” But like, the fact that people’s review of it at the time was so shallow! It’s common sense—not even just Sonic—it’s common sense that a supporting cast is a supporting cast! It makes your main character better!
How could it have to come to the fact that, “Oh, shut up about the other characters and just focus on Sonic”? What does Sonic have going for him without his friends? It’s about the impact he has on his friends that makes Sonic special. And that’s, like, common sense in writing. You’re gonna have a character by itself the entire time, having zero impact on the people and their environment? You’re gonna have zero respect for iconic locales. You’re not gonna have iconic locales return, so that people who have been following your series for years are invested, and can go around and free-advertise your product!
Finally, they’re doing... what you do. And they couldn’t do this stuff, because they were ashamed of who they were, because they listened to reviewers who were so wrong because they didn’t care, because all they saw was a cartoon character. Which, I will add, is unique that it has deep lore. But that’s why I loved it. Because I can’t find this anywhere else. Unless you wanna talk about Kingdom Hearts, maybe?
Kingdom Hearts has cartoon characters and a deep lore. But the weird part is, the cartoon characters just kind of exist, and then there’s a bunch of humans to kind of really carry that dark lore. Right? Like, Goofy and Donald aren’t going, like, “Why am I here? What’s my responsibility?” But Knuckles is, right?
And what’s cool about that is that anyone can plug into Knuckles, because he’s an animal. It doesn’t have to look like you, with this. You can see yourself in Knuckles because you share traits with him. It’s about who he is, not what he is.
And that’s what Sonic was to me, and to a lot of people! Which is why it mattered—Sonic’s impact on the supporting cast! And why it mattered to have iconic locales return, and hear what the characters think about what they have to do all the time!
This actor does a wonderful job, and—I’m not even going frame-by-frame on this, because I just want to enjoy what it is.
[Silence for 10 seconds]
And it ties to the beginning. He likes to do things on his own... “But sometimes...” This part? [sigh] That’s well-written. I don’t know what else to tell you guys.
This is—there’s a contrast, right? There’s dark and dreary; Knuckles, depressed, thinking that he has to... pay for what he didn’t even do. But also, light! There’s darkness, but there’s also light! The light starts shining, and Knuckles goes to help. The Chao [sic] are happy, and we see Knuckles helping people.
[Silence for 8 seconds]
We actually see him use his abilities. Do you know what I’m saying? I shouldn’t have to say that shit, but like... When in Lost World do you see Knuckles fly around? Rather, when even in Sonic Heroes did you see him fly around? Did he glide around? Did he climb? No. And like, the Chao being different types of Chao, just in the environment? It’s basic stuff, sure! But the fact that it’s finally here?
[sigh] My inner kid can’t handle it, because... I thought this dream was dead. I thought this would never happen.
[Silence for 11 seconds]
I don’t know what to tell you guys. Um... I’ve been going through a lot lately. And this... I don’t know if I want to post this, but I think I should. Because, I mean, what’s the point of doing a reaction video, right? Like, there’s so many reaction videos where it’s just like, “Wow!” And I’ve done them too, where it’s like, “Wow, like, let’s look at this.” But what are you actually looking for? You’re looking for the reactions where somebody was truly, truly changed by what they saw, and I was!
It blew my expectations completely out of the water. I knew that Tyson Hesse was good at what he did. I saw Sonic Mania Adventures, I saw TSR: Overdrive, but still. And I could figure that this would be the tone... but... I think it’s the writing, it’s... everything coming together. I don’t know what it is.
But you clicked on a reaction video; you got my reaction. And whether it’s seasonal depression, whether it’s what’s going on behind the scenes for me... or whether it’s been years that I’ve waited for just Sonic to be proud of what it is, enough to do something new that feels like it’s from the series that I know as Modern Sonic and not “Modern Sonic ashamed of what it was and trying everything it possibly can to be something that it isn’t” ...when I was a Sonic fan because there was nothing like it. And all this time it’s been gone, there’s still nothing like it. And you can still argue that, “play other games.” But why are we a Sonic fan if not because we’re a fan of what it brought that was unique.
And to contextualize, I was a fan of everything. Sonic 1, aaall the way until like, Sonic ‘06, Sonic Unleashed—I was still hanging on. Like I would consider myself [a] hardcore fan. But something was shifting, right? After ‘06 and Unleashed, something was shifting, and there are people who loved what happened after, but... it was ashamed of itself. I don’t think there’s much arguing of that.
And the best part is, if you liked what happened after? I don’t necessarily think you’re gonna lose what you loved, either. These characters can still be funny, they can still do jokes. But there will be a variety, which is more inclusive. There will be light and darkness. The jokes will be funnier because they won’t be constant.
The Boost gameplay doesn’t have to go away, just needs to evolve, right? For me it’s like, Boost can still—I mean, some people will debate whether it’s like you gotta slowly build up your speed, or you can earn it with a button. But like, really, that’s not what it’s about; it’s about just being able to experiment with the mechanics. I think the rigidity of Boost is my problem with it, that’s all. You know? Like, there’s a compromise in there! I’m not about to tell you I know everything! But it’s about making a compromise, which is what this is. This feels new; this feels like people who liked Modern Sonic after Unleashed and on can still participate. But now I feel like I can truly love what it’s doing now.
And it’s changing how I react to Sonic news, because it’s not just a gig anymore. I’m a fan again. And it changes the way I press Record when I start these reaction videos. I wanted to watch this alone, like I did when I was a kid. And it hasn’t been like that for years.
[Silence for 9 seconds]
This was truly special. Thank you, everyone. I know, I’m a creative too, and I know how hard it is to convince people who don’t understand quite as well how much work goes into this. I know how hard it is to convince investors that this is important. Because it’s just animals doing action stuff. Like, why is it important, right?
[Silence for 8 seconds]
But shit is hard right now, for a lot of people. And sometimes this is the escape. And like... for a couple minutes, all that stuff didn’t matter.
[Silence for 8 seconds]
Sonic, you’re so fucking cool.
[Silence for 7 seconds]
[smack] Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone who pushed to make this happen, but not just that. Just... [sigh] everyone who pushed to bring Sonic back. And when I say “Sonic back,” I mean the heart. Not being ashamed. Sonic fans don’t deserve to feel shame. You can say we’re eating up mediocrity, but no one deserves to feel shame for what they love, like... especially when it’s a video game.
There are people who definitely deserve to feel shame. And you’re gonna target someone who likes this? ...No.
This is an escape. This is just... for a couple minutes in the day... we can just enjoy an imaginative world that’s not like our own. And there’s lore to talk about, so we can escape more with our friends... theorize what’s next in Sonic Frontiers, and what’s next for the next game. As opposed to just theorizing what the gameplay will be like, now we get to theorize where the story’s gonna go next, and how it’s gonna build off what’s established here. Shit that anyone else can do with their games. [sniff]
[A dog barks in the distance]
Well, I think, uh, Opal’s got it right. I should probably wrap this up. Um... thank you all for supporting Tails’ Channel for as long as you guys have. I know I said I was gonna keep grinding out content, but... if you couldn’t tell from this video, it’s been rough. No pun intended [laughs]. Um... but things will be okay. Don’t worry about me. Especially with stuff like this coming out, I’ll be okay.
"If you managed to avoid this era of Sonic, consider yourself lucky. Because I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy to have their favorite franchise in that kind of state."
Now that everyone's firing Frontiers back up, I wanna talk a bit about One Way Dream.
First off, I saw rumblings of Nate having a song in the game and it being "a message from Sonic Team" before beating it on Hard. So while I didn't get to have a "NATEWANTSTOBATTLE???" moment, I knew beforehand what lens to receive the lyrics through.
I held it in through the first verse. I got a little shaky during the second.
And then... "Even if they laugh, we'll never bite the dust." That's when the tears came.
I should state the obvious: Corporations Are Not Our Friends. I understand this; it's why I held off making this post for months. There's no need to remind me.
That being said.
I watched Sonic Team have to pull back, further and further every year. Backed into a corner, corporate mistakes echoed at them whenever they tried to climb out. I watched them try, just before stagnating for a decade. With staff leaving for greener pastures, pressure from their parent company, and jokes where there could've been honest criticism, it's not a choice I can blame them for.
For all the shit we get for still liking these games, the people making them seem to get it just as bad, if not worse. And unlike us, they couldn't outright talk about it if they wanted to. That would be critical of their parent company, critical of the people who book interviews with them just to bring up '06. That would be complaining. Or worse: unprofessional.
So to suddenly see them make something that lasted longer than 10 hours... with exploratory gameplay and boss fights like THAT... with fondness for the characters' pasts and setups for their futures... with rough edges, yes, but with updates that prove they've been listening to us... all to the tune of a 30% pay raise and the highest-selling Sonic game since 2003...
utterly obsessed with a specific aspect of how the final fight ends. major spoilers below the cut
so. im talking about Super Sonic's final blow to the robot resembling the foot poke from 06. like it made me laugh in the theater, but now something about it just grips my brain.
the whole scene gives off an all-encompassing sense of triumph. the cinematography, the effects, the swelling music; the Emeralds reacting to Sonic’s desire to save his parents as they sacrifice themselves to comfort him in certain death; the simple awe of seeing Super Sonic on the big screen, a lifelong dream come true.
and it culminates in, of all things, the foot poke. a direct reference to the series’ greatest failure, a source of shame from its creators and fans alike, an infinite ammo that both parties have been hit with with constantly for 15 years. hell, it was Wikipedia's featured article on the movie’s release date.
i don’t know for sure it was meant this way, but it’s oddly poetic that the movie takes a moment from the series’ lowest point... and incorporates it into its highest high in decades. something something bringing things full circle, embracing your mistakes so you can rise above them... there’s a saying out there that explains the feeling better, i’m sure. just.... fuck, man
