#except now cos eggman works better

[generic-sonic-fan]

Edge of Tomorrow

Summary: Sometimes, Silver needs multiple tries to get things right. This means navigating his past and future selves as he rewrites his own memory of events.

And things can get messy very quickly.

6294 words

"Silver, where do you show up, anyway? I mean, is there some sort of swirly portal you step through? You never let us see it." Sonic teased.

"Better that you don't, it's pretty trippy." Silver rubbed his head spines. "Now, Tails, if you could explain the plan. . ."

---

Silver had finally chased down the pair of chaos emeralds, beating the cursed flames to them and taking them to his hideout. He studied the history book again, holding the date in his mind as he invoked chaos control. 

The portal opened, and he carried himself through. He stepped out onto a grassy field. This field, he remembered, should only be a few miles from Sonic's house. He couldn't orient himself to its direction until his head stopped spinning. Then he lifted himself with his power, and-

Another crystalline, swirling portal opened behind him.

Out stepped himself.

"Stop. Go home." Himself said.

Silver lowered to the ground. "Why?"

"It's not going to work your time around. Need to give it another shot." Himself shook his head.

"Password?" Silver asked.

"Elise."

"Okay, it's me. Or it's you. Us?"

"Seems I can't ever make up my mind on that. Sorry." Himself shrugged.

"So what do I have to do?"

"Go back and check the history book. Come back here and stop me if it says-"

"I know the drill. How many times have we done this?" Silver asked.

"I think this might be take two."

"It'd be real convenient if I was able to tell myself what to do better."

"It's okay, you don't know how you failed yet, and I just wiped my memory of it by stopping you here. But don’t worry, I'll figure something out."

"I always figure it out, don't I?" Silver brightened. 

Himself smiled back and pointed to the portal. "In you go. Hope you come back to flowers and sunshine. It'd mean I finally did something right, right?"

"Probably won't happen, but can't hurt to hope, right? Good luck!" Silver waved. He walked towards the portal. 

"Thanks, me!"

Silver hopped into the portal and arrived back to his hideout. He rushed toward the window and opened the curtain, only to find the same orange glow of flame.

He sighed, before ducking beneath the crumbling windowsill. A sea of tally marks cluttered the wall. He should really think about grouping them per event. . . except for the fact that trying to connect the dots might lead to a paradox. 

Regardless, he added another tally to the wall, before walking back over to the history book. The book was by the same author as it had been before, meaning that nothing too world-changing had happened. He opened it and flipped to the appropriate page. 

May 8th, 2017- Sonic and company disable the Egg reactor, preventing widespread casualties and long-lasting radiological effects.

Silver raised his fists in the air and whooped. He grabbed the chaos emeralds from where he'd set it on the table and honed in on his chaos control.

Now just to remember what he'd said to himself a few minutes ago. He remembered his opening line being something like "Stop, go home. . ."

---

Tails clasped his hands together. "And that's the plan. I'm going to be real with you, there's a chance it might not work, but-" 

"It will. I know it will." Silver patted his shoulder. "I have complete faith in you."

"You're so optimistic! How do you do it?"

Silver could only shrug.

Sure enough, the plan succeeded without a hitch.

---

Two months and one more hunt for a pair of chaos emeralds later, Silver stepped through the swirling portal into the past once more. 

This was a big one. A really, really big one. Eggman was going to- or technically, already had -wiped the area of Central City off the map. The future was not set, the future was never set, and this certain event had popped up in the good ol’ reliable history textbook a few nights ago. Whatever Sonic and co had done to start this chain of events was a mystery, and snooping around in the past to try and indirectly prevent it would be a fruitless endeavor. 

Sonic would never forgive himself if a whole city got destroyed. Silver was obligated to help. 

The grass, the wonderful green grass greeted him. He walked forward, inhaling the clean air. Flowers drifted in the breeze and-

“No. Stop. Go back.”

He whirled around to find himself.

“Password?”

“Elise.”

“Okay, it’s me. Shoot, don’t get it this time, do I?”

“Correct.”

“Okay, I know the drill, good luck!”

Silver stepped back through his origin portal, depositing him back into his hideout. Routine drew him to the window curtains; same old, same old outside, so he added a tally to the wall beneath the window and turned back to the history book. 

August 16th, 2018. Central City is destroyed by Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

Probably identical to what it read before, from what he could recall. He grabbed the chaos emeralds again and opened a portal. 

“No. Stop. Go back.” He shouted as he stepped onto the grass once more. 

His other self whipped around. Deja vu sent dizziness through him, and he grit his teeth to stave it off.

“Password?” His former self asked.

“Elise.”

“Okay, it’s me. Shoot, don’t get it this time, do I?”

“Correct.”

“Okay, I know the drill, good luck!”

His former self hopped back through the portal, and Silver waved. He took a moment to shake the lingering confusion, before stepping further into the clear air and sunlight. . . until another portal swirled open to the right.

“Not another step!” Himself leapt out. 

“Password?”

“Elise!”

“Okay, okay, heading back.”

“Good.”

Silver retreated to the portal he opened (that he remembered opening, not the one his future self had opened. . . gotta keep that straight.) He jogged over, checked the window, and scratched another tally. He paused before opening the cover of the history book, dancing in place and praying that this would be the time.

August 16th, 2018. Central City is destroyed by Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Sonic the Hedgehog perishes, and is succeeded by-

Silver slammed the book shut. He scrambled for his emeralds, nearly knocking one off the table as he whispered the phrase to invoke the portal. He flew through and-

A hand slaps over his mouth. He grabs the attacker with his power, but the other pushes back with psychokinesis of his own.

“The password’s Elise! It’s me, stop!”

"Stop it, both of you!"

Silver jerks out of the other Silver’s grasp. Another Silver, the past Silver, stares at the both of them.

“Three of us at once!?” Current Silver yells. “You know how dangerous that is! What is wrong with you?”

“You! Go home!” Future Silver points to past Silver. 

Silver can only numbly nod. Silver steps back through the portal. Silver remains standing on the grass. He smells smoke. He smells flowers. Silver is. . . Silver is. . .

“Snap out of it. You’re going home too. Trust me. We need another go.” Future Silver grabs his shoulder and shakes him back to focus.

“Don’t do that again.” Silver (himself, his actual self, right now, in this moment) points at his future self. 

“Go home, take fifteen minutes, come back.” Future Silver says. 

“Okay.”

Silver steps back through the portal. He stepped, he should say. This was him. He was present.

He walked over to the window and gave a half-hearted look through the curtains, before ducking to the wall beneath. The tally marks under here look equally fresh to each other. He really should start grouping him. He scratched another one down, before turning back to the history book. 

Future him said to give it fifteen minutes, but. . .

August 18th, 2018. Central City and Station Square are destroyed by Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Sonic the Hedgehog and the majority of his friends are caught in the-

He slammed the book against the far wall without lifting a finger. He grabbed his quills and clenched them as hard as possible. He screamed. He grabbed the chaos emeralds. He closed his eyes. 

Sunlight meets him. So does nausea. He scans for his prior self. He feels the cloth of a glove over his mouth, but as he checks with his eyes he finds no one. What. . . what had he said to himself earlier?

Past self walks by before he can give it more thought. 

“Hey, stop!”

Past self turns and grits his teeth. “Oh, come on!”

“Password’s Elise.” Silver offers.

“We really gotta stop with the password thing.”

Something’s wrong. There’s no deja vu. But there’s no time to worry about that- the future’s at stake here.

“Go home!” Silver yells. “Please, for the love of all things holy, go home.”

“Are you sure?”

“GO HOME!” Silver screams.

Past self flinches and returns through his portal. Suddenly Silver feels himself traveling back to the future as well. 

He walks- he walked, he walked, over to the window. Same orange glow. He bent down, adding another tally mark. He tasted. . . something, on his lips, and he remembered the flavor as Tails’ hot cocoa. Something must have gone right if Tails was celebrating with hot cocoa. The only trouble was that he didn’t remember what.

The history textbook was not on the table, but the floor, pages splayed open. Silver picked up the book and ran a finger along its spine, checking the binding only to find that it was torn. He frowned. The poor book had suffered through so much abuse at this rate! And he’d hate to have to scavenge another one.

He flipped the book open. He reminisced on some of the other entries- January 26th, 2016. September 1st, 2016, May 8th, 2017, December 10th, 2017. Sonic and company save the day. What the book would not tell of was the garden out behind Cream’s house, or the hours spent in Amy’s cafe after a successful day-saving, drinking smoothies and catching up as if he’d never left. 

He flipped to the date that had given him so much trouble.

August 17th, 2018. Central City is destroyed by Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Sonic the Hedgehog is killed and a funeral held-

“No no no no! That’s now how this is supposed to go!” He screamed. 

He set the book down on the table and grabbed the chaos emeralds. He grabbed the chaos emeralds. He grabbed the chaos emeralds, he grabbed the chaos emeralds he grabbed the chaos emeralds he grabbed the he grabbed the he grabbed the

He grabbed the

He grabs the

Silver comes to in a pile of bodies, bumping, jostling, screaming, panting. He explodes a shockwave outwards, only to feel the blast thump in his own chest.

Six Silvers are sent flying. 

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” He shouts. 

Two Silvers vanish immediately, and Silver can taste their confusion as they fade away. The other four are caught, transfixed, on the disappearance. 

“Okay,” the first one starts. “That’s good. He wouldn’t go home. I was trying to make him.”

“And you need to go home as well!” Another grabs the first one’s shoulder. 

“We all need to go home.” Silver himself says. “And we need to stay home for an hour. Then I’ll come back and we’ll start this over. We can spare an hour to sort this out.”

The rest of the Silvers nod, and Silver finds himself nodding as well. They all start to meander towards their portal. Two Silvers approach the same portal, and Silver grabs him and sends him through the correct one at the last moment. 

Geez, that’s why this is so dangerous! What has gotten into himself? What could have possibly happened to make himself this desperate to get things right? He really needs to write the rules down in his hideout, have them pasted next to the window, or something. 

Silver sits (sat) down in the grass and breathed. His chest was getting tight, and he tried to relax, slow his breathing, take a moment. He told himself to take an hour, so who was to say he couldn’t take his hour here? He’d wait here, catch his breath, then head off to investigate. The fact that he can’t remember why he’d come here wasn’t something to be concerned about. Eggman’s plans were always flashy. Once he found Sonic, he could ask, and they’d get on their way. It wouldn’t be the first time that Sonic has had to help him find the reason he’d come back- time travel was messy, and sometimes he doesn’t remember everything, and that’s okay.

“Hey, Silver!”

“Password!” He threw himself to his feet.

“Huh?”

Silver blinked. Sonic stood in front of him, and was offering a hand. 

Tears came to Silver’s eyes. Sonic was here. Sonic is here, okay, blinking, breathing, though why any of these details were important escaped him.

“You’re okay.” 

“Uh, yeah, are you?”

Silver rubs- Silver rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, sorry. Something bad’s about to happen, as usual, and I figured I’d lend a hand.”

“Cool! Race you back to the-”

“STOP!”

A firm hand lands on his shoulder and Sonic’s mouth falls open. 

“Stop. Go home.” Future Silver’s voice shakes from behind.

“Are there supposed to be two of you?”

“Now look what you’ve done!” Silver brushes his hand off his shoulder and turns to him.

“I wouldn’t have done this if I had the choice! You have to go home!”

“Why?”

“I don’t remember. You know we can’t remember!”

“Silver, is this a paradox?” Sonic asks.

“No!” They both snap. They then look at each other.

“Though it might be if we keep doing that.” Other Silver says. 

“Okay, okay, going home.” Silver agrees. 

Other Silver gestures to his portal- Silver’s original portal had long since fizzled out, but this one would lead back to the same time and place, hopefully. . .

He stepped back into the smoke-riddled hideout. He trudged over to the window, but this time didn’t even bother to poke through the curtains. He knelt down and scratched another tally. Underneath the window was getting full. He might have to creep the tally count up the sides of the window at this rate.

How many times had he thought that same thought? It was impossible to know if this was one of many, or if this was the first.

He walked back over to the history book. It sat on the table, opened to a particular page. 

August 16th, 2018. He almost didn’t want to read the rest. His eyes caught the word Sonic, followed by the word killed.

Silver yelled. The rage echoed against the ceiling and spilled out of the window.

Think, think, idiot! How was he going to fix this? Sonic had showed up, so now he had to dodge Sonic’s questions about what the hell was going on. He couldn’t travel back to the time before Sonic had showed up, because he needed to stop the self that Sonic had seen. 

But, of course, the moment he stepped into the past to stop his past self, he immediately forgot why he’d come back in the first place! Fuck, this was making this head hurt. The swear word Rouge had taught him seemed appropriate to use right now. 

Okay. Okay. Just another try. Repeat the conversation he’d had with himself in front of Sonic, send himself back to this moment, then wait to see if another future him stopped present him. 

He grabbed the emeralds.

In a moment he’s back on the grass. His past self is in front of him. Beyond that stands Sonic, and Silver is able to watch in real time how his jaw slacks and brows furrow. 

“STOP!” Silver recalls his line and grabs his counterpart’s shoulder. “Stop. Go home.”

“Are there supposed to be two of you?” Sonic asks.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Past Silver brushes his hand off his shoulder and turns. 

“I wouldn’t have done this if I had the choice! You have to go home!” Silver pleads. 

“Why?”

“I don’t remember. You know we can’t remember!”

“Silver, is this a paradox?” Sonic asks.

“No!” They both snap. They then look at each other.

“Though it might be if we keep doing that.” Silver affirms. He flicks his eyes back to the swirling portal.

“Okay, okay, going home.” Silver agrees. 

He journeys back through the portal. Silver waits for the deja vu to fade before turning back to Sonic.

“Hey.” He says. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries.” Sonic replies. “So. . ?”

Sonic waits for something, and it takes Silver an embarrassingly long time to figure out that it’s context. Sonic has his own fair share of copies, after all.

“Don’t worry about that.” Silver says. “Sometimes I need multiple tries to get things right, you know?”

“Trippy, but also kind of cool. I wish I had multiple shots to get it right!”

“That’s not quite how it works.” He rubs the back of his quills.

He cringes when he hears another portal open behind him. 

“SONIC!” Himself cries. 

“What’s wrong?” Sonic replies. 

Silver turns in time for himself to shove past. Immediately his eyes tear up and grief blooms in him; other Silver is openly crying. Sonic is here, but he can’t remember why this is so important. Remember, remember!

“You have to go home,” other Silver says to him, before looking at Sonic, “and something keeps happening with you.”

“There has to be a reason I keep coming back here. Something really bad to risk this many do-overs!” Silver says. 

“What happens?” Sonic asks.

“We can’t tell you because we can’t remember!” Both Silvers chime. 

“Right, okay,” Sonic puts a hand on his chin. “What if you wrote yourself a note about it?”

“Wouldn’t work.” Future Silver says. “The note would retroactively dissipate just as our memory does whenever we come back. We’re- I’m rewriting history, which means that I’m rewriting the textbook, but I came back here because the textbook said something bad about how past me went about it. Does this make any sense?”

Present Silver isn’t even quite sure he’s following, but he nods anyway. Sonic, however, doesn’t nod at all. 

“You. Go home.” Future Silver points back to the portal.

Silver walks through- and he’s back in the grass, standing before Sonic, still wearing the same confused expression. Silver looks left and right. There’s no other himselfs around and the portal behind him is the only one open.

“What was I just saying?” He asks.

“Something about rewriting history so you can’t make yourself a note?” Sonic replies.

The memory of those sentences is weak, but still there. Silver nods. 

“So, are we good now?” Sonic asks.

“Let’s see. If it isn’t, then I’ll come back and stop me.”

Silver walks forward a few steps. No other portals open. He breathes the smell of the grass and flowers in through his nose and exhales out his mouth. Nothing.

“Okay. Looks like we might have a shot at this.” He smiles. “Now-”

Only for him to be slammed to the ground, cyan erupting over his fur. 

“WHY CAN’T I GET THIS RIGHT?” Silver screams, but his lips don’t move. 

“Woah, hey, stop! Let him go!”

“Sonic. . .”

The cyan dissipates, and Silver sits back upright. Future him lowers himself to the ground. Confusion flickers in his eyes.

“Geez, Silver, you might want to ask Amy about a little thing called ‘self-love’ the next time you see her.” Sonic quips quietly. He steps between the two, arms spread.

“I’m sorry. The password’s Elise. You know the drill. Please go home. Please.” Future him pleads. 

“Elise?” Sonic asks.

“Don’t worry about it.” Present Silver says. “But, me, we can’t keep doing this. We’ve been lucky so far that we haven’t erased myself completely.”

“I know,” himself concurs. “And soon it won’t be August 16th anymore.”

Sonic lowers his arm. “Maybe I could come back to the future with you? That way, I could remember what you keep forgetting.”

“NO!” They both scream. 

“No no no no.” Present Silver says, and he catches future him muttering in rhythm as well. “I can barely manage myself as it is. And I already come back here-” he points to the future self, “-so bringing you back might cause that to be erased, which might erase me as well. Maybe. Sort of.”

“I can see why you don’t want to chance it.” Sonic said.

“In any case, that means you need to go home.” Future Silver says. “Give me a shot. And, you know, come back and stop me if it doesn’t work.”

“No. There has to be some way I can communicate what I’m forgetting before I forget it, right? Some way to transfer information before the timeline changes.”

“You guys got some sort of ‘deja vu’ to work with?” Sonic asks.

“Yes! The deja vu!” Present him snaps. “Our mind forgets but our body remembers!”

“I wouldn’t go that far. You really need to go home.” Future Silver points back to his portal. “If you’re right, and I don’t get it, then we’ll probably be able to continue this conversation where we left off.”

“Right. Goodbye!” Present Silver waves to Sonic. 

Smoke. Curtains. Tally. History book. August 16th, 2018. The same words on the page, or at least it feels that way, and Silver leans deep into the deja vu. Sonic dies. Sonic dies! What was so hard to remember about this? He chants those two words like a mantra as he grabs the emeralds and opens the portal ahead of where his past self left to meet with his future self again.

He steps out, and the other Silver beside Sonic vanishes with a wash of terror that sets Silver’s quills on end. 

Fuck. He was supposed to be the future self this time around.

Sonic waves a hand through the open air. “Was that supposed to happen?”

Nausea snakes its way through his stomach and his knees give out. The world spins around him. Who is he? Silver, that’s right. Where is he? The past, that much is for sure from all the green. And crouching beside him is Sonic, hero of Mobius, friend from the past, and he’s saying words that aren’t quite registerable. 

“What just happened?” Silver asks.

“The other version of you disappeared. Was that supposed to happen?”

“How many times have I been back here?”

Sonic counts on his fingers. “Four, I think?”

“And what were the most recent other version of myself and me doing?”

“Uh. . . that’s funny, I don’t remember.”

“Because I erased him. I felt his fear as he vanished. I remember that! I remember feeling his pain!” Silver realizes. 

“The mind forgets, but the body remembers.” Sonic said, puzzling himself with every word he added. “Woah. I feel like one of us has said that before or something.”

“Deja vu!”

“So do you remember what was so important to come back and tell me about, then?”

“No. I need to go back and try again.”

“Why don’t you take a little break while you’re there? Don’t overlap with this time when you come back. That way you don’t have to argue with yourself.”

“Okay, I will.”

Sonic extends a hand and pulls Silver to his feet. He eyes the swirling portal behind him. He takes a deep breath of the fresh air before walking back to the future. 

Instead of making for the window, Silver goes for (went for? He really didn’t know at this point) the chair in the corner of the hideout. He shut his eyes. 

He didn’t know how long it was before he opened them again. Anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. He reached down beside the chair to grab a can of food. Peaches, as it’s revealed. He peeled the lid off with a flick of his eyes and fed himself a few slices. The taste was bright. Grounding, almost.

The mind forgets, but the body remembers. 

He set the can back down. The history book was on the table. Now that he was here, he didn’t even need to look at it to recall the words. August 16th, 2018, the day that Sonic dies. 

Once, he’d promised himself to never tell his friends about their deaths. But this was different, wasn’t it? Even if he couldn’t recall it in memory, Silver knew this was somehow the fault of his interference. 

The mind forgets, but the body remembers. His memory couldn’t stay constant, but his body always would unless he went back to prevent the damage. He'd never been able to heal using time travel. He eyed the torn can lid. He’d stopped opening them by hand years ago, not since he’d cut himself on the edge of a lid once. 

He grabbed the can lid and held out his arm. He swallowed the lump in his throat and pressed down. 

He was crying by the time he finished carving, whimpering to the empty concrete walls. The letters were barely legible through the blood staining his fur. He retrieved a rag from across the room, dropping it a few times as the pain interrupted his power, before pressing the cloth against the wounds. Once the bleeding stopped, he cleaned the stray staining with his spit. 

He stood and grabbed the chaos emeralds. He re-read the entry in the history book, even though it wouldn’t matter in the end. He closed his eyes, whispered the words, and stepped through the portal. 

“Hey again, Silver. Take that break I told you to?”

“There’s something you need to know.”

“Did you figure out how to remember it?”

Silver closed his eyes and searched his memory. The minutes before were a blur, now, and the history book was the biggest blur of them all, text flickering like flames whipping through a dark sky. Then he recalled the pain in his arm.

S, O, N, I, C, D, I, E, S. . .

And he laughed. He laughed, and he laughed, and he laughed until he cried. 

“Um, haha?” Sonic replied.

“The reason I keep coming back here is because you keep dying, idiot.” Silver choked out between laugh-sobs. 

“Oh no! How?”

Silver turned his arm around and gestured to the scratches. “Sorry, limited space here.”

“Dude. That’s. . .” Sonic shivered. “That’s messed up.”

“How many times have I been back here?”

“Lots.”

“Exactly. It would seem that you keep dying no matter what I do.”

“There has to be a way. Now that I know, I can be more careful this time.”

“Let’s get to Tails’ workshop, then. You can catch me up as to what Eggman is actually up to when we're there.”

“Sounds good. You feeling well enough to fly?”

Before Silver could answer, another portal opened to their right. Future Silver emerged, holding his cut arm outstretched and pointing to it. Present Silver nodded and stepped back into his own portal. He barely spent a moment in the concrete walls before opening the portal back again. He made sure to walk through with the exact motion as his counterpart had. Deja vu hit hard, but it hit right, and his past self repeated his nod and swift exit just as he remembered it.

“What was that?” Sonic asked.

“Use your brain. Apparently you died again.”

“Like, in an alternate timeline? An alternate universe?”

“I don’t know how it works, but I wouldn’t have interrupted myself like this if it wasn’t something serious.”

“I don’t get it. How do you know when to come back and interrupt yourself, anyway, if you keep erasing your reason for coming back?”

“Because I remember my future self coming back and stopping me, so I know to come back and be that future self. Now I’m here.”

“. . . that’s a lot of trust in yourself.”

All Silver could do was shrug. As if on cue, another portal opened.

“Oh, come on!” Sonic said.

“I’m sorry, but I need to interrupt early on, otherwise we lose time.” Future Silver said.

“Yeah, what he said.” Present Silver replied. 

“So I keep dying. But how am I supposed to avoid it if it hasn’t happened yet? It’s not, like, unavoidable, is it?”

Silver froze. Future Silver looked to the ground, before his eyebrows widened. 

He held up his finger. “Sonic, you can’t die if you aren’t there!”

“Huh?”

“You can’t die if you aren’t there. Whatever Eggman’s planning, don’t respond to it! Just let me take care of it.”

“Silver, I’m flattered, but if I keep dying when we both go and tackle the thing, then I won’t let you face it alone.”

“You have to let me try. It’s our only option, unless you want a third me to join this party.” Present Silver said. 

“Promise me you’ll stay home?” Future Silver asked. 

Sonic frowned. “Fine. I promise.”

Present Silver (Silver himself, he recalled) hopped back through the portal and opened another one back in an instant. 

“Oh, come on!” Sonic said in familiar tone.

Other Silver, past Silver, waited expectantly. Silver imitated the line as he remembered. “I’m sorry, but I need to interrupt early on, otherwise we lose time.”

“Yeah, what he said.” Past Silver backed him up. 

“So I keep dying. But how am I supposed to avoid it if it hasn’t happened yet? It’s not, like, unavoidable, is it?”

“Sonic, you can’t die if you’re not there.” Silver affirmed immediately. 

“Huh?”

“Stay home. I mean it! I’ll take care of whatever Eggman’s got planned. If you aren’t there, you can’t die, and we can nip this problem in the bud.”

“But what about you? If I keep dying when you’re with me, then could you really handle it alone?”

“We won’t know if we don’t try.” Past Silver said.

“You need to go.” Silver pointed to his past self.

“Right.”

“And you need to promise to stay home.” He pointed to Sonic as his past self disappeared through the portal. 

“Fine. I promise.” Sonic said. 

Another portal opened. Another Silver stepped out.

“Wha- I said I promised!” Sonic said. “Did it not work or something?”

“You have to mean it.” Present Silver hissed. “That’s probably why he’s here.”

Future Silver crossed his arms and frowned. 

“Okay. You caught me. I didn’t really mean it that time.” Sonic shook his head. He then extended his hand. “This time, though, I mean it. I swear.”

Present Silver took his hand and they shook on it. Silver then re-entered his portal and whipped up another one in a blink. This time, it was almost a little fun to frown disappointedly at Sonic, and he remembered to cross his arms. 

“Okay. You caught me. I didn’t really mean it that time.” Sonic shook his head. He then extended his hand. “This time, though, I mean it. I swear.”

Past Silver shook his hand, before hopping back through his portal. Present Silver waited until the other portal disappeared.

“We’ll see if you mean it.” He said.

“I do. You know I don’t break my promises when I really make one.”

“Let’s wait and see if you’re right.”

Minutes passed. The wind blew around the grassy field. Sonic fidgeted with his gloves. The only portal that swirled was Present Silver’s own behind him. 

“. . . could it be?” Silver whispered.

“Don’t jinx it.”

“I think this is it.”

“Your future self has a knack for comedic timing, so seriously, don’t jinx it.”

Another minute passed. No interruptions. Silver flung himself up in the air and swooped with joy.

“YES! We did it! This is the time I get it right!”

“Alright, woohoo!” Sonic joined the cheer. 

Sonic took off in a direction across the field. Silver followed. Through grass and trees and loop-de-loops Sonic sped, until they reached Tails’ workshop. 

Sonic paused, however, before reaching the door. “Hey, Silver?”

“Yeah?”

“What if the reason you’re not coming to stop yourself this time is because you’re the one who dies?”

“Don’t break your promise now. Stay. Home.”

“Look, just, be careful out there. Don’t be afraid to call for backup if you need it.”

“Okay.”

They went inside. 

—

Don’t be afraid to call for backup if you need it, said an idiot who kept dying over and over again. Silver crushed the communicator Tails had given him the moment he arrived in Central City.

Eggman’s robots had erupted from the sewers and swarmed the streets. Silver gathered as many as he could focus on and crushed them into a big ball. He then smashed said ball into the face of Eggman’s mechsuit, though this did little more than cause it to stumble. 

“Oh, hoho! Silver the hedgehog, I’m flattered. I must have really done something right if you’re here to stop me!” Eggman’s voice blared. 

The mechsuit fired a volley of missiles in all directions. Silver caught the ones roaring towards buildings and guided them into the sky before throwing up a shield in around himself to block the ones that had closed in on him during that time. The impact flung him downwards. He refocused just enough to keep himself from slamming into the ground. He pulled himself back upright and-

One of the hands of the mechsuit gripped around his body. He scrabbled around the edges of the fingers with his psychokinesis, but couldn’t find a hold. 

“Goodbye, future annoyance.” Eggman said.

The metal around him tightened. Silver flung his power in any direction he could, but his focus slipped when he stopped being able to breathe. Spots covered his vision. Everything began to go dark.

“Chaos spear!”

A huge vibration shook the world, and the terrible crushing force released him. Silver hit the ground face-first. For a moment, all he could do was breathe, breathe. 

“Silver, move!”

Silver rolled out of the way as a huge foot crushed the road where he’d been. He picked himself off the ground and spotted Shadow spin-dashing into the mechsuit’s other leg. 

“Shadow! You shouldn’t be here! I can handle this!” 

Shadow threw him a brief glare before dodging Eggman’s reach. Silver grabbed a few cars off the street and impaled them into the spot where Shadow had spin-dashed. There was a sharp metal clang, and a chunk of plating fell to the ground. 

Something sharp and hot hit Silver’s quills. He whirled around to face a horde of normal robots shooting at him. He dived around the rest of their lasers, before pulverizing them together into a fine paste of parts that he used to pierce the mechsuit's chest. One of the remaining robots fired a net, though its computer brain must’ve suffered a hit beforehand, as the net sailed far over Silver’s head. He laughed, before crushing the robot flat with a flick of his finger. 

Then Shadow yelped. 

Silver turned around and-

Sonic is stuck in the net. The mechsuit’s hand slams down. When it lifts again, there’s barely anything left to identify. Silver’s throat tightens. He can’t focus enough to keep himself in the air. He hits the ground, hard, and it’s all he can do to run-

“Chaos control!”

There was a bright flash before the metal palm struck the asphalt. Shadow reappeared above the cockpit and slammed his foot down hard enough to shatter the glass. Eggman shrieked. He furiously scratched at his control panel, causing another dome of glass to pop up over him, and his cockpit detached from the rest of the mech. Shadow was flung off as the jets throttled up. The empty mechsuit started to fall. Silver caught him and pulled him out of the crush zone.

“You’re okay!” Silver flung his arms around him.

Shadow twitched in his embrace. “Let go.”

He stole one more moment, feeling Shadow’s shoulders rise and fall as he breathed, before releasing him. “Sorry. How’d you-”

“Sonic called. Said you were about to do something suicidal.”

“He sent you here? He shouldn’t have. He shouldn’t have. I needed to do this alone, otherwise-”

“I’m aware. Note that I’m not Sonic. Note that I’m also still alive, as are you.” Shadow gave a small smile. 

“. . . thanks.” 

His smile faded. “Don’t do this again. You’re fortunate that I arrived when I did. Next time, ask for help.”

“Says you.” 

Shadow crossed his arms. “Hmph.”

—

Silver returned to the future with the taste of Tails’ hot cocoa lingering on his lips. He walked to the window. He peeked through the curtains and the orange glow of the flames shined on his face. He gave half a smile, before ducking beneath the windowsill. However, there wasn’t much room down here anymore. Instead, he scratched the latest tally on the wall beside the window. 

He turned back to the table, only to find the chaos emeralds had vanished. A quick search of the rest of his hideout didn’t turn them up either. It seemed the gemstones thought his mission was complete, or that maybe he should take a break, or whatever. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d have to start scouting all over again. 

He eyed the textbook. It sat neatly closed. He opened the cover and flipped through the pages until he reached the year he remembered. He then searched for the date. . . only to find nothing. July 30th had an event, some sort of legislation was passed, and September 4th had something about a festival, but there was nothing in between. August 16th and the attack on Central City had been erased from historical memory. Sonic and friends save the day for the umpteenth time, it could’ve read. 

Silver looked back to the newest tally mark on the wall. He then plucked the can lid from the floor beside his chair, and began scratching letters. 

August 16th, 2018. 

He paused and looked down at his arm. He then added two more words. 

Sonic lives.

[alicemichelle297]

Sonic Frontiers (2022) review

I really, really didn't want to get my hopes up for this one. Arguably, Sonic hasn't had a good game since 2011's Sonic Generations. On top of that, releases for this series used to be practically yearly but they slowly dried up and there hasn't been a proper Sonic game since 2017's Sonic Forces (and that was a nightmare). So you can imagine the anticipation for Sonic Frontiers was excruciating.

As a life-long Sonic fan, I had to get this game on day one, but I waited to share my thoughts until I could digest my experience and come back to it for a second look, confirming the thoughts that stuck with me. I wanted to be fair as well as thorough, so this is a longer post from me than usual.

Story

The story of Sonic Frontiers is simple and that's not a bad thing. Sonic, Tails and Amy investigate a location called the Starfall Islands because the Chaos Emeralds were mysteriously drawn there. When they arrive, they're pulled into an artificial reality called Cyberspace and only Sonic is able to escape (because of his speed, I think).

Sonic has to find a way to rescue his friends, presumably by running through more Cyberspace areas and taking the digital corruption into his own body to free them. Along the way, he discovers that Knuckles came here and got trapped on his own, and so did Dr. Eggman!

He's confronted by Sage, an A.I. created by Eggman, who tells Sonic his efforts are wasted. Not only does she try to stop Sonic, but so does the ancient technology left on the Starfall Islands by an alien race called... well, the Ancients.

The premise is pretty thin, but it's also all it needed to be for an open-world concept like this. Just an excuse to go from point A to B and play more levels and collect more tokens.

This game's saving grace in the story department is that it was penned by Ian Flynn, head writer of Sonic comics from Archie's Sonic #160 to the end of that series, and then the first 30 issues of the IDW Publishing run. The man knows these characters better than anyone else on Earth. In fact, when they announced Flynn was writing it, Sonic Frontiers became a guaranteed purchase for me.

The downside is it seems Flynn was only given leave to write the dialogue. The overall premise and structure, what characters would appear, etc. was already dictated by SEGA. Given that that's all he had control over, Flynn does an exceptional job to make it work. Sonic and co. have never been so well characterized.

Flynn manages to pull connections to Sonic Forces and earlier games to sneak in small character arcs for our main cast. He directly tackles the fan backlash to Tails' nervous breakdown in Forces and makes it into a moment of self-doubt for Tails, who now feels unreliable. Sonic reminds Tails, and us, that he's been a hero to rely on before– like when he saved Station Square from a missile strike in Sonic Adventure. By the end of the game, Tails resolves to go on an adventure on his own and re-establish himself as an independent hero.

Knuckles' time as Commander of the Resistance is referenced in his actions leading a battalion of Kuco and in the fact that his character tokens are shaped like military medals. This is more subtle, but it works for me.

On top of it, he reflects on being the last echidna and how his determination to work alone leads him to struggles he can't handle on his own. Just through dialogue, Frontiers reinforces Knuckles' hard-headedness as well as his strength of friendship with Sonic, who would do anything to help him even though they're still considered rivals.

Granted, most of this characterization is actually in a short animation released as a "prologue" to the game, explaining how Knuckles got to the Starfall Islands on his own, but I'm choosing to include it in the game's review.

Probably most impressive is that Flynn was able to connect this arc for Knuckles to how he appeared in the Free Comic Book Day issue of the IDW Sonic comic, in which Knuckles resolved to explore Angel Island and find more of its secrets. Are we finally in an era where Sonic trans media properties will connect and carry story arcs between them? (I mean, probably not but a girl can dream).

Amy on the other hand gets both the most and least rehabilitation. Flynn has been working for years now to re-establish Amy as something other than "girl who is obsessed with Sonic." In the IDW comics, she's taken on a role more similar to Sally Acorn in the Archie Sonic comics: leader of the Resistance who makes the plans and executes them. Frontiers doesn't reference Amy's time as commander of the Resistance or her establishment of the Restoration after the Resistance is disbanded, instead focusing on her romantic nature. Rather than being obsessed with Sonic, she's clearly obsessed with the idea of romance. This is a small upgrade but it's something. I still think it reduces Amy to "my personality is girl" as Game Grump, Dan Avidan pointed out years ago.

New character Sage is an interesting case. She endears herself to the player pretty easily but I'm not sold on her role as Eggman's "daughter" through the little story we got between them. I find it funny that Evan Stanley (current writer of the IDW comics) also developed a surrogate daughter character for Eggman at the same time, apparently by complete accident. However it's hard for me to ignore that Belle is a much more interesting take on this idea than Sage is. I will grant that Sage's character design is cooler, though.

Sonic makes off-handed mention of other games' stories, including Station Square as mentioned earlier, Lost Hex, and a handful of other situations. He also makes a passing reference to Tangle from the IDW comics. This only highlights more that other elements of that story– which are presumably the events directly before this game and between Sonic Frontiers and Forces– aren't mentioned. No mention of the Restoration, Jewel, Whisper, the Metal Virus or any other comic elements. I wonder why Flynn was allowed to reference Tangle at all if the comic storylines weren't being canonized. Or for that matter one other non-canon character I won't spoil here.

Sonic Frontiers actually makes attempts at world-building, which hasn't really been done since Sonic Unleashed, 14 years ago. I won't spoil any of the specifics but the origins of the Chaos Emeralds, Chao and Chaos are all addressed in the course of Frontiers' story.

Something I didn't notice until really late in the game is that the main objective will take you to most of the story scenes with Amy, Tails, Knuckles and Sage, but there are additional scenes that can be found in the zones which are presumably optional, but some of the events of these optional scenes are referenced in the required scenes, so if you do them out of order it doesn't connect properly.

Gameplay

OK, that's great Alice, how's the game actually play? Overall: not too shabby.

Sonic Frontiers is broken up into two different gameplay styles: the open zone hub world areas (akin to Sonic Adventure's "adventure fields only much larger) and the linear cyberspace stages (similar to the levels of Sonic Forces, Colors, etc.).

Open Zones

The open zones are broken up into five different islands, which consist of 3 different biome themes: three forested/grassland islands (Kronos, Rhea and Ouranos Islands), a desert island (Ares Island), and a volcanic island (Chaos Island). Each open zone contains platforming challenges, puzzles, and portal gates that lead to the cyberspace stages, as well as vaults that hold the Chaos Emeralds.

The player has to collect a variety of tokens and keys: character tokens, which unlock stories for each of the side characters; and portal keys, which unlock the cyberspace levels. Through combat and other challenges, the player collects vault keys, which unlock the Chaos Emeralds.

It can be a little intimidating to see so many different collectibles, but rest assured everything you do in the game gives you some kind of key or token and, as long as you're running around doing something, you will get enough of each to complete the storyline objectives. I never had to grind for any of these collectibles to progress the story.

Surprisingly enough, the open zones do not use any kind of tower to unlock map progress. The map in Sonic Frontiers unlocks by completing the combat challenges and puzzles so, as long as you're running around and doing something, the map will fill in on its own. Some of the earliest gameplay footage released showed Sonic climbing a large tower, which was assumed to be a tower just like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, etc., which would need to be scaled in order to unlock portions of the map and other activities. Ironically, the one shown in that trailer is the only such tower on the island and it doesn't unlock anything. You can just climb it for fun.

Running around the open zones generally feels good.

Although, because the terrain is so varied, there are some handling issues. Sonic seems to be magnetically attached to the ground, so when terrain becomes uneven, he will "glitch" at odd angles to adhere to the ground. At speed, this can also cause the camera to twitch back and forth, or at worst cause Sonic to spontaneously launch into the air. This is kind of annoying, except boosting and launching yourself in this way can actually allow you to fly over large chunks of the environment and even cheat your way into areas that would take a lot of effort to run to as intended. I'd categorize this as "good for speed runners" but also "sloppy presentation" for the rest of us.

Also a weird addition to the game is the drop dash from Sonic Mania. Sonic doesn't have access to a regular spin dash in this game, however, so being able to initiate a spin dash in mid-air is a bit confusing.

The biggest issue I have with the open zones and honestly the game as a whole is that the Sonic level design elements are very poorly integrated into the environment, by which I mean they aren't integrated at all.

The zones themselves have a more photorealistic art style, but there's random grind rails, springs, and rings just floating in the environment looking the same way they have in Sonic games for the past 15 years. The rails aren't even attached to anything, they're just floating in the air. They could have at least put on some kind of "anti-gravity technology" on the bottom of the rails to explain why they're just hanging out there. But even better would be to attach them to the actual environments like they originally were (most of the time) in Sonic Adventure 2, the game that debuted rail grinding.

Overall, the open zones look a bit like someone dumped a bunch of Sonic game assets into Unreal Engine, which is not a good look for a game that retails at $60. Especially for as much as it reminds me of a fan game like "Sonic Omens."

Cyberspace

Cyberspace stages are more similar to Sonic Unleashed's "daytime stages" or what fans have taken to calling "the boost formula": a linear level in which you can boost (hold a button down to go fast) through most of the level.

Cyberspace in Sonic Frontiers alters the behavior of boosting in some key ways. For one thing, it's now on a stamina wheel a la The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and that is the only comparison I will be making to that game) instead of limiting it to how many rings you pick up or random power-up capsules like in previous games.

The most noticeable change, however, is that Sonic is no longer shrouded in a blue aura while boosting; instead, a subtle "sonic boom" effect appears in the air when boosting starts. This removes some of the visual clutter from the gameplay but it unfortunately removes a visual cue that you're still doing it. Sometimes jumping or other actions cancel the boost out, even if you're still holding down the trigger. I lost count of how many times I thought I was boosting only to realize I was running at normal speed.

Boosting in mid-air causes Sonic to arc upward slightly, allowing you to bridge some gaps in mid-air. This used to be accomplished by using the Homing Attack in mid-air, which is more or less useless now. Even if you hold the trigger down to boost in mid-air, it won't allow you to continuously boost. Instead, the mid-air boost is more or less a short mid-air dash. And you can't continue to boost when you hit the ground from a mid-air boost, so you have to consciously release the trigger and then hold it down again to continue boosting.

A weird decision that caused me endless frustration was to actually alter the jump physics between open zone and cyberspace. There's just as much platforming in each environment– and the same type of platforming at that– but Sonic's handling during a jump is completely different between the two, which caused me to die hundreds of times just from misjudging my ability to move in the air.

A nice quality of life improvement I didn't know I needed is that Frontiers allows you to initiate a homing attack from the ground instead of jumping in the air and then homing in. This is accomplished by moving the homing attack to the X button (on Xbox) like it was in Sonic Unleashed, rather than pressing A twice as it was in every other Sonic game ever. On a practical level this was probably done to separate homing attack from the double jump, which returns from Sonic Forces.

Cyberspace suffers from not having enough level themes, just as the open zones suffer from reusing the theming of Kronos Island. There's dozens of levels, but there are only four level themes: Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and a new Eternal Highway design.

Eternal Highway at first glance is too similar to Speed Highway, in my opinion. It really stands out when one of the levels actually rips the level layout of Speed Highway Act 2 straight from Sonic Generations.

On that note, some of the levels are original layouts, but most are inspired or directly ripped from past games, albeit with a different level theme. Rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed is ripped whole cloth but re-skinned to look like Sky Sanctuary. Sky Rail, Metal Harbor and Green Forest from Sonic Adventure 2 are ripped and re-skinned in the Green Hill Zone style. Chemical Plant Act 2 from Sonic Generations appears in zone 1-5, using the Chemical Plant theming so it's perfectly obvious, just as Green Hill Zone Act 2 from Generations is recreated in 1-4 with the same theme.

At first it's kind of charming, but on another level it feels lazy. This really makes it obvious that Sonic Team were rushed to deadline and simply didn't have the time to make new levels, relying on the big hits from their past instead. I'm not mad at it, I love Metal Harbor and Sky Rail and it's actually nice to play them with all the modern advancements in graphics, but it also makes me want to close the game out and boot up Sonic Adventure 2, which is also installed on my Xbox so it's 3 clicks away. I assume that's not what they want me to do.

Combat

I never thought I'd be talking about combat in a Sonic game. For the uninitiated, "combat" in Sonic's history has consisted of "jumping on an enemy" like Mario or "homing in on an enemy in mid-air" like a missile. With some notable exceptions like Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) or Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (2014), Sonic doesn't really do combat.

I think it was a wise decision to keep the combat very simple. There is a skill tree, which unlocks with skill points gained from just passively playing the game and fighting, but it remains a button-masher no matter how much you upgrade. There's even a skill unlock which allows you to auto-combo by mashing the same button so you don't even need to memorize the two-button combinations.

This game also adds in a parry mechanic but it's far from being skill-based. The game doesn't tell you this, but you can just hold the parry position indefinitely and whenever something hits you, it will trigger the parry. You don't need to be timing it out at all.

There are some other RPG elements like upgrading your stats: speed, ring capacity, defense and strength; but you absolutely don't need to. The difficulty curve never necessitates any stat upgrades, and thank God for that because upgrading is a chore. You have to seek out specific NPCs to upgrade each stat one level at a time. To go from level 1 to 99 will take you over an hour (and I'm not exaggerating, someone timed it). This is the very first thing that needs to get patched out.

Titans

Ok, here's the real star of the show: the titan boss fights.

Each island is defended by a titan: a giant robot a la Evangelion which can only be defeated by transforming into Super Sonic. This information is best communicated when Sonic first tries to face the titan Giganto, which promptly picks Sonic up in his giant hand and throws him through several ruins and into a mountain, leaving an impact crater like it's Dragon Ball Z.

When you collect six Chaos Emeralds on each island, the titan fight will become available. You scale the surface of the titan and claim the seventh Chaos Emerald, which is being held in a vault on the titan's head. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and the music queues up.

Now the music of Sonic Frontiers, overall, is fine. Actually a lot of the cyberspace levels have great beats with this very funky electronic thing going on, but the titan fights crank that up to 11. The vocal sting of Giganto's theme, "Undefeatable," is a show-stopper.

This, combined with the visual scale of the titans, the fact that the entire island is your arena for this battle, and the visual spectacle of Super Sonic in this game, spells out the most hyped up boss fights of Sonic's 30 year career.

Super Sonic smolders with golden light and when you attack using the same moves you unlocked in the open zones, there are now golden light after-images of Super Sonic, his fists, and his feet/shoes. Think Bayonetta's combos with her partner demon's giant fists flying in for a hit.

You're immune to all damage while in the super state, however you can be knocked back which eats up your time. You gradually deplete your rings (about 1 per second) while in Sonic's super form, and when the rings run out you revert back to normal and automatically lose the fight, making titans more or less a timed fight.

Giganto makes the best impression, but Wyvern is also a visually stunning fight as it takes Sonic on a flight path around Ares Island, dodging mountains and ruins that reach into the sky, all while the titan shoots laser beams and missiles back at Sonic.

The third titan, Knight, is a bit too gimmicky for my tastes, as you have to parry a shield toss from the titan and then ride the shield in a ricocheting path to hit and stun Knight so you can continue fighting as normal.

The final titan, Supreme, is unfortunately just Giganto again except he has a Gundam-sized rifle to shoot at Sonic. On the bright side, it's the shortest of the titan fights so it doesn't overstay that cold welcome.

Presentation

Sonic Frontiers makes a great first impression because it's such a bold new direction for Sonic. Once the initial excitement wears off though, the seams start to show.

As mentioned before, the level design elements are not integrated into the environment and it makes the place look unpolished. On top of this issue, there's a lot of pop-in. You will constantly see grind rails pop in, in the distance. It's not exactly distracting but it is noticeable.

In my opinion, the rendering distance is too short for the scale of this game and what results is that navigating the islands by actually looking around for what to do next is impossible. You have to open your map and place a marker on where you want to go next to have any hope of getting there. You can't reliably look around to spot the next platforming challenge, for example, because the rails haven't loaded in yet and they won't until you're within a few meters of them.

There is occasional stuttering and frame rate drops, which for a game like this on modern hardware should not be happening, and that tells me this game was rushed to deadline before it could be fully optimized, which Sonic Team has not been shy about admitting. The visuals are far from cutting-edge, so there should be no issue running it at a good frame rate on an Xbox. I can't comment on the PC or PS5 versions but, from what I've seen elsewhere online, it runs about the same on other platforms. I assume this means the game targets the lowest common denominator: the Nintendo Switch.

The animations are better in this than they've been in previous titles, though still nowhere near the expressiveness of actual animations like Sonic Boom. Even so, this goes a long way towards making Sonic and co. look more like characters that live in a stylized world rather than people in mascot costumes which can't make expressions with their eyes and can't move their limbs around too much for fear of tripping and falling in the middle of Disney World.

Most of the combat animations have a good sense of power behind them, although if you look closely at them or in slow-motion you'll notice that Sonic isn't actually moving very much, it's mostly visual effects like wind and blue lights. It gets the job done.

One nitpick I have (or another one, I guess) is that Sonic acts like he's injured, hobbling over for most of the game as a result of being corrupted with cyberspace, but this doesn't get worse as the corruption progresses. It's the same pose no matter how much cyberspace we're talking about.

Art Style

The art style of this game is a mess. The islands look like they're attempting a photo-realistic, Unreal Engine vibe, but Sonic and friends still look like stylized video game characters.

As far as I can tell, these are the same character models used in Sonic Forces, which isn't actually a bad thing, but they've all been re-textured with a "fur texture" that looks more like felt. I gather this was inspired by the success of the Sonic movie by Paramount Studios and its use of a fur-textured C.G.I. Sonic in a live-action world.

Adding to the movie inspiration is a blue electric aura which surrounds Sonic when boosting at full-power. It's not a bad thing, but I personally prefer the games version of Sonic to use more of a wind elemental effect. I think it's better for movie Sonic to be "electric Sonic" and for games Sonic to be, I don't know, the "Knight of the Wind" (to drag in a reference to past games, kicking and screaming).

The islands' biomes are a mixed bag as well. I think the forest theme of Kronos Island is very appealing. That probably comes down to blue Sonic on green backgrounds doesn't clash and green is relaxing anyway because of color psychology.

Ares Island, on the other hand, I cannot stand. The sprawling sand dunes lose visual interest after about two minutes, and the obsidian terrain of the volcanic Chaos Island isn't much better.

The Verdict

Ok, you hung on this long. Is Sonic Frontiers good? Yes (for a Sonic game).

This game does a lot to address concerns fans have had for years, and it especially gets credit for trying to take the series in a new direction after over a decade of the same old, same old.

If we grade on the curve of comparing this only to past Sonic games, it's a knockout. If we look at it just as a video game that competes with every other game on the market, it's average.

I love Sonic probably more than any other media franchise, so I have major blinders on. They won me over just by paying lip service to the comics and sprinkling in a couple new ideas.

I will give credit for the responsiveness the game's director has shown online and I'm hopeful based on the promises already made of future updates and DLC. I think this will take the game from average to great, without having to grade on a curve.

This review was written based on the Xbox version played on a Xbox Series S. This was not a review copy.

Sonic Frontiers is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

[birdsjuicy]

Shadow the Hedgehog rewrite

It goes without saying that Shadow the Hedgehog was a mess. Not very surprising, but I want to change this game dammit. So, here are some ideas for a rewrite.

First, the topic of the bad guys and Shadow's morality. The Black Arms are very evil. This is made clear by how their missions are dubbed "EVIL," where the missions with Sonic and co. are dubbed "HERO" with the only exceptions being Eggman. This goes against Shadow's antiheroism. It's unlikely he'd just follow the obviously evil aliens just for the sake of regaining his memories unless he was just being an asshole. So, here's my suggestion: Make the "EVIL vs. HERO" system less black-and-white. My idea was "CHAOS vs. ORDER," to match my overhaul of the Black Arms. The Black Arms are now a race of creatures obsessed with the Chaos Emeralds and their energies, tying into the later reveal in Frontiers that the emeralds are from space. They don't just send their leader in to make contact, but instead summon an illusion of Maria's spirit, promising to give Shadow the answers he seeks if he can seek the Chaos Emeralds for her. On the other hand, GUN would be pushed much more as the bad guys for the early parts of the story, at least until the Black Arms' true nature is revealed... where they are demoted to co-bad guys with the Black Arms, slightly lower in threat but still antagonistic.

The dichotomy is no longer "Be good or be evil," but "Seek the answers, at the cost of unwittingly supporting the evil invaders, or protect the Earth but forsake the answers." The true nature of the Black Arms isn't revealed until later, giving Shadow good reason to follow their commands for as long as he does. Meanwhile, the fake Maria selectively gives Shadow the memories that put humanity in a bad light, encouraging him to keep working for the Black Arms.

The gameplay structure is painful, to say the least, as you have to complete the game ten times over, meaning playing Westopolis ten times, each final level twice, and most likely the levels between several times as well. So, how about the chosen mission changes the level? Maybe, if you've chosen the Order mission, your companion will open a new route to complete the mission that can't be unlocked if you don't have them with you. This could also help deal with the problem of Eggman's missions requiring you to kill his robots, and then having Eggman get angry at you for bad game design; just have Eggman open a path for you when on his mission. But this isn't enough, since you'll still be repeating levels. Why not skip to certain stages? Even if restricted to the neutral path, this would save a lot of time.

Now for characterization, which was briefly touched upon. Shadow is supposed to be an exaggeration of Sonic, primarily his edge, but while keeping his better qualities in mind, sort of like an affectionate parody of him. This game made him a typical brooding edgelord ditching his original angle as a copy of Sonic, which the plot at least partially pushes. How about giving him dynamic development, then? Push him into a more "Disgusting humans, I'll kill them all" characterization if he's taken more Chaos missions, and give him a more "I will not let you destroy this world" character for Order.

On the Black Arms' side... first off, Black Arms? Seriously? It doesn't matter if this is any less creative, I'm calling them the Chaos Arms, and Black Doom is being renamed Chaos Doom (if you know the sonic dev lore, this name may be familiar). Anyway, the Chaos Arms masquerade as holy angels that serve in the name of the Chaos Emeralds. They claim to be the rightful owners of the emeralds, and later on claim that humanity is corrupting the Earth, but it's all a facade as they just want the emeralds and don't care about humans or the Earth at all. Chaos Doom's words constantly drip with manipulative subtext, promising Shadow will understand the truth once he finds the emeralds. All this being said, they don't have any big connection to Shadow. Shadow was entirely Gerald's creation without any alien parties involved, but they do see him as kin due to being attuned to the emeralds' energy by design and a useful patsy due to his need for closure with Maria's memories.

And on GUN's side, well, they're not being whitewashed this time. They're still the corrupt military SA2 established them as. While the president is well meaning, he has an outright vendetta against Shadow for trying to destroy the Earth, partially absorbing the commander's role in the story (though, since he's the president, there is still a commander, it's just he doesn't have a confusing, convoluted backstory and is mostly just subservient to the president.) Whenever GUN shows up, they're still likely after something for their own gain that they don't want the Chaos Arms taking. For instance, Westopolis is treated more as territory than a city in danger, GUN trying to keep the Chaos Arms from getting a foothold before trying to secure the area and keep civilians safe. It's shown not just in the Chaos missions, but in the Order missions as well that GUN is bad news. Still, after enough Order missions, the president learns what side Shadow is on and GUN stops shooting him on sight... which isn't to say they're better people now, it's just they understand that Shadow is also against the aliens.

As for the True Story? The Chaos Arms are still the villains, yes, but so is GUN, trying to mount a final assault on the Chaos Arms to retrieve the emeralds for themselves. It's just that Chaos Doom is the bigger threat to Shadow. Chaos Doom intends on using the emeralds to become like a god of chaos. The scene of the Chaotix playing a message to Shadow that also pins Gerald as a good guy all along? Gerald is being pointed as a more morally grey figure. He meant the best for everyone, but his emotions always got the better of him, even before Maria's death. He was, arguably, an embodiment of the negative side of chaos, letting one's emotions control you and becoming a wild, snarling beast... where Maria represented the positive side of chaos, encouraging loving and growing, living and learning, becoming a protector of others. Maria is reinforced as the good influence on Shadow, bringing him hope in the final hour and encouraging him to stop Perfect Doom.

The series would progress with GUN as an enemy, yes, but Shadow would strive to bring peace to the people of Earth, becoming its protector. Gerald would still be expanded upon, but his misdeeds aren't forgotten either. Shadow retains his initial character, and moves on with the character Heroes established as well. And, a neat personal bonus, it also retains the moral Heroes gave him (by NOT HAVING EGGMAN GIVE THE ANSWER ON A SILVER PLATTER) that, real or cloned, Shadow is Shadow.

[wereh0gz]

I'm still thinking about my adult sonic and co

By adult I mean over 200 years old btw lmao

Yeah he's immortal. He's been exposed to so much chaos energy and dark gaia energy and whatnot over the years that it won't let him die. He's essentially made himself into an ultimate lifeform, if he wasn't one in the first place. He also still transforms into the werehog, but he has control over when it happens (except on new moons or eclipses). As the years go on his normal form looks more and more like his werehog form, tho... Weird.

Shadow's still alive too, of course, cos he's the ultimate lifeform (or an ultimate lifeform, i guess). He and sonic are qpps but argue and race all the time like when they were kids. The status of their relationship doesn't change how they treat each other much. He gains more black arms traits and gets better at handling chaos energy too. He still needs his inhibitor rings to stay stable, but he can handle not having them for longer if need be.

Omega's here too. He's pretty much the same lol

Tails is also still alive because I firmly believe he is a nine-tailed fox and they live for a Very long time. By the time sonic's 200 he's gained two other tails and cool new abilities i still need to think of. Most of them have to do with wind, which he learns from sonic, and some illusory stuff to help him keep a low profile, as being immortal could bring him and the others some trouble.

Speaking of trouble, eggman nega takes the role of villain and archnemesis to sonic and co. He wants to take over the world, just as his ancestor/mobius dimension counterpart(???) did. But he's taken a keen interest in immortality after learning that the guy who keeps thwarting his plans is the fabled sonic the hedgehog, legendary hero of mobius from 200 years ago.

He wants to see what makes the hedgehog tick. Study him. Find his weaknesses, both physical and mental, to effectively destroy him. Because if he wants to take over the world, he has to get rid of sonic.

I'm unsure if I want to make this a separate au, or to incorporate it to my sonic eclipse au as a sort of distant future arc, or to make an au of the au? Idk. These are just kind of random ideas I've had rattling around in my head for a while now that I wanted to talk about lol. Nothing really concrete will come out of this for a while. I may do some more designs and random doodles but this isn't something I'll work on a lot for now (gotta focus on finishing the sonic eclipse fanfic! It will happen! Eventually!)

If I do end up incorporating this into sonic eclipse I'll probably involve some of my ocs somehow, but again nothing's really set yet and probably won't be in a while.

I think I'm done rambling now good night

[crusherthedoctor]

It goes without saying: the first level always matters. If it doesn’t leave a good impression, it would hardly motivate you to give the rest of the journey a chance, would it? Being in fanfic form aside, Beyond the Stars is no exception, and because of this, Gleaming Meadows was actually one of the longest zones to work out. Viridonia is meant to stand out from previous Sonic settings after all, and kicking things off with a poor man’s Green Hill wouldn’t cut it.

Since the first level in a Sonic game usually tends to be either a hilly area (Green Hill, Emerald Hill, Seaside Hill) or an urban area (City Escape, Westopolis, Windmill Isle to an extent), I decided a good way to set this zone apart would be to... combine the two! This was inspired very much by Neo Green Hill from Sonic Advance, since although that zone wasn’t a city, it did add some minor urban elements the further it went on, most notably the bridge at the end where you fight Eggman. So as tribute to a forever underrated installment, Gleaming Meadows does that too, but in a different way.

Creating Zone 1: Gleaming Meadows

1-1: Blossom Fields

What’s a good way to make your first level stand out from all the Green Hills? Give it more than green, obviously. While it’s important that the entire adventure is full of interesting locations, I really wanted the first level to sound as gorgeous as possible in order to leave a strong first impression for this new journey, so what better inspiration than tulip fields, particularly those of the Netherlands?

The added use of yellows, oranges, reds and pinks already help set it apart, but there’s also the fact that although there are some lakes and rivers here and there, it’s not particularly coastal.

This aesthetic not only serves to get things off to a good start, but it also sums up the running theme with Beyond the Stars in general. Namely, that although plenty of the basic level tropes will be familiar to us all, many of them will be handled in rather different ways, thus proving that as long as you can think outside the box, there’s plenty of life in them yet. Some examples are more extreme than others, but other times, even a simple change of colour, weather, or time of day can make all the difference.

I mentioned in Chapter 1 proper that the cliffs in Blossom Fields have unique markings that convey a vague, lore-hinting narrative. I couldn’t find a better image to explain how this would look, so I’ll have to resort to this shot from Paper Mario:

See the cliff behind them, with its starry patterns on the soil? That’s basically the gist, but with a more complex pattern.

Also mentioned was the addition of a tunnel near the end of the stage, which is one example of the Neo Green Hill-esque hillside with minor urban elements that I intended.

Don’t assume the inside is drab however. On the contrary, it comes with abstract graffiti in a style reminiscent of the Colinton Tunnel in Edinburgh:

Very Jet Set Radio, eh? In addition to simply being more interesting this way, I figured it fit Sonic perfectly.

But you might question what a tunnel inspired by Edinburgh is doing in a level inspired by the Netherlands. Well, this is another running gag with Viridonia. While not always the case, a lot of times there’ll be combined aspects of real world inspiration, as opposed to Unleashed and its clear cut Not-Greece, Not-New York, etc. This is not just me throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, there is in fact a purpose to it, as it’s one of the more subtle ways of showing how peculiar Viridonia can be compared to other places in Sonic history - partly due to the Ethereal Zone - with only the Little Planet truly competing with the island in that field.

And y’know, it gives it that extra bit of identity and variety, eh?

Now, with music choices to explain what sort of musical atmosphere I’d have in mind for each level, I’m gonna have to use basic links from now on, since I rediscovered the hard way that Tumblr only allows up to five or so direct posts. It’s also worth noting that if this were a real game, it would do what SA1 (and, uh, ‘06) did before it, with each level having at least two different bits of music for the appropriate sections to add even more flair. I’ll still be listing two examples each for extra comparison���s sake, so with that said...

First Section (the fields): Opening Demo (Sonic Mega Collection) Ending B (Sonic Advance 3)

Second Section (the tunnel): Topical Tropical (Sonic: Before the Sequel) Shooting Ristar

1-2: Swanky Suburbs

Continuing the Netherland theme going on, the local town has a touch of Giethoorn to it, with its calming rivers and little pathways. Though unlike Giethoorn, there would be some cars and short roads sprinkled about.

Again, really wanted to convey that feeling of low-key beauty and coziness, and provide more justification for why Sonic and Co would come here for a vacation. But that’s not all: when it comes to the houses and other buildings, the red and white colour scheme is more based on those of Portugal:

And of course, you have the local parks as well. You can even interact with the slides and swings if you want, because you’re never too old to make the kids wait their turn.

First Section (calm): Neo Green Hill Classic The Amazon (DuckTales Remastered)

Second Section (when Badniks start wrecking things up): Wave Ocean ~The Inlet~ (Sonic ‘06) Andy’s Neighborhood (Toy Story 2)

1-3: Yellow Hills

As we go on, we leave the Netherland influence behind, and with the countryside in sight, the clue is in the name. Lots of yellow to be had indeed.

And inbetween all these fields, we have some villages, of which the rural vibe suits the place just fine.

Then as we go into farmyard territory, the yellow actually starts taking a back seat in favor of red, because I guess even I’m not immune to the subverting expectations fever. Hopefully I’ve done it in a way that isn’t asinine though.

The barnyards would be the stereotypical red and white, since it works well enough with the autumn colours, and can still pop out despite there being so much red surrounding them.

And yes, there are many farm animals hanging around here.

Yes, that includes horses.

No, they’re not Trudy’s family.

First Section (yellow): Tornado Alley (Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex) Mount Lineland (Super Paper Mario)

Second Section (red): Green Hill ‘12 (Tee Lopes) Menu (Mario Tennis)

1-4: Rusty Mill

A wooden mill doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination, so it would look pretty much exactly as you’d expect, albeit a tad more old and worn.

The same goes for inside, really. Since the interior of mills are tricky to find interesting images of when elaborating on your quirky Sonic the Hedgehog zone, I’ll be using another game for comparison instead, specifically Donkey Kong Country 3:

Except multiply the cobwebs by five.

It’s decayed, and a bit grim, but not enough to the point where it would feel like it’s near the endgame. Yet another thing I go in hard on in this story: escalation. In order for later zones and climactic moments to be more striking and impactful, you gotta start off by taking it easy. There’s still action to be had, and there’s still mysterious and/or ominous touches here and there, but it’s for the purpose of organically building things up, so that when things do escalate, you actually feel it when shit starts going down. Pacing, boys and girls! Learn it!

Then again, as with Angel Island in S3&K, this place gets set on fire halfway through, so maybe I need to remember my own lessons. But on the other hand, also like S3&K, it still pales in comparison to what happens later, so...

Lastly for today, when you’re fighting the fearsome Paindozer, the section of the mill that you confront it in suspiciously takes a form more akin to a old fashioned warehouse. Like... IKEA, I guess. But on fire.

So congratulations, you got through IKEA Zone. Looks like Eggman should have stuck with B&Q Zone instead.

First Section (calm): Pogo Painter (Crash Bash) The Walk of Life (Rayman 2)

Second Section (on fire): Vs. Rotatatron & Refreshinator (Sonic Colours) Set Point - Match Point (Mario Tennis)

[jennikkugoesoff]

Jennikku goes off about a Sonic the Hedgehog Reboot.

If you follow me at all or have read many of my other rants, you’ll know I love Sonic the Hedgehog. A lot, with all my heart. I met my friends through Sonic and it’s a franchise that’s changed a lot in my life, for better, for worse and everything in-between. It’s the reason I started to draw, to write and to really give creativity a chance.

It’s a series that has been through many twists, turns, up and down and all arounds over the course of it’s long, 28 (as of the time of writing) year lifespan, and has stood the test of time, being heralded either as one of the best video game franchises of all time, or, well, one of the worst out there, becoming more and more dated by each passing day.

But, it didn’t start out that way. Everyone’s told the long, terrible story now about Sonic’s massive rise to the top of 1990s American Iconography and his massive plummet into the depths of Hell, dragging his now-bitter fans down with him following the turn of the century and segwaying into the modern age, so I won’t bog you with the details you already know, but here’s the main point.

Sonic the Hedgehog... kinda sucks.

And that’s because it’s a mess. An astronomically confused, tired, and beaten mess. In the 28 year lifespan of Sonic the Hedgehog, it’s canon has become massively tangled in knots. Inconsistent games, inconsistent comics, inconsistent cartoons, and so on and so forth. Anyone who’s a fan of Sonic comes from a place where they heard about Sonic, be it the games, the cartoons, the comics, and so on, and therefore, have a different mindset about what Sonic the Hedgehog should be, which is the cause for much of the heavy, almost unpleasable climate the fan community gives off.

Really? The only way I see the series being salvageable is to wipe the slate clean and begin... at least somewhat anew, and see how these scatted pieces of broken glass we call the ‘Sonic canon’ can fit together.

This has been tried once, with Sonic Boom, but it didn’t really end well, and I’d like to change that, so let’s have this hypothetical reboot take the same form as Sonic Boom, as a potential ‘new face’ for the entire series, rather than a spinoff continuity. (I feel like this was the original intention of Sonic Boom, but due to the backlash, was revoked.)

Are you comfortable? Let’s go. It’s gonna be a long-ass, tiring, winding post.

(Seriously I spent fucking 3 days just writing this post. For that reason, there may be a few gRaMatTcul eRors here and there, just bear with me, okay? I’m tired and I just wanna heave out this monster of an idea.)

Housecleaning and on wiping the slate clean

Ok, before we actually get into redoing the series, I wanna make this clear, when I say I want to ‘wipe the slate clean’, that’s sort of an exaggeration. I don’t think Sonic needs to be completely rewritten from scratch, and certain elements of the series DO work very well, so it’s more we’re gonna ‘wipe the slate clean, but immediately redraw things back on, except bigger and better than they were before.’

The reason why is, Sonic the Hedgehog has a kind of ‘hoarder complex’ when it comes to his franchise. As I established earlier, the main problem with rebooting Sonic the Hedgehog as compared to another franchise like, say, Ducktales, or Ghostbusters, is that Sonic the Hedgehog has a lot of lore. Too much lore. Think about the crazy amount of lore surrounding Solaris, Mephiles, Dark and Light Gaia, the Wisps, Chaos, and Tikal, Shadow and the Black Arms, Silver, the Sol Dimension and Blaze, Eggman Nega, the Nocturnus Clan, the list goes on and on and on. It’s head-spinning, it’s confusing, and most of all, obtrusive to what’s actually important in the Sonic Canon versus what seems important.

This isn’t helped by the fact that Sonic has never really had a consistent ground to stand on in terms of his world and where he lives because where he lives changes with every game or new thing Sonic is in. So, introducing these new, complicated gods and grand, sprawling history all of a sudden doesn’t give the world Sonic lives in any ground or any real meaning if it’s just going to be ignored later on when Sonic Forces completely rewrites the world map from Unleashed. (This is a problem I have with the Mario and Kirby series too.)

Even if you claim something like the Sonic Archie comics have consistency in their setting, think about how much the comic’s version of Mobius changed over the course of its lifespan after not only being completely rewritten (thanks Ken Penders. I’m sure your horrific 3d render children are proud.) and two crossovers, not to mention all the subtle shifts and changes the comic made from its debut comic to its cancellation.

So, if we’re going to do this, we need to get this straight right now.

A new Sonic reboot will NEED to cover EVERY base of the Sonic continuity. Games, Comics, Cartoons, Merchandising (with the exception of maybe some anniversary stuff), The Whole Echidna- er, Enchilada.

If the problem with Sonic as it is, is that the continuity is messy because it keeps adding new stuff? THEN STOP FUCKING ADDING NEW STUFF!!

NO ONE’S GONNA LIKE THE NEW STUFF ANYWAY!!

PEOPLE FUCKING HATE CHANGE!!

THIS FRANCHISE IS SO FUCKing MiSTReATED!- FUCK!!

Nah, but seriously. If this reboot is gonna work, then it needs to BE a proper reboot. Not a side-series like Sonic Boom, not an ‘alternate dimension’ to dip into for mainline games, not a one-off series of animated shorts, no quills, no pillows. If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna go all in. At least in terms of continuity.

So, you know what we’re gonna name this reboot?

Sonic the Hedgehog

Just, Sonic the Hedgehog. Yep. All in, indeed.

Audience, Tone, and Genre

I feel maybe I should’ve split these into multiple sections, but, they really all go hand-in-hand. 

If we’re gonna remake Sonic, we gotta first decide how Sonic should feel, and who he’s going to appeal to. So, let’s consider what we’re working with first, based on the history of who Sonic has appealed to.

The whole point of Sonic’s young, hip, snarky personality was to appeal to the American youth of the 1990s (kids, teenagers, and young adults), the young, hip, snarky and coolest people around. Sonic sought to identify with these kids by being a little bit ‘edgier’ and ‘cooler’ than most other cartoon characters of his era, but still with the capability to be as cute, wholesome and inherently charming as his competition. Like the perfect little blend of the sarcastic wit of Bugs Bunny and the lovable personability of Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.

Many Sonic clones of the 1990s like Bubsy, Aero the Acrobat, and Zero the [CENSORED] Squirrel tried to piggyback off of Sonic in this manner by trying to play up Sonic’s edgy, snarky appeal, but what they lack is that more wholesome, laid back, simple, round and friendly aspects of his design. It’s why Sonic can look like this:

but also like this

like this

but also like this.

It’s why Sonic works so well as a cartoon character in animated shorts and cartoons, as well as an action character in high octane blood pumping action anime, and one of the reasons why I think his design is so appealing. It’s this, this perfect balance between cool superhero and cuddly, wholesome cartoon character that makes Sonic such the iconic character he is.

So what’s the point of me telling you that?

Well, lots of people disagree on what Sonic the Hedgehog’s tone should be, and what audience Sonic should appeal to. Many argue Sonic is a series strictly meant for children, and therefore shouldn’t take any risks and be cutesy, wholesome and bouncy. Others argue Sonic should market itself to teenagers and young adults by pushing its envelope with it’s material and turning itself into a giant melodrama with three-dimensional characters, intertwining relationships and giant, epic Dragon Ball Z style showdowns with blood, guts and the crunching of noses and teeth.

You know what’s popular right now though and seems to have been for a while? A blend of those exact two things.

It sounds dumb but, think about it. Video games and cartoons have been taking this turn toward being a little bit of the best of both worlds. Steven Universe, Undertale/Deltarune, Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, even stuff like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, that sort of thing.

So, I think a new Sonic reboot should be an Action/Adventure-Comedy. It’s a series about long, lengthy quests and the ongoing war between nature and machine, but it’s also about a quick-witted cartoon character having fun picking on an overconfident evil scientist and his lackeys.

And you know what? I think Sonic is and has shown that this is the environment he flourishes in. Think about why Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing: Overdrive work so well, or why OK KO: Let’s Meet Sonic! is so great! It places Sonic and co. in an environment in which they have the opportunity to be funny and cartoony, but also leaves itself open to lead into more strict action sequences or serious, emotional moments, should it feel the need to. It lets the characters be the characters, without being impeded by everything needed to be babyproofed, but also not interrupted by fanfic-tier melodramatics every 2 and a half minutes. And, considering how much any media featuring Sonic relies on its characters to garner appeal, this is important.

Besides that, this is also important for something I think is going to make this reboot go from good to great.

: ✧･ﾟ: U N I F I C A T I O N ! :･ﾟ✧ : 

I’ve said this before in my other essay on how I’d reboot Sonic, but I truly feel that bringing together a lot of different elements of Sonic’s history together for this reboot is a top-notch idea for not only bringing the series back together whilst maintaining a wide appeal but also broaden the scope of potential characters, settings, and plot points we can work with, rather than just limiting it to just the classic era, or just the modern era, it also might leave veteran fans wondering just who or what was going to show up in the next game, or next episode!

Why limit ourselves to just a classic-style series or just a modern-style series? Why not mix it up a little?

Let’s take the cute classic stuff and mix it with some of the cool modern stuff!

I mean of course there’s gonna be purists but, hey, if we have a little bit of both we might just start seeing eye to eye!

So, what does that mean for the audience? Well, I think in that sense, Sonic should be able to appeal to, about anyone, really. Adults, Kids, Teenagers, anyone. It’d be like going to see a Marvel Superhero movie in the theaters or watching Spongebob on TV, yeah, it’d be something kids enjoy, but also something young adults can appreciate too. Although if we absolutely have to stick to a demographic, I’d say the ideal targets for a Sonic the Hedgehog reboot are two groups of people specifically.

Older fans of the series who grew up with the Adventure and Classic games, and Younger people who are more familiar with the modern games. As far as drawing new people or embittered old fans in?... Well, we’ll get to that.

Plot synopsis

It may seem like a no-brainer what the plot of Sonic the Hedgehog is, right? Well, of course it is. It’s been the same for over 20 years, and, I think the premise? Is fine.

“Sonic the Hedgehog is the fastest thing alive and a protector of nature who loves adventure. He’s smarmy and mischevious, but with a heart of gold and an unshakable sense of justice with a can-do attitude. His archnemesis, Dr. Eggman, wants to take over his natural, sprawling home and begin building his planet-conquering empire in its place. It’s up to Sonic and his group of friends to defeat Dr. Eggman, and restore peace to the world, and the green back to the hills.”

This? Right here? This is Sonic the Hedgehog. No matter who you ask, from any branch of the franchises thousand-foot tall family tree, this is Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a couple of doodads and twists here and there depending on the specific game, but that’s really honestly it when you break it all down, that’s the plot of almost every Sonic game. But this can easily get lost and bogged down between all of the God-summoning and all that shit that other Sonic media does.

So, let’s keep the focus on this, and this alone. Just the ongoing misadventures, setbacks, leaps forward, threats and triumphs between Sonic and Co. and the forces of evil.

...(But let’s add the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, I don’t think I can stand having a Sonic continuity without them and they make for good plot fodder, plus, I’ll be damned if I’m not seeing Super Sonic by the time a series finale or end-of-game hits.)

Setting + Background Lore

So, to set a location, let’s dumb down where Sonic actually lives. (Figuratively anyway, Sonic has no true home, just places he likes to be at any one time.)

In the Genesis days, Sonic lived on a tiny island called South Island, and the game’s settings often took place on South Island or on it’s neighboring islands Westside and Angel Island, and, given how important these old zones, like Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zone, are to the current Sonic Canon, I propose that maybe the setting for this potential reboot takes place on said islands, with one island for each of the cardinal directions on a compass, but also some of the other islands that are included in the Sonic series (as well as some adjusted ones!)

And, as a reference to the days of yore, we could even call it

The Mobius Archipelago

Each of these islands would have their own unique areas (referred to as ‘Zones’ for both nostalgia and convenience’s sake) based on the different levels from Sonic games. I’m unsure of the exact geography of these islands in question, but, you get the idea if you’re at all familiar with the canon, South Island has all the zones from Sonic 1 (16 and 8 Bit), Sonic Chaos and Sonic 2 (8-bit), Westside Island has all the zones from Sonic 2 and a couple from Sonic Mania, Angel Island has all the Zones from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, North Island is essentially a fusion of all the different Eggman Zones (Crystal Egg, Sleeping Egg, Scrap Brain, Metropolis, Eggmanland, Robotropolis, Robotnik Winter, the zones from SegaSonic the Hedgehog, etc.), Flicky’s Island has all of the zones from Sonic 3D Blast, Cocoa Island has all the zones from Tails Skypatrol and Tails Adventure, Mirage Island has all the zones from Sonic 4 and also Never Lake, and Little Planet (and hence all the zones from Sonic CD) you get the idea.

I’m unsure what exactly Eastside Island would have on it, but I figured that Sonic games have so many zones and levels across so many games, surely something would find a nice home on that island, perhaps some of the zones from Sonic Mania, Sonic Blast, maybe even the Adventure games, who knows? But, inevitably, space is going to run out on those other islands and we’ll likely have zones or locations that’ll be good for the series to have.

And then, we also have a mainland sprinkled with City. This is where your Adventure/Modern style cities are, Station Square, City Escape, that sort of thing.

It may not seem like much, considering some Sonic games have settings that span entire planets, but when you think about how many zones are crammed into a few little islands in the genesis titles alone, it’s hardly a limited setting.

The natives of this island chain would be Mobians and Mobini. Mobians are your typical Sonic characters, your Sonics, your Tailses, your Knuckleses, and so on and so forth. They’re the more humanoid animals. Mobini, on the other hand would be all of the smaller animals, the kind that Sonic frees from badniks or are just knockin about doing little woodland creature things. For more information on Mobini, I’ve included a little blip about them in the ‘Side Protagonists’ part of this little shanty ‘pitch guide’.

Humans would live on the mainland, although some researchers and scientists would visit the Archipelago every so often because of it’s mysterious ‘new frontier’ kind of appeal, even if Mobians find their research a little weird.

Generally, Humans also keep to the mainland, and Mobians keep to their islands, but, make no mistake, Mobians and Humans don’t hate each other. Some Mobians and Mobini have taken to the urban lifestyle, whereas some humans have taken to the natural wonder of the Archipelago, starting environmentally friendly cities and towns in the sleepy groves and corners of this untamed wilderness.

This Archipelago would be the point of focus for our Main Characters because, well, it’s their native home, and it’d draw our Main Villains because this island is also home to the Seven Chaos Emeralds, and their Master Emerald.

The Chaos Emeralds are the main MacGuffins of the Sonic series, and for good reason! Gathering all seven of these things grants their holder infinite access to chaos energy, a kind of force that will turn their thoughts into power, whether positive or negative. While most Mobians would prefer to leave the Chaos Emeralds alone, due to them causing, well, chaos, villains seek these gems out on purpose so that they can easier accomplish their goals. However, if a hero were to gather all seven chaos emeralds, and had enough purity, desire for good, and strength in their heart, the emeralds will grant them immense power, too.

Upon a vast amount of energy being used however, the Emeralds will scatter across the Archipelago, waiting for their next holders to come, and initiate chaos once more.

And then, there’s the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald is very similar to the Chaos Emeralds, and contains tenfold the amount of energy of a full set of Chaos Emeralds, but also acts as an on/off switch for the Chaos Emeralds. The Master Emerald can completely drain the Chaos Emeralds of their power, or multiply their power exponentially if one knows how to control it, making the Master Emerald incredibly valuable too. However, villains usually tend to opt for the Chaos Emeralds instead, not only because legends of the Master Emerald are believed to be false, or even if it is real, no one knows how to control it, but the Master Emerald is also said to have a guardian. A very, very angry guardian.

There’s also the lesser-known Time Stones.

The Time Stones reside on Little Planet, an anomalous celestial body that appears only once every year over Never Lake on Mirage Island. These stones seemed to have formed in a similar fashion to the Chaos Emeralds, but rather than bending SPACE to the will of their holders, the Time Stones will instead, bend Time. The Time Stones, for this reason, are even more dangerous than the Chaos Emeralds and are responsible for many of the temporal anomalies within the Archipelago. Due to their danger, the Time Stones see much more infrequent use than the Chaos Emeralds, and keeping them on Little Planet as opposed to bringing them to the surface of the Earth is much safer, as the Time Stones will only seemingly affect the time stream of Little Planet and not the Earth.

The Time Stones won’t matter until later in the series when Sonic and Co. start tampering with time, and for a while, the focus will remain on the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald.

But enough about where Sonic lives, let’s look at him and the rest of our colorful main cast, shall we?

Main Protagonists

Hooh, boy I am not gonna make many friends with this decision, am I?

This is kinda where my reboot starts to get a lot little tiny bit more personal, but, I have reasoning behind picking who I pick. The characters I’d pick to be the main protagonists, as in the characters that the viewers of the cartoon series, readers of the comic, or players of the games are going to be:

A) Playing as

B) Rooting for

C) Following throughout most of the adventures.

are as follows:

Sonic the Hedgehog

Miles “Tails” Prower

Knuckles the Echidna

Amy Rose

Mighty the Armadillo

Ray the Flying Squirrel

The first two seem obvious enough, Sonic and Tails are the two spotlight protagonists of most Sonic games and are the two chief playable characters in most games of the Genesis Era. Knuckles should come as no surprise either for the same reason, although I’ll touch on Knuckles later when I assess the protagonists on an individual level. 

I chose Amy as one of the leads because, well, Amy frankly hasn’t seen that much time in the sun as a true character, and I feel like that’s a shame given her longevity in the series, being with us ever since CD. Her most complex appearance was in Sonic Adventure 1 and even then, she’s kinda reduced to the same traits as her white-bread, palid, boring, Genesis counterpart. While I would like to have another female character so Amy isn’t a ‘token chick’, I don’t really want to shake up the formula too much.

Mighty and Ray are a little bit different. With the release of Sonic Mania Plus though, I feel that Mighty and Ray are more relevant now than they ever were, and considering their placement as main characters in Mania Plus, I think that we could really benefit from their addition to the main lineup of Sonic’s friends! Sure, Mighty and Ray don’t have much personality, but maybe this is where we can change that and give these lost stars a chance to sparkle as main characters after spending so long in the shadows of the past!

However, I do wanna state, that I understand if some people feel Mighty and Ray are irrelevant. I get that, really, I do. It’s one of the things in this projected reboot that I feel is much more personally appealing to me than it is ‘what I think is best for the Sonic franchise’. Put plain and simple, Mighty and Ray are just... not as popular as other Sonic characters. And, adding these two to the roster of main characters means that the main character count skyrockets from an easily manageable 4 to 6, which can seem like a bit much to some people I’ll agree, and means that they’ll likely see more screentime than other popular protagonist characters like Cream, Silver or even Blaze. But, at the same time, I also feel that if they’re popular enough to be included in Sonic Mania Plus, then there at least is some interest in the fan community of them being relevant, regular characters again. And, what better niche for them to fit into than being two of Sonic’s close friends again while going on adventures with him regularly?

(Side note, I also felt like including Sticks as a main character, and I may come back to that idea later if I end up making any content for this reboot, but as it stands I felt 7 main characters were just a bit too much, although it would’ve been cool to have a character for each Chaos Emerald, and I think there are a lot of real, genuine comedic possibilities, as well as some unique action choreography from her.)

I also don’t think Sonic’s design or the design of his friends need to be changed around too terribly much for a reboot? (Although there are some characters I think could benefit from a rework, but Sonic and MOST of the main characters are okay imo) There’s a lot of contention on Sonic’s design in any sense but, personally? I think Sonic’s designs can actually be pretty well unified, all things considered. I think Sonic could benefit from a few design ADJUSTMENTS, but maybe not a full-scale redesign like Sonic Boom.

For instance, these early concepts for Dreamcast Sonic are an excellent starting place, as I feel they capture the spirit of all three versions of Sonic pretty well all things considered, save for their quills being a little long. the proportions on them are a little off, however, with a couple of adjustments, I think this could actually be a really good idea.

Nendoroid Sonic is also pretty close to what I think a unified Sonic design could look like, if someone held a gun to my head and told me to pick an ideal new design for Sonic, it’d probably be very close to this.

(Credit to JaysonJeanChannel on DA for this render of Nendoroid Sonic.)

Or, even moving back a little bit, “Toei Sonic“, although kind of overrated in my opinion, is a really nice compromise between the cutesy, cartoony nature of the original versions of Sonic, while still updating Sonic to be more obviously sleek, sharp and spring-loaded for his modern audiences, and is full of personality. That’s not to say I think Toei Sonic should be the new face of Sonic the Hedgehog for years to come, but it’d be a great starting point to work from, given that Toei is a version of Sonic suited for intense, rubberhosy, slippery animations.

In the end, the only thing that truly matters is that Sonic looks like Sonic, and not like a weird little blue goblin if the backlash on the first pass of the Sonic Movie is any indication? We shouldn’t try to fix what isn’t broken, I just think that maybe trying out a hybrid between classic and modern Sonic to see how people feel about it might be a nice compromise between those who prefer Classic Sonic vs. those who prefer Modern or Adventure Sonic, again, unification, the best of both worlds.

That being said, let’s have a look-see into each character individually, shall we? For this, I’ll give a name, my projected voice actor for them, and a little blurb about their personality, as well as a short list of their abilities.

I’ll also try to justify my reasons for some stuff that people may consider odd after all of the character bios.

Sonic the Hedgehog:

Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz/James Arnold Taylor

Sonic is heroic, ambitious, and a complete adrenaline junkie. He'll take on any challenge that's given to him in the history of forever, even if absolutely knows it's impossible or he could get hurt trying to do it or he's absolutely not skilled enough at what he's doing to do it. Hence, Sonic is extremely competitive and gets easily absorbed in things he does, even around friends. Sonic tends to not look before he leaps as he's able to get himself out of situations so easily, preferring to live on his feet without thinking too hard about anything, although he's not dumb by any stretch of the imagination and will slow down and strategize if he absolutely needs to, and will always be willing to slow down for someone in need. Sonic is cocky, snarky, and believes a little too much in himself, he has an ego the size of the sun and will do anything he has to protect his image, especially how he views himself. Sonic also has an incredible amount of attitude and makes fun of people he doesn't like or thinks deserve it with insulting nicknames or cruel jokes, often being sarcastic and witty even at the worst of times to be. Although Sonic tries as hard as he can to keep his cool a lot of the time and prefers to live without consequences or regrets on his mind, when he's angry, sometimes he can lash out at people and can become downright completely rude when upset. Sonic is also something of a juvenile delinquent, often breaking rules just because he can or he thinks it's fun or funny, which often gets him into trouble. Sonic EXTREMELY Dislikes being called 'slow' or things being faster than he is (often wanting to prove his mettle against whatever is faster than him even if it hurts him), and has even less patience for slowing down unless he absolutely has to. He hates to wait and hates to be kept waiting, oftentimes getting bored and leaving in mere seconds if a situation doesn't matter that much to him, although he's known to show much, much more patience when people are hurt, or upset, and has an affinity for relaxing for long periods of time with friends after lengthy expeditions and adventures. Sonic hates to see innocent people cry or have their feelings hurt and will often get  extremely upset at the cause depending on the person/situation, and believes that any situation he can tend to is important (as he often can do things so quickly it's often no trouble for him.) 

Abilities:

Insta-Shield (Allows Sonic to deflect incoming projectiles with precise timing. This also extends Sonic’s hitbox a bit so it can inflict damage, and gives him invincibility frames!)

Wall Jump (Sonic can wall jump, but they need to be timed properly, as when Sonic lands on a wall, he’ll begin to slide, sliding down a wall for too long will cause Sonic to slip and eventually fall.)

Super Spin Dash (Sonic can rev his spin dash up much faster and much more efficiently than other characters, Sonic’s spin dash also has higher maximum propulsion, and will break walls much quicker.)

Super Peel Out

Light Dash (Using the light dash on a trail of rings will allow Sonic to pick up vast amounts of speed instantly by traveling along a trail of rings, being slingshotted out of the trail at an intense speed, the longer the trail of rings is, the faster he’ll be when he comes out of the trail, but also the more vulnerable he’ll be when he’s flung out of the trail. Sonic can also easily reclaim his fallen rings by light dashing, but there’s no guarantee you won’t go flying into the hazard you just tried to avoid when you do.)

Can use the abilities of elemental shields

Miles "Tails" Prower: 

Voice Actor: Collen Villard 

Tails is Sonic's closest friend. Tails is very intelligent and is something of an amateur technician, roboticist and mechanic, although he specializes in work with aircrafts, small-scale robotics, and computer systems. Frequently he prefers a much slower, methodical approach to problems as opposed to rushing into everything headfirst like Sonic does. Often relies on his intuition over instinct. Tails feels he and Sonic hold a kind of 'mutual responsibility' over each other to keep each other safe, hence Tails keeps Sonic out of trouble or from doing things that are REALLY REALLY stupid, but most of the time, Tails likes to indulge in Sonic's antics with him and even enjoys being kind of silly or being a rebel with him. Tails really looks up to Sonic and wants to have the same kind of respect, cool and wit that he does, however, in doing this, because of his low self-esteem, Tails will often ignore a lot of his more positive traits and attempt to mimic Sonic instead in an effort to seem 'cool', which can really make him do some out-of-place or seemingly strange things at times when he doesn't mean it because he can be a little shy to be himself. Tails is a firmly humble inventor and often attributes his successes to the support of others more often than his own work, and he will not ever invent anything for the purpose of competing with someone or for the sake of jealousy, believing that his best work comes from his heart.

Abilities:

Flying (This would be nerfed significantly from Sonic Mania and S3&K so Tails couldn’t just fly over everything. Tails’ gameplay should encourage exploration in more ways than just one.)

Spin Dash

Tinkering (Allows Tails to reverse conveyor belts, turn off sawblades, and do other shit to help him get through mechanical levels.)

Ring Bomb (Short range projectile at the cost of rings, explodes in a small radius)

Remote Robot (Allows Tails to explore places he can’t otherwise get to at the cost of 1 ring per second)

Knuckles the Echidna: 

Voice Actor: Dan Green 

The key word to Knuckles is STRESS. Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, and boy does he take his job seriously, being the very last living Mobian Echidna, and being very in-tune with his family and extended tribe's history. He has an inherent connection with the Master Emerald that allows him to sense it's location, wherever it might be, if this feeling of his is tampered with only slightly, it sends Knuckles into an incredible, panicked rage that can only be quelled by returning the gem to where he left it, or by retrieving the gemstone from whoever stole or moved it. He will only leave the emerald alone for long periods of time once he is one-hundred percent confident no one will touch it or move it (and even then he oftentimes gets worried about it anyway) and hence, interacts with Team Sonic on a more infrequent basis because of this (although he still has plenty of moments dedicated to him.) However, when not guarding the Emerald and forced to loosen up and relax, one can find that Knuckles is rather stoic and full of quote en quote 'sage-advice' (or rather stuff that seems and can be profound but can also be kind of insane ramblings from someone who spends too much time alone with some rock.) He often doesn't understand Sonic's more urban lifestyle, preferring his more traditional, simple 'off the fat of the land' kind of life, but he's surprisingly receptive to new things (unless said new thing gets the emerald stolen of course.) Knuckles is also incredibly suspicious and paranoid of people, even believing people he's close to having the capability of turning on him, and because of this, he's incredibly gullible when it comes to people 'changing' or 'turning evil' or 'wanting to take the Master Emerald', although he's usually smart enough to not fall for the same trick twice... or at least, not for a while after it happens once. Because of his ability to be tricked so easily, and because tricking him often leads to bad things, Knuckles' temper and patience are very short, and very small things easily can make him very upset. Knuckles actually has a weakness for romance, being such a lonely soul, he often gets shy and acts noticeably different (read: Happier) around people that can charm him, but often won't admit it.

Abilities:

Gliding

Climbing

Spin Dash

Burrowing (works sort of like the burrow mechanic from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, except Knuckles can remain and move underground for a bit to be invincible, although this ability is very limited and cannot be done on metal or synthetic flooring.)

Melee Attacks (Knuckles can punch things in a short range, nuff said.)

Amy Rose: 

Voice Actor: Kristen Schaal 

Amy is positive, bubbly, loud and honestly kind of a silly airhead sometimes. Although at first, it seems there's very little to her, there's actually a lot more to her than her outward appearance would suggest. Amy tends to not judge people by their looks or by their behaviors, and is very open-minded and emotional, often getting choked up over things she really doesn't need to. Amy is also pretty selfless, willing to help people without any benefit to herself or any reason besides being a good person, although that's not to say she just lets people walk all over her. Amy is also something of a social butterfly, having connections with about everyone anyone else even remotely knows, and can easily tell you all about them and will want you to meet them upon even the mention of their name. Her inherent energy makes her a lot to deal with at once, even people like Sonic, Tails, and Mighty can get tired of her very quickly, even if it's very clear that she means well. She also makes for a great therapist and is willing to help anyone with problems they might be having, even if they push her away at first. However, Amy isn't all the girly girl she seems sometimes and has kind of a violent edge, anyone who pushes her around or says anything bad about her friends is gonna get walloped with her hammer, and believe me, you don't ever quite forget a feeling like being Piko'd by Amy Rose. On this note, Amy also kinda... doesn't know her own strength, and can seem stronger than Knuckles, or even Mighty at times because she just absolutely does not know her limits, expect lots of spine-crushing hugs.

Abilities:

Triple Jump (Amy can jump three times in succession, however, each jump significantly degrades in height boost. Her normal jump will go the highest and her third jump will go the lowest. Because of this ability, Amy also does not spin when she jumps, meaning she can’t defeat Badniks or damage enemies by jumping on them, she won’t take damage from bouncing on them, it just won’t destroy them.)

Hammer Smash (A mid-range melee attack that will destroy most enemies instantly.)

Hammer Spin (Both an Aerial attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin jump and a dash attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin dash.)

Peel Out (Functions similarly to the peel out in Sonic Advance or Sonic 2: Pink Edition, replaces the Spin Dash.)

Mighty the Armadillo: 

Voice Actor: Beck Bennett/Travis Willingham 

Mighty is one of Sonic's oldest friends and is his foil in a lot of ways. He prefers to take his time with a lot of things and doesn't really mind going slow. Mighty is something of a 'meathead', he's naive, and kinda absentminded at times, even if he doesn't mean to be. Mighty is very strong and takes incredible pride in his abilities much like Sonic. He adores his own strength and quote en quote 'manliness' and will do anything to keep his ego inflated and his muscles bigger than everyone else's' (as opposed to Knuckles who views his strength as a humble reward for his years of training). Despite this, he has a very brotherly (read: dudebro) sense of personality though and likes to call people 'bro' and 'sis', and has a habit of saying 'not cool' when things don't go right or when people wrong him. Most of the time, Mighty's slow and naive ways can make him easily influenced into believing things (like conspiracies and the idea protein powder actually does things), and he's not afraid to speak his mind, often coming off as insensitive (which is how he got kicked out of Team Chaotix), when really, he just doesn't happen to know any better, although most of the time he really does mean well. Mighty also really likes to hear himself talk, oftentimes telling long-winded stories or going on long-winded rants or explanations. He tends to butt heads with Sonic and Knuckles, who get annoyed sometimes by his easygoing, borderline dim-witted nature, oftentimes reminding him of obvious things that are happening/have happened. However, Mighty greatly cares for his friends, and the one thing he absolutely will never bend on is he will not ever hurt someone who didn't do him wrong, and despite his naivety, Mighty's incredible sense of justice always triumphs over his unassuming nature. He's also Ray's best friend and will defend Ray over any other person.

Abilities:

Natural Armor (Allows Mighty to take one free hit from spikes, and defeat spiked enemies without being harmed. If a projectile hits Mighty while he’s spinning or jumping, the projectile will bounce off of his armor. This is only while Mighty is spinning, attacks from the back or while Mighty is running will still land.)

Hammer Drop (A ‘stomp’ attack that allows Mighty to crush most Badniks instantly, and will also instantly crush breakable objects and solid blocks much faster than other characters.)

Spin Dash

Mighty Arm (If Mighty presses an action button near an enemy, monitor or breakable item, Mighty will pick it up. While picking something up, Mighty will move slower and his jump will be downgraded, but he can throw the item to deal heavy damage to whatever it hits! And, picking up certain enemies or items may just come with some surprises!)

Super Wall Jump (Mighty can wall-jump much like Sonic, but upon sticking to the wall, Mighty will hang there, and will only slide down at the player’s discretion.)

Ray the Flying Squirrel: 

Voice Actor: Debi Derryberry 

Ray is neat, quiet, shy, easily disturbed and has a bit of a stutter to his voice. Ray tends to be sort of asocial compared to other members of Team Sonic and prefers not to get in the way if he thinks he's being a bother. However, despite this, Ray is much smarter than he might seem and has a level of resourcefulness to a point that even trumps Tails (who is much more intelligent) at times. Despite being so shy and cowardly, when he gets the chance, Ray is more than willing to do whatever it takes for the greater good, even if he's afraid to do so. Mighty is his best friend, and he gets obsessively worried about Mighty when he's not around, often worrying that he's wandered off or might have been hurt, kidnapped, etc. this often leads to Ray trying to find his friend or panicking that he's 'gone missing', even if Mighty was right under his nose the whole time, ironic, given his intuition and incredibly eagle-eyed nature. Much like Mighty as well, Ray can also be a little bit naive, although usually less so than Mighty himself.

Abilities:

Soaring (Ray will glide and can sweep upwards to gain height at a cost of speed, but also dip downwards to gain speed at a cost of height.)

Lite-Climbing (Ray can climb, and he can climb much faster than Knuckles, but players will need to position themselves carefully, as Ray can’t climb forever, and will eventually slip and fall, the more speed Ray has when Ray collides with the wall, the faster and longer he can climb it.)

Scout-Sense (Ray is able to detect hidden items nearby like Giant Rings, 1up Monitors, and power-ups, once Ray moves close enough to an item, an exclamation point will appear above his head, and the item he notices will be outlined in yellow.)

Dismantle (With similar timing to Sonic’s insta-shield, Ray can choose to land on a badnik instead of destroying it (even if he lands on something like a Shellcracker’s claw or Bubbles when spiked out), and he will begin to unscrew the badnik until it breaks. This rewards Ray with rings or more hidden items, and can make tricky badniks like Asteron and Shellcracker more bearable to deal with! This also works on bosses, except dismantling a boss will only cause a hit of damage to the boss, although Ray can stay latched on to deal multiple hits of damage if he isn’t knocked off!)

Hookay, if you’re not winded by all those character bios, let me try to explain some of my reasoning. I won’t be doing this with later characters because this post is already the size of a fucking dump truck, but, here we go anyway.

Yes. I chose Ben Schwartz over Roger Craig Smith and Jason Griffith for Sonic. No. I don’t hate Jason Griffith or Roger Craig Smith’s voices for Sonic. Yes, I realize Ben is going to play Sonic in the Movie. I know. But, you know what? I think Ben is the perfect person to play Sonic, he’s able to inflect a real smarmy teenager vibe and I DO like that a LOT. But Ben can also play a deeper or moodier teenager too, and I feel like that’s important for Sonic’s character just as much. Jason Griffith and Roger Craig Smith make a 15-year-old sound like he’s 24. Moving on.

I think Sonic needs to not be such a prep sometimes like he is in Colors, Generations, and Forces. Like, I get that Sonic is all about doing the right thing, but, Sonic is also a smarty-pants delinquent who disrespects authority because he can. There’s this great video on the design analysis of City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 that shows just how much of a jerk Sonic is toward people he doesn’t care for, and how he feels about obeying rules and regulations. I feel being an asshole toward people he doesn’t like, is part of Sonic’s character, it’s just we need to make him an asshole in the right direction. Sonic can be a Bugs Bunny if we let him, it’s just that it shouldn’t be completely overblown... otherwise, we get STC Sonic.

Tails needs to do more things, and not sit on the sidelines like he does in Unleashed, Colors, and Forces. He does things in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Boom, hence this version of Tails is based more on those versions OF Tails. I don’t hate Unleashed and Colors Tails, but I feel the objectively superior version of Tails comes more from Boom (who I also feel captures all of the good things about Modern Tails ANYWAY) and Adventure (which is Tails at his most resourceful, intelligent and helpful.)

Knuckles needs to be not stupid. We can make other characters stupid, but Knuckles is not stupid, Mania made Knuckles stupid and I hate that because it’s never been who Knuckles is. Sure, he’s a bit of a dense knucklehead, but he’s not dumb, just dense, which is my problem with Boom Knuckles. There’s more to his reasons for why he does things the way he does than he doesn’t know better. He’s stubborn, he’s prone to anger, he’s traditional and very much centered on the past he never had, he worries, he panics. I don’t think Boom Knuckles is a bad character, I just think making KNUCKLES the character to get this personality was kind of a bad idea. 

Amy just needs a better-developed personality. Seriously, she’s, already kinda set in stone in terms of who she is, it just needs to be expanded upon. But, Amy kinda already has the groundwork laid out for her with Boom and Modern, it’s just it needs to be molded a little bit.

Mighty comes from the classic era, and he, therefore, has no real, defining personality traits besides being a wall-jumping armadillo. I think Mighty could easily inherit Boom Knux’s personality, (as I feel a character named ‘Mighty’ would have kind of a strongman, meathead personality) but maybe changed up a bit. Instead of being just, dumb, I think Mighty being more oblivious than just stupid is better, plus, at any one time, most of the characters in-game or onscreen are able to deduce what’s going on instantly, having Mighty be a contrast to that is interesting. I also think a slow, easygoing lifestyle is kinda befitting to the Mighty we’ve seen recently, given that he doesn’t seem to emote all that much when Ray finally finds him after he’s been missing for, well, a good while, and doesn’t seem to know his own strength all the time. The only other information I know about Mighty is that he doesn’t like to fight all that much and he’s similar to Sonic, so I tried to include aspects of Sonic in his personality, but also make him kind where he can be.

If Ray’s SegaSonic sprites are anything to go by, Ray just might be a little bit of a scaredy-cat. And, I think this would make for an interesting dynamic between Ray and the rest of the team, he’d make a nice Luigi to everyone’s Mario, a character who is afraid, but willing to set aside his fears for the greater good and even for himself. He’d also be #relatable to the stressed-out teenage and young adult audience he’d be appealing to. 

Side Protagonists

Here are my choices for side-protagonists in this reboot. These are ‘friendly characters’, characters that the main 6 characters regularly interact with, but are just not focused on as much. These characters would probably not be playable (except for Silver and Blaze MAYBE.)

The Mobini

Espio the Chameleon

Charmy Bee

Vector the Crocodile

Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao)

Big the Cat (and Froggy)

Silver the Hedgehog

Blaze the Cat

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

wHerE’s TeaM DaRK?!

Just, chill out..., okay? I’ll get to Team Dark in a minute.

I’d also like to clarify if this became a series, Silver and Blaze are probably not going to become relevant characters until much LATER in? I feel like Silver and Blaze should be saved for a very specific time in the reboot’s continuity and I’ll explain that later when we get into how I’d set this series’s continuity up, but there’s a very specific reason why I want to save Silver and Blaze for when the time is right, not because I hate Silver and Blaze, but because I think it’d make the most sense.

I also feel like the Chaotix should appear a lot more and play more of an active role in this new hypothetical reboot than they do in most modern Sonic games... and let’s make them a team of vigilantes instead of detectives. A team of vigilantes that uses TEAMWORK!... And combi-rings!

...Oh and while we’re here, let’s make Cheese a Hero Chao, mkay?

But enough talk about general things! Let’s dive into each of them individually!

The Mobini:

Voice Actor: Various, it’s likely mobini won’t need voices so much as varying sound effects.

The Mobini are the local, native, feral fauna of the world of this new Sonic reboot, all your normal birds, insects, lizards, fish, mammals, et cetera are all Mobini. Mobini, are mysterious creatures, as they harbor an inherent connection to the Chaos Emeralds, and are believed to contain small fractions of the Emeralds’ infinite energy. The Mobini are what first drew Dr. Eggman to the Archipelago in which South Island resides, as with this small portion of infinite energy within them, they can be used as organic batteries to power machines indefinitely!... Although this makes them very unhappy. Contrary to what you may think, Mobini are actually sentient, and remember friendly faces... and unfriendly ones too, so be kind! If you’re ever in trouble or lost in the sprawling forests of the Mobius Archipelago, Mobini may just be able to help you out. The most curious kind of Mobini are Flickies, small little birds native to Flicky’s Island and South Island (although they’ve seemed to branch out more recently), who are said to have an even closer connection to the Emeralds, and can even hold a super form! The phenomenon of Super Flickies is incredibly rare, but when it happens, Super Flickies will be more than willing to lend their power to someone who needs it.

Chao are a special type of genetically unstable Mobini that have no ‘Earthly’ counterpart. From the time a Chao is born to the time they pass away, a Chao will gain the traits of its parent, it’s friends, and or it’s caregiver. This makes Chao ideal pets, as their personality will adapt to suit their owner, this makes Chao not only incredibly diverse but surprisingly intelligent. Just be kind to Chao... you don’t want to know what kind of horror being unkind to these little creatures can lead to.

Espio the Chameleon:

Voice Actor: Phil LaMarr

The de-facto leader of the Chaotix, and the most responsible of the team, Espio is a lot quieter than most of the main cast, and much prefers the sound of a rushing, serene stream over loud, punchy rock music. With a powerful, free-flowing fighting style inspired by martial arts, Espio is an honorable fighter, believing only in fighting fair and straight and without exploiting an opponent’s extreme weaknesses. While he tends to be sort of reclusive and becomes easily annoyed by the antics of the Chaotix and Team Sonic, he’s a lot more unshakable than he looks, and actually kind of likes the excitement from time to time. He also has a long, sticky tongue which he happens to be embarrassed by, but sees more use as a tool than he’d like to admit. Espio will often dictate his mood or state of mind to people by changing his color.

Espio’s weapons of choice are giant shuriken, which he seems to be able to pull out of hammerspace.

Abilities:

Color changing

Partial Invisibility (Espio can cloak himself to appear invisible, as long as he stands still and isn’t connected to anything. This ability sees more frequent use when Espio is alone, as it doesn’t really apply much when he fights with his team.)

Combi-Ring Fighting Style

Tornado Spin (Similar to Sonic’s Spin Dash, except Espio spins horizontally instead of vertically, the tornado spin is very slow compared to the Spin Dash, but it’s just as deadly.)

Tongue (Much like Yoshi, Espio’s tongue can be used to grapple onto things with a surprising amount of force, either to pull them toward Espio, or Espio can ‘tongue punch’ things. He hates to do this.)

Charmy Bee:

Voice Actor: Sam Lavagnino (Ideally anyway, I understand if he’d be unable to, but imagine it! Catbug as Charmy Bee!)

A ‘junior member’ of the Chaotix, Charmy is a little bee in training to become a vigilante! However, he’s a little too excited about that fact sometimes. He’s meant to be cute and lovable, but also a realistic child fighting against things he probably shouldn’t be fighting against. It’s hard to hate him when he means so well though and tries his very best at anything he does. In this new reboot, Charmy also gains a small affliction toward electricity!

Abilities:

Flight (no duh.)

Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Charmy is surprisingly adept at carrying his fellow Chaotix members around with a Combi-Ring in hand, with Charmy around this can make for some high-octane, high-momentum fighting due to Charmy being so lightweight and quick.)

Volt Sting (Charmy can use his stinger, and believe me, it hurts. Fortunately, Charmy can sting more than once! and his sting will deliver an electric shock to anything it touches, this is bad news for anything mechanical, or wet!)

Thunder Shoot (Charmy can instantly ground any flying enemy by electrifying an ally and tossing them at the flying enemy!)

Vector the Crocodile:

Voice Actor: Keith Silverstein (Although I’m open to someone else if everyone else if sick of FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!)

The Chaotix’s greedy, but fiercely defensive ‘leader’ (he’s able to make tough decisions a lot better than Espio, but he isn’t very responsible in many ways). Vector got into the whole vigilante business because of the money he could gain from it, but after meeting Charmy and Espio, his whole world changed, and the rough-and-tough reptile has found a new calling, being a leader. Although Vector is often harsh, blunt, and dismissive, he’s also incredibly resourceful and has an eye for small details, so if he does push you away, it’s likely because he has a hunch on something related to it.

Abilities:

Air Dash (Vector can dash in any direction while in the air. This does not protect him from harm.)

Death Roll (Vector’s trademark donut-like Spin Dash, it’s a bit less controllable than a traditional Spin Dash but it’s immensely powerful because of Vector’s spiked back.)

Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Vector specializes in a ‘wrecking ball’ sort of display with his fighting style, performing a Death Roll followed by his opponents flinging him into something by way of Thunder Shoot or Espio’s speed.) Vector can also achieve the same effect by flinging Charmy or Espio into an opponent, or by ‘holding’ (think Knuckles Chaotix) them.

Fire Combination + Volcanic Dunk* (While Espio is tornado spinning and Charmy is spinning as well, Vector can grab the both of them to make ‘fighting gloves’ of sorts. With this, Vector can perform the Volcanic Dunk, in which he turns Espio and Charmy into powerful fireballs which can smash into enemies to deal tremendous damage!)

*Yes I know this is what Team Sonic uses in Sonic Heroes but do you honestly want Vector Breath to be something that’s regularly used?

Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao):

Voice Actor: Michelle Ruff (I’d list a voice actor for Cheese too but... do I HAVE to? Chao can be easily voiced with stock squeaks or Chao sounds from SA2.)

A pleasant little girl who seems to get caught up in the ongoing war between Sonic and the forces of evil. Like Charmy, she’s a kid, although Cream is much more patient and polite than Charmy. Cream in this reboot would sorta fill the niche that Tails filled in SatAM, rarely going on adventures, but looking up to the main cast and always being ready to support them in times of need.

Abilities:

Flapping (Cream can flap her ears to gain a little extra height, although it’s made very clear this isn’t exactly equal to Tails’ flight and is very limited.)

Cheese (Cream can sic Cheese on anything she wants, although Cheese isn’t very tough, he’ll do his best until he’s knocked away!)

Big the Cat (and Froggy):

Voice Actor: Jon St. John

Big is large, and not very bright, even less so than Mighty. But he’s terrifyingly strong, he may just be one of the strongest characters in this new reboot in terms of raw damage output, probably second only to Omega actually. But, Big’s not a fighter and prefers to spend his days by the lakeside, fishing with his companion Froggy.

Unbeknownst to him, though, Froggy harbors a dark secret, and, in fact, is the current owner of the tail of the ancient God of Destruction, Chaos. How Froggy exactly came upon Chaos’ tail is unknown, but it’s gotten Big and Froggy into trouble before.

Abilities:

Super Strength

Fishing Sense (Big can sense what kind of fish or how many fish, or even foreign objects or other animals are in bodies of water. It’s unknown how he does or knows this, but he does.)

Silver the Hedgehog:

Voice Actor: Scott Menville

Silver is from an alternate future, a long-forgotten timeline in which Robotnik succeeded in conquering the world, But his massive cities and factories were later laid waste to by the sands of time, and ancient forces of nature, throwing the future Silver resides within into complete Crisis. And now, filled with a sense of vengeance and justice, Silver has come back to the past, determined to find the one responsible for whoever did this to his future, but... there’s just a couple problems. 

He’s only fourteen years old.

Silver is also rather bright-eyed and gullible, and him messing with the streams of time might have a bigger domino effect than he realizes, even if he has no intention of messing anything up.

Abilities:

Psychokinesis (Silver can move, and throw objects with his mind. Silver’s telekinesis is limited only by his focus and stress, as if Silver gets too stressed, he may release some of the objects he’s holding, the same goes for if he becomes unfocused. Using said telekinesis can make Silver very physically exhausted though, especially if Silver moves HIMSELF with his mind, which he can do to hover in the air for a while. Objects held by Silver will freeze, suspended in whatever state they were in when Silver grabbed them, and the objects Silver holds are denoted by a cyan aura.)

Psychic Knives (Silver can condense his energy into crescent-shaped blades of energy, which he can fire off at his discretion, again, only limited by his physical exhaustion)

Teleportation (Silver has the limited ability to teleport short distances, although he doesn’t seem to have a very good handle on it, as he often messes up his positioning and seems to almost... forget he can do it?)

Blaze the Cat:

Voice Actor: Tara Strong

Like Silver, Blaze is from an alternate future. Blaze is Silver’s best friend, but also kind of a sisterly figure to him. Blaze is older than Silver, and is much more reserved, mature and wary than Silver is, although she’s still more than happy to help Silver, and ensure a good future for both him and herself. Blaze is proud, trying to make the best out of her situation by trying and believing herself to be the best around, in a way, she sort of views Silver more like a sidekick, even if Silver does tend to pull his weight.

Abilities:

Pyrokinesis (Blaze can summon, control and is immune to fire. Her ability to do so is limited, although her fires are known to become more intense whenever Blaze is enraged. Blaze can use her fire either for offense by spraying jets of flame from her hands, or defensively by cloaking her entire body in flame, or using the power of fire to float for short periods of time.)

Tornado Spin (Like Espio, Blaze tends to spin horizontally rather than vertical, this, combined with her pyrokinesis, makes her incredibly fearsome to deal with.)

Main Antagonists

You know what the fuck’s going on already. These are all my picks for Major Villains in the reboot. The big bads. The guys who are gonna come in and try to take all those Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones and shit I was talking about and wreak havoc on the peaceful Mobius Archipelago.

They are as follows:

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik

Orbot and Cubot

Metal Sonic

Heavy King (And the Hard-Boiled Heavies)

Great Battle Bird Kukku XV

Chaos

Emerl

Mephiles, Iblis, and Solaris

In the end, it was hard to decide on what villains to choose to be big bads, Sonic has so many good ones, but this is what it all bled down to eventually. I feel kinda like Dragon Ball Z or... like, any fucking action anime or cartoon ever tbh. I wanted to give some more underrated villains a chance to shine like Kukku and Emerl, while also bringing back some old favorites like Chaos and Mephiles.

...ALSO, I’M GONNA GET TO TEAM DARK DON’T WORRY!

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik:

Voice Actor: Mike Pollock (as if there were any other choice.)

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik is the biggest bad in this reboot, as he should be. Robotnik was formerly a young, gentleman scientist, who arrived on South Island with his colleague, Dr. Madonna to study the Mobini that lived there, however, using the grant money meant for his research, and not much caring about nature himself, Robotnik instead betrayed Dr. Madonna to begin forging an empire with his own two hands, an Empire he believed would eventually be able to conquer the world. And he would’ve gotten away with it, too... if all not for a meddlesome blue hedgehog child, who REALLY liked to compare the doctor to an egg. Since his first outing against the blue blur, Dr. Robotnik tried tirelessly, day and night, to get his empire up and into the air, coming back with bigger, and better firepower each time, even succeeding in conquering South Island and collecting six of the seven chaos emeralds at one point, but he was thwarted by this blue hedgehog, and later, his friends each time. This war has gone on for over 5 years now chronologically and maybe more in the actual scheme of things, and all those years of trying have really quite nipped at the doctor, who had gained a significant amount of weight, became a social pariah and had torn all his hair out, save for his mustache, which has overgrown and has become frayed, and the doctor had taken the name ‘Eggman’ as a shallow attempt to mock the blue blur. It’s not to say that Eggman hasn’t succeeded, his conquest and lust for power had bled everywhere, his Badniks, a series of small robots built by him, are an epidemic across the archipelago, he has factories, operations, and eyes everywhere, and Robotnik eventually succeeded in taking one of the Archipelago's many islands for his own, renaming what was once ‘North Island’ into ‘Eggmanland’, this little island is only a twisted glimpse into the madness of what a world under the doctor’s control could look like, his own personal carnival of evil, smog and dust, celebrating him, and only him. It’s these little successes, as well as his never-ending stubbornness and undying believe that man can and will always triumph over nature, that has warped Dr. Eggman from a nefarious, dashing gentleman, into a balding, crazed, nasty old coot. If trouble’s brewing on the islands, and you smell smog wafting by, you can be assured Dr. Eggman isn’t very far behind. To call him a ‘mad scientist’ is an understatement, but even through his delusions and megalomania, he really is a genius.

Orbot and Cubot:

Voice Actors: Kirk Thornton, Wally Wingert

Orbot and Cubot are the Doctor’s trusted aides and second-in-lines, and... probably the Doctor’s only friends as of current. Orbot and Cubot have special AI hand-crafted by the doctor and are arguably his most advanced and most sentient creations crafted by his own two hands. Orbot is serious, intelligent, and bitingly sarcastic, as he was meant to relay information about factories, schemes, and developments back to Eggman, whereas Cubot is dim-witted, slow, and lazy, as he was more meant to perform basic duties like keeping Robotnik’s living space neat and tidy (although he doesn’t always do the best job at this.) However, Orbot and Cubot have become more than that as time has gone on. Unlike the Modern games, Orbot and Cubot can actually hold their own in combat... well, sort of. They have their own unique ‘Scratch and Grounder’ style of dealing with Sonic and Co. and they don’t usually make much progress or get much done in this regard. In this reboot I want Orbot and Cubot’s designs to be updated besides being just ‘ball’ and ‘cube’ so that they can fight alongside Eggman and just look a lot more interesting in general.

Metal Sonic:

Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (with an intense, robotic filter) if we HAVE to give him a voice. I’d really just prefer Metal to be silent or voiced by music cues and sound effects.

Metal Sonic is Dr. Eggman’s greatest creation. Designed and built by a Dr. Eggman from the future, Metal was sent back in time to aid the Eggman of the past, this, however, proved to be a mistake, as with Metal under his belt, the Doctor became easily overconfident in his victory, thinking now that he had his supposed greatest creation to aid him, nothing could possibly stop him. 

Which made it all the more disappointing when Metal Sonic inevitably failed and was defeated by Sonic.

However, that wasn’t the end of it for Metal Sonic, after being recovered from the future on Little Planet, Metal was repaired, and sent to do reconnaissance on Sonic and Tails during their visit to Mirage Island. In the process of getting there, however, Metal absorbed an artifact while patrolling around the Lost Labyrinth Zone, which superseded the limits of Metal’s hardware, and not only restored Metal to his former greatness but gave Metal something that few of Eggman’s creations can ever claim to have. True sentience. 

Now fully aware of who he was, and what he was doing, Metal easily made it to Sonic and Tails, and upon seeing his organic counterpart for the first time in so long ever since their duel on Stardust Speedway, Metal was filled with rage. Rage, unlike anything The Mobius Archepeligo had ever seen.

The artifact has given Metal all sorts of mysterious abilities, like the ability to manifest a near-indestructible shield, the power to harness the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into overdrive and utilize his own overloading as a weapon, and along with being a creation of a Dr. Eggman who has seen the fall of the Earth...

Who knows what kind of sadistic, inhuman thoughts lie behind those synthetic, glowing eyes?

Abilities:

Hyperspeed Thrusters (Metal’s thrusters easily make him as fast as Sonic, and, like Sonic, Metal can still spin, although Metal can also fly with his thrusters.)

Black Shield (Metal can form a defense matrix around him using the power of the artifact he absorbed in Lost Labyrinth, the Black Shield is completely indestructible. Nothing can break through it. Not even something as powerful as Super Sonic could even crack it.) The only caveat is, using the Black Shield renders Metal completely immobile, and unable to attack, and it has a slight warmup and cooldown period.)

Overdrive (Metal can use the artifact he absorbed to utilize the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into Overdrive. While in overdrive, Metal Sonic’s entire body sparks with electricity, and Metal can manipulate how he uses that electricity, whether it’s to cloak himself in sparks to beef up his physical attacks or create pillars of sparks and arcs of electricity to attack foes from a distance. The only thing is, Metal cannot do this too much, as doing this can easily cause Metal to overheat, or completely overload and have a ‘blowout’... in other words, explode.)

Heavy King:

Voice Actor: Jim Cummings (Yes, I know Jim did SATAM Robotnik but that’s not the voice I’m imagining for Heavy King. Jim can do more than just Robotnik you know, even though my decision was partially influenced by it being a nice callback. Again, these voice actors are only projections.)/Barry Humphries

Heavy King used to be EggRobo, a robot (which later became a line of Robots) built in the image of Dr. Eggman himself and meant to serve as a decoy for him, and as a stand-in to carry out his own ends.

But the energy of the Phantom Ruby changed that.

Now, Heavy King is the leader of an elite squadron of his EggRobo brethren known as the Hard-Boiled Heavies. They used to serve Robotnik, before breaking free of his control and serving their own ends, beginning a new (albeit, much, much smaller) empire under their own names. He and the other heavies are a force to be reckoned with, few are able to match the ruthless, cold, metallic hand of Heavy King. Despite this, however, Heavy King is known to be much more diplomatic and reasonable than Robotnik, ironically enough, because he believes himself to be vastly superior in every way to organic life. However, his inflated ego pays a steep price if you catch him at the wrong time. However, Heavy King is the current holder of the Phantom Ruby, and that alone should scare you.

(Also I won’t go over each of the Heavies individually because I don’t feel like it, but, I will list their voice actors.)

Heavy Gunner: Patrick Warburton... or at least a cheap impression of him.

Heavy Rider: Eliza Schneider

Heavy Magician: Alexia Khadime

Heavy Shinobi: Seth Green (I picture Shinobi having much more of a nerdy weeb voice than having a serious Japanese accent like Espio.)

Great Battle Bird Kukku XV

Voice Actor: Tom Kenny

A lesser-known big bad, or rather, big bird, Great Battle Bird Kukku XV (he gets upset if you don’t say the full name), is the leader of the Battle Bird Empire, a battalion of birds who, at one point, sought to take over the archipelago in a similar manner to Dr. Eggman, however, Great Kukku XV was thwarted by Tails. Tails, funnily enough, doesn’t remember him at all, in fact, no one does. As a villain, hardly anyone takes Great Kukku XV very seriously, even with his massive armies and capability. Fact is, Great Kukku XV is just a little too immature to be a leader, and hence, he’s not very dangerous. However, his battalion did give rise to a certain, screwy, trigger happy, fellow green bomb-throwing bird who happens to be a defector of his...

In this reboot, there would probably be a lot of jokes about people not knowing who Great Kukku even is, or how dangerous he is, but don’t worry, he’ll get his time in the sun eventually. 

Chaos

Voice Actor: N/A, Chaos only speaks in water sloshes.

Chaos is one of the many original forces of nature that populated the Archipelago many years ago. Legend has it that Chaos was responsible for the mass extinction of the Echidna on Angel Island, and was the one responsible for flooding Hydrocity Zone, and the former Hidden Palace Zone. Chaos was formed when a Chao, who happened to be very old and unhappy due to the Echidna tribes of the day treating his people very unfairly, mutated due to the exposure of Chaos Energy to the Chao’s genetically unstable body. Chaos is a being of pure hate and pure destruction. It’s almost entirely composed of a thick, water-like substance that can take on liquid or solid properties at Chaos’ discretion. His body hungers for Chaos Energy, and he is willing to destroy anything that stands in his way to have it, specifically by absorbing the Chaos Emerald. With each emerald Chaos absorbs, Chaos only becomes bigger, and stronger, becoming harder and harder to defeat. And if Chaos gathers all Seven of the Emeralds? You’d better hope you can find some way to calm this Great Old One down, otherwise, your world may just end up underwater. Luckily, Chaos was sealed inside of the Master Emerald by its former guardian, Tikal, and there he shall remain... for now, at least.

Emerl

Voice Actor: Various (copies the voices of others. To speak it splices lines that it’s heard together.)

Originally created directly to counter Chaos whilst the Echidna tribes were facing extinction, Emerl is a Gizoid, a kind of Robot created to copy the physical data of others. Although one can initially defeat Emerl pretty easily, it’s advised not to vary your tactics too much, as Emerl’s original purpose, and his ultimate capability, is to copy any behavior he’s seen, in order to not only replicate it, but replicate it better, and hence, conquer its original user. Terrifyingly, Emerl can even copy phenomenon that he otherwise wouldn’t, or shouldn’t be able to use, such as Chaos Control, Sonic’s Maximum Speed, or Tails’ intellect. The only thing truly limiting Emerl... is the kind of opponents he faces. And, if you give Emerl to someone who understands him and knows how he works, you may just be dealing with one of the most fearsome fighters the Mobius Archepeligo has ever known.

Mephiles, Iblis and Solaris

Voice Actor: Dan Green (Mephiles only) (This is just because Dan also voices Knuckles ideally but, again, if Dan doesn’t wanna come back to Sonic after being replaced, I understand that.)

If Chaos was the patron saint of water, Solaris is the patron saint of fire. Born from a sacred flame created by the Echidna, Solaris was worshipped by the surviving Echidna as a force that could potentially vanquish Chaos, as the ‘’sun’ to dry the rain. However, the tribes’ malicious intents caused their newly formed ‘God’ to become more of a beast, and it only helped Chaos in driving the Echidna extinct. Solaris later retreated to the bottom of the ocean after all was said and done, slumbering beneath the surface in an underground cave, in a damaged, unstable state.

Solaris has re-awoken twice since this has happened, and both times, his unstable shell split and formed two halves, it’s raw power, known as Iblis, and it’s mind, and spirit, known as Mephiles. The two halves of Solaris first re-awoke in an Alternate Timeline where Robotnik had conquered the world, re-awakening as the folly of the dictator had driven the Sun God’s split soul to awaken when the intense greenhouse heat began to boil the ocean. Mephiles’ primordial form simply died off in the intense heat, but Iblis remained awake, laying waste to the already horrible wasteland that was Robotnik’s Bad Future. Many survivors who reside within this future came to blame Iblis for their problems, even though Robotnik was what had destroyed it centuries earlier.

As for the other time The soul and body of Solaris re-awoke?...

Well... we’ll get to that. Let’s come back to someone I’m sure you’re all waiting for.

Antiheroes

HERE HE IS, OKAY? YOU HAPPY? I was saving him for a good reason! I actually want Shadow (and Rouge, to an extent, she kinda keeps her evil side tbh) to start out as a big bad! After Shadow’s done BEING a big bad though, he’ll become similar to his post-adventure 2 self, specifically how he behaves in Sonic 06 and Sonic Heroes, except with a bit more sympathy. Modern Shadow has a lot of brooding, edgy bite to him, and while that’s cool and all, I feel like there should be more to Shadow than just brooding and standing around crossing his arms and saying ‘tch’ all the time.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog:

Voice Actor: Anyone that’s not Kirk Thornton. I actually don’t have a good answer for who Shadow’s voice actor should be but, honestly, anything would be better than his current one in my honest opinion.

Shadow was synthesized fifty years ago on a small, man-made satellite called the Space Colony ARK by the brilliant scientist Dr. Gerald Robotnik. He was born from a desire to find a cure for the seemingly incurable disease for his granddaughter, Maria. However, due to an accident when splicing the genes of the quill of a Mobian Hedgehog, and experimental biomaterial found on the fragments of an asteroid that collided with the Earth millions of years ago, the doctor accidentally created something he absolutely didn’t intend, Life. And thus, Project Shadow was born. Gerald felt attached to his creation, viewing the resulting creation, which he called ‘Shadow’ as one of his own. Shadow developed rapidly, quickly maturing into an infant, and then juvenile, yet seemingly normal Mobian Hedgehog. Shadow’s equivalent age later capped once Shadow was done growing, and he remained that way, immortally perfect. The Ultimate Lifeform. Tests with Shadow later showed his destructive capabilities, as it seemed the asteroid’s DNA had morphed Shadow to be far beyond the capabilities of any normal Hedgehog, even in peak physical condition at that age, capable of creating explosions, firing bolts of energy, and even freezing time, appearing to ‘teleport’ in the process. Despite these curiosities, Shadow grew fond of Maria in his stay at the ARK, although Shadow couldn’t help her recover, he did make her much happier. However, a raid on the Space Colony by the mainland’s military led to a massive capsizing of the project, with the intention to destroy Shadow, who was viewed as a dangerous, alien, unholy abomination. Before he could be killed though, Maria shot Shadow down to Earth in an escape pod, where he subsequently landed deep in the jungles of Cocoa Island... but, Maria was murdered in the process of doing so. Shadow was later recovered by Gerald’s other grandson, Ivo Robotnik, 50 years after the tragedy. Hesitant to release Shadow immediately, it’s known that Robotnik has spoken to Shadow in his pod, although about what matters is unknown. For now, Shadow slumbers deep within the confines of Eggmanland, waiting for his proper, strategic time to be unleashed and to wreak his horrible vengeance upon the Earth.

I’ll bring up Shadow again later when we talk about how I project the series to actually go, for now, just sit tight and let’s talk about the rest of Team Dark... and some familiar faces.

Abilities:

Spin Dash

Homing Attack (Shadow can automatically home in on opponents while also performing an Air Dash.)

Burning Rollout (Inspired by the flame ring of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow can cloak his spinning form in fire by turning on his shoes when rolling, doing this will significantly up the strength of his spin, and make a nice little ring of fire around his spinning form.)

Chaos Control (Can be used as short-distance teleportation, as a way to buff Shadow’s speed immensely, or as a way to freeze or dramatically slow Shadow’s relative perspective of time by dramatically increasing his speed.)

Chaos Spear (These are green bolts of pure, chaos energy. The energy used to form these bolts is so unstable that once hurled at something, the ‘spear’ will likely explode, although, if it doesn’t, it will easily pierce through whatever it hits. Shadow likes to shout ‘DISAPPEAR!’ before hurling these at things for some reason.)

Chaos Blast (Shadow’s Chaos Blast can be considered his ‘ultimate’ attack, Chaos Blast sees Shadow creating a kind of ‘mini-singularity’ with chaos energy that will detonate after a short time, easily eradicating anything caught in the explosion’s radius, even the ground around Shadow. The only problem with this is, doing this is a huge strain on Shadow’s natural supply of Chaos Energy, so a lengthy cooldown period is inevitable.)

and of course, we can’t forget

The Roundhouse Kick

Minor Antagonists

These are characters who are villains but are also more likely to show up in arcs that are only a couple episodes long or are side or off-boss fights. 

I’ll be honest, most of you know these characters already, so I’m just gonna run through them super quickly and give my suggested changes and my justifications for them.

Rouge the Bat

E-123 OMEGA

Dave the Intern

Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel)

Bean the Dynamite

Bark the Polar Bear

Rouge the Bat:

Voice Actor: Karen Strassman

Rouge is a thief and a treasure hunter but is also working for the military agency of the mainland, G.U.N. Rouge is sly, sneaky and has a silver tongue, easily able to manipulate people into what she wants by pure wordplay alone. Rouge is a lot less active of a fighter than Sonic and Co. as she prefers to stalk quietly in the shadows, and strike when the time is right. In this reboot, Rouge is gonna wear something a bit more modest. I’m sorry, I hate Rouges’ clothes in canon. That fucking catsuit? has gotta go. She can still look cool and... *gag* “”sexy”” but, I’d rather her not wear... THAT? But, I do want her personality to remain mostly intact because in full honesty? She’s not a bad character on paper. Like Shadow, though I do kinda want Rouge to be a straight-up antagonist at first, and a very greedy one at that.

E-123 OMEGA:

Voice Actor: Vic Mignogna

What can I say? Omega doesn’t need to change much at all, really. He works in about any Sonic setting tbh. He’s loud, and he likes to blow things up, and he doesn’t emote very well, what else is there? In this reboot though, Omega will be the only E-Series Robot, or rather the only... surviving one. And, yeah, like Rouge and Shadow too, I think Omega should start out as an antagonist.

Dave the Intern:

Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (What? We gotta keep up the tradition of Dave sharing a voice with Sonic!)

An odd choice for a minor antagonist I know, but Dave the Intern is REALLY funny? And I love the idea of a character just hating Sonic for no discernable reason other than ‘he’s popular and cool and I’m not.’ I also thought it’d be cool if Dave frequently got way in over his head with the shit he does, and put himself into trouble that Sonic (reluctantly) had to get him out of. Plus, I really wanted to include some representation of Sonic Boom in this reboot because Sonic Boom as a show is really funny and really good, and I think taking a page from it might be good, plus, Boom is a part of Sonic’s history too!

Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel):

Voice Actor: Dwight Schultz

Fang is the leader of Team Hooligan, and in a similar vein to Great Kukku XV I think he’d take himself way too seriously, but would play off of other characters. In Fang’s mind, he’s a trained assassin, like an evil Aussie-accent Batman or something of that stretch. But, really? He’s just a sleazy conman with a popgun. I feel like a good joke to make in this series would be Fang reaching for what he thinks is his actual pistol, but then he’d pull it out and fire it and it’d be one of his fake popguns. And, do I even need to make a joke about the comedic possibilities between him and Shadow using guns? Also, his real name being Nack the Weasel but he wants everyone to call him Fang the Sniper is funny. I’m sorry but ‘Fang the Sniper’ is just a silly name and I like the idea of Fang being the equivalent of one of those nice guys with Otaku Katanas who think they’re WAY cooler than they actually are. I wanted to choose Fang as a minor antagonist in the reboot just because of the kind of character I think he is, he thinks he has everything under control and has all the cards laid out in front of him when in reality, this setup of his just fails dramatically. The kind of interactions between him and Sonic this could spell out are amazing.

Bean the Dynamite:

Voice Actor: Eric Bauza

What do you get when you throw Daffy Duck and Woody Woodpecker in a blender and make him an unstable arsonist? Bean the Dynamite, that’s what. I’d want Bean in this reboot to be an off-the-wall, screwy, but surprisingly resourceful and clever, explosion-crazed maniac. He wouldn’t be... *gag* ‘insane’, so much as he would be just hyper and unable to calm down, again, like Woody Woodpecker or Daffy Duck. He’d be quick-witted, fast-talking and zippy, even more than Sonic himself is. (In the end, Sonic would always outpace him, but the reflexes on THIS bird are crazy.) Also, I feel like the idea of Bean being a defector of the Battle Kukku Armada is just... great, considering they’re all bomb-throwing birds, but THIS one was a little too off-the-handle for even them? He’d be a real character and a surprisingly dangerous threat for Sonic and Co.

Bark the Polar Bear:

Voice Actor: I’m... actually not too sure who to cast Bark as tbh. Mostly because I see him being very quiet and not... speaking, much at all?

Bark is a quiet tough guy. He’s smarter than he looks, but he’s big, he’s mean, he’s tough, and he will Hulk slam at least one character in the length of this reboot. I don’t really have much idea on where to take Bark, I just think he deserves a place as a minor villain.

Projected direction for canon

So, we have all the pieces of the puzzle, let’s see how they all fit together! I’ll be going through these with the assumption that one game can be made to represent each season of the show in its entirety.

For this, I honestly think it would be best if we split this reboot up based upon Sonic the Hedgehog’s current history with its elements. Think, almost, the way Sonic Generations told its story. We’ll start with something with a more Classic Vibe to it, then move into something more Adventure-like, and then, finally, we do something a bit more Modern! It’ll be a little less linear, and we’ll double dip here and there, but it’ll all line up!

Because of this, I’d like to establish what games have already PASSED before going into this series. This is what all has happened going in, in roughly the chronological order they happened in.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (16-bit)

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (8-bit)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

SegaSonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-Bit)

Sonic CD

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

Sonic Chaos

Sonic Triple Trouble

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes 1, 2, and Metal.

Sonic Mania

The intention is to begin sort of... around the time JUST before Sonic Adventure 1 happened in the old rudimentary timeline before Sonic Forces came out and clarified Classic and Modern Sonic were different beings.

Season 1/Game 1: Genesis

The first few episodes of the series will be more dedicated to introducing the characters and Sonic’s new home. We’ll see the new Sonic, the new Tails, the new Knuckles, Amy, Mighty, and Ray for the very first time, and we’ll also get to see some of the characters’ new capabilities as they take on some minor villains or assaults led by Orbot and Cubot for the first couple episodes; but not at all subtly tease at something bigger and better coming, although we’re also shown how frequent scuffles between Sonic and Eggman exactly are, as we see plenty of mention of the Doctor, but he never physically appears.

Then, I’d say at about Episode 5 or 6 out of say, 22-24? Eggman steps in and introduces us to his new Master Plan, as he does. To build a new Death Egg (which, Sonic obviously chides him on doing the same thing a THIRD time.), but, as Robotnik does, he turns out to be serious, and the episodes from there on out are a race against time for Sonic and co. to gather all the Chaos Emeralds from various different zones of various different challenging geographies, fight off villains and giant robots, learn valuable morals, run into some familiar faces, and have a couple laughs along the way.

The climax of the season would come with a few episodes left, where Sonic and Co. finally have all the Emeralds, and they chase Eggman down to the New Death Egg, maybe there could be an encounter with Metal Sonic along the way because nostalgia and to introduce Metal into the continuity, and of course things’ll play out from there, Robotnik gets the upper hand and shows his shit, gets in a giant robot, dukes it out with Super Sonic, and BAM! End of Season/Game!

At the very end of season 1/Game 1 though, I’d like to include a little teaser for Season 2/Game 2 in the form of a familiar-looking escape pod in the middle of a jungle, full of green bubbling fluid, and a flash of red eyes.

Season 2/Game 2: Chaos Emerald Chaos

Right out of the gate in Season 2/Game 2, we’re back in the game as Sonic and Eggman are seen duking it out a while after the first game/season has ended, but in a much different area than we’d seen in Season 1/Game 1. This fight would lead up to the pod in the teaser after Eggman lures Sonic into a dark room with the green glow in sight. By one way or another, maybe on purpose or on accident, this pod breaks open, and something is released from it. Sonic is understandably confused, but then, is knocked down, and a panning shot reveals one of three of our major antagonists for the season/game, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow fucking wipes the floor with Sonic in this first encounter, but instead of finishing him off, Eggman instructs Shadow to leave him be and search for the rest of the Chaos Emeralds instead. Shadow nods and simply leaves via Chaos Control. Eggman, on the meanwhile, begins transporting Sonic back to North Island via dropship, revealing by surprise that this isn’t on North Island, but rather a much smaller place Eggman was using as a trap.

Meanwhile, Sonic’s friends (with Knux noticeably absent) are confused to learn that Sonic has been... committing crimes, upon his return back from a scuffle back with Eggman, and seeming very much unlike himself, always hiding away in the dark and staying away from everyone. When they go to confront him, it turns out that this was actually Shadow, disguised as Sonic, who was simply searching for the emeralds for Dr. Eggman.

Sonic’s friends demand to know where Sonic is, but Shadow kicks all their asses instead, and something about the Master Emerald is mentioned after the fight. We then cut away to Knuckles, who is soon confronted by Shadow.

Shadow puts up a hard fight, but, with the help of the chaos emerald he already had, defeats Knuckles, and goes to take the Master Emerald. But, in a last ditch effort to save the gem, Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald, causing the shards to scatter all across the islands. Shadow, understandably frustrated by this, scoffs and leaves, seemingly fooled into thinking the Master Emerald WAS destroyed. Unknowingly, however, shattering the Master Emerald caused Chaos, slumbering within the Emerald, to awaken.

Knuckles, obviously horrified by what he’s done, abandons Angel Island and sets to work on finding both the pieces of the Master Emerald, and any Chaos Emeralds he can, to stop Chaos before anything goes wrong.

At this point, we go back to Sonic, who finally escapes as the dropship taking him to EggmanLand and, by extension, escapes from the city as he hurries to try to reunite with his friends and tell them what happened.

From there, a combination of the events of Adventure 1 and 2 (with the addition of Metal Sonic and some other characters of course.) would transpire, with Rouge the Bat getting involved with Knuckles due to her finding the shards of the Master Emerald, and the Chaos Emeralds trading hands several times, all up until the Season/Game’s climax.

It would all build with Robotnik planning to use Chaos to terraform the Earth by transforming him into Perfect Chaos, who, once he takes form, begins wreaking havoc on a coastal city on the mainland. At this point, the Chaos Emeralds seem shut off, and even though the Master Emerald is restored, it seems like there’s nothing that can be done. Shadow, having already begun to go through a change of heart when he sees the kind of destruction the doctor’s plans have wrought, and after some choice words from Amy, decides instead to join Sonic and Co. in what seems like their darkest hour. And, Shadow mentions that Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the emeralds, being in-tune with Chaos Energy himself, he’d know this.

And so, Super Sonic and Super Shadow defeat Perfect Chaos together, Knuckles and the spirit of Tikal work together to seal Chaos back inside the Master Emerald, and the city begins to drain.

Shadow, having felt satisfied with this, then decides to go off on his own for a while, and mentions something about ‘wanting to discover himself’, and ‘trying to decide what Maria would have wanted me to be.’ 

Oh, and Eggman is finally thrown in prison for literally capsizing an entire city. But don’t worry, he’ll be back.

End of Season 2/Game 2.

Season 3/Game 3: Triple Trouble!

This Eggmanless Season/Game would feature a ‘Triple Threat’, in the form of 3 major villains! And all three of them brand new to the series! We’re introduced to Emerl in this season, as well as Great Kukku XV, and Heavy King.

The entire season would be intense, Team Sonic rushing to get the Chaos Emeralds once again, while the Battle Birds (frequently interrupted by Bean the Dynamite, calling out to his ‘brothers’) and Heavies scramble to get them before the team does.

All the while... Emerl grows stronger and stronger by the minute.

And, in a surprise twist, Emerl, having copied the data of Great Kukku XV and the Heavies, among many others, grows the strongest he ever has, and, like Mecha Sonic in Sonic 3, uses the Master Emerald (likely stolen by Heavy King or Kukku at this point) to attain a Super form, and Emerl becomes a terrifying conglomerate of everything that has led up to this point, Perfect Emerl, the thing originally meant to take down PERFECT CHAOS.

But, luckily, Kukku and King realize when they’ve been beaten, and decide to help Super Sonic take down Perfect Emerl. 

End of Season 3/Game 3. But like Season 1, let’s end off on a teaser. How about a small, flickering flame, with a visible shadow?

Season 4/Game 4: Return of Solaris

This is the final season/game I have planned out, although that’s not to say more couldn’t be done with this concept, it’s just about as far as I got. Essentially I was thinking this season could be a retelling and retooling of Sonic 06 with some details omitted or changed up like, for instance:

The romance between Sonic and Elise being outright axed! Matter of fact, while we’re at it, let’s just NOT make Elise a focus character so she doesn’t eat up screentime?

The weird time shit in this season/game being altered with Time Stones instead of Chaos Emeralds!

Less plotholes!

Focus on NONLINEAR timelines with LINEAR storytelling.

Silver is less silly!

Metal Sonic!

The Chaotix! AND THEY’RE HERE TO ACTUALLY BE HELPFUL!

Important Sonic characters being important!

Hey guess what? Eggman’s back and busted out of jail and he’s kicking ass! And he’s totally gonna release Solaris even though that didn’t work out so well for him last time!

Mephiles is still a cool villain! And he gets cool new designs for this series too that don’t stray too far from his original form!

I feel like this season/game would be kind of a hard fusion of Sonic CD and Sonic 06, with elements of Sonic CD being changing the past to ensure the future, and the future/present changing as a result. 

The climax of this series would be, well, you know by now. Sonic getting shot in the back, but then revived using the Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones together. But, even with Super Sonic, all seems hopeless, but, Sonic and Knuckles seem to have an idea, and it leads up, to our grand finale:

Solaris, the extra-dimensional being of ultimate power.

Versus

Hyper Sonic, Super Shadow, Super Silver, Super Tails, Super Knuckles, Super Amy, Super Mighty, and Super Ray.

With Solaris finally felled, Sonic and Co. use the last of the energy of their super forms to do two more things. 

Vanquish the flame of Solaris and Mephiles, and ensure that Solaris may never return to any Time Stream.

Silver’s future, although still broken, now looks much brighter, and the world is saved for the final time.

End of Season 4/Game 4.

I’m sure these ideas could be tweaked or changed around to span more seasons/games if certain characters or aspects of the series become popular, or if demand for certain characters appearing gets to be enough. Sonic has an immense library of games to do over or retell in this reboot, why not? 

And, this is just my idea for it, it doesn’t have to go this way explicitly. My only goal with this was to try to unify the Sonic lore in an interesting, unique manner, but also in such a way that it was new, fresh, and it made sense, most of all!

Opening

This really applies more toward the cartoon part of this reboot, that’s not to say the video game COULDN’T utilize the cartoon’s opening or something, it’s just that the opening is more for the show than it is for the games.

There’s a number of ways to go here, but in my mind, the best way to open a Sonic cartoon? Is the way you’d open a Sonic game. How about a condensed ‘remake’ of Sonic CD’s opening, with a few short clips from the first few episodes thrown in there to get people curious and excited about the show when it first airs?

There’s a cover of Sonic Boom by Crush 40 and Cash Cash just waiting to be used for this very thing!

I also think a condensed (that is to say, censored. I hate to censor a great song but ‘kicking-ass fast’ is a bit much for a show that’s likely gonna be PG-rated.) version of the Zebrahead (aka the BEST) version of His World would make for a GREAT opening.

Or if we wanna piggyback off of the recent success of Mania, how about a condensed version of Friends? Maybe we could even end the intro off on a remake of Sonic Mania’s title theme if we wanna have like, a classic Sonic emblem at the end of the opening.

I’d say the opening should be about... 60% new animation with Sonic platforming around and parkouring like he does or whatever, and about 40% old animation of various clips from the show or maybe even the games if we’re feeling kinda frisky to show off the series we’re about to watch, but also for budgetary reasons and to, again, get people interested in what’s actually IN the show, or maybe we could even do it like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s part 1 opening or something where a couple of important scenes from the very beginning of the show or games are re-animated in a flashy way to achieve the same effect, but also wow the audience. That'd be a huge budget sink though and going a classic clip-show-and-new-shit route may just be the ideal compromise.

Marketing

This next part is also a lot more cartoon oriented, and kinda heavily depends on who’s gonna be sponsoring the show and who’s gonna be running it, but, hear me out.

Part of Sonic’s rise to popularity in the 90s was controversial, competitive advertising. And you know what? I haven’t seen anything really quite like this in a long time (except maybe for cleaner commercials), but, lots of people remember how pushy and in your face these commercials were, and how much they really pushed the superiority of the product they were advertising. So you know what? Let’s bring this back. Let’s bring back Sonic’s violent guerilla marketing campaigns.

It’d be a great throwback as well as a statement about Sonic REALLY comin’ back and comin’ back hot; which might get some new people interested to at least watch a few episodes, and in the process of that, they may find they like the new show/games a lot!

(NOTE: I DON’T HATE NICKELODEON, AND THIS ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT I THINK THE SHOW’S SONIC SHOULD LOOK LIKE, THIS IS JUST A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT OF WHAT I THINK THIS SHOW’S ADVERTISING COULD LOOK LIKE)

Or, if we want to opt for more positive, passive marketing strategies, why don’t we revisit an idea that was misused and make it better?

Idk about anyone else but I actually really like the ‘blue streaks to show where Sonic’s been’ idea that the movie posters did, and I think it has potential to make a really memorable-looking advertisement.

Or, why not opt for a more nostalgic passive approach and recreate some of Sonic’s old box art?

Again, it’d be a great throwback as well as a way to get people interested in the show. Although, if we go this route I WOULD say maybe we should make it a little more interesting than just ‘Sonic 1 pose on a black grid or popart background’? Maybe we should combine these box arts and add the pop-art details for little pops of color while Sonic bursts out of this black-grid frame with a richly detailed drawing of Green Hill in the background? I dunno.

Conclusion

Okay, so. I didn’t get to everything I wanted to explain (like other marketing stuff, merchandising, the new actual GAMEPLAY for these new games, how to write the characters and humor, how I think the general ART STYLE of these new cartoons and games should look, etc.) as a matter of fact, I still have a ton more ideas for this reboot, but, here’s the main point:

Sonic the Hedgehog, right now? Sucks. Because it’s such a mess. It has too many ideas that are going off in too many different directions. The best way to change that, in my eyes, is to start over and try to unify all these broken-up ideas into one. I believe this is possible, while still maintaining a pretty widespread appeal and giving broken, old ideas a second chance to shine, but still being fresh and new enough to have a lasting impact and leave the door open for new content later.

I’m really bad at ending posts like this, but, if you went into this post thinking that Sonic can’t or shouldn’t change, I hope I’ve at least provoked thought on the matter. And, maybe, all those hardworking people at SEGA will decide one day that things need to change, whether by a reboot, rewrite or just... doing something a little bit different.

Maybe then, just maybe.

Our blue blur will really shine again.

- Jenny, of @jennikkugoesoff and @jennikku

[bowlerhatwearer]

Philomena 21, 25, 28, 37

21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper? 

Philomena is a very calm and patient bear, she was as a parent and is now as head of the duo (her included) of the orphanage. But she is also strict when necessary and for the sake of justice. 

The loss of her temper surely would occur when someone would harm her children, especially if done intentionally or if someone is doing evil in general. She also would loose it soon if seeing Egg-Soldiers or Badniks given that they are most of the time responsible for children loosing their parents and ending up in her orphanage. Other points that can make her blood pressure go high is injustice, abuse people, people that lie to her or hide important information that could affect either way herself, relatives or the children she takes care for, oh and the carelessness of the government of Station Square where the orphanage is nearby (given that they believe two people are enough to take care for one orphanage that is nearly exploding with children and teenagers.)

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

Oh she does like jokes, might they be funny jokes, puns, cabaret or a humorous poem, as long as it does not strike under the belt, goes too personal or is an very mean and ill meaning joke against someone she lets out a chuckle. Exceptions would be if something (not too serious) would happened to her quite often rather grumpy (but also for the children well meaning) younger colleague happens, where she can not help herself and make some kind of a little bit snarky comment but only to lighten the mood. Whilst she does not know much jokes by herself, she likes to make her children laugh and either way reads them a funny story, tells them a joke or seeks otherwise a way to make them happy and smile. Since the smile of a child and seeing them happy is what warms her hearth and keeps her going, to know that she’s doing as good as possible right.

28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?

Is it too loose the orphanage, to loose the children, to be told that what she did was not enough or she cared not well enough for those children. To see how the children she tries so hard to raise are being taken away from her. To maybe see one of her children suffer if not die? To see a beloved one to go and or disappearfrom her live all of a sudden to be never seen again. Or maybe that Eggman or another person with bad intention stands suddenly at the door with the intention to destroy everything and all within it what she tried so hard to protect, just to see it go up in flames and smithereens. Frankly, I think it’s all of those and all are on the same level when it comes to fear.

Whilst she tries to be tough and to be strong for the sake of the children, but in private and or due of enough pressure it can happens that she withdraws herself, mostly in the break room where she would be found by her colleague holding her face in her arms making the most silent and calmest weep to make sure that no one, and especially not the children would not hear her. (Given the experience and being a Tibetan sand fox her co-worker knows where to find their colleague so that they can comfort her.)

37. Do they like to read? Are they a fast or slow reader? Do they like poetry? Fictional or non fiction?

Oh she a-absolutely likes to read and during her live read a lot, might it have been as a foreign helper in a crisis region in her youth or in the present where she reads a few pages before going to sleep or on her coffee break (if time allows them). She’s a rather slow reader and if it’s not parent guides she’s going trough it’s usually non fictional or fictional historic Romans (like those that have a fictional character but play in a time that had existed in the past of reality). She does know the name of the most popular poets of Northarmer, Eurish and a few of Efrica and the name of some of their works but she was never good in echoing those.

Thank you for your question Nutty, it fills my hearth with joy to get a chance to let people get to know my characters better and are interested to find out more about them. ^^

[auroraknux]

Some other info about/ideas I have for my Tails Universe AU:

It’s mostly based in the Sonic Boom universe, but it uses characters from the Modern Sonic universe as well. Some of the characters may also be combinations of their Modern and Boom selves.

It will probably sort of follow the plot of SU, but VERY loosely. I kind of want it to be its own thing--so who knows, maybe at some point it will diverge into its own story. Not sure yet.

To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on with the lore in this AU. I’m probably just going to have to make it up as I’m going along, heh. Homeworld exists, and it’s ruled by the tyrannical diamonds; there was a rebellion which only has a few surviving members, Tails’ mom was the leader and eventually gave up her physical form to become Tails (who is a fox/gem hybrid), etc. So, some of it is the same. But a lot of things will probably be completely different (the existence of guy gems, for one).

As for Boom related lore, I’m not sure about that either. Heck, I’m not even sure if Eggman is in this AU or not (or what sort of role he’d play). But I do know that Tails and friends are living in Hedgehog Village.

Blaze is a fire opal, and the equivalent of Lapis in this AU (except she wields fire instead of water).

Sonic and Knuckles are a sapphire and a ruby, and their fusion is a garnet named Overdrive. (My friend suggested that name a while back.) They are, of course, the equivalents of Ruby and Sapphire/Garnet--and yes, they’re a couple here. Also, like Sapphire, Sonic has future vision.

All the gems have nicknames they’ve given themselves or each other. However, the diamonds always refer to them as whatever type of gem they are.

Two of the diamonds, Black Diamond (Black Doom) and whoever the Blue Diamond character is, were originally not part of the same team. They made an alliance at some point, possibly during the war.

Shadow was serving under Black Diamond, while Rouge was serving under the Blue Diamond character. They worked together a lot, and have a close bond. While they were loyal to their diamonds, their loyalty to each other was more important to them. (So that’s why Rouge feels so betrayed when Shadow joins Tails and co.)

Shadow is the equivalent of Peridot in this universe, for the most part. I’m not entirely sure what kind of gem he’d be (possibly a black opal?).

I’m still not sure what kind of gem Rouge is, though someone suggested benitoite or morganite. She’s the closest thing this AU has to Jasper, but her role is VERY different. For example, she doesn’t fuse with Blaze or get trapped in the ocean. Instead, she and Shadow decide to fuse, so they can have a better chance at beating Overdrive--though they get beaten anyway, of course. (Overdrive admits afterwards that Shadow and Rouge are actually a pretty good team, fused or not fused.)

Shadow and Rouge get separated sometime after their fight with Overdrive. When Rouge finally finds Shadow, he’s already joined Team Crystal. Rouge ends up becoming corrupted, and Shadow is forced to poof her to save Tails (or Tails and Sticks’ fusion). Shadow falls into a deep depression after this.

Tails is Steven’s equivalent, hence “Tails Universe”. Like Greg, Tails’ father originally had a different last name, before changing it to “Universe”. Here, it’s Prower. (This is when Tails realizes his real name is “Miles Prower”, which he then realizes sound like “miles per hour”, and then he facepalms.) He can also summon a pink shield, like Steven (and probably has all or most of the same powers as Steven in general).

Amy is Pearl’s equivalent, and is well, a pearl. And yes, she was gay for Tails’ mom.

Sticks is Amethyst’s equivalent, but she’s a smoky quartz. She might be less of a conspiracy theorist in this AU, since she and her friends are thousands of years old shapeshifting alien beings. I’m not sure about that yet though.

Zooey is Connie’s equivalent. Since Zooey wasn’t given much of a personality in Boom, her characterization might be more similar to Connie. She also learns to use a sword, like Connie. (And yes, she and Tails fuse at some point. Their fusion is called “Tazooey”.)

Since I ship Shadow and Rouge, they will probably become a couple at some point--once Rouge’s corruption is reversed, that is...

Like Peridot, Shadow is wearing limb enhancers at first--so when he loses them, it turns out that he’s actually really short. It also turns out that his limb enhancers gave him his powers, which were similar to the chaos spear and chaos blast. After losing the enhancers, he keeps insisting that he’s still powerful, but holding back. Eventually, he admits the truth: he has no powers anymore. But then, he discovers that he can teleport!

Shadow and Blaze will become roommates at some point. They won’t get along too well at first, but they’ll eventually bond. Shadow will then be able to open up to Blaze about Rouge--specifically, how much he misses Rouge.

If there’s a Lion character in this AU (which I’m not really sure about), he probably won’t have another character taking his role. Instead, he’ll just be himself. So Tails will have this big pink lion hanging around.

Sonic’s super speed and Knuckles’ super strength are both amplified when they’re fused. Because of this, Overdrive’s power can cause a LOT of damage, so he’s trained himself to control his power. He’s afraid of what will happen if he ever does lose control.

I’m probably forgetting some stuff, so I’ll probably have to add more stuff or make another post later on. I’m going to be tagging this stuff as “tails universe au” from now on, so be sure to check that tag for more info/ideas, if you’re interested. (And if you have any questions, let me know! Also let me know if I need to clarify anything; this post is kind of a disorganized mess.)

[sally-mun]

Have you ever done a Sonic Boom RP?

Not directly, but I did work it into my main RP in the only way that allows my brain to accept that it exists.

In the RP universe, overlanders have their own chunk of the map, which I assume is (or was) true in the comics. Every now and then bits and pieces of overlander culture come trickling out into mobian regions, but not terribly often. HOWEVER, there was one liiiiittle thing that made such a big impact that it became the center of international controversy: A TV show called Sonic Boom.

Within the RP, Sonic Boom exists in exactly the same way it does in reality, with nothing changed except for Sticks being omitted from the cast (since, as I’ve said in other posts, she lives on Knuckles’ and Finitevus’ island). It’s the same cartoon with the same character designs and personalities and plots, etc. It’s essentially an overlander take on Sonic and his allies – which is part of why the character designs are so tall and certain traits are so exaggerated (such as Knux’s ridiculous proportions). It’s also why Eggman, despite being the villain of the show, is presented as so cute and likeable, and why his physique is more… flattering, shall we say. The writers of the show clearly acknowledge that Sonic & co are supposed to be the good guys, but they can’t help themselves from being sympathetic to their own species.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, the release of Sonic Boom incited massive outrage around the world. For starters, there’s the fact that Eggman’s character – who is supposed to be based on a man responsible for enslaving the bulk of mobian territories for years – is presented as incredibly charming and ultimately harmless. Keep in mind that in this RP, Eggman was blended heavily with SatAM Robotnik. I think we can all agree that the differences between Boom!Eggman and SatAM!Robotnik are startling, to say the least. Absolutely NONE of the mobian countries were about to tolerate such a glorified presentation of the man who was essentially their Hitler.

Then there was blowback from both East Acorn Kingdom and West Acorn Republic for the notion that Sonic (recently married to the Eastern queen) and Amy (member of the Western council) are obviously being low-key shipped together. This situation ignited even further outrage when the show writers actually responded to the criticisms; in trying to defend their decisions, the writers stated that, “Sonic and Amy just go better together because they’re both hedgehogs.” This promptly unleashed another wave of controversy for being openly specist.

Sonic Boom also faced vicious feedback from Albion for its portrayal of Knuckles as a lumbering oaf. The Brotherhood of Guardians is the closest thing to echidnas having royalty, and not only is Knuckles the latest generation of that bloodline, but he’s been very active in helping the island just during the time that the RP has covered. Most of the population sees it as outright slander against him, as the other portrayals are at least somewhat close to their actual personalities but Knuckles is so outrageously off, prompting the other characters to take what he says with a grain of salt (or in some cases openly mock him to his face). Considering that there are so many tensions between echidnas and the general mobian population in the first place, many viewers take this as a commentary on echidnas as a whole, and are understandably upset about it.

Even communities that aren’t directly connected to the central cast were offended, if just for the portrayal of the everyday mobian. Many of the original secondary characters, and to some degree even the nameless background characters, are presented as unintelligent or annoying. It also doesn’t help that most of the structures seen in the show look like they were made by contestants on Survivor rather than by a legit construction crew. A lot of backlash arose simply from the idea that Sonic Boom is suggesting that mobians are still just “dumb animals.”

Perhaps the only “fan” of Sonic Boom is Tails – not because he likes the show itself, but just for the fact that the show portrays him as still being able to walk.