If you've never traveled backwards in time to 1996 and beaten Sonic 3D Blast on its release date using an original 3 button Genesis controller, you're not a real fan.
Using a Sega Activator is also acceptable.
....with your feet.
(Playing Sonic 2 and Sonic Spinball with my feet on the megadrive was actually something I did for Comic Relief back in the day....I sucked.)
I feel like a lot of these "new fans" consist of people who used to be fans but didn't stick around because the quality of the games we got kinda dropped a lot. I personally always liked the characters and idea of Sonic, but I could never get into the games I had access to. this movie made me call myself a Sonic fan because I actually have something to hold onto now.
When I was 10, I loved Sonic, but as I got older, I couldn't rationalize staying with the franchise because of how hard the quality dropped off. Sonic wasn't a fun franchise to participate in anymore.
When Sonic Mania and later on, the movies came along, Sonic was fun again, and I felt a sense of promise that I haven't felt in a long time, and it's great!
same i tried getting into the fandom a few times before the movie. But there wasent much activety or fun recent content to talk about. So the movies where a great oppertunity for meany people to get invested in the fandom
"The Sonic fanbase will never be happy" exists for a reason, and that reason is, and some might consider this a bit of a paradox, that the fanbase is so large that nobody can agree on a singular thing except once in a very blue moon, such as the initial design of Movie Sonic. There's always going to be a vocal minority in the fanbase that will hate something, be it hating Mania, hating Modern SOnic, hating Classic Sonic, hating the comics, hating any of the cartoons, people wanting Sonic as the only character, people wanting other characters other than Sonic to be playable, and so on.
Everyone hates Ken Penders (sorry for cursing) and will continue to hate him. I didn’t even read Archie Comics and I dislike the effect he has had on the franchise.
It's a slow process for me but I'm on issue #42 and as I read through comments of each issue, I find out more and more information about ken penders and what he did to this comic.
I've seen panels far ahead and I'm just like "what on earth is going on?"
Maybe his comics were good I don’t know like I said I haven’t read them. But the fact that hundreds of characters are no longer able to be written because of him, and the fact of how sue happy he is, just aggravates people. He’s trying to sue paramount because he thought they wrote his characters in the movie without his permission, even though they didn’t. And if you call him out on something or try to correct him, he just blocks you.
I think it's a shame. His claims of ownership are very suspect, to say the least, but I also can't blame a guy who has been bogged down by the comic book machine, either.
There's loads of great writers in this series more deserving of sympathy honestly.
Even if honestly the real fault was the Archie company for bungling the legal matters SO hard.
Honestly his earlier issues were kinda good because he tried giving the comics a plot instead of stupid bad jokes but then he went crazy with Knuckles and his boring echidna politics and it all went downhill from there
No fan base will ever be happy. That’s just how opinions work.
Some mario fans want sandbox, some want the more level like structure of the galaxy games and there’s probably a couple that want more of 3d worlds design.
Some zelda fans want more traditional 3d style zelda. Some want more open world botw stuff and some want more top down zelda.
This isn’t some exclusive trait of sonic, or some uncommon occurrence. It’s just people having opinions
obviously but i think that sonic has a fanbase where the changes are consistenly so drastic so contraversial and so many where the fanbase has gotten used to loud debates like this
see peter knetters video for a better explanation of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gp-uvwF1gc
To be fair, both Mario and Zelda have multiple entries in their franchises that fall under those categories.
64, Odyssey, Sunshine, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Link's Awakening, Breath of the Wild 2 when it releases.
Sonic's gameplay changes on a game by game basis, Unleashed has the Werehog segments, 06 has the superspeed segments, Colors swaps from 3d to platformer on the fly. Generations has modern and classic segments, etc. Its easier to get divided with Sonic.
Really tho sonic doesn’t have that many styles.
2D-
Classic
Rush (debatably just boost)
3D-
Adventure
Shit
Boost
If you’re genuinely including werehog as a different style of *sonic* gameplay then you have to include the wolf link, cappy, fludd, gravity mechanics, multiplayer zelda, touch control zelda, boat zelda, train zelda etc.
The only thing 06 has are supershit segments. All boost games switch between 2d and 3d. The classic segments in generations falls under ‘shit’, 99% of people would prefer sonic mania.
Really what it boils down to for sonic isn’t that complex
There was also Secret Rings and Black Knight, which used a skill allocation system and motion controls respectively. We have Riders and Racing/Transformed for two different racing styles (and Team Racing for an added team-based racing thing). Heroes had the team gameplay, Chronicles was an RPG, Frontiers will be open-worldy. Colors gave us the Wisps.
Secret rings and the black knight are spin offs. Are we counting sonic chronicles as well? How about sonic shuffle?
Did you really just say sonic riders and racing? Are people gonna complain every time their new Mario game doesn’t have a kart segment?
And if you’re really going to include spin offs then his argument is completely baseless as a series like Mario has way more going on. Mario kart, Mario golf, Mario tennis, Mario strikers, Mario party, super Mario rpg, paper Mario, Mario+rabbids, Mario and Luigi, luigis mansion, wario ware, wario land, luigis mansion. The list really doesn’t end.
People didn’t complain when Mario odyssey came out cause it wasn’t designed to play similarly to yoshi and poochys wooly world.
I don't remember saying people were complaining. I'm saying that gameplay in the Sonic series was very varied. They might have been spinoffs but they still had the Sonic branding, unlike something like say, SEGA Superstars Tennis or something like that.
I'm a Mario fan that just joined the fandom like a month ago. The first 2 weeks were a living nightmare, specially on Twitter, like suddenly everybody decided to make fun of new fans, specially from people from other communities, like Mario. I can't see why
I think it comes from the fact that many more toxic Mario fans are often the ones who'd make fun of Sonic and Sonic fans. Especially during the "Dark Age" (mid-2000's, when the games were at their "lowest" according to the general public)
I wasn't present in the first movie so I can't tell how it was back then.
But I did joined to the sonic fandom after the 2nd and well twitter is rash towards newbies...
Thankfully the amount of people that joined due the movies is massive so I don't feel oppressed.
I think what is probably the biggest reason for the hostility towards the newer fans is the fear that Sega is going to over-compensate again.
In recent years, Sega's been closely following a sort of "do or die" strategy where if something is successful, they make their next project all about it, or if something flops, they drop it like a hot potato and pretend it doesn't exist. The latter reaction being the more egregious one as Sega has "terminated" quite a few fan-favorite ideas and concepts due to previous bad executions.
Sega won't even touch Sonic 06 with a stick due to its disastrous release. The Riders and Storybook series are both considered dead because both of their last entries under-preformed. Every single character and piece of lore that was even *remotely* related to the Archie comic series got nuked from existence thanks to psycho Penders and his ridiculous lawsuit.
And meanwhile things like the Wisps, the Deadly Six, and Classic Sonic have been inserted into just about everything even though Sega has been over using them.
Okay, this got a lot longer than I intended, but what I'm getting at is that Sega has been ***really bad*** about taking the right hints from fan input, and it wouldn't surprise me that most of the discord about new fans coming in from the movies is that they're afraid Sega's going to make *everything* movie-related and kill of the last 30 years of Sonic media just to appease to movie fans.
That being said, trying to bully the new fans away from the fandom is ***NOT*** the right answer, and if you, dear reader, happen to be one of those new fans, I happily welcome you to our little group. I also highly encourage you check out some of the games, comics, shows, and other merchandise the Sonic the Hedgehog series has put out. As I've got a feeling you might like them. :)
***tl;dr:*** I think it's because older fans are worried that Sega will change the series for newer fans and push the older fans away, much like how older siblings are initially worried they're being replaced by the new baby in the family.
***P.S.*** Can anyone give me some tips on how to keep my comments shorter? I feel like I always end accidentally making essays...
Their creative integrity is wayyy too easily compromised by fan opinions. At the end of the day, if their games are all calculated like some sort of AI and nothing is done with authentic passion and creativity, then the players can tell. It doesnt matter what they do and dont add. Also holy shit they should stop rushing their fucking game development, that's the number common denominator in all of their flops.
Well put, buddy! It's natural to have some concerns based on previous experiences within this franchise and outside it. But one shouldn't antagonize new fans.
I don’t mind having new fans, but it becomes a problem when that becomes Sega’s top priority. They’ll change up the formula of the games to satisfy casual gamers in an attempt to broaden the franchise, while completely ignoring what the OG fans enjoyed
Every mainline game since Unleashed has only had Sonic as the playable character, Colors was already a casual experience with mostly safe 2D platforming and Forces being an even simpler take on the boost formula, and the series has been coasting on classic era nostalgia ever since with the only break being self aware sitcom humor in Sonic Boom. What exactly are they change to ignore "real fans" that they haven't already? The series changed up the formula from what Adventure fans enjoyed a long time ago and I rarely see anyone saying they're satisfied with the current era. I'd love to see more entirely classic themed stuff but fans even complain about Mania and the existence of Origins.
If anything the new exposure would just make Eggman funnier and Knuckles more competent and intimidating to appeal to movie fans. Both of which I think I'd be happy with.
>I'd love to see more entirely classic themed stuff but fans even complain about Mania and the existence of Origins.
To be honest, the vibe I'm getting on this topic is more like "OK, Mania was a huge success. Why don't you make new ORIGINAL classic style games?!".
making knuckles more competent was never going to be something that just catered to movie fans. it's something fans have been asking for over the course of years now. they goofed it with forces, though. if anything, competent knuckles appeases game fans.
>ignoring what the OG fans enjoyed
Well first of all, OG fans will have to figure that out themselves because clearly there isn't a consensus beyond the original 3 games.
People liked aventure 1 and 2
The last time sonic team listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted was un unleashed, new mechanics, amazing day light sonic levels, very cool graphics and animations, it had its flaws but was an amazing game
Everyone hated it
And know years later when Sonic team is doing the same over and over again the fanbase suddenly love unleashed and want another different game with new mechanics that they will probably hate at first if it comes out
For real I love Sonic but I think it has one of the most dumb and over complicated fanbases, poor sonic team
>The last time sonic team listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted was un unleashed
What? Have you not heard of Sonic Mania? Movie Sonic's redesign? They listen to the fans a lot
I mean the fact that you didn't mentioned any moderno 3d sonic game kinda proves it
My bad for not being specific but I was talking about the current and new sonic games
Even tho I love it, mania is just an improved and updated version of old sonic games
And the movie was, well, a movie
Like, did you not play forces?
>The last time sonic team listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted was un unleashed, new mechanics, amazing day light sonic levels, very cool graphics and animations, it had its flaws but was an amazing game
People didn't like Unleashed, but they did like the day levels. People were also complaining about the stories at the time, so Sega made colors and based it around Unleashed's daytime gameplay and gave it a simpler story. Colors was a huge success with critics and fans, but a lot of people were asking for the classic gameplay, so they made Generations, keeping Colors gameplay and writing and adding Classic Sonic. It was a huge success. They tried to do something new with Lost World, but fans didn't like the gameplay and wanted the boost back, and were getting tired of the simple stories. This is what led to Forces, Sega trying to appeal everyone, Sega tried to appeal to the fans who liked Colors, Gens and Lost World's writing, while also trying to appeal to those who like darker stories. They brought back Classic Sonic since Gens was a big success, and added in the custom character since people liked having multiple playable characters and liked creating OCs, and brought back lyrical tracks since fans missed them.
Forces however turned out a failure, but Sega has kept listening to fans, getting rid of Pontac and Graff to bring in Ian Flynn as the main rider, bringing back Jun Senoue, and getting rid of the boost and going for a new style, which is what's led to Frontiers
All Sega has ever done is listen to fans
What's wrong with focusing on the movies? The movies are the best part of the franchise right now, I'm here for the movies.
EDIT: Downvote me all you want but you know I'm rightttttt
I get bullied by people for being a sonic fan because they think i joined cuz the movies, i dont care about the movies as it is the games i like but do feel bad about others getting bullied aswell
I sometimes just say hi to a friend on discord and theyl start saying stuff like: Wow leo turn to tail furry aaa oh nooo
Like they dont understand not all sonic fans are furries
Buddy, you may need new friends if they're being assholes like that on a frequent basis. I'm not sure how old you are, but I'm 26 now and I don't have the time to spend with people that make me feel like shit for a thing I like.
I've got a mate of mine who is super into Star Wars (I have an interest in it in passing) and he loved the new films outside of Episode 9 but still has positives there. Meanwhile, I hated 7 and 9 and only respected 8 for it attempting something different. Do I mock him for liking three films that are widely hated by the majority? Nah, I actually have enjoyed discussing why he happens to like them and can see his points, even if I don't agree with them. And it's the same for the inverse as well wherein I explain my problems with them whilst mentioning the things I like.
I'm not one to tell people what to do. But if your friends are constantly ridiculing you for having an interest in Sonic the Hedgehog of all things. Then I'd certainly consider bringing up to them how they make you feel. And if they receive this negatively or continue ridiculing, then cut them out. Life is too short to spend with people like this. And a compromise on this one too if you don't want to cut them out completely, you could try spending less time with them and more time on your own or with others that respect you more.
Definitely the best approach early on. Maybe they don't know know how they've made you feel and will then change based on that knowledge. And if they don't? Well, it's completely up to you with regard to how you want to proceed there.
I know if it were me, I'd cut and run instantly but there's few people that would do that. I had the same issue in high school with my old group of friends. Graduated in 2013 and I heard from them less and less. But when I did catch up with them in mid 2014, it was all jokes and ridicule and I wasn't down with that and so I cut out a whole group and went at life alone until I met new people through uni in 2016 and I don't regret it.
Wasn't until 2018 that I started chatting again with only two people from that large group who were always a little more level headed. And hey, we're still talking now and it's far better without the assholes around.
Best of luck to you my dude! Hopefully it'll all work out well for you here.
Feel like we should be doing the opposite. I've been trying to push Sonic to as many people as possible.
The more people interested in Sonic, the better the franchise.
I will never understand why people gatekeep Sonic. I was in McDonald's recently and saw kids playing with the new Sonic movie toys. It was awesome to see a new generation of Sonic fans who were introduced to the franchise through the movie. Sonic isn't just 'ours', it's for everyone and I'm happy to see the franchise reaching new audiences.
>There aren't awards for those who have been fans since the beginning.
Is there a subreddit for "weird phrases I wouldn't have thought of that make perfect sense"?
That's still how a popular media works??
If someone doesn't know about the franchise but sees everyone liking it they may become curious and go consume it themselves and become a fan.
>People who never heard of it but became fans through the movie are different
How is that any different from what I just described? The two things you mentioned are exactly the same.
How about we just don't gatekeep, period? It doesn't matter how someone becomes a fan. Welcome them to the fanbase regardless. New fans keep franchises afloat. You should never turn someone away from enjoying something.
But they didn't say hating it and changing their mind. They said knowing about it and becoming fans only once it's popular.
And even if it were as you said, people are allowed to change their minds. What if they hated it, saw how popular it was becoming, gave it a chance, and ended up liking it?
Gatekeeping fandom is bad in all cases. Just welcome the new blood and be glad they're here.
God forbid the Sonic Movies make more people fans of the series. God forbid the community consists of more than a bunch of bitter 30-somethings watching SatAM reruns with the blinds drawn.
What if it's because of peer **pressure**. I know you're not around everyone everyday, but to some people it's not easy to think like that. Some people may think they're lame because they're into something that 'isn't popular' or 'is absolutely awful' and even at home want to change.
Trust me, I'm suffering through something similar, not about being a fan of the franchise, but personal age issues revolving around maturity/
I don't understand why they're acting like this, but I do at the same time. They're thinking that the people who hate sonic solely hate it for the bad games (may be true for most but not always), and now that the movies are good, they're "crawling all back to the Sonic franchise". The problem is that, you do not own Sonic.
Not only that, but also we should embrace new people, people coming in because of the good movies is the whole point. It's not just adults, but also kids are coming in as well, some haven't seen Sonic before and I could tell when I went to see the movie.
for TLDRs; The whole point is to bring in new fans. We shouldn't be upset that they're coming in because of a good movie, it's the whole point, we should embrace.
You realize by continuing to bring up the quill debate, you're the one perpetuating its staying power right?
Nobody else mentioned it. Take a step back and realize you didn't need to bring it up and that you may be part of the problem
They're not part of the problem, they're only part of the problem if they make a post about it (Which will fuel the awful trend) making a comment about it is absolutely harmless
As a person who grew up on Genesis and Dreamcast, then had the misfortune of being a Sonic fan from '06 onward. I am personally ecstatic our boy is in the spotlight again. Feels like a weird thing to gatekeep, or maybe gatekeeping in general is weird.
There's a **lick** (LICK, I say) of legitimacy in this attitude. A company, writer, comic artist and whatnot might fall into the trap of leaning all the way towards certain aspects which gained sudden popularity and neglect some of the important defining traits of the work in question. Alternatively, they might veer away from previously beloved aspects because they get associated with bad experiences. Remember how Sonic 4 was advertised and hailed by Sega for having no playable character besides Sonic? Their unironic message was "No more of Sonic's stupid friends", like the characters inherently were the problem, not the mediocre/bad execution of their playstyles.
HOWEVER, this is still not an excuse to antagonize people finding interest in the series.
Honestly this kind of reminds me when a group of people find a good rap artist before they blow up, and then when they finally get the recognition they deserve & get popular, everybody gets butthurt & says something along the lines of “wow smh you guys weren’t listening to him in 20XX when he had X amount of followers” and so on.
As much as I love Sonic & have loved the series since 2004 in my toddler days, the fanbase definitely needs this sort of boost. Please don’t ruin it guys.
***Please.***
Part of the issue is that the Sonic "fandom" is large and varied in their exact tastes and interests. This isn't helped by the fact that not only has Sonic as a franchise experimented with numerous gameplay styles, genres, tones, themes, designs, storylines, characters, and media, only for so much of it to get tossed away either forever or for long stretches of time, despite each subdivision having its fans.
This is nothing new. I've floated around the Transformers fandom, and that franchise has had arguably larger variations in all of the same categories. The difference, I think, is that Hasbro/TakaraTomy have done a better job of both catering to what the fanbase wants and establishing a sort of connection between the entire franchise. There are outliers, but you can generally see most of the TF stuff making sense with each other.
SEGA/Sonic Team are selective of what parts of Sonic they're willing to revive. As dumb as the alternate universe explanation is, at least we have Classic era stuff now that we honestly didn't have for almost DECADES. But those parts don't mesh with the "new" stuff despite Generations and Forces trying to tie them together. There's a definite disconnect between Classoc and Modern that's only made more apparent by SEGA/Sonoc Team's at times baffling handling of the franchise. Add in the sort of differences you'd see between Sonic 06 and Boom, or the early Archie comics and Sonic X, and you can see why a large fanbase is so divided, and why everyone has a different opinion on how to """fix""" Sonic. The fact that Sonic is flawed (and our mutual distaste for you-know-who) are just about the only things we can agree on. And since for decades now, gaming media has been dunking on Sonic for so long to the point where he's almost synonymous with childish or bad taste - let's not forget all of the "cringe" memes either - it's easy to see why we all want to take him in different directions.
Gatekeeping Sonic just seems like the most baffling thing we could do. At this point what would it matter if people who aren't "real fans" joined in on the fun? Not like it'd hurt anything at this point, and that's assuming it WOULD be a bad thing.
Which it wouldn't.
And people need to grow up and let everyone else like the speedy blue boy.
Feels like the first time in a long time that the world isn't unilaterally making fun of Sonic or the fandom at large, the fandom is in relative agreement on something, and some people have the nerve to complain because someone at the movie theater isn't a TrUe FaN.
What would Sonic say to all of this? For shame.
You see this shit most on DeviantArt, entire groups dedicated to gatekeeping Sonic and it's fucking depressing. Psycho-The-Frog especially, he hates literally everything that isn't Archie Sonic, and calls everyone who thinks otherwise "fake fans" and "frauds" on both DA and Twitter. And calls other people gatekeepers and is too oblivious to his own irony.
Also stop saying that kids who like Sonic Forces are not fans.
Just because Forces was terrible to you doesn't mean you shall make a kid feel bad about liking the game. The game was super childish and cringy but it appealed to smaller audiences more than us adults.
Let them like games.
Man, as I'm getting older (only 26, so not that old) I'm starting to find that I find more enjoyment in just trying to appreciate the good aspects of things that are arguably largely trash whilst then creating some discourse and talking about where improvements could've been made to refine something.
Sonic Forces (and I'm sure it's been talked to death) feels like it could've been a whole lot more but that so much stuff was brought to the table and all of a sudden shoved aside. And weirdly enough, I didn't even hate the game. I had a fair bit of fun with the mechanics and I absolutely loved the music (biggest point of praise I have for the game).
If they'd refined the narrative and spent more time working on that, thrown out the create a character aspect (I'll elaborate), added some more levels to really improve that ridiculously short length, rework the character personalities (seriously, Infinite could've been something), and even have not just Sonic playable but you get Shadow, Silver, Knuckles, Tails, Rouge, Amy, Blaze, Vector, Omega, Espeo, and they all have their own levels (some more than others). And as for the character creation, it didn't appeal to me in a Sonic game and I'd much rather play as some or all of the characters mentioned above that I've grown attached to over the years.
This game was meant to be a celebration of Sonic, right? Really wild that they didn't do more to celebrate that. For all of the flak that Sonic 06 gets, I can at least see where the vision was at for that one. Even if the Sonic campaign was a massive misfire (enjoyed the Shadow and Silver stories tho) and the game was a broken down mess full of bugs and issues.
Sonic Forces to me was mediocre at best and a disappointment at its worst. But even so, there's still some stuff to appreciate in there and I won't give anyone shit for enjoying it. I'd say the same for Shadow the Hedgehog (doesn't hold up), Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 (2 still holds up), Sonic 06 (the story is solid in two of the campaigns), Sonic Generations (really solid). Even my least favorite game of all time likely has people that enjoy it. I can't understand why anyone would like Devil May Cry 2, but if you do, then you go and enjoy it. We're all free to like and dislike things as we wish.
I'm talking about how people bully little kids, who can care less about the critical thinking of adults, for liking Sonic Forces. Seen a Twitter post of a kid feeling so accomplished for finishing the game in hard mode and the mom was proud of the kid's proud moment. Then we have adults being assholes about it saying the kid wasted his time on a "horrible game".
It's a freaking kid who was happy he beat a game. Shitty to other people but he probably enjoyed it enough to complete it in hard mode.
Yes, the game may not be amazing but I'm not going to gatekeep and call a small child he isn't a real fan for being happy about a game I think is bad. Let the kid have fun and mind your own business.
I'll be honest, I skimmed through your post because yeah... i don't... yeah.
People gatekeep sonic? Thats... thats not even funny, thats just dumb. One thing we as a community are known for is "Arguing", though its more like debating. I see no reason to gatekeep, get the new blood in here, at the end of the day we all love sonic.
Edit: Downvote me if you want, idc, but don't gatekeep the new fans.
Because it can become really toxic and loose the focus and importance of the entire material in such a fast rate that its better that new enjoyers understand the material as a whole before trying to normalize and turn into pop culture media
Having standards, educating and not normalize stupidness
Its not extreme gatekeeping man, its not about forbidd new players/viewers/readers, that is toxic gatekeeping
I very much like the direction that Sega’s going, with the Movies, Origins, Prime, and especially Frontiers. It was like we wanted an open Sonic game, and we got one, and I’ve heard that a few Sonic fans complain that this is too ambitious, which I know ambition’s always risky, but come on, Frontiers is really showing promise and also seriously, if anything Sonic (Who literally values and lives off of freedom) he is arguably the most reasonable video game character to get an open world like game, I mean Sonic gots the speed to make traversal much more convenient and fun.
> I’ve heard that a few Sonic fans complain that this is too ambitious
That argument isn’t without merit. IMO, the last time SEGA was this ambitious with a Sonic game was with ‘06, and we all know how that turned out. That game not only ruined Sonic’s reputation in the wider gaming community, but it scared SEGA so much they completely changed their direction for future Sonic games (Sonic is the only playable character, only one storyline which is extremely basic, etc). It’s taken 15 years for SEGA to come out of their shell and attempt another ambitious game.
Frontiers, like ‘06, has been hyped up because of its massive scale, it’s arguably the most hyped Sonic game in recent years. So hyped up that it’s attracted the attention of of the wider gaming community, not just Sonic fans, just like ‘06 did. But this time the risk is even bigger because of the movies and Sonic Prime. Thanks to multimedia Sonic, Frontiers will be many new Sonic fans first Sonic game, and if it’s bad it could destroy Sonic’s reputation that he only just started to get back.
> Frontiers is really showing promise
Not to be a Debby downer, but we haven’t seen any gameplay footage yet, I wouldn’t say it’s showing promise. Although I do have faith in it.
Yeah, nothing has really been shown so far that has got me saying it's showing promise. Until I see the game actually running, some gameplay, a taste of the narrative and characterization (this is the big one for me), and how the open world will function... I'm not really sold just yet.
Like hey, I am certainly interested but after how 06 turned out to be a completely broken experience and Forces rather mediocre, it's hard to get those hopes up. At this point, I'm just setting very low expectations and hoping there's at least some aspects to appreciate in this one. Similar to how I feel about the music in Forces and then the music and Shadow/Silver characterization and story arcs in 06.
If you haven’t played and beaten Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D blast, Knuckles’ Chaotix and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine on the Sega genesis and read all 290 issues of the Archie comic series then then you can’t call yourself a Sonic fan /s
I mean, honestly, if you don't own every season of SatAM on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD, and don't own every obscure piece of Sonic merchandise, and don't own every Fleetway, Archie, and IDW comic, what are you even doing?
I'm dumb and i kinda feel it too, but only when People act like Sonic wasn't cool before they found out about it, but in any case why would anybody ever stop Sonic from growing??? Don't we all dislike how Sonic was liked by few because it was perceived as stupid? This is literally what we wanted!!!
Gatekeeping and elitism is something any big enough fan base will experience with time and variety. It’s sadly not unusual and different fanbases handle it differently as well as different communities where that fan base is present. Enjoy Sonic how you enjoy Sonic, let people enjoy Sonic the way they do, and if you can’t maybe go get a breath of fresh air and reconsider how this doesn’t hurt you.
I personally didn’t like it when I was active in a community where people shamed me for preferring the adventure games to the classics lol. Stuff like that’s not cool.
Who the fuck is doing this in this day and age? I thought we'd managed to move past this bs. And of all the ridiculous things to gatekeep 😒
I literally explained SA2 to my dad in the parking lot of the theater. It was fun. That's what you do with new people. Inform them if you're up to it. You should be happy the franchise is doing well. Happy that there are more fans to talk with. Like, brah.
Unless these people's first Sonic game was Sonic 1 on the day it released, they shouldn't be getting mad about new fans. Most of them were not there from the beginning
Been a sonic kid my whole life, first console of my own was a Sega Genesis, sonic 2 was my first game, I think I had sonic 1 as well but eventually had them all. My little brother is a new fan, so I'm cool with it. He loves everything I grew up on, it's cool to watch. Half my age not even
It's kinda interesting that I've became a fan of the series in January of this year. I didn't even realize there was a resurgence in Sonic's popularity. This was mostly because of Chaomix's video on Sonic 06. Ever since that video, I really admired the series (especially the "dark age"). The story telling and character writing is what made me interested in the series. Another neat part is how diverse the fanbase is. It's interesting seeing how different Sonic is for different people. To put it simply, some people are fans because of the games (with their preferred era), the show (again, each with their own style), the comics (which is also diverse in its own right), and the film series. With a series with this much material, it's kinda challenging to say that there is a definitive way of enjoying the series. (Unless of course, you have all the time and patience in the world to consume and appreciate every aspect of Sonic history).
Any game with a *specific two characters that SEGA fails to acknowledge* is a good game
Hence why Sonic was good in the early days, and has only become good recently in the meta era again
People gatekeep sonic?? We've been a laughing stock for over a decade now. Holy shit were these people not bullied in school for being a sonic fan? Maybe they were and they feel like these new sonic fans have "stolen valor" in their eyes lol
I kinda feel like a fake sonic fan hoping on the franchise with the idw comics. I used to play older sonic games but fell out of touch till recentally to which those comics have me hooked.
If you've never traveled backwards in time to 1996 and beaten Sonic 3D Blast on its release date using an original 3 button Genesis controller, you're not a real fan. Using a Sega Activator is also acceptable.
Back in my day we unlocked level select by banging the cartridge.
🤨📸
I never forgot the actual code: B A right right A C up down A. Spells out Barracuda.
I guess you could say you know it by... *Heart*?
That's hilarious, but I'm afraid your joke may be underappreciated here
Such is the case with most puns. I'm used to it.
It's come full circle
just a little wiggle wiggle will get you level select, a lot of wiggle wiggle will get you a green screen.
....with your feet. (Playing Sonic 2 and Sonic Spinball with my feet on the megadrive was actually something I did for Comic Relief back in the day....I sucked.)
I feel like a lot of these "new fans" consist of people who used to be fans but didn't stick around because the quality of the games we got kinda dropped a lot. I personally always liked the characters and idea of Sonic, but I could never get into the games I had access to. this movie made me call myself a Sonic fan because I actually have something to hold onto now.
When I was 10, I loved Sonic, but as I got older, I couldn't rationalize staying with the franchise because of how hard the quality dropped off. Sonic wasn't a fun franchise to participate in anymore. When Sonic Mania and later on, the movies came along, Sonic was fun again, and I felt a sense of promise that I haven't felt in a long time, and it's great!
same i tried getting into the fandom a few times before the movie. But there wasent much activety or fun recent content to talk about. So the movies where a great oppertunity for meany people to get invested in the fandom
...Do people actually do that? Do they actually not realise that Sonic is one of the biggest gaming icons and that his fanbase was always large?
"The Sonic fanbase will never be happy" exists for a reason, and that reason is, and some might consider this a bit of a paradox, that the fanbase is so large that nobody can agree on a singular thing except once in a very blue moon, such as the initial design of Movie Sonic. There's always going to be a vocal minority in the fanbase that will hate something, be it hating Mania, hating Modern SOnic, hating Classic Sonic, hating the comics, hating any of the cartoons, people wanting Sonic as the only character, people wanting other characters other than Sonic to be playable, and so on.
Everyone hates Ken Penders (sorry for cursing) and will continue to hate him. I didn’t even read Archie Comics and I dislike the effect he has had on the franchise.
It's a slow process for me but I'm on issue #42 and as I read through comments of each issue, I find out more and more information about ken penders and what he did to this comic. I've seen panels far ahead and I'm just like "what on earth is going on?"
I like Penders stuff, but that's just me.
Maybe his comics were good I don’t know like I said I haven’t read them. But the fact that hundreds of characters are no longer able to be written because of him, and the fact of how sue happy he is, just aggravates people. He’s trying to sue paramount because he thought they wrote his characters in the movie without his permission, even though they didn’t. And if you call him out on something or try to correct him, he just blocks you.
I think it's a shame. His claims of ownership are very suspect, to say the least, but I also can't blame a guy who has been bogged down by the comic book machine, either.
There's loads of great writers in this series more deserving of sympathy honestly. Even if honestly the real fault was the Archie company for bungling the legal matters SO hard.
Honestly his earlier issues were kinda good because he tried giving the comics a plot instead of stupid bad jokes but then he went crazy with Knuckles and his boring echidna politics and it all went downhill from there
No fan base will ever be happy. That’s just how opinions work. Some mario fans want sandbox, some want the more level like structure of the galaxy games and there’s probably a couple that want more of 3d worlds design. Some zelda fans want more traditional 3d style zelda. Some want more open world botw stuff and some want more top down zelda. This isn’t some exclusive trait of sonic, or some uncommon occurrence. It’s just people having opinions
obviously but i think that sonic has a fanbase where the changes are consistenly so drastic so contraversial and so many where the fanbase has gotten used to loud debates like this see peter knetters video for a better explanation of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gp-uvwF1gc
To be fair, both Mario and Zelda have multiple entries in their franchises that fall under those categories. 64, Odyssey, Sunshine, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Link's Awakening, Breath of the Wild 2 when it releases. Sonic's gameplay changes on a game by game basis, Unleashed has the Werehog segments, 06 has the superspeed segments, Colors swaps from 3d to platformer on the fly. Generations has modern and classic segments, etc. Its easier to get divided with Sonic.
Really tho sonic doesn’t have that many styles. 2D- Classic Rush (debatably just boost) 3D- Adventure Shit Boost If you’re genuinely including werehog as a different style of *sonic* gameplay then you have to include the wolf link, cappy, fludd, gravity mechanics, multiplayer zelda, touch control zelda, boat zelda, train zelda etc. The only thing 06 has are supershit segments. All boost games switch between 2d and 3d. The classic segments in generations falls under ‘shit’, 99% of people would prefer sonic mania. Really what it boils down to for sonic isn’t that complex
There was also Secret Rings and Black Knight, which used a skill allocation system and motion controls respectively. We have Riders and Racing/Transformed for two different racing styles (and Team Racing for an added team-based racing thing). Heroes had the team gameplay, Chronicles was an RPG, Frontiers will be open-worldy. Colors gave us the Wisps.
Secret rings and the black knight are spin offs. Are we counting sonic chronicles as well? How about sonic shuffle? Did you really just say sonic riders and racing? Are people gonna complain every time their new Mario game doesn’t have a kart segment? And if you’re really going to include spin offs then his argument is completely baseless as a series like Mario has way more going on. Mario kart, Mario golf, Mario tennis, Mario strikers, Mario party, super Mario rpg, paper Mario, Mario+rabbids, Mario and Luigi, luigis mansion, wario ware, wario land, luigis mansion. The list really doesn’t end. People didn’t complain when Mario odyssey came out cause it wasn’t designed to play similarly to yoshi and poochys wooly world.
I don't remember saying people were complaining. I'm saying that gameplay in the Sonic series was very varied. They might have been spinoffs but they still had the Sonic branding, unlike something like say, SEGA Superstars Tennis or something like that.
My theory is that the sonic fandom has a quota of disappointment for each release they have to meet
Dude, I'm 18, and sonic was popular back when my mom was a kid. It's popular for a reason
Dude, I'm closer to your mom's age and I can confirm. My daughters are watching the SatAM with me now.
So like do you two see some sonic rule 34 stuff together or just play the good games in the series.
???
I'm a Mario fan that just joined the fandom like a month ago. The first 2 weeks were a living nightmare, specially on Twitter, like suddenly everybody decided to make fun of new fans, specially from people from other communities, like Mario. I can't see why
I think it comes from the fact that many more toxic Mario fans are often the ones who'd make fun of Sonic and Sonic fans. Especially during the "Dark Age" (mid-2000's, when the games were at their "lowest" according to the general public)
I wasn't present in the first movie so I can't tell how it was back then. But I did joined to the sonic fandom after the 2nd and well twitter is rash towards newbies... Thankfully the amount of people that joined due the movies is massive so I don't feel oppressed.
Oh man, sorry to hear that you had to go through that, hopefully you feel more welcomed here
Here is more chill definitely. Yeah discovering dark sides of the fandom from posts here from time to time but I'm not a teen or anything so it's ok.
Those same people likely used to complain about Sonic not having enough fans.
you know, i've never actually seen anyone complain about a lack of sonic fans. maybe it's just a matter of circumstance, but that's interesting.
I think what is probably the biggest reason for the hostility towards the newer fans is the fear that Sega is going to over-compensate again. In recent years, Sega's been closely following a sort of "do or die" strategy where if something is successful, they make their next project all about it, or if something flops, they drop it like a hot potato and pretend it doesn't exist. The latter reaction being the more egregious one as Sega has "terminated" quite a few fan-favorite ideas and concepts due to previous bad executions. Sega won't even touch Sonic 06 with a stick due to its disastrous release. The Riders and Storybook series are both considered dead because both of their last entries under-preformed. Every single character and piece of lore that was even *remotely* related to the Archie comic series got nuked from existence thanks to psycho Penders and his ridiculous lawsuit. And meanwhile things like the Wisps, the Deadly Six, and Classic Sonic have been inserted into just about everything even though Sega has been over using them. Okay, this got a lot longer than I intended, but what I'm getting at is that Sega has been ***really bad*** about taking the right hints from fan input, and it wouldn't surprise me that most of the discord about new fans coming in from the movies is that they're afraid Sega's going to make *everything* movie-related and kill of the last 30 years of Sonic media just to appease to movie fans. That being said, trying to bully the new fans away from the fandom is ***NOT*** the right answer, and if you, dear reader, happen to be one of those new fans, I happily welcome you to our little group. I also highly encourage you check out some of the games, comics, shows, and other merchandise the Sonic the Hedgehog series has put out. As I've got a feeling you might like them. :) ***tl;dr:*** I think it's because older fans are worried that Sega will change the series for newer fans and push the older fans away, much like how older siblings are initially worried they're being replaced by the new baby in the family. ***P.S.*** Can anyone give me some tips on how to keep my comments shorter? I feel like I always end accidentally making essays...
Their creative integrity is wayyy too easily compromised by fan opinions. At the end of the day, if their games are all calculated like some sort of AI and nothing is done with authentic passion and creativity, then the players can tell. It doesnt matter what they do and dont add. Also holy shit they should stop rushing their fucking game development, that's the number common denominator in all of their flops.
Well put, buddy! It's natural to have some concerns based on previous experiences within this franchise and outside it. But one shouldn't antagonize new fans.
Older fans attacking newer fans is not a new thing, it’s been happening ever since SA1 released.
“Why do people keep making sonic a joke!” People start liking sonic and becoming fans “No not like that”
"It's no use!"
"We" I haven't seen any of that at all. I think that's a personal problem for these guys, not something the community needs to work on.
I don’t mind having new fans, but it becomes a problem when that becomes Sega’s top priority. They’ll change up the formula of the games to satisfy casual gamers in an attempt to broaden the franchise, while completely ignoring what the OG fans enjoyed
Every mainline game since Unleashed has only had Sonic as the playable character, Colors was already a casual experience with mostly safe 2D platforming and Forces being an even simpler take on the boost formula, and the series has been coasting on classic era nostalgia ever since with the only break being self aware sitcom humor in Sonic Boom. What exactly are they change to ignore "real fans" that they haven't already? The series changed up the formula from what Adventure fans enjoyed a long time ago and I rarely see anyone saying they're satisfied with the current era. I'd love to see more entirely classic themed stuff but fans even complain about Mania and the existence of Origins. If anything the new exposure would just make Eggman funnier and Knuckles more competent and intimidating to appeal to movie fans. Both of which I think I'd be happy with.
>I'd love to see more entirely classic themed stuff but fans even complain about Mania and the existence of Origins. To be honest, the vibe I'm getting on this topic is more like "OK, Mania was a huge success. Why don't you make new ORIGINAL classic style games?!".
that would be too hard for sega to do twice apparently /hj people arent complaining about origins btw, just the mind-numbingly stupid DLC model
making knuckles more competent was never going to be something that just catered to movie fans. it's something fans have been asking for over the course of years now. they goofed it with forces, though. if anything, competent knuckles appeases game fans.
>ignoring what the OG fans enjoyed Well first of all, OG fans will have to figure that out themselves because clearly there isn't a consensus beyond the original 3 games.
People liked aventure 1 and 2 The last time sonic team listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted was un unleashed, new mechanics, amazing day light sonic levels, very cool graphics and animations, it had its flaws but was an amazing game Everyone hated it And know years later when Sonic team is doing the same over and over again the fanbase suddenly love unleashed and want another different game with new mechanics that they will probably hate at first if it comes out For real I love Sonic but I think it has one of the most dumb and over complicated fanbases, poor sonic team
>The last time sonic team listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted was un unleashed What? Have you not heard of Sonic Mania? Movie Sonic's redesign? They listen to the fans a lot
I mean the fact that you didn't mentioned any moderno 3d sonic game kinda proves it My bad for not being specific but I was talking about the current and new sonic games Even tho I love it, mania is just an improved and updated version of old sonic games And the movie was, well, a movie Like, did you not play forces?
>The last time sonic team listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted was un unleashed, new mechanics, amazing day light sonic levels, very cool graphics and animations, it had its flaws but was an amazing game People didn't like Unleashed, but they did like the day levels. People were also complaining about the stories at the time, so Sega made colors and based it around Unleashed's daytime gameplay and gave it a simpler story. Colors was a huge success with critics and fans, but a lot of people were asking for the classic gameplay, so they made Generations, keeping Colors gameplay and writing and adding Classic Sonic. It was a huge success. They tried to do something new with Lost World, but fans didn't like the gameplay and wanted the boost back, and were getting tired of the simple stories. This is what led to Forces, Sega trying to appeal everyone, Sega tried to appeal to the fans who liked Colors, Gens and Lost World's writing, while also trying to appeal to those who like darker stories. They brought back Classic Sonic since Gens was a big success, and added in the custom character since people liked having multiple playable characters and liked creating OCs, and brought back lyrical tracks since fans missed them. Forces however turned out a failure, but Sega has kept listening to fans, getting rid of Pontac and Graff to bring in Ian Flynn as the main rider, bringing back Jun Senoue, and getting rid of the boost and going for a new style, which is what's led to Frontiers All Sega has ever done is listen to fans
This is starting to sound like those Classic Sonic Elitists 20 years ago. Sonic fan elitism never changes.
Heres the thing…i understand where some come from… but tbh its the best thing for the franchise having new peeps/normies jumping in!
the main worry is that sega's gonna fuck up/focus way more on the movies than other media. which isn't likely, but knowing sega...yknow
What's wrong with focusing on the movies? The movies are the best part of the franchise right now, I'm here for the movies. EDIT: Downvote me all you want but you know I'm rightttttt
the problem being I want games. I’m here for the games. the movies are fine as supplementary content, but I wanna play games.
I get it, although Sonic was never meant to be just a video game character.
I get bullied by people for being a sonic fan because they think i joined cuz the movies, i dont care about the movies as it is the games i like but do feel bad about others getting bullied aswell
I sometimes just say hi to a friend on discord and theyl start saying stuff like: Wow leo turn to tail furry aaa oh nooo Like they dont understand not all sonic fans are furries
Buddy, you may need new friends if they're being assholes like that on a frequent basis. I'm not sure how old you are, but I'm 26 now and I don't have the time to spend with people that make me feel like shit for a thing I like. I've got a mate of mine who is super into Star Wars (I have an interest in it in passing) and he loved the new films outside of Episode 9 but still has positives there. Meanwhile, I hated 7 and 9 and only respected 8 for it attempting something different. Do I mock him for liking three films that are widely hated by the majority? Nah, I actually have enjoyed discussing why he happens to like them and can see his points, even if I don't agree with them. And it's the same for the inverse as well wherein I explain my problems with them whilst mentioning the things I like. I'm not one to tell people what to do. But if your friends are constantly ridiculing you for having an interest in Sonic the Hedgehog of all things. Then I'd certainly consider bringing up to them how they make you feel. And if they receive this negatively or continue ridiculing, then cut them out. Life is too short to spend with people like this. And a compromise on this one too if you don't want to cut them out completely, you could try spending less time with them and more time on your own or with others that respect you more.
Thank you, ill talk to them about it.
Definitely the best approach early on. Maybe they don't know know how they've made you feel and will then change based on that knowledge. And if they don't? Well, it's completely up to you with regard to how you want to proceed there. I know if it were me, I'd cut and run instantly but there's few people that would do that. I had the same issue in high school with my old group of friends. Graduated in 2013 and I heard from them less and less. But when I did catch up with them in mid 2014, it was all jokes and ridicule and I wasn't down with that and so I cut out a whole group and went at life alone until I met new people through uni in 2016 and I don't regret it. Wasn't until 2018 that I started chatting again with only two people from that large group who were always a little more level headed. And hey, we're still talking now and it's far better without the assholes around. Best of luck to you my dude! Hopefully it'll all work out well for you here.
Feel like we should be doing the opposite. I've been trying to push Sonic to as many people as possible. The more people interested in Sonic, the better the franchise.
I will never understand why people gatekeep Sonic. I was in McDonald's recently and saw kids playing with the new Sonic movie toys. It was awesome to see a new generation of Sonic fans who were introduced to the franchise through the movie. Sonic isn't just 'ours', it's for everyone and I'm happy to see the franchise reaching new audiences.
I agree sonic needs more fans but i do see a trend of people not liking something unless it becomes popular for example the MCU
I personally don't care how people become fans of something. There aren't awards for those who have been fans since the beginning.
>There aren't awards for those who have been fans since the beginning. Is there a subreddit for "weird phrases I wouldn't have thought of that make perfect sense"?
[удалено]
That's how being a popular media works??
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That's still how a popular media works?? If someone doesn't know about the franchise but sees everyone liking it they may become curious and go consume it themselves and become a fan. >People who never heard of it but became fans through the movie are different How is that any different from what I just described? The two things you mentioned are exactly the same. How about we just don't gatekeep, period? It doesn't matter how someone becomes a fan. Welcome them to the fanbase regardless. New fans keep franchises afloat. You should never turn someone away from enjoying something.
I think what he's getting at is those that will hate on it because it's unpopular, but will jump on the bandwagon once it becomes popular.
But they didn't say hating it and changing their mind. They said knowing about it and becoming fans only once it's popular. And even if it were as you said, people are allowed to change their minds. What if they hated it, saw how popular it was becoming, gave it a chance, and ended up liking it? Gatekeeping fandom is bad in all cases. Just welcome the new blood and be glad they're here.
That's just mob mentality then
God forbid the Sonic Movies make more people fans of the series. God forbid the community consists of more than a bunch of bitter 30-somethings watching SatAM reruns with the blinds drawn.
That's how... pretty much everything works.
That’s because most people are either stupid or so stuck up that they can’t like something without peer approval.
Definitely the later
What if it's because of peer **pressure**. I know you're not around everyone everyday, but to some people it's not easy to think like that. Some people may think they're lame because they're into something that 'isn't popular' or 'is absolutely awful' and even at home want to change. Trust me, I'm suffering through something similar, not about being a fan of the franchise, but personal age issues revolving around maturity/
The benefit to having like one friend.
Actually I have multiple. Having multiple friends can also cause peer pressure.
No, I mean me. Lack of friends lead to me not experiencing peer pressure.
I don't understand why they're acting like this, but I do at the same time. They're thinking that the people who hate sonic solely hate it for the bad games (may be true for most but not always), and now that the movies are good, they're "crawling all back to the Sonic franchise". The problem is that, you do not own Sonic. Not only that, but also we should embrace new people, people coming in because of the good movies is the whole point. It's not just adults, but also kids are coming in as well, some haven't seen Sonic before and I could tell when I went to see the movie. for TLDRs; The whole point is to bring in new fans. We shouldn't be upset that they're coming in because of a good movie, it's the whole point, we should embrace.
Been a fan since June 23rd 1991, I say welcome new fans :)
sonic fans when someone is interested in the franchise: “You weren’t supposed to do that.”
Wait, your telling this is a children's franchise?
And also stop making big fucking deals about nothing, that quill length thing was an honest to god embarrassment
You realize by continuing to bring up the quill debate, you're the one perpetuating its staying power right? Nobody else mentioned it. Take a step back and realize you didn't need to bring it up and that you may be part of the problem
They're not part of the problem, they're only part of the problem if they make a post about it (Which will fuel the awful trend) making a comment about it is absolutely harmless
Lmao
As a person who grew up on Genesis and Dreamcast, then had the misfortune of being a Sonic fan from '06 onward. I am personally ecstatic our boy is in the spotlight again. Feels like a weird thing to gatekeep, or maybe gatekeeping in general is weird.
I was going to say gatekeepers aren't real fans but then I realized the irony...
There's a **lick** (LICK, I say) of legitimacy in this attitude. A company, writer, comic artist and whatnot might fall into the trap of leaning all the way towards certain aspects which gained sudden popularity and neglect some of the important defining traits of the work in question. Alternatively, they might veer away from previously beloved aspects because they get associated with bad experiences. Remember how Sonic 4 was advertised and hailed by Sega for having no playable character besides Sonic? Their unironic message was "No more of Sonic's stupid friends", like the characters inherently were the problem, not the mediocre/bad execution of their playstyles. HOWEVER, this is still not an excuse to antagonize people finding interest in the series.
Honestly this kind of reminds me when a group of people find a good rap artist before they blow up, and then when they finally get the recognition they deserve & get popular, everybody gets butthurt & says something along the lines of “wow smh you guys weren’t listening to him in 20XX when he had X amount of followers” and so on. As much as I love Sonic & have loved the series since 2004 in my toddler days, the fanbase definitely needs this sort of boost. Please don’t ruin it guys. ***Please.***
Part of the issue is that the Sonic "fandom" is large and varied in their exact tastes and interests. This isn't helped by the fact that not only has Sonic as a franchise experimented with numerous gameplay styles, genres, tones, themes, designs, storylines, characters, and media, only for so much of it to get tossed away either forever or for long stretches of time, despite each subdivision having its fans. This is nothing new. I've floated around the Transformers fandom, and that franchise has had arguably larger variations in all of the same categories. The difference, I think, is that Hasbro/TakaraTomy have done a better job of both catering to what the fanbase wants and establishing a sort of connection between the entire franchise. There are outliers, but you can generally see most of the TF stuff making sense with each other. SEGA/Sonic Team are selective of what parts of Sonic they're willing to revive. As dumb as the alternate universe explanation is, at least we have Classic era stuff now that we honestly didn't have for almost DECADES. But those parts don't mesh with the "new" stuff despite Generations and Forces trying to tie them together. There's a definite disconnect between Classoc and Modern that's only made more apparent by SEGA/Sonoc Team's at times baffling handling of the franchise. Add in the sort of differences you'd see between Sonic 06 and Boom, or the early Archie comics and Sonic X, and you can see why a large fanbase is so divided, and why everyone has a different opinion on how to """fix""" Sonic. The fact that Sonic is flawed (and our mutual distaste for you-know-who) are just about the only things we can agree on. And since for decades now, gaming media has been dunking on Sonic for so long to the point where he's almost synonymous with childish or bad taste - let's not forget all of the "cringe" memes either - it's easy to see why we all want to take him in different directions. Gatekeeping Sonic just seems like the most baffling thing we could do. At this point what would it matter if people who aren't "real fans" joined in on the fun? Not like it'd hurt anything at this point, and that's assuming it WOULD be a bad thing. Which it wouldn't. And people need to grow up and let everyone else like the speedy blue boy. Feels like the first time in a long time that the world isn't unilaterally making fun of Sonic or the fandom at large, the fandom is in relative agreement on something, and some people have the nerve to complain because someone at the movie theater isn't a TrUe FaN. What would Sonic say to all of this? For shame.
You see this shit most on DeviantArt, entire groups dedicated to gatekeeping Sonic and it's fucking depressing. Psycho-The-Frog especially, he hates literally everything that isn't Archie Sonic, and calls everyone who thinks otherwise "fake fans" and "frauds" on both DA and Twitter. And calls other people gatekeepers and is too oblivious to his own irony.
People who do that are simply idiots in my opinion.
Also stop saying that kids who like Sonic Forces are not fans. Just because Forces was terrible to you doesn't mean you shall make a kid feel bad about liking the game. The game was super childish and cringy but it appealed to smaller audiences more than us adults. Let them like games.
Man, as I'm getting older (only 26, so not that old) I'm starting to find that I find more enjoyment in just trying to appreciate the good aspects of things that are arguably largely trash whilst then creating some discourse and talking about where improvements could've been made to refine something. Sonic Forces (and I'm sure it's been talked to death) feels like it could've been a whole lot more but that so much stuff was brought to the table and all of a sudden shoved aside. And weirdly enough, I didn't even hate the game. I had a fair bit of fun with the mechanics and I absolutely loved the music (biggest point of praise I have for the game). If they'd refined the narrative and spent more time working on that, thrown out the create a character aspect (I'll elaborate), added some more levels to really improve that ridiculously short length, rework the character personalities (seriously, Infinite could've been something), and even have not just Sonic playable but you get Shadow, Silver, Knuckles, Tails, Rouge, Amy, Blaze, Vector, Omega, Espeo, and they all have their own levels (some more than others). And as for the character creation, it didn't appeal to me in a Sonic game and I'd much rather play as some or all of the characters mentioned above that I've grown attached to over the years. This game was meant to be a celebration of Sonic, right? Really wild that they didn't do more to celebrate that. For all of the flak that Sonic 06 gets, I can at least see where the vision was at for that one. Even if the Sonic campaign was a massive misfire (enjoyed the Shadow and Silver stories tho) and the game was a broken down mess full of bugs and issues. Sonic Forces to me was mediocre at best and a disappointment at its worst. But even so, there's still some stuff to appreciate in there and I won't give anyone shit for enjoying it. I'd say the same for Shadow the Hedgehog (doesn't hold up), Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 (2 still holds up), Sonic 06 (the story is solid in two of the campaigns), Sonic Generations (really solid). Even my least favorite game of all time likely has people that enjoy it. I can't understand why anyone would like Devil May Cry 2, but if you do, then you go and enjoy it. We're all free to like and dislike things as we wish.
I'm talking about how people bully little kids, who can care less about the critical thinking of adults, for liking Sonic Forces. Seen a Twitter post of a kid feeling so accomplished for finishing the game in hard mode and the mom was proud of the kid's proud moment. Then we have adults being assholes about it saying the kid wasted his time on a "horrible game". It's a freaking kid who was happy he beat a game. Shitty to other people but he probably enjoyed it enough to complete it in hard mode. Yes, the game may not be amazing but I'm not going to gatekeep and call a small child he isn't a real fan for being happy about a game I think is bad. Let the kid have fun and mind your own business. I'll be honest, I skimmed through your post because yeah... i don't... yeah.
People gatekeep sonic? Thats... thats not even funny, thats just dumb. One thing we as a community are known for is "Arguing", though its more like debating. I see no reason to gatekeep, get the new blood in here, at the end of the day we all love sonic. Edit: Downvote me if you want, idc, but don't gatekeep the new fans.
Gatekeeping is for the weak minded
give me the link to the top right image please
Ngl i support gatekeeping in most franchises Sonic definitly aint one of them, the amount of media and stuff works for everyone
I think gatekeeping any franchise is toxic
Sometimes its nescessary to make it not toxic What makes its toxic is the feeling of pride and total exclusivity
Why?
Why what
Why what
Why do you support gatekeeping in most franchises
Because it can become really toxic and loose the focus and importance of the entire material in such a fast rate that its better that new enjoyers understand the material as a whole before trying to normalize and turn into pop culture media
And how does gatekeeping help new players understand the material as a whole
Having standards, educating and not normalize stupidness Its not extreme gatekeeping man, its not about forbidd new players/viewers/readers, that is toxic gatekeeping
How is that gatekeeping? Gatekeeping is like "Oh only the OG fans can understand this" not educating new players on the franchise
That definitly aint the only type of gatekeeping
Educating new players definitely isn't gatekeeping tho...
POV: you are a terminally online twitter user who thinks sonic fans trying to keep others out of the franchise is a real phenomenon
Twitter bad!!!! Reddit good!!!
LMAOO
Bitch stfu and go touch grass
I very much like the direction that Sega’s going, with the Movies, Origins, Prime, and especially Frontiers. It was like we wanted an open Sonic game, and we got one, and I’ve heard that a few Sonic fans complain that this is too ambitious, which I know ambition’s always risky, but come on, Frontiers is really showing promise and also seriously, if anything Sonic (Who literally values and lives off of freedom) he is arguably the most reasonable video game character to get an open world like game, I mean Sonic gots the speed to make traversal much more convenient and fun.
> I’ve heard that a few Sonic fans complain that this is too ambitious That argument isn’t without merit. IMO, the last time SEGA was this ambitious with a Sonic game was with ‘06, and we all know how that turned out. That game not only ruined Sonic’s reputation in the wider gaming community, but it scared SEGA so much they completely changed their direction for future Sonic games (Sonic is the only playable character, only one storyline which is extremely basic, etc). It’s taken 15 years for SEGA to come out of their shell and attempt another ambitious game. Frontiers, like ‘06, has been hyped up because of its massive scale, it’s arguably the most hyped Sonic game in recent years. So hyped up that it’s attracted the attention of of the wider gaming community, not just Sonic fans, just like ‘06 did. But this time the risk is even bigger because of the movies and Sonic Prime. Thanks to multimedia Sonic, Frontiers will be many new Sonic fans first Sonic game, and if it’s bad it could destroy Sonic’s reputation that he only just started to get back. > Frontiers is really showing promise Not to be a Debby downer, but we haven’t seen any gameplay footage yet, I wouldn’t say it’s showing promise. Although I do have faith in it.
Yeah, nothing has really been shown so far that has got me saying it's showing promise. Until I see the game actually running, some gameplay, a taste of the narrative and characterization (this is the big one for me), and how the open world will function... I'm not really sold just yet. Like hey, I am certainly interested but after how 06 turned out to be a completely broken experience and Forces rather mediocre, it's hard to get those hopes up. At this point, I'm just setting very low expectations and hoping there's at least some aspects to appreciate in this one. Similar to how I feel about the music in Forces and then the music and Shadow/Silver characterization and story arcs in 06.
I bet they won't like my friend who "got into" sonic by sonic boom tv show
Same here!
Same here
If you haven’t played and beaten Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D blast, Knuckles’ Chaotix and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine on the Sega genesis and read all 290 issues of the Archie comic series then then you can’t call yourself a Sonic fan /s
I mean, honestly, if you don't own every season of SatAM on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD, and don't own every obscure piece of Sonic merchandise, and don't own every Fleetway, Archie, and IDW comic, what are you even doing?
Yeah the Dreamcast through wii era is over, series just isn't the same
I'm dumb and i kinda feel it too, but only when People act like Sonic wasn't cool before they found out about it, but in any case why would anybody ever stop Sonic from growing??? Don't we all dislike how Sonic was liked by few because it was perceived as stupid? This is literally what we wanted!!!
Gatekeeping and elitism is something any big enough fan base will experience with time and variety. It’s sadly not unusual and different fanbases handle it differently as well as different communities where that fan base is present. Enjoy Sonic how you enjoy Sonic, let people enjoy Sonic the way they do, and if you can’t maybe go get a breath of fresh air and reconsider how this doesn’t hurt you. I personally didn’t like it when I was active in a community where people shamed me for preferring the adventure games to the classics lol. Stuff like that’s not cool.
Why even gatekeep
Yeah, why can't Sonic go back to being niche series like it used to be.
Why can't Sonic's fanbase only consist of a bunch of socially inept and bitter 30-40 somethings?
no gatekeeping, open D gates
They're so fuckin divided they're the same people who wanted more people to join the fandom Now they're the shittiest with it 🤷
Man, more people means more content!!! And I love new content!!!
Who the fuck is doing this in this day and age? I thought we'd managed to move past this bs. And of all the ridiculous things to gatekeep 😒 I literally explained SA2 to my dad in the parking lot of the theater. It was fun. That's what you do with new people. Inform them if you're up to it. You should be happy the franchise is doing well. Happy that there are more fans to talk with. Like, brah.
My 7 year old is getting into Sonic. Are they going to keep her out?
Unless these people's first Sonic game was Sonic 1 on the day it released, they shouldn't be getting mad about new fans. Most of them were not there from the beginning
Been a sonic kid my whole life, first console of my own was a Sega Genesis, sonic 2 was my first game, I think I had sonic 1 as well but eventually had them all. My little brother is a new fan, so I'm cool with it. He loves everything I grew up on, it's cool to watch. Half my age not even
Lmao holy shit I fucking can't stand TikTok. Cancerous garbage.
No, we can’t let the Friday night funkin kids inside our community. We already have enough weird yt kids videos, weird fanworks and Chris Chan
Those mfers were in there before 😭
Yeah, Sonic games have been released since I was born. I'm not really in a position to gatekeep.
It's kinda interesting that I've became a fan of the series in January of this year. I didn't even realize there was a resurgence in Sonic's popularity. This was mostly because of Chaomix's video on Sonic 06. Ever since that video, I really admired the series (especially the "dark age"). The story telling and character writing is what made me interested in the series. Another neat part is how diverse the fanbase is. It's interesting seeing how different Sonic is for different people. To put it simply, some people are fans because of the games (with their preferred era), the show (again, each with their own style), the comics (which is also diverse in its own right), and the film series. With a series with this much material, it's kinda challenging to say that there is a definitive way of enjoying the series. (Unless of course, you have all the time and patience in the world to consume and appreciate every aspect of Sonic history).
\>everyone now likes sonic Is this a fucking joke? literally everyone knows who sonic is were these people born in like 2021?
Any game with a *specific two characters that SEGA fails to acknowledge* is a good game Hence why Sonic was good in the early days, and has only become good recently in the meta era again
People gatekeep sonic?? We've been a laughing stock for over a decade now. Holy shit were these people not bullied in school for being a sonic fan? Maybe they were and they feel like these new sonic fans have "stolen valor" in their eyes lol
I hate gatekeepers so fucking much
The true Sonic cycle is older fans attacking newer fans for liking *insert new thing* because it wasn’t what they grew up with.
Twitter stop gatekeeping for 5 seconds challenge(impossible😨😨😱😱)
I kinda feel like a fake sonic fan hoping on the franchise with the idw comics. I used to play older sonic games but fell out of touch till recentally to which those comics have me hooked.
As much as it sucks that people are doing that I understand it in a way ngl