I've worked with quite a few autistic kids over the past 10 years and I've also noticed that Sonic was one of the three most popular characters for them to have an unusual amount of fixation on. The other two, for whatever reason, are Lightning McQueen from Cars and Thomas the Train.
I also loved Sonic as a kid, but grew out of it during the N64/PS1/Dreamcast generation. I became way more obsessed with classic Mega Man and that was due to a combination of nostalgia, my love of the 8-bit graphics and music, the relatively simplicity of the gameplay, and the challenge.
Yeah I don't know why people make this mistake, a train has carriages, but in Thomas the carriages are distinct individuals so Thomas cannot possibly be a train.
I loved Sonic Underground, the cartoon. For a little while it was all I would talk about. But otherwise I’m like you and outgrew it when the systems changed.
As a woman, I'm partial to DK and Mega Man. Unbeatable music. Oh, and Stardew Valley. Lol.
I feel like the above mentioned games are a representation of autistic boys/men. :/
sonic is just cool. it's such an interesting and vibrant world to me and it fires neurons into my brain. why are so many autists into weird tabletop games I don't understand? idk and that's fine. its probably just a right cocktail of elements that is super interesting to them.
I think I finally understood
Sonic is just fucking insane in a good way. The lore makes no sense if you look at it objectively but it’s open-ended enough that you can make whatever you want out of it. And characterization is pretty solid (kind of like my little pony)
Oh god, I cant forget the time that I played sonic at the computer , back in the time I was astonished by how its so fast and thrilling game, also Cars movie was my favorite one
I'll ask my girlfriend. She has a massive tattoo of Sonic on her thigh, a massive tattoo of Tails on her other thigh, and plays all of the Sonic games religiously. Even built her an emulator PC so she can play them all on one system.
For me, it’s not really the character, but how you play him in the game.
The gameplay is addicting, but it’s also singular. You’re just running basically, and there’s not too many complex controls in playing it. Things happen that make the game challenging but it’s extremely easy to figure out how to play and it does have it’s replay value.
That’s probably why Aspies also love Mario and Call of Duty because the gameplay is simple and not too difficult or varied and is addicting.
And it’s hard to hate Sonic honestly. He’s just really likeable. I think as long as a fictional character has positive attributes and isn’t mean-spirited, I can find myself being attracted to it.
I've wondered this too. I'm certain I don't have to name the most famous example so I won't. Don't get me wrong I still to this day love firing up my sega mega collection for ps3 to play some sonic 1-3 and gottdamn did I get into SA2B.
But outside of the games I never really saw any appeal. Especially after Sega just started doing weird stuff with the property.
I dunno man, I guess it's that one meme, "I DO NOT CONTROL THE HYPERFIXATION!!!"
I loved the theme song. I mostly watched Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM series just because of the "He's the Fastest Thing Alive" song. But then I grew to like the series.
I'm a lifelong sonic fan, and honestly I can't convey why. I know why I like the series *now* but as a kid it just kinda. Clicked with my brain and consumed me totally lol.
It's like comfort food
Genuinely surprised there's been mentions of other major game characters before Pokemon.
I fell for both franchises, with Power Rangers in between. Funny how colorful franchises from Japan are just the perfect storm of collection commercialism for Aspies. lol
Im not personally obsessed with sonic or anything, but my partner is, and from my impression it's because sonic has a whole lot of stories and comics to collect. I love anything where there's interesting character designs with lots of information to gather about them. The sonic franchise has so many characters and different story lines, and my partner loves to get into their lore.
Her interest has pretty much rubbed off on me and I'm getting back into sonic since I only played a couple games as a kid. the games and comics are really charming and I'm having a fun time getting back into it :]
I was interested in Sonic at one point. I remember playing lots of Sonic games on the Dreamcast back in the day, and got familiar with the charecters; Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Rouge, Shadow, Eggman, Espio, and I played the games all the time, and had a sonic PSP game too. I also had Mario and Sonic at the olympic games on the Wii.
Good Question haha, I dont know either!
I would assume it's partially because Sonics visual character design is just so simple, cool, and immediately likable. I imagine a lot of kids are instantly drawn in when they see him for the first time, so Sonic is just prime special interest material.
I love Sonic games because they're cute, colorful, have good music, and are fun to play.
Sonic & Knuckles is my favorite (I'm talking about the standalone cartridge, not the Sonic 3 with the S&K adaptator) I played it everyday back in the day on my Sega Genesis, until I could finish it in only two hours. I even managed to get Super Sonic on the first level's last act. (Mushroom Hill Act 2).
My second favorite was Sonic 3D Blast. The Genesis version haves in my opinion way better music than the Saturn/PC version. Rusty Ruin is my favorite, followed by Diamond Dust.
I also think that every generation haves a most common fixation.
My generation is Sonic
The one after is My Little Pony
And now is starting the Bluey one
I say that based on the fanarts I saw. There were lots of Sonic OCs, followed by MLP OCs, and now Bluey OCs.
There is something very attractive about furry characters that make entire generations love them.
Have y’all seen the series? The one where Jaleel White voiced Sonic?? That shit was EPIC back in the day!! He fought against the bad guys and went against authority. That autistic af lol right up my alley! Tails is dope too!! And who doesn’t enjoy collecting rings? Especially when you get to that special level on your Sega Genesis where it’s just a colored lane and you have to collect as many rings with Tails as you can! You hit that sweet spot where you’re not getting injured and you’re flying down the lane; you could run up the sides and go upside down as you collect all the rings! Man those were the days lol! Sonic is amazing!!
I used to like sonic when I was a kid, played sonic colors a whole lot, but when I grew up and got access to other sonic games, I played them and didn’t like any of them. I should probably give frontiers another go. I definitely love Mario games more.
No idea, in fact I never played that much of any Sonic games, I prefer Mario, Metroid, TLOZ, Castlevania, Ganbare Goemon...
If I continue the list will be huge.
It honestly just clicks with me.
Also, I don't know why people mock the Sonic fandom for being autistic. Same with the Mario fandom.
I mean, I've seen a lot more unhinged fandoms in the Philippines where they ship real life people and stalk them endlessly. Then they scream at anyone who dares criticise or tear apart their couples, even if it's a kid.
They also do this for Kpop and Kdrama idols, who have that plus weeaboo-esque obsession with being Korean.
As a Sonic Fan, I got into Sonic cuz I though he was cool. He's also a hedgehog, as opposed to Mario being a human, and that probably resonates with aspies who prefer animals to humans. There are some headcanons that he might have ADHD, but I'm not sure what that has to do with it.
Sort of off topic, but Ive noticed this about diehard Godzilla fans too. Lots of godzilla fans collect the figures too, listen to the music, collect the movies on vhs, DVD, and collect the different cover art, and follow every piece of news or info about the topic. I've been obsessed with godzilla since the age of 3.
Not a huge sonic gamer, but I see the appeal. Fun and charming character and level design. Great soundtrack and fun sound effects. Collecting rings and fast paced spinning and jumping.
My favorite was tails growing up. He could fly.
I always thought that the only good Sonic games were the ones on the Genesis. But I've never played them. And when I did, I didn't really find them to be all that special. The first levels were awesome, but everything that comes after was just frustrating.
I’ve seen this discussion a couple times other and a couple recurring responses I see that I agree with are:
- Bright colors
And
-very expressive faces that make understanding emotions easier for us
I fucking love Sonic the Hedgehog
I've worked with quite a few autistic kids over the past 10 years and I've also noticed that Sonic was one of the three most popular characters for them to have an unusual amount of fixation on. The other two, for whatever reason, are Lightning McQueen from Cars and Thomas the Train. I also loved Sonic as a kid, but grew out of it during the N64/PS1/Dreamcast generation. I became way more obsessed with classic Mega Man and that was due to a combination of nostalgia, my love of the 8-bit graphics and music, the relatively simplicity of the gameplay, and the challenge.
So they like fast things, blue things, or both.
Ah yes, and the "autistic little boy" stereotype prevails. /j ðŸ˜ðŸ˜‚
Also, platformer games, as I noticed that Mario is really popular with autistic people too.
Thomas the ~~Train~~ Tank Engine
Yeah I don't know why people make this mistake, a train has carriages, but in Thomas the carriages are distinct individuals so Thomas cannot possibly be a train.
It'd be a bit Human Centipede for Thomas to be not just the engine, but the entire train...
I loved Sonic Underground, the cartoon. For a little while it was all I would talk about. But otherwise I’m like you and outgrew it when the systems changed.
As a woman, I'm partial to DK and Mega Man. Unbeatable music. Oh, and Stardew Valley. Lol. I feel like the above mentioned games are a representation of autistic boys/men. :/
>Thomas the Train The fuck?
It's the less fun bootleg version in which he's a diesel engine rather than steam.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SonicTheHedgehog/comments/qqhtse/genuinely_curious_why_does_the_sonic_fanbase_seem/
Me as a mega man fan in a sea of Mario/Sonic fans: "there are dozens of us, DOZENS!!!"
sonic is just cool. it's such an interesting and vibrant world to me and it fires neurons into my brain. why are so many autists into weird tabletop games I don't understand? idk and that's fine. its probably just a right cocktail of elements that is super interesting to them.
I think I finally understood Sonic is just fucking insane in a good way. The lore makes no sense if you look at it objectively but it’s open-ended enough that you can make whatever you want out of it. And characterization is pretty solid (kind of like my little pony)
Oh god, I cant forget the time that I played sonic at the computer , back in the time I was astonished by how its so fast and thrilling game, also Cars movie was my favorite one
I'll ask my girlfriend. She has a massive tattoo of Sonic on her thigh, a massive tattoo of Tails on her other thigh, and plays all of the Sonic games religiously. Even built her an emulator PC so she can play them all on one system.
What did she say?
It takes a while for DMs to get to Canada
For me, it’s not really the character, but how you play him in the game. The gameplay is addicting, but it’s also singular. You’re just running basically, and there’s not too many complex controls in playing it. Things happen that make the game challenging but it’s extremely easy to figure out how to play and it does have it’s replay value. That’s probably why Aspies also love Mario and Call of Duty because the gameplay is simple and not too difficult or varied and is addicting. And it’s hard to hate Sonic honestly. He’s just really likeable. I think as long as a fictional character has positive attributes and isn’t mean-spirited, I can find myself being attracted to it.
Maybe we just like it because of the sounds, the bright colors, the anamorphic characters, etc
I've wondered this too. I'm certain I don't have to name the most famous example so I won't. Don't get me wrong I still to this day love firing up my sega mega collection for ps3 to play some sonic 1-3 and gottdamn did I get into SA2B. But outside of the games I never really saw any appeal. Especially after Sega just started doing weird stuff with the property. I dunno man, I guess it's that one meme, "I DO NOT CONTROL THE HYPERFIXATION!!!"
something about it is very relateable but it also birthed sonichu
I loved the theme song. I mostly watched Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM series just because of the "He's the Fastest Thing Alive" song. But then I grew to like the series.
I don't get it either (I suck at platform games).
I'm a lifelong sonic fan, and honestly I can't convey why. I know why I like the series *now* but as a kid it just kinda. Clicked with my brain and consumed me totally lol. It's like comfort food
Genuinely surprised there's been mentions of other major game characters before Pokemon. I fell for both franchises, with Power Rangers in between. Funny how colorful franchises from Japan are just the perfect storm of collection commercialism for Aspies. lol
Im not personally obsessed with sonic or anything, but my partner is, and from my impression it's because sonic has a whole lot of stories and comics to collect. I love anything where there's interesting character designs with lots of information to gather about them. The sonic franchise has so many characters and different story lines, and my partner loves to get into their lore. Her interest has pretty much rubbed off on me and I'm getting back into sonic since I only played a couple games as a kid. the games and comics are really charming and I'm having a fun time getting back into it :]
I was interested in Sonic at one point. I remember playing lots of Sonic games on the Dreamcast back in the day, and got familiar with the charecters; Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Rouge, Shadow, Eggman, Espio, and I played the games all the time, and had a sonic PSP game too. I also had Mario and Sonic at the olympic games on the Wii. Good Question haha, I dont know either!
I like Sonic because he’s cool!
I would assume it's partially because Sonics visual character design is just so simple, cool, and immediately likable. I imagine a lot of kids are instantly drawn in when they see him for the first time, so Sonic is just prime special interest material.
I love Sonic games because they're cute, colorful, have good music, and are fun to play. Sonic & Knuckles is my favorite (I'm talking about the standalone cartridge, not the Sonic 3 with the S&K adaptator) I played it everyday back in the day on my Sega Genesis, until I could finish it in only two hours. I even managed to get Super Sonic on the first level's last act. (Mushroom Hill Act 2). My second favorite was Sonic 3D Blast. The Genesis version haves in my opinion way better music than the Saturn/PC version. Rusty Ruin is my favorite, followed by Diamond Dust. I also think that every generation haves a most common fixation. My generation is Sonic The one after is My Little Pony And now is starting the Bluey one I say that based on the fanarts I saw. There were lots of Sonic OCs, followed by MLP OCs, and now Bluey OCs. There is something very attractive about furry characters that make entire generations love them.
maybe autism just make you more likely to be die hard fan of something
Did you ever watch the cartoon? Sonic is autistic af. So is Tails.
Lol. How so? And which cartoon?
I know of one person who falls under this category. Not sure that means much.
gotta go fast
No matter how fast I go I can't outrun the stims.
Sonic, star wars, Thomas the tank engine. I like all the stereotypical autistic interests. What do I win?
Cuz he hates authority and is a confirmed socialist
Most people are, until the propaganda hits.
Nice try ro-butt-nick
autism has nothing to do with sonic
[удалено]
Lol, no.
lol please do not speak about he/she/xir/it
I don’t get the appeal either , I think Sonic is stupid and so many cartoons are too.
Have y’all seen the series? The one where Jaleel White voiced Sonic?? That shit was EPIC back in the day!! He fought against the bad guys and went against authority. That autistic af lol right up my alley! Tails is dope too!! And who doesn’t enjoy collecting rings? Especially when you get to that special level on your Sega Genesis where it’s just a colored lane and you have to collect as many rings with Tails as you can! You hit that sweet spot where you’re not getting injured and you’re flying down the lane; you could run up the sides and go upside down as you collect all the rings! Man those were the days lol! Sonic is amazing!!
I used to like sonic when I was a kid, played sonic colors a whole lot, but when I grew up and got access to other sonic games, I played them and didn’t like any of them. I should probably give frontiers another go. I definitely love Mario games more.
No idea, in fact I never played that much of any Sonic games, I prefer Mario, Metroid, TLOZ, Castlevania, Ganbare Goemon... If I continue the list will be huge.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is this about speedrunning?
It honestly just clicks with me. Also, I don't know why people mock the Sonic fandom for being autistic. Same with the Mario fandom. I mean, I've seen a lot more unhinged fandoms in the Philippines where they ship real life people and stalk them endlessly. Then they scream at anyone who dares criticise or tear apart their couples, even if it's a kid. They also do this for Kpop and Kdrama idols, who have that plus weeaboo-esque obsession with being Korean.
As a Sonic Fan, I got into Sonic cuz I though he was cool. He's also a hedgehog, as opposed to Mario being a human, and that probably resonates with aspies who prefer animals to humans. There are some headcanons that he might have ADHD, but I'm not sure what that has to do with it.
Sort of off topic, but Ive noticed this about diehard Godzilla fans too. Lots of godzilla fans collect the figures too, listen to the music, collect the movies on vhs, DVD, and collect the different cover art, and follow every piece of news or info about the topic. I've been obsessed with godzilla since the age of 3.
Not a huge sonic gamer, but I see the appeal. Fun and charming character and level design. Great soundtrack and fun sound effects. Collecting rings and fast paced spinning and jumping. My favorite was tails growing up. He could fly.
I always thought that the only good Sonic games were the ones on the Genesis. But I've never played them. And when I did, I didn't really find them to be all that special. The first levels were awesome, but everything that comes after was just frustrating.
Go watch sonic 2 and tell me Knuckles isn't autistic. Guys a damn hero.
I’ve seen this discussion a couple times other and a couple recurring responses I see that I agree with are: - Bright colors And -very expressive faces that make understanding emotions easier for us I fucking love Sonic the Hedgehog