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Lotus Prince Let’s Play – Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Parts 4-6)
Lego City Undercover is AWESOME! – Episode 4
GView : Anomaly 2 Review
Tomb Raider is AWESOME! – Conclusion
Posted By Richard Coombs about 1 year, 6 months ago
The Top 9 Sonic Characters that Need to Retire, 
Well, this list has certainly been a long time coming. Those of you who have been reading my top lists since I started posting here at Blistered Thumbs will remember that one of my very first published lists was the top nine sonic characters that needed more air time. I still stand by that list, though I would probably rearrange the order a little bit, and I could probably explain myself a bit better in my choices.
Now, I’m excited as hell for Sonic Generations, which, at the time of this list’s posting, will be hitting store shelves very soon. And since that game is all about Sonic going back to his roots and remembering his past, I shall do the same by presenting you all with the complete antithesis of that early list. We’re looking at nine characters from the Sonic series that I wish would just go away. Far away. Really far away. But instead, these characters keep popping up in almost every game released! Why, Sega? WHY?!
Anyway, no special rules for this list, as most of them have over-saturated the Sonic universe and this is probably going to be a little therapeutic for more than a few of us. So let’s not waste any more time and take a look at why we need not see any of these characters ever again… ever…
He could go another 20 years if he needed to, but…
Oooh boy, I am not going to make any friends for this one. Before you try to hunt me down and crucify me, allow me to defend myself by saying that he is a bare minimum inclusion, hence his placement at the top of this list. I love Knuckles, and if I were to make a list of my favorite Sonic characters of all time (coming April 1st, 2012) then Knuckles would definitely be in my top five.
When he was first introduced, he was a very clever concept. He was supposedly Sonic’s antithesis at the time, just as strong as Sonic was fast, and as rigid and orderly as Sonic was carefree and wild. His story was a good one, being the last of his race and not understanding why he needed to stay alone, on a floating island, guarding a huge jewel, only that it is important that he does so. At least, he was the last of his race, before Sega started expanding the universe.
But here’s my reason for retirement: His story has been told. Now don’t get me wrong, he still a good character and still vastly likeable, but he’s very much lost his edge. He’s no longer even a rival to Sonic, more just a friend, or at worst a disposable plot point. Yes, their personalities sometimes clash, but the last time the two of them were even close to being ‘rivals’ was back in Sonic Adventure, where the two of them got into a scrap over the chaos emeralds. From there on out, Knuckles found his own rival in Rouge, and Shadow took over as Sonic’s rival. The problem is, again, Knuckles hasn’t really had much development in most recent games and has become pretty much a generic side character. He’s still cool, but he’s not standing out the same way that he used to.
While I’d be sad if Sega did shelf the character, I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s good and likeable, but he’s kind of outlived his original purpose and has since been pushed to the side for the newer characters. I say, either knuckles needs a comeback or they should just stop using him, because his presence at this point adds nothing but fanservice, the biggest exception being Sonic Chronicles.
Funny, they don’t look babylonian
As if the Sonic Universe wasn’t already bloated enough, the Sonic Riders series gave us these fine fellows. Jet the hawk, Wave the swallow, and Storm the falcon were meant to be team Sonic’s antithesis in these games, but they just come off as annoying (Jet), pretentious (Wave), and stupid (Storm).
Their entire backstory is really another clone of Knuckles’ story as well. They’re the last of the Babylonians, who apparently mastered the power of flight long before anyone else did, and who were also (allegedly) master thieves. Yes, they’re master thieves the same way I am an expert on ancient Mesopotamian pottery. In short, they are not master thieves at all. Their whole shtick is that they’re trying to revitalize their civilization by finding various treasures and artifacts left over from their civilization, even though it’s never really made clear how these treasures got scattered, as it was mentioned that the Babylonians guarded that stuff pretty jealously.
The one real defining trait that these characters have is that they’re supposedly really good at using the air gear hover boards, but they’re quickly put to shame by pretty much every other characters in the game who learn how to use the boards in a matter of DAYS. In other words, we have three unoriginal characters that have absolutely nothing unique apart from their looks (which if you look closely are actually ripped off from other obscure Sonic characters) and thus, they have no reason to exist.
I let these characters off pretty easy mostly because they only appear in the Sonic Riders racing games. While they’re incredibly annoying, they at least have the good sense to remain in the spinoffs instead of infecting the rest of the series with their stupidity.
Beware, fangirls, for this could be you
Her entire character is based around the fact that she is a rabid fangirl. This is terrifying.
Amy started out as the damsel in distress that Sonic had to save, alongside liberating the small planet Robotnik’s tyranny. After that, he dashed off. But apparently, Sega thought that her fanboy streak was enough of a valid character trait to turn her into a full time character, giving her a playable, or at least relatively important, role in almost every Sonic game to follow!
I have never much cared for her character because her entire motivation is that she is obsessed with Sonic, constantly chasing after him into dangerous situations that no one would be foolhardy enough to jump into. And don’t give me the excuse that she can defend herself. She has a giant mallet, so what? She can’t seem to use it very effectively, and when your enemies frequently employ laser guns, you’re less effective than the guy who brings a knife to a gunfight! Oh, and let’s not forget that she’s like fourteen canonically. And Sonic’s only Sixteen in terms of his in-game biographies. That just makes the fact that she’s proclaiming that he will marry her a whole lot creepier.
Amy has no real purpose in the games either other than to cause trouble, get caught, and be rescued. Even when she’s a playable character, she’s always getting kidnapped and used as bait! There are a few exceptions, but again, it could have been done without her presence if they had made a more competent female character instead. She was the one who helped Gamma remember his humanity in Sonic Adventure and she helped Shadow remember his real promise to Maria in Sonic Adventure 2, but apart from that, she has contributed absolutely nothing aside from headaches to the games where she’s present.
He’s programmed to destroy and that’s not nearly as exciting as it should be
Again, wasted potential is the phrase of the day with this character. He’s basically a spiritual successor to the very popular one-shot character Gamma, who had one of the more dramatic storylines of the six main playable characters in Sonic Adventure. The idea behind him is that he was an attack robot, the most advanced AI-based bot that Robotnik (at this point renamed Eggman) ever created.
For reasons not really expanded upon, Eggman deactivated him and left him locked in an abandoned base, leading the robot’s artificial mind to be completely consumed with thoughts of revenge. It’s actually pretty dark for the Sonic series, a robot who wants nothing more than to kill his creator. But it’s clear that his main motivation, his vengeance, will NEVER come to pass canonically, because then they’ve lost their comedic villain forever. He basically just exists to be the muscle for Rouge and Shadow when the three of them team up, even though it’s been shown that Shadow and Rouge are both very tough fighters on their own.
Thus, Omega is really a superfluous character, only existing to complete Team Dark and being fueled by a vengeance, which will never be satiated or even explored in full. I suggest we just forget about it and move on.
Why do you have a snoboard when you can levitate?
I’ll be quite honest here. I don’t hate Silver. I don’t really like him, but I don’t hate him either. He was one of the few parts of the 2006 Sonic game that I could stomach (thought Blaze was the only competent character in that piece of crap). He had an interesting back story, and some cool powers which, while they kind of broke the game, were fun to play around with.
But the main problem comes in with the concept of the game he was introduced in. Spoilers for those of you who haven’t played Sonic 06 (trust me, I’m doing you a big favor here) but at the end of the game, Sonic basically rewrites history and completely erases the events that took place in the game, technically meaning he changed the entire future, and given that Silver was born into an apocalyptic world roughly a century after the events taking place in the game, therefore logic would dictate that he shouldn’t even exist.
I know that I’m putting much more thought into the story than the writer’s did, but that’s the problem when you include time travel of any sort in a game. Unless you REALLY have your crap together, you leave dozens of plot holes open. But that sad fact aside, let’s instead address the fact that, once again, his entire story was told. He went through a character arc, completed it, and finished the tasks that he set out to do, culminating in a changed future, not that we get to see just HOW sonic affected the future. Thus, him showing up in games like Sonic Rivals does not make much sense from a logical standpoint. That hasn’t stopped Sega before, but whatever.
Here’s the thing, though: I can buy him being in Generations, I really can. Generations is basically based around someone or something screwing with the timeline and actually compressing it, so it does make sense that Silver, from some point in time, would appear. It also helps that Sega has not overused him the way that they have other characters on this list, but this is a preemptive strike. I’m saying retire the character now before history repeats itself and we end up with another version of the eventual number 1 on this list.
PLEASE!
You aren’t posing for Maxim, so stop it!
I really don’t see it. I don’t see why this character still exists.
Rouge’s original concept was fine enough. She was supposed to be a new rival for Knuckles, and was the Dark team’s treasure hunter. Her part in the game was basically just to give Knuckles something to do in this game without making it feel too much like a rehash of his stages in the first Sonic Adventure game, which didn’t really work.
Apart from that, she is painfully annoying and while Sega does seem like its trying to push her into some sort of romantic relationship (though they can’t seem to decide if she should be with Knuckles or Shadow) but she’s just such an unlikable character, completely self-serving, arrogant, and unnecessarily sultry. I’m thoroughly convinced that all of her appearances are basically just Sega’s bizarre attempt to inject some sort of sex appeal into the Sonic games. You think I’m crazy? Well, let’s take into the account that in many of her appearances, particularly in Sonic heroes, she is always wearing tight outfits that almost always show cleavage in the cutscenes, and remind us that, yes, she is not only female, but apparently one of the few sonic characters who is not a teenager. As if this weren’t already obvious enough, in the Japanese version of Sonic Adventure 2, it’s made even more obvious, as her breasts bounce every time she jumps, in a way that would make the girls in Dead or Alive jealous!
If that’s your thing, fine, I’m not here to judge, but I seriously don’t need that kind of stuff in my Sonic game, and certainly not from a character who has no real point. Hell, most of the games she is featured in, she could have easily been replaced by a different character and not much about the game would have changed in the first place. So thank you, Sega. Thank you for reminding me why I hate bats so damn much.
I must not fear, fear is the mind killer…
Maybe I sound bad for saying this, but I’ve hated this character ever since her inception. I cannot stand her in the slightest, at all. Even moreso than other characters on this list. This might just be out of personal bias, but she’s going on this list anyway. Sonic games have always held a minor ‘cute’ element to them, but with Cream in the picture, I feel like I’m getting diabetes just playing the game.
The entire point of her first appearance was that she needed Sonic’s help to rescue her mother, Vanilla, who’s name is just a playground of innuendos, from Dr. Eggman who wanted her for… some reason, I dunno. THAT should have been it. I’m fine with including one-shot characters like this if it gets the plot moving.
But somehow, SOME HOW, she became a recurring character in the series, and then Sega did the worst thing imaginable and gave her a voice. Every single time I hear her talk, my brain goes numb. I now know how glass feels when it shatters. Couple this with her shy, sweet, naïve nature, and you have the perfect annoyance. In most games, she’s not even a playable character, instead just being a footnote or a character who has no bearing on the plot. She is just there because she’s there. There is no reason to have her around. No reason except causing headaches and perhaps meeting some sort of unmentioned loli limit that all Japanese companies are required to meet eventually.
DUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH
Ugh
Considered by many to be Sonic Team’s crowning moment of derp, Big the cat was originally introduced in Sonic Adventure as a big, dumb cat who lived with a frog and did nothing but fish and nap all day. He had the shortest playtime of all the six main characters, and his entire gimmick is that he basically turned the game into Sega Bass Fishing.
He has nothing important to say, either, not even realizing when he’s facing down the god of destruction. All he cares about is fishing and getting Froggy back. If the frog keeps running away, I think it’s a sure sign he doesn’t want to be near you. Sega doesn’t even try to disguise the fact that he’s brain-dead either. They admit that he’s extremely stupid. In Sonic Chronicles, his specially ability is to run through poisoned areas without being harmed. Why? He is so stupid that he doesn’t register that it’s poisonous, and therefore is unharmed. I’m dead serious, and I’m also pretty sure that poison doesn’t work that way.
But of course he didn’t just disappear. While he hasn’t appeared as frequently as some of the other offenders on this list, he has appeared in some of the more prominent titles. He was playable in Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Chronicles, and he makes continual cameos in other games, such as in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic and the Secret Rings. Why? No reason. Someone at Sega just seems to think this character, who REALLY adds nothing with his presence, is really cool.
But how could I possibly top Big? Easily. Take a look.
Ten years ago, no one would ever associate this with Sonic
Here we have a character who has so thoroughly worn out his welcome, I can not even begin to describe the level of fail involved in this character, but I’m going to try anyway. Get comfy, kiddies, this might take a little bit.
Like many other characters on this list, Shadow started out with great potential, and in fact managed to live up to said potential. He was a character with a tortured past, who felt the entire world was to blame for his pain. He was willing to cause as much pain in return as he had to, to make the world as miserable as he was. As fast as Sonic is, he is serious minded, and extremely dark, with an amoral quality to him that hadn’t really been seen in a Sonic character up to this point. He made a great anti-hero, a great rival to Sonic, and he went through an entire character arc through the game’s story, which was actually much more involved than usual. In the end, it appears as though he sacrifices his life for the world he hated so much because he began to realize the value of life and humanity, and that his purpose was not as a destroyer, but as one who was meant to help the world. It was what should have been a perfect ending to his character.
But then Sega decided, WAIT! He was popular! Let’s bring him back, only let’s give him Amnesia, throw in aliens and robots and clones and see how badly we can screw this up! Thus, in every single game that came out afterwards, featuring the character, he has completely devolved into an emo asshole who can do nothing but whine endlessly about existentialism and what it means that he exists. And my god, is this so tired and trite, and thoroughly uninteresting that Shadow manages to drag down just about every game he is in.
Even his own game, Shadow the Hedgeog, which supposedly gave us all the answers, and even let us choose how we wanted him to end up, didn’t stop them from reusing him again and again and again. Even at the end of the game, after you get the true ending (meaning that all the previous endings you tried so hard to get were completely pointless, by the way) which gave him all the answers to his existence and brought him to his own conclusions about what his purpose in life was, was completely thrown out and immediately he went back to waxing philosophical on the meaning of his life and existence in general. It was boring, and it was his only character trait that Sega was running with.
For his absolute fall from grace from a badass character to a completely worthless and annoying one, I hereby proclaim Shadow is the number one Sonic character that needs to retire.
I’m sure some of you will disagree with my choices, and I know there are fans of all these characters out there. I’ve done my best to state my case, But I feel that all of these characters have outlived their purpose or potential, or just had no right existing in the first place. I’m hoping after Generations, Sonic can continue to turn out some quality titles that focus on him, and only him, and not all these superfluous side characters.
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I Agree with amy but not anyone else.she has no purpose what so ever
“(coming April 1st, 2012)”
I see what you did thar!
I knew Shadow would be the #1. And I completely understand. He’s my favorite Sonic character next to Sonic himself, but they really did ruin so much of what made him great with the almost mean-spirited Clone Saga.
That said, if Spider-Man could recover from his own Clone Saga…maybe Shadow can too. That is, if they get some decent writers and BRING HIS ORIGINAL VOICE ACTOR BACK!!!
1. The title is says “Top 9″ but the picture says “Top 10″
2. They should just retire Sonic all together, unless they can revive him somehow.
You… you haven’t played a Sonic game in a while… have you?
Maybe the reason is because I’m pretty much a fan of all the mainstream Sonic characters or the fact that a list this negative coming out so close to Generations’ release bums me out but I really hated this list. I wish I didn’t feel the need to check out and just navigated somewhere else so I didn’t have to feel down about your opinion but I’m a sucker for torturing myself so there it is.
One thing I will say though, Big the Cat is slow, not stupid. The character’s personalities were all screwed up in Chronicles because Bioware (not Sega) didn’t know how to write them well in my honest opinion. It’s a mistake that’s in the same vein as calling a character emo because he’s sad. Big never really has said anything outside that spin-off that can be deemed as outright stupid. At least, nothing’s really coming to memory.
Also, I liked the way Shadow was in Heroes. He was wondering about his past but didn’t come off as a completely different character somehow. Lines like “Cool city” and “Capture him first, then you can have your revenge Omega” with the way his voice actor delivers them made me happy. I completely agree with his portrayal in Shadow the Hedgehog though. Afterwards, he didn’t really act all that angsty though. In Next-gen, especially, which is a big shocker considering how awful that game was.
I love Omega so I’m just plain angry about that choice.
I could go on but yeah, it’s obvious I’m on the opposite spectrum. I love all the reoccuring characters and of course the reason why they keep showing up is because of the fanbase for them. Seeing them all together and being celebrated in the 20th anniversary is something I didn’t want anyone to be opposed to as well as wishing to see them gone in future titles since the whole reason I’m such a BIG Sonic fan is because after playing SA2 and Heroes I fell in love with these characters and their chemistry together.
Also, in response to whoever said the love/drama obsessed Archie comics need to take over… you’re insane.
Oh god, someone actually said Archie should take over? Well, it’s not like I wouldn’t LOVE Ian to ruin everything I love buuuuut I call bullshit on that one. Seriously, dude said Vector the freaking Croc was secretly Australian and uses his 90′s person as a cover to hide from his past
.
Good to know someone hated this list as much as I. Don’t diss Shadow,Coombs!
Egh. What is with this list? Bablyon Rogues need to go? They aren’t anywhere except in Sonic Riders games. So… Yeah. Not a problem.
Oh boy! What’s this reason for despising Big the Cat? “he’s dumb”. Wow. Thanks for the contribution. I hate Sonic because he’s fast.
I WAS gonna say how bad an idea this list is. Buuut you do make some good points. HOWEVER lets think about the new writers the series has. I feel that these new writers might be able to breath some life into a large majority of these characters. I’m optimistic it seems, or at least curious to see what they will do.
Where can I find a complete list of your top ten list?
There is no real uniform list of my top tens, sadly. But if you go into the site menu, under Insider>Top Lists, I pretty much dominate that entire section since I do this thing weekly XD
Hrm, that’s not right. Someone should be able to look at all of the work and articles done by one person on a single page. Someone should get to AngryJoe about that
A lot of the site’s contributors put their name in the tag list for just that reason.
This is where I wave around an unpopular opinion:
I like Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes. They have tons of faults, they’re bugged as all hell and the storylines are downright retarded. But I like them. What I think the biggest problem with the Sonic franchise is that it has come to resemble a Shounen manga storyline way too much for comfort. I know its hedonism, but we really need to ‘westernise’ Sonic The Hedgehog. Not entirely, just a teensy tiny bit. Make the developing team multi-cultured Sega! Perhaps European?
I enjoyed Shadow the Hedgehog (spare me your hate). And I like Shadow, because the games he’s in (not and Mario and Sonic games) make you understand his feelings, I agree they need to stop with the Amnesia on they’re characters. (Chip, Princess Elise, Shadow ect.) But, they’re one thing Shadow has that Sonic doesn’t . . . the guts to pick up a gun and kill something with it.
The sheer stupidity of your comment aside, Sonic doesn’t need guns. If you just take a look at his feats you’d realize that guns are a laughable offense when compared to what he’s capable of. The same goes for Shadow, which is one of the reasons why the whole concept behind STH is mind numbingly retarded. There’s also the fact that Sonic is a character meant to appeal to KIDS. Seriously, your comment screams of a horribly immature teenager who thinks being a killer automatically makes a character better because it appeals more to your juvenile desire for “mature” violence. Kind of ironic, really. That being said, if you’re honestly playing a Sonic game because you’re genuinely invested in the quality of its writing than you should considering broadening your horizons, imo. That last part goes for anyone.
Or it could have just been a game for Shadow fans,ever consider that? And for the record,I liked that game. It was fun to play,and I got to play as my one of my fav Sonic characters. But hey, that’s just my opinion.You like what you like,sand I like what I like. I won’t Judge. Too Harshly,anyway.
Bro, I’m sorry to have to tell you this but you’re kinda fucking dumb. For one, of COURSE Shadow the hedgehog was as game meant for Shadow fans. Who the fuck else would it have been meant for, Amy Rose fans? I never said otherwise and that wasn’t the point. The point was that Shadow somehow being superior to Sonic because he shoots people is a stupid notion. However making shadow a “badass” and giving him guns was a STUPID idea for a game. That would be like making a Call of Duty Wario game with Mario characters. The impracticality of Shadow even using guns aside, It’s not something you do with a well established mascot franchise. Not only do critics agree with me, but the sales were pretty bad for a Sonic game at the time as well. It also hurt the series reputation and helped to contribute to the notion that Sonic sucks now. No matter how you look at it, Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) was a shit idea all around. So yeah, it was made for Shadow fans (obviously), but it was also a piece of shit game that should have never been created as it is now. The best part is that not only did you miss the point of the small portion of my comment that you chose to address, but you completely disregarded the rest of my comment as a whole. Good job!
Lastly, why the fuck would I care if you judge me? You’re clearly a fucking idiot. Is that your idea of a threat? Are you trying to make me feel bad? Bro, stop being so presumptuous as to think that anyone cares who you do and don’t judge, you’re not nearly smart enough to command that sort of influence over people’s feelings. In my book you’re just another one of those idiotic sonic fans who makes the rest of the fanbase look bad. Think what you want, it’s not as though your thoughts seem to be generating anything significant or productive.
I always thought Shadow used guns because he was being too lazy to put any effort into bigger moves, which I find kind of badass.
I know,right?
Remember kids, in the west, Big the Cat is voiced by Jon St. John, the voice of Duke Nukem!
That makes a surprising amount of since when you think about it….
Jon St John seems to have a liking for characters that have far outstayed their welcome. As for the list itself,other than Knuckles it is completely spot on. I am especially disgusted towards Cream and Rouge as I hate loli characters and females meant to appeal towards the furries. I never understood why Japanese creators have to fill that unspoken quota of including one especially if she is drawn for sex appeal.
I’l stick to Catwoman or Batgirl thank you very much. I prefer women over little girls.
In a just and fair world,Sonic would be retired and MegaMan would be still around if I had my way.
And let’s not even get into discussing the fanbase,,,,,,
Why can’t Sega give some love to their other IPs,
At first I was mad that Knuckles was on the list, but then you explained why and I can agree to some extent, he should be given something new to do instead of being retired, I also feel that Amy can be used better if they changed her character a little(and maybe made everyone a little older). but I can agree 100% with your top 3, I hated Cream and Big, especially Big who is a disgrace to my favorite animal, and I really liked Shadow in SA2, he had a great character, backstory and attitude, but even though they brought him back, the original Shadow personality that I loved is still dead, the new shadow isn’t a horrible character, but he is drastically overused.
The Sonic fandom is equivalent to angsty, carbon copy Mary Sue self-inserts and borderline furry pornography. So the more annoying and unnecessary a character, the more likely that they will be here to stay. FOREVER.
Funny, All the characters on this list didn’t appear in Colours at all.
Your ok with Vector though? That I find interesting, if someone is showing up to much, it’s him I say. I mean, he was in Team Rose for Free Riders for… some reason. He more needs to be with Chaotix if he continues to show up. Otherwise I think he should be on the list here somewhere.
Also, I’m curious to see if you have anything to think about Mario Characters that need to retire. Most Mario Characters don’t have much of personality and really only can back based on Designs. If I were to chose some Mario Characters to retire, Baby Mario and all the other Babies will be high on the list…
Well, the thing with Mario characters is a majority of them have the decency to disappear after the game they appeared in was done with. The other characters mostly appear only in sports games, most of which don’t have a plot beyond playing the sport and beating bowser’s evil team. Compare that to the Sonic games, which always try to have a serious storyline, even in their spinoff games, such as the Riders series. By comparison, there aren’t many characters in the Mario Universe that get on my nerves who show up more than once.
While I agree with your #8 and partically agree with your #2,I really disagree with you otherwise. Omega? He’s a sentient killer robot that went against it’s master,and became friends with the ultimate lifeform (Shadow). You have to admit,that’s pretty cool. And besides that,he looks cool,drawing more people in to want learn more about him. #1 You just called one of my favorite Sonic characters the #1 character Sega needs to get rid of. I liked this guy and his game. Reminds me of Vegeta from DBZ. Also,because much like Bass,this guy’s got a gun, and he isn’t afraid to use it. That and I kind of have a thing for antiheroes.Fior a while,(and I kinda still do) like this guy more than Sonic. Yes,I know it sounds blasphemous,but there was just something that pulled me in and made more invested in this story.
“Cream the Rabbit” always kinda sounded like sexual innuendo to me. Hell, when I first saw the names, somewhere, I just assumed that the guy writing the article had mixed up the names of the mother and daughter. I never thought that American censors would let a little girl have even a vaguely suggestive name.
Rouge being there for sex appeal is pretty obvious. I mean you think they made all her visible body parts aside from her head colored like normal human skin by accident?
Personally, I think the sonic franchise should take a break. They just keep making Sonic games and ignore the other BAJILLION franchises they have except giving them like one game every ten years. Come to think of it, Sonic all stars racing is represents this perfectly! There were so many sonic characters that it was pointless, while characters that WOULD make sense to put in a fighting game, just gets one character and thats it. Who the heck thought that BIG THE CAT would be a good racing game character? And why couldnt they be creative with the All star moves instead of just giving everyone a Speed boost!
I can agree with half of the list and semi understand Knuckles and Shadow..ok maybe I can agree on the entire list semi completely but I’m going to say this,Shadow does have purpose and I’ll say why. Shadow besides being Immortal to a certain point(as seen in Screwattacks Deathbattle with Shadow Vs Vegeta) Shadow has an ability to cure the ill in a sense making him an artificial God able to connect to the Chaos Emeralds like Sonic can(though I’m not certain how still sense Sonic had to collect a shit ton of coins to even do so)
Also I’ll also say I can understand some peoples views on Shadow’s own game like difficulty Camera angles and such but play the Gamecube Version of Shadow The Hedgehog,its easy to control while the other versions seems to be Chaos Control(hehe see what I did their?)
Plus if people couldn’t stand the previous voice actors of the Sonic series,their is a new cast of voices and I’ll be honest I did enjoy Dan Green being Knuckles but although it took adjusting to the new Cast(but the Babilonian characters still seem annoying even in voices) their enjoyable especially Shadow’s new Voice Actor.
Though I can’t understand Why people hate Shadows Amnesia sure its a OVERUSED Plot Point in EVERYTHING even time itself in a degree(due to how so much History has been lost of the centuries of existence and such) his Amnesia did make sense due to how far Shadow had fallen from Space to Earth.
The Shadow the Hedgehog game I played on the PS2 really sucked! Sure the CGI cutscenes were impressive enough (though had fewer frame rates in the game than in the tv ads) and I love how I can choose to be a fully evil but the in-game graphics were poor, the characters are annoying, the voice was so horrendously bad and the loading… oh god the loading times! (especially when compared to games released prior)
its a shame they didnt base amy more off of her character from Sonic the comic as at least in there she had a crossbow that she was good with and her personality wasnt 100% obsessive fangirl.
I like to think of the Sonic characters as functioning like comic book superheroes in a way; they don’t just have one character arc and go away, they stick around because of all the potential stories you can give them, what can be done with them, and in a sense, this is why I really like a lot of Sonic characters; there is always a chance at a new arc that can totally change one’s perception of a character, and perhaps breathe some life and respect for them. Granted, these haven’t always been gold, but seeing what they’ve done with Tails in not just one, but both Sonic Adventure games, I always look forward to what they can do with the characters in this world.
That’s the thing. I would argue, The Adventure games were pretty much the extent of their character development in the games. After which they went back to being archetypes, and in worst case losing their character development. Shadow’s notable for having his arc wiped from his mind so he could do it all over again with a gun in hand.
Sadly I still begrudgingly consider him the the most realized characters in the series. because, as has been said, he’s gone though an entire character arc… twice. -_-;
Maybe so, but I also feel that Shadow has kind of changed after Shadow the Hedgehog; he’s not angsting about his past, or lack thereof, at all in 2006, and he seems to be a lot more confident and focused, with a resolve to keep on fighting for this world, no matter the circumstances. To further prove that he wasn’t just hit with a reset button again, Mephiles tried to use the same kind of trickery that Eggman used on Shadow to get him to join his cause, but he refused because he knows his purpose now, and won’t be persuaded otherwise again. Granted, he seemed to have a little bit of doubt at first, and that was kind of dumb, but his story did honestly have some cool moments…some.
It feels so weird that I’m defending Sonic 2006′s story…guess it just goes to show how badly they screwed up Sonic’s story and the overall plot, huh?
What I’m trying to say is that, maybe after Generations, a much more character-driven Sonic game can come out, and really wow us with a new perspective on not just Shadow, but all of these characters. Yeah, I’m asking for a character-driven Sonic game. Insane, I know. We need a sequel to Sonic Chronicles, no?
Sega writers can learn a lot from Archie Comics writers in how used Sonic characters
I agree completely, especially during the good days of sonic such as December 2001′s issue 103, issue 105 or that time they fought the dragon (i think it was issue 106) those were the good days of sonic comics, great stories, good art..I wish sonic’s artwork still looked like then, was really truly great stuff..the art currently is so cheesy its off putting and the plots cheesy as well..i miss the sonic of then. If Archie sonic comics from THEN were the basis of the sonic games plots..they’d be drastically better, with actually really great storylines and likable characters and would be alot of fun really. I’d pay money for it if they had those plots and played like the newer sonic games (such as Unleashed) but minus the side scrolling brief moments that unleashed had for some reason =\ I liked the 3rd person perspective, why look like an indecisive twat? besides, honestly, we get it..the 3d in adventure 1 and 2 lets face it..camera wise and platforming wise, it kinda sucked. but stop trying to relieve the 2d glory days with our main games..I like sonic in 3D..and we see the potential in games like unleashed with the fast running and stuff! come on!
anywho that’s my speal.
oh and as for the top 10 list:
Sounds like someone didn’t read the archie comics back when they were good for sonic the hedehog (they were great for awhile there) Knuckles had a lot of development as his green chaos emerald form and a protector. He’s truly an awesome character and always will be.
Shadow is and will always be BADASS. Just because his game wasn’t fun (and its story HIGHLY questionable) does NOT mean he’s a bad character. He’s awesome and I want Shadow to stay aroun for years to come!
Other than those two crowning achievment of awesome (well by Sonic standards), I agree with the rest of this list.
I think its a weakness to be ONLY sonic and not have at least Tails and Knuckles (ok honestly I hate Tails but he has his fans for the kiddies and Knux should never be left out imo)
Haven’t played a Sonic game since Shadow the Hedgehog, which I rage quit because of how easy it was to die.
Come to think it, I wonder which game series is hated more, Sonic or Final Fantasy?
I love this list and agree with a few of the choices, though to be a bit nitpicky, I think Big should be number 1.
Also, and I only know this cause my little brother likes Riders, Storm is an Albatross, not a Falcon
Deftly agree with the #1 choice, at the time SA2 came out I didn’t play but my friends played it, loved it and said how great Shadow was in that game and got terrified about the idea of him coming back on later games. Just seeing their reactions convinced me how Sega screwed this up.
Every Sonic character needs to retire….the entire SERIES needs to retire.
I hate to admit it, but I agree completely with your #1. Shadow and E102 gamma are two of my favorite characters in the series. However, as moving as their stories were, they were moving because they had finality to them. Bringing Shadow back and trying to replace Gamma with Omega was pointless, as they will never live up to what made them cool in the first place.
If Generations turns out to be bad, can we put Sonic at the top of the list?
I played the demo to generations,and it was AMAZING.
Yeah, but the demo barely covered anything that’s supposed to be in the game. Unless there was another demon besides the 2D one.
*demo
Tomorrow there’s supposed to be another demo (NOT timed) that shows off the 3D and 2D Sonic stages, though the actual date various depending on where you are.
I played the demo. It made me depressed and I hated it.
You mean he isn’t there already?
Side Note: It seems like a lot of the characters Sonic Team comes up with are technically more capable of being the hero than Sonic. Tails can fly and swim, Knuckles can glide and climb walls, Cream can attack enemies from a distance, Silver can ‘float’ and has telekinesis (which is under utilized in the games), blah blah
They need to stop focusing on Sonic and try making a game based on someone else. I’d pick Tails.
Oh, they already did that. Tails’ Sky Patrol and Tails’ Adventure. It’s just, no one played those games because they were on the game gear at the time. I didn’t even play them until they came out on the Sonic Gems Collection. But at least they had some nice variety. Tails’ Sky Patrol is a scrolling flight game and Adventure is basically an RPG/Exploration game.