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Sonic the Hedgehog Community Thread |OT3 & Knuckles|

Sciz

Member
...huh.

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2016/08/the-sonic-sunday-strips-have-been-found/

The Sonic Stadium said:
Back in the early 90’s, there was a newspaper in the UK which went by ‘The News of the World’ on a Sunday like many papers at this time they had a special supplement, this was often filled with crossword puzzles, random stories from it’s readers, a TV guide and usually, comic book shorts.

Well… Sonic had a comic series in this supplement. This comic series ran as best as we can from October 1993 – April 1995, over 70 comic strips were produced. This comic series was first brought to my attention 7 years ago, in that time many fans have found the odd one or two issues and uploaded them online. However with the magazine being a throw away thing which very few people kept, it’s become near impossible and expensive to find a complete collection.

To further complicate matters, there are absolutely no credits at all in the comic, making it very hard to pinpoint who actually worked on it. Well… through some detective work, myself and Lucky both agreed that the work was of former Sonic the Comic artist Richard Elson, with at least one other artist also being involved.

...

We have now found all but two of these missing pages.

More at the link, including a Tumblr archive of the whole shebang. I had no idea this was even a thing.

sundaysonics0um3.jpg
 

Tizoc

Member
Glad things are working out better, Schala! Keep on truckin' like Vector

116px-0,51,0,56-Vector_Chaotix_Walk.gif






Don't be about the shitty game life, man. I've got a useless copy of Sonic 06' that cost me entirely too much money because of it :(

Oh I am NEVER playing Sonic 06 until it like gets a port and it gets fixed up or fans mod it into something good.
 

TreIII

Member
Somewhere in the old SonicGAF threads you'll find a moment in time where a bunch of mods dropped in to talk about the growing problem of GAF's best posters choosing to isolate themselves in community threads rather than participating in the main boards.

Guess nothing's really changed on that front.

You already know the answer. And so, I have no reason to really change my posting habits.

If anything, I'm just glad that there's more of these various community topics that I can drop in and say hi. RK128's "look back" topics and then Sonic Mania couldn't have come at a better time to help stoke my long dormant Sonic fan.
 

Gagaman

Member
...huh.

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2016/08/the-sonic-sunday-strips-have-been-found/

More at the link, including a Tumblr archive of the whole shebang. I had no idea this was even a thing.

I was chatting with someone involved in this at Summer of Sonic on Saturday who had some of these at hand, great to see that they are already scanned and online! I have no idea how I never saw these as a kid as barely any Sonic stuff escaped me back then! To think these could have easily vanished forever had Elson not kept a bunch of them!
 

Sami+

Member
You already know the answer. And so, I have no reason to really change my posting habits.

If anything, I'm just glad that there's more of these various community topics that I can drop in and say hi. RK128's "look back" topics and then Sonic Mania couldn't have come at a better time to help stoke my long dormant Sonic fan.

I think the series and fanbase being as universally made fun of as they are makes it easy for us to have a stronger community, in a weird way.

I was watching a Smash tournament vod on YouTube between two Sonics and the commentators were joking about how there's basically a special Sonic community within the Smash community. "Sonic mains always stick together and help each other out as much as possible" "Yeah maybe I should be hanging out with the other Falcons so I can get good" or something like that. It was funny but it's actually something I've noticed myself. It's weird but true lol.

Actually, on that note, did anyone here go to CEO? I know Beef plays a lot of Smash but idk what character or what your tag is lol
 

RK128

Member
You already know the answer. And so, I have no reason to really change my posting habits.

If anything, I'm just glad that there's more of these various community topics that I can drop in and say hi. RK128's "look back" topics and then Sonic Mania couldn't have come at a better time to help stoke my long dormant Sonic fan.

Thank you for the kind words TreIII :). Honestly at a point right now where if I didn't write a lot or interact with the community......I would be in a very dark place right now. Happy that people enjoyed my work and plan on helping foster more positive vibes through articles I write and future Retrospectives I produce.

Edit: You are right too Sami; Sonic is a franchise that is odd in the sense many fans want people to respect it, but have no issue laughing at in-jokes, memes and more that the series fostered over the decades :'). Sonic's community is tight and very hard to break, and if a place like NeoGaf can't shatter that, nothing can :).
 

spunodi

Member
Re: Sunday Sonic

These comics came out when I was very young and my mum would read the 'stars' and I'd read the Sonic comics (I think the horoscopes were on the same page).

I read through again and I remembered the weather machine 'arc'. I also used to say 'seeyalaterbye' a fair bit.

There's a lot of SO 90s dialogue in them and... well, little else but the art was good and Richard Elson of course was instrumental in Sonic the Comic.
 

spunodi

Member
@those comics: Why does Eggman/Robotnik switch from his in-game sprite design to his Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog incarnation?

It was consistent with Sonic the Comic which changed to AoSTH look as that cartoon was REALLY popular in the UK. In STC there was an arc (part of The Sonic Terminator I think) where old-skool Robotnik cocooned into an egg and emerged in the new look.

According to the write-up on the blog / Sonic Stadium, the look changed the same week as STC.
 

RK128

Member
06 can be forgotten forever but it's legit tragic that Unleashed is probably never getting the PC port it deserves.

I'm sorry the frame rate is bothering you that much Sami :(. I had no issues playing the game outside of Jungle Joyride & Eggmanland. But the frame rate is really bugging you based on what I saw of Part II thus far of the Unleashed playthrough

At the very least, we have the Unleashed Project on PC, so you can play half of Unleashed on PC and watch the cut-scenes via YouTube or something. Still, it is a shame the game never came out on PC :(.
 

Sami+

Member
This is fucked up

Playing it again now and tbh I really think it just came at the wrong time. With good performance and a few niggling dumb design decisions fixed with mods or a patch would make it amazing.

Colors TBH.

I mean at least we have Dolphin for that lol. HD/60fps Colors is pretty easy to play.

I'm sorry the frame rate is bothering you that much Sami :(. I had no issues playing the game outside of Jungle Joyride & Eggmanland. But the frame rate is really bugging you based on what I saw of Part II thus far of the Unleashed playthrough

At the very least, we have the Unleashed Project on PC, so you can play half of Unleashed on PC and watch the cut-scenes via YouTube or something. Still, it is a shame the game never came out on PC :(.

I mean I wanna actually play it lol. I'm enjoying it but ugh this game needs it so baaaaaaad
 

Village

Member
06 can be forgotten forever but it's legit tragic that Unleashed is probably never getting the PC port it deserves.

I'm kinda fine with that

Now those GBA games, do I need to sacrifice to get those on pc. Specifically battle

Also those would work super well, because SA 1 and 2 are already on pc, so you could hypothetically speaking not saying it would be easy actually have them interact just with out the cables.
 

Sami+

Member
I feel like the poor reception Unleashed got at the time of its release would probably persuade Sega not to do anything else with it.

Wasn't it one of the games that got blacklisted back in 2010?

Yeah this is my reasoning as well.

Which fucking sucks because this game is rad :<<<<<
 

Anth0ny

Member
hasn't the community basically replicated the daytime stages of unleashed in generations for pc?

it's obviously not the same but it's better than nothing
 

Falk

that puzzling face
hasn't the community basically replicated the daytime stages of unleashed in generations for pc?

I want to say it's not the same, but on the other hand I really, REALLY can't go back to Unleashed's controls. It's not even just a framerate thing. Sonic is more sluggish and the handbrake turn move (I forget what it's called) feels like pushing a tank in comparison to Generations (and the Unleashed mod).
 

Sami+

Member
I'm enjoying it for so much more than just the day stages though. You're definitely right in that it is better than nothing, but unlike its successors Unleashed has so much more to offer than just its levels. What would be just a dumb and meaningless semi-mandatory side mission in Generations' lifeless, awful White World has a little side-story behind it in the hub worlds. Instead of "homing attack Vector's musical notes or whatever idk" you can talk to NPCs throughout the game, get to know them over time and then sometimes they'll ask you to help them with something related to that story - "my daughter ran off with my food, go catch her", "I saw two ghosts in the tower, can you find them", "my son's been going off on walks at night, can you find out where he's going", etc. etc.

It doesn't mean much in the long run, but seeing the always grumpy Mazuri village elder wandering around Chun-nan with a big grin on his face gleefully talking about how he's retired and exploring the world was just a nice moment. The other kid from the village following him, hiding and telling you that the elder just up and left out of nowhere and everyone's confused as to why was funny too. Plus I thought the one guy in Holoska being shocked at seeing Sonic and saying "You're only wearing gloves!? Are you some kinda weirdo?" was really funny. Stuff like that makes the characters feel more real and just generally makes me like the game more. Eh.

Unleashed is just better than Gens tbh. I'm six hours in and loving it... and if this was Gens I'd be done already. The biggest issues I have are the performance (huge issue and my biggest problem), wonky Werehog platforming, and loading... which is really just performance again. Oh and Chip is kind of annoying but it's not really a big deal.
 

RK128

Member
I'm enjoying it for so much more than just the day stages though. You're definitely right in that it is better than nothing, but unlike its successors Unleashed has so much more to offer than just its levels. What would be just a dumb and meaningless semi-mandatory side mission in Generations' lifeless, awful White World has a little side-story behind it in the hub worlds. Instead of "homing attack Vector's musical notes or whatever idk" you can talk to NPCs throughout the game, get to know them over time and then sometimes they'll ask you to help them with something related to that story - "my daughter ran off with my food, go catch her", "I saw two ghosts in the tower, can you find them", "my son's been going off on walks at night, can you find out where he's going", etc. etc.

It doesn't mean much in the long run, but seeing the always grumpy Mazuri village elder wandering around Chun-nan with a big grin on his face gleefully talking about how he's retired and exploring the world was just a nice moment. The other kid from the village following him, hiding and telling you that the elder just up and left out of nowhere and everyone's confused as to why was funny too. Plus I thought the one guy in Holoska being shocked at seeing Sonic and saying "You're only wearing gloves!? Are you some kinda weirdo?" Stuff like that makes the characters feel more real and just generally makes me like the game more. Eh.

Unleashed is just better than Gens tbh. I'm six hours in and loving it... and if this was Gens I'd be done already. The biggest issues I have are the performance (huge issue and my biggest problem), wonky Werehog platforming, and loading... which is really just performance again. Oh and Chip is kind of annoying but it's not really a big deal.


Glad you are enjoying the game man :D!

I loved my time with the game and really enjoyed writing about it in the past. My biggest issue is preformance in two specific spots & how limited the Werehog's moves are at the start of the game but otherwise, its a fantastic time through and through.

The hub worlds are very well done and I like the atmosphere they offer to the player.
 

Guess Who

Banned
I'm enjoying it for so much more than just the day stages though. You're definitely right in that it is better than nothing, but unlike its successors Unleashed has so much more to offer than just its levels. What would be just a dumb and meaningless semi-mandatory side mission in Generations' lifeless, awful White World has a little side-story behind it in the hub worlds. Instead of "homing attack Vector's musical notes or whatever idk" you can talk to NPCs throughout the game, get to know them over time and then sometimes they'll ask you to help them with something related to that story - "my daughter ran off with my food, go catch her", "I saw two ghosts in the tower, can you find them", "my son's been going off on walks at night, can you find out where he's going", etc. etc.

It doesn't mean much in the long run, but seeing the always grumpy Mazuri village elder wandering around Chun-nan with a big grin on his face gleefully talking about how he's retired and exploring the world was just a nice moment. The other kid from the village following him, hiding and telling you that the elder just up and left out of nowhere and everyone's confused as to why was funny too. Plus I thought the one guy in Holoska being shocked at seeing Sonic and saying "You're only wearing gloves!? Are you some kinda weirdo?" was really funny. Stuff like that makes the characters feel more real and just generally makes me like the game more. Eh.

Unleashed is just better than Gens tbh. I'm six hours in and loving it... and if this was Gens I'd be done already. The biggest issues I have are the performance (huge issue and my biggest problem), wonky Werehog platforming, and loading... which is really just performance again. Oh and Chip is kind of annoying but it's not really a big deal.

tbh the biggest issues in Unleashed don't rear their head in until late game. The last few werehog levels are super long, there's lengthy + insta-death QTEs in the Sonic stages, you'll probably have to farm enough medals for Adabat Day and the final stage, and, the final stage and final boss are... well, even "polarizing" might be charitable.
 

Sami+

Member
tbh the biggest issues in Unleashed don't rear their head in until late game. The last few werehog levels are super long, there's lengthy + insta-death QTEs in the Sonic stages, you'll probably have to farm enough medals for Adabat Day and the final stage, and, the final stage and final boss are... well, even "polarizing" might be charitable.

Last time I played through the story (and any Werehog levels) was 2008 so I could be forgetting. I really hope it doesn't sour the game for me because I'm definitely loving it so far - I honestly think the fatal mistake Sonic Team made with the Werehog was making him too weak at the beginning. If Strength lvl 4 and Combo lvl 5 had been the defaults I think it would have been much better received,

I remember the final boss sucking but it at least wasn't as bad as Generations. Plus I actually love Eggmanland lol.
 

Surta

Member
hasn't the community basically replicated the daytime stages of unleashed in generations for pc?

Not all of them, as far as I know, only the major ones. Like Falk said, the improved Generations controls, particularly for the drift, are a boone.

But Unleashed is more than just those levels. Like Cool Guy Sami said, there are nice little details like the NPCs travelling about that make Unleashed's world feel alive. Much, much more so than Generation's sterile white hub world / "playable menu".

I'd love a proper PC version of Unleashed. First thing I would do is to mod out the Werehog battle theme. It interrupts the beautiful stage BGM far too often. ;)

Sami, I hope you know that you can pre-emptively hold the B / circle button to make the Werehog grab onto things, right? Some players don't realize that and try to press the button in time when the green crosshairs show up, which makes Werehog platforming harder than it is.

Another handy thing to know is that once you have befriended Wentos, the travelling salesman, you can abuse him to increase your ring count, and then use those rings to buy more food for EXP. Basically, Wentos occasionally (not always!) sells you a specific item that you can sell back to him at a higher price!
 

Sami+

Member
Not all of them, as far as I know, only the major ones. Like Falk said, the improved Generations controls, particularly for the drift, are a boone.

But Unleashed is more than just those levels. Like Cool Guy Sami said, there are nice little details like the NPCs travelling about that make Unleashed's world feel alive. Much, much more so than Generation's sterile white hub world / "playable menu".

I'd love a proper PC version of Unleashed. First thing I would do is to mod out the Werehog battle theme. It interrupts the beautiful stage BGM far too often. ;)

Sami, I hope you know that you can pre-emptively hold the B / circle button to make the Werehog grab onto things, right? Some players don't realize that and try to press the button in time when the green crosshairs show up, which makes Werehog platforming harder than it is.

Another handy thing to know is that once you have befriended Wentos, the travelling salesman, you can abuse him to increase your ring count, and then use those rings to buy more food for EXP. Basically, Wentos occasionally (not always!) sells you a specific item that you can sell back to him at a higher price!

Yeah, I've been taking advantage of it a lot haha. It's still a bit awkward because it's hard to judge the exact range of my grab but that's on me not being used to it I guess.
 
More specifically, each continent in Sonic Unleashed had a specific "level" associated with it. Every time you collected a sun or moon medal, it was like collecting EXP that moved you that much closer to leveling up that specific time zone.

So, for example, I think you get to Chun-nan and to access Sonic's daytime levels you need a Sun Medal Level of, like, three or four. If you haven't been picking up medals as you play through levels, you have to go back and find more.

Medals of the opposite type are often more common in that character's stage. So, for example, you're much more likely to find Sun Medals in a Werehog stage and Moon Medals in a Sonic stage. But, since they're really that much larger and far more intricate, there are more medals overall in the Werehog stages in general.

Most are hidden in really obvious places but by the time you're nearing the last one or two continents, even if you were really meticulous, you'll probably end up unable to access the last few stages until you double back around and pick up ancillary medals in side levels.
 
I ended up playing through 4/5ths of Sonic Lost World's stages earlier in one sitting for some reason
I'm convinced that Sega's team here had mostly fine tuned the first 3 worlds and started on the fourth and while considering "hmm, this ice mechanic hasn't quite worked out, we should retool it" there was a sudden mandate from the powers that be to that they needed to wrap the game up pronto and thus the game fell to pieces as it becomes a hodgepodge.
This isn't to say there aren't some decent stages in the back half but it really feels like there's a clear divide going into the ice world.

I'm glad that we're assumedly going back to Boost/Generations style with the 2017 project but Lost World was an interesting enough experiment just haphazardly done.
Funny to think originally 100 rings didn't give you a 1-up, the amount of rings everywhere and them being a reward for certain bits of exploration works soooo much better now then it did when it came out originally where they were basically pointless, what a bizarre oversight that was.

Discovered a music track I'd overlooked despite always digging the OST.
 

Sami+

Member
I ended up playing through 4/5ths of Sonic Lost World's stages earlier in one sitting for some reason
I'm convinced that Sega's team here had mostly fine tuned the first 3 worlds and started on the fourth and while considering "hmm, this ice mechanic hasn't quite worked out, we should retool it" there was a sudden mandate from the powers that be to that they needed to wrap the game up pronto and thus the game fell to pieces as it becomes a hodgepodge.
This isn't to say there aren't some decent stages in the back half but it really feels like there's a clear divide going into the ice world.

I'm glad that we're assumedly going back to Boost/Generations style with the 2017 project but Lost World was an interesting enough experiment just haphazardly done.
Funny to think originally 100 rings didn't give you a 1-up, the amount of rings everywhere and them being a reward for certain bits of exploration works soooo much better now then it did when it came out originally where they were basically pointless, what a bizarre oversight that was.

Discovered a music track I'd overlooked despite always digging the OST.

If anything it's the assumed five full years of development that has me excited for Project 2017. It's crazy that we haven't heard anything at all from the Unleashed/Generations guys since Gens came out in 2011. I'm not sure how much overlap in staff there was between Gens and Lost World though, to be fair.

My biggest issue with Lost World is more the Mario influence than the lack of polish tbh. Personally I wouldn't really call myself a fan of platformers nowadays, I generally find them pretty dull - Mario and Rayman got glowing reviews and great impressions on GAF but both Galaxy and Origins were fun for an hour or two before I just got disengaged by the lack of story. Sonic's a huge exception to the rule because my love for the series at least gets me through each game I pick up, but finishing Lost World was definitely a slog. It just didn't touch on any of the facets of the series identity that make me really care about it. ¯_(&#12484;)_/¯

I might give it another go on PC now that we know 2017 doesn't look like a Mario game though, I'm willing to admit my first playthrough impressions were heavily clouded by a resentment that the series was being jerked into a direction that really wasn't for me.


LMAO
 
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