User:Artmakerlolisback/sandbox/Sonic the Hedgehog (franchise)
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Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese long running video game franchise created by Naoto Ohshima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Yuji Naka for the Sega company. Starting with the the video game of the same name on June 23, 1991, it follows Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends as they battle the evil mad scientist Doctor Eggman. Sonic Team has been the developers of most Sonic games since the original, eventually returning to the franchise with 1996's Sonic 3D Blast.
Since the original release of the first game, the Sonic the Hedgehog series has received acclaim from critics and audiences as well as a very large fanbase. Although it can have its hiccups from time to time such as with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric or Sonic Forces, it still manages to be a great franchise no matter what.
Why It's Cool
- The concept of a blue antrophormorphic hedgehog defeating a mad scientist from enslaving animals and dominating the world is a really cool and interesting concept, even with other interesting concepts such as going to space on the Death Star, defeating a giant water monster, and...going through the end of the world.
- The animation for the games (from 1991-95, 2005-06, 2008-present) are very beautiful. While not Pixar or Dreamworks level of animation quality, with the Hedgehog Engine that they use for the game to give expression on the characters, it really makes them full of life. This is especially true in the TV shows (more specifically Boom, X, and Prime), movies, comics, and commercials. Blur Studio (2005-06) and Marza Animation (2008-present) did wonderful job animating the cutscenes of their games. Even if some of their animation may not be the best, the CGI cutscenes are eye candy to look at.
- On top of the cool concepts, there are really well-developed characters that appear in the games a lot often. They have their own arcs in their stories in games and there are many characters that have this including Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, Amy, and Cream. The characters I am talking about include:
- The main character Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is a cool and cocky character who never gives up despite the circumstances and always remains positive to the very end. These examples are clear in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Black Knight, two of what are considered the best Sonic stories. Sonic never gives up and gives very great life lessons, such as telling Merlina to live life to the fullest, or comforting a child in the forest.
- Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's sidekick. Tails' arc in Sonic Adventure involves him learning how to stop depending on Sonic and become independent. This is very evident in this game and Sonic Adventure 2, where he stops Eggman from launching a missle on Station Square and when he defeats Eggman after he thought that Sonic had died in both respective games. This is also shown in Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and Frontiers.
- Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of the Master Emerald who lives on Angel Island. Although Knuckles hasn't had a character arc until Frontiers, he does have some character to him. Knuckles can be very gullible as shown in Sonic Adventure where he believes that Sonic is trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, it is understandable since he was alone on an island for his entire life, not knowing anyone and guarding the Master Emerald every single day, 24/7, even questioning it in Adventure. In that same game, he also finds out more about the Knuckles clan and how they were wiped out, and stops being gullible in Adventure 2.
- The music for the games is absolutely amazing. The quality of the music in the games remain mostly consistent. The music in the first two 16-bit games was composed by Masato Nakamura, a member of the band Dreams Come True were awesome, especially the ending theme for Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Unfortunately he left and was replaced by Brad Buxer, his team, and Sega's sound team for Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles when Michael Jackson was involved with the music but left due to problems with Sega. From Sonic Adventure to Shadow the Hedgehog and then Sonic and the Black Knight, Jun Senoue (who composed 3D Blast) would compose the music along with assistance from Tomoya Ohtani, Fumie Kumatani, and Kenichi Tokoi. The music that Senoue, Kumatani, Ohtani, and Tokoi composed is some of the best music ever made in the entire Sonic series with banger tracks such as Open Your Heart, It Doesn't Matter (from both SA1 and SA2), Live and Learn, and countless more. Starting with Sonic '06, Ohtani would take the role as main composers of Sonic games. For many of the Sonic games, the music is the best part of them.
- 1991 to 1994 & 1998 to 2004 are mainly considered the prime years of Sonic the Hedgehog, and this is mainly true. The first three years of Sonic (the Classic era) had games like Sonic Chaos, Sonic CD, SegaSonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles while the Adventure/Dreamcast era had Adventure 1 & 2, Shuffle, the Advance trilogy, Battle, Heroes, and Sega Superstars. These games were all met with critical acclaim (except for Shuffle, Heroes, and Superstars) mainly because of their gameplay and music and this is true. There were a lot of care and passion put into this game from both Sonic Team and Sega, not to say that the later games (and the games from 1995-97) don't have any passion or care put into it as the team behind all of the games must have worked very hard on them. After the infamous Meta era from 2014-2019, many people say that the Sonic franchise has a renassiance with the movies, Frontiers and Prime, and Sonic's 30th anniversary symphony.