2004 looks set to be big in terms of online events. We have the sure-fire hit, Sonic Site Awards this year, we also have the Sonic Comic Convention, held by SonicVerse Team, SAGE 9 will hit in September, and you also have this newcoming event, the ‘Chaos Con’. New fansite Prower Power has wasted no time in being a hit with the Tails fans out there, and its Chaos Con is an online convention for all aspects of Sonic works. A bit like TSS’ Sonic Fan Club, only as a convention to make the whole thing a bit more special, perhaps. Over the next few days we will review the different sections – there currently stands “Fan Art”, “Fan Fiction” and “Fan Games” – and all the candidates within them. Here’s to a successful Chaos Con run this year, and a good future for the event!

= 21st June: Fan Art Sector =

Although it’s very hard to review or criticise artwork for what it is, we present a list of the artists that feature in the Chaos Con, and we mention our favourite works within each of them.

– By SonicFanatic

When we checked, there was merely a link to SonicFanatic’s DeviantArt, so we shall just look through this. The artwork consists of mainly fan character work – a character called Naomi the Mouse, that is very well drawn indeed – A Sonic Team style shading of Naomi is presented very well – The drawing that catches our eye the most however is the Sonic X art image of Sonic pulling his eye down. The style of art here is quite different indeed, and much of the other artwork is to be commended. Good job sir.

– By Zebby Zebra

Despite being new to the ‘net, Zebby has gotten the grasp of arting her favourite characters, and being a SonAmy (read: Sonic & Amy… ‘together’. Not like THAT, pervs, in a relationship. Geez…) fan, many works involve Amy and SonicXAmy. The ‘Amy at 17’ artwork is very cute, and our favourite may lie with the Team Rose picture. Big looks so vacant… so perfect… 😀

– By Trigger Happy Rose

We’re big fans of sketch drawings. And Chibi. Gotta love the chibi-ness. Although there are only three art pieces in this booth, Trigger Happy Rose is certainly more than competent at the ol’ pen and paper business. The “Chibi Group Photo” reminds us a lot of our Japanese friend Aoi’s work, but what made us go “Wow” was the “Glare” picture, of Shadow standing there all smug with himself. One of our favourite pictures.

– By Daikonran the Blackice kitsune

Havoc Studio’s Art selection for Chaos Con was not available when we went to write-up. When it becomes available, we will add what our favourite bits and art is in this booth in the near future.

– By Chibi Yoshi

A vast selection of art from Chibi Yoshi, past and present. The pencil colouring works great with the pictures, and some art pieces are rather comedic and quite funny. There’s a thanksgiving funny involving Shadow and Sonic and some Yu-Gi-Oh characters (from what we gather), and since we couldn’t give two rat’s arses about the direness that is Yu-Gi-Oh, our favourite sketch goes to the rather cool Chaos and Eggman picture (“I gave you a baby, now gimme emeralds”) – but our favourite coloured picture must be the ‘Shadow of the Hedgehog’ piece with a rather wicked Shadow cast on the wall in the figure of a familiar character. Good show.

Well, it’s Sonic’s birthday again. June 23rd 2004 – it’s amazing how time flies: not long ago we were all celebrating Sonic’s 10th anniversary! But what have we got to show for it? This would be the part, naturally, where most people would sit down, take a deep breath and count all of Sonic Team’s mistakes non-stop for the space of ten minutes: “Sonic Heroes… countless ports… Shadow’s still alive (well, the Shadow haters would say that anyway)”. Not that this whinging doesn’t stop anyway, but during the birthday period, it’s generally a time to reflect on how far Sonic has come since the previous year.

Call me a strange one, but I rather think that Sonic is on his way up. Upon reflection, Sonic really has come quite far over the last year. You may recall my most recent article before this one, about the general state of games being crowded, over-complex or simply ruined by the addition or placement of too many characters. Although there is a trend there that is really rather worrying – Emerl effectively is ‘reborn’ in Gmel in Sonic Advance 3 – perhaps not literally, but the fact that Gmel is pretty much a copy of Emerl and is obviously there for those fans of the boring belated robot in Sonic Battle – Sonic Heroes is really the only instance in which the character roster reaches breaking point.

Speaking of which, the only real disappointment of Sonic games as of late, if you don’t count the ports, has only been Sonic Heroes. Which, to my knowledge, is the first and only Sonic/Sonic Team game to date that has made me feel that standards are slipping. The first, probably the only, substandard Sonic game.

But no matter what people think of it, people still bought it. And a half. In fact, Sonic Heroes is so popular it’s still in the top 5 of every console chart to date since it’s release in February. Not many games these days actually last this long at all. In this sense, things have turned out very well for Sonic, for Sonic Team and especially for SEGA Europe, who had the massive pressure of making the game a success in our continent.

“But Sonic Heroes is crap!” So bloody what? You bought it didn’t you?
Play the damn thing instead of blasting it, if only for half an hour.

It’s all about having fun, remember?

Now we got Sonic Heroes out of the way, Sonic’s presence elsewhere has been felt with, for the most part, happiness and good feeling. Whatever your own personal opinions about Sonic’s offerings outside the games is your own. Whereas Sonic Heroes is to be admired for it’s popularity and success, the rest have been generally decent all round.Sonic Advance 3 was released just before Sonic’s 13th. Which was quite nice, wasn’t it? Perhaps we notice anniversaries more when a game is released in close proximity to it… Sonic Advance 3 does not disappoint, and is a very enjoyable game indeed. What with all this bad feeling flying about regarding Sonic recently, playing this game just about lifts all of those doubts about the blue blur’s future, if only for a little while (until you stop playing it). Indeed, many ideas in Advance 3 have been adopted from past games, although unlike Sonic Heroes they have been done a little bit more tastefully and Advance 3 manages to pull it’s own little twists on the homages. Playing as Sonic with Tails running around after you instantly reminds you of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but rather than make you wish it really was Sonic 2, it stands out as a decent game in it’s own right. Seeing Tails being as dumb as usual will no doubt raise a smile.

Go on, play Sonic Advance 3. Let Tails run around erratically a bit. He may even unexpectedly jump down a pit for no reason. Let’s see that smile. Come on, raise that grin.

That’s better! That’s what this is all about!

Oh, look, it’s cynicism! My, aren’t YOU funny?

When was the last time you genuinely smiled when something Sonic was within your presence? It was most likely something regarding a Mega Drive or a SEGA Saturn. Or maybe even Sonic Adventure 1 on the Dreamcast. Even after Sonic Adventure’s release on SEGA’s last console, the “fans” have found constant things to nit-pick and complain about. All things that come back to bite them in the arse some years later.Take the aformentioned Sonic Adventure. A truly great game, and a perfect example of taking Sonic into the third dimension. Sure, it had a few faults here and there, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed in a future sequel. Some decided to voice their dislike in the Adventure Field; that these free-roaming sections made the game boring, tedious, and resulted in them calling Sonic Adventure a seemingly average game. Fair enough, people have their own opinions. After the release of Sonic Adventure 2 and even Sonic Heroes however, these very same people are exclaiming that Sonic Adventure was the best of the lot and even cite the Adventure Fields as a point for future games to base themselves on!

These hypocrites are everywhere, and constantly fans seem to find more time to nitpick a certain game rather than comment on it’s good points. It’s a little bit different for Site webmasters like myself; we review Sonic games for your convenience, and thus if a decent review is to be executed, good and bad points must be focused on. And if a game has more bad points than good, then so be it. It’s the ‘qualified decision’ of the reviewer. This addiction of slamming Sonic games for no due reason go far beyond the reasons of simply ‘self-reviewing’ a game.

Yes, you see people on Message Boards, who don’t own websites, effectively voicing their opinions on a particular game. People are perfectly within their own rights to effectively “review” a game themselves. But when it comes down to it, many people don’t even make very good opinions on them – if you only have bad things to say about a game, people will just think you are out to bash Sonic and the games that spawn from him. And in this day and age, I’m looking at many people’s opinionated topics, and would have to say this is not very far from the truth.

“I’m an oldie fan, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the best, SA2 sux, blah blah blah!”

Unfortunately, much of this bad feeling originate from a particular fan group – the ‘oldies’. ‘Oldies’ are Sonic followers that claim they have been a fan since the very beginning. And what do these people have to show for it? A bunch of abuse for anything new that appears with Sonic’s name on it. They will say everything after a specific point has been total crap. Some people will say Sonic R, some Sonic Adventure. The worst ones will have a high disgust for anything immediately after Sonic 3 & Knuckles.Much of the criticisms thrown towards Sonic games these days is the classic quip “It’s nothing like the classic Sonic games”. These traditionalist Sonic fans will chuck this line at you all the time, attempting to denounce anyone who likes anything sub-Sonic Adventure (or whatever) as a “newbie fan” and that you’re not worth the dirt on the bottom of their shoe. These people give the real ‘oldies’ a bad name, and many people who have loved Sonic since the beginning and are more level headed in their judgement avoid this title like the plague. Indeed, “oldie fan” has now become the new “N00b fan”. And is it any wonder?

Heading back to Sonic Heroes again for a split second, while this may have been the first real disappontment in a mainstream home console Sonic game, it’s undeniable that it has its fun points. Any review will tell you this – at least the ones that know its ‘gameplay’ from its ‘GamePro’. We’ve already noted that Sonic Advance 3 is quite a worthy game to commemorate Sonic’s birthday this year. The Sonic Archie comics get more flak than most, but at least they are still in circulation and keep many fans happy, and Sonic X has kept many people gripped with the latest storylines revolving around Sonic trapped in a foreign dimension.

These things will all be called upon as some sort of dumbed-down fanboy hysterical rubbish by the ‘oldies’ and they’re almost fascist beliefs (Sonic-wise that is). But their suggested alternative – “Make games more like the originals” – how much would that work, if you actually put that theory into practice?

So, you like ‘classic’, eh?

Perhaps the worst (or best, depending on your point of view) case for detailing a Sonic game with elements adopted from the classic games – Sonic Heroes. Classic tunes, sound effects, cliches, techniques and ideas were used in Sonic Heroes to make the older gamer feel more at home. But did this work? Unfortunately not, for Sonic Team. And yet many of these ‘oldies’, who preach to us like we don’t know what we’re talking about, hate the game themselves. I smell a whiff of irony about the place. Justified for other people to like or dislike it, because although people like you or I would have liked a return to Sonic’s roots, we never paraded around saying anything else was utter crap. A stern realisation in Sonic Heroes is that “classic” just does not translate well into 3D.Another thing to point out, is that much of the ‘Sonic Team’ that worked on the Mega Drive projects of yore no longer work at today’s Sonic Team: they have either since left to follow their own pursuits, or were part of the American ‘SEGA Technical Institute’ team that Yuji Naka abandoned after Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The point is, you will never get a game like Sonic 3 & Knuckles in today’s gaming, it’s just as impossible as you’d never get a Sonic Adventure in the classic days, or in the very far future of game evolution.

Game franchises need to evolve with new technologies, they need to breathe. Sonic Adventure is the “classic Sonic games” of the new generation of Sonic fans, it is now the benchmark for excellent Sonic games. Much like Super Mario 64 is the benchmark for excellent Mario games now rather than Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros 3. That is not to say people should forget all about the classic games – look at Sonic Mega Collection – but you don’t see many Mario fans parading around saying Super Mario Sunshine should have been more like Super Mario World, do you?

SMILE, BE HAPPY YOU CRAZY FOOLS

Why have I been going on about ‘oldies’ for the last half an hour? It brings me to the earlier point, and the whole point of this article – there is too much cynicism in the Sonic Community these days – too many people think that the classic games are the epiphany of ‘excellence’ and should be revived. My suggestion? Leave classic games as they are – bloody classic!The main reason for everyone acting so bloody glum all the time is that they WANT Sonic to be more like his 2D Mega Drive outings. Sorry, but what exact part of Sonic Adventure did you hate so much? These people that think the only way Sonic will get better if they revert are just deluding themselves – the real fans will know that the future of Sonic is the most exciting part of being a fan, and if a Sonic game brings a new element into gameplay while giving good grounds for a storyline and a gameplay mechanic, and there is a potential future for this new line of Sonic game, then let this new Sonic game be tried. By restricting Sonic to just the classic games, you are doing nothing to Sonic games in general, and you yourself are limiting Sonic’s ability to evolve into something that is as equally exciting in this generation of gaming as Sonic & Knuckles was in the 16-bit generation. What impressed in the 16-bit era will not impress anyone, not even yourself, in this generation of gaming.

As I close this birthday article, I urge you to take a look around you, take a look or think about what is here and what lies ahead. You have a line of classic Sonic games that broke the mould in the 16-Bit era. You have Sonic Adventure, which broke the mould for platforming games in general, in much the same way the original Sonic the Hedgehog adapted to Super Mario Bros. own game. We have the Sonic Advance series, and most recently Sonic Advance 3, which is the closest you can get to the ‘classic’ gaming while still managing to impress with it’s own style of platforming gameplay. We have Sonic Mega Collection, a homage to the games we all loved so dearly. We have Sonic Heroes, which does have some great gameplay mechanics and is an enjoyable ride, even if it all does seem dumbed down. We have Sonic DS round the corner, which will introduce us into a new way to play Sonic that no-one can even guess yet, and we have Sonic X and the comics in America, which provide ample entertainment when you’re not being anti-social playing games ;). Now you know what we have around us, just stop being pessimistic over your favourite game character, stop moaning about his direction, stop preaching the classic games, and just sit there, play, read, watch, and enjoy. Listen to no-one and ignore everyone, and revert yourself back when playing Sonic Adventure or Sonic Heroes and imagine yourself as a kid again, reliving this new Sonic world through the eyes of yourself when you played Sonic 2 for the first time.

Be happy, enjoy what we have. Sonic, like all gaming and entertainment mediums, are there to make us happy and let us enjoy the product. Cast aside all your doubts, if even for a day, and just relax in a world of Sonic, rather than regretting a world of Sonic.

Sonic Adventure 2 was, for all intents and purposes, a bloody good game. An excellent game, in fact. It was a perfect game for a perfect time; Sonic fans were growing up and were looking for something to top their current favourite Dreamcast game, Sonic Adventure. It was a very special time for Sonic, and for Sonic Team – at this point in time Yuji Naka and his wickin’ crew could seem to do no wrong whatsoever, after creating the quadruple threat that was Sonic Adventure, ChuChu Rocket!, Phantasy Star Online and Samba de Amigo. 2001 came, and E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, held every year in May at Los Angeles) was the perfect time to show the world more of Sonic Adventure 2.

2001 was not only a brilliant time for Sonic Team to shine, it was also a landmark moment for Sonic himself: June 23rd 2001 would mark his official 10th birthday, and a lot of fuss was rounded by SEGA around the world to commemorate the 10th Anniversary. Sonic Adventure 2 not only was a landmark game in terms of accomplishment, but in addition to this it was both the landmark game that Sonic fans fondly remember as THE game to mark Sonic’s birthday; and on a sadder note it was also to be Sonic’s last outing on the SEGA Dreamcast. This made Sonic Adventure 2 not only great in the hands of journalists and non-Sonic fans alike, but for us Sonic fans, it was a game to forever treasure and hold even more dear to us.

The story was excellently written, and provided the perfect storyline for a time such as this. It introduced a new character called ‘Shadow’, which would end up being Sonic’s “dark side”. This story was a great gimmick for a time that was so good for Sonic fans, that it was truly something to remember. Sonic and Shadow’s final battle with each other, running along the Space Colony ARK, if nothing else added to the fact that the whole package – like Sonic’s 10th Anniversary – was something of epic proportions.

Then, at the very end of the game, Sonic and friends (even Dr. Eggman, like in Sonic Adventure) have to defeat a great evil in the way of Gerald Robotnik’s overpowering moustache. Oh, and that Biolizard thing. During the final battle where Sonic and Shadow team up to knock the Biolizard on its rectum, Shadow loses power and falls towards the planet, supposedly never to be seen again.

“Maria, this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you.”

Wow. What a perfect end to a perfect Sonic game. A character who you grow to become fond of during the course of Sonic Adventure 2 “dies”, leaving you only the fond memories of playing as him in the game, just like Sonic and friends are left with only the fond memories of Shadow and his misunderstood character. This gave even more reason to treasure the game, and to keep playing over and over.

Sonic Adventure 2: The Experience of a Lifetime?

It would have been just perfect if that was the last we ever heard of Shadow (excepting possible future spin-off games), but there was a problem. Somehow, somewhere, some group of sad misfits did not want closure on Shadow’s death, infinitely finding him “more cool than Sonic”. ‘Theories’ were constantly, constantly made between this small but significant group of fanboys regarding “Shadow’s death”, including possible ways in how he could have actually survived. And you should have heard them…“Shadow could have used Chaos Control with the last amount of energy he had”
“If you look closely, Shadow still has his flame ring, he could have had some power left…”
“… NO$! ShAd0W’z Nut DED! h3 WUz sTill SuPeR wh3n he fELL!”

Now, I don’t have anything against wanting a character to return. There are many instances in many games before this where a small (or large) group of people want a return of “X character” or “X game”. Cloud, the “mature” Link, a new Gunstar Heroes… But for the period between August 2001 and late 2002 (when Sonic Heroes was announced), the entire Sonic community was riddled with fanboy talk on Shadow and wanting his return. It got to such a point in even The Sonic Stadium’s Message Board, that most talk on Shadow is now outlawed on the SSMB.

However, the unthinkable happened. Sonic Team showed screens of Sonic Heroes, and along with it the definite proof that Shadow was alive and kicking. The response was a mix of pleasure (for the most part), hatred and indifference (I pretty much stood inbetween ‘hatred’ and ‘indifference’). Many people were so happy that Shadow was alive…

However, the repurcussions this event would have on how people percieved Sonic Team, and their subsequent game Sonic Heroes, would be catastrophic. And who can blame us? It’s true, many people were happy that Shadow returned, but thinking rationally for a second, what exactly would that have accomplished? Perhaps more levels like Sonic, another “Sonic’s Dark Side” story twist, being the opposite of Sonic again?

This is where Sonic Team lost points severely with audience morale. Except for maybe the Shadow fans of today, but even now these fans are starting to lose interest in Shadow. The whole point was that Shadow was meant for one game, and one game only – Sonic Adventure 2. By effectively “reviving” the character, you completely destroy Sonic Adventure 2 entirely, in terms of both storyline plotholes and the special experience that fans felt back in 2001.

Sonic Adventure 2 is no longer a special game to fans. In fact, most people now hate the game, and even Sonic Team themselves, because of the huge fact that Shadow has been uneccessarily revived. And as a result, Sonic Team have now lost their “invincibility” that they had from 1999, up until they announced Sonic Heroes.

Un-Happy 10th Anniversary, Sonic!

Why did reviving Shadow destroy Sonic Adventure 2? First of all, it’s the experience that fans had in 2001, which is the most important reason for this turn of events. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Sonic Adventure 2 had a massive impact on the fans when it was originally released – it was a special game that made fans feel special themselves when playing it. The storyline was unlike anything ever written before, surpassing Sonic Adventure 1’s storyline. This made the fans feel that extra effort was being spent on SA2, and therefore more effort was being spent on Sonic’s 10th Anniversary and the fans that have loved Sonic up until that time.Now Shadow is “alive”, what will happen now? Well, in Sonic Heroes, exactly the same happened. Shadow was a “Dark version of Sonic” more or less, with him being ‘evil, but misunderstood’. The same character background is being repeated from Sonic Adventure 2, and that completely undermines Sonic Adventure 2’s original storyline and charm.

Sonic Heroes was poor on many levels, but the most relevant one to note for this article is that nothing was done with Shadow’s character. It was almost as if Sonic Team just copied Shadow’s story from Sonic Adventure 2, minus the “Maria” part and pasted it into Heroes. At least if Shadow’s background or character was taken further, then most fans would have tolerated his return.

The very fact that Shadow is alive in Sonic Heroes means that he has indeed “survived”, which means the whole ending and atmosphere of Sonic Adventure 2 has been ruined, as well as losing the special appeal that the game had. Instead of one landmark game where you could play to save the world or conquer it (Sonic Adventure 2), you have a pathetic ‘Fisher Price’ style Sonic game (Sonic Heroes) that steals that very idea and makes the previous landmark game redundant and unimportant. It’s almost as if, in doing this, Sonic Team actually have no respect for Sonic’s 10th Anniversary and their fans during that period at all, instead favouring the fanboys who really know no better, with their only opinion being “Please bring back [insert character here] back”. Geez, no-one went this nuts for Gamma did they, and Gamma’s levels had more significance than Shadow’s did in SA2: at least Gamma didn’t have the same abilities or style of stages as Sonic did.

It’s all about the kids, remember?

Of course, if it’s the kids’ decision to want Shadow back, then who the heck are we to argue? We’re only fans that not only have been knowledgeable about Sonic longer than them, are actually wiser about gaming ourselves and would know a little more about how a game would be percieved or end up playing. Unfortunately, as it happens we are now considered adults, and Sonic Team no longer want to listen to us. Funny, because they seemed like their ears were open for almost everything we said back in 2001, a mere three years ago.Of course, while the whole ‘kids’ debate is something to be spared for later, it was mainly their views that were listened to when Sonic Team decided upon whether to bring Shadow back. And then Sonic Heroes arrived. Which provided an onslaught of characters, not only Shadow, but even dusting off old favourites such as Chaotix. Surely an attempt to try and make up with us older fans who actually knew who the Chaotix team was before Sonic Heroes was released.

Getting a bit cramped in here…

The amount of characters, especially new ones, is overwhelming in the Sonic universe, if we were to break off from Shadow for about ten seconds. Sonic Adventure gave us Big the Cat, E-102 Gamma and Chaos, SA2 brought us Shadow, Rouge, Maria, Gerald Robotnik, and Sonic Heroes provided us with E-121 Omega. The new characters from Sonic Adventure were created tastefully, with only one game in mind. Sonic Adventure 2 broke that rule with Shadow and also thought it would be funny to make Rouge a returning character too. No doubt we’ll see Omega again as well.But just what good are all these new characters? Sonic Team are making new characters in every game, and almost seem to want to make some kind of “Sonic Colony” where there’ll be about 200 new characters by 2030. All of them seem to have next to no real purpose of returning – even Cream the Rabbit and Cheese the Chao was a new character as of Sonic Advance 2, and she probably is the most useless of the lot (sorry all you Cream fans ^_^).

Perhaps a general response would be that, since I’m an old fan from “the beginning”, that I would have no bones about old characters like Fang/Nack, Mighty and the Tails Doll returning in a new Sonic game. And while yes, I do have a lot of fond feelings towards those sidelined characters, my opinion would be no different. Only bring them back in a new game if it’s necessary and it helps. Let’s face it, Team Chaotix looked really out of place in Sonic Heroes, and some would even take a dislike to they way they “mutilated” Vector and the disappearance of Mighty. And Shadow returning in Sonic Heroes was certainly NOT necessary.

Go on now, back to your graves!

Is this character misuse something that will happen in the future? At the moment, most definitely – Sonic Team have seriously gone downhill since Sonic Adventure 2, and I’m not even sure if Naka-san and co are aware of it. The latest news on the rumourmill is that even Emerl may return for a new Sonic game. Why? Because the fanboys want ‘him’/it back.Sigh. Is there no hope for these people? G-mel appeared in Sonic Advance 3 because of the ‘Emerl Collective’ and that was frankly when I just lost interest. On the back of this, it could well be inevitable that we see Emerl and his stupidly DragonBallZ style fighting ways return on our screens. It’s as if the Shadow fans have died and it’s all about Emerl now.

My advice to Sonic Team, and especially Naka-san, before they dig themselves an early grave (which will be too small to fit all the Sonic Team members and the Sonic characters they’ve created so far – Naka-san will have to decompose in next-door’s coffin) with all these stupid returns of one-hit-wonder characters like Shadow and Emerl, would be this: Don’t take everything the kids say for what everyone else wants.

Kids are fickle, are outspoken and they certainly don’t really know what they’re wanting really for the most part. It’s like a toy. They will want the latest Action Man just because “it’s there” and after weeks of going on about it, the new toy is finally bought for the kid. Do they actually play with it after receiving it at long last? No. They just push it aside. And the parent who buys the toy suffers, because they spent money on a useless toy.

So please, Sonic Team, don’t make the same mistake – don’t bring back a character just because kids want them. Because, like Sonic Heroes, the kids who wanted Shadow back now couldn’t care less, and it will be the more dedicated fans and the older fans that will suffer because of your errors. So please listen to the dedicated fans as well as the kids.

Oh, and kill off Shadow, never bring him back – and save whatever last grain of honour you have left for your Sonic fans of 2001. Thank you.