Categories xxOLDOfficial News

“Oh Na Na, Pocky Was The Name!” Sonic Characters Given New Names

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Author Dave Luty
25 Comments

How many of you are familiar with these characters?

Go on be honest, if the names were not there you could probably name maybe 2 at the most? Ok I know some of you can name them all so please don’t flood the comments with ‘I know who they are!’ Because you would be wrong.

For years, those characters have had those names, whilst they’ve been adapted into other medias, you might be thinking ‘hey that Ricky looks like Sally Acorn’ or ‘That Pig and Rabbit look like those guys from Fleetways Sonic the Comic.’ you’d be right, they’ve been adapted and had their names changed. But the originals are still as far as we can tell, going by those names. Pecky, Ricky, Pocky, Flicky etc.

Until yesterday… When most of them ended up with a name change.

As we reported yesterday, Stampii released a new Sonic digital card game, and like yesterday my opinion on it hasn’t changed, it’s a lot of fun! But as collections started to grow a few people noticed one or two problems with some of the cards. Aside from some grammar errors which were put down to bad translations, a few noticed that some of the old classic characters had the wrong names. For instance Pocky the rabbit was named Picky. And Picky the pig was named Cookie?

Well, maybe it’s just that those characters are very old and quite obscure and very few people in the fanbase know the names without checking. To put it in perspective, I’ve not yet heard anyone running around yelling ‘I WANT POCKY THE RABBIT IN ASRT!’

However, SegaBits staff member Barry the Nomad wrote a review of the card game earlier today, and commented on some of the animals having the wrong names. It was then someone claiming to be from Stampii commented on the story stating…

Just a comment ;)

Sega Japan have decided to change (again) the name of Sonic’s animal friends so these are the (new) right ones.

Enjoy it!

[…]

We want to answer your doubts in sonicstadium forum but the topic is locked :(

With regards to some of the spelling and grammar errors…

Absolutely, we apologize about this issue. Some weeks ago we sent the text to SEGA Japan and they have given us the OK, but we are finding some mistakes. Our UK team is working to fix it. They are native english speakers so it will be right :)

So hey that’s good news about the grammar errors! But, wait? The classic characters have new names? You might remember back to when Pix’N Love were releasing their history of Sonic book how they had to submit several drafts to Japan before it could be released? And some content had to be edited to match official approval? The same thing seems to have happened here. If this information is correct and the names of Sonic’s first friends have been changed, then they now go by the following.

Whilst we’re still waiting for official confirmation from Sega, we don’t really have any particular reason to doubt that the names have been changed. This is an official Sega product, before release the game would have gone for approval and everything would have been checked against official documentation. It does suggest that Sega have indeed changed the names of some of the oldest characters in the Sonic series. The question is… why?

Because…. SEGA!? Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Do you like the new names? What do you think of the card game? Let us know in the comments, or join us at the SSMB stampii trading topic to join in the fun.

*looks around*

Anyone else want Pocky in All Stars Racing transformed? No… oh just me then…?

Source: SegaBits

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25 Comments

  1. I don’t see why Sega would change their names, it seems kind of pointless. I’m betting this is a mistake rather than a change.
    Plus “Cookie” sounds stupid and doesn’t fit the naming standards of the animal friends (now he’s the only one whose name doesn’t end in -cky). And why give the rabbit the pig’s original name? That’s potential for confusion right there.

    1. Oh, the Rabbit isn’t the only one who got someone else’s name; so did the squirrel. Sega just got their names mixed up, I say.

      1. …And so was the chicken, too. Plus the pig’s new name sounds really similar to the chicken’s original name, Cucky. Just a mix-up; nothing to see here.

    3. I think you’re right. Though while Cookie doesn’t fit in with the rest, I don’t think Cookie or Picky really fit the pig either way. Pecky fits a bird, but not a penguin unless it’s another bird I mistook. xD As for the other animals, I just think it’s weird. Flicky sounds cool tho. lol

  3. I WANT POCKY IN ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED! Maybe he is the surprise character they were talking about…or she :/
    Now I’m wondering…are they genderless? O_o

  5. Seems pointless to me too. And since they reused and switched around most of the names, now it’s just confusing. CONFUSING.
    It’s almost easier not to give them names. “Squirrel”, “penguin”, “rabbit”, “bird”, “rooster”, “walrus”, “pig”.
    … But now I’m suddenly wondering why two of them are arctic creatures… *shot* Heck with it. I WANT POCKY IN ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED TOO!

  13. Eh, Flicky is the only one I really give a flick about. The others could all be named Cookie for all I care… And actually reflecting on that I think that’s what I’d prefer.

  15. Grammar errors and name mix-ups. Sound like its been quite a week with the distributors for this project. I remember those characters names. Odd that they would be given new names after all this time. Hope things work out in favor of complete honesty.

  18. Sorry about the double post.

    And with? I think my laptop tried to instantly correct the purposely off grammar, making it make even LESS sense. oy. XD lol

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