Oh hey look, a Freak-Out Friday! Haven’t seen one of these in a while, right?
Anyway! With the Sonic Boom hype in full swing en route to E3, the subseries is expected to introduce a couple of new faces to the franchise this fall — boomerang-wielder Sticks the Badger, and the newest formidable foe, Lyric.
Unfortunately, there are already cries far and wide for the sinister snake to be pulled under the grounds that he just isn’t, well, Sonic-like. SEGA had to break it to Lyric somehow, because you know what they say: you can’t argue with the fans! How will he take the news?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_TRUHYmGn4
Voiced and edited by Kirbopher, comic by Zack Frost, and conception by Blizooka!
Ha ha, this video makes a good point. Well done.
Like^
Not really. The video’s “point” rests on the presumption that the people who think Lyric looks out of place didn’t also think the same thing about villains like Dark Gaia, which a lot of us certainly did and have been saying all along.
The phrase “monster of the week” ring any bells?
If they actually did this for Knuckles I would support the series. Until then. I wish nothing but failure.
You shouldn’t wish failure on something just because they changed a character’s design. Frankly it comes off as highly selfish and immature, especially when the original series is being untouched by the change.
It is your opinion, but still. I’m looking forward to both series and seeing how they do. If this does well, it’ll be more publicity for the main series 😉
If it becomes popular, it will become a major cash-cow, including the cartoon. Meaning, it will never end, and we’ll never see decent post-Adventure Sonic ever again! It will be overshadowed by this experimental re-imagined farce.
Nothing about this game is ‘Sonic-like’, and yeah the whole Gaia and Werehog thing was BS too, but at least it didn’t deviate toooo much like Boom has. You may say ‘but its a different vision! you still have your Modern Sonic!’ yes, but it will only cause unnecessary division and confusion among the fans, and frankly it just looks meh to me and many other fans. As its own thing however is a nice game and series! but just dont slap Sonic’s name there so you can gain fame, Bigredbutton or what ever they-re called should just make their own games/tvshow. *sigh* SEGA experiments far too much.
You’re telling me that monsters, that look more at home in a Final Fantasy game, makes more sense than a cartoon animal villain in a robot suit, in a game franchise that stars evil robots and a cartoon animal that looks more like a 90’s version of a Fleischer cartoon character?
This guy knows what’s up. If people say Lyric is out of place, then what about chaos? He’s made of water and does not follow the feel at all. You can’t say a talking animal in a robot suit doesn’t follow the feel because that’s practically what the series is! Robots and talking animals!
He wouldn’t fit into the regualr Sonic universe, but he seems to fit in quite well to the Boom universe.
Hopefully he’ll be well written and people can look past their gut reaction.
P.S. The Deadly Six.
the problem i see with Lyric and the SB enemies is that they look … generic… and very boring to look at. Lyric’s design doesnt catch my interest – when i saw a concept of him i just thought it was just an enemy design
the sonic world is usually colourful and vivid even when it gets dreery.
even that eggman boss preview we saw – boring to look at. it was just plain.
Maybe the designers need to take notes on the Fleischer cartoon style from the ’20s. They were the main inspiration for Sonic’s original design. I don’t mean like everything’s stereotypically a 20’s cartoon, but see if they can do experiments with the style itself. Make it simple and modernist. Cartoonish but something that doesn’t scream kiddy. Another example could be 70’s style anime, which had a cartoonish style before settling in to the anime style we all know of today.
Well it’s not that it doesn’t fit the sonic style. It’s just that Lyric looks too…basic. He seems like a villain you could put in literally any other cartoon and he wouldn’t seem out of place.
He looks like the type of enemy that is a level boss or one of Eggman’s minions that would be controlling a mech, not the main vilain.
Well Lyric is a perfect villain for Dr, Eggman of Sonic Boom!
I died at ‘What the hell is HE then’, first thing I thought when I saw Dark Gaia.
Sonic games should be looking towards more striking and effective enemy design to rival that of the Mario series, not more generic looking enemies and Ratchet & Clank rejects. Koopas, Goombas, Hammer Bros., Boo, Lakitu, Thwomps…everyone knows those guys and they are all distinct from one another. But no, we get a cranky looking snake with a robot body as the main villain.
The video doesn’t just highlight everything that is wrong with Lyric, it highlights everything that is wrong with the SEGA management, and ultimately the franchise itself: Over compensating their designs, concepts, and gameplay to make up for the fear that nobody will take their cute, little, superfast hedgehog mascot very seriously. That Sonic isn’t cool or edgy anymore. After all, when your main nemesis is a goofy caricature of Theodore Roosevelt, it’s hard not to call Sonic “kiddie” or “childish”. So they make him fight outlandish monsters and generic super villain rejects in a poor attempt to make Sonic look more “mature” but it winds up just making the franchise even more childish.
In the end, maybe SEGA learned that forcing “cool” on Sonic doesn’t work….with rational thinking beings. That’s probably why they’re hell bent on marketing to kids: kids have poor taste. Oh, can’t forget Sonic’s brand power. Nostalgic fans will always fall for SEGA’s trick.
Meanwhile, Kirby is a cute little pink puffball meant to entertain children, fighting an evil demonic being straight out of your nightmares and not giving a fuck about what people think of him. Kirby is hardcore, American or not!
I will NEVER acknowledge this guy as a Sonic character! Seriously, he looks like something out of UbiSoft or Psychonauts. At what’s with the corny mecha suit. Snakes don’t need arms to do a decent job. Look at Kaa from Jungle Book, Look at Viper from Kung Fu Panda, look at Trey Scales. But still, despite any arguments, this guy is still ridiculous. Makes me question if the video games are based on the cartoon, or the other way around. If the animated series however happens to be successful, we can kiss the Sonic franchise as we knew it goodbye, because CN won’t let go of a cash-cow, why Sega will jump on the bandwagon. This CANNOT be Sonic’s new design update.
In terms of character designs, the only people I trust are Naoto Oshima, whoever did the Sonic Adventure designs, and whoever did the design for any up until Sonic Lost World. At first I was worried with Sonic Unleashed, but jeez……
How are the character designs bad? They spent so much time trying to get it perfect, it’s just your nostalgia talking. Without the redesigns sonic and his friends look bland.
What was your first Sonic game?
By the way, I started with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Honestly, why are you even justifying this shark-jumper? It’s just as ridiculous as if Nintendo were to change Mario’s current design. As for Sonic and his friends, they’ve gone through enough transition as it is. They were just fine with their SA-style designs. Now nostalgia would be saying that the Genesis-designs were perfect the way they were.
People have problems with Lyric’s design, but did anyone notice that he’s hyped as the biggest threat Sonic has faced ever – while it’s very doubtful he will really be, given we’ve already got such villains as Solaris or Time Eater. That, and Eggman being displaced by another villain for the zillionth time. Lyric does look ridiculous, I agree, but Eggman does as well if you think about it (especially in the original design), and I don’t have anything against a villain who doesn’t look as formidable as he really is.
In terms of comparing Sonic snakes, Mordred Hood looks a thousand times better than Lyric ever will! I can’t believe I even brought up Trey Scales before. I just can’t believe Modred Hood slipped my mind.