A rant about the concepts behind the new Sonic cartoon.
Just when I thought Sonic Underground couldn't sound more ominous, I read on the news page that it's supposed to be a prequel to the games, SatAM, and comics. UGH. It would have been better just to make it a new continuity. So that almost certainly means no Tails or anyone else, and we can forget about any Sonic Adventure elements getting in. Just Sonic & siblings avoiding some morphing cyborgs and playing rock music.
This is the worst possible way to make the series' universe, because it won't satisfy anyone. They could have made it like SatAM (or a continuation), or they could have made it like the games. However, I'm getting the idea that there is some decision-maker at DiC who is determined to never make any Sonic cartoon that is even loosely based on any previous Sonic continuity, except in name.
SHERIFF Robotnik? Sheesh. Queen Aleena? Not only does her name sound ugly, but doesn't that make Sonic the prince? How can this be a SatAM prequel then? He obviously doesn't have a sister named Sally, and in SatAM they didn't exactly seem like siblings!
They're going to have an original song every episode, huh? My ears ache with the memory of DiC's previous Sonic song, the one in the AoSTH episode with the pop singer (voiced by possibly the worst singing voice I have ever heard) who screeched out “Sawneec the Hehhhdgehawg, you can't catch what you can't see…”
*shudders*
And how could SEGA even consider making a game out of this? That would basically make the whole #$%&@ thing official! Why not use Rotor or Sally or Bunnie in a game back when SatAM was out, instead of (sheesh) Sonia and Manic, the painfully predictable siblings? Since SoA put Mobius and Princess Sally in the Sonic CD instruction booklet, I can just see them translating the storyline of Sonic Adventure to make it fit Underground.
*shudders even harder and starts to feel ill*
We can only hope that Sonic Underground's prequel status won't result in changes to the other versions of Sonic.
What is encouraging about this series is that the animation could be very good. I guess there's also the rumor that they've already written 40 episodes. That's a good sign for their writing, I guess.
So the issue may not be its quality, but simply its adherence to anything having to do with Sonic. That was sort of what I thought about SatAM: “Well it's okay, but it doesn't have very much in common with Sonic!” However, SatAM at least had Tails and was exciting.
This new show doesn't even seem to have anything to do with Sonic, and the concept doesn't sound interesting at all. Now, instead of just SEGASonic getting ignored, they're ignoring the fans of SEGASonic, Archie, and SatAM.