Not to mention he’s a compilation of old sensibilities from retro cartoons. Sonic is one of those designs that emplores both he’s got a stubby, plump little design with a large head and larger expressive eyes, but his quills give him an edge of adventure and his pointy smirk gives him a sense of mischief. I’ve talked in the past about how linework can play an influential role in the impression a character design makes on an audience, and how curves are often associated with cuteness, innocence, youth and a sense of safety, whereas points are associated with danger, sinister motives and villainy. His design is the perfect combination of curves + points = cool. There should be an entire class around studying the design and conception of Sonic because he was practically destined to become a huge success. I’ve heard people say in the past that Sonic the Hedgehog’s design and conception is genius and I wholeheartedly agree. When it comes to creating a compelling rival for Mario, goddamn. His sole purpose from the get go was to rival Nintendo’s Italian plumber in popularity, and thus provide the Genesis with the means to compete with the NES because being twice the bits wasn’t enough to push itself forward. Sonic the Hedgehog was invented by Sonic Team and Sega as a means to be as competitive a brand as possible. I can’t think of a single property more telling of this point then Sonic the Hedgehog. More specifically, it has to have qualities nobody will find quite the same anywhere else. For a brand to be profitable in the long run and be something so lovable and influential it remains within our culture and continues to shape it, it has to have timeless qualities. Fads may get you a quick buck in the moment, but that revenue will die quickly if what you’re selling had no identity outside of being “what the kids are into nowadays”. But often times it misses the point about why we as an audience cling to the things we cling to in the first place. Marketing always tries it’s hardest to adapt as quickly and frequently as we change. It means knowing what people are into today and capitalizing on societies current sensibilities. Many people, including the staff behind the Sonic franchise in the past, believe that relevance means keeping up with the times. Now, the visuals of this game are the real reason I’m talking about it in this blog post, because I think the very existence of Sonic Mania and it’s positive reception makes a very important point about what it really means to be relevant. The pop in colour, the expressiveness in the characters eyes, the smears, the angles, the smoke effects. The classical animation done by Tyson Hesse and Yotta warms my heart and fills me with joy every time I watch it. The game captures the 16 bit aesthetic and feel of the genesis installments of Sonic but includes more frames making for more seamless transitions between movements. It helps when you have both pixel sprite and traditional animation that’s some of the best the two mediums have seen in some time respectively. Much to my dismay, I have yet to play the game hands on in order to completely sing it’s praises, but truthfully I’ve been having boundless fun just watching playthroughs of the game online. It’s the highest rated Sonic game released in years and to this day receives plentiful praise from fans and critics alike. I've always found the music in Episode 2 considerably better, for what that's worth, although the instrumentation is still about as lacking.Sonic Mania, The beautifully animated, retro, nostalgic callback to the genesis days of Sonic the Hedgehog has made quite an impact in todays market in a way that the Sonic the Hedgehog brand hasn’t made in a long time. The Sonic rock sessions album that came out last year juxtaposes Senuoe and Lopes' Splash Hill medley next to Lopes' remix of Under Ground Zone from Sonic 2 GG, and it just struck me as odd that the latter was complex enough of a song that it could sustain itself for a full track, while the Splash Hill medley essentially had to combine three different songs to add up to a decent length. Some of them (like Splash Hill 3) loop after only two movements. There's something to be said for the underlying compositions being decent enough, but even then… at least the Episode 1 songs feel incredibly bare-bones. Think about how right after Casino Night's trumpet-heavy jazz music, you get Hill Top's legendary banjo and harmonica intro. The old school Sonic tracks all have incredibly varied instrumentation and are trying their best to mimic real instruments within the confines of the Genesis sound font. Click to shrink.What's annoying about the fake Genesis crap is that Genesis music never sounded like that, and if it did, it wasn't ever deliberate.
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