Comments on: Stephen Frost: Sonic Boom is a Licensing Success

By: Davi

Davi — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 16:35:36 +0000

The thing is, in therms of updating the characters, Sonic Boom was spot on. Amy is not a dependent annoying little girl, Knuckles is dumb in a funnier way – not just for plot reasons, Tails is highly functional and Sonic has this Nathan Drake for kids vibe that I think resonates with his essence: the adventure hero. Despite the fact that I hate the white bands and the scarf and prefer the rubber arms, everything looks pretty awesome. So the cartoon was awesome because it was something character driven.

I think Sonic should be reinvented for every console generation. Slightly redesigned and updated… cause Sonic, different from Mario (and even Link), is not a generic placeholder of a character. He need to resonate with the current culture way more than the above mentioned. And that’s part of why the brand today looks way more like a nostalgia trip for a loyal fanbase than a widespread success. I think post-adventure era when people realize Sonic could not be the big action hero of games anymore because things like Halo and Metal Gear Solid were popping up he got a little bit lost.

And yeah. He has all the potential to be like Batman and Captain America and be a character that reaches 75 years old, but as these he needs reinvention, redesign and very good, focused products. Sonic Boom was a step in the right direction. Now take the character reinvention of Sonic Boom and put together with a great product like Sonic Colors and hit all the right marks and bang: You got yourself a relevant brand again.

By: Stardust Speedman

Stardust Speedman — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 07:44:55 +0000

Thank you, I’m very happy to see people approve of my criticism!

By: M.J

M.J — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 08:20:24 +0000

Wow… that has to be the best constructive criticism from a Sonic fan that I’ve seen in a long time! Well done! I honestly agreed with just about all of that. See? This is how you do it: not throw around random complaints– provide actually constructive criticisms about issues!

I generally think Frost is a great guy, who has a passion for his work! I hope he learned a lot from Rise Of Lyric’s failure. And I mean A LOT. But Co-Op and Multiplayer? Sure, Frost, they are nice things to include but… I don’t see it as the only way Sonic can survive. Not at all.

By: Patrick Hunt

Patrick Hunt — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 13:30:09 +0000

Well, I have a bad feeling about this. Now, we have to worry about the future of the Sonic The Hedgehog series. I hate the games, love the comics, and I don’t mind the cartoon. The difference in the comics and the cartoon, to me, is how serious they are. With the cartoon, there is no story to it whatsoever. As for the comics, everything is relevant in terms of progression. However, the games are just a letdown. Now I fear that Sonic Boom will be the Skylanders of Sonic.

By: bluewindsonic

bluewindsonic — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 20:26:04 +0000

Right! Although Sonic Boom wasn’t exactly the best Sonic game of all time, that doesn’t mean we have to keep on ripping on it. The only thing that caused the game to be not as good was the time restraints.(Don’t tell me you didn’t see “This is a work in progress and doesn’t represent the finished game” at the beginning of the trailer) I think that people need to stop restating their opinion about RoL and move on. I am so glad that people such as Jason Berry, Hogfather, Brad, and Dreadnux, among others at TSS, can at least try to make things right.

On another note, I can’t download Sonic Runners from the Canadian App Store. Apparently, my password isn’t for that account, but I don’t know what is! Can somebody please help? Thanks.

By: DarkKyo64

DarkKyo64 — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 03:27:42 +0000

On Mr. Frost’s defense, I do agree about the cartoon and the merchandise. Sonic Boom is successful outside of Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal. Numbers don’t lie and I do in fact enjoy the show. However they failed at the start that Sonic is about gaming first, TV shows and merchandise second. Without the success of the games, you have nothing. AoStH, SatAM and Sonic X were successful not just because they were good shows “and they were” but they also coincided and promoted the classics we know today. Whether it’s the Sega Genesis trilogy or the Sonic Adventure series, The golden ages of Sonic had awesome games with great shows to back them. But Sonic Boom has it backwards. Sonic is being focused less on where he should always be. A fast-paced point A to B platforming game…

By: Hifihedgehog

Hifihedgehog — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 01:47:42 +0000

It is quite possible for this to have happened if they relied on marketing research groups, which I know many of which take off-the-street walk-ins who just want a quick dollar for taking a survey. These groups sometimes do not represent the population in their entirety due to fragmentation, linked to the location of these marketing groups’ places of business and position of awareness to the general populace and, as a result, the surveyees’ economic, schedule-based and geographical traits. Said differently, if SEGA chose a good marketing group to draw its conclusions, they would have selectively chosen different types of individuals in their screening process and would have had an active search for these people worldwide. We have no way of telling, but this method of marketing research would have given much more accurate results.

By: Hifihedgehog

Hifihedgehog — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 01:36:19 +0000

Thanks Hogfather for keeping things in line here because this fosters a wholesome, creative, collaborative environment. I greatly appreciate not getting slammed here like at other places while–quite simply–respectfully sharing a differing viewpoint which may buck the trend. I hope this makes your day! Thanks again to you and the rest of the staff for everything you guys do to make the Sonic community so fun for me and everybody here!

By: Bluewindsonic

Bluewindsonic — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 00:54:10 +0000

Whatever you have to keep on telling yourself, Steph. The comic is the only thing I like about it, but the numbers don’t lie, the TV show is pretty popular.

By: Knuckles-N-Cupcakes

Knuckles-N-Cupcakes — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 02:59:21 +0000

That is a very civilized opinion and I respect it. I will not whine and complain, bc, in my opinion, sorry to offend some of you: Sonic deserves a better fanbase. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but just the fanbase when it comes to Sonic is brutal.