Best/Worst Character Design

[Vertekins]

Well, some characters do act as if Rouge's club in Night Babylon is questionable and in a seedy part of the city in Sonic Battle.

[Kuzu]

No, and it doesn't prove a particularly big issue with me either. My main two problems is that - while it isn't creepy - it seems just in general like an odd thing to do, and I find that adding a bat character with tits as a more prominent part of her figure and jiggle physics aren't a great way to go about attempting to make the games respectably mature. And as I said before, sexuality doesn't seem to be just a part of her character, but rather it seems focused on it to me, and in a pretty shallow, stereotypical way.

Well Dio basically said everything I was going to say but: They wanted a Femme Fatale character, femme fatale characters are generally sexy, I mean what else would have worked? She hasn't jiggled at all since Sa2, and her proportions are more in line with the rest of the cast aside from he chest and waist size obviously. And every single character is a shallow stereotype of some kind, so deriding solely Rouge for it is being hypocritical, and if Rouge is a shallow character it's more because how Sega bitched her after Sa2 and less because she has a sizable rack.

[HexiDecimel]

Well Dio basically said everything I was going to say but: They wanted a Femme Fatale character, femme fatale characters are generally sexy, I mean what else would have worked? She hasn't jiggled at all since Sa2, and her proportions are more in line with the rest of the cast aside from he chest and waist size obviously. And every single character is a shallow stereotype of some kind, so deriding solely Rouge for it is being hypocritical, and if Rouge is a shallow character it's more because how Sega bitched her after Sa2 and less because she has a sizable rack.

Edited September 3, 2012 by HexiDecimel

[Anti Alias]

eh... I don't really see lots of similarities between Morrigan and Rouge to be fair.

[Kuzu]

Still, though, I just think her personality seems more... well, just more shallow than the others. I find it even more difficult to imagine her in a range of situations and comprehend her different situational responses than I would, say, Tails, Eggman, Knuckles... I find Sonic to be equally as bad personality wise in a way as Rouge, though, because he has a cool headed sort of snark attitude to just about everything.

[123654]

My favorite design, by far, is Blaze. She has a very unique and distinct look, and yet she still fits in perfectly with the rest of the cast. Something about her design just screams "exotic". Love it.

I like Silver's design, even though he's a recolor. He's just so cute, so I can look past his marijuana quills and all that. Similarly, I think Nega looks awesome even if he's just Eggman in a different outfit.

I'd say the worst is Mephiles. Like someone above me said, he's a recolor of a recolor. I know it's justified by the events of the "story", but it still just looks lazy and uncreative. I mean, was there any real narrative reason for why he had to take the form of another person anyway? He could have looked completely different from Shadow and it wouldn't have changed the plot at all. If I remember correctly, the fact that he resembled Shadow never had any effect on the story outside of Silver getting the two confused for half a second.

I also dislike Sonic's design in that game. They tried so hard to make him look "realistic" and edgy that he ended up just looking awkward. He's a blue cartoon hedgehog, so I don't know why they thought his appearance would translate well into such a style. Same goes for Eggman.

[Salamander]

I thought Mephiles's crystalline form looked pretty good for what it was - but there was no reason for it to resemble Shadow or even a hedgehog to any degree. That was a particularly blatant and artificial attempt to create a mystery that didn't actually exist.

As for Nega, I think of him as a "recolour done right." Given the concept for him they could literally just have recoloured Eggman, but they gave him a costume and even personality that were shifted just enough.

[123654]

Besides, Nega was originally supposed to be Eggman from a parallel universe before the whole retcon, so it wouldn't make sense for him to look completely different. Mephiles looking like Shadow was literally entirely irrelevent to the plot. But I kinda liked the crystalline look of his second form.

EDIT: Oh, and I know that Solaris isn't technically a "character", but I liked his design too. Yes, it was most likely a ripoff of the Hylian crest, but it was still very pretty and unique for a Sonic boss.

Edited September 4, 2012 by AXB

[Sparky]

I don't get why people say Shadow and Silver are recolors of Sonic. If you took the silhouettes of Sonic, Shadow, and Silver you should be able to tell the difference easily.

[123654]

They're recolors in that most of their features are based on Sonic, and they're clearly meant to resemble Sonic in-universe (beyond simply being the same species) because people always confuse them for one another.

Amy's a hedgehog, but doesn't look anything like Sonic anymore. Granted, it'd be difficult to make other hedgehogs look unique in such an art style.

[Kiovle]

They're recolors in that most of their features are based on Sonic, and they're clearly meant to resemble Sonic in-universe (beyond simply being the same species) because people always confuse them for one another.

Amy's a hedgehog, but doesn't look anything like Sonic anymore. Granted, it'd be difficult to make other hedgehogs look unique in such an art style.

I'm not buying it. Amy looks different then the other hedgehogs because she's a female, wears clothes and styles her "hair"... or something. Shadow has all those red highlights, that tuft of chest fur and has more pointy quill things that stand upright. Silver in particular, if you think he is just a recolour you must be blind, what with his 2 instead of 6 spike things at the back of his head and the potleaf. If you changed their features to be much more apart from Sonic you wouldn't even be able to tell that they are supposed to be the same species.

I don't see the problem with having 4 hedgehogs in the series unless the 2 dozen or so anthromorph in Sonic's universe that have been in the games so far are supposed to be literally the only talking furry creatures in the world. Expecting every single character to be a completely different species is just silly.

Next you're gonna be telling me these are just recolours, too:

[Vertekins]

I thought it was obvious that Amy's large differences design wise from Sonic despite being a Hedgehog is down to sexual dimorphism i.e Physical differences between genders of the same species.

Amy has fewer quills and lacks back spines. Sonic has more quills and has a pair of stiff spines on his back. Amy has a small button-like nose whilst Sonic has a long nose. Amy has a noticeably longer tail than Sonic's as it is long enough to poke out from under her flared-out dress. She's also lighter built and has a slightly different frame.

I think that it's good that Amy has these differences because it makes her look distinct and feminine. She's likely look a lot worse if she copied Sonic's features.

[Diogenes]

I don't get why people say Shadow and Silver are recolors of Sonic. If you took the silhouettes of Sonic, Shadow, and Silver you should be able to tell the difference easily.

Silver I wouldn't call a recolor, he's just ugly. But compare Shadow's silhouette to Super Sonic's, and there really is very little difference.

Amy's a hedgehog, but doesn't look anything like Sonic anymore.

...yes she does? I mean obviously she's got different hair and clothes, but aside from that she follows the same basic template.

Granted, it'd be difficult to make other hedgehogs look unique in such an art style.

I don't really agree. You've got clothes and accessories, shape, size, and number of spikes, overall proportions, facial features...you could do a lot.

If you changed their features to be much more apart from Sonic you wouldn't even be able to tell that they are supposed to be the same species.

Not really. It's not as if anyone has trouble buying into both Blaze and Big being cats, and they're about as different as two Sonic characters get.

Expecting every single character to be a completely different species is just silly.

Why? The majority of characters in this series are the only member of their species that we've seen. The exceptions being hedgehogs (we're swarmed with 'em), echidnas (all but one of which are dead, unless you think Chronicles counts (it doesn't)), and...what, rabbits (since Cream is the only Sonic character to have actual family)? Koalas (because they were NPCs in one game)? The animal kingdom is huge, there are so many different creatures that they could draw inspiration from.

[Kuzu]

To be fair, Super Sonic was redesigned to have all his quills up so Shadow doesn't look too much like him anymore.

[Chooch]

Best is Blaze worst has got to be Wave the Swallow. She has nothing that makes her design likeable.

Hahaha, Wave's design is the only thing about her I even vaguely like.

[123654]

I'm not buying it. Amy looks different then the other hedgehogs because she's a female, wears clothes and styles her "hair"... or something. Shadow has all those red highlights, that tuft of chest fur and has more pointy quill things that stand upright. Silver in particular, if you think he is just a recolour you must be blind, what with his 2 instead of 6 spike things at the back of his head and the potleaf. If you changed their features to be much more apart from Sonic you wouldn't even be able to tell that they are supposed to be the same species.

I don't see the problem with having 4 hedgehogs in the series unless the 2 dozen or so anthromorph in Sonic's universe that have been in the games so far are supposed to be literally the only talking furry creatures in the world. Expecting every single character to be a completely different species is just silly.

Next you're gonna be telling me these are just recolours, too:

I didn't say they were "just" recolors. I was just explaining why people often call them recolors.

Like I said before, Shadow and Silver are both considered in-universe to resemble Sonic to a degree that goes beyond the fact that they're all the same species. Shadow's crimes got Sonic thrown in jail because the two of them looked alike and had most of the same abilities, and both Shadow and Silver looked enough like Sonic to confuse Amy. When Elise first saw Sonic, she thought he was Silver.

Unless the implication is that all male hedgehogs are constantly being confused for one another, it just seems pretty clear to me that Shadow and Silver are both intended to look like Sonic--not just to look like hedgehogs. Again, I'm not saying they're only recolors. I like Silver's design and think he looks unique as far as hedgehogs go.

I don't really agree. You've got clothes and accessories, shape, size, and number of spikes, overall proportions, facial features...you could do a lot.

This is true. Which leads me to wonder why more male characters can't have clothing and different proportions. There'd be a lot more diversity that way.

As an aside, why don't the echidnas in Chronicles count?

[Vertekins]

As an aside, why don't the echidnas in Chronicles count?

Because it's non-canon. The only Echidna left is Knuckles because Shade and the Nocturnus don't exist in main series canon at all.

[Diogenes]

To be fair, Super Sonic was redesigned to have all his quills up so Shadow doesn't look too much like him anymore.

True, but this doesn't excuse Shadow's design at the time he was created, and they're still pretty similar in spite of Super Sonic's extra-upwards spikes. Like, in silhouette, I'd say Shadow looks more like Super Sonic than Sonic does.

As an aside, why don't the echidnas in Chronicles count?

The echidnas in Chronicles don't matter because Chronicles doesn't matter because it's almost certainly not canon because it's basically shitty fanfiction in a spinoff game.

[Kuzu]

True, but this doesn't excuse Shadow's design at the time he was created, and they're still pretty similar in spite of Super Sonic's extra-upwards spikes. Like, in silhouette, I'd say Shadow looks more like Super Sonic than Sonic does.

Maybe it's my inner DBZ fanboy, but I always preferred his quills standing completely on end, I dunno it just looks better to me.

[123654]

Chronicles is officially not canon? News to me.

Speaking of that game, though, I was rather fond of Shade's design.

[Your Vest Friend]

It's more than likely not. It's very lackadaisy with the plot details, the story is technically unfinished, it didn't sell too well and it's been stated as non-canon by a (former) Sega employee before now.

I've already said my piece on Shade.

[Vertekins]

Chronicles is officially not canon? News to me.

Yes. Thankfully. Kevin Eva AKA Archangel had direct word from SEGA itself regarding it's canonicity as if it's blatant disregard for canon and continuity and utterly screwed-up characterizations wasn't proof enough.

[Blue Wisp]

Personal favourite design is probably Metal Sonic, I mean look at him he's so epic and such a sexy design.

Least favourite is probably E-104 Epsilon or E-103 Delta, but they're still good in my opinion.

[123654]

Yes. Thankfully. Kevin Eva AKA Archangel had direct word from SEGA itself regarding it's canonicity as if it's blatant disregard for canon and continuity and utterly screwed-up characterizations wasn't proof enough.

If only they'd say the same of the 2006 game.

[Cyrus]

Buzzer's design.

AT SONIC TEAM DURING POST PRODUCTION OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

"Crap, we still haven't designed that flying enemy for Emerald Hill! Gotta think of something..."

*colors Buzzbomber red and yellow*

"PRINT DAT SHIT!"

I've made a fan design of Buzzer a while back, making him look more like a chubby bumblebee opposed to Buzzbomber's wasp-like shape.