Best/Worst Character Design

[Sparky]

Best? Honestly... Sonic and Eggman. They both hit a perfect balance between goofy, cute and cool, never leaning far enough in any one direction that they feel like they're trying too hard. They're simple but effective, both in classic and modern (but not '06, god help us all) forms.

As far as the supporting cast goes, I'm a big fan of Vector. He's different enough from the rest of the animal characters that he feels fresh, but he's similar enough that he never looks out of place next to the more traditional characters. Honestly, I kind of wish that Charmy could've followed Vector's (and to a lesser extent, Espio's) lead in looking a little more like his source animal. I also really love Marine's design. No huge reason; she's just very cute, her outfit is simple without getting into Amy's dress (REDEVERYWHERE) territory and her colour scheme works well. Also pigtails.

As for the worst, I'm going to agree with the OP that Ray is pretty forgettable, but he's such a minor player in the grand scheme of things that I can't really hold his design against him (same deal with Mighty, actually). Nor do I really feel comfortable complaining about the obviously not-Sonic-style animal characters that Archie seems to love so much, since I only occasionally bother with the comics these days. I guess I have to say Silver, then: he's not really all that terrible out of the context of the series, but the recolour card was lame the first time they played it, and at least Shadow didn't have such goofy hair. I do like Silver's gloves and boots, though, so it isn't all bad.

Currently in the Comics, the Characters from SatAM and stuff are slightly altered to fit in with the Game style.

[Johnny Boy]

Oh and a thread about bad character designs would never be complete without this: All of the character models in 06.

Seriously these models are by far the ugliest I have ever seen. The Heads are to big and arms and legs are way to stretched out. And let's not forget the skinny eggman with giant golden nipples on his outfit.

And when the sonic characters stand next to a human character it just makes them look even more disgusting.

Rotors design is Satam season 2 was bad too. It really wasn't as cartoonish and expressive as his old design.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Johnny Boy

[Spooky Mulder]

Of all the awful character designs out there, I have to say this is by far the worst.

I don't even know where to start with this one....the body is so weirdly shaped, and those legs scare me. The golden cow nipples are definitely the worst though.

As for best designs, I absolutely adore Classic Eggman:

[Soniman]

Sonic 06's design made all the animal characters look like mouses

[Shawn7]

I've always gotta give proper to whoever designed Rouge, Big, Storm and Vector. They're still animal characters, and although they all have unique shapes, they don't contrast with the rest of the cast like much of the Archie/SatAM/Underground/AoSTH cast do.

Why aosth?

I was the only sonic show to follow the game characters sonic/tails/robotnik and badniks even if they are all off model.

The show gets way to much hate.

[Ebby]

As much as I like Silver, I must admit, he does look like a marijuana leaf. It's very... awkward. Silver's not ugly, just awkward looking. I do respect that they tried to make him look like a different character than just a Super Sonic recolor. Amy's modern design is nice as well, prior to Adventure she looked like a Sonic recolor with horrible fashion taste.

Chao were simply the CUTEST thing to included into the series and so they easily go on the best list. I didn't think it could get cuter than Tails... and then they freaking made chao. Tails, Chip, Charmy, and Cream are cute... but they will NEVER be cuter than chao.

If we want to go into Archie characters, Nicole is beautiful. Once I saw her anthro form, I fell in love.

[Blue Blood]

Why aosth?

I was the only sonic show to follow the game characters sonic/tails/robotnik and badniks even if they are all off model.

The show gets way to much hate.

AoSTH had characters that simply looked like cheap rip offs. Check out the size of her feet, hands and torso, her neck and and very creepy face.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Blue Blood

[Nepenthe]

I'm gonna be unorthodox and say Marine's design irked me the most. Without any real rhyme or reason she possesses so many physical similarities in the face and body structure to Cream. It's uncanny, and considering how different rabbits and raccoons are from one another, wasted potential.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Nepenthe

[Rinzler]

In terms of robots my least favorite are Eggman's robots in Sonic 06. They are, like the rest of the game, just so bland and generic.

[Unknownlight]

I don't want to repeat what everyone else has said, so I'll say this: I really like Bark's design. I wish he didn't disappear off the face of the planet, because I could easily imagine him among the main cast. (I was hoping for a cameo in Holoska.)

Though in this picture his muzzle looks way too Knuckles-ish. That would have to be changed.

My least favourite? Probably Shade. Her design's not that bad, but she's the only character in the series who actually bothers me how much like a fancharacter she looks like.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Unknownlight

[sonfan1984]

Sonic's design in the first two Riders games and Sonic 06. They are just...ugh.

[Edward_Elric]

Of all the awful character designs out there, I have to say this is by far the worst.

I don't even know where to start with this one....the body is so weirdly shaped, and those legs scare me. The golden cow nipples are definitely the worst though.

As for best designs, I absolutely adore Classic Eggman:

I've gotta be honest here, I did like Sonic 06's Eggman/Robotnik. There was just something about his design that made him seem so cool to me. BUT! I've gotta give props to the original Robotnik here, there's this jollyness about him that makes him loveable and fun even though hes the villain that the likes of Dr. Wily, Bowser og King K.Rool just couldn't mimic. Sadly this jollyness I find has been missing since SA2.

[Invictus Ordo]

Best design: Neo Metal Sonic,Modern Metal Sonic, and Classic Metal Sonic.

The runner up: 06 Eggman

Worst design:

Every interpretation of classic Sonic (even the Ōshima design) sans the opening/ ending of CD design

[batson]

Best design: Neo Metal Sonic,Modern Metal Sonic, and Classic Metal Sonic.

Yeah, Metal Sonic always looks cool. His classic design just might be my favorite design in the series (somewhat rivaled by classic Sonic, and both classic and modern Tails though).

One little change in detail that came about when they redesigned him in SA2 that i just cant get over though is that they took away his round pupils. The round pupils were great partly because they were unique to him in the series, and partly because they made him look slightly "on-edge" (maybe even a bit insane), like if he had rabies or something. And, contradictory as it may sound, they also made him look kinda, well, cute. Ya know, just kinda.

[Pawn]

I've drawn him without the chain. Believe me, the design is just off without the chain there to break up the head and the body.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Lungo

[azoo]

I really liked Eggman's 06 design, although it could've used a good bit more cartooniness to it. Same goes for all his badniks/E-series in that game. For another character I liked the design of, I really like Shade's, canon or not. She looks cool.

One of the things I wish I could bring back to the character designs is having Vector, Espio, and Charmy have their wide shoulder-things back. I thought they looked neat, and would be a cool reptile/insect specific trait for Sonic characters. As for Espio, I also wish his shoes were still green, because they looked better that way.

As for characters I haven't yet mentioned that I didn't like the designs of, I'll have to say the Babylon Rogues. They're just very unattractive characters, and would've looked better with some of the design choices used in Jet's concept art.

[Barry the Nomad]

Sonic is the best, hands down. The design is simple, timeless and yet unique. He's up there with the best Disney and Warner Bros. characters in my opinion. The colors are limited to red, blue and yellow (and white if you consider that a color). All other characters are built off of the Sonic design: pick an animal, pick a color, design a simple yet unique shoe. Tails and Knuckles are by far the best of the characters bult off of Sonic's template. The Chaotix can be a little overly complicated, but they still look great. Espio especially.

The worst would probably be characters that try to do the same as the characters mentioned above, but are overly detailed thanks to unnecessary clothing (though I'd guess it would look weird to have nude female characters, thus the shirts and skirts/pants). Modern Amy is actually a step up from Classic Amy in the sense that her dress and shoes are far more simple and follow the red/white color scheme of Sonic's shoes, which makes her very complimentary to Sonic's design.

So worst, based on what I just said? Probably Shadow, Rouge, Marine, Cream and Blaze. All have far too many accessories and unnecessary details. Shadow's shoes and gloves are too complicated for my tastes. Rouge, Marine, Cream and Blaze have too much emphasis on clothing which always seems off to me in terms of Sonic character design.

The best MODERN characters that successfully follow the classic character design rules would probably be Jet and perhaps Storm. Big is also a unique design that is relatively simple. Effective name (Big is big), nice color, simple accessories (belt, sandals).

[Diogenes]

Rouge, Marine, Cream and Blaze have too much emphasis on clothing which always seems off to me in terms of Sonic character design.

Marine, really? I mean I could give you Rouge and Blaze, but Marine's just got a tube top and bike shorts. You can't get much simpler than that short of being naked.

[Nerfuffle]

Most of it is the lighting, but I think Metal Sonic Kai has the most menacing design in the series that I know of.

Kutos to Grand Battle Kukku for comical weirdness …..and for heels.

----

Elise

The uncanny valley thing has already been explained in better detail. Of course combining two different “worlds” can work with ingenuity as seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but such is not the case.

What erks me is the thought of what could have been. I mean, she’s the princess of a cultural hot spot in a Sonic game, shouldn't she be colorful and eye catching?

Silver

Pot head, a snow mascot, a cockatoo, a Canadian, Sonic’s brother..…he seems to have been mistaken for just about everything except a telekinetic cartoon hedgehog from the future. The design doesn’t successfully tell gamers much about the character himself. I don't see him as a particularly "mysterious" character either. In the context of a racing game where players only have the designs, animations and voiceover grunts to get to know the character, a difficult to interpret design is a big hindrance. Sure, Chip doesn’t look like a god but we’re supposed to interpret him as small chipper yet venerable.

[Pawn]

^ They really should have used that in Heroes, instead of that Overlord and Madness crap.

[Diogenes]

Okay, so, The Good:

Eggman (modern): Just look at that classy fucker. The new outfit's an amazing blend of classy and ridiculous that's perfectly fitting of Eggman's character. His original design was solid, but this brings it to a whole new level.

Sonic (modern): A good blend of the edgier SA redesign with the lighter original design. Looks cool and modernized without

Marine: Nice, clean design. Large areas of color, simple but effective clothes. Not a particularly thrilling design, but a solid one.

Captain Whisker: Robot. Pirate. Eggman. That's all that needs to be said.

The Bad:

Silver: I...I just don't know what the fuck is up with this guy. Literally every other character I don't really like the design of can be fixed while still staying recognizable, but this...there's no way to make this look good. The pot leaf, the head fins, the mane...he is eternally ridiculous.

Elise: I want to blame most of this on '06's overall art style, the decision to go ultrarealistic, but then I kind of like Shahra and Merlina, and they're mostly realistic, so it isn't just that. Problem is that Elise is very plain (which is kind of bizarre considering she's a princess interrupted in the middle of a festival). Shahra and Merlina have the hair and clothes of a fantasy character, but Elise, aside from a touch of uncanny valley, looks like an ordinary girl in an ordinarily fancy dress.

Gun Commander (child): What an ugly little shit. Gray hair doesn't work as a child unless you go full anime and call it silver.

The Weird:

Blaze: I wouldn't say that Blaze's design is bad, but it's one of the ones where the series' insistence on solid, sort of plasticky shapes is to its detriment. It's the hair, that weird ponytail...it only just works in 2D art, but in 3D, no way.

Amy (modern): Definitely an improvement over her original design, but almost all the color is in the red range. Almost all of her falls into the red-pink-white range, and it makes for a kind of bland look.

Rouge: For some reason my brain reads her as being bald half the time. It's the lack of division between "hair" and fur, I think, and Rouge lacks any obvious indicators of hair; Amy's got her fringe, Blaze her ponytail, but Rouge has short hair that's only visible in the back. Also the over-the-top hearts everywhere outfit is a bit much...

[Vertekins]

I thought that Darkspine Sonic was incredibly intriguing design-wise.

There's a few things that are pretty unique about him. What are the reasons behind the gold rings, the firey aura, the 'nudity' and the downwards-spines as well as the lack of mouth? His design is so open to interpretation. It's a form that stands out from other Sonic forms because of it's mysteriousness.

I personally thought that his overall design (Rings, fire-aura and purple color scheme) is one big nod to the element of darkness, one of the skill types in SatSR. His name might even hint at this being so. Note that dark-type skills revolve around pearls (Fire Aura and ability to generate Soul by spinning), rings (The rings on his wrists and ankles, maximized ring-carrying capacity at 999, FAR beyond what normal Sonic can carry in SatSR) and his overall colouring (Dark type is depicted by the colour purple in-game). I thought the lack of irises and pupils is possibly intended to portray that he's 'blinded by rage', not literally blinded as in eyesight because frankly, Darkspine is more angry and more vicious than even the Werehog.

I think that Darkspine not wearing shoes and gloves is supposed to get across his power being uninhibited and raw. I think the lines on his feet, wrists and forehead/spines is a curious design addition as is the downward, Amy-like quills that appear to be there just to add more distinctiveness or something.

Such an interesting design...

[midori]

I thought that Darkspine Sonic was incredibly intriguing design-wise.

&etc

Edited September 14, 2011 by midori

[Your Vest Friend]

Personally, I think Honey has a terrible design for a Sonic character. Kind of justified, given her origin...

[Mangoaxe5]

Archie Sonic's The Brotherhood of Guardians have the worst designs. I can't believe that Penders is trying so hard to get the rights to these characters.