Sonic-related pet peeves?

[Tobbii]

And my biggest pet peeve are the people who think that every character other then Sonic and Robotnik should be killed off.

Woah, that one is new. I've only heard people wanting them forgotten and left out, not canonically killed off. D:

[1991boy]

when people claim that classic sonic is the god of the sonic franchise, I mean seriously people treat him like he is god and modern sonic like he is the devil *coughepicknightofjusticecough*, there both the same charecter maybe I don't get because i didn't really "grow up" with him but I think people need to chill.

Edited June 29, 2012 by 1991boy

[Sean]

Dude, punctuation. That means commas and periods. Please use them.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Woah, that one is new. I've only heard people wanting them forgotten and left out, not canonically killed off. D:

I've been saying kill off everyone but Sonic and Eggman for a long time here...but only because people want to be jerks to the modern characters. So I'll be a jerk to the classic ones too.

[-Mark-]

It actually bugs me a bit when people say Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 have 'aged really badly'. Pesonally, I can't see it, myself. Admittedly, maybe that's just a case of playing them so much over the years that I'm used to and overlook their flaws, but still, I just can't see it. Maybe a little, but still.

There are more recent games (Heroes being a big example) that I think have aged much worse. SA1 and 2 are the ones I'll go back to once in a while and replay, Heroes, Shadow and a few others, I haven't played properly in years. There has to be something about the Adventure games that keeps me coming back beyond nostalgia.

I'll admit parts of them have aged terribly; it boggles the mind how people didn't rip SA1 to shreds back in the day for Big's gameplay, and to a lesser extent Amy's. Maybe my view is somewhat skewed because I'm basing it largely on Sonic's story, which is basically the best part of the game.

[Diogenes]

There are more recent games (Heroes being a big example) that I think have aged much worse.

No, see. The Adventures have aged badly. Heroes was always shit.

[Nepenthe]

While it's easy to argue that the Adventure games have aged badly now, I do think this sentiment has helped lead way to a lot of exaggeration about just how terrible they are as well as a lot of bullshitting about how they were actually never good to begin with. The hype, the praise, the scores, the public's affinity for them; this stuff is out there, and to instead denote that the games are directly responsible for the series' slump, and that Sonic Team were idiotic for making games people actually liked playing and enjoyed is some pretty blatant revisionism, roughly on par with that one industry fellow saying S3&K was actually the start of the series' downfall.

[JezMM]

- The misconception that Amy's stomach has a tan marking on it identical to Sonic's. It doesn't. It's entirely pink.

This! This so badly. I love Amy's character design and it annoys the hell out of me that there are so few amazing pieces of fanart of her in alternative outfits that portray her correctly.

Sonic X all but confirms that she has a pink stomach, and yes, people always say "but the art in Sonic X was crap!", but even the crap episodes only mess up character designs in particular shots. In every single shot of every episode where Amy shows her stomach, she does not have a peach stomach like Sonic, and with the exception of certain things that are only relevant in a 2D art style (for example Sonic having three quills and various hair quiffs never facing straight on to the camera) the characters are always drawn on-model in terms of these sorts of details.

Also no Sonic characters have navels. The only exception you could put forward with this is Rouge, since they gave her one in her unlockable skin on Sonic Adventure 2. But honestly Rouge has so many other differences from other female Sonic characters (namely in the propotions of her limbs and how they connect to her torso) I'm not sure what to say about it. Still don't like it.

And besides it was kind of debunked by her Sonic Riders outfit actually now that I think about it.

Yes, no navels. This is a really odd thing to get peeved off about because I love midriffs on female characters, but it just looks weird on Sonic ones for some reason, so it really annoys me when they put them on official OR fan characters. The male characters don't have them, why would the females?

[Vertekins]

^ Which leads me onto another peeve of mine.

Sonic characters drawn with toes.The character design standard stipulates that the characters have no discernible digits on their feet unless they're human (Eggman), Chip/Light Gaia or a Koala (From Blaze's dimension) who appear to have a single toe. There's quite a few examples that prove that this is a staple of Sonic character design such as Big, Darkspine Sonic, Tikal, Amy and Tails.

I dunno, it just looks....off when Sonic characters have humanoid feet. It blurs that line between anthropomorphic animal and human and the toelessness looks oddly appropriate on the zany character designs. So when Archie ignore this established trait of Sonic character design, it looks damn ugly because it contrasts with the rest of the character's design so much;

Amy and Knuckles look like horrible freaks.

Again.

[Komodin]

Amy and Knuckles look like horrible freaks.

*squints*

... I can barely see them in there, never mind their feet.

[1991boy]

I hate the toes too it's gross

[Nepenthe]

I've never been a fan of the toe-less flipper feet or the perfectly realistic feet for the characters, doing my own simplified, triangular animal digits instead as some kind of middle ground. Although admittedly, the latter makes more sense to me. Why give these cartoony animal characters human hands, right down to the unorthodox edition of fingernails as Unleashed has demonstrated, and then go with plain, biologically unsound flip-flops for feet, not even taking into account that the feet are the body part these characters are most known for using anyway? It makes little sense from a design standpoint.

Regardless though, that isn't the Archie art quirk that annoys me the most, but rather the fact that the comic's original characters that aren't based on species existing in the games are distinctly more westernized and traditional than Sega's character designs are. Sally, Antoine, Bunny, Rotor, Hershey, and whomever else aren't terribly designed in and of themselves, but at the same time they're distinctly un-Sonic, and it creates this extremely odd mix of design characteristics that tends to throw me off when I see Sega's cast interacting with them. It's the same annoying feeling I get when I watch an American, Canadian, or French show desperately trying to pass itself off as anime.

[Your Vest Friend]

One thing I've spotted about the non-game SatAM/Archie cast is that the colours tend to be all earthy and dull. Take Sonic Select #7 for example;

I know most people on Bumbleking didn't have a problem with it, but I was in the minority who did for a specific reason; you have all these bright characters on the front, with even Geoffrey having pop because of the black/white contrast...and then you have Sally, who has like the most boring and dull shade of brown fur possible, and really sticks out like a sore thumb.

Edited June 29, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[Blue Blood]

Regardless..

That's how they're supposed to look, ever if it does come off as odd sometimes. Anything else is just...

Edited June 29, 2012 by Blue Blood

[Nepenthe]

I noticed Sally's off-centered nose and terrible hands before I even noticed her coloring, but I nonetheless agree with you on that observation VEDJ-F. Also, Amy's disappearing leg, and the nagging feeling that some parts of this thing were taken from official artwork elsewhere....

Please spoiler that cover before I have an aneurysm. D:

[1991boy]

One thing I've spotted about the non-game SatAM/Archie cast is that the colours tend to be all earthy and dull. Take Sonic Select #7 for example;

I know most people on Bumbleking didn't have a problem with it, but I was in the minority who did for a specific reason; you have all these bright characters on the front, with even Geoffrey having pop because of the black/white contrast...and then you have Sally, who has like the most boring and dull shade of brown fur possible, and really sticks out like a sore thumb.

Maybe to fit with the atmosphere?

[D-Metal X]

~ People who call Big the Cat "retarded".

~ People who get upset over the pairings of characters that other people like (This could apply to any fanbase, really).

That's all I can think of at the moment.

[Vertekins]

Another thing about Archie-designed females is that horrible obsession with giving them human-esque hair. No SEGA-designed anthrope has human-esque hair. Rouge's 'hair' at the bottom of her head is not defined as seperate. Marine's pigtails aren't defined as seperate hair either and the same goes for Blaze's ponytail. And Vanilla definately doesn't have hair, her head marking has just grown tufty and furry. Which makes these look like they stick out from the SEGA characters and makes them look uncanny compared to them;

And Li Moon...there was no reason to redesign her as a fox when she was clearly a Tiger.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Verte

[Diogenes]

And Vanilla definately doesn't have hair, her head marking has just grown tufty and furry.

What's the difference?

[Vertekins]

What's the difference?

She doesn't have a head smothered with human-esque hair to the point that it breaks that female character design standard and makes her stick out from the other female characters.

[Nepenthe]

I spot three Tails knock-offs in this photos you posted Verte and it makes me angrily squint my eyes. That's another peeve in general: the use of Tails' head shape to denote foxes or any other kind of canine, especially other canines. Wolves and dogs are not foxes.

Don't ask me why the same thing doesn't doesn't bother me as much with Shadow and Silver in regards to them sharing Sonic's facial characteristics. Maybe it's because they're all male, and those characters are clearly female? I don't know. Either way, what I'm looking at is annoying.

[Your Vest Friend]

What's the difference?

The difference is that the fluffy tuft makes sense going by Sega's perceived style because it's supposed to be a marking. The hair examples from Archie aren't.

The marking thing is why I think Sally wouldn't be that hard to Sega-fy, actually.

[Blue Blood]

Does Espio's colour scheme bother anyone else? I think he has way too much purple going on. His shoes are darker than his skin, but not by much. I think they'd look better in green.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Blue Blood

[Your Vest Friend]

It doesn't bother me too much, but it's specifically because the shoes are a different shade which makes it less jarring for me. Especially when Espio's scale colour slowly creeps lighter...

[Naysu]

I always liked Vectors design, both modern and classic, but he is just so hard to draw for me, the proportions of his body are so different to the other characters.

Love the character - can't draw him to save my life. and this peeves/saddens me