What was the point of Neo Metal Sonic?

[Salamander]

Could somebody clear up for me when exactly Metal Sonic acquired a personality? Per Sonic CD he appears to be nothing more than a killer robot acting on Eggman's instructions; there's not really any indication that he has a will of his own.

[Autosaver]

Wait, why couldn't Metal Sonic work like he did in KC?

[Dr. Crusher]

I think that one gets a free pass because (in addition to Knuckles Chaotix being more obscure), aside from not being blue, he looks like a natural "more demonic form", and he still sort of has the same body structure. As opposed to Metal Overlord, who is a robot dragon, which is cool in every way apart from that meaning to be Metal Sonic.

[VO.SUPER]

Because Naka was aiming for the sort of reboot feel with Metal Sonic. He described Neo in a similar fashion to how he described the Chaotix. He called Neo a sort of different metal Sonic, not like the one from Sonic CD. He wanted to reintroduce Metal into a new form.

Too bad this new form was seen for maybe five seconds of the actual game!

Edited November 1, 2012 by VisionaryBlur

[Emmett L. Brown]

Because Naka was aiming for the sort of reboot feel with Metal Sonic. He described Neo in a similar fashion to how he described the Chaotix. He called Neo a sort of different metal Sonic, not like the one from Sonic CD. He wanted to reintroduce Metal into a new form.

Too bad this new form was seen for maybe five seconds of the actual game!

Wait, since Metal Sonic in Heroes is explicitly the same Metal Sonic from the old games, does that mean that Knuckles Chaotix isn't non-canon after all?

[Kuzu]

Well the series was becoming darker & edgier, so they decided Metal Sonic needed to be darker and edgier, except someone took it literally.

[Soniman]

As his name implies, he is Metal SONIC the Hedgehog. Metal in this case referring to a robot, and Sonic referring to that blue guy that runs around really fast. You'll notice that his name isn't METAL DRAGON or METAL CHAOS or METAL SHADOW. Neo Metal Sonic could've been replaced with any random sumbitch that Sonic Team wanted to use. They just painted it blue and called it Metal Sonic to get some retro appeal and nostalgia factors going. Except they fucking forgot who Metal Sonic was. (+1 Jez)

Fuck.

To be fair, they at least bothered to give Metal Sonic a reason to hate Sonic, meaning that he truly believes he himself is the real Sonic and Sonic is the fake one, I thought there was real development to be had there.

[VO.SUPER]

Wait, since Metal Sonic in Heroes is explicitly the same Metal Sonic from the old games, does that mean that Knuckles Chaotix isn't non-canon after all?

Again, the quote was stupid and made little sense, so damned if I know. I guess there's a lot of evidence which still proves that this Chaotix are different, but that quote wasn't one of them to me.

[Scar]

Heroes was a finished game. Very rough around the edges (and in many cases lacking edges altogether),

Or having too many edges; across which you could fall doubtlessly to your doom.

I quite liked the look of Neo. If they hadn't given him silly elf shoes and Shadow-like highlights (maybe shorter spikes too), he could have looked a whole lot more intimidating than the current Metal Sonic.

I for one, think that Metal Sonic needs an iterative design (one that changes over time, with each game he's featured in), rather than a static one. This is primarily because he's a robot which Robotnik should be trying to improve to better match Sonic (without turning him into that blue Charizard abomination). Of course familiar elements should remain, but the design should evolve.

[Rusty Spy]

Because Naka was aiming for the sort of reboot feel with Metal Sonic. He described Neo in a similar fashion to how he described the Chaotix. He called Neo a sort of different metal Sonic, not like the one from Sonic CD. He wanted to reintroduce Metal into a new form.

Too bad this new form was seen for maybe five seconds of the actual game!

What is it with Sonic Team and their obsession with 'reintroducing' everything every few years. Why can't they just take what they have and revamp it instead of always changing something to make it look new and different. Do they honestly believe that people aren't going to appreciate something if it's more than 4 years old?

Edited November 1, 2012 by Rusty Spy

[WarioBone]

To be fair, they at least bothered to give Metal Sonic a reason to hate Sonic, meaning that he truly believes he himself is the real Sonic and Sonic is the fake one, I thought there was real development to be had there.

I'd agree with you, except this has been brought up a whopping ZERO times since it was introduced.

Maybe once. I dunno. Haven't played Rivals.

[Alice Twilight]

No reason, he just looked really awesome.

Hope they bring him back.

[Dr. Homem]

Maybe the reason he looks so much like Shadow, is because Eggman had been studying Shadow while he was in stasis, and used the data to improve Metal Sonic. Which led to his increase in intelligence and betrayal.

[Metaru Sonikku]

I liked my Neo form, it's too bad I never got the chance to showcase what I could really do in that form.

[- Eternal Paradox -]

I think it's probably because up until that point, everyone had else had a redesign. Yes, metal had had a slight update in SA2, but not a full redesign like Sonic.

Who redesigned Metal Sonic? The very man who created him in the first place - Kazuyuki Hoshino.

[Your Vest Friend]

Because Naka was aiming for the sort of reboot feel with Metal Sonic. He described Neo in a similar fashion to how he described the Chaotix. He called Neo a sort of different metal Sonic, not like the one from Sonic CD. He wanted to reintroduce Metal into a new form.

Too bad this new form was seen for maybe five seconds of the actual game!

Never heard any sort of quote from Naka regarding the redesigns. Iizuka, certainly, but not Naka.

Wait, since Metal Sonic in Heroes is explicitly the same Metal Sonic from the old games, does that mean that Knuckles Chaotix isn't non-canon after all?

...No. Where does that logic come from? Sonic CD is one of the old games, and he's certainly from that. Doesn't make Chaotix canon just because he appeared in it. Plus unless the exact quote's been paraphrased so the original meaning's been bent, it sounds as if Metal Sonic Kai isn't acknowledged if they wanted to give Metal Sonic a new form (thus there haven't been any others for Metal Sonic before then, by implication).

[CoreyAMurray]

What do you think should have been the case in Sonic Heroes?