Cutscene Reveal

[TrueBlue]

That's interesting. The unedited Alton Towers clips were a bit lighter, so I'm guessing SEGA may have listened to those over and over again and felt it wasn't right going forward.

It was also interesting when I talked to him at MCM. He actually noted how there wasn't the best reaction to the original Alton Towers clips, so I guess that may have also been an influence.

Really nice guy though, I can tell just by our 2 minute conversation, he really cares about his role and is very willing to listen to feedback in order to give what the fans want. He just seemed totally natural when talking to the fans, be they of Assassins Creed or Sonic. I hope to meet him again one day.

[Blue Blood]

This is horrible news for me. Nintendo has never up and decided that Mario needed to sound older. He has sounded the same since Mario 64. And don't gimme that "It's been the same voice actor though" nonsense. Smith has shown that he's capable of matching the tone of voice Sonic has had for years. Sega told him to take it down an octave. There better be a good explanation for this.

There's a number of possible reasons:

• They felt it fit his character more.
  
• SEGA have decided to tweek Sonics personality, focusing more on cool and less on edgy.
  
• Sonic aged?
  
• They decided to further emphasise the fact that Sonic is older than Tails.
  
• The new voice might be more popular.
  

If Smith could match the older style more, as seen with the Alton Towers clips, they must have decided that the new style was more in character, a better overall fit.

[sonfan1984]

Nintendo can do whatever they want with Mario and Sega can do whatever they want with Sonic. If Sega wants Sonic to sound older then they can do that.

[Mega]

unlike literally every voice actor Sonic has ever had.

I dunno, man. I loved Jaleel's Sonic voice before Underground.

That said, I like the new voices. They have so much more character, and I get a very SatAM vibe from Sonic's portrayal.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Mega

[Gamerguy21]

I think you're all reading a bit too much into the "older" comment. I doubt Sega's planning on changing Sonic's age or anything. They probably just wanted Sonic to sound like a teenager, because as much as I thought Jason had a pretty good voice for Sonic, he didn't really sound like a 16 year old.

Plus people generally think older voices sound cooler, and Sonic's entire personality pretty much revolves around being cool.

I really don't see why Tails would even bother reading the second obviously incorrect translation after reading the correct translation out loud just fine. I mean, he could have just glanced at that and realized that it was way off and just stopped there.

But he might have not glanced ahead and read out loud as he was reading it in his head. Also, even if he did glance ahead at it, he might have read it anyway in a "this will make Sonic laugh" sort of way.

[Scar]

This is horrible news for me. Nintendo has never up and decided that Mario needed to sound older. He has sounded the same since Mario 64. And don't gimme that "It's been the same voice actor though" nonsense. Smith has shown that he's capable of matching the tone of voice Sonic has had for years. Sega told him to take it down an octave. There better be a good explanation for this.

Mario is canonically supposed to be late 20's early 30's. Even if they did age him, it wouldn't do much to his voice, because he's an adult already.

That is quite a poor argument really.

We don't know why Sonic's aging, but they did say they were pretty much rebooting the brand in attempt to get rid of the negative atmostphere around Sonic these past few years. This may involve deleting his old 'surfer-boy' early teen persona, with a newer, slightly more Americanised semi-sarchastic late teen persona. Who knows it may end up working as things go on. We're yet to hear the whole game. Plus, the whole "older Sonic" would work well in plots for games which aren't named Colours, and implicitly aimed at kids (i.e SA2-type plots, but better written). Doing so may require a little more sarchastic or even satirical humour, which Sonic's previous voice couldn't deliver. If there wasn't a need for this, then SEGA wouldn't have recasted the whole VA team (barring Robotnik, probably because judging by 06, Pollock can do 'seriou's pretty well), they'd have just hired new writers and a better voice director.

We'd be better off waiting and seeing (or hearing in the case of Voice Acting).

[SuperClassic]

Mario is canonically supposed to be late 20's early 30's. Even if they did age him, it wouldn't do much to his voice, because he's an adult already.

That is quite a poor argument really.

We don't know why Sonic's aging, but they did say they were pretty much rebooting the brand in attempt to get rid of the negative atmostphere around Sonic these past few years. This may involve deleting his old 'surfer-boy' early teen persona, with a newer, slightly more Americanised semi-sarchastic late teen persona. Who knows it may end up working as things go on. We're yet to hear the whole game. Plus, the whole "older Sonic" would work well in plots for games which aren't named Colours, and implicitly aimed at kids (i.e SA2-type plots, but better written). Doing so may require a little more sarchastic or even satirical humour, which Sonic's previous voice couldn't deliver. If there wasn't a need for this, then SEGA wouldn't have recasted the whole VA team (barring Robotnik, probably because judging by 06, Pollock can do 'seriou's pretty well), they'd have just hired new writers and a better voice director.

We'd be better off waiting and seeing (or hearing in the case of Voice Acting).

I honestly didn't see where he was going with his argument either, Mario was never as story heavy as Sonic, even back in the early 90's.

[Saint Nathan]

I dunno, man. I loved Jaleel's Sonic voice before Underground.

So did I. He still can't act though.

Kinda like how I love every Cage movie even though he's a horrible, horrible actor.

[Doctor Sοnic]

Really nice guy though, I can tell just by our 2 minute conversation, he really cares about his role and is very willing to listen to feedback in order to give what the fans want. He just seemed totally natural when talking to the fans, be they of Assassins Creed or Sonic. I hope to meet him again one day.

Thats exactly how I felt as well. He didn't try to wind up the conversation after a minute like people at signings normally do. At the point where I thought he was going to, he just continued on talking for another minute or so. And when we'd finished talking, he was happy to pose for a photo with me.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Doctor Sοnic

[SuperClassic]

So did I. He still can't act though.

Kinda like how I love every Cage movie even though he's a horrible, horrible actor.

I guess you always need something to compare something to then you'll start to dislike it more, I mean, Sonic Colors DS doesn't have uncurling, Sonic 4, does, now, with Sonic Unleashed, I'm really starting to hate Jason's voice, the constant annoying "WOOOAAAAAHHHHH" are starting to annoy me more and more as I listen to Roger's voice.

[Scar]

So did I. He still can't act though.

Kinda like how I love every Cage movie even though he's a horrible, horrible actor.

Now, now, lets not be hatin' on Cage. He's not bad. In fact he was pretty damn good in Kickass

[/off-topic]

Jaleel White.....hmmm

I think he did chose that voice, because that was cool back in the 90's.

I guess they're changing to adapt his character. (Mario doesn't need to adapt, because he isn't trying to be cool, Sonic on the other hand was designed to be cool, so he has to adapt)

[Detective Shadzter]

FIRST@TSS *shot*

News'd the info from Roger and given credit. Thanks Doctor Sonic and Jaymeister.

[DaBatGuy]

I like the new new voices, Tails is perfect but like everyone one else I'm gonna have to get used to Sonic's. It's not bad at all and RCS is way more emotive and believable than White, Drummond and Griffith combined. It's just after 18 years of VA's being poor imitations of their predecessors RCS's new take on the character is just a such a shocking contrast to everything we've heard so far. I'm actually surprised that Sega told RCS to sound older because despite the deeper voice Sonic actually sounds younger than before. Griffith, even at his best, sounded like a mellowed-out 20-something and not an energetic teen like RCS does.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Da Goddamn BatGuy

[LunarEdge]

I can tell you for a fact that the bold statement is not true.

In fact, his voice has gotten progressively squeakier and higher pitched as the games have gone on.

Seriously, go ahead and compare Mario's voice from Mario 64 to Mario Galaxy.

If you ask me you can definitely hear the difference in Mario's voice in Brawl from earlier games like Mario 64 and etc.

Sonic sounding older isn't a big issue if you ask me, I like it. Also I like how a number of people said Jason sucked but now that Smith is doing Sonic's voice Jason was "alright or awesome." Also, there's no talk about Drummond lol

[Doctor Sοnic]

FIRST@TSS *shot*

News'd the info from Roger and given credit. Thanks Doctor Sonic and Jaymeister.

I wasn't expecting this!

Glad I was able to provide some signifcant info.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Doctor Sοnic

[TrueBlue]

Thats exactly how I felt as well. He didn't try to wind up the conversation after a minute like people at signings normally do. At the point where I thought he was going to, he just continued on talking for another minute or so. And when we'd finished talking, he was happy to pose for a photo with me.

Aye, he even let me request that he let me record him doing his Sonic voice saying hello to my little brother, but couldn't due to the games involving him not being released yet. He then offered to do it in Ezio's or Chris Redfield's voice, which while I declined, I found to to be a very nice gesture. Just overall a nice guy, I wish him the best of luck.

[Blue Blood]

Sonic sounding older isn't a big issue if you ask me, I like it. Also I like how a number of people said Jason sucked but now that Smith is doing Sonic's voice Jason was "alright or awesome." Also, there's no talk about Drummond lol

I'll balance it then. Jason sucks at the start, but had really picked up his game by Black Knight and Unleashed. He sounded good for the part and could convey Sonic's happy nature. His problem was the weird inflections that made him sound drunk all the time. Plus he used his Sonic voice for a thousand other roles. That was annoying. Drummond was always the better Sonic but he shared a nasty trait with Griffith- he couldn't act. Smith's new take on Sonic is still fantastic. The only problem with it is that it's different, and that's just a teething problem for our ears.

[Aerosol]

1)There is barely any difference that my ears can discern between Mario in 64 and Mario in Galaxy.

2)You're all assuming that Sonic is even aging, and has ever aged as far as Sega is concerned. Sega may have tweaked Sonic's age between some games, but they've never outright said "Sonic turned 16 years old between this game and that game). Just because they want him to sound older, doesn't mean he is.

3)Nintendo has never decided that Mario needed a drastic change in timber. Nintendo has never up and said "okay, we're making this really great Mario game Martinet, so we need you to do something different with Mario's voice". They've never had reason to change Mario's voice.

Does anyone even remember why Sega had the 4kids crew do the voices since Sonic Heroes? It was their attempt at consolidating Sonic media to make it recognizable across the board. This way, the kids that watched Sonic X wouldn't have to get used to Sonic's voice in the games, and vice versa. I may be over simplifying it, but that's the reasoning I remember. Even then, though, they tried to groom Griffith to sound like Drummond, because that's the voice Sega wanted Sonic to have. Who knows how they decided to have Drummond sound in SA1, but I don't think the similarities to Sonic's voice before his speaking roles in games was a coincidence.

So, going on the assumption that Sega has long known that they wanted Sonic to have a slightly high-pitched voice, just like how Nintendo has long been satisfied with how Mario sounds, it makes no sense that Sega would suddenly decide that the voice Sonic's had for years needs to be changed. That's where I was going with that argument. Excuse me if it was difficult to understand.

4)Mario's voice may have gotten "squeakier" over time, but that can be attributed to Martinet getting better and better at his role. Remember, he was the one that figured Mario should sound the way he does to begin with. When I said his voice hasn't changed, I'm obviously talking about significant changes like the one Sonic just went through. Plus, he voices many other characters in the Mario world. Subtle changes in Mario's tone can ALSO be attributed to Martinet trying to distinguish Mario more from his other voices.

5)Sonic is as much an icon as Mario is. This entire fandom is proof of that.

So back to my statement. There better be a good explanation as to why Sega feels that Sonic needs to sound like he aged about 10 years.

[DistantJ]

The pitch really doesn't matter.

Sonic's hook, aside from his speed, was that he was supposed to be COOL, impatient, cocky... Remember, he was the 'Hedgehog with an attitude', and ya know what? Until now, he hasn't been cool since Jaleel White. His voice is finally cool again.

Sure, they've tried, SA1 was the closest with his whole ninja turtles sounding voice but we all remember the 'you're gonna crash' stuff. In fact, I'd say anybody who like me has played SA1 more than any other 3D Sonic all these years won't find the deepness of Roger's voice jarring at all.

I think otherwise no matter who has voiced Sonic, in whatever media, he's ended up embarrassing sounding just due to trying to mimic the 'nasal, high pitched' thing we all expect ever since Jaleel White gave Sonic his Steve Urkel voice.

Reminds me of when Rayman got his voice actor in Rayman 3. Rayman's voice was actually really deep, soft but very deep, Globox was given a high pitched voice by John Leguizamo (legend!), and Murfy was given a sarcastic New York tone by voice actor extrodinaire Billy West. All three styles were so unexpected, but worked SO DAMN WELL. Those who couldn't get the voices in their imaginations (salvaged from the mumbles in Rayman 2) out of their heads just threw all their toys out of the pram, but everybody else enjoyed the amazing voice and script work which went into that game.

Edited October 30, 2010 by DistantJ

[Blue Blood]

EDIT: Damn Distant J took mah spot! This is in response to Aerosol, obviously.

1. There's a difference in Mario's 64 and Galaxy voice, but it's a difference like Griffith in early episodes of X to Unleashed. Same voice, more developed.

2. Nobody's assuming it (and if they are, they shouldn't), it's just been put forward as an idea. For the record, I'd hate him to age, but I'd love for them to get rid of the act ages though.

3. SEGA may have just thought that it fit better. They could have been unhappy with the old style for a long time and thought that this was the best time to go about changing the voice. SEGA wanted Sonic to sound different for whatever reason. Or maybe, they were trying to appease the fans? At a glance it seems to have worked! But either way, we can't be sure why they wanted him to sound older.

4. Ah, you answered number 1 here. But yeah, this is a massive change because it was intentional. If they wanted more Whit-iffith-ond they would have gone with Griffith again or someone who could tackle the voice they wanted.

5. He's an icon sure, but he's got a lot more to his... um, "vocal character" than Mario ever will. It's important that SEGA is happy with his voice and that it sounds modern. That's difference between Sonic and Mario. Mario is timeless whereas Sonic's main purpose has always been to be cool. If his voice isn't cool enough he loses a big part of his character. And to be cool you've got to be with the times. Griffith arguably sounded like a doofus sometimes (that's the actor though, not the voice so it's pointless me saying that).

The good explanation is probably "it's better". A lot of fans seem to think so, so the higher ups probably think the same. Also Aerosol, I'm not trying to attack you or your opinion here. We keep clashing in this topic, so I just want to make sure we're alright.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Blue Blood

[Scar]

So back to my statement. There better be a good explanation as to why Sega feels that Sonic needs to sound like he aged about 10 years.

Listen to Griffith's condom ad (I know it sounds weird).

His "Sonic" voice, is his regular talking voice.

It too sounds like an adults voice, because it is an adults voice.

Sonic doesn't sound 10 years older, his voice is just deeper. And again, I stress, this is one of many cutscenes in the game.

When you're talking casually, your voice often softens and lowers a bit, same applies here. When in a tense situation or in an exitable mood, your voice raises a little bit.

Also, why do SEGA feel that they need to change Sonic's vocal type?

Because they're rebooting the brand, this may also mean rebooting the character

They went out of their way to hire new writers and replace the whole vocal cast besides Eggman. They were probably planning a retool of his character.

They're probably trying to put behind them, the character (includes voice) of the Sonic which starred in the worst Sonic games, and replace it with a fresh start.

A new character who sounds more natural, and doesn't come off as a slight prick, but an actual cool guy.

Sonic was designed to beat Mario and be cool. People's perception of Cool changes with time. The cool from the 90's isn't cool anymore. The cool from 5 years ago isn't cool any more.

Mario is timeless, because he doesn't say more than 3 words at any one time. There is virtually no character behind Mario (all he does is save the princess), so there is no need to change it.

[DistantJ]

Listen to Griffith's condom ad (I know it sounds weird).

His "Sonic" voice, is his regular talking voice.

It too sounds like an adults voice, because it is an adults voice.

Sonic doesn't sound 10 years older, his voice is just deeper. And again, I stress, this is one of many cutscenes in the game.

When you're talking casually, your voice often softens and lowers a bit, same applies here. When in a tense situation or in an exitable mood, your voice raises a little bit.

Also, why do SEGA feel that they need to change Sonic's vocal type?

Because they're rebooting the brand, this may also mean rebooting the character

They went out of their way to hire new writers and replace the whole vocal cast besides Eggman. They were probably planning a retool of his character.

They're probably trying to put behind them, the character (includes voice) of the Sonic which starred in the worst Sonic games, and replace it with a fresh start.

A new character who sounds more natural, and doesn't come off as a slight prick, but an actual cool guy.

Sonic was designed to beat Mario and be cool. People's perception of Cool changes with time. The cool from the 90's isn't cool anymore. The cool from 5 years ago isn't cool any more.

Mario is timeless, because he doesn't say more than 3 words at any one time. There is virtually no character behind Mario (all he does is save the princess), so there is no need to change it.

100% pure this. Everything said here = true.

[Saint Nathan]

1)There is barely any difference that my ears can discern between Mario in 64 and Mario in Galaxy.

If you can tell that Griffith got better over time, then you can hear the differences in Mario's voice.

2)You're all assuming that Sonic is even aging, and has ever aged as far as Sega is concerned. Sega may have tweaked Sonic's age between some games, but they've never outright said "Sonic turned 16 years old between this game and that game). Just because they want him to sound older, doesn't mean he is.

No, but now he sounds his age, not like he's 10 and has major throat cancer.

3)Nintendo has never decided that Mario needed a drastic change in timber.

Because Mario almost never talks.

Nintendo has never up and said "okay, we're making this really great Mario game Martinet, so we need you to do something different with Mario's voice".

Because Mario almost never talks.

They've never had reason to change Mario's voice.

Because Mario almost never talks.

Does anyone even remember why Sega had the 4kids crew do the voices since Sonic Heroes? It was their attempt at consolidating Sonic media to make it recognizable across the board. This way, the kids that watched Sonic X wouldn't have to get used to Sonic's voice in the games, and vice versa. I may be over simplifying it, but that's the reasoning I remember.

And now Sonic X is over and done with. They don't need to worry about recognizable media.

So, going on the assumption that Sega has long known that they wanted Sonic to have a slightly high-pitched voice, just like how Nintendo has long been satisfied with how Mario sounds, it makes no sense that Sega would suddenly decide that the voice Sonic's had for years needs to be changed. That's where I was going with that argument. Excuse me if it was difficult to understand.

Back when Adventure was released, Sonic was still hyperactive in order to be cool. They don't want that anymore. That's not cool, and they've been trying to make Sonic calmer since Heroes. Unleashed was that last one, Sonic was calmer and more slow talking to be cool, except for the levels.

Now Smith has a voice that fits what they want (more than likely for a while now), and he's a good actor to boot.

That's why.

4)Mario's voice may have gotten "squeakier" over time, but that can be attributed to Martinet getting better and better at his role. Remember, he was the one that figured Mario should sound the way he does to begin with. When I said his voice hasn't changed, I'm obviously talking about significant changes like the one Sonic just went through. Plus, he voices many other characters in the Mario world. Subtle changes in Mario's tone can ALSO be attributed to Martinet trying to distinguish Mario more from his other voices.

Because Mario never talks.

Mario dosen't need a change because the voice he has now fits him perfectly, requires little acting, and is mostly grunts.

Sonic needed a change because he talks a lot and his voice hasn't fit since Jaleel, Sonic requires a lot of acting, and also has grunts and such.

See how you can't really compare the two?

5)Sonic is as much an icon as Mario is. This entire fandom is proof of that.

Mario is ONLY an icon. Sonic is so much more than just an icon, he's a character.

So back to my statement. There better be a good explanation as to why Sega feels that Sonic needs to sound like he aged about 10 years.

His other voice actors sounded like nothing anything would ever normally sound like, were bad actors, and overacted. Smith came in with a deeper voice, good acting, natural sound, and doesn't sound like he's constantly yelling.

Pretty great explanation there, don't you think?

[Aerosol]

EDIT: This is response to Blue Blood. Apparently nobody else here knows how to have a debate without being confrontational.

Scar, while I can agree with what you said, I'm inclined not to because not only did you introduce points into your argument that weren't originally your own (and tried to pass them off as such), you decided it was a great idea to bold a part of your response, as if I'm incapable of reading.

DistantJ, you really added nothing to the conversation

Galaxy Man, not only did you seemingly read bits of my response at a time and write a response, instead of read the whole thing THEN respond (like Blue Blood did), you too decided it was important to emphasize whatever it was that you were saying over and over again like I can't read. I find that disrespectful.

If any of you have a problem with this or disagree with something I've said, take it to PMs and leave it out of this thread, hmm?

On topic now, in response to Blue Blood:

1. moot

2. Counter-arguments against me were centered around Sonic aging. I was just offering a rebuttal.

3. I know Sega thinks the voice fits better. I want to know why they think the voice fits better, considering it's radically different from anything they've ever had, and they've definitely had a long time to change it if they've really been dissatisfied.

4. moot.

5. That's okay. I know that and I can agree with that. But Smith sounded cool as well as in character in the Alton Tower commercials. I know they think it's better, I just want to know why. I think it was a retarded decision that makes Sonic sound like a generic platforming dude. He sounds like Ratchet and basically every other popular platforming star nowadays. His timber isn't unique anymore, it's....just "cool".

Edited October 30, 2010 by Aerosol

[Saint Nathan]

His timber isn't unique anymore, it's....just "cool".