Sonic animator (and saviour of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie) Tyson Hesse has released a statement to fans on Twitter that he is not involved in the production of the intro movie to Sonic Superstars, as a wave of intense criticism flooded the social media platform.
"Credit where it is due, I did not direct or take part this intro," Hesse explained on his Twitter page. "This [was] done fully in Japan by a Japanese team. My only contribution was the character sheets from Origins, which were used again by the team here."
UPDATE: Hesse followed up with the Sonic Stadium to clarify that his statement was not referring to any criticism but instead in response to “a bunch of tweets giving me misdirected praise.”
It is clear he did not see the criticism flooding Twitter at the time, but it is a fact that his statement did arrive following an intense wave of criticism on the platform. We appreciate the clarification and have corrected elements of the story so there is no confusion. The original story continues below.
SEGA released the full, clean version of the upcoming 2D Classic Sonic game's opening cinematic, which bore significant resemblance to the aesthetic found in similar intros for Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins. But it did not take long for a wave of negative comments to be posted to the social media network.
One user posted a number of still frames in a thread to highlight in detail a number of faults with the animation. "There’s SO MANY animation errors... Not only are the drawings wildly inconsistent but Sonic suddenly gains 2 right hands," they explained, adding that other areas of the video appear "choppy", lacking depth perception, characters that teleport positions and camera transitions that "doesn't flow properly at all."
"That Sonic Superstars intro looks really really rough... Its really really baffling to see something so low quality come after the outstanding animation in Sonic Origins and the Knuckles prologue short," they added.
"Just watched all of the previous sonic intros and animations on Youtube, and then went back to Superstars' opening," another user wrote. "Yeah [saying the Sonic Superstars animation is "off" or something are] not lying... Camera angles are wonky, animation is choppy in a bad way, characters go off model too frequently, timing is off, the works. What the hell happened?"
Others were less kind. "That sonic superstars intro looks like straight ass," writes one. "Whatever studio they're getting to make these is most defenitely [sic] being crunched to hell and back." Another writes, "Gonna be honest the Sonic Superstars intro is kinda ass, it just doesn't have the energy or flow of the Mania or even the Origins animations."
As is the case with Twitter these days, scrolling through the platform for long enough will ensure that your timeline is filled with chat like this. Many Twitter users quickly started drawing connections to Tyson Hesse’s work, which likely prompted the artist to speak out (although as he clarified, he did not see any of this criticism levied at the video at the time).
For what it's worth, we didn't think it was all too bad. Obviously Sonic having two right hands is quite (hilariously) off, but we're sure this janky intro won't otherwise diminish a promising-looking gaming experience (that is, if SEGA's animation team doesn't fix all these issues before launch). I mean, we are supposed to be buying a game, after all.
Still, at least we can all agree the Tee Lopes + Jun Senoue music is good, right? Or will that kick something else off? Please (don't) sound off in the comments below!
![Amy and Cream [RaffP]](https://www.sonicstadium.org/uploads/monthly_2024_04/small.1.png.76beb1b8a493958e38b8ff9276f437b4.png)
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