WarTraveller

Well that was...nonsensical. Bit also quite beautiful at the same time.

IS...anyone still looking forward to these comics?

Now, should I do another of these? ...Probably. Title: Get Smart Written By: Perry Martin Synopsis: Fed up with Knuckles' infamous idiocy, Tails decides to try and get Knuckles to gain a fair amount of intelligence. When the common method via Amy fails, Tails decides to just make him smarter with one of his machines. The result is indeed a smarter Knuckles, albeit one that could drive a rift between him, Tails and the rest of the team. Main Characters: Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Lowell Highcastle Antagonist(s): Shadow the Hedgehog Backup Characters: Doctor Eggman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Sticks the Badger New Characters: N/A Quote Selection: Knuckles: "Oh yeah, and what if I DON'T want to be smarter? Huh? Ever thought of that?" Tails: "Knuckles, it'd be for your own good. Being intelligent lets you do all sorts of things!" Lowell: "Besides, I think it goes without saying that a few people 'round here would probably appreciate a smarter you." Tails: "Like who?" Lowell: "Well..." *Camera pans over to the window. A red echidna like Knuckles (but smaller and thinner) is standing outside of the window looking in. His face is pressed against the glass and he is glaring at Knuckles with a face that screams disgust and hatred. Tense music plays in the background as the area behind the echidna turns to fire and the screen vibrates intensely* Lowell: "Yes...him. Give me a second..." (he walks outside, and a scuffle between him and the echidna is heard off-screen) "Go on, get outta here! Go back to your own universe!" (loud punching sound) "OWW!" (Lowell walks back in, clutching a black eye) "So yes...what do you think?" Knuckles: "Just...give me some time."

I'm not really sure why we don't have a topic for Super Smash Brothers. Like,, why don't we? It's one of my favourite game series ever made. Even if the games themselves aren't that great, the joy and cheer it gives to some people is astounding. It helps that Nintendo has fully mastered the art of the reveal, especially with Smash. Go back and watch people reacting to the trailers for Mega Man, Cloud or Bayonetta and TELL me you don't feel the hype to this very day. Oh, and speaking of hype... Yea. Smash is Back. Don't know if it'll be a new game or a port of the Wii U version - though honestly why WOULD it be the Wii U version? - but all the same, we've got some brand new stuff in it - Breath of the Wild Link and Inklings being the two main ones. Since this is fresh on everyone's minds, I thought NOW would be the best time to make a thread for Smash and see what people have to say for it! For a few questions to kickstart the thread; Do you think this is going to be a new game or a port? What characters would you like in the game regardless? What characters do you think are most likely to end up in the game? Which game of all of them do you like the most? For me, in order, my answers are; New Game - again, why port last gen's Smash game? They've never done that before. Sash Lilac from Freedom Planet, Gardevoir from Pokemon, Knuckles/Blaze/Silver/Eggman from Sonic, Shantae, Shovel Knight, Crash Bandicoot and Rayman. Maybe one of the Rabbids from Mario + Rabbids. Gen 7 Pokemon, another Kid Icarus character, seventeen more Mario Characters and a host of palette swaps; Rusty Tinfoil Doctor Teen Luigi being my favourite of them all. Wii U and 3DS. Character balance isn't the best, and the old content is somehow worse than in previous games, but the roster is large and varied (bar some questionable choices) and all things said it made a lot of people really happy.

Thing is, Sonic had a bigger role than damn near everyone else - in that he had a speaking role. And I always thought it was because of the game deal for Sonic All-Stars Racing - Ralph gets in that game, Sonic has a bigger role in the film. So unless another deal is coming along (which, considering a full Sonic racing game has been rumoured, may be likely), Sonic having an even bigger role in the second film could come across as favouritism. And considering Sonic's, uh...contentious nature, I don't think that'd go down well. Then again, considering Sonic's more infamous reputation concerning certain aspects of the internet...

Honestly, I'd be surprised if he WASN'T there. Thing is, I expected him to be...taller. I understand that they're going by his "official" height, but in every game where there are humans, he reaches at least their torso - the Avatar from Forces would just about reach their chest. Even in Unleashed where everyone is shorter owing to cartoony proportions.

Explanation: These two ran lyrics from nearly every Bruno Mars song into a predictive text generator and asked it to make a new song based on what it knew. ...How did it turn out THIS well? Vaguely...questionable lyrics, though.

So, you're the new guy I was told of, huh? Well, welcome to the Forums. Nice to see someone giving Chronicles some actual love.

Back again, got another idea. If tasked to do so, how would you integrate Perci into the tv show as a member of Team Sonic? Also, how would you handle the Perci/Staci debacle?

Honestly, I'm not going to pass ACTUAL judgement until the first five issues actually release. I mean I COULD call them awful instantly upon arrival, bu that's not fair. I gave Forces a chance, a chance that it almost instantly squandered, but a chance nevertheless. It wouldn't be fair to not do the same here. That said...I'm not looking forward to it knowing what I know.

Well, it wouldn't be SEGA if they didn't repeat mistakes they know end up screwing them over. It really is the supposed banning of the Mobian term that gets me. That just sounds...petty.

No, no, that's wrong. That's not how we're supposed to respond to stuff like this. I am truly sorry. I...kind of got a bit angry because I personally hate this game so much. I made this thread to help ask what could improve this game, and it would be extremely callous of me to go against my own rules. That said; Simple. I would play it up as how it was shown in Mania; as a sort of strange, alien ruby that warps reality and defies explanation. The stuff it creates would actually BE there, not just be illusions that somehow hurt you. I'd even go a step further and suggest/imply a link to something...darker. Maybe the Echidnas made it (I mean it DID show up in Angel Island), maybe it's an Artefact of Dark Gaia, perhaps even make it a Chutulu expy? This franchise could do with a bit more lore, after all. Another thing I would do would be to show that the Ruby cancels out the powers of the Chaos Emeralds. Not only would that help relate it further to Dark Gaia, as its energy was the only other thing that has managed to do so (at least, with Eggman's machinery), but it would also smooth over the plothole of why the Resistance don't just bolt for the Emeralds as soon as Eggman takes over. It would also be consistent with how it was portrayed in the final boss with Sonic Mania. I think that's the main issue with the Ruby in Forces; inconsistency.

Well for one thing, I would attempt to make the Ruby's depiction more consistent with how it was in Mania; a strange, alien artefact that had the power to change reality and bestow more power than the Emeralds - or at least, could give out a reading even more powerful than them. Annoyingly, despite so adamantly shoehorning Mania into Forces, SEGA decided they knew better than a younger generation who actually know what the fanbase (parts of it, at least) want and decided to just recton it all; In Mania, the Ruby was highly suggested to have the power to change reality on a whim, hence it being able to create the Hard Boiled Heavies out of a bunch of Eggrobos. In Forces, it just casts illusions that somehow trick you into hurting yourself. Weak. As mentioned, the ruby gave off higher power readings than the Emeralds and leaves a strange sort of byproduct that can warp reality all on its own, as well as being able to cancel out Super Forms - something that has only been replicated with Dark Gaia, the closest thing the Sonic games have to Satan. Forces doesn't even bother to explore this, as the Emeralds are DLC-specific and little else. Which is funny since you'd THINK the first thing the The Really-Not-Freedom Fighters would do is find and locate them, but oh well. The design isn't even consistent! In... ...Wait what? *checks the Sonic wiki* Oh. The one Infinite uses isn't even the Phantom Ruby. It's one of the prototypes. One that looks nothing LIKE the Phantom Ruby. It's not even the real thing. You know what? Never mind.

With all due respect, that's not so. There's a reason "skin economies" are exploding at the moment. People like to show off and look their best in multiplayer games. Games like PAYDAY 2, CS:GO, Killing Floor 2, TF2 and more, people want to look good. So while cosmetics don't affect technical gameplay, they do affect the emotional, psyhological side of it. I dread to think how much I've spent on PAYDAY 2 and TF2 specifically, and on skins alone. Like I bought a key and got a nice hat for Heavy...but then I just kept going, "Oooh, I bet I could get a nice cosmetic for Scout", or "Man, my Pyro build REALLY needs an interesting zing to it, you know?" Even now I'm trying to get a good cosmetic for my Soldier loadout...I'm thinking the Mann in Slacks. Maybe the Flashdance Footies. Don't get me wrong, of course, Overwatch does it better than other examples - if only for refunding copies of items for currency and letting you just buy the item you want outright. You can SORT of do that in TF2, but you have to do it though a trading website like Scrap.TF and while I've had no problems from that site, I know some people would find it extremely dodgy. Then there's getting into when Blizzard mangled the win rates and rules for certain cosmetics to make them more desierable, to the point it did kind of look a little...exploitative to me. Also the fact that sprays and voice lines are way more common than the skins people actually want...ironically, a problem TF2 doesn't have. In fact, TF2 lets you make your own spray! Well...for now, at least. Thankfully the Steam Marketplace has made the lower-tier cosmetics uber-cheap, but if you want anything above that? Hoo boy. Some people REALLY overestimate how much people are willing to shell out for a skin...and the scary thing is, some people do. Remember that old CS:GO meme of the $1000 knife? That actually happens. And people have spent MORE; https://www.pcgamer.com/csgo-dragon-lore-awp-skin-sells-for-more-than-61000/ So, yeah. Cosmetics DO have an effect on gameplay, just not on the gameplay itself. EA's problems were two-fold; they made the lootboxes have genuine (and major) in-game advantages over other players, and they were NOT subtle about it. In-fact, there's rumours that Disney is preparing to rip the Star Wars license away from EA! ...And give it to Activision. Now that's a bit like yanking your hand out of a fire and then sticking your head in instead, isn't it?

No, don't do "ethical" lootboxes. Get rid of them. Make them illegal. Don't give publishers ANY leeway, 'cause they WILL take that chance. That's...kind of what I've learned/learnt.

Yeah, I...kind of expected the bills made to be ineffective. It should be a simple one: make it illegal to add loot boxes to games that cost money to play, and add an age verification system (credit card or drivers license). If a game containing these things is made to cost money after release, fine them for false advertising. Or, even better, outlaw them entirely.

Skunks, supposedly. Also, hello Not-Orbot and Not-Cubot. Or maybe, Not-Sleet and Not-Dingo.

Sonic Forces: a mixed-reviewed game that spun off the heels of Mania's smash-hit success. Love the gameplay, hate the gameplay, no matter what there is always room for improvement and the there is always something interesting that could be tweaked or changed. That said, there is one thing I'm sure we can agree on; the story was weak. *sounds of Infinite screaming are heard in the background* Well okay, the story had a few interesting ideas. But they're just...not used. At least, not used well enough. It makes you wonder...What Would You Do Differently? =====-----===== Okay! So, let's get this started with this question; "How Would You Handle the Returning Villain Characters?" Here's my answer to start it off. Well, first of all, they wouldn't be illusions from the OG villain used for nothing but to hype up the game, they'd actually be there. HOWEVER, they'd not necessarily be the villains from this timeline. I'd rather take a page from Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon; in those games, a number of past Team Bosses return but they're not the ones from the previous games. Rather, they're from alternate timelines where they've already won, so the energies of their worlds can be used for Team Rainbow Rocket's own goals. Same sort of thing here; imagine if the Phantom Ruby did as Stealth and co actually set it up to do in Mania (that is, alter and add to reality) rather than the weaksauce McGuffin it became in Forces. So in this case, it'd have the power to pull alternates from timelines where they have already championed over Sonic. This would alter them juuuuuust enough to change the dynamic between them. Here's my suggestion for them separately; Metal Sonic: The obvious thing here would be, "Sonic dies at Stardust Speedway" but nah, too obvious. Again, it's the character winning, not Eggman. Instead, this Metal diverges during the climax of Heroes, where he manages to defeat every member of Team Sonic, then the rest of the teams too and even killing Eggman. Of course, now that everyone's wiped out and even his creator is gone, he doesn't actually know what to do anymore. He's now the real Sonic...in fact he's the only Sonic now, but that's all he ever bothered to plan for. Without a purpose, he sort of mills around looking for something else to do, until Infinite approaches him and proposes something; take down Sonic and serve Eggman all over again. Locked in his Neo form, Metal could take the form of anyone he wanted, which would serve Eggman well for sending moles into the Resistance. He likes Shadow, hates Zavok and gets along well with Chaos. Shadow: Ahh now this one IS a bit more obvious; he sides with Black Doom, lets Sonic and Co get eaten, then he kills Black Doom and leads the Black Arms himself. This is basically the setup to my own Travellerverse, but there's no Traveller and thus no-one to really take his new troops on. Result? A heavily mutated Shadow, leading troops he can't use, left ruling a world that's slowly dying from the Black Arm's influence. So when his troops find a portal in the middle of the city, he's straight down there and through it. He comes across Infinite and Neo Metal, and is asked if he wants to spread his influence to this new world too (under Eggman's rule, of course). He obliges. He is closer to what Shadow used to be before Sonic X made him the "EDGETM" archetype he's now known for; cocky, confident and more of a foil to Sonic - and the only one of the four able to match Sonic in pure speed. Likes Metal, hates Chaos and gets along with Zavok. Chaos: Well he wouldn't get taken out in a cutscene by Fanservice Sonic for one. Anyway, Chaos is a bit more...simple. Eggman makes him go Perfect Chaos, Perfect Chaos kills EVERYONE. End of the World. Gone. The sheer power used to do so reverts him to his 0 form, and breaks what remains of his mind in the process - he killed all the Chao, so...oops. He failed at avenging them so poorly he wiped them all out. And with even Tikal gone AWOL, he has nothing to keep him stable, and both his mental state and his body's powers deteriorate. By the time Infinite finds him, he's little more than a puddle. Eggman decides to revive him in a remote-controlled robotic suit (remote-controlled so he won't backstab Eggman) to serve as his muscle in this little team while using the negative energy of this universe to further power the Phantom Ruby. Chaos would be the most unstable, capable of very basic speech and is so far gone he doesn't even recognise Sonic anymore - but he knows for sure he wants to pound him into the dust. Likes Zavok, hates Shadow and gets along with Metal. Zavok: Bad Ending to Sonic Lost World. Again. This time Zavok decided to actually stay and watch Tails' not-roboticization (how on earth do you even spell that) so he knows for sure he is under his control. He sics him on Sonic and this time, Tails does manage to severely damage him. Blasting his legs off, Tailsbot drags Sonic to Zavok's feet and Zavok responds by putting Sonic in the best position to watch his world - and his friends - die slowly. Demoralised, Sonic does nothing as Zavok absorbs the last of the energy from his world and lets the remains just crumble. Zavok proceeds to use the energies to create a sort of successor to the Lost Hex, where Zeti can flourish and begin to plan how to conquer planets on an...intergalactic scale. So naturally, he jumps at the chance to get even more power from Infinite and Eggman and joins their crew without a second thought. Crass and sadistic, Zavok takes great pleasure from torturing Sonic in the six months Eggman has free reign of the world, though fascinated more than anything at Sonic's refusal to break despite the things he does to him. He knows full-well that Eggman plans to betray them at the most convenient time...and he's ready to backstab him in turn. Likes Chaos, hates Metal and gets along with Shadow. Well...that got rather dark. H-How would you try it?

I know this isn't related, but I swear all that reminded me of this; https://cdn.dopl3r.com/memes_files/gem-city-atgemhumor-if-the-titanic-sank-in-2017-beerbongs-bentleys-atpostmalone-the-fuck-am-i-suppose-to-do-save-the-ship-KGzwE.jpg (Put it as a link because there's a swear word in it)

What I want is a Sonic game developed by Platinum Games. SEGA know first-hand how good they are, so how it hasn't happened yet is a mystery. Though...they did pass on publishing a sequel to Bayonetta, so Nintendo had to pick it up. So I guess they just don't know a good idea when they got one. I mean, clearly. I dunno, I just can't shake the feeling that Forces was...intentionally crippled.

Yeah, that's my concern too. It's nice that people clearly WANT 3D games despite everyone saying otherwise...but when it has the major flaws that it has and yet does so well, what would that say to SEGA?

I apologise, but I personally thought the game was just awful. While the Avatar system was really cool and it had some potential and a good handful of decent stages, the gameplay was inferior to Generations and the story was a joke. In Sonic Mania you had returning fan-favourite characters and surprise cameoes. In Forces? All the decent characters are illusions and the actual characters are butchered. And that's not even getting into the insult that was Super Sonic for 2 bucks. I understand this REALLY isn't what you want to hear from me, but I just hate this game. It was the type of game I wanted so much, but was just an insult. It feels lazy, cynical, cobbled together and I almost feel like it is laughing directly at fans who dared not get on their knees and pray to the God King Classic.

As a celebration of 27 years of nostalgia and gaming, SonicGuru has decided to run a sort of contest to see what the community thinks is the best Sonic the Hedgehog character! And everyone is invited to take part! The rules are simple; Tell him your choices for the three best Sonic characters in the series. They can be from any part of the franchise; game, comic book, normal book, tv show, anime, film and so on. A little diatribe explaining why you think they're such good characters is not required, but it IS appreciated - and it may help make your case. NO FAN CHARACTERS - which makes sense, I suppose. Deadline is May 1st, 2018. If you're wondering, here are my picks for Three Best Characters in Sonic (in no specific order); Rouge the Bat: In a franchise known for badly-written female characters, from the stalker Amy Rose, to...well, Princess Elise, Rouge kind of stands out as a character that SEGA haven't actually botched (or at least she's not AS botched as the rest of them). She's still a fairly independant, powerful, assertive and effective character who mixes her roles of Agent, Spy and Thief without one aspect overtaking the other and allowing herself to be Flanderised for it. Except whenever the fanbase tries to write her. Or in Treasure Team Tango. But those don't count. Shade the Echidna: Yes, really. Shade was a character that took a few risks in a game that took a few risks; she was an Echidna, she was competant, she had a good character to her and she was badass. Plus her design is cool and her personality is cool and her weaponry and background is cool and - frankly - she is better than her supposed inspiration (Julie Su) in every way. And then...Penders happened, and the games haven't taken a single risk since. Well, except for... The Avatar: Yes, it's glorified fanfiction. Yes, it's pandering to the highest degree. Yes, the actual character creator isn't as deep as it could have been. And yes, the game he hails from is utter pigswill. But The Avatar from Forces was such a bold move, very clearly done in the face of all the mockery and DeviantART references it was bound to recieve. It would have been so easy to botch it and make the Avatar too powerful and competant (on par with resident Mascot Sue Sonic, of course), making the whole thing feel like self-insert fanfiction at its grossest...and they did. But it's still damn fun to mess around with both the character and the creator, and even with his hyper-competancy it's still a lot better than what the rest of the game was like...at least he actually got to do something outside of stand around and smile. COUGHCLASSICCOUGH

Audio Observations 2 is up! One Swear Word, though this one was intentional

Oh hey, it's turning up in Activities now. Cool. I gotcha, friend.