Your Personal Sonic Story: Sonic’s Impact on You.

[TheRedStranger]

"So it's been a while guys, no time long see."

 It's been twenty-five bombastic, dynamic, and way-passed cool years since our beloved Blue Blur first blazed through Green Hill Zone in the Act One of his very own franchise. Over the years all of us have tagged along, playing his games, watching his shows, flipping through his comics. Nowadays we Scribes  write, draw, and share, all inspired by our own personal journeys with the Blue-Blur. It's time for us all to look back today and celebrate how such a simple idea as a fast blue hedgehog can grow with us and so oddly impact our lives. 25 years ago today a simple game would start to snowball into a whole subculture, one of which we are all a part.

  Go ahead, wax nostalgic and get sentimental. Don't be afraid to sappy, cheesy, or ever teary-eyed. What's your chapter in this 25 year long story? What brought you here? Who have you befriend along the way? And what do you hope the future of this fandom has in store?

 

 

 

 

[Rick Tyger]

I never owned a Sega system, because they were too expensive for my folks to consider worthwhile. I didn't even know anyone who wasn't in the same situation. So, the games really have no bearing on my early Sonic experience.

SatAM was my real introduction to Sonic. As such, it's my gold standard. I was 13 when SatAM came out. Too old my folks thought for cartoons. And my brother was only 2 at the time, too young for a show that wasn't "Barney"... I got my occasional dosage of SatAM from hanging out with my second best friend on the weekends. He has some younger brothers and a sister who were prime cartoon age. So, my best friend and I would go over there to get our cartoon fix on saturdays. After SatAM, we were all made to go outside to play. Since we lived out in the country, it was easy to imagine that we were Freedom Fighters and were defending Knothole. One time, we mixed it up a bit and took on the rolls of action heroes helping the younger kids (naturally, I got the Chuck Norris character from the Missing In Action movies: James Braddock). Another time, we included my friend's older brother in the action to work it up so that the Freedom Fighters had hired the A-Team (I was Murdock). Many of my memories of SatAM were fuzzy over the years, until I found out about the boxed set's release, and got to speak with the people involved on the old FUS boards. While many people gravitated to Sally and Bunny as the "hot Sonic babe" roll, I've always held Lupe in that respect. Maybe because of the NA connection, or simply because she's a wolf and I've always liked wolves.

My proper introduction to the Sonic games didn't come until they released the Sonic Gems and Sonic Mega Collection for the Gamecube. Then, I could see what everyone was really excited about all those years ago. They're fun games, still. I now have the Sonic collection for the Xbox 360 (rescued from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart), so I don't have to dust off the Gamecube as often.

I really haven't kept up with the more modern games or the other cartoons. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Sonic was to be included in Smash Bros Brawl and have actually gotten rather good with using him in that game. I really just don't have the money to go out and buy games and whatnot. And I don't have the internet connection to handle videos. So, this status stagnation is likely to persist until such time as I come into some sort of financial windfall or something.

[Mr Nemesis]

For me it started with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle with City Escape. I was too young to have played anything other the Dreamcast and never had one and thus had no knowledge of any of the cartoons as they were off the air for years. The intro to the Hero story and that stage was a perfect or as close to perfect introduction to the series and to the character. I didn't know anything else until I got the first two episodes of Sonic X on the old GBA video thing that last for only like four cartridges and apparently it is a good thing that I only saw those two episodes. I first got introduced to the comic via a digital version of Sonic: The Firsts on Sonic Mega Collection + and have only started reading it recently via scans. Finally I watched SatAM around the beginning of this year and while it has aged a bit, it is still a very good show.

[Ishapar]

I was always enthralled by video games when I was a kid, and finally had the opportunity to play them when my aunt gave my family a used Sega Genesis 32X system.  I was a very timid and sheltered kid, so the first time I saw Sonic on a box cover, I was intimidated by him and choose to not play his games.  My sister had to be the first one to plug Sonic 3 into the genesis and start playing, and I fell in love with the game instantly.  I mostly used Tails as I was still intimidated by Sonic, but once I started playing Sonic games with Sonic being the only playable character, Sonic began to grow on me.  I began to turn from a shy timid kid to a daring adventurous young man ready to face the next adventure, and part of it was because I viewed Sonic as a role model.

After spending 4 years in college, I thought it was time to let go of Sonic and seek out what God may have in store for me, but situations arose where God brought that hedgehog back into my life...and I am a little annoyed too.  I wanted to act more like a man and put away "childish" things, but now I realize that if it isn't sin or evil, there is nothing wrong with enjoying things like Sonic.  This lead me back to the Sonic franchise, and I started exploring more media outside the games.  I found the older Archie Sonic series (still never made it past #50) and, a year ago, Sonic Satam.  Call me crazy, but God's will in my life is actually tied to the series.  I am not the most excited about it, but who am I to question God....man that's embarrising...

[TheRedStranger]

I'd love to hear some other good stories.

@Mike Arcade @Wulfsbane @F07E

[F07E]

not much to say really,  my sister owned our genesis and in her small collection of games was sonic 2. I instantly loved it (though my sis only let me play as tails, many years later I'd realize this was because she was really lazy at baby sitting me and my brother) alongside most of the other ones. sadly she'd give the genesis to our parents who subsequently gave it away to our cousins a few years later and my parents would buy a playstation one as a replacement. this didn't mean i'd forget about sonic completely however, as we owned a few VHS tapes of AoSTH, the few remaining saturn trial consoles at our local walmart had sonic r, as well as sonic underground having begun airing at the time. in a strange twist of fate this is also when I was introduced to sonic SatAM as the episode sonic racer was accidentally aired in lieu of underground to which again, I instantly loved it and kept waiting for it to come on again, only to be met with dissapointment as it was finished its run in canada. from there I wouldn't touch anything sonic related (and amazingly not know about the existence of sonic adventure one, and sonic adventure two aside from my brothers friends sister being super protective of her chao garden) until me and my brother got gameboy advances with advance one and pinball party being bundled with them in 03, around when sonic x began airing (and I hated chris immediately, i despised it and i couldnt be bothered to watch it), in the tail end of 04 we got a playstation 2 as our ps1 was on its last legs (literally being held together with tape and a paperclip), to which bundled with it was sonic mega collection, and heroes. this introduced me to the comics (which I was spotty with purchases because I was cheap) and helped begin to spark my interest in drawing.two years later an old friend of mine would actually show me the trailer for the first riders game and I bought it almost immediatley, thanks to that I also discovered youtube which allowed me to watch the other episodes of AoSTH, and re-discover SatAM, run up to my brother joyously bouncing around and cheering that I was NOT crazy and that there was another sonic show besides underground, it was a good day. from then on I would amazingly hear nothing about 06 being gutter-trash (or even existing) until unleashed, where my mind was stunned and only able to put one thought into existence: wut?! I practically considered the series dead then and there until zero gravity came out and gave me some hope, and then the storybook series happened, which made me scream to the heavens NOPE!!! when colours was announced. generations got me back into it via promises of being like the classics (dirty lies and broken promises) lost world and boom had a few fresh ideas that rotted almost immediatley, wich only shed more light on how good the fan scene can be. and thats almost pretty much it.

[WarTraveller]

Not much to say, really. I got into Sonic with Adventure 2 like a lot of people, down at my local McDonalds when they had a Gamecube room (now it's trying to be this really pretentious cafe. Even though, you know, it's freaking McDonalds), got into it via a few pirated copies of Adventure 1 and Heroes and even Shadow, went off it at Unleashed (though I really like it now), realised it was going nowhere after Sonic Boom and that's sort of led me to the bitter, hope-lacking thing who's writing this diatribe.

Hmm. I think posting my thoughts that I wrote down in my own 25th anniversary picture on DA might help with this;

"But yeah, I had to celebrate it. I wouldn't be a proper Sonic fan without doing so. I suppose it can look a bit...hypocritical, since all I've done is criticise the hell out of this franchise. And, perhaps, for good measure; for all their saying that they're going to improve, SEGA keeps making this franchise take every single wrong step. Sonic 06, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Chronicles, Rise of Lyric, Shattered Crystal, hell Sonic Boom in general, Runners, the comics...you get the point. They keep making the same mistakes over and over again, seemingly determined to make Sonic live up to the abject and unashamed mockery he has sustained over the past two decades.

But, and I know this is going to sound beyond insane, but I still love the franchise as much as when I first got into it. I've stayed by its side for too long to really run away from it. I met some of my best ever friends in this fandom. I owe a lot to this series of admittedly not all that good games, books and shows. And I know a lot of people have too. From across the globe, spanning multiple generations of people of all types and genders, Sonic has been there, wherever or not he really should.

I know Sonic fans get a bad rep these days; we're seen as moronic manchildren who can't accept that this franchise is dying and we spend all day making horrible OC characters who make love to Sonic and kill Amy Rose and write smutty fanfiction about it. I'm not going to say that isn't true (it's Sturgeon's Law, after all), but you could say that of any fanbase. It's just that Sonic's is...louder. But there's another thing I think they are; loyal. I first played Sonic Adventure 2 Battle over eleven years ago, and I have stuck with the franchise ever since. Through reboots and princesses, through Werehogs and talking swords, through every bug and glitch and terrible, terrible writing, I stuck by this b*gger's side. We all have. We all suffered through Shadow and 06. Endured Secret Rings and Rise of Lyric. We watched every single hopeless show they greenlit and read every one of those insulting comics. And we tried to find the good in all of it, even tp the point of desperation and the look of abject stupidity from outside gamers. And no, I don't think that was particularly healthy, but we did it for one reason; we just want Sonic to be good again.

Because, unlike the corporate fools who own him, Sonic is more than just a brand to us. He's more than a little blue ball in a pachinko machine. He's more than just a grinning face you can slap onto any random gubbins in the hope it will sell (it certainly didn't do Runners any good). No. Sonic is an icon. A childhood favourite who has fallen from grace, but a childhood icon nevertheless. He helped the kids of the 90's to endure school and follow their dreams, not always for the right reasons (Console Wars, specifically) but still a noble effort for something born from the single thought of "we need to sell more consoles than Nintendo". Which is why it hurts so much when SEGA, Archie and all the other companies "reward" our loyalty and insult our intelligence with such cynical and exploitative b*ggery like Sonic Boom and the post-reboot comics. Why it hurts so much when people like Ken Penders and Chris-Chan become Sonic poster boys to the media. Why it hurts so much when every single Youtube personality sh*ts on the franchise just to get some cheap praise from the masses. It hurts because it shouldn't be like this.

While I will happily say I think the 25th Anniversary Sonic game won't be that much cop, especially with the overly simplified direction the franchise has gone in recent years, I'll still support it. I won't buy it at launch, but I'll still look into it and maybe pick it up later. It'll be nothing like what I want it to be, and I might never get the kind of Sonic game that I would like, I accept that. That's why we do what we do. We write our stories, we make our characters, we dream up our own adventures because we just want what's best for the Blue Blur, even if it can (and has) become incredibly unfocused. While the lunchboxes sell, Sonic will still live, for better and for worse. And we need to make the very best we can out of it before SEGA's scummy actions inevitably catch up to them and the doors close on this franchise forever.

...Then again, that's what we all thought happened to Crash Bandicoot."

DA Link (WARNING - vaguely disturbing imagery): http://fav.me/da7hwvh

[Mike Arcade]

Boy that's a good question, I mean for me Sonic has always been a part of my life since the very beginning, born in the same year on November of '91, started playing the games since I was around 2 or 3, super little. Both Sonic 1 and 2 were the first games I ever played, and on the Sega Genesis too! Over the years I got a bunch of Sega Genesis games and of course, finding and getting all the Sonic games for the Sega Genesis. I specifically remember Sonic & Knuckles was the hardest one to find but it was all well worth it, I played the classics like how they were intended and I don't think a lot of people my age can say that, I was really lucky as a kid to be honest. Heck I even remember when the Dreamcast came out and got it on the release date as a surprise, to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I saw it all throughout the years when it came to the games, the Collections, Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog having his own game. I loved the collections no doubt with the extra games it came along with it that I didn't play on the Genesis and Game Gear titles, though I'll admit back I denied the slipping quality of games with Heroes and Shadow which aren't great games and quite repetitive. Sonic 06 however made me realize I couldn't deny it anymore, doesn't help I got 06 for my Birthday of 2006 as well, I got my own bone to pick with that game (music is good though). Afterwards I didn't really get into other Sonic games even though Unleashed looked pretty good, I only got back in with Colors when it came out and Generations.

But the games weren't the only way I experienced Sonic, I caught AoSTH on as a little kid anytime I could, and admittedly took the Sonic Says section to heart being that young, speaking of which Lovesick Sonic was the first episode I saw.
Though later on with Sonic Underground I caught as many episodes of it as I could due to how it only aired once per week or so, even back then I didn't care for the music videos the series had but I did like the characters. However SatAM I wouldn't really see until the the DVD release, granted I caught glimpses of it here and there on youtube but not the whole series. Before then I read a few scattered issues of Archie Sonic, Sonic Firsts, and a few kids story books featuring the Knothole Freedom Fighters, as a kid it was then I was introduced to them with all those books. I still have my copy of Sonic Firsts too, I thought they were cool from the get go and really liked them, Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, and Antoine were quite different from the characters of the games that I knew, and that was really neat! The whole premise of Mobius had a lot going on for it with a Robotnik that won when Sonic was barely 5 or younger and the heroes trying to free their world from his rule, it was really interesting.

Years later I started to look into SatAM and Sonic The Comic around the same year and was blown away on how good both of them were, both took a different approach on Mobius with SatAM the basis for just about every Sonic outside of the games, and STC being a very different Mobius based on the Genesis Games but taking it in a completely different direction by making Sonic a very interesting character whose not that nice, but still gives it his all to fight for what's right. A few years after that I finally started to enter the Sonic Scene on a few forums, stuck to one, then jumped to FUS due to wanting to find a Sonic forum to talk about the lore and stories of the series, it was there that I met Stranger, Bytor, and Wulfsbane during one of the most difficult times of my life and history wrote itself from there with us opening up Free Scribes.

Sonic introduced me to video games, a main hobby of my life that I'm still into to this day, and because of Sonic I got to meet the best friends I've ever had in my life that helped me so much and has me in a much better place then I once was. I can't thank them or that blue pincushion enough, and I hope to do good with these stories of ours that we'll all make and find lost gems of this series that deserve to be preserved.

What'll happen to Sonic with Sega? I don't know and don't mind wherever that goes, because I know fans like us will keep the spirit of Sonic and Mobius alive, and after all these years we still have.

Thank you for your time folks!

[TheRedStranger]

I broadened this topic to not be specific to the anniversary. Feel free to give your own story about how Sonic has impacted your life.

[WarTraveller]

All things said and done I kind have already said what the impact for me was. 

[Senior Bobbert]

 I just really started playing the games! Really like them. I came to the Sonic fandom later in my life. I am no kid, and been adult for a while, but Sonic is so, so for everyone. It has a lot for everybody, and so many different versions of its stories. It's you guys who actually got me into it so much. It started with the multiplayer games, which are real fun, by the way. There are lot of friendly people in the fandom, happy to bring you in. Being invited to the new Sonic movie by @Mike Arcadeand @TheRedStranger really got me into the other stuff more seriously. Just starting to watch the cartoons, like Tyson's Mania Adventure's and Team Sonic Racing: Overdrive. Colorful characters, and visual gags always make me laugh. Reminds me of the old Loony Tunes cartoons I use to watch when I was a child, but more fast on the punchline. It's good to be able to watch some wholesome stuff nowadays! I am not fan of a lot of new stuff on Netflix, especially with garbage like Cuties out there. 🤮 I just bought an Archie comic volume, and plan to get more. But everyone, and I mean all my friends in the fandom, are telling to watch the Saturday morning cartoon from the nineties.

I will watch it soon, I promise!