The 5 biggest controversies of the Sonic series

“Sonic the Hedgehog” is one of the most popular video game franchises in history. The film revolves around Sonic, a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with super speed (like real hedgehogs, of course) who battles the evil scientist Dr. Eggman. Created by Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara, Sonic first appeared in 1991 on the Sega Genesis and gave the company a mascot that could rival Nintendo's Mario. Sonic quickly became a global phenomenon, helping Sega become a major player in the console wars of the early 1990s and even becoming the first video game character to receive a balloon in the Day Parade. Macy's Thanksgiving Day in 1993.

The media franchise has since expanded beyond video games, with Sonic starring in his own comic book series, animated television shows, and, most recently, a series of highly successful live-action films, films that helped break the curse of video games. . However, despite the popularity of the “Sonic the Hedgehog” series, it is not without negative reactions and controversies. On the contrary, Sonic fans are incredibly passionate and stubborn. Whether it's a Sonic game that does something fans don't agree with, a comic book author suing a publisher, or a movie that gives you nightmares thanks to horrible character design, Sonic fans aren't afraid to express themselves. their opinions. Ahead of the release of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and Keanu Reeves’ big entry into the franchise, let’s review the biggest controversies in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” series.

Every announcement of a film adaptation of a video game comes with incredible scrutiny from fans skeptical that their favorite game is poorly represented, but few have received the level of vitriol as the first trailer for 2020's “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie. . Once the trailer was released, fans took to social media to share their horror at seeing the nightmare-ridden Sonic from the “realistic” live-action movie, a product of hell with detached eyes, a terrifying face, and a giant monster Human teeth exist for a reason. It was terrible and almost killed the movie before it was even released in theaters. The design, known as “Ugly Sonic,” was the subject of the best joke in the movie “Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.”

After “Sonic” fans intimidated everyone involved with the film, Paramount Pictures relented and decided that Sonic would undergo a massive redesign for the film. Everyone from the cast to director Jeff Fowler and producer Tim Miller had to address the redesign and save face to clarify that they never intended to make Sonic this scary. “When the ventilator came, I came out and said, 'The most important thing you need to do, man, is say, 'I'm done,'” Miller said shortly after “Sonic.” The redesign has been completed. “The fans also have a say in this. “There is a right way to listen.”

The redesign reportedly added $5 million to the film's budget (according to IndieWire). On the other hand, considering how profitable the film was (it grossed more than $302 million at the box office against a budget of $90 million), one could say that it was millions very well spent.

Although not as popular or mainstream as the games or cartoons, the 1990s also saw a successful comic book series called “Sonic the Hedgehog” from Archie Comics. Not surprisingly, it wasn't long before a huge controversy arose among fans regarding the comics, all because of one man.

Enter Ken Penders, writer of the “Sonic the Hedgehog” comics. Penders is responsible for creating hundreds of characters and telling dozens of stories over many years, creating much of the foundation for the “Sonic” animated universe of the late '90s and early '00s. Primarily, Penders worked on the comic book series “Knuckles the Echidna” (originally published as “Knuckles: The Dark Legion”), and it was crazy. Like most major comics of the time, it was dark and edgy for the sake of being dark and edgy. However, transforming the poem “First They Came…” into a children's animal cartoon story is quite strange.

But most of the controversy came after Penders left the comic series. This is because Penders essentially owned the copyright to all of his writings and successfully convinced the court to say that he owned the characters he created, rather than Archie Comics or Sega. Shortly after, Archie canceled and then rebooted the “Sonic the Hedgehog” comics to remove many of the characters and stories that originated in Penders' time (something many fans blame him for).

“Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric” is a 2014 video game developed by Big Red Button and released for Wii U. It was promoted as a new gaming experience exclusive to the franchise – a title with completely new gameplay that was meant to be. .. It can be played with up to four players and is created using a visually advanced game engine (CryEngine, the same engine used by the games “Far Cry” and “Crysis”). The story follows Sonic who accidentally awakens Lyric the Last Ancient and teams up with Tails, Knuckles, and Amy to stop Lyric from strengthening the robot army.

The game was originally supposed to be released for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, but then Sega was forced to switch to the underpowered (and underrated) Wii U since it had an exclusivity deal with Nintendo. The problem was that CryEngine was not designed to work on the Wii U, which forced many elements of the game to be significantly changed or completely removed. The final version of the game was plagued with glitches and was criticized for its poor design and story, as well as its overall low-quality visuals. It is considered one of the worst “Sonic the Hedgehog” games in the franchise and one of the worst games of 2014 overall (the year that also gave us “Watch Dogs”). What's worse is that the failure of the game almost caused Big Red Button to close.

It makes sense that after the huge success of the first two “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies, Paramount wants its own cinematic universe and expands it with spin-offs. Unfortunately, the first of these series, “Knuckles,” a Paramount+ miniseries focused on echidnas, was not what audiences expected.

In fact, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to expect a show called “Knuckles” to actually feature a fighting echidna voiced by Idris Elba, right? However, the show's most controversial choice was having Knuckles barely appear in his own series. Instead, the Paramount+ exclusive takes a page from the worst MonsterVerse movies and focuses on the funny humans, and the story actually revolves around Wade Whipple, a comical cop from the first two live-action “Sonic” movies. the Hedgehog.” . Plus, the series is pretty bad, with unacceptable jokes, uninteresting characters, and more product placement than the “Power Rangers” reboot.

Created to celebrate the franchise's 15th anniversary, 2006's “Sonic the Hedgehog” video game was both a celebration of the past and a look to the future. But it quickly became clear after the game's release that the future didn't look bright. Its reception was somewhat negative, and the game itself was considered so poor that the tone of the franchise changed drastically afterwards, and many of the game's characters were ignored from that point on. However, the most controversial element was the kiss.

You see, throughout the game's story, we follow a young teenage human princess named Elise, who has a bit of a crush on the blue hedgehog. This is all well and good, until Sonic briefly dies and Elise collapses and, in her grief, kisses the hedgehog. Not only is Sonic dead, but he remembers being a hedgehog (most obviously, a cartoon animal), and Elise is very much a human girl. This is all strange, strange, out of place and strange all over the place. It didn't come out of nowhere either; The game has Sonic and Elise go on a real date at the beginning of the story. Although Sonic was resurrected shortly after, the crime had already been committed: the hedgehog had reconciled with a human and the franchise would never be the same.