Where is he, who is he, and why does he do the things he does? Capcom provides no answer, and thier most mysterious character remains that way. This comic tells that lost tale, as well as the untold interplays and thoughts of those around him.
Updates Weekdays (hopefully)
Where is he, who is he, and why does he do the things he does? Capcom provides no answer, and thier most mysterious character remains that way. This comic tells that lost tale, as well as the untold interplays and thoughts of those around him.
Updates Weekdays (hopefully)
Due to the matters of a computer to which I can not access and sprite / background backups which are horribly out of date, I will not be ables to updates the comics for some times.
As the lords Nibelihen Marks Valhalska once saids, "Expects lots of the actions when I returns."
Well, I'm fed up with it. Every time I sit down to write a strip, I can't help but think of how much of a hopeless corner I've written myself into.
I mean, I worked out how to get out and keep going, but the comics up to it were just so stale I didn't want to put you, the readers, through that: which lead to more delays, and more no-updates.
But those days are hereby pronounced The Past, the today hath been dubbed The Future! I'm rebooting the comic from the beginning: basically, forget anything and EVERYTHING I've ever said up to this point, it doesn't count.
Updates may be sporadic, but it's better than nothing. As for the direction of the comic itself, though I was considering a very much darker turn in general, I asked myself - does the universe really need it? I don't think it does, I think it only needs a fresh point-of-view which is inherent in Proto Man himself! To make the comic dark and gritty would be only to fall into the cracks of generic modern entertainment that all claims to be "more realistic" than its forebears, but is each one just a rehashing of everything we already knew, except it isn't kid-friendly this time.
Granted, some of it is awesome - take the Dark Knight - but most of it just blends together into the same "meh, it's dark and gritty" that we see way too much.
But enough about that, and more about the comic! Think old-school Samurai flick.
As you may have guessed, I celebrated my 100th total comic by buying out a DONATOR STATUS for the comic! Which means that, hopefully, I can get a little more exposure for this thing -- which means more viewers, which means more incentive for me to do cool things with the comic.
In the future I hope to expand on this comic such that it has its own website seperate from SJ, but that's a long distance goal: for now I just want to make the best of THIS website.
Which brings me to my call for help: Is there ANYONE out there who would be willing to hook me up with a better website design? The vanilla SJ is good, but I want something more unique and...Bluesy. If you're willing to give it a shot, throw a PM my way and I'll give you permissions to try it out.
Anyway, that's all the updateyness for now - see you soon with Friday's update!
(NOTE: there's a really shot version of this at the bottom)
Okay, I know this comic is based on a game by Capcom, but my favorite - now and for fucking EVER - developer is SEGA, and as such, I'm distressed by how they've treated the Sonic franchise. They've run it into the ground with all of thier crappy new games. All of thier "innovations" which detract more than they add. So here's my full diagnosis and treatment plan for my beloved hero, take it or leave it.
The worst thing is, they've done this before with thier game system line. By the time the Dreamcast came out, which was a great (IMO the greatEST) system, SEGA had released so many pieces of crap that the gem didn't see the response it deserved. Anyway, back to the topic at hand...
What Sonic needs is a total face lift on the development side. Sonic himself is awesome, and the cast of characters following him around are great, but what holds all of the Sonic games back is that the devs are stuck in the same zone they always have been: re-release the same game over and over without fixing any of its issues, and with shittier writing.
The Sega Genesis games were, and still are, awesome. Each one built onto its predecessors, adding new characters, modes, and special stages. Sonic CD was another great game, but suffered because it lacked many of the things that made Sonic 3 great.
Sonic Adventure was a step in the right direction for the series. It was a great game, and the different characters all had thier own PURPOSE without taking the focus away from why we still play Sonic games, SPEED.
SA2 was a step in no direction in particular. In my mind it was a great game, but still a failure, because it didn't DO anything for the series.
Sonic Advance, and the series that followed it...well, for handheld games they were alright. But, again, they were more of the same, and for me heralded the downfall of my most beloved icon.
Sonic battle deserves mention for being a new game, but ultimately fell through because, well, it sucked.
Sonic Heroes, while I didn't have much time to play it, seemed a step in the right direction for SEGA. It added new elements, preserved certain old ones, and ultimately delivered a fun experience.
After that, Sonic fell through. The newer games are just rehashes of the same formula that made SA good, but failing to reproduce its charm. They add new elements that are poorly done, new characters that aren't well-developed, and new plot lines that only confuse the original charm of the series. The age-old methods only work for a game and its sequel, after that its innovate or die: one of the reasons Mario is so popular is because its done EXACTLY that.
Mario 64 added the basis for everything he needed to fly: Sunshine and Galaxy added onto that and made for great games because, while they preserved the great elements of 64, they added thier own flair and defined thier systems.
Sonic needs to do exactly that. SEGA needs to take a step back, relax, and go from the great system (barring certain camera issues) they had set with the original Sonic Adventure. Add a new element, make it interesting again, but most of all, make it a SONIC game. Not a here's-sonic-and-several-hedgehog-knockoffs-who-are-hogging-the-spotlight game.
Hehe, "hog"ing the spotlight. Classic.
If I were on the Sonic Team, I would create a new Sonic game set, get this, in the COMIC BOOK universe. Everything needed for a great game is there! The story has so much fullness to it that they don't NEED to add new characters to get new game modes - it's all already there!
You have Sally and several other "non-super" Mobians, who rely on stealth and guile in thier fight against tyranny.
Bunny would make an awesome game character in her own right: using super-strength and kung-fu (rabbot-fu) moves to defeat 'bots.
Knuckles has so many things going on beyond what's in the game series, I could write a whole 'nother article focused solely on him.
There's Rotor who uses gadgets to get things done, Sir Geoffrey who's a professional soldier in every right - and don't get me started on his love interest in Sally!
I mean, the girl liked him, Sonic, Knuckles, and probably some other characters I don't know about at one point. Sure Sonic is the only constant throughout the story, but there's a reluctance there that makes thier relationship all the more interesting.
And then there's the story! For those of you who HAVEN'T read the comic, it has never stayed all nice and fun among the heroes. There have been points where Sonic is roboticized and destroys all of Knothole. Tails and Sonic have come to blows several times over very complex issues, where you can never be too sure which one of them is right or wrong. Sonic and Knuckles are on-again off-again allies who can never be sure whether they will be fighting or helping each other when they meet.
There's so much sitting there in graphic novel format, I could go on and on - and for Sonic Team, it's all just a few phone calls to Archie Comics away. I don't see why they havn't been tapping that goldmine for ages.
Oh, right, because they wanted to write thier own story. Well guess what, Sonic Team, you've written yourselves into a corner: time to call in the pros.
And while we're at it, let's retcon away all that time-traveling crap - it sounds interesting at first, but as the Mega Man continuity knows, all it does is confuse everybody.
I say we start in the beginning, where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters have a clearly defined goal of dethroning Robotnik, and go several chapters ahead to when it becomes less clear whether the Freedom Fighters' cause is just or if they're just some terrorist cell blowing up things they disagree with, then the sequel can go from there...
(short version)
1) Take Sonic Unleashed. Throw the Werehog THE FUCK out the window. Add more Sonic.
2) Call Archie Comics. Get them to write you a half-decent story.
3) After clearing a stage with Sonic, allow players to play through it with other Sonic characters. Sort of like how Sonic 3 & Knuckles had 3 different characters, but you could play the game with whichever ones you wanted -- only now there's a pretty wide cast to choose from, so each mission could vary radically based on who you choose.
Alright, here's the deal: I tried once, had a REALLY good run, and then it ran out. Why, you ask? Well, I'm currently in THREE (count 'em, THREE) plays at my school, not to mention my Advanced Theatre class -- I'm getting more and more serious with my guitar, spending several hours/night doing nothing but playing it -- I'm applying to colleges, taking two college-level courses (one of which I'm only getting normal credit for...) AND doing a daily-update webcomic.
And I'm happy, I really am -- but something's gotta get scaled back, or I'll never get a full night's sleep again!
So it comes to this, one of my favorite projects: my comic. No more daily updates, but if I ever have 30-45 minutes to spare, I'll pump one out. Really. And when I do, it'll be better quality than that crap I posted for 070 -- ugh, looking back, it made my eyes BLEED!
