Furor Over Sonic and the Black Knight Rumors
Tristan Oliver, Founder | July 20, 2008
Fan Reaction Sinks from Bad to Worse
It’s not often you see the webmaster of a top Sonic site publicly cursing Sega over something not even confirmed yet.
Then again, the Nintendo Power cover purportedly showing Sonic and the Black Knight, of which we still have no further details, comes almost overwhelming outrage from the Sonic community at large. Further, it comes on the heels of relatively positive marks from the Sonic faithful over Sega’s unveiling of Sonic Unleashed at E3, where Sonic the Werehog was once a topic of serious concern.
The most vocal response with the largest audience were Sonic Stadium reporter Slingerland and webmaster Svend. When posting the news, their thoughts were evident:
Words cannot express how pissed off I am right now. This “leaked” Nintendo Power cover better be a hilarious prank. Knowing SEGA, though, I doubt that it is.
“Dear SEGA…
NO.
Yours sincerely,
Everyone”
That anger spilled onto many major community boards. On Sonic Retro member Purity was also none too pleased:
I think I say it for all of us when I say For fucks sake.
I don’t think Sonic Team are ever going to stop this shit. I had hopes last year when I read a GM article about them halting all Sonic games, and taking a step back to think about going classic.
On the same board GHNeko wrote:
Or…HEY…A Far Fetched idea! This game, if its real, will come out, and get high ratings across the board, ala MGS4 and Brawl. And all of you will be like, “OGM SEGA SURPRISED US LOLE” and we can all laugh at this thread and have tea and crumpets.
….
Yeah. This game just smells of fail. BUT, I’d be proud to swallow my words and say I am wrong for laughing at this game IF, and ONLY IF, it doesn’t suck. I mean, a hedgehog with guns was a dumb idea. BUT WHAT ABOUT A HEDGEHOG WITH SWORDS. THE OPPOSITE OF GUNS. If they reverse the concept, the ratings will surely be reversed! Right!?
Over on SonicEatsRings.com, Piers gave the idea some second thoughts:
Have they looked at my terrible fanart of medieval Sonic and Shadow I did once?
But as mentioned before, could they just make an entirely seperate title for this stuff. You aren’t called Sonic Team because you have to make Sonic games.[....] Thinking a moment about it, now I realize they may be doing this for the MotionPlus announced at E3.
Still, this is almost sickeningly looking like Sega’s determination to implement in Not-Sonic gimmicks to Sonic without the use of other characters. As a way of curving around fan’s desire for no additional characters - just the blue hedgehog.
The same board features Keith Hemari saying:
Remember SEGA owns Sonic and if their suits in marketing think that Sonic armed with a sword would bring in big bucks, then SEGA is gonna want Sonic to swing a sword around like Blade in a room full of undead.
Frankly, after the godawful disaster that was Sonic2K6, nothing SEGA does can really surprise me. They released a game that wasn’t even close to ready to be put out on the market. It’s pretty clear they’re letting their marketing division run the show.
And Redrappy over on the GHZ forums may sum up the consensus nicely:
WILLL THE PAIN NEVER END????!!!
This story has caused a virtual explosion of emotion on the boards, even in the past several hours–and even as there’s no real way to tell one way or another whether this cover is legitimate. We are working all of our sources to get you the latest information, and as soon as we know something, we will have it here.
Filed Under Sonic Fan Flash, Sonic Scene, The Next Sonic
I’m really nervous. I loved Sonic for years and I don’t want him to plow into the ground and be among the game mascots who start out great, and then die and terrible and painful death. In my opinion, the only bad Sonic game I played was Sonic Next-Gen. Secret Rings was fun, and I loved Shadow the Hedgehog. Although the guns weren’t needed, I think it was a nice touch. I can’t wait for Unleashed and Dark Brotherhood, despite what the jerks at 1Up and Kotaku said.
I apologize, I’m a Sonic fan-boy.
Please respond!!
Gosh i hate you sonic fan, as i said, Mario fans do things like this all the time, and mario fans always stay loyal and are happy, you guys are a bunch of worthless retards XD
Soap Scum your awesome =D, although i don’t see why you don’t like Sonic NEXTGEN, and yes, guns weren’t needed in Shadow the Hedgehog but it was still a cool game =]
The control were just terrible. I couldn’t take it. The story was good, except the kissing part, but even the world’s biggest Sonic fan would admit to hating that.
not really i hated Secret Rings, i thing the gameflow was just horrible XD. but anyway, i respect you a lot more since you to automatically crticize every sonic game that comes out ^^. and yea, i was a bit freaked by the kiss too at first XD
Sonic 06 was terrible. The controls were broken, the game clearly wasn’t finished with the amount of bugs present (falling through the floor, missing the homing attack, Knuckles being basically unplayable…100’s more) and the story was utter rubbish. Secret Rings which came out after while not perfect was still a breath of fresh air.
Personally until Sega gets it’s act together and makes another good 3D Sonic game fans have a right to moan over any dodgy looking concepts. Mario gets away with it because his main games come out so far apart and are generally considered to be greatness. Mario needs the spin-offs to stay in the public eye.
For me, it’s something simple:
Why a sword? Sonic the Hedgehog is basically a living, breathing buzz saw. Anything a sword can cut through, Sonic can cut through, in theory. It makes me wonder if anybody at Sonicteam or Sega has any idea what Sonic the Hedgehog even is anymore.
This is like a concept a 13 year old kid would come up with because he thinks swords are cool.
i just find it amazing that there are Jonic Fans who would prefer that SEGA would make another 2D game with pixels and 8-bit sound files and everything, i mean COME ON, it’s the year 2008 not 1991, we’re in the 21 century, GET A GRIP
I mentioned before on a few forums, Ryan, that the sword is likely just a promotional artwork to show fans what the game will be about, not how the game will play. For all we know, this game is just a sequel to Secret Rings and feature the same gameplay as Secret Rings. I don’t have any problem with that at all.
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Come on KeigoNiwa, that game concept would be awesome! Hahaha. Actually make it 16 bit sprites…
Jeez, all this over a magazine scan. We hardly know anything about this game, if it IS an actual game, and already everyone’s going nuts.
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