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Sonic the Hedgehog Community Thread: Green Hills and Laughing Iizukas

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Wait, isn't Science a rat?

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Tizoc

Member
So here's my review of the Darkest Storm TPB
I'd like you guys to give me feedback on it and point out what stuff I should add-

Note: I want to state first that my writing skills have GREATLY deteriorated over the years, and I would like feedback on how I can improve my writing skills and of this review so it can be used a reference to get into the comic series.

Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series is the longest running video game comic book series to date, and features it's very own universe with it's own unique cast of characters. It was only a few years ago that Archie began publishing the early issues of the comic in digest form, and have recently begun collecting the Sonic Universe comic series in TPB form as well.
However, when it comes to actually reading or getting into this series, the best place to start is with Ian Flynn's run who has been writing the series for more than 5 years now (and is also the author of the Megaman comic). For a while the only issues collected of Ian's run are the Sonic Universe TPBs, his actual run on the Sonic the Hedgehog comic would not be collected in TPB form until the release of the Genesis story arc (#226-230) this year, and just recently issues #162-165 were also collected and published in TPB.

This review will discuss the TPB Darkest Storm which collects 162-165, but I do have a few more stuff I want to explain before talking about the book itself.

As I wrote previously, Ian Flynn's run is the best entry for anyone wanting to get into the series, especially since there's 5 years worth of stories to read!
Ian Flynn's run actually began in #160, and in taking over from the previous writer, the first issues of his run seemed to focus on cleaning up and getting rid of various concepts introduced by previous writers. Furthermore, as one reads the issues from there they'll notice that it references events from previous issues. The bolded parts are what will be the hardest part a new reader will deal with when getting into the series.
The best advice I can give is: Don't worry about it and accept the information given, as chances are, half of the things they talk about don't get brought up again.

One thing I'll be doing in this review is to also explain some of the things going on in the story to help the transition in reading the story. Those having prior knowledge of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon from 1993 might be able to transition with more ease, and while the comic did continue the story of the cartoon, albeit with some differences, much time has passed and many characters were introduced and killed off, among other things.

Finally, as I wrote previously, Ian's run on the comic started with #160, and I was surprised that 160 and 161 were not collected, as they contained 2 of my favourite characters, and also it's events lead up to what occurs in #165 which IS collected in this TPB.
I hope that these 2 issues will be collected eventually, at least as a Vol. 0, that way I can be able to arrange the books in reading order in my shelf >_>;
Do keep note that the TPB does NOT have the stories from 166 & 167, rather they collect the short stories that were added along with the main story in those issues.

If possible I strongly suggest getting 160 and 161, which are available for iPhones and Androids and reading them before this book. FYI that 160 and 161 were released during Sonic's 15th anniversary.

So now that that's over and done with, on with my review of the book:

For starters, let me state that I do not like the art for the main story, this is the only story from Ian's run that I've read featuring James Fry's art, and sadly after seeing the brilliant art in the later stories, coming back to re-read this story was a little painful. You can chalk this up to personal preference/taste; if you ended up liking the art or the art doesn't bother you, then it's all fine and well.

When I went back to re-read this story I come to a realization: The story served as Ian's first steps at 'house cleaning' by removing concepts introduced in older stories, more on this later in the review.

The first page of the story reveals the major villains of the comic series: Dr. Robotnik, who was actually killed many issues ago (the current Dr. Eggman is from an alt. reality who came to conquer the one Sonic and co. live in), Ixis Naugus (who was intended to be the villain of the 3rd season of the ill fated animated series) and Mammoth Mogul (Think DC's Vandal Savage but with psychic powers). The reader will also notice dialog boxes of a person who goes by Anonymous.
Within less than 5 pages, the reader is blasted with lots of information; a character called Elias is the current King of the Kingdom of Acorn. Elias is Sally's long lost brother who introduced many issues ago. ...and we find that Tails has a family and that his Uncle Merlin has come to meet the ruler of Knothole. Finally Dr. Eggman has 'children', the last part is easily explained as one keeps reading.
All this information might be jarring at first, but by the time you finish reading the book, you may find this information much easier to grasp.

As you keep reading you learn about the Ancient Walkers, whom one can simply treat as god-like deities. By the end of the first part of this story, we learn that Eggman is trying to obtain a huge supply of power from The Zone of Silence & Merlin needs Elias' help to save the Ancient Walkers from dying...a quest of sorts that ends before it even begins, as the Walker's are killed by Eggman's assailants who did so by using the energy Eggman's collected. The attack on Eggman at the end, and the nature of ADAM and Mecha is revealed in the next part of the story.
If you've cringed at some of the dialog, then don't worry the dialog will improve and be much more tolerable...although how they got away with Destructix, I'll never know, so EXTREME 90S, yeesh. Also Sergeant Simian gets to be much cooler in a later story. Speaking of which, where the heck did the Destructix come from? How'd they ambush Tails and co.? Strange I haven't noticed that til now >_>;

The 2nd part of the story is rather fast paced, but I find it to be better than the first issue. For starters, the attack on Eggman was to free Ixis Naugus who was imprisoned in the Zone of Slience, the Spider Ninja people are his servants, we learn why the Source of All is important to Naugus and Mogul, and Mecha is killed off...for good....she never appears again...or gets mentioned. Rather funny seeing how a new reader will only know her for only 1.5 issues, although she's been around for a dozen more issues before this. one could argue that Eggman's rash actions were due to the recent failure he suffered, but it's important to take note of it as the Eggman you see now will change...for the worst. One important revelation is that Mogul was the founder of the Order of Ixis, this is a retcon that was introduced by Ian IIRC, as before this they were never related, although it might've been the intention to have both Naugus and Mogul connected before, but only in this story was the link made. Non the less, the issue ends with Sonic and co. against the united forces of Naugus and Mogul.
One rather surprising revelation is Nack's line "I think I'll hit the kitchen on my way out and leave my former gang buddies a little 'gift'"; Nack killed the former allies that betrayed him. This is payback for something from an old story, but the fact this happened occurs only in passing, and Ian Flynn has actually confirmed that Nack poisoned them.

The 3rd part of this story is obviously the finale of the Darkest Storm story. By this issue you will notice some boxes detailing issues or TPBs that feature the event some characters speak of, you don't really have to read them, and can just ignore them if you want. At any rate, the battle against Naugus and Mogul wraps up with Eggman saving everyone's bacon and pulling off a common villain cliche', although to be fair to Eggman, he's gotten some new replacments to occupy his Egg Grape Chamber and didn't want to risk Mogul and the others waking up. We also learn the identity of Anonymous in the end.

The Final part of this book is interesting. The events at the start that Rouge talks about are what took place during 160-161, and incidently enough, what Rouge says would've made for an actual issue, but Ian may not have been given enough time to have it properly penned. Funnily enough, Rouge sums it up in 2 pages or so.
As such if you've not read 160-161, you may be a little confused, especially as it mentions various characters. I'll go on to explain the main ones to make note of:
Dr. Finitivus: Oddest anagram for the word Infinity if I ever saw one, but this character was a villain in the Knuckles comics, and will make an appearance in future stories. The best way to describe him is if Eggman's the scientist, Finitevus is the warlock. Finitevus is also one of my fav. characters in the comic series.

Scourge: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back during the early years of the comic, Evil versions of the main cast from a parallel universe were introduced. Evil Sonic re-appeared in a story from before 160, however underwent a major change in 160-161 and took on the name Scourge. That's about as easy as I can explain the character's origin. It would REALLY help if you were to read 160 and 161 just to get a clear idea of the character. Also one of my fav. characters in the series.

Fiona: Fans of the cartoon would know that Sally was Sonic's girl, well they broke up in a previous issue and Sonic's been with Fiona since before #160...and let's just leave it at that. Some of Fiona's backstory is revealed in this issue as well.

Anyway this story is mostly to set up for a future story arc in the Sonic comic, but seeing it in TPB form will be a painful wait what with the next TPB being released in April 2013 >_<

One pro I can give to this last story is that the art is by Tracey Yardley, who is one of my fav. artists on the series, expect to see more of him in future stories.

The remaining shorts in the TPB were from issues 162-167, and I personally don't bother reading them, primarely due to the art, but the most important one out of all of them is the Snively one as it ties up with the events that take place after Darkest Storm.

One thing I'd like to mention is the book itself, the paper used is very good and they are similar to Marvel's TPBs, if you're familiar with how their TPBs look like.

Nice review. Will anyone be picking it up for PS3? I want people to play against!

I have it, got it as soon as Grace Chen updated US PSN =3
I'd play against you but my connection is trash and I am in the process of getting a new router.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Edit: Tizoc, I'll take a look at that later this week during study break. I see a few things that could probably be improved on from a style standpoint.

I normally work better at night too. Either late at night or first thing in the morning. One'll never catch me working in the day. Unfortunately, I don't have any editors at my beck and call. :p

And my backlog is fiiiiiine! I happened to get more games and then promptly finish them. I don't wanna end up like most of Gaming side, with never-ending Steam catalogues and naff-all playtime. I always aim to finish what I start, or at least play far enough to know I've had enough. I even completed inFamous 2 over the last month, and that's a game that's too long at only about 15 hours or so. The only real big thing in my backlog is Xenoblade Chronicles. I just can't be bothered to turn on my Wii. The length is daunting.
Well, it's more like my bf edits them because he's good at catching things I don't, so he usually does in Word's comments tab before he goes to work (and it doesn't take long so that's good). But when I edit someone else's paper, apparently I tear it apart and put tons of comments in the margins (or rewrite entire sections myself). That also likely contributes to the fact that I take a while to edit them, I guess. >.>

You could always play through the narrative and environments for Xenoblade as opposed to trying to do all of the fetch quests. But man, this quarter's been problematic in that I haven't finished some of the stuff I started in early November. I imagine it's similar for a bunch of GAF members still going to school right now.

That's really wonderful. It's kinda cute.

Seven Force said:
Science the Bear might just be my personal favorite character in a game this year. Not even kidding.
He's definitely one of my favourites this year. Hahaha.

I meant to comment on your ASR:T review before but it ended up slipping my mind. And from what little I've played of ASR:T so far (I only played a little bit of it because I wanted to divert my attention to finishing up FF4 so I wouldn't draw the playthrough out much longer than I already have), I have to agree with a lot of the stuff you said. It truly does feel like one of those "Sega anniversary games", and it comes through in the music and track selections. Plus it's pretty fun. That's honeymoon phase sort of talk, though.

But as for Sonic the Fighters:
Not everybody was apparently happy with its existence &#8211; namely Sega of America, who, despite localizing the title in North America as Sonic Championship, was uncomfortable with the level of violence on display. It&#8217;s one thing when Sonic is bopping robots on the head to save cute little animals, but when he&#8217;s beating his friends senseless in a fist fight, some eyebrows in the marketing department are going to get furrowed &#8211; especially given the proximity to the whole Mortal Kombat/videogame violence debacle a few years earlier.
You learn something new every day. I didn't know about this.

Considering getting the PS3 version, but maybe after the 15th. Priority is getting Walking Dead.
 
So I ended up going back to GS and grabbing the Ultimate Gensis collection and playing the Genesis games starting with Sonic 1.

...why does everyone hate Marble Zone again?
 

qq more

Member
So I ended up going back to GS and grabbing the Ultimate Gensis collection and playing the Genesis games starting with Sonic 1.

...why does everyone hate Marble Zone again?

Only Act 3 was half awful because of that segment where if you screw up a jump you have to redo 30 seconds of that segment!

Act 1 was okay but tooooo linear.
 

Sciz

Member
Thanks! I'm really glad with how well these silly games are being received by everyone :)
They're far more charming and entertaining than they have any right to be, and I'll be sad to see them go. The last advergame I enjoyed this much was Chex Quest.

So I ended up going back to GS and grabbing the Ultimate Gensis collection and playing the Genesis games starting with Sonic 1.

...why does everyone hate Marble Zone again?

Because Marble Zone is the slowest, most linear, and most monotonous zone in the entire series. You can't even have fun by screwing with the physics, because it's almost all boring purple blocks.
 
Because Marble Zone is the slowest, most linear, and most monotonous zone in the entire series. You can't even have fun by screwing with the physics, because it's almost all boring purple blocks.
Eh, Labyrinth is slower, pretty linear (Act 2 is purely linear, Act 1 is only nonlinear if you know about the secret block across the water to the upper path, about halfway in), and rather monotonous, too (especially with how Sonic games handle water segments - and we have this zone to thank for those mechanics). I dislike it far more than I dislike Marble Zone (I actually rather like it in spite of its flaws).
 

Sciz

Member
Labyrinth doesn't make me stand around quite as much, but I'm not going to defend it either.

I'm rapidly remembering why I don't care that much for Sonic 1.
 
I feel Labyrinth Zone is much more interesting than Marble Zone, the mad scramble for air is more enjoyable than waiting for crushers and slowly pushing blocks.
But as i've said before i'm just not that big on Sonic 1 to begin with.
 
Hearing that drowning sound is the second worst thing in gaming outside of screaming Baby Mario.
Wait no, it might be just the worst. It's like you can almost see the numbers floating over your own head, warning you of your impending mortality. Reminding you that Death always get his due.
 

Christopher

Member
The sonic 2006 soundtrack is really something awesome. It sounds very different compared to the adventure series with the lack of Guitar as the main focus
 

qq more

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Hearing that drowning sound is the second worst thing in gaming outside of screaming Baby Mario.
Wait no, it might be just the worst. It's like you can almost see the numbers floating over your own head, warning you of your impending mortality. Reminding you that Death always get his due.

And that's why it's great!
 
The sonic 2006 soundtrack is really something awesome. It sounds very different compared to the adventure series with the lack of Guitar as the main focus

Agreed. I'm afraid to call it my favorite Sonic soundtrack, but I think it's definitely my most listened to of the franchise, after Adventure 1 and Unleashed. And Colors too, how could I forget.
 

qq more

Member
The music is the only good thing about 06 so it's okay! (Personally, I thought the soundtrack was boring compared to the other games')
 
Just got the Sonic Action Pack on Amazon. As if I needed more copies of Sonic games I already own 297028320 copies of. Oh well, couldn't pass it up at that price :3
 

Slermy

Member
Jerks at Gamestop be taking my Club Nintendo cards...=O
*doesn't have a Club Nintendo card for new copy of All Stars*

The hell? I'd complain to the manager. You might not get your point card, but at least they can put a stop to whomever's taking them... assuming it's NOT the manager.
 

Sciz

Member
Wha? There's guitar everywhere in both the Adventure soundtracks and the 2006 soundtrack.

I'd liken it more to SA1, which maintained a nice balance of different kinds of guitar working in concert with plenty of other instruments, and often lacked a guitar entirely or let something else have the lead. Completely different style compared to '06 though.

SA2 was the one that really went all guitar all the time unless you were treasure hunting.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Jerks at Gamestop be taking my Club Nintendo cards...=O
*doesn't have a Club Nintendo card for new copy of All Stars*
Was it gutted?

Honestly, complain about it to the manager and ask for a refund as it was not what you had expected when you purchased the product. You are still being shortchanged as a consumer.

Poor Nocturne. The song no one loves. Yet I love you.
Why? The samples used... :|

I'd almost liken it to the GBA version of the Sonic 1 soundtrack. Almost.
 

qq more

Member
Sonic 1 GBA's music is wayyyyyyyy better than Nocturne because at least there were more than 1 instrument being played at once.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Sonic Pocket Adventure's music is awesome.
Silver Sonic
Sonic 3&K boss theme

Man, I remember when my dad wanted to buy me a Neo Geo Pocket because of some of the fighters on it (this was waaaay back when I used to play lots of fighters and was actually rather decent at them; I suck at them now but I realize that might be because I don't have a stick). Now I regret not taking him up on that offer.

Sonic 1 GBA's music is wayyyyyyyy better than Nocturne because at least there were more than 1 instrument being played at once.
Yes, now you have several channel layers worth of crap instead.

dat accordion mix of marble zone
oh god what did you do to spring yard zone
 
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