Surprise! The Chaos Project is back with its biggest episode ever! Why is a Sonic Prime Special coming out on the day of the Knuckles series premiere? Read for yourself, right here, and find out!
The multiverse is falling apart! But Paradox has a plan. A small team of champions from across the multiverse have been gathered to repair the damage of the Paradox Prism to five strange universes before it’s too late. Can this strange team find a way to come together and save all of reality?
And so ends Season 3’s obligatory pre-finale comedy episode. This was certainly an interesting one. The last two seasons’ equivalent episodes were carried by a constant flow of jokes taking place in ridiculous situations, but this one focused much more on the latter half of that. Not to say there weren’t any good jokes, just that the comedy was supposed to come primarily from the wackiness of Big going on a space odyssey and somehow never getting any closer to his relatively simple goal. The biggest source of inspiration here was Big’s role in Sonic and the Secret Rings, which we’ll talk about later. But, much like S1 E16 “Hate That Hedgehog,” the base idea for this episode also took inspiration from stand-out comedic episodes of other shows from the past. In this case, that would be the episode “Mondo Coco” from an old Cartoon Network show, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (and, perhaps to some extent, the episode “World-Wide Wobbuffet” from Yuni Oha’s Pokémon Cosmic Quest, which began from similar inspiration). Much like this episode, that one features a particularly silly character being swept up on a long journey featuring progressively more ridiculous situations.
Of course, like previous comedy episodes, I also wanted to make sure that this one was here for a reason. Of course, the space theme made it obvious that this episode had to go in this season and nowhere else, but that’s sort of the opposite direction of logic from what I need. Of course, given that Big went missing a full season ago, and that he mysteriously appeared in the Frontiers special, this episode was automatically necessary and “story-important,” but that still didn’t really resolve my problem. I want the reader to walk away from the episode feeling glad that they didn’t skip it. So, as I was mapping out all the different parts of the journey, knowing that Big would have to end up in Cyber Space somehow, I decided to put the destroyed homeworld of the Ancients as one leg of that journey, and use Seraph’s expertise to lead into that. Just like with last episode, (S3 E10 War of the Lost World) having direct relevance to the lore of Frontiers is what made this one work.
But how was I to establish that relevance? What could Seraph help us learn about the Ancients that Big and Froggy could spur her to say? Well, what association do they have already? Big, not much. But Froggy. Froggy swallowed Chaos, and had a reaction to that which still hasn’t been explained—and Chaos is an Ancient. I took that and rolled with it. Although it was not definitively confirmed in the end, the implication is that Froggy is not an Earth frog at all, but perhaps instead an Ancient frog, or descended therefrom.
And then there’s the whole Paradox thing. Planning for this episode, I was not expecting it to end with Froggy acquiring the powers of an elder god, but somehow, that’s the way it went. The train of thought started simply because, in the long line of crazy ways for Big to get from one place to the next, my ideas ran dry on the Lost Hex. I mean, obviously I had the option to actually send him home the “planned” way of reaching the portal before Espio closed it, or simply finding the unclosed one, but that would make for a pretty anticlimactic end to the recurring dramatic irony that drove the episode. There are also Wisps on the Lost Hex he could’ve made friends with as was the plan on Planet Wisp, or he could’ve simply found the portal back to Planet Wisp, but going back to Plan E after Plan F failed would have been, again, anticlimactic. I think, if I didn’t have the Paradox route to go down, I probably could’ve salvaged something out of an idea like “all the failed plans come together to work in the end.” So maybe he finds the portal back to Planet Wisp, and discovers there that Seraph, Barry, and Dodon Pa have all been gathering Wisps to his cause. Obviously that wouldn’t make sense as-is, but something to that effect. But, ah, I’m rambling again.
So anyways, I wanted an ending that doubled down on what was supposed to make the episode funny in the first place, and to me, that meant finding the most ridiculously unlikely way home that can possibly be imagined. I was already considering how this episode would be highlighting Big’s incredible luck at making it out of so many situations alive when he really doesn’t have the skills to. That kind of thinking tends to get the concepts of branching timelines and alternate realities on the brain, which is probably what got me thinking about the preparations I’m making for the currently-delayed Sonic Prime special. And I decided from there how interesting it would be if Big’s luck was more than just an accident—then I decided to take it all the way. I thought that the ultimate culmination of this episode would be the suggestion that it is literally impossible for Big to get home. But he’s so lucky that he defies the balance of the multiverse in order to continue his journey, effectively rewriting reality to his will. Reminder that we’re still talking about Big the Cat.
So anyways, I decided that luring in the character formerly known as Yin-Yang Shadow would be the climax of the episode, but the details remained hazy as I began writing. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that sending Big home might not even be the best option. We already knew from Sonic Movie Special 2: Next Level Nexus that Yin-Yang Shadow and his mystery companion have been trying to build a team of “Prime Candidates,” and I had my ideas in mind for what that team would be. But I hadn’t considered the fact that the delay of the Prime Special would make one of my intended characters, who was available in this season but won’t be for the next, unusable. That character needed a replacement, and, while Big certainly isn’t an obvious choice to fill that role, I had just gotten through coming up with all the reasons that Big should be able to attract the attention of these multiversal protectors. And if he’s unique enough to get their attention, why wouldn’t he be unique enough to join the team?
The changes I needed to make from there were minor. I’d already decided on the idea of Froggy helping Big find this Paradox crystal to set the events in motion. And now, if Froggy simply does as Froggy does, and eats the dangerous magic gem, we would not only have a little extra excitement for the climax, but we would also end up with an unquestionably valid power for the team of Big and Froggy to have that they can use in their coming multiversal quest.
Of course, there’s also Yin-Yang Shadow himself to talk about. Or, should I say, Paradox the Hedgehog. And I suppose I should discuss Sonic Prime in general here. Last time we saw this character was in the Sonic Movie 2 Special, in April of last year. That was more than half a year before the airdate of Sonic Prime, but at the time I don’t believe the date was announced yet, and I wanted to be prepared early on in case the show was premiered without much warning. I teased the coming Sonic Prime Special in a mostly subtle way, by using shattering effects for his multiverse powers and making that one brief hint at the end of looking for a “Prime Candidate.” At that time, I figured that what I was leading into was a Special Episode that would have been written some time last year. I hadn’t yet decided if it would be my standard best-guess-at-the-details release-day celebration, or a more relaxed but fully informed follow-up to the show, or a two-parter that tries to accomplish both. As the date got closer and we still knew so little about the details of the show, I decided, given that Netflix (for some reason) likes to drop whole seasons at once instead of progressively airing episodes like a normal show, I would have the opportunity to binge the whole show in one weekend, then crack down on the Special quickly while the general audience is still watching the show.
Then the show aired. Or at least, one-third of the show aired. We already knew from the announcement that this show was written as a single 24-episode season, and then Netflix goes and releases a whole whopping 8 of them, with the audacity to call it “Season 1”. And now we know for sure that they’re calling the next incomplete batch, “Season 2”. It’s a scummy marketing tactic, taking one complete story and pretending like it’s 3 so you can “release” it 3 times. But, my distaste with Netflix aside, the result is that I don’t have enough of a show to make an episode out of. So, with regret, I chose to delay the Sonic Prime Special until, apparently, “Season 3” comes out, and we actually understand what the show is supposed to be about. That’s why I was rather pleased at the chance of bringing these hints back up in this episode, and expanding on them a bit. I wanted to remind readers that this is still coming, and confirm that it hasn’t been cancelled, while also making it look like I was actually just planning really far ahead. (I wasn’t.) Now, because of these multiple lead-ins, this is shaping up to be one of the most important over-arching stories of the series, which was definitely not part of the original plan.
Yin-Yang Shadow’s new name was a curious situation. This character has consistently been at the whim of last-minute ideas, and now is no exception. Basically, I got tired of that weird “Yin-Yang Shadow” name. It’s cumbersome to write, confusing for the readers, and especially awkward seeing as the in-universe characters would never refer to him as such (besides Movie Sonic, who never actually learned that his name was Shadow). But, after I already, over a year ago, decided to tie him closely in with the concepts of Sonic Prime, and given that his character is, in the most literal sense, a walking contradiction, giving him the new name of Paradox just felt obvious. It’s funny, because when I decided to make him important to Prime, we knew nothing about the “Paradox Prism” or any such use of the word.
Of course, there’s lots of other fun references and ideas to talk about in this episode. Barry and the space train, for example. For those who haven’t played yet, this was all one big reference to “The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog,” the free PC game the social media team put out for April Fools this year (and which Blacklight played and left some voiced commentary on). Barry is the name given to the character in the reveal trailer, and like with Hero, I decided that was the best route to take for choosing a canon name. I went through some debate over whether this weird piece of Sonic history should be considered canon, but in the end, I decided that the ridiculous factor was exactly what this episode needed. The concept of a “space train” probably felt pretty far out from left field, but to be fair, among the branching options for how the story ends, some of the options for what Barry can say they did after the story includes, in one breath, going to space and getting promoted to conductor. The implication was that these were exaggerations, but it’s not like any other parts of the story were really any less weird. To a very small extent, the concept was also vaguely inspired by the DC character “Space Cabbie.” It is what it sounds like. A decision also had to be made about Barry’s gender. They’re referred to exclusively by they/them in the original story, yet they’re clearly designed as a male animoid. Also appears to be more clearly attracted to females than males, not that that necessarily means anything (as Blacklight was quick to point out). It’s a question of whether the character was actually meant to be non-binary, or if the developers just wanted to save some money by not writing differing dialogue options for a user-selected gender. The developers have declined to respond to such questions, or so I’ve heard. So I’m inclined to assume the latter, but, in the end, I figured a bit of enbie representation wouldn’t hurt.
There’s also the debut appearance of Dodon Pa and the canonization of Team Sonic Racing. The game has already been loosely referenced, and of course, the Donpa Kingdom was mentioned explicitly in Frontiers (and equivalently in the Frontiers special), but there was still technically the option of low-tier “it didn’t happen quite the way you remember it” canon, which has now been removed in favor of pretty much complete acceptance. I’m always hesitant to embrace the weirder aspects of Sonic canon—the plot of that game really didn’t make any sense at all, there were some pretty significant out-of-character issues, and, excepting the existence of the Donpa Kingdom, it didn’t really contribute anything valuable to the canon. But that’s a very big exception, and, this being the alien season, the Donpa Kingdom was one aspect of the greater Sonic universe that I figured I shouldn’t ignore. While I was at it, I figured I should capitalize on the chance to showcase some of the uniquely weird aspects of the Donpa Kingdom that TSR talked about but never showed. I mean, an intergalactic motor company run by the ruling monarch of a planet of mythical creatures? That idea is nothing if not unique, but TSR just didn’t feel like elaborating on that. Technically, we don’t know that the Donpa Kingdom is inhabited by mythical creatures, but I think it’s a reasonable extrapolation. Dodon Pa himself explicitly is one. It could be that it’s an entire planet of Tanuki, but that raises an awful lot of questions. If what we know on Earth as a mythical creature is actually an alien from this other planet, what does that mean about our other myths? It would suggest that they all come from a similar source. Plus, if Earth, Planet Wisp, and Kaos are all multi-species planets, it stands to reason that the Donpa Kingdom is as well. And anyways, I think it’s more interesting that way.
Dodon Pa himself was actually a surprising challenge to write. His character in TSR is…a bit confusing. He spends 90% of the game with every word out of his mouth sounding intentionally over-the-top suspicious, but then we learn the full truth about him, and suddenly he doesn’t appear to have a malicious bone in his body—his goal is universal peace and clean, renewable energy. It’s really incongruous, and it was unclear if he was okay sharing all of his secrets with Eggman in the end because he thought Eggman incapable of causing any real harm, or because he simply didn’t care. Given his lack of concern over anyone’s safety, I’m inclined to think the latter. I decided it would be most practical to focus in on this aspect of his character, which meant downplaying his “universal peace” side a little bit. I’m sure this is still his stated goal, but I’m framing that more as a marketing slogan for his business. He’s a businessman first, a world leader second, and a “philanthropist” third, only because it makes him look good in those first two aspects. So, he’s happy to help Big get home. But only if Big does something for him in return. And when Big suggests an alternate option, Dodon Pa simply won’t have it, because that would ruin his business opportunity. That also means that he is perfectly okay with his products being used for illegal activities, as long as it isn’t made to be his problem, which is pretty much what happened with Eggman.
And lastly, we have the originators of this episode’s plot, the Pisceans. Funny story…I wrote this episode thinking that I made them up. I was quite convinced that I was building an alien species out of the vacuum, so I was free to design their appearance, architecture, and culture in whatever ridiculous ways I wanted. I’m not sure exactly how it is that I forgot, but somehow, the fact that this was originally meant to be an existing species in Sonic just completely vanished from my mind somewhere along the way. Here’s what I forgot.
These characters, Hokey and Pokey, are NPCs from the Crater Lake hub world of Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric. Even if you’re one of the few who played the game, I get the strange impression that you probably forgot about them too. Now, to be clear, I still have absolutely no memory of making any sort of decision to take inspiration from these characters. But Hokey (left) pretty much exactly matches the generic design I envisioned for all Pisceans, perhaps just a bit too short and hunched over. And, you know, the humanoid faces. So, what I assume happened is this. It was roughly February of 2021. Ahead of my upcoming episode, S2 E13 Non-Zero Chance, I was doing a quick re-watch of the full story content of Rise of Lyric. Roughly 6 months earlier, I had just completed my first full playthrough of Sonic and the Secret Rings, the very last 3D Sonic game missing from my list at the time. One of my biggest takeaways from that game was, unexpectedly, Big’s role, which was a total shock to me when I first learned about it. The fact that he had all these cameos akin to those of SA2, but with an actual background story put to it, was crazy to me as a Sonic fan. In his second to last journal entry from the game, he talks about being able to find Pisces in the Milky Way, and wanting to “meet him.” I had that simmering in the back of the brain as something I could use for a space/alien themed episode for Season 3. That same source of inspiration created the general backbone for this episode—Big is whisked to away to a strange place because someone mistakes him for a blue hedgehog, goes on a ridiculous and perilous journey where he keeps showing up in the background of important things, and somehow manages to survive through all the escalating danger. So that’s all relatively recent on the brain, and then I get to watching Rise of Lyric, and I see these two strange robot-alien-jellyfish characters who are completely out of place among the rest of the game’s NPC cast, and something makes me think, “That’s it. Those are my Pisceans.” Given that I was pseudo-canonizing RoL anyways, and that I was planning on addressing as many of its mysteries as possible, I suppose this one just felt like a no-brainer to explore in the Alien Season, and the Big episode felt like the easy place to put these aquatic aliens. It was such a quick and easy thought process that I made no effort plot it out, or take notes, or anything that would help the moment stick in my memory. So, two years later, any memory of the moment of inspiration was gone, and all I had left was a vague image of a species design.
So anyways, even though I wasn’t thinking about it when writing it, I will state plainly for the canon here that, yes, Hokey and Pokey are Pisceans, or at least are some related species using Piscean exoskeletons. Why they look different and how they ended up on Earth are another question entirely. Perhaps some other time.
Now it’s on to the trivia, I suppose.
And that is all for now! The Season Finale is in the works, so stay tuned!
-And until then, remember to live and learn every day!
[Mr. C]: (offscreen) It’s not even April 1st anymore, Blacklight. What are you still doing here?
[Blacklight]: Wouldn’t the world be a better place if every day were April Fool’s Day?
[Shadow]: No. No it would not.
[Blacklight]: Your lousy opinions aside, I have no intention of leaving my fans hanging. So let’s get started, shall we? Shadow, the first question, if you would.
[Shadow]: Whatever… Getting in before this years takeover even started, chopinthehedgehog says in response to the first year’s Villain Chat! with Shadow the Hedgehog: “Hi Shadow. I’m a new fan in this franchise. You’re my favorite. But I just want to say, I don’t think you’re a villain. That’s just me.. I don’t like heavy metal that much either.”
[Blacklight]: I told you to read the questions from my fans, not yours.
[Shadow]: It’s all the same… Whatever. Regardless, welcome to the franchise, chopin. The support of my fans is appreciated. But you should know, I’ve reassessed my opinion on heavy metal since hearing the new soundtrack of Sonic Frontiers. Kellin Quinn is an excellent performer.
[Blacklight]: Did you just admit that you like one of Sonic’s theme songs better than your own?
[Shadow]: Three of them, actually. “Undefeatable”, “Break Through it All”, and “Find Your Flame” are all superior to “Almost Dead” in every conceivable way. I’m not conceited enough to deny the facts.
[Blacklight]: You heard it here first, folks. Shadow isn’t conceited, apparently. Let’s move on.
[Shadow] *takes a deep breath* “Crystal the Hedgehog” asks, “OOOOOOOOOOOOF! SONIC DIES?! OOOOOOOUCH! But that game look very interesting. Are you going to include any of your fan characters?”
[Blacklight]: Wow, Shadow. I didn’t know you were capable of expressing that much emotion. Too bad this is only a transcript that no one else can hear.
[Shadow]: She also asks, “Is the game already released? I don’t want to watch this to spoil everything about the game. … Or is it just for a video?”
[Blacklight]: Well, I have some bad news and some good news for our friends here. Bad news is, I think there might have been a little misunderstanding. We didn’t make this game. It’s a semi-official product headed by the official Sonic social media team. That also means you won’t be seeing any Chaos Project characters in there, unless we figure out how to mod it for next year. The good news is, yes! It’s out! Free for everyone on PC from Steam. It even works on my old dinosaur of a machine.
[Mr. C]: (offscreen) Here’s the download page. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2324650/The_Murder_of_Sonic_the_Hedgehog/ Sounds like it might be available for a limited time though, so get it while it’s there!
[Blacklight]: And when you’re done playing it, make sure you come back for my commentary highlights with Shadow. We worked hard so you could hear our voices together for the first time.
[Shadow]: Don’t bother watching his full playthrough. It doesn’t have our voices.
[Blacklight]: Well, I mean, they can watch it if they want to… How about the next question?
[Shadow]: Also from “Crystal”. “What do think Ashura the Glitch is? A transformation of Sonic? Or an actual hedgehog?”
[Blacklight]: Ooh, I like talking about glitches. This one, right?
[Shadow]: The result of a pallet swap error in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Sonic is supposed to share colors with the waterfall sprites, so if waterfalls end up where they’re not supposed to be, they can modify Sonic’s colors in unintended ways.
[Blacklight]: Oh come on, that’s the boring answer! Where’s your creativity? It’s obvious to me that this “Ashura” person is a malignant spirit of the waterfall that possesses Sonic’s body as vengeance for the waterfalls being moved out of place.
[Shadow]: And I suppose Sonic ’06 is the result of a malignant spirit as well?
[Blacklight]: Well yeah. His name’s Murphy.
[Shadow]: You mean Mephiles?
[Blacklight]: Sure, whatever.
[Shadow]: Well, if you want to look at Ashura as a character, the Sonic IDW comics have recently provided us with an alternative explanation.
[Shadow]: This character is called Surge the Tenrec. Her design is confirmed to be based on the Ashura glitch, which could imply that, in terms of canon, the glitch was actually her appearing all those years ago. Her current character has no memory of her past, so it is plausible.
[Blacklight]: What do you know? You two are practically twinsies!
[Shadow]: … … …The next question is from “Ash the Hedgehog“. The question is, “Do any of you hedgehogs comb your quills? I need to know this. Do other hedgehogs care for the condition of their quills? Or just me?”
[Blacklight]: Well, I’m flattered that you think I just wake up like this, but it takes work to be this fabulous.
[Shadow]: I just wake up like this.
[Blacklight]: You see, I know that’s a lie, because a hedgehog without a comb gives us what we see in Sonic Boom. Your alternate universe counterpart really let himself go.
[Shadow]: … … …”Ash” has another question. “Also, where’s all of the parents? It’s understandable that Backlight and Shadow don’t have any, [along with Knuckles] but what about Sonic? Amy? CHARMY?”
[Blacklight]: Whoah there, I can’t go handing out spoilers for things that might happen in The Chaos Project. For example, we already got an episode all about the story of Tails’ relationship with his parents. Sonic dropped us a couple hints about his own parents in there as well—he claims he never knew them. Grew up all alone in the Green Hills with the Animal Friends as his only companions. Poor guy.
[Shadow]: I don’t tend to dig into people’s personal lives, but Charmy did leave us some hints as well in another episode. All he said was that when he met the Chaotix, he had no better home to go back to.
[Mr. C]: (offscreen) Blacklight and Shadow wouldn’t know much about this, but I believe the culture around “leaving the nest” is a bit different for animoids than it is for humans. Given that they tend to develop speed, strength, and coordination at a very young age, it makes sense that someone as young as Amy was when we first met her might have just recently been encouraged to go out on her own and start living her own life.
[Blacklight]: Makes sense to me. Next question?
[Shadow]: Back to “Crystal”. She asks, “What do you think about Sonic’s line in Sonic Prime? The line is, ‘YAAAAAAAAAAAWN. Yep. I yawned you Eggman.'”
[Blacklight]: Hilarious. 10/10 comedy.
[Shadow]: Awful. How does this even qualify as comedy?
[Mr. C]: (offscreen) I’m more with Shadow and Ash on this one. I suppose it’s worth a pity chuckle, pretty much on the level of “Baldy McNosehair.” Seeing that line in the trailer definitely worried me about the writing for the rest of the show. I like a Sonic who is sharp, witty, and carefree (when the situation doesn’t demand a darker tone). Nonsense insults like these not only lack the cleverness that Sonic should have, but also give the impression that he cares way too much about how people around him are reacting to what he’s saying, which is the opposite of carefree.
[Blacklight]: Y’all are wrong. It’s funny because it’s ironic. Yawning in response to an evil plot is expected of a carefree character, but then saying “yeah, I just did that,” shows that he’s practically reading MJ’s thoughts and predicting his obliviously surprised reaction. That’s not witty enough for you?
[Shadow]: Childish is what it is. Petty, even. He’s not trying to gain any actual advantage over his opponent, he’s just trying to him feel bad. A well-written Sonic would know that a hero should be better than that. In fact, everything about Sonic Prime so far feels like it’s meant to take place when Sonic was a bit younger, before he saw much of the world beyond Green Hill, and before he started to mature in the Adventure games. He acts like an excitable child. But it obviously can’t be that early, because Rouge and I are in that show, not to mention Orbot and Cubot. I don’t know what the director was thinking with that script…
[Blacklight]: Well I don’t think this argument is going anywhere.
[Shadow]: That was the last question.
[Blacklight]: Ah, well… I suppose I’m satisfied with my accomplishments this year.
[Shadow]: Blacklight, satisfied with something? That’s a new one.
[Blacklight]: What can I say? I found my voice, upstaged Team Rocket, and won over some new fans. What more can a guy ask for?
[Shadow]: A job?
[Blacklight]: Oh yeah. Boss?
[Mr. C]: (offscreen) No.
[Blacklight]: But even Team Rocket got a new business proposition after they got fired!
[Mr. C]: (offscreen) You have a voice too. Figure out what to do with it.
[Blacklight]: Fine, fine, maybe next year. But before we go, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to chopinthehedgehog and friends for giving me something to do today. Oh, and for being awesome fans. Hope to see you next year! Some houses may burn if we don’t! Sayonara!
My, how the tables have turned…
[Blacklight]: When you asked me to tie myself to a chair, I figured you might have something more fun in mind…
Watch what you say there. I’m only letting you out if you behave yourself.
[Blacklight]: And that would be my…only reward?
Besides letting you stick around for this discussion in the first place? Yes.
[Blacklight]: You never let me have any fun… But fine. Let’s talk about Sonic stuff. Starting with something that isn’t Frontiers, apparently.
Five years later, and the cycle starts again! Today, we’re here to talk about this newest trailer for the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, coming Holiday 2022. Take another watch before we get started.
Blacklight’s not here today, so I’ll be taking this one on myself. I wouldn’t have thought it possible 5 years ago, but I’m somehow more jaded and cynical about the state of the Sonic franchise now than I ever was back then. This trailer should’ve thrilled me to bits, but it’s hard for me to see anything but causes for concern right now. Of course, it also just feels like they aren’t making quite as big a deal about this as they could be. By this phase in the Forces release cycle, we had, in a similar vein, a prerendered scene, a logo/title, and a very limited scope of gameplay. But we also had an instrumental for the game’s main theme, the reveal of a second playable character with the promise of a third on the way, and some absolutely stunning concept art. I feel jipped by comparison. But hey, let’s talk about the trailer.
I’ve got to start by saying for the record that I absolutely adore the way Sonic is animated throughout this scene. This is by far the most expressive we’ve seen the canon Sonic since 2008, and I’m down for it. Sure, he grimaced a bit in the Forces trailer, but even if that were an accurate representation of how he ended up being presented in the game (it wasn’t), it wasn’t a full range of expression like we’re seeing here. Of course, this might not be accurate to the game either, but we’ll get to that in a minute. I’m also very disappointed that we’re going with the short legs and quills look from Lost World/Forces. This game is absolutely the ideal opportunity to make Sonic’s quills as long as they’ve ever been, so they can blow around dramatically in nature’s wind. But whatever, I guess.
As the trailer proceeds, we see that Sonic is running away from something very large that’s chasing him through the forest, tearing through the ground and shredding whole trees in its path as it goes. It proceeds to shoot some unusual heat-seeking missiles at him. All things considered, the choreography of this whole scene is actually very similar to the equivalent Forces trailer, and the similarities continue right up to the end, which worries me for reasons I’ll once again get to in a minute. Anyways, that’s when a mysterious feminine voice calls out, “Sonic, over here!” It’s easy to assume that this is the alleged “ghost girl” that was leaked early on and discussed quite often since then. Sonic once again shows off some impressive expressive range as he first doesn’t know what to make of the voice, but then resolves himself to take its advice, all within the span of a second or two. He takes a hard left (not that he had much of a choice, seeing as the path ahead of him cut off right there—bad sign if that’s supposed to represent gameplay, but I’m probably overthinking it), but the missiles keep following him. Just when it seems like he’s about to be caught in the explosion, Sonic instantly acquires the strange magic/cybernetic aura seen in the teaser trailer, and gains enough speed to escape the danger and exit the forest to a sheer cliffside. He takes a moment to breathe, turns around, and gasps at the sight of something we are, at present, forbidden from seeing.
That’s already quite a bit to break down, given that it’s only the first half of the trailer. I’ll go ahead and start with that aura I mentioned. I already talked a little bit in the teaser discussion about my theory that this new move is some sort of dialed-back replacement for the Boost, and this trailer only seems to support that idea. When we see the boost used, for example, in the Forces trailer cutscenes, the speed increase is dramatic compared to his standard running. But here, this cybernetic aura ticks up his speed only just barely enough for him to escape. I’m also still assuming that this move is the so-called “Spin Cycle” of leaked fame, which means that it needs to be slow and controlled enough that you can draw a circle with it. I can only hope that this theory proves true. I already said this five years ago, but SEGA once again has a chance to prove to me that the Boost formula is salvageable, by treating it as a tool in the kit, instead of the end-all purpose of playing the game.
Anyways, I predict that this, for the first time since Sonic Colors of all things, will be the triumphant return of high-quality, pre-rendered cutscenes that actually help to tell the story of the game, instead of just being trailer bait. Allow me to explain. Forces really frustrated me with the use of the trailer scene we’ve been talking about. It seems pretty clear to me that at some point, it was rendered as a contiguous sequence of events from Sonic looking out at the destroyed city all the way to the playable trio encountering Infinite. They took that scene, chopped it up into three and a half pieces to be spread across the different trailers, then threw out the rest. There are parts of that beautiful and dramatic animation that we have never seen and never will see, and as a Sonic fan, that frustrates me immensely. If they’d continued the trend set by previous games, they would’ve at least included that full, uncut scene as an opening movie that can play if you sit for long enough on the title screen. But no, they couldn’t even do that much, making Sonic Forces the only 3D Sonic game with absolutely zero high-budget pre-rendered eye candy. Even Team Sonic Racing was smart enough to take the opening movie route—in all versions of the game except the one I played, because Sonic hates me and the Nintendo Switch can’t handle a 60 second video file or something, apparently. But anyways, that’s the minimum I expect. Pre-rendered opening movies that show off the setting of the game without containing any canon story content was a trend present in Lost World, Generations before that, and Colors before that. Among those, Colors was the only one that also held onto the trend from “Dark Era” Sonic games, having at least one very early game and one very late game canon cutscene also pre-rendered. I don’t understand why they stopped, I don’t understand why they don’t want the first and last impressions of their stories to make the biggest impressions possible, but regardless of their reasoning, I think it’s finally coming back, for two reasons. One, dialogue. Our so-called ghost girl spoke not once, but twice in this trailer, which automatically implies that there is actual story content potentially happening here. Forces, Lost World, Generations, Colors, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Adventure all share in common that their pre-rendered trailer scenes/title screen opening movies have absolutely zero dialogue. They show scenes which resemble game events, but aren’t actually related to the story. An opening movie that does have dialogue, but only after an extended word-free action sequence, is Sonic Unleashed, which this Frontiers trailer shared more than a few stylistic similarities with. People have been begging SEGA to style Sonic more like he is in that specific scene, and it wouldn’t surprise me if their finally doing that. On the other hand, I’ll say again that this scene is absolutely more similar to that Forces trailer scene than any other Sonic content that has ever existed, which implies that they’re literally just trying to duplicate the marketing that Forces had, and therefore that this will also be a throwaway scene that we’ll never get the complete version of.
My second reason for suspecting that this scene might be canon has to do with what comes after, so I suppose our discussion is moving on. Here, we transition from pre-rendered to gameplay. Obviously not actual gameplay, since there’s no HUD and the camera’s just being dragged through the world without Sonic in most instances, but it’s giving us a look at the the actual locations that we will actually be playing in, as we will see them in the final game. And right away, the first shot we see appears as though it could be the exact location where Sonic was standing in the cutscene—starting from slightly off to the left of where his viewpoint would’ve been when the pre-rendered scene cut. That’s a big maybe, especially considering that the aerial view of the forest we got at the beginning did show the spot where Sonic would end up, but didn’t show any of the rockier terrain we see later. Even if it’s not actually meant to be the same location, the trailer is certainly choreographed to make us think that it is, and the rest might be explained away as miscommunication between the level designers and the animators. Anyways, if it’s true that the pre-rendered cutscene shows a specific in-game location that actually exists, and not just the general setting, that would imply an intentional purpose of being able to drop the player straight into gameplay after the cutscene ends, implying that the scene will be canon. I can only cross my fingers and hope.
Finally, we get to talking about the gameplay footage itself. I just have to say…wow. Gosh is it pretty. And also…Breath of the Wild says hello. I mean, the leaks talked plenty about how much inspiration this game would clearly be taking from Zelda, but I didn’t realize it would be quite this…literal. Everything from the music to the settings to the camera angles felt like it was furiously trying to be Zelda without being Zelda. And you know…I don’t necessarily mind that. Breath of the Wild is a truly awesome game, and if you ask me, Sonic can absolutely work even better in an open world than Zelda did. I just have to hope that, unlike Colors and Lost World trying to copy off of the homework of Mario Galaxy, Breath of the Sonic here actually learns the right lessons from its source of inspiration. Give importance to the world and people, however many or few, that inhabit it. This is not just a setpiece, *cough Forces Lost World Generations cough*, this is a place for the player to immerse themselves. And while you’re at it, maybe don’t forget to explain what’s going on?
Of course, there’s one comparison to be made here, other than Zelda, which I don’t think anyone wants to hear. Ever played Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric? Because this is pretty much what that game looked like when they first introduced it to us. I mean, seriously, compare each of the Frontiers shots above to the respective ones below (from the Rise of Lyric announcement trailer), and tell me that they aren’t going for an identical vibe.
Would you even be able to tell the difference if it weren’t pointed out to you? I’m not necessarily trying to claim anything about what quality Frontiers will have. The Frontiers trailer is awesome, and so was the Sonic Boom trailer for the exact same reason. I suppose what I’m pointing out is that, given Sonic’s track record, a well-made trailer with beautiful shots of settings and locations is absolutely not enough to get hyped over. I want to get hyped. But I’ve been burned by these exact circumstances before. Just have to wait and let the actual gameplay do the talking. And I suppose that brings us to the last part of the trailer.
The pre-rendering suddenly returns as an absolutely massive machine seemingly attempts to stomp down on Sonic. And when I say massive, I mean massive. This thing dwarfs the Death Egg Robots of Forces, and it’s almost certainly larger than the Titanic Monarch. Despite having a very wide view of this thing, it doesn’t even come close to giving us an understanding of its full shape. As best as I can tell, what we see in this shot is just one of its two (or more) legs. And that leg is the size of a DER. If base Sonic fights this thing, I can hardly imagine what a hypothetical Super Sonic fight might be. The leaks say there is one, but that’s one thing I’ll have to see to believe. So anyways, what the heck is this thing? The technology is very un-Eggman like. Do you notice how the diamond/pyramid shaped panels on this “leg” have a ripple effect going to them? There’s something very alien-like about it. Or perhaps more of an ancient magic/tech vibe. Signs point to the latter, but we’ll get to that in another minute. Just before this whole extra shot, we also got a look at the game’s logo, and so the trailer ends.
But wait! There’s more! The image above comes from the newly-launched Sonic Frontiers official website, which gives us a little extra information to glean.
WORLDS WILL COLLIDE IN SONIC THE HEDGEHOG’S NEWEST ADVENTURE.
An experience like never before, accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of high velocity open-zone freedom.
Battle powerful enemies as you speed through the Starfall Islands – landscapes brimming with dense forests, overflowing waterfalls, sizzling deserts and more!
This Holiday 2022 – Speed into new realms.
Isn’t that clever, calling it an open-zone game instead of an open world game? After all, zones are to Sonic as worlds are to Mario. And SEGA does what Ninten…does, but different. We also have a name for the game’s setting—the Starfall Islands. I’ve said before that I don’t really get Classic Sonic’s obsession with islands, but this is the first time it’s really ever happened to Modern Sonic, so I suppose I can’t complain. Much. I will say that it sounds to me like an excuse to yet again avoid acknowledging how this game fits in to the greater Sonic world. We also have an indicator of a potential combat focus to the gameplay, which adds a little extra veracity to the leaks. And of course, the talk about colliding worlds and new realms is certainly new information. If the leaks are to be believed, this refers to the cyberspace worlds which will feature more traditional Boost gameplay and award Chaos Emeralds. I couldn’t help but notice that colorful explosion created by the missiles fired at Sonic early in the trailer could almost be described as something resembling a portal or vortex. Probably not, but it was a thought. I also couldn’t help but carry that thought along to Sonic Prime, which, combined with the concept of new realms, almost sounds like it could be a connection between the two media. Unlikely, but you never know. That’s about all there is there, but we also have a few other corners of the internet to look at. For example, this article from Polygon.
According to the developers, Sonic Frontiers is an “open-zone-inspired experience” and will feature an original storyline from Sonic Boom writer Ian Flynn.
“Sonic Frontiers is a huge leap forward for the franchise, delivering an evolved gameplay experience that can be enjoyed by longtime Sonic fans and action-adventure enthusiasts alike,” Takashi Iizuka, creative officer at Sonic Team USA said in a release.
The article also provided a plot synopsis, which… Umm… Hold on…
Apparently, Polygon has retracted their plot synopsis. It’s just gone from the article. It was there when I read is last night. I know I’m not crazy, because Wikipedia uses this information and sources this article that no longer contains said info. Pretty suspicious if you ask me… Thankfully, the original version of the article has been screenshotted and retweeted.
So that’s a lot more to take in! Iizuka is spouting his usual “everyone should play our Sonic games, this one’s better, we promise” nonsense, but more importantly, our lord and savior, Ian Flynn, has finally made it to the big time like Sonic fans have been begging to happen for years! (And which I came to expect when Flynn announced his unexpected exit at the head of the IDW comics not so long ago.) This fact, right here, gives me more hope for this game than anything that was shown in the trailer. Finally, seemingly for the first time since the terror that was Sonic Colors script, we actually have someone writing for Sonic who cares about Sonic. I’m not prepared to say that this will automatically be the best Sonic story we’ve ever had (like I pretty much did for Forces, what a mistake that was…), but for once, I can honestly say about Sonic that I have truly high, unqualified expectations. He’ll obviously be working under much stricter guidelines and mandates than he would be used to, and it will be a fascinating exercise to see how he manages to work within those. And if it turns out that the plot was bad upon inception, there’s very little he could reasonably do when applying a script to it. I can only hope that Flynn’s passion will bleed through to the rest of the creative team. Also, wow, why does the website credit him as a “Sonic Boom writer” when he’s been writing the Sonic comics for 15 years? Research your articles, people! Now, let me just copy that synopsis over by eye here, in case the tweet somehow goes away or something.
In Sonic Frontiers, Sonic’s long-time nemesis Dr. Eggman discovers an ancient technology on the Starfall Islands and installs his AI program SAGE to hack in and take over. But there is more to this technology than he realizes, and unintended consequences immediately come to bear. Sonic must race against time to uncover the truth, save his friends, and maybe even save himself at the same time.
For the moment, I am going to assume that this is real, and not just the result of a journalist accidentally failing to fact-check a leak or something. Most likely, this information was provided to various journalists, but Polygon hit publish on it before SEGA was ready, so SEGA had them take it down. Too little too late, if that’s the case. Part of this confidence actually comes from the fact that…the grammar here is just barely awkward enough to convince me that it’s probably a direct translation from Japanese. Anyways, taking this synopsis in order, we first see that Eggman is here and involved in the plot, contrary to several leaks that have said otherwise. Then there’s the…ancient technology, found on an island, Eggman fails to control it… Rise of Lyric says hi again. That is literally the plot of that game. Let’s hope Flynn and the rest of Sonic Team do a better job with it. Pretty safe to assume that this ancient technology refers in some capacity to the massive machine in the trailer we talked about earlier. SAGE is obviously a clever reference to SEGA, which fans have been using for plenty long to recognize it. Sonic’s friends, in the plural, is generally a good sign. I’m assuming they’re not playable, but at least they exist. Of course, I suppose “friends” could always mean “just Tails and the ghost girl,” but I imagine they’d word things a bit differently if that were the case. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. And…I think I’ve finally exhausted my sources of information here.
So what does any of this have to do with the Chaos Project? Honestly, nothing yet. And that does scare me just a little. The last thing I want is a Sonic game so completely isolated from the established world that it doesn’t affect my story in the slightest. Oh, and hey, no sign of Wisps anywhere. Maybe the total lack of Wisps in The Chaos Project isn’t so weird after all. Expect the usual tie-in episode when the game comes out, but whether or not I can integrate the game in other ways remains to be seen.
Conclusion
It happens every time. But they did their job. They managed to get me excited. Iizuka claims that this begins a new era of Sonic, and I’m starting to believe it. Theoretically, that’s what I’ve been asking for since 2010. They have the promise of a better story, a bigger world, and a gameplay experience that does away with the greatest flaws of the Boost formula. Then again, I’ve said some combination of these things about Lost World, and about Boom, and about Forces. There’s an uncanny familiarity to this situation, and that’s what scares me the most. That’s the only thing that really scares me. Because as far as what we well and truly know, I have every reason to believe that things might be looking up for Sonic.
-And until next time—
[Blacklight]: What the heck, man!? You did a trailer review without me!?
Uhh… I gotta go now. Remember to live and learn every day! (I told you they weren’t going to call it Rangers.)
[Blacklight]: It will always be Rangers in my heart!!!
[Blacklight]: Guest starring? I thought I was the host…
[Mr. C]: Not unless it’s April 1st, you’re not. Just be glad I called you.
[Blacklight]: Oh, I was coming whether you called me or not. You think I’d complain for two years in a row about the lack of a new trailer, and then just sit back when the trailer finally comes out? This is everything I signed up for.
[Mr. C]: Well then, let’s get started.
Holy Mother of Chaos, I haven’t been this excited since…well since the reveal of Infinite, which I guess wasn’t all that long ago. Only…uh…four years. (How did I get so old? What was I talking about again? Oh, right. Sonic Prime, baby!)
Now, this was technically already announced back in December, but I didn’t bother reporting on it because there were no details at all, and the announcement was later deleted anyways. I’m still curious what exactly went down to cause such a crazy accident, but I’m glad to see that they were smart enough to throw in a few details this time. So in addition to this announcement, we have a small handful of details from a press release on the official website of WildBrain.
- Netflix, SEGA of America, Inc. (“SEGA”), and WildBrain announce a new animated Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic Prime, set to premiere worldwide in 2022.
- The 24-episode animated adventure for kids, families, and long-time fans draws upon the keystones of the brand and features the “Blue Blur” of video game fame in a high-octane adventure where the fate of a strange new multiverse rests in his gloved hands. Sonic’s adventure is about more than a race to save the universe, it’s a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
- The series will be animated at WildBrain’s Vancouver studio, and SEGA and WildBrain will jointly participate across production, distribution and licensing. Man of Action Entertainment, creators of Ben 10 and the characters and team in the Academy Award-winning feature Big Hero 6, have been brought on as showrunners and Executive Producers for the series.
- Building on the momentum generated for Sonic in 2020 – and as the brand celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2021 – Sonic Prime aims to captivate the imaginations of audiences ages six to 11, as well as legacy Sonic fans of all ages, and will match the scale and scope of the epic adventures synonymous with the Sonic franchise. In 2020, the theatrical feature Sonic the Hedgehog, took the number one spot worldwide on opening weekend and remained on top globally for weeks while breaking domestic box office records. Producers SEGA Sammy and Paramount Pictures have announced a sequel to the feature is in development.
The involvement of Man of Action and WildBrain was one of the few things that was already known from the deleted announcement, and my initial reaction was this: “I’m excited, but also terrified. Man of Action excites me. Wild Brain terrifies me. I mean, all the power to you if you unironically enjoy Teletubbies as an adult, but I just really hope they didn’t choose that studio because they plan on going in that direction. AoStH sits on the throne of child-friendly Sonic, and I don’t think it’s really begging for a competitor.” Nothing has changed in that area. Man of Action produced some of my favorite cartoons back in the late 2000’s-early 2010’s, and that could be a great tone to capture for a Sonic series if that’s what they’re trying to go for. Not so excited if they’re trying to go for the tone of new Ben 10, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. WildBrain is the scary one here, but I understand that they own a very large variety of content, (including some of the older Sonic cartoons) indicating that they can do whatever they want, not just Teletubbies. What does that mean for the tone of this show? Let’s find out.
That press release has a lot of interesting information buried in there. I notice vital words like “scale,” “scope,” “epic adventures,” “fate,” “self-discovery,” “redemption,” and of course, “long-time fans.” I see this as a very good sign. We could’ve just as easily been seeing words like “humor,” “attitude,” “fun-filled adventures,” and “whole new crowd,” and that still would’ve been a positive description of a show, just not the kind of show I’ve been hoping for. Their word choice is very indicative of a direction for the show that can be celebrated by all ages, not just children (despite the 6-11 tag). The fact that they associate “long-time fans” with “[drawing] on keystones of the series” is another very good sign that this is a project which will take its lore seriously, which is all I really want out of any Sonic product. Also, I want to mention here because there’s no better place that 24 episodes is another sigh of relief for me. I’m sick of the modern trend of streaming-exclusive shows being restricted to 8-11 episodes for no apparent reason. 24 gives them plenty of room to explore the story, the characters, and the lore, without relying on huge dumps of information or an over-dependence on tonal intensity. They can relax, mess around for a while, and still not be wasting vital story time. The only thing that really could’ve improved my hopes at this moment is a shift in that age tag from 6-11 to something more like 8-13, but beggars can’t be choosers. Now let’s take a closer look at that logo.
Look at that beautiful thing. The shattered “Sonic” name speaks volumes. It’s the boldest act done to a Sonic logo since ’06. It opens up plenty of story speculation potential. Something is obviously broken, with the press release information strongly implying that the multiverse is the broken thing. Or maybe Sonic’s universe specifically, as an instigating event driving him to set out through the multiverse to fix it? I’m so excited to have Sonic diving into the multiverse like this. Of course, the name “Sonic Prime” suggests that Sonic’s universe will be referred to as the “prime” universe, or Sonic specifically as being the “Prime Sonic.” As interesting as that sounds, I actually don’t like it, because it describes all the other universes as being somehow fake compared to Sonic’s universe which is the real one. A multiverse story has a lot more weight when all of the universes are of equal value. On the other hand, this pretty much guarantees that we now have our first ever canon Sonic cartoon. There’s no way that they would confuse audiences by claiming that Prime Sonic is not the same Sonic who has appeared in 30 years’ worth of games. (Or 20 years for Modern Sonic and 10 for Classic, or maybe 10 for Classic, 10 for Human World, and 10 for Modern Sonic’s World, depending on who you ask. Being a Sonic fan can be frustrating sometimes. Point being, Prime Sonic not being the same Sonic from the current canon games would be confusion that I assume they want to avoid.) I also love the font on the “Prime” word. It doesn’t tell us much, but it’s very striking, which I see as yet one more indicator that the tone won’t be especially childish. Random Rorschach Test analysis, I see that it could potentially represent the space between universes, a background that we might be seeing frequently as Sonic jumps between them. Just a random guess, anyways.
I’m insatiably curious to know how they’ll be handling this whole multiverse thing. Are we drawing all the corners of Sonic media together? Will we be seeing the Boom-verse, the IDW-verse, the Movie-verse? Could they take it even further? Could we see the Archie-verse, the SonicX-verse, the SatAM-verse? (Could that be why they brought on WildBrain, so they could have rights to use those classic cartoons?) On the other hand, could this be more like the Archie multiverse, where all the other universes are originally-created mirrors and what-ifs on the prime universe? Or could they take the cowardly way out, and make this exclusively feature the Classic Universe as the only non-prime universe? If we’re lucky, we might get the Sol Dimension integrated into this plot as well. It remains to be seen, but every one of those options has the potential to be very interesting.
Roger Craig Smith, voice actor for Sonic the Hedgehog since 2009, has departed from the Sonic franchise, meaning that he will almost certainly not be voicing Sonic for the show. This comes alongside a similar suggestion made that Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, writers for the Sonic games during the Roger Craig Smith era, have also reached the end of their run in that line of work. Very interesting timing, to say the least. The games written by Pontac/Graff and voiced by Roger had quite a drastic tonal shift compared to previous Sonic games, and their simultaneous departure, alongside the reveal of this new seemingly-serious and probably-canon TV series, suggests there may truly be a goal in mind revert that 2010’s tone shift. As of last week, I would’ve found such a change in direction for the series to be highly unlikely, but now I’m not so sure. So who will be voicing Sonic in this series? Well, with the runaway success of the recent Sonic Movie, Ben Schwartz seems like a very probable candidate. (Then again, crossing over with the movie universe would be a little confusing if that were the case.) There’s always a possibility of bringing back a prior voice actor such as Jason Griffith or Ryan Drummond, especially given the prevailing rumors of upcoming Adventure remakes. But what seems far more likely to me, perhaps just as likely as Schwartz, is that they will simply find an entirely new never-before-used cast for the Sonic franchise, as they’ve already done a few times at this point. No matter what I’ve said about him in the past, Roger really settled in to a pretty much perfect comedic/snarky representation of Sonic, so replacing him without shifting the tone would be a pretty strange decision, and a very difficult task likely to bring about a lot of ire from the fans. No matter how that goes, I would be very surprised if the voice actor used for the show is different than what’s used for the games. Sonic seems long past that kind of brand confusion.
The last thing I have to talk about here, as per usual, is myself. As always, big story potential means big contradiction potential for my story. Probably my biggest concern is that I’m going to have to tear down and rebuild from scratch the inevitable multiverse-themed set of episodes that I’ve been planning. Thankfully, those are far enough off that the show will already be running by then, so I’ll know what I’m getting into. It’s just a shame that my ideas won’t be original anymore. Of course, this whole thing also means that I’m going to have to contend with a whole new interpretation of Sonic. The whole backbone of Sonic’s character was built on starting from Roger and building up from there, so this adds a bit of confusion.
And I think that might be all I have to say for now. Watch as, six months from now, we get a trailer that makes me eat every word I just said. It happened that way with Forces, anyways…
-And until next time, remember to live and learn every day!
The Chaos Project: Sonic the Hedgehog 