Harthric

Why the Sonic Fandom (actually) sucks

Being a long time follower of the Sonic franchise, I can confirm that yeah, the fandom is pretty much garbage, but not for the reasons that everyone seems to want to perpetuate. People seem to think that having kids like something makes it bad, or having OCs that aren’t “creative” are what make something bad. Or having a toxic portion of the fandom is what kills something. While that’s the case sometimes, many people seem to pin this on specific things and not acknowledge that those are in every fandom ever. Literally every fandom you will find has those. It’s unavoidable, and not what’s ruining Sonic’s rep.

What’s ACTUALLY ruining Sonic’s rep is the fact that the “fandom” doesn’t actually support the games anymore, and are constantly ridiculing them. For a number of years now this has been going on, and, it’s not entirely unjustified, as some games are genuinely bad, either in terms of story or optimization (Sonic 06, Boom, etc), but this happens a lot with games that are actually decent. The main case I can find is Sonic Unleashed, which is good, yet everyone tries to find ways to throw it under the bus. It’s also very commonly compared to Generations which, honestly, wasn’t as good. Don’t get me wrong, I pre-ordered Generations and binged it, but, after a while, I realized how little was actually put into it. Comparing the games isn’t even fair, really, and most of the people that support Generations support it purely because it’s practically throwing childhood memories at your face. But, when you compare the two, Sonic Unleashed had better level designs, better graphics, better sound quality, a better story (as well as a much longer/interesting one), and better songs. It let you go fast, faster than any game before it, which is also funny because people ridiculed the game about THE FASTEST THING ALIVE for being TOO fast (Pro Tip: You’re not supposed to constantly have the boost button held down guys, only for straightaways and enemy hordes. You CAN hold it down to go faster, but it’s not required). The levels were designed around the aspect of thinking on your feet and building your forward momentum, they were colorful and unique, and were, consistently, longer than the levels in Generations. And don’t even act like you thought the Time Eater fight was better than the Dark Gaia fight in any regard, because everyone knows Time Eater was a trash final boss. But, the big thing this game gets ridiculed for is the Werehog. SO MANY people hated the Werehog, which makes absolutely no sense. Why? Because people kept on asking SEGA to do something unique and different with the games. People wanted to be able to explore environments and fight stuff. So they did that. You get your fast-paced, adrenaline rush Daytime levels, and the methodical puzzle-solving, beat-em-up Nighttime levels. They literally gave everyone exactly what they asked for, and people got mad because Werehog “wasn’t fast enough,” and the game was “different from the past ones.” And, this has happened consistently. The fandom has consistently asked SEGA to make the games unique and to throw in new elements into the gameplay, but, whenever they do that, the fandom explodes with hate either because it’s different from the past games (WHICH IS WHAT THEY ASKED FOR) or it’s not Sonic Adventure 3 (Spoiler Alert: That was Sonic 06, guys, get over it).

SEGA has been constantly looking for what fans want in the games, and then constantly insulted whenever they deliver exactly what we told them we wanted. And the support is just gone. So many people want the franchise to just end because it’s gone on for “too long.” You know what else has been around for decades? Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and basically EVERY Nintendo IP, and yet, those haven’t gone on “too long.” Parts of the fandom aren’t even sure on their stance anymore. Some company recently commented on the Sonic Movie that’s coming in 2018, captioning their post “Nightmares can come true,” and yet in the article, talk about their interest and how they really do like Sonic. That doesn’t make sense.

TL;DR Sonic Fandom ISN’T bad because people have OCs and have that toxic portion like every other fandom on the face of the planet. Sonic Fandom IS bad because the majority has become a bunch of stuck-up snobs who complain about every gift they ask for.