What was it like watching this show as a kid?

I think I only caught like one or two episodes that I don't remember well.

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It was pretty great. There were some forgettable episodes but it was well done. Archie Comics are GOAT thought aside when Penders took over

It was exciting. And also misleading. The show seemed dramatic and cool but rewatching it I can safely say writing is just fucking terrible, and Sonic's powers resolved basically every problem whenever they fucking feel like it, and so anticlimactically.

I always thought SatAm was pretty boring. The whole show doesn't even represent the games that much, like why did they give it a darker a edgy tone? Like I know the games have some dark elements to it like the animals are stuck inside the robots. But this is taking it a step to futher and the whole Freedom Fighter shit was terrible. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was more enjoyable. Sonic Boom is the only good Sonic cartoon we have.

I kind of appreciate it a little more as an adult, but I actually hated this show as a kid and found it too depressing. I loved Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, but SatAM was too dark and bleak for my tastes back then. I enjoyed these characters more during the issues of Archie Sonic that were out at the time, that may have used SatAM's characters but had a tone much more akin to AoStH.

>Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was more enjoyable.
>I loved Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

You need to watch Nostalgia Critic's review of the Sonic cartoons to remind yourselves why SatAM is superior to the lolrandumb humor of that trashy meme machine AoStH.

The show and Sonic in general was huge at the time. Sonic was bigger than any current show on CN, Nick, or Disney, yet it lacked enough merchandise during the period. Myself and other kids at school used to eat the fruit roll-ups, and a bunch of kids came to school on Halloween dressed as Sonic.

It's kinda criminal how Sega handled Sonic at the time, because the cartoon was huge.

>the nostalgia nigger is the sole arbiter of taste and spoonfeeds me all of my terrible opinons
forget reddit, go back to a youtube comment section.

I watched this so religiously as a kid I trained myself to wake myself up, without an alarm, at very specific times. Every Saturday morning I'd try to focus on getting up at exactly 7:00am so I could catch this as soon as it started. It became a game to me, trying to sleep up until the very last minute, mainly because the shows before it (Free Willy, later Cro) weren't interesting to me at all and I resented having to sit through them to watch Sonic. It got to the point where I'd wake myself up at 6:50am or 6:55am, only to fall back to sleep and wake up just as the opening credits for Sonic started. To this very day, I am incredibly good at setting my internal clock and waking myself up at a specific time (within a few minutes) in the morning if I focus on it.

As far as actually watching it. I enjoyed the hell out of it. It might have been the first cartoon where I really cared about the individual characters. I also started getting the comic delivered to me in the mail from the very first issue, and like a lot of Deviant Art kids these days I started drawing Sonic in my sketch pad. Luckily I grew out of it before it went into full OC do not steal mode. I can't watch the opening without a tremendous surge of nostalgia. That about covers it I think.

>nostalgia critic
>valid source
kill yourself

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was okay, but it did feel at the time like the wacky joke version of SatAM. Maybe I had shit taste as a kid, maybe not. I barely remember either one of them.

Come to think of it, while I have a lot of trouble remembering specific episodes of SatAM (I remember the comics better), I can still remember the details of AoStH, such as the SSSSS Squad, and the plots of a few episodes. I don't know if that's because I saw it more often since it played on weekdays before I walked to school, or if SatAM was just more forgettable.

It was among the best cartoons on TV at the time. It's still one of my all-time favorites, and the only version of Sonic I'm familiar with since I never bothered with the games for some reason.

Honestly I think I only liked it because of the intro.

youtube.com/watch?v=G4jd0UWGPgY

I don't remember anything else about it. I tried watching it again and it is just awful.

It is a sad fucking state of affairs when Youtube e-celebs are cited as authorities on anything.

>I never bothered with the games for some reason.
Between emulation and repackaged collections, this is inexcusable. Don't be one of those people who are weirdly pleased with themselves for what they HAVEN'T experienced.

They're both trash. Sonic Boom is the only good Sonic cartoon.

I wouldn't bother with anything past to 3+S&K though. Well, maybe 3D Blast. And Spinball. And Sonic CD but that's it. Was Triple Trouble any good? I never actually got to play it.

As a kid I was super hyped up for the show prior to it's release (especially since I was starved for video game related cartoons at the time; Captain N and the Super Mario cartoons were either canceled or forgotten by that point and Megaman was a few years away...)

In hindsight, though I think I was a little disappointed that the rest of the show wasn't as hype as the opening. I didn't enjoy Sonic and Sally bickering the way they did and for all the cool episodes (like Sonic meeting his roboticized uncle, the episode where Sally was replaced by a robot duplicate, etc.) there were ones I thought were just dumb or didn't go anywhere (I remember refusing to watch the episode where Sonic's speed is taken away when it re-ran cause I hated "Hero Loses powers" plotlines at the time.)

At least you didn't say Underground.

This and the comics really freaked me out as a kid, in a good way. I thought it was horrifying that there were maybe twenty real people in the world, and everyone else was in a metal strait jacket forever, and if this guy CAUGHT those twenty people, that would be it, over, forever.

Like a game of freeze tag that never ends.

It was my first brush with existential horror and I'll always love it for that.

I enjoyed it at the time. And this is still my favorite Robotnik, solely because Jim Cummings was the only one to actually make Robotnik menacing IMO.

>Recommending 3D Blast and Spinball over Sonic Mania
What's wrong with you?

It was cool, but I feel like it could've worked without the Freedom Fighters, and just been Sonic and Tails fighting Robotnik like AoStH, but with a darker tone and more stakes on the line

I remember wishing Swatbots were in the games, and for some reason thinking they were in Sonic CD since I couldn't play it.

SNIVLEY... WHAT COLOR IS MY HEART?

youtube.com/watch?v=kI-FxbJ8g1k

Fucked up on a whole other level.

it was absolutely famous, this legend on the playground. I never once caught it on TV, had no idea when or what channel. all I ever caught was the stupid cartoony one. I read some of the archie comics so I knew some of the story
in retrospect it was godawful. sonic doesn't need anything beyond what was in the pre-Adventure games. An interesting, fleshed-out world, a simple villain with clear motives and methods..

It wasn't the darkest or most lore heavy network cartoon of the time since Pirates of Dark Water had aired just a bit before it rolled around but it was definitely strange watching something with those elements when video game adaptations had overwhelmingly been super light-hearted affairs up until that time.

I enjoyed watching it on the USA: ACTION EXTREME TEAM!, along with Ruby Spears Megaman on another channel. Loved it as a kid but it's not perfect.

Loved it. Still do. Still fucking annoyed it got cancelled after that cliffhanger. I honestly don't think it's too edgy or dark, at least when compared to other grimdark shit. Robotnik was a pretty good villain, and it was interesting to see a cartoon world where the bad guy pretty much won for a change.

It sure as hell ain't perfect, though. While Sonic's usual 90s kid attitude kept it from being too edgy, at the same time it felt like he was a character from a completely different cartoon thrown into this one. Tails was fucking wasted, and should've been every bit the technical wunderkind he is in the games.

And why the hell did they call Sonic the leader of the Freedom Fighters? I don't recall that dunce giving anyone an order or forming a plan. If anyone, Sally is the leader. She pretty much points Sonic where the evil is like a chili dog eating torpedo, anyway.

As a kid I liked it a lot but as an adult I kinda ...don't.

Yeah, looking back I feel like they should have dropped Rotor as a character and had Tails do everything he did, plus be Sonic's kid sidekick. And I thought Sally WAS the official leader of the Freedom Fighters? Or was that the comic book?

Would the OVA end up being a good series, or would it end up trash once it went to TV

>You need to watch Nostalgia Critic's
Stopped reading there, learn to think for yourself you sheep

The thing is, the Nostalgia Critic hating that show was just part of the bit, it his characters opinion. Doug himself actually really likes the show in how bizarre it was.

I'm 32 and not really a Sonic fan anymore. I grew out of it around 13/14? Used to read the comics as a kid but yeeeah, I just lost interest. Now as an adult I liked what I saw of the Ian Flynn comics storytimed here but again, I'm not big on Sonic anymore.

That said, SaTam (the fuck was the acronym again?) was my jam as a kid. I loved the fuck out of this cartoon and was eternally mad that we never got a Season 3. I remember trying to figure out who the red eyes belonged to for years before just giving up.

It definitely hasn't aged well at all, but I do get nostalgic feels when I see the opening.

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Explain.

I don't think Snively was alone...

Mania is worthwhile. And I personally liked all the Master System/Game Gear mainline Sonics, Triple Trouble possibly being the best.

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Probably was supposed to be Metal Sonic but the guy fucked up the interview.

It's for the best SatAM ended there. Everyone I knew thought it was Knuckles. Why wasn't it fucking Knuckles?

Do you think Triple Trouble is better than Sonic 3 + Sonic and Knuckles? Because I've always considered that one my peak Sonic enjoyment. It also had the best music.

youtube.com/watch?v=RyoMQg3d5cs

Is Ixis Naugas based on the giant creature in the background?

I can't help but think he was meant to be the original villain, but thought it was a bit much and decided to make it Eggman.

>Do you think Triple Trouble is better than Sonic 3 + Sonic and Knuckles?
As much as I dearly love TT, no, S3K is the pinnacle of the series. It's just so good and everything is so damn polished.

Triple Trouble is still a blast though, and Nack is still one of my favorite characters.

Well, I suppose they couldn't think of a better way to add Knuckles considering he's from a floating island that guards the Master Emerald.

It wouldn't make all that much sense for him to be a villain despite being an antagonist considering he was mislead.

>Nack the Wolfweasel.

>Fang de Sniparu

>Wolf

He doesn't look like either animal.

>I suppose they couldn't think of a better way to add Knuckles considering he's from a floating island that guards the Master Emerald.
user, I promise you. The TV writers were not all that concerned about canon. In fact, Knuckles probably wasn't EVER going to be introduced because the mindset of the era was "video games are for children, so let's write whatever the fuck we want."

>yet it lacked enough merchandise during the period.
This is so true. I wanted action figures so bad and all I had were the shitty happy meal toys. They got a lot of use though.

>I always thought SatAm was pretty boring.
This.

My first exposure as a small child was VHS tapes that had both Adventures and SatAM. The SatAM episodes were filled with frustrating contrivances even for a kid to swallow and a lot of filler to pad the runtime.

Where are you getting "Wolfweasel" from? In the manual it was just "Nack the Weasel."

Besides, Sega has never really invested much effort into making them look like their intended animals.

>In fact, Knuckles probably wasn't EVER going to be introduced because the mindset of the era was "video games are for children, so let's write whatever the fuck we want."

Actually, I think it had more to do with what they thought what post Sonic 2 was like for them. In that they were more interested in what they normally do as opposed to some one off story that is their time on Angel Island.

But, then again we still get to see him in Underground, but that show takes substantial liberties.

>but that show takes substantial liberties.
I don't think SatAM directly referenced Sonic 2 at all, honestly. The only thing the writers took from games was Sonic, Tails, and a bad man named Robotnik. They didn't care about zones or events or anything as they happened.

In all likelihood they were just handed explanations of these established characters and never looked back.

>Where are you getting "Wolfweasel" from? In the manual it was just "Nack the Weasel."

Oops, I meant in the Japanese manual.

>Besides, Sega has never really invested much effort into making them look like their intended animals.

I can see where you're coming from. But, still. For me the issue with Nack is his shape of his ears and the length of his tale. In the end it makes me look like some funky looking kangaroo.

He very much looks like an aussie too. A kangaroo would have been perfect.

>Was SatAM just forgettable?

Yes.
Several episodes are stock plots, some plots are straight up repeated between episodes (the finale of season 1 and opener of season 2 are THE SAME STORY), the samey, dark color pallet makes scenes generally unmemorable, and since the status quo doesn't really change or go anywhere and none of the characters actually develop and rarely get episodes about themselves there's nothing to leave an impact.

The episode of AoSTH where Sonic is frozen and Tails has to save him stands out because it's a variation on the norm using a character who's been well established. The occasional Rotor and Antoine episodes don't stick because they learn nothing, barely do anything, and don't have well established characterization in the first place.

He's actually not a weasel. He's a wolf and a very specific, weird ass little rodent I don't remember the name of.

Doug's Real Thoughts is more enjoyable than the Nostalgia Critic itself IMO

>the samey, dark color pallet makes scenes generally unmemorable
See, this is why you're wrong: it was different from every other show at the time. The dark plot may not have been PREFERABLE to you, but when held up to other cartoons of the era, there's really nothing like it.

>The occasional Rotor and Antoine episodes don't stick because they learn nothing, barely do anything, and don't have well established characterization in the first place.
This I agree with. The side characters were very specific one-note gags who could have been so much better if they weren't so under used and under developed.

I liked Antoine and it pains me to admit there really wasn't a good reason for it.

I rented a tape of SatAM from Blockbuster in about 2001. I was 6, I was very into the Genesis Sonic games at the time, and had played Sonic Adventure at a family member's house.
I loved Tails. He was my favorite to play as, and remains my favorite Sonic character to this day, so my experience was basically this:

"Where's Tails? Who are these other guys? Oh, there's Tails! Oh, now he's gone. Are they gonna come back for him?"
And they never did come back for him. And the next episode didn't even fucking have Tails. Next time, I rented an AOSTH tape instead, and had a much better time.

Now that you mention it, SatAM did kind of keep Tails on the sideline. I wonder if that was just because they knew AOSTH was being made alongside their show, and they didn't want to tread the same ground or something. Him just being a little kid who stayed in their safe little town is decidedly not how the games do things.

Yes. Instead of Sonic and Tails being the main characters, it was more along the lines of Sonic and Sally being the main characters and then everyone else.

I wish I was absentminded enough to read something this straightforward and misinterpret it as "IT'S DARK I DON'T LIKE THAT REEEEE."

The point was that individual scenes within the show are not usually distinct unto themselves in any way. Everything is perpetually muddy brown, green and blue-gray, so scenes don't stick out in your mind visually when compared. They tend to run together, making them more forgettable.

The show itself sticks out compared to contemporary cartoons, but the scenes within the episodes don't. It's why people tend to remember that one episode with the air current geysers: it has brighter oranges and browns, which makes it stand out from the other scenes in the show.

AoSTH has the opposite problem, where scenes are often a ton of different colors all at once with little choreography, making it harder to create association.

Dulcy was forced as hell

I have the biggest, most biased nostalgia boner for SatAM and even I found Dulcy grating. I think I'd mostly repressed her existence from my memory until you brought her up.

Nobody liked Dulcy, ever. Her design is among the worst a "dragon" ever had. And her gimmick was to fly into a wall and go "DUUUH WHY ROOM SPINNING?"
A+++ character. Instant classic.

>Dulcy was forced as hell
So forced that she wasn't even given an episode that introduced her, she just popped up and everyone knew her, like she was always there.

Sonic The Hedgehog, he's so fast that you can't see. Sonic The Hedgehog likes to keep Mobious free. Teenage hedgehog on the run, eatin' chili dogs by the ton

Didn't they redesign Dulcy in the post-reboot comics?

It felt really tense and unexpectedly dark. The whole "if you get caught you lose your humanity and you're a robot with no hope of ever turning back FOREVER" was scary as fuck. Of course that was never gonna happen to the main cast, but ya know being a kid...

I was a Tails fan, so I wasn't a huge on this show. I would tune in hoping he'd show up and he almost never did or if he did it was for a scene or 2. It took him a long time to become relevant and by the time they remembered that "Hey, this character is actually in the games and we should make him NOT useless and a more prominent figure" the show ended.

I came back to this show as an adult though and I was surprised at how bad it was. Maybe it's just me, but Sally is so unlikeable. Her and Sonic's interactions are incredibly annoying, it's the worst part of the show.

Hell if I know. That reboot was like the quintessence of the Antichrist.

Yeah. I guess this is more Sega-friendly than her original design, but I can't fathom why they'd bother to bring her back at all.

>but I can't fathom why they'd bother to bring her back at all.
Reference points. Archie, or more specifically, Ian Flynn, made a hobby of seeing how many elements he could weave into Archie's collage of Sonic history.

Probably because as a SatAM character she was one of the very few non-Sega characters Archie could still use without fear of someone else pulling a Penders.

It's important to remember that they didn't just pull Penders's donut steels post-Genesis Wave, they got rid of every character that wasn't created by Sega or DiC specifically for that reason.

Yeah, the show didn't age well. I loved it as a kid but watching it as an adult I had to face the fact that it's not a very good show.

I do still like the general idea of it, even if I think the execution was lacking.

I really doubt the DiC people had access to that old concept art

Sonic has so many iterations, does Sonic have a Canon multiverse?

They weren't struggling for characters post-reboot. They had no qualms about designing their own characters from the ground up. See: Eggman's Egg Army. I think only 2 characters out of that whole bunch existed previously.

No, there is absolutely no master canon. Archie tried their hand at combining as many games and shows as it could, but the pieces do not fit without some rearranging.

>What was it like watching this show as a kid?
I don't want to think about it.
Those were dark times in my life.

I first watched it as an adult. Three things about it that blew me away:

-How much plot they can cram into half an hour, and what a good action cartoon they can make
-what a great fucking cast it has, Robotic and Bunnies are the standouts
-Sonic and Sally are the best TV couple ever. They are an unbelievably well written and likable pair of characters. Theirs is how you do romance in a story.

Games are the only canon as far as Sonic Team is concerned, the rest are just marketing instruments

Just imagine.

She only appeared on that issue, right?

What shit were they cracking?

No actually, I don't need some washed up hipster faggot to tell me why my opinion is wrong and his is better because "x arbitrary reason".

>nd Sonic's powers resolved basically every problem whenever they fucking feel like it, and so anticlimactically.
and yet, that was nothing compared to every capshit cartoon and comic ever.

I'd argue that AoStH was a lot more memorable. It had less recurring characters to keep track of, characters that looked like they actually belonged in Sonic's world and weren't weird dragons or Robotnik's nephew or some other weird concept that had nothing to do with the games. The actual setting was a lot more bright and colorful than SATAM, more evocative of the Genesis games.

What? Did someone tell Don Bluth to draw a villain at gunpoint?

This has to be bait

I remember really liking it I think. Also a pretty great intro.

Seeing some of the other early concept art suggests that it wasn't even supposed to be a Sonic cartoon. They were probably trying to do their own thing, some executive noticed that the bare idea of a bunch of plucky characters trying to stop an evil scientist/dictator from turning shit into robots sounded similar to Sonic, and it became a tie-in series in order to maximize profits from brand appeal.

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>mfw there was an arc in Archie Sonic dedicated to Dulcy going through domestic abuse

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I felt Adventures was more time-appropriate. Comedy cartoons were pretty much standard back in my day. We had the Nicktoons, Animaniacs, whatever else was on Fox Kids. I remember thinking that Sonic would appear on Tiny Toons somehow.

i also still find it pretty cool that Man of the Year was animated by TMS

Didn't TMS also animate Sonic X?

Shit I remember that. Didn't the humans start that fight for some reason?

Been reading through the archie series for the hell of it lately. I'm now firmly in the Penders era and boy does it show. The fuck is up with those encidna anyway?