Gangly Ol' Hedgehog.... Now What?
Taken from my post on the SEGA Fourms:
Wow... Doing something with Sonic at this point is so difficult. Yet a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, so it's about time I tried turning a burning car frame into a working electric. It is often said that "No one has any idea what Sonic is meant to be anymore." This is partly true, as the series has clearly lost its identity, and now completely lacks an identity.
Well, at least the UT tried to give the series an identity back, but it was probably the wrong one. We need to focus on getting an identity back first and foremost. For one thing, the imagined identity of Sonic in the eyes of countless casuals and outsiders is a lie. I will discuss this Taco-Man falsehood later. The identity MUST go back to the Genesis-Gamecube era, when Sonic was at his peak. Do this aggressively if you must. I'm not sure many people would miss the likes of Orbot and Cubot, especially if you only temporarily drop them. Considering the sheer horridness of SLW and the Boom Duology, doing it aggressively is a must at the time.
Write a new theme song. Get back all of the old designers and staff. Bring back long-wanted characters like Tikal, Nack, Mephiles, Gemerel, Chaos, Mighty, Honey, and whatnot. Bring back the Adventure gameplay, including the Chao Garden and perhaps even the HUBs. Get actual cool music in again. Fire Pontaff and get them replaced with Shiro Maekawa and Ian Flynn. They know how to write very well.
A writer for a post-apocalyptic resistance dystopia shonen science fantasy drama needs a good world to build on. Goodbye nondescript planet/cheap ersatz Mushroom Kingdom, hello Mobius A.K.A. Earth in the distant future. Take Penders's notes of world-building and take them even further, adding in the pre-established game elements. Using STC's more surreal elements, we could even salvage something as moronic as Lost Hex. Worlds within worlds: use the zones as distinct locations, rather than just collections of levels that all too often don't even fit the theme. Zones are allowed to recur, establishing a sense of place. It's not just the world, it's the cast too.
Don't you dare say "Sonic's supporting cast is utter trash." I will cover that misonomer later on. That is a lie. Sonic's world has dozens, if not hundreds, of good characters to work with. Problem is that many are written badly. An even bigger problem is that they're not all under one roof. Time to play Copyright Corral to get the character rights back, even the bad characters. Why even the bad characters? Because maybe we can use them well to make them good. And there ought to be newcomers too.
For one thing, take ideas for newcomers based on a general consensus of the fandom back when it cared. I see a lot of female hedgehogs in stylish outfits. I suggest making a character or two like that? People will be like "MARY SUE!" but you can avert this by making them well-written, flawed characters. Any character can work well like that. Make well sure there is a balance of heroes and villains. Another major deriding factor is their gameplay. If any additional character is to be playable, make sure their gameplay is good and similar to Sonic's, so we avoid something like Big's fishing levels. Sonic's own gameplay is going to need a touch-up as well.
Sonic's gameplay needs the momentum physics restored. It needs competent and compelling level design with less automation. Action setpieces must return. The Wisps should be balanced out with the elemental shields, the basic powerups, and maybe some more obscure powerups like the growth from Knuckles Chaotix.
And now for the part you've all been waiting for: the denial of the false image of Sonic. Many outsiders claim Sonic should go back to the 16-bit days. However, their "16-bit days" are radically different from the truth. They claim Sonic should have no story, when he did have a story. They claim the gameplay and levels should be simple, while the real gameplay had plenty of gimmicks, action setpieces, fun bosses, strategy, and hidden complexities. They want all characters except Sonic and Robotnik (maybe Tails and Knuckles too) to leave forever, even though multiple compelling characters are a part of Sonic and have been from the beginning. Thankfully, an indie game called Action Henk is fairly similar to what these outsiders want of Sonic, so I suppose they are now satisfied with that.
And speaking of indie games, there seem to be increasingly more indie games based around the true ideas of Sonic, starting with Dust: An Elysian Tail, and moving on into Freedom Planet, Spark the Electric Jester, Bingo the Multiva, DragonBlossom, and others.
