Dark Horse Publishing Sonic The Hedgehog Encyclopedia In 2021

SONIC I love youuuuu i'm soooo bouying.

The only thing in the Sonic universe that I ever liked was the Sonic Movie. All of the games have ranged from either incredibly mediocre, to incredibly bad. Most are OK, but none stand out like most of the Mario or Zelda games do.

It's all gonna be copied and pasted from the sonic wikia.

I'm having a hard time understanding from the wording whether this is only about in-universe lore or if there's also insight into development. The few concept sketches they showed in Netflix's High Score got me itching for a real deep dive into Naka's and Ohshima's work.

30 years of speed-iocrity.

Oh right, you were like SEGA's flagship franchise at some point

Honestly feel like Sonic exists nowadays just due to mascot immunity. Once Yakuza and Persona blew up he kind of got buried in terms of SEGA's priorities.

I honestly hope it's not like the English version of the Mario one

Sonic 2 and 3 are masterpieces. Everything else is between acceptable, mediocre or plain horrible.

Let's hope they don't plagiarize the Sonic wiki page.

I'm not a huge fan of Sonic, but I will probably be picking this up because I love Dark Horse books and guides.

@Apportal
Nice new avatar... Is the next one going to be Pikmin too?

@Pat_trick
What about sonic mania, generations and colours?

I got the Zelda ones, Mario, and final fantasy ones. So I may get this one just to go in the collection.

@Tommy-and-Timmy I like them, but to be honest I always felt that the 3D sections were a bit awkward and never as polished as the 2D ones. The humour in Colours wasn't to my taste as well, but I can see why someone would really like these games.

It really depresses me to see all the Sonic hate here. Play Sonic Adventure 2!

I played one Sonic game on the SEGA Game Gear, (I think it was Sonic 2) I didn't like it and played Shinobi (The game with the different colored ninjas) way more. I also tried Sonic Adventure 2 on Game Cube. None of it was engaging so I don't understand the appeal of Sonic.

@Tourtus I mean that’s only 2 games of the entire franchise

@Goat_FromBOTW Hanging on the edge of tomorrow!!! Live and learn!!!!!!!!!!

Wonder if they'll mention Sonic's first appearance as a rear-view ornament in the arcade game Rad Mobile.

@BirdBoy16 Yeah but I haven't heard good things about the rest of the franchise. I have heard the two I did play were some of the best and if those are some of the best, I definitely won't like the other games.

Well at least unlike Super Mario 3D All-Stars, this won't be limited.

Keeping this on my radar. Would love if it included some new sketches or concept art.

@Tourtus
Sonic 2 on Game Gear bears almost nothing in common with its critically acclaimed Genesis counterpart. May as well judge the Mega Man series using the DOS games as reference.

For those who just want some light reading material, Dark Horse will also be publishing a leaflet entitled "Non-Sonic Projects Since Sega Left Making Consoles".

Sonic is the most overrated franchise in video games.

Yes, some of the games are fun, but why it gets the notoriety it does, is beyond me.

Can we ever just have a Sonic article without people who haven't played the games randomly complaining about them?

This looks great but I'm kind of past this sort of thing. Best Sonic encyclopedia I know is my mind.

Oh boy, here we go with angry Mario vs Sonic debates. It's all a matter of taste. I think as far as the 2D games go, I much prefer Sonic because it's less about careful platform jumping and more focused on bashing enemies. But for the new 3D games, yeah, I'd go with Mario. I think the 3D sonic games would be better if they didn't take so many different ideas and styles of play, then mash them together in one Frankenstein mess of a game.

@Tourtus Yeah but have you tried Sonic 1 & 2 for mobile? You could try em for free and buy em if you love em. They are superior remasters by the fans for the fans with Sega's blessing.

@AtlanteanMan HOW DARE YOU SIR. You forgot Yakuza and all it’s weird Japanese only spin offs (which is dearly love to see on switch even though I’ve got them all on PS4)

I wonder whatever happened to that Arms graphic novel from Dark Horse(the same publisher of this encyclopedia)? Must have been silently canned or just forgotten.

Why would you preorder a book for June 2021 when most of us will be dead?

@Goat_FromBOTW i hate that game

Now Sonic 3 & Knuckles is something I recommend them play.

Is it just in-universe stuff? I'd be interested if there was a hefty amount of behind the scenes, making of, concept art, developer interviews and stuff like that. If its only Sonic lore, then not so much.

mario 35th anniversary : all kinds of games and stuff
sonic 30th anniversary : encyclopedia...

@Goat_FromBOTW I love Sonic. Mania and Forces are two of my favourite Switch games and I don't care if nobody likes the latter. Finding all the red coins is really fun (people complain the levels are too short while choosing to just boost through everything) and the soundtrack is just amazing! The avatar levels in particular are very fun and I really like the cut scenes/story.

It's true Sonic's games aren't as polished as Mario's but they're still massively fun and I do feel they have more personality and better soundtracks in general.

Sonic's glory days are all stuck in the 16 bit era (Mania was great too!), but I'm not gonna disrespect the blue Hedgehog because he's still Iconic.

BTW: all the 3D Sonic games are trash!

@Apportal
Oh, I see. Will you change it when Pikmin 4 inevitably gets revealed?

"Encyclo-speed-ia"

(heavy sigh) For all this speed talk, we still aren’t past these?...

I refuse to buy this for the awful name alone. Design looks horrible too. No thanks.

@Ultrasmiles
Anniversary ain't til next year. Hold your horses bruh

I was a bigger fan of Sonic than Mario growing up. I played the Master System and Mega Drive games to death.

These days I'm a semi lapsed fan. I have to admit the quality is mostly gone. I view the older 3D games as superior to newer ones. I still have hope theyll do something good. I quite enjoyed colors so hopeful of remake though the 2D stop start platforming was not good imo in the original.

I stopped liking their 2D games after Sonic Advance 3 and have no clue why anyone likes Rush.

Sonic Mania was a massive exception to this and is the best Sonic game ever made imo.