Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is over a decade old now, and represents a unique entry in the Sonic series. Developed by RPG specialists BioWare – responsible for the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon Age – Sonic Chronicles sadly never got a sequel.
Now, video game animation expert and author Jonathan Cooper has shared something new relating to the game – an animated introduction sequence that was removed from the final product. According to Cooper, Sega decided to cut the animation and used a montage of gameplay footage for the intro instead.
The intro was created by lead animators Joel MacMillan and Nick DiLiberto, and can be viewed for the first time in its entirety below.
Released in 2008, Sonic Brotherhood scored a very respectable 8/10 in our review. We said:
If you are patient enough to overlook a few niggles and are interested in investing some time into a decent RPG with an attractive cast of characters then look no further than Sonic Chronicles on the Nintendo DS.
In related news, it turns out that Sonic Chronicles has been removed from the Sonic canon.
Thanks to Greatsong for the tip!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 43
Honestly this reminds of the intro in jazz jackrabbit.
This game was fine for what it was. Sure, the soundtrack is bad, but it's a decent enough RPG. Not one I'll revisit anytime soon though.
If that was the finished version of the animation, then yike, yeah I can see why it was cut…
It looks more like a fan animation. I mean, is that supposed to be Eggman?
Also, decanonized? I'm sure the game was never canon. Or did I miss something?
Looks like a sequel to Sonic CD's opening intro but lamer. I could see why Sega cut it out.
Animation quality is top-notch. Maybe not "anime" enough? I guess I'm not Sonic-fan enough to understand why that isn't a pretty awesome piece of intro animation. Love the fluidity of movement and the motion of it, myself. Maybe I just enjoy how it is not the typical Sonic animations that are so-so to stale most of the time.
Dropping high-quality work because it's "not the same" is one reason why franchises like Sonic grow stale and struggle, I guess.
The off model, fluid animation looks excellent in my opinion. There's so many cool expressions and smear frames. You could watch this 10 times and see something cool you didn't notice before every time.
It looked weird because of the art style, but the direction and the overall idea of the animation looks amazing!
If Ken Penders hasn’t sued Sega and EA over the plot of this we might have received a sequel.
I think it looks great, and I definitely would've thought the same back when I played this all those years ago. Still, my favorite thing to come out of The Dark Brotherhood is the realization Bioware, known for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, made a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG in the style of the Mario RPG games.
I like the animation, but that guitar playing is poor.
Looks really good to me. Like a modern version of Sonic CD’s opening.
I've never heard of this game and I'm distinctly interested now.
@The_BAAD_Man I'm pretty sure it's just a small number of guitar samples pitched up and down, hence it doesn't sound much like someone actually rocking out.
I think the idea of a "canon" for a series like Sonic is just weird. The games all amount to "Eggman is going to use <insert MacGuffin> to rule the world" Spin attack to victory.
And I'm not dunking on Sonic, I like some of the games. But the idea of arguing over what is the grand story arc of the Sonic Universe just leaves me asking, why?
‘Sonics been a bit of a dick lately.’
the game that gave the Archie comics a reboot
Not gonna lie when I got my 2ds I bought this for 3.99 at a retro stop and while I ended up liking it I was super disappointed at first because I thought it was one of his mid 2000s off the wall platformers. I was a little shocked to find out it was an rpg.
One of the few good sonic games
Yeah, that artstyle doesn't look very good, not surprised it never made the cut.
@TheFox This games story revolves around echidnas and Knuckles, Eggman is literally a party member in Sonics team.
The execution is impressive (especially seeming like a two-man job), but practically, it's way too overanimated.
It seems like it took some inspiration from the Sonic CD intro, but that one kinda makes every frame count (as does the Sonic Mania intro 9 years later), while this one feels like it loses a lot of its "oomph" from everything being so fluid in both frames and character modeling.
Makes sense it was decanonised, it's a narrative dead end because of that lawsuit.
Ah yes sonic chronicles. I remember getting the game after I did well in school. Stinks that the cliffhanger will never be resolved because of a certain someone suing Sega and BioWare thinking that characters that are similar to his characters are them ripping off or stealing his characters. When people ask why are they never bringing the Archie characters to the games it’s probably because people like the certain someone are going to sue their pants off for giving the fans what they want.
I can see why it was cut, the fluidity of the animation and general aesthetic is more like a early 2000s web animation than a professional product.
The other reason might've been that the video clip might've been too data heavy, though I doubt it.
The animation looks neat but somewhat out of style with Sonic. It felt weird
I actually really like that. Music is a bit lower quality, but it was going to be on the ds so that explains it. Also really cool how it makes use of the two screens
I haven't even played much of it yet, and yet it's already some of the most fun I've ever had with Sonic despite all the objective merits of the conventional entries. Genre bias is a harsh master.😄
If you're strong, you can fly
You can reach the other side
Of the rainbow...
this animation clash too much with the Sonic style we know and love.
De-canonized? I thought Sonic games embraced the fact that none of them seem to narratively connect anymore.
Wow.
Harsh crowd.
Obviously we have a lot of great artists that can do better in here.
Love to see your work on the DS.
They really should have turned Sonic Forces into the sequel to this game instead of a BS Sonic managed to get caught intro it had.
This game is a classic to me!
Wouldn't say it fit the style of the game itself and it took a bit to adjust to the style, but it's an impressive animation.
@Freek By that logic, no game or film should be criticised by anyone that isn’t a developer or director. Review sites, including this one, would cease to exist across the board. Comments like yours make no sense to me - you do not have to be skilled at creating a product to have a valid reason not to like said product.
A shame about the de-canon thing since that was a legitimately good game. Then again, aside from explicit sequels, is there really such thing as a Sonic canon to begin with??
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if SEGA's official canon is Sonic 1, 2, CD, 3, Colors, Lost World, Mania & Forces.
The animation is good on a technical level, but it's also a little too fluid and ends up looking off at times with body shapes warping to showcase speed.
Also clashes a lot with what we're used to from Sonic which is probably causing issue for some.
Sega likely canned it due to it being so different. No clue why they made Eggman's teeth yellow either. Just looks unpleasant.
Wasn't the game also in a scandal over how several late-game tracks of the soundtrack, maligned as it was, were straight up pinched from OC Remix? Something something crunch time, BioWare didn't have time/money to make their own?
(Also, for those watching at home, this game shares some of the codebase with Mass Effect Galaxy, an old iOS prequel to Mass Effect 2 which most of you have probably never heard of, which tells the story of how Jacob joined Cerberus)
@aaronsullivan Yeah it looked cool to me but I'm not much of a sonic fan so I guess I'm blind to whatever is wrong with it as well.
@TheFox @Aurumonado
the games have always been loosely canon to each other, but this whole thing was brought about by a legal mess and faulty copyright laws...
to elaborate, this all started because ken penders started copyrighting sonic stories, charecters and artwork that he made while working at archie comics in 09. naturally, archie comics opted to sue him for it in 2010 but ended up failing to do so from loosing the work for hire contract that they claimed to have made penders sign leading to him winning the case in 2013. if said contract did exist, odds are penders somehow managed to destroy it before starting this mess.
in 2011 penders opted to sue SEGA & EA claiming that dark brotherhood game infringed upon his copyright and claimed the nocturnus clan's appearance and narrative backstory being too similar to "his" dark legion. the lawsuit ended in a stalemate, but gave penders enough legal room to try suing again if SEGA ever used anything from dark brotherhood again.
these lawsuits also resulted in a continuity purge in the archie comics at 230 issues in getting rid of or replacing all of the charecters made by penders that where specifically stated by him in the lawsuit as well as various others who where most likely phased out as a precaution
and SEGA cracking down on archie comics to the point that it got kind of idiotic...
Sonic was not was not allowed to completely fail.
Sega made charecters could not die
yay, forced plot armour
no alternate costumes which might have something to do with the fact that most the charecters he "created" were just alt costumes...
Sega made charecters could not get in any romantic relationships
No crying like a bitch
another one of their mandates was banning archie comics from using anything new from Dark Brotherhood, as well as Metal Overlord and Black Doom.
they also could not use Eggman Nega nor make any references to sonic underground, sonic the movie(1996) or sonic x without Sega approving it.
this whole lawsuit is one of the reasons i'm glad the sonic comics got taken over by IDW and given a proper fresh start and shedding off most of the mandates...
I love the distinctly non-anime look of the animation! (Guessing that’s why so many don’t) It’s fluid, and fun.
@Shadowmoon522 Wow, trying to follow that legal mess hurt my brain worse than Sonic themed deviant art.
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