Sonic Prime's First Episode Of Season 2 Is Out Now On YouTube

Sweet! Glad they included shadow in this series

Is this worth watching. I dropped out halfway through the first episode because I didn’t feel it was very good but if it got better than maybe I’d try again.

no way they did a title that riffs off of 'avoid the noid' nahhhhh

@Deemo37 Its a decent kids show. Probably won't hold the attention of many adults who aren't already big enough fans to get excited by every time they bring in a new character or variant, but its not even remotely "bad".

If you're a Sonic fan and don't expect anything too deep its a lot of fun, but your mileage will vary depending on your tolerance for "multiverse" style shenanigans. The writing isn't as funny or well paced as Boom but I like the fact the storyline is a bit more serious and reminded me a little of the Freedom Fighters elements of the SatAM series.

Visually its fine, though you can see budget / time limitations. Some creative lighting / colour / framing choices here and there though. Voice acting is good. I'm glad they got to make a second series and hope it builds on what was good about the first.

shadow feels like he's acting really out of character, trying to attack sonic after the damage was already done. A more canon modern shadow would be a bit more pragmatic and professional.

calling Prime canon was a mistake

@Deemo37 as a parent, it's brilliant, it keeps the kids quiet while I get to do what needs to be done or chill with no distractions. I've watched a couple with them but they're pretty much all the same and not a lot happens.

@Samalik But in Sonic... "everything is canon" (!) 😋

On the recent official Sonic livestream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbvvteIEoIo) they actually showed that Sega of America have hired someone who's job is specifically to both have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Sonic lore, and liase with all the current teams of people around the world working on Sonic media to try and get all the new shows, movies, comics and games to follow a more strict canon and retcon somestuff from the past to incorporate as much as possible - even amusingly saying he was trying his best to make "Sonic's Schoolhouse" and the Pico interactive games canon. They'll be coming up with (sometimes hackeny'ed for comic effect) reasons why the characters act so differently in different versions of the games and shows. The guy they hired to do this seems really nice and he's very aware that he's got his work cut out for him! 🤣

I'm not saying I disagree with you on Shadow's portrayal btw. Just thought it was an interesting thing to note, on the subject of canon within Sonic, that Sega is suddenly taking it seriously, after 36 years of paying no attention to it whatsoever. 😂

@samuelvictor Calling everything canon was a mistake then. This can open some unsavory doors. You really should know when to leave something in the past since it's perpose wasn't to tell an engaging adventure or have influence on the main series.

Hell, if they're gonna make everything canon, they might as well acknowledge the R34. Since, ya know. Everything is canon.

@Samalik Yes, as I said, he's got his work cut out for him! The idea is that they know that Sonic has a very wide fanbase who all grew up playing different games, watching different shows, or reading different comics. As the franchise is finally growing again to approaching the level of success it had in the 90s, and rapidly gaining a new generation of dedicated fans who have only known "good" media and arent' aware of the past mistakes, Sega are trying their best to make sure that everything moving forward will be a lot more structured and all work together... without alienating all the different long term fans who love specific versions of the characters and backstories.

I think its a good plan and can work fine moving forward but there is some previous media and games that the only way they could make it work is by falling back on multiverse tropes. Perhaps that was the motivation for Prime as a series leaning hard into establishing this - to bring parity with the mainline game series which has already strated to claim that "Classic Sonic" is a different universe Sonic rather than Sonic when he was younger. Personally as a fan, this doesn't sit right with me, but again, I'm sure it was to establish that multverses are possible in Sonic canon, to easily explain away some of the weird old disprepancies from the past.

Just saying "everything is canon" but then refusing to elaborate was always somewhat of a knowing joke from Sega to laugh at the fact that there is practically no cohesion between older versions of Sonic media, and to build on the memes of how a lot of people like the brand somewhat ironicly. But the recent success of the movies and the vision for moving forward evolving the Frontiers / "Open Zone" style games (Frontiers being the top selling game in 2 decades) they really are trying to rein in the brand a bit and take it seriously to help grow it up again.

There's even serious talk in their shareholder material about reopening Sonic / Sega World theme parks around the world in the near future, if things continue to grow and the brand is rehabilitated. They tentatively started dipping their feet into the water in 2019+2020 with Sonic themed events at Merlin properties in several countries, including SeaLife at Disneyland Paris. That was a nice surprise while I was there They were in talks to buy land and find development partners but the pandemic slowed things down. In the early 90s, there were several hundred "Sega World" and "Sega Park" locations in countries around the world, some of which were huge locations with proper rides, live shows etc, and they even took over a large area of Disney World for over 2 years. Then only 5 years later, everything was lost, they were on the brink of bankruptcy and Sonic as a brand has been struggling since, going through highs and lows but never being the same again. But Sega are really trying to build on the current momentum and good will. I just hope they don't do "too much, too soon" and waste a load of money and crash and burn again, or use up that good will by releasing too many movies, shows and games in a short period.

@samuelvictor I mean, even the whole comic book multiverse logic doesn't fit with Sonic since the multiverse in Sonic continuity use to be more fashioned after isekai, meaning every world is SUPPOSE to be original. This is the impression I got going through Sonic Rush, and seeing them try to cop out by copying Marvel is just coming off as throwing in the towel or making the world of Sonic feel like it doesn't matter in the long run, since he can always be replaced by a look alike, just like a superhero.... If they're needing to rehabilitate the timeline, they need to do better. And having a consistent geography from TailsTube is a start

Also, holy *****, I didn't know about a SEGA theme park in the works. Now I wanna see it.

@Samalik I haven't read as much of the recent IDW comics as I'd like but I definitely agree that the multiverse Sonic stuff is more akin to isekai anime/manga traditions, thats a very good point. I also agree that a lot of teh way Marvel is currently handing multiverses is making a lot of things feel inconsequential.

In my day job I am actually overseeing a new superhero universe with movies, comics, animations and games thats been in development since 2014, lots of people who've worked for Marvel are involved. One of the very first rules that I set for it was no multiverse stuff, and once a character is dead, they are dead (though another person can take over their suit/hero identity). For me, the multiverse stuff is played out and leads to problems - that said, it can of course be done well. The Spiderverse movies are great.

As for Sega theme parks, yeah it all started again very tentatively in 2019 to promote the brand before the movie (as I said, I was in Disneyland Paris when a promotional event happened, was amazing to see everyone walking around Disneyland wearing masks of Sonic, Amy, Tails, Knuckles and even Shadow!) and then after the first movie was a success, in 2020 it was announced they were looking into opening more dedicated Sega World / Sega Park arcades and even full theme parks. They were negotiating with land owning companies in the UK, USA and Australia. I know the pandemic seriously slowed down all that but its still on the agenda of something they want to do as soon as its possible and makes financial sense.

I know one of the companies Sega was recently negotiating with was Merlin. They own all the biggest theme parks in the UK (Alton Towers/Chessington World of Adventures/Thorpe Park), but also Legoland attractions around the world. Again, like I said I'm excited to see what happens but I don't want Sega to overextend themselves. Thankfully, today, their company structures are a lot more separate than they used to be, so their entertainment division tanking wouldn't kill their home games division.

@Samalik I don't know how much you know about the old parks but there were over 200 of them around the world, all of varying sizes. Some were indoor only, some a mix of indoor and outdoor, some were areas of existing theme parks or fairgrounds, others were large themed arcades and VR centers in malls, others were large dedicated spaces and buildings purpose built on previously empty land that they bought up.

There is still a very large indoor theme park in Tokyo, named Sega Joyopolis. Its pretty large with 3 floors and has "proper" rides like serveral rollercoasters. It also includes attractions based on non-Sega franchises, like an Attack on Titan ride, Transformers VR experience and even an Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney attraction!

As far as I'm aware, the last of the big Sega parks outside of Japan was the "Sega Republic" indoor theme park and VR world in Dubai in 2017, most of the proper parks closed in the late 90s or early 2000s - however of course theres still plenty of Sega branded entertainment spaces around, some of which are Joyoplis or GiGO branded, but these are more like giant arcades, rather than actual theme parks.

During their heydey, many of the Sega World / Sega Park spaces were full on mini-theme parks with rollercoasters and other proper ride-on rides, live entertainment, character meet and greets, themed restaurants and shops etc. Here's a video that shows a lot of footage and images of one of the biggest, in Sydney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30rewscpdE8&ab_channel=ReviewTyme