Looking at Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM

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Spun off from the annoying 80's characters thread so that can get back on track and we can have a decent discussion about this topic



There is demand for a SatAM game, but I was referring to those who want an actual animated continuation. Usually either new TV seasons or DTV movies.



Shadow was a mixed bag. Had plot holes and was very clearly trying to milk his fanbase, but in context I liked it. It was a spin off which also gives it some leeway.



I'm not generalising. I know alot of folks who agree with me; the fanbase is pretty evenly split on the matter. In this situation, the fanbase has to be evaluated because SatAM is one of those shows where it and the fanbase go hand in hand pretty closely. Look at the DVD release, which was highly fan designed.
 
Sonic SatAM is the one DVD I would buy provided I have a lot more money than I do (I'm way behind. i don;t have any Ren and Stimpy, Ducktales, or Family Guy releases yet, and those would be the first I'd buy). As for the video game, well, I always felt that Sonic Spinball was the unofficial VG adaption of the series, only because it featured some SatAm characters. In one bonus round, you free the characters from the show (I recall seeing at least Antuon and Sally), and I believe Robotnik's pet Robot Chicken was featured as a villain.

I know Adventures of at least had Robotnik's Mean bean Machine (Basically Puyo Puyo with graphics featuring Scratch, Grounder, and the various bounty hunters from the first episode).

As for the cartoon, heck yeah. it has it's fans. Serious gamers hate videogame based cartoons. Of course, they're at the very least fun. now the game based movies... that's another story.
 
Spinball does indeed have SatAM elements. The cartoons were pretty much an American thing, so it was really in Sega America's interests to promote it. In the initial release of Sonic CD, they also renamed Amy Rose to Princess Sally.

A throw away game more directly set in that universe may have been fun and throwing fans a bone, but in the long run I wouldn't care for it. SatAM isn't really in the style of the classic Sonic era. I couldn't see the SatAM Robotnik appearing at the end of each level with some goofy mecha. If anything, a SatAM game makes me think of Rocket Knight Adventures for some reason. Also by extension of the comics its got alot of uneeded history, like the idea Sonic lives on a future Earth and is a mutated hedgehog. Add in all the royal families, alliances, etc....Too much for me. I'd rather stick to "Sonic is a hedgehog who lives on Earth. He is blue and runs very fast".
 
I'm hardly a Sonic expert, but isn't it the Sonic comic, i.e. the SatAM universe, that is informed by the games? So far as I know for instance, without the independence of the games characters like Knuckles, Amy Rose, and Shadow the Hedgehog wouldn't be there. Had SatAM been faithfully adapted as its ardent fans apparently wish it had been, it seems to me the Sonic universe would have been narrower for it.

At the risk of simplifying too much: in exchange for Shadow and Knuckles we'd have Princess Sally and oh, I don't know, Antown or Bunny? That doesn't sound like a good trade.
 
I hate how the villian from Sonic got changed from Dr. Robotnik to Dr. Eggman. SatAM's Robotnik was a man to be feared, a horrible tyrant who enslaved the entire known world. Sonic X's Eggman was a joke compared to him. Why did they water him down? Nintendo has continually made Bowser more and more intimadating and dangerous, while Dr. Eggman is a running gag.
 
You do know Eggman was the original name, and the name Japan has always used, right? They just made it universal with Sonic Adventure.

In proper game continuity, I don't think Eggman has ever been a super-serious threat. His plans to conquer the world have yet to be bested in the bizarre department. How about that Bean Machine, eh?
 
Well, some changes are for the best. I'd be willing to kick canon in the gut to get him changed back to Dr. Robotnik. It just sounds more menacing than Eggman.
 
Except Robotnik is still his name. To please both sides, his name is pretty much officially regarded as Dr Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik.

And for the record, I find this issue silly. Yes, Eggman sounds goofy. But so is the character. Him being this evil fiend is something the cartoon and comics cooked up. As far as SEGA is concerned, he's always been an immature genius. The original has his fair share of dark deeds including kidnapping, slave labour, theft and constructing an orbiting battle station.
 
I have to disagree. Mainly because, let's not forget Adventures Robotnik, who bore a scary similarity to Wally Walrus. Now, if there was a sillier version of Robotnik, I've never seen one...

I have to admit, I was never crazy about SatAM Robotnik. He seemed too evil. When I think evil scientist, I feel the character should be a little on the silly side. he was more Darth Eggman than anything in that show. Love Sonic SatAM, but I like how he was portrayed on Sonic X most of all. Though I do have a soft spot for big fat stupid Wally Walrus Robotnik...
 
Actually, I don't think "Ivo" has yet been acknowledged as his first name in any of the current canon. I mean, I think of it that way regardless, but I haven't seen it documented anywhere since Sonic 1 first came out.

And yeah, Eggman isn't supposed to be a tyrant. The series went out of its way to avoid depicting him as a mad scientist in order to concentrate on this new angle (did they even call him "Doctor" in the series?), and I don't regard him as being the same character by any conventional standard. SatAM has to be one of the most prominent examples of Adaptation Decay that I can think of on television, and Robotnik is a great case study of that. Although not quite as good as Ricky becoming "Princess Sally Acorn".
 
Fans prefer that SATAM thing because of how dark it was. It looked cute and what not, but the premise was extremely morbid, not to mention the roboticizing thing.
 
Extremely morbid? Not really. It's just an extension of what he did in the games, which was stuffing them inside robot bodies. Really, nothing in the show isn't fit to show a child.
 
As long as they stay far away from CGI, then it's possible. They should go back to the older art and not the newer anime-style art from the more recent comics.
 
I don't know how well a SatAM Sonic film would do in theaters. SatAM's has a cult following, but it was never a mainstream hit. Only a handful of people even remember the ABC series now. Kids would probably go to theaters expecting the movie to be Sonic X and be disappointed. A SatAM Sonic movie would be better off as a DTV, as I don't see such a film making more than a couple million at the box office.
 
I don't even think a SatAm DTV movie would work, frankly. Would I like to see it though? You bet. But successful enough as a vernture that Dic and Sega would make another deal with each other? No.

Is that game real? I mean, it looks like it could have been a fan work. Not that I doubt it's real... Just a little skeptic.
 
I think it would be best if Sonic SatAM just stayed dead. Sonic's not meant to be an idiot, Robotnik is not meant to be a ruthless and hyper-evil dictator, and Tails is not meant to be a useless kid that stays at home while Sonic saves the day. Plus, we don't need to hear Jaleel White as Sonic again... "I'M WAAAAAAIIIIIIITIIIIIING!"
 
I see no justification for a SatAM movie. Especially not when it's something only the obsessives want and thus would have a script which only appeals to that niche.
 
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