Gaming Fact of the Week - So THAT'S Why Elise Exists...

Oh...Sonic The Hedgehog....The game that messed up the Sonic video games for a long time.....Wait.  You thought I was talking about the Genesis one?  Oh no!  That game was good!  I'm talking about the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 Reboot for the series!

OK, I'll admit...It's decent, but there are still WAY better Sonic games than this...Like Sonic Generations 360/PS3.

However, one complaint I tend to see about Sonic The Hedgehog's 2006 reboot, besides glitches, is the inclusion of the character, Elise.  Humans have never really gotten positive reception from the Sonic fandom, especially in the 2003 Anime, Sonic X (Face it!  You hate Chris too.).

But what a small amount of Sonic fans don't know is that there WAS a human character that was scrapped for the old, 1991 Sonic game for Genesis!  Who is it?  Well....If you hated Elise, you're probably not gonna like this, but the gaming fact of the day is....

Did you know that, before Elise of course, that Sonic was supposed to have a human love interest?

Yeah, I am dead serious.  SEGA was even trying to give Sonic a human love interest from the start!  Not just in the 2006 reboot of the series.  Ain't that just great?

From a little bit of digging around, it turns out that this human love interest was named Madonna.  I don't know if she was named after the singer, or what, but that's her name.  Her main role was never announced, but thanks to a YouTube video about gaming facts (that I'll put in the sources part of this post later), it seems that she was meant to chase Sonic around, similar to how current character, Amy Rose does in today's Sonic video games.

Now, here's the fun part.  "Why was this character removed?"  Well, there have been 2 sources from SEGA that have mentioned her presence, & why she was removed.
Madeline Schroeder claimed that it was her call to remove the character, because she claimed that the character, & her relationship with Sonic, would be deemed, "Too Japanese" for the United States audience.  However, (& not trying to get off topic here), but most Sonic fans kinda think this isn't a true statement, since the famous Disney movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, had Roger in a romantic relationship with human character, Jessica Rabbit.  Didn't think about that myself, until recently.
Now, the next one comes from Sonic's creator, Yuji Naka, & sounds a bit more legit.  He claimed that the reason she was scrapped was because she would be deemed as the stereotypical Damsel-In-Distress, similar to Princess Peach's role in the Super Mario Bros. franchise, & he solely wanted to focus on Sonic & Dr. Robotnik's fights for the game.

Now, whichever one is true, is pretty much up to you, seeing as how 2 different SEGA reps gave their take, but I'm still betting all of my money that Yuji Naka's is the more legit one.

So, think about this now.  When SEGA said they were bring Sonic, "back to his roots" at that e3 convention from a few years ago (or was it "give everyone a game that feels like Sonic Adventure"?  I kinda forgot...Correct me if I'm wrong.), I believe this is (kinda) what they were talking about.  Elise is pretty much just a modernized version of Madonna, if you think about it.

Hey!  On the plus side, we'll never have to see a human love interest for Sonic ever again, right?  RIGHT?!

Now that we have that out of the way, one more thing I should mention.  There's actually something GOOD about SEGA putting Elise in a game.  It proved that the Sonic series would've went terribly downhill if Madonna was included years ago.  As stated earlier in this blog post, Elise was panned by about 98% or so of the Sonic fanbase.  So, if Madonna existed, she would've suffered the same fate, & the Sonic series would've stopped at the first game.

Thought I'd share one more picture, since you didn't get to see her all the way.

Well, that's all for now!  Hopefully, I can get something ready for next week!  Hope you guys keep following (if any of you even are), and stay tuned!

Sources:

Did You Know Gaming?'s YouTube Video! (More Sonic Facts Included!) 

Sonic Retro

Gaming Fact - Not So "Final" Fantasy

So many games with the name "Final Fantasy"... (Bad quality picture is bad)

Now that we have about 14 Final Fantasy games with around 20 or so spin-offs, by now someone in the universe is wondering, "Why is the game's name Final Fantasy, when there are so many games off of it?"  Well, I was kind of curious about it too, so I looked online about it to see.

Now, for those of you who have been hiding under a rock for a long time, Final Fantasy is an RPG series that started on the 80's console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short.  It was a series that formed the RPG genre into what it is now, & became one of the most popular RPGs of all time, even generating a total of 14 sequels, as of 2013.

Now, the history to the name, Final Fantasy actually comes from 2 sources.  Both involved the main planner for the game, Hironobu Sakaguchi.  One was that he thought this was the last game he would produce, due to the fact that Square was going bankrupt, while the other was that he was going back to college, so the game would be his "final" game.

Turns out, the first rumor was the one that ended up being true.

Actually, in a sense, both were true.  Square was going bankrupt, due to poor sales on a previous game they did before.  So they were making this game, and called it "Final Fantasy", so if the game didn't sell well, it would be the last game Square would ever make, & Hironobu would go back to college.  Now, since the game was becoming a popular item in the gaming magazine, Famitsu, the team decided that, instead of doing 200,000 copies of the game, they'd do 400,000 to increase potential.

In the end, the game was successful, & got various sequels.

So, everyone, that's why Final Fantasy is called...well, Final Fantasy.  Due to bankruptcy.  That's all for today, guys!  See ya next time for another gaming fact!  Until then, keep on gaming!

Without this game, there would be no Final Fantasy....or Kingdom Hearts.  Whichever you prefer.

Sources:Wikipedia

Wired

Answers

Game Review-Sonic Adventure HD (Xbox 360/PS3)

(All pictures have been taken from the Xbox LIVE Arcade port of the game.  Special thanks goes to GameFAQs, & GameSpot for the pictures.)

Game Review:Sonic Adventure HD (Xbox 360/PS3)

It's been a nice 15 years since Sonic Adventure was first released to the public on SEGA's 15 year-old console, the Dreamcast.  Since then, there are people who praise this game for being one of Sonic's best adventures, & then there are some out there that don't like the game at all, due to bad camera angles, the fact that some of the characters (preferably Knuckles, Amy, & Big) were not fun to play as, & the HUB Worlds were annoying.  While I didn't have a problem with the HUB worlds, or playing as Knuckles or Amy (to an extent), I understand where they're coming from about Big the Cat, & the camera angles.
Nonetheless, the HD version of Sonic Adventure was released almost 3 years ago on Xbox LIVE Arcade, & Playstation Network, & has been my main attention this month, gaming-wise.

Sonic Adventure was released as the Dreamcast's launch title in 1998.  Hardware-wise, Sonic Adventure was already one step ahead of anything that Sony's Playstation, or Nintendo's N64 was capable of doing.  Sure, the PS2 & Gamecube managed to knock it's socks off a few years later, but it was revolutionary for it's time.

Now, the reason I love the game is simple.  The fact that Sonic & Tails happen to be the best parts of the game.  Think Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but in a 3D environment.  This is how I've wanted to play Sonic in 3D, & I'm sure everyone can agree to that!

Sonic & Tails play VERY similar to each other, almost having the same level design.

On top of that, is Knuckles.  Now, his levels aren't speed-wise, like Sonic & Tails' are, but they're still a bit fun.  It's a pain in the rear end trying to get all of his emblems, though.  The goal of Knuckles' stages are to collect all of the Master Emerald shards.  Think of it as "hide and seek", except with a gliding, climbing, super-fast echidna.

Knuckles stages involve a little, somewhat frustrating, game of hide & seek.

Now, Amy's stages....Oh, where to begin?  I'm gonna be honest here.  You'll get SOME fun out of Amy, but don't expect her to move as fast as Dimps made her move in the Sonic Advance series on Game Boy Advance.  She's probably the slowest character in the game, which makes it annoying to play as her.  Especially when you've FINALLY gotten so used to playing as the super-fast Sonic, Tails, & Knuckles already.  On the plus side, her levels play more like Sonic's, but a robot is chasing her now.  Another plus is that her story only lasts for a total of 30-45 minutes, if you know what you're doing.

Not as fun to play as, compared to the others, but that doesn't mean she's the worst....

Big...Ugh...Do I have to?  I'm sorry, but there is NO WAY that I can even get a tiny amount of joy from Big's stages.  You see on that caption on Amy's picture that says, "she's not the worst"?
This is what I was talking about.

Big's stages involve fishing.  Yes, out of all the concepts in the world....fishing.  Now, don't get me wrong.  Fishing in a video game isn't bad (I was hooked on the HD remake of SEGA Bass Fishing for about 2 days), but is it REALLY necessary to put fishing stages in a Sonic game?!  Heck, at first, I didn't even know what I was doing, so I sat there for like, 30 minutes trying to catch a frog, for God's sake!  Luckily, if you're good at Big's stages, you can have his story done in a mere 20-30 minutes.  Yeah.  Big's story is shorter than Amy's.  For good reason.
But, I might as well give it SOME praise now, should I?  The only good thing about Big's stages are that they're relatively easy when you get the hang of it.  That's it.  Never ask me anything else about Big.  I'm going to get a banana.

This was the only picture of Big I could find.  Even GameSpot hates him.

Finally, there's E-102 Gamma.  Gamma's stages are actually really fun.  They're not Sonic styled at all, but more Third-Person Shooter, in genre.  All ya do is hold down the action button until there's an enemy in range, & then he shoots it.  Sure, it's unfitting for the Sonic universe, like Big's stages, but they are more fun.  More fun, indeed.  Gamma's story is probably a little longer, compared to Amy or Big, so if you REALLY enjoy it, it's gonna suck for you.
Also, I should note that the Gamma style gameplay was used in Sonic Adventure's sequel for Eggman & Tails.  Just thought I'd mention that.

Gamma's stages involve third person shooter gameplay.  If you weren't shooting dolls or robots,  I'm sure ESRB would've given this game a T rating.

And there's also one more story, but I'd rather not spoil it.  You'll find out for yourself when you beat all the stories in the game.

On top of that, there's also a nice Chao raising thing you can do.  It's not required, but if you want all 130 emblems, I'd say it's about time you started raising some Chao!  The Chao feature feels more like a virtual pet type game, similar to games like Nintendo's Hey You, Pikachu!, or the old Tomagachi toys from the early 2000's.

Was going to do a picture, but the one I wanted to show wouldn't go into this post.  Sorry. ^^"

And that's about it about Sonic Adventure!  Now, while Big (urgh...) & the Camera Angles are annoying, the rest of the game is truly worth playing!  So, get that Xbox 360 or PS3 & get that game!

Now that this is over with, there's more to see this month in Shadow's Wonderful World of Gaming!  So, stay tuned!