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Hey, Polygon: Take It Down a Notch

“It’s not funny anymore / try different jokes”
Kanye West, noted philosopher of our time

Breaking News: The Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games is primarily aimed towards grade school children and pre-teens.
As such, the fanbase around Sonic the Hedgehog, as a whole, is mostly comprised of pre-teens and teenagers—most of whom, if they have any sort of artistic expression, share it in things like fan fiction and fan art. It’s understandable: drawing is a lot more accessible than, say, making a fangame—especially if you’re a girl.
I should know. I’m a left wing queer progressive lady interested in video games, just like Danielle Riendau. And that’s why I think Polygon’s “Sonic fan art expert rates the pornographic potential for Sonic Boom cast” is bullshit.
It’s easy for those of us who are adults to look at fan art through the lens of someone older (and likely someone who either didn’t have the Internet or the early, lost to memory portions of the Internet) and mock something like a kid’s piece of fan art, but I know everyone goes through a phase of awkwardly, excitedly sharing what they like (hello, bad websites from 1997!) It’s just that in the age of DeviantART, these things are much more accessible to everyone—both for good and for bad.
So it’s easy to focus on the bottom of the barrel of this output and sneer. Honestly, I’d rather focus on making things better. But: I get it. It’s easy to make fun of kids doing weird things and people on the autistic spectrum, and hey, it’s cheap laughs and clickbait.
I know, because I’ve been guilty of it, too. Although I genuinely find the conflation of fandom and faith interesting, I put up an article a few years ago on Christian Sonic fan art knowing it would be just a laugh to most, and it did well because of that. It’s not something I’m proud of, and reflecting on it made me realize that it wasn’t worth it and I’ve steered away from things like that since.
Whenever any publisher does this, though, it perpetuates the very things that sites like Polygon claim to decry this “Bro culture” that discourages girls from wanting to pursue making video games on the exact same day, it’s two-faced to go and punch down towards the same girls who make fan art. I should note that the author has since apologized about the article, but the fact that a site like Polygon chose to even run a piece like this at all is disheartening.
And let’s be honest: if it was pornographic Pokemon or Zelda fan art, we wouldn’t be talking—because those series, to the gamer community, aren’t as fun to beat up on. It doesn’t matter that these same things happen with every game targeted towards the same preteen demographics; the Sonic series is just the lazy joke to fall back on.
So maybe Polygon and gaming culture as a whole could take it down a notch. Fight the fights worth having and cut the crap.
And hey, Danielle? If you wanna grab a drink the next time I’m in SF, I’m good for it. I’ll just be over here working on what I learned to do instead of making games.

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SEGA Channel Retro: Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, and Donald Duck SEGA Pico games


 
SEGAbits Plays is back with another SEGA Channel Retro live stream of SEGA Pico games! While episode #0 played several licensed games, this time we’re focusing on Tails and the Music Maker, Sonic the Hedgehog’s Gameworld (the Japanese import and the American version) as well as a very special playthrough of Fishing Pico – Donald no Adventure. Yes, the SEGA Pico had a fishing controller. Joining Barry in this two hour Pico party is Sonic Retro’s Bartman. Keep your eyes peeled for Sonic recolors and an excessively gory drawing of Plucky Duck.
Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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SEGA Channel Retro: Sonic Birthday Celebration


Come join our live SEGA Channel Retro stream as we celebrate Sonic’s birthday the only way we know how! Come check out Sonic games and more on stream.
Now that the stream has concluded, jump to any point you’d like from our initial stream, and be sure to stay tuned this week for more Sonic games streamed live on SEGA Channel Retro. Videos are up on YouTube and on Twitch.
Uncut Stream [Twitch]
Sonic Jam (With Sonic 3 Easy Mode) [YouTube] [Twitch]
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Retro Engine [YouTube] [Twitch]
Sonic Adventure (Sonic’s Story) [YouTube] [Twitch]

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Sonic Meets Live-Action in Upcoming Movie

eggmanisntpleasedwiththisoutcome
Yup, you read the title right. Sony is teaming up with SEGA and Marza Animation Planet to make a Sonic movie that’s a CG animation and live-action hybrid. Produced by Neal Moritz at Sony’s side, Takeshi Ito and Mie Onishi at Marza’s side. Writers Evan Susser and Van Robichaux are the screenwriters.
The movie will focus on Sonic’s rivalry with his villains, including Dr. Eggman. Nothing else has been revealed at this time aside from Sony Pictures and Marza Animation Planet presidents saying the obligatory “we are excited about this thing”. Marza is the studio that does the CG openings of Sonic games, they made the entertaining Night of the Werehog short as well.
[Source: Hollywood Reporter]

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UPDATED: Impromptu VidyaRetro Stream: Sonic 2 Remastered

Have you ever wanted to watch some schmucks play a brand new game from 20 years ago? That’s exactly what we’re doing right now, so join us as we play the newly updated release of Sonic 2 right now!

Despite some issues, the stream is now being hosted on the Vidya Retro Youtube channel split into four parts. You can watch the normal playthrough of the game in two parts, the debug playthrough or take a look at the two player mode in action.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Debug Mode] [2 Player Mode]

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Impress Watch: Sega M2/CS3 interview on porting Sonic to the 3DS

s00It’s pretty rare that we get to see Sega developers geek out and go into wonderful detail about the development process behind their games, so it’s always special when we see something published like Impress Watch‘s interview with M2 president Naoki Horii and Sega CS3 producer Yosuke Okunari about bringing the classic Mega Drive version of Sonic the Hedgehog to the Nintendo 3DS. Translated by Sega and published by Siliconera, the two men describe the technical challenges of emulating the Mega Drive on the 3DS, how they had to rewrite large portions of code in ARM assembly to optimize performance, how they designed a fictional hardware variation of the Mega Drive to support stereoscopic 3D, and even how they dug into the vaults and consulted Sonic Jam source code for assistance porting the Spin Dash to the original game. Be sure to check out the full interview at the source link below; it’s an excellent read if you’re interested in a detailed look at the programming and design work that goes into a project like this.

Source: Siliconera