Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is coming out this year and, for all intents and purposes, it looks pretty good; almost a return to form for a has-been mascot that’s tried everything from swordplay to lyncanthropy to win back his fan-base. Some people are just impossible to please, though, so even a side-scrolling HD throwback game isn’t going to win over some die-hards. Take this online petition for example. These stodgy supporters of Sonic circa 1992 aren’t just going to acquiesce and buy Sonic 4, oh no. They’re planning on buying Sonic 1 when the new game gets released. Wait, what?
Now, we all know that internet boycotts are destined to bomb, but this one strikes me as possibly the least effective form of consumer backlash I’ve ever seen. All well and good if you don’t like the new Sonic, fellas, but buying Sega’s products is hardly going to get them to change their minds. Check out my favorite part of the rant:
“Either way, We will decide to finally show sega what the fans truly want. A real sonic 4, as long as sonic 4 stays the way it is, we will not buy it, we will in fact buy sonic 1 on release in protest of sonic 4”
I know we’ve highlighted some silly boycotts in the past, but I’m sure this one takes the cake. What do you guys think about this? Is there any hope for these petitioners, or will they go down as the laughing stock of the internet? My guess is on the latter.
Source: Destructoid
1. Get those petitioners in a room.
2. Set up us the bomb.
3. Brace for epic.
4. ???
5. PROFIT!
And nothing of value was lost…
But seriously, this should be a WTF article, because… really, what the fuck? Are all Sonic fanboys like this?
I’ll start my own petition. Since they keep changing the price of an hamburger on Portuguese McDonald’s stores, from now on, I’ll start buying Big Macs.
That should teach them a lesson!!
/sarcasm
I am pretty sure Sonic fanboys are among the worst fanboys in the world.
They need to stop living in the past, SEGA isn’t the king of games anymore.
What do they see wrong in Sonic 4 anyway? The only reason I wouldn’t buy it is because it looks and plays the same as every other goddamn side scrolling Sonic game there was.
Also, does Sonic 1 even have a price any more? I highly doubt any of them will actually buy Sonic 1 on the Sonic 4 release.
Not to mention, is there even a place that still sells hard copies of Sonic 1 besides antique shops? And, if they are such die-hard fanboys, wouldn’t they already have Sonic 1 on the Wii by now??? XD
I don’t understand… Sonic 4 looks like a return to form from Sega, what do they want?!
Sonic has fanboys?
Why does everything have to upset somebody? They haven’t released enough on the game yet to justify the fanbase saying anything about how its not going to be good. And i too thought this was supposed to be a traditional Sonic game.
[quote comment=”10409″]I don’t understand… Sonic 4 looks like a return to form from Sega, what do they want?![/quote]
16-bit, sprite animated goodness that only involves about four characters. I can understand their worry about how it might just end up being like the other Sonic games in the fact that there are at least six other characters that make no sense and a story line that you won’t see return in the main plot line, but there really isn’t one that’s lived on except for maybe Shadow’s story. I just hope that you can actually collect the Emeralds and become Super Sonic at any time, rather than the final boss, I’d see that as a major rise on its own.
I’m embarrassed to be a Sega fanboy right now.
Let me see if I can put this into words:
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?
Never mind the absurdity that buying Sonic 1 will be giving Sega free money for a 20 year old game, these are the same nitwits who troll on message boards and flaunt their “retro gamer” credentials by calling for a game series to “return to its roots” and “go back to what made the originals great.” Sega has done what Sonic fanboys have been asking for: They’ve made a 2d platformer using modern 3d design that will emphasis all the aspects that made the original games so good.
So, let me gives this straight: Sega gives the fans what they say they’ve wanted for years and then the fans bitch about it? I’d love to see what these people think Sonic 4 “should” look like since they are all so knowledgeable about game design.
It’s because of people like this that fear-mongering social commentators feel obligated to write books about how the internet is ruining society and making us dumber.
Oh, and in response to Nic’s comment: The Sonic franchise has a main plot line? I’ve played about every major console version of it and I can’t say that a single thing about any of the storylines lasted in my memory beyond turning the game off.
Wow. This is almost the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Is Sarah Palin behind this?
El-Oh-El?
I’m going to buy another SNES with another copy of Super Mario World in protest of Sonic. How about that?
*****/fartnoise\*****
[quote comment=”10412″]
Oh, and in response to Nic’s comment: The Sonic franchise has a main plot line? I’ve played about every major console version of it and I can’t say that a single thing about any of the storylines lasted in my memory beyond turning the game off.[/quote]
I’m kinda playing with words there. It’s another little joke on how some people act on the Sonic franchise.
I see your point.
On the plus side, we now know what people who take the franchise too seriously look like.
Do you suppose they get in fights over who was the best actor to play each color of Power Ranger when they’re done complaining about continuity gaps in the Sonic games?
[quote comment=”10414″] Is Sarah Palin behind this?[/quote]
+1 real lol
yeah guys i can see where they are coming from, when I heard they were releasing a new mario, I immediately, in retaliation, went to the Wii store to buy all the old mario games. THAT’LL SHOW NINTENDO I’M NOT ONE TO BE MESSED WITH.
[quote comment=”10418″]
Do you suppose they get in fights over who was the best actor to play each color of Power Ranger when they’re done complaining about continuity gaps in the Sonic games?[/quote]
That is very possible.
I think that everybody’s kinda missing the point of the buying the old Sonic game- the idea isn’t to deliver a financial blow to Sega, it’s to show what they’d rather have.
Still, it’s all very ridiculous and goes down as one of the biggest WTF’s I’ve seen all day. I blame Sega, though, for breeding these kinds of fans. It must be insanity-inducing to be a fan of a franchise that produces Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic: Unleashed *shudders*
Maybe that’s why they’re so pissed. I don’t want to give any justifications to these stooges, but I can see how someone might think of Sonic 4 as a cop-out given that it’s trying to replicate the success of a 20 year old game by simply copying it.
By the way, pretty much every review I’ve read of Sonic: Unleashed said that the 2d/3d daytime levels where you’re actually running are unquestionably the best Sonic experience since the original games. Perhaps they should have just developed a game based around those levels?
Who knows what goes through the minds of Sega’s decision makers, though. Has there ever been a company that shot itself in the foot more times than Sega?
Yeah, speaking of Unleashed, that game could have been a much bigger selling point if you take out the Wolf parts and the stupid Dial collections. I loved playing the running levels, but they were too few and far of good ones.