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IDW Characters in the Games
- IDW Characters in the Games
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IDW Characters in the Games
Tominique > 03-20-2024, 01:46 PM
![[Image: SLmRzz4.png]](https://i.imgur.com/SLmRzz4.png)
Its what it says on the tin.
These past few years, it has been pretty clear that the IDW comics take place in the same continuity (whatever continuity Sonic has) as the main games, and we got little treats of acknowledgement for the comics with Tangle, Whisper, and very recently Surge being playable in the mobile games, along with Tangle being mentioned in Sonic Frontiers, albeit in a very lame throwaway line. TailsTube also mentions Jewel and the Restoration in episode 6, but I don't know how much validity that has.
We've yet to get a full-on confirmation aside from the aforementioned super casual name drop in Frontiers and a slightly better nod in TailsTube, but I'm under the belief that we are still very much in the road for at least Tangle, the face of IDW Sonic, showing up in the games in the near future.
Though I have some concerns about that, specially when it comes to how the comic characters aren't as static of characters like the game characters are. The comics have to rely a lot on their original characters for the bigger stories since the game characters can't change at all compared to the comic ones, so that creates the problem of what the hell do you do for translating these ever-changing characters in a static environment like the games?
Tangle and Jewel are actually in the clear and the ones I see most possible showing up in a game since, while they do have some development, they stay mostly the same throughout so their translation to game wouldn't be as difficult.
But say someone like Whisper, Lanolin, or- dear Chaos -Surge. I feel like those have no way in hell of making a big appearance in a mainline game without completely halting their characters for the worse. And I feel as if Surge would have no place in a game anyways, no matter how much I like her, though as of the writing of this thread the current plot in the IDW comics involves Surge, so that opinion may change depending on how her character is continued to be used.
Another problem is the simple fact that not everyone will have read the comics prior to these weird lemur and beetle things showing up in a new game, so you'd have to establish that as well even though their characters are supposedly already known in this world. And how much of the comic's world do they bring with them? Do you establish the Restoration? Reference the Metal Virus? Heck, Spiral Hill?
I'm under the impression SEGA or whoever is currently testing the waters when it comes to bringing the comics characters in the game with all the little nods here and there, all leading up to an appearance that would cement that connection between the two medias, and I feel like that's closer than we might think.
Either that or they're locked in a vault just like the Freedom Fighters.
I wanna know what y'all's think. If you think its also a possibility, some other problems that may come with this connection, or just cross your fingers that Rough and Tumble get to play a big part or something. They're awesome.
In conclusion, I WANNA SWING AROUND ZONES AS MY DEAR TANGLE, DAMMIT!!!
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RE: IDW Characters in the Games
hooligan > 03-20-2024, 04:35 PM
another interesting thing abt the continuity thanks for frontiers is that amy mentions sticks during the epilogue, which is a character from a completely different universe... I almost feel like these lines referencing characters from the other continuities and the comics are english only, even though Archie and IDW have their audiences in other countries, including Japan
I genuinely want to be more hopeful this time around that comic characters could be introduced into mainstream games (the best Archie sonic got was some cameos in spinball iirc) but like you said, bringing them into the games could possibly halt their personalities and story; IDW's universe started where forces left off, meaning things like mr tinker would technically (?) be game canon too, haha... depending on the game they appear in though I could easily see the diamond cutters being included in a spin-off game, the next issue is going to be riders-centric so that instantly comes to mind for what spin-off game exactly they could appear in. I remember back in 2000-2010 any new sonic character was just "another one of sonic's stupid friends" which thankfully, we've moved on from that mindset so I think introducing comic characters into the games wouldn't be too bad... the continuity is already in shambles, so a few comic-specific characters can't make it any worse (maybe...)
semi-off topic but since you mentioned surge, specifically I love when ppl have surge interact w/ sonic's other rivals like shadow, I feel like that would be an interesting dynamic that could be expanded upon and all the IDW characters have their own interesting abilities that I would love to see in games, kind of like what we were talking about with the wisp-type characters thread -
RE: IDW Characters in the Games
Tominique > 03-20-2024, 07:06 PM
(03-20-2024, 04:35 PM)hooligan Wrote: another interesting thing abt the continuity thanks for frontiers is that amy mentions sticks during the epilogue, which is a character from a completely different universe... I almost feel like these lines referencing characters from the other continuities and the comics are english only, even though Archie and IDW have their audiences in other countries, including Japan
I genuinely want to be more hopeful this time around that comic characters could be introduced into mainstream games (the best Archie sonic got was some cameos in spinball iirc) but like you said, bringing them into the games could possibly halt their personalities and story; IDW's universe started where forces left off, meaning things like mr tinker would technically (?) be game canon too, haha... depending on the game they appear in though I could easily see the diamond cutters being included in a spin-off game, the next issue is going to be riders-centric so that instantly comes to mind for what spin-off game exactly they could appear in. I remember back in 2000-2010 any new sonic character was just "another one of sonic's stupid friends" which thankfully, we've moved on from that mindset so I think introducing comic characters into the games wouldn't be too bad... the continuity is already in shambles, so a few comic-specific characters can't make it any worse (maybe...)
semi-off topic but since you mentioned surge, specifically I love when ppl have surge interact w/ sonic's other rivals like shadow, I feel like that would be an interesting dynamic that could be expanded upon and all the IDW characters have their own interesting abilities that I would love to see in games, kind of like what we were talking about with the wisp-type characters thread
I actually started this thread because the Wisp-Type Characters one was slowly turning into "What if IDW in games?" so I might as well do a thread fitting that.
Bringing up Japan is actually something I forgot to mention myself, I heard Sonic is not as popular in Japan as it is in, say, the US. Stuff like IDW are barely a thing there from what I remember. So that may also be a factor against IDW characters in the games.
I wouldn't go as far to start hoping for spin-offs or too big of appearances yet, as it stands, Sonic still seems to be growing out of that "only Sonic is playable" thing, so most I see happening is IDW characters being only really involved in the plot. Though we'd be missing the hell out on Full Tangle Swinging Gameplay™, so I guess I shouldn't throw that off as a possibility just yet.
Something I'd like to point out is that, differently from Archie that did its own thing, IDW characters and stories are mostly designed with the games in mind, hence why Tangle has the stretchy tail, or Whisper has the Variable Wispon, the Metal Virus, the Eggperial City...
![[Image: pXHGOMi.png]](https://i.imgur.com/pXHGOMi.png)
That beautiful underground cave from the latest issue- these books are written as if they're game material, so ideally we would get a game adapting these stories, but... that's way too much wishful thinking, even if that would absolutely rock.
Now, when Archie got rebooted, I'm aware how they redesigned the whole world to be more in-line with the games as well, but IDW really does feel like it wants to work alongside the games and be compatible with them, which in my opinion is already the case.
Again, I genuinely do believe SEGA would be willing to bridge that gap between comics and games, given how much the comic side has been nodding to that. -
RE: IDW Characters in the Games
Josiahblaze > 03-20-2024, 08:14 PM
One thing to keep in mind here is that while the IDW comics are being translated and released officially in Japan as volumes, the JP translations are way behind on everything. Which means that some characters haven't even been introduced to Japanese audiences, and likely won't be appearing in games until they are.
The latest JP translation was released last year, and finishes the Metal Virus Saga. No issues after that have been translated. So, Belle, Surge, and Kit haven't been introduced, and Lanolin isn't anything more than a background character. On top of that, the Tangle and Whisper miniseries was never translated, so Mimic is also absent. -
RE: IDW Characters in the Games
BDBGaming > 03-21-2024, 05:49 AM
I really do hope they get in the games- -
RE: IDW Characters in the Games
hooligan > 03-28-2024, 11:06 PM
it's about time I replied to this, I'd been meaning to but sometimes I get self-conscious w/ how long my replies can get at times...
(03-20-2024, 07:06 PM)Tominique Wrote: Bringing up Japan is actually something I forgot to mention myself, I heard Sonic is not as popular in Japan as it is in, say, the US. Stuff like IDW are barely a thing there from what I remember. So that may also be a factor against IDW characters in the games.
yeah, I'm not as in touch w/ the JP fanbase as I used to be unfortunately; but as Josiahblaze said, the comics are really far behind in Japan, so much so that a lot of JP fans simply import books overseas and just learn English basically so it's not like they don't know of the characters, but they're definitely not as popular in Asia as they are in ENG speaking territories and NA as a whole-- but the ppl that like Sonic, like Sonic. There was recently a Fan Event in JP and it was really nice seeing the dedicated fans showing off their comics and merch, some had even the GEE Tangle and Whisper plushies, but their collections were really impressive, and a lot of the books and comics were in ENG so that kind of shows the fandom balance right there
(03-20-2024, 07:06 PM)Tominique Wrote: Something I'd like to point out is that, differently from Archie that did its own thing, IDW characters and stories are mostly designed with the games in mind, hence why Tangle has the stretchy tail, or Whisper has the Variable Wispon, the Metal Virus, the Eggperial City...
[Image: https://i.imgur.com/pXHGOMi.png]
That beautiful underground cave from the latest issue- these books are written as if they're game material, so ideally we would get a game adapting these stories, but... that's way too much wishful thinking, even if that would absolutely rock.
Now, when Archie got rebooted, I'm aware how they redesigned the whole world to be more in-line with the games as well, but IDW really does feel like it wants to work alongside the games and be compatible with them, which in my opinion is already the case.
Again, I genuinely do believe SEGA would be willing to bridge that gap between comics and games, given how much the comic side has been nodding to that.
There's tons of examples of the IDW-universe that I can point out myself to agree w/ you, the next arc involving more Extreme Gears and basically being a Sonic Riders sequel comic adaption proves that, I like that IDW feels like a natural extension of the Sonic Universe/Games canon, since it did start as a continuation of Sonic Forces. A lot of that is thanks to Ian Flynn ofc; and even though he worked on Archie unfortunately it felt like it was too late for Archie's universe, and I don't mean that in a bad way, I love Archie Sonic so much, but the story and characters went their own way for so long that entirely restarting it and trying to adapt the games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic the Fighters (which took place at the same time within the comics) didn't feel as natural back then
I also think it would be nice for SEGA to bridge the gap between games and comics, I know the lines were only in the ENG version of Sonic Frontiers, but it was nice having Amy mention Sticks and Sonic mention Tangle... even if Sticks existing in the mainline canon is ??? but it's all funnies
even if they weren't 1-to-1 to each other, it's the little things like Starline mentioning all of Eggman's different bases, Eggman using the Egg Walker; it all helps make the universe feel somewhat whole
hopefully this reply wasn't too off topic, there's lots to unpack w/ the IDW comics and its characters existing in games and the mobile game appearances are nice, but if we can go further w/ a mainline title or even spin-off of with just these comic specific characters would be nice
