I was talking with a friend earlier about one of fandom's most deplorable habits: forcing “maturation” upon the creative properties they supposedly love. One incident I will never be allowed to forget involved a “grown up” take on Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Gadget the mouse was pregnant, and there was a lot of swearing, spitting and smoking. The art was fantastic, but again, Gadget was pregnant, and there was a lot of swearing, spitting and smoking.
My friend asked me if I had heard of a Game Boy Advance project called Sonic Epoch Advance. I had not. I was about to be taken to exotic new places. Exotic, dark new places choked with oil, sludge, death and F-bombs.
Sonic Epoch Advance is a chatty action game based on DiC's old Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon—often better known as “Sonic SatAM.” Sonic SatAM earned a reputation for being dark and mature. It really wasn't, though it was ambitious for a kids' cartoon based on a video game. The plot involved Robotnik's eco-terrorism and Sonic's battle against said eco-terrorism. All things said, Sonic Epoch Advance could have chosen worse source material to expand upon.
Unfortunately, fans are pretty good at turning maturity into self-parody, and this little fan project is no exception. The story for Sonic Epoch Advance plays out some years after Sonic disappears in a time-traveling accident and is presumed dead. Princess Sally, an impressively strong female character in DiC's cartoon, falls apart without her hero, and attempts suicide. Tails stops her, but not before swearing a lot and showing off his scowl (it's a rough future, so Tails grew up all tuff. Get it?).
The black tone adopted for Sonic Epoch Advance is ridiculous, and it's hard to believe nobody on the team stopped and said, “Wait, guys, this is stupid.” Fans often feel obligated to realise the full story potential in a series, so they blindly throw in swear words and cigarettes in hopes that they themselves will be reflected as grown-up. It's a funny line of thought, since we start pining for innocence again once we hit our late 20s.
For me, the most disappointing aspect of the Sonic Epoch Advance project is its treatment of Princess Sally. In the cartoon, the exiled leader of Mobius fights alongside Sonic and is level-headed with or without him. Steady female characters are sorely lacking in cartoons and video games, but the project leaders decided that maturity means despair and suicide through a Saturday morning cartoon laser pistol instead of the enviable ability to keep things together during hard times. There are a lot of mixed-up people in this world.
Here's the first part of a Sonic Epoch Advance Let's Play, since the dialogue has to be read to be believed,
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