The Blue Blur and the Blue Bomber: Parallels between Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog and how time has treated them

One is a robot covered in blue, initially made to clean.  One is a blue hedgehog with an unknown, if not unconfirmed origin.  Their lives were changed dramatically when the forces of evil rose to power in their worlds.  Pushed to the brink, they became the definitive heroes we know today with long-standing video game series and tremendous fanbases that rival the likes of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and even newer series like HALO, Call of Duty, Uncharted, Devil May Cry, and the like.  Just recently, they celebrated milestones in video games with Sonic reaching 21 years in existence and Mega Man making it to 25 years.  And now, for the first time ever, they will both appear in a crossover, but not in the video game variety.  It will be in the comic book world through Sonic’s comic series under Archie comics, and most likely Mega Man’s comic series under UDON Entertainment.  Truth be told, Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog have made indelible impacts in the world of video games for all of us.  And, sadly, they’ve had their shares of low points that ring true to all gamers, fans specifically.   Yet, somewhere along the way, I saw something.  I saw a parallel, or two, or three.  I’m sure Sega and Capcom don’t really work together that often (although the game Project X Zone will literally blow the roof off when it comes out for the Nintendo 3DS, pitting Capcom with Sega and Namco), but it’s something to behold and a bit scary to see just how similar at times Mega Man can be to Sonic.  I know I’m not the first person to find this out as someone pointed this out initially for me to write this blog.  However, I can’t help but blog about this and see it all for myself.

Here’s a brief synopsis of Mega Man, for those who aren’t aware of the series (if you aren’t aware, become aware, like NOW!)  In the future, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were initially colleagues looking to create a better world with the robots they created.  Unknown to Light, Wily, true to his name, was looking for more and greedily stole 6 original robots from Light and reprogrammed them for his own selfish means.  Seeing his treachery, Light took his custodian robot, Rock Volnutt (which I learned from Mega Man Legends), gave him a helmet, a blaster called the Mega Buster, and the ability to copy the different abilities from other robots in order to bring them to justice.  In Japan, he was known as Rockman, as a play on words towards music (hence his sister, Roll, and other robots like Bass).  In America, he was Mega Man.  This all started in 1987, and continued for the next 25 years with a bevy of games.  He starred in 10 games with his namesake and numbers over 3 to 4 different consoles.  He starred in a sequel series called Mega Man X, portraying a new form of Mega Man in the distant future with new powers in a new world, ravaged by a new threat called Sigma and his Sigma Hunter robots that are animals instead of men.  Other spinoff titles include the Power Battle series, a soccer game for the Super Nintendo, a fully 3-D game series called Mega Man Legends, and a host of others.  Outside of video games, we have seen the infamous Mega Man anime/cartoon known for its awful nature, mountains of merchandise, and even a not-for-profit fan film made by Eddie LeBron, released for free on Screwattack.com.  Mega Man has had quite a legacy.

And now, a synopsis on Sonic the Hedgehog, for those who aren’t aware of his history (again, get aware NOW!)  Although there is no general origin story for Sonic’s birth or at least a universal and confirmed one, that didn’t stop his meteoric rise to popularity.  All that is known is that, like Mega Man, he fights an evil doctor, named Ivo Robotnik (or Eggman, as per his original name in Japan, now adopted in America) in an endless struggle between the animals in the forest of South Island and elsewhere and the machines and robots he creates.  Robotnik wants machines controlled by creatures, and Sonic wants to free them, in any way he can.  So, how does he do it?  With supersonic speed, incredible agility, and amazing powers he can obtain in his adventures.  This battle started in 1991, during the battle between Nintendo’s NES and Sega’s Genesis system, pitting 8-bit graphics vs. 16-bit graphics.  Sonic held strong in battle with 3 actual sequels on the Genesis, an add-on sequel of sorts (Sonic and Knuckles) that added to the 3 original games in a way, an isometric sequel attempting 3-D gaming, a pinball spinoff game, and even a more powerful Genesis game to be played on the Sega CD, reminiscent of the first 3.  Afterward, Sonic released a rare fighting game, a racing game, another adventure game of sorts, and even a party game, like Mario Party.  Sonic wouldn’t meet full 3-D immersion until the Sega Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure.  This would be followed up with a direct sequel, and later a bevy of titles and re-releases on other non-Sega platforms, as Sega would revert to a 3^rd party software company after the Dreamcast’s release and failure.  From then on, Sonic’s games would be seen on Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo systems, predominantly Nintendo.  The games in question range between compilation games, new adventures acting as 2.5-D and 3-D games at the same time, games with new concepts like Sonic turning into a werewolf or partaking in the realm of King Arthur, and crossover games with Mario and his universe, specifically in official Olympic games. Outside of gaming, Sonic has had a slew of toys, an animated movie made in Japan, four different cartoon series with 3 of them originating in America, the longest running video game comic book series backed by Archie Comics, the aforementioned Mega Man crossover comics, various merchandise, and an impending fan film made by the same developer of the Mega Man film, Eddie LeBron. Sonic has had a very busy shelf life, albeit no longer being on any exclusive Sega systems.

So, now you know the abridged histories of Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog, but I would suggest you look up various videos, transcripts, etc. for a better and more focused telling of their histories in the gaming world.  I can’t fit everything into this blog, sadly, as I would be spanning a combined 21 and 25 years of gaming.  But, as you can initially see, Sonic and Mega Man have some storied lives in and out of the gaming world.  And in kind, both of the franchises have large fanbases.  Fans would go out of their way to support both games religiously in various forms.  They write fictional stories, draw amazing pictures, show their support at various conventions, and even animate their own cartoons of sorts in support or out of dark humor (for the older gamer, look into the shows Sonic for Hire and Mega Man dies at the end to see what I mean).  It’s something to behold, to be sure.  You can see a bit of the parallels between the two series, if not in their content, then in their longevity and legacy.  Unfortunately, that can be said about the low points of their legacies as well.  Sadly, time has not been on the sides of these two game icons.

Mega Man would continue onto the SNES after 6 games on the NES and about 5 games on the Game Boy with Mega Man X.  It went on to spawn two sequels for the SNES, but something strange happened.  The following games of record for the SNES ended up being Mega Man Soccer and Mega Man 7.  These would be the final games for this system, strangely enough.  It seemed uncharacteristic of Capcom to not continue the Mega Man X series, and even more uncharacteristic to continue the Mega Man series many years after the release of each Mega Man X game.  Suffice to say, both games had good followings as well as decent reviews.  The N64, PS, and Sega Saturn would come in the mid-1990s, and Capcom’s relationship with Nintendo would be severely hampered due to Nintendo’s choices in business.  Soon after this, Mega Man would have sequels on the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn with Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 to Mega Man X7.  Even Mega Man X3 was re-released on the PlayStation with various graphical updates.  Mega Man would take the plunge into 3-D gaming with the Mega Man Legends game for the PlayStation.  This wasn’t exactly your father’s Mega Man game, but it did have its share of fans and support.  This worked so well in fact that it garnered a sequel, a spinoff starring the main villain of the first game (Tron Bonne), and even a port to the N64 (Mega Man 64, which was the first game).  These would be some of the last new console Mega Man games, unfortunately, as Mega Man would make his way to handhelds, including the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS.  The other new console games would include a sequel to Mega Man X in RPG form, and a continuation of the GBA games in 3-D form.  After that, the next console games would be compilation games of every Mega Man and Mega Man X game to come out on the NES, SNES, PS, and some arcade games.  It wouldn’t be until the release of the latest console generation where we would see a new direct sequel to the Mega Man franchise with Mega Man 9.  This game looked almost exactly like its NES counterparts, which was a departure from Mega Man 7 and 8.  It was received with great praise for its return to form, its difficulty, and its other nuances.  Mega Man 10 would come after this, but what made these games unique was that they were downloadable games to your system instead of actual physical copies.  Regardless, these games were truly loved and supported by fans, but not all good things last forever, despite the rocky nature of one’s history.

Mega Man fans received the slew of video games that came out as mentioned with good to tepid responses.  With the advent of a 3-D version of Mega Man, fans clamored for a return to the “old school” ways of Mega Man.  This was mostly pushed by not only Mega Man being relegated to handheld gaming when it came to the old school, but also the bevy of games that came out during the console generations that did rely on the 2-D way of gaming, like Viewtiful Joe and even a slew of fighting games, which ironically, like Viewtiful Joe, were made by Capcom.  People wanted a new and solid Mega Man game to sink into, if not a return to form.  When they received this with Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, hope was restored.  However, hope would soon disintegrate.  Mega Man would go on to take part in other crossover roles in games like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Namco X Capcom, and such.  However, there were various changes going on in Capcom that would do for some difficult times for Mega Man fans.  Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man, made it clear in an interview that the world of gaming in Japan was not as strong as it was getting in America.  Various games that have come from Japan have faltered in sales in recent memory, and Inafune blamed it on archaic business practices by Japanese developers.  In response, Capcom looked to chastise Inafune, leading to Inafune’s departure from the company.  This left the Mega Man franchise in the hands of an already bitter Capcom after being insulted by Inafune.  Afterwards, a slew of franchises were left in the hands of Capcom of America, or left by the wayside by Capcom.  This would lead to three key instances with Mega Man.  First, Mega Man Legends 3 was to be released for the Nintendo 3DS, as it seemed that a slew of fans had clamored for and called for a sequel to Mega Man Legends 2.  Second, there were teaser trailers being made and premiered for an all-new Mega Man game called Mega Man Universe.  This game was to be a Mega Man game where Mega Man would take part in a 2.5D platform game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 for download, to cash in the newfound support for classic franchises using the 2.5D approach (ex. New Super Mario Bros. Wii).  The game would be just like Mega Man 2, allowing for stage creation and the same appeal that Mega Man 2 had.  There were development issues with the game including no updates on the game’s creation, and unresponsive controls, but the game would still be created.  Unfortunately, the game would be canceled abruptly.  Mega Man Legends 3 would still be created, according to Capcom, with a downloadable demo for the 3DS that acted as a prologue to the game.  However, it was never released and neither was the game as both were canceled.  According to reports, the support for this game, and possibly Mega Man Universe, did not receive enough support from fans to be continued.  This would prove to be untrue as many would claim that the reasons behind the cancelations had to be due to Capcom’s bitterness towards Inafune.  The third and final instance came with the creation of the game Street Fighter X Tekken.  This would be the first time that Tekken and Street Fighter would share a fighting game in crossover fashion.  Fans clamored for Mega Man to be added to the game as he was in the Tatsunoko game but omitted from both the regular and updated versions of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  However, Zero from Mega Man X was in both games.  As fans demanded Mega Man, they received their wish and Mega Man was added, but not the Mega Man they envisioned.  This Mega Man was fat, out of shape, older, and carried a gun.  In short, he was an older, updated version of the Mega Man on the cover of the first game.  This was most likely done to annoy and insult the fans who demanded Mega Man, and call them out as overbearing, childish, and selfish.  Nonetheless, this would prove to show Mega Man’s fall from popularity amidst the gaming community.

Sonic the Hedgehog’s path isn’t exactly the rosiest of paths, either.  Even though a slew of games were released for the Sega Genesis, Sonic games started to falter after the release of Sonic Spinball.  Even though there was Sonic CD, the Sega CD wasn’t a system everyone owned, either due to price or lack of games.  The Sega 32X falls into that category as well, along with a slew of other issues people had with the system. Throw in the stiff competition from Nintendo and the SNES, and Sonic was up a creek.  You had a slew of these Sonic games for these systems and the SNES had Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, and a slew of spinoffs, original 1^st party titles, and 3^rd party titles that were ported to the SNES with better quality.  By the birth of the Sega Saturn, Sonic had almost just about run his course in ideas as Sonic Team couldn’t come up with the most successful Sonic games.  It could be attributed to the stiff competition to not just the Sony PlayStation, but the advent of the Nintendo 64 in 1996.  Both systems had great 3-D games and ports that put Sega up against the wall.  Sega’s claim to fame was Nights into Dreams, made by Sonic Team and a host of other original titles that failed to truly catch on in America.  Unfortunately, Nights caught on but not as well as its competition.  It still remains a cult favorite.  Meanwhile, Sonic had Saturn games that just didn’t match up.  There was Sonic 3D Blast for the Saturn as well as the Genesis, which both were not met with great praise, Sonic Jam which was a compilation game of all the main Sonic games for the Genesis with a Sonic World mode, Sonic R which was a racing game on foot, and the canceled Sonic X-Treme which was supposed to compete with Super Mario 64, yet never got off the ground.  On the Sega Dreamcast, Sonic had Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, which were Sonic’s first endeavors into 3-D action adventure.  Both games were met with great reviews, save for some nagging issues with critics (camera issues, general control of Sonic in a 3-D world).  As it turned out, the nagging issues were some of the key factors that kept the game from being good sellers on the Dreamcast.  There was also a Sonic party game to rival that of Mario Party.  It was not well-received.  Also, there was also Sonic Drift, a kart-racing game to combat Super Mario Kart.  It wasn’t a hallmark title.  There was even a Sonic fighting game released between the Saturn and the Dreamcast releases which was very obscure.  Regardless, Sega ended the Dreamcast’s run in 2001 in America, became a 3^rd party game developer and ported Sonic’s various games (Sonic Mega Collection, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle), for the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube, and the new Microsoft X-Box. 

The newest Sonic game in the franchise would be Sonic Heroes for the PS2, GC, and X-Box.  The idea was to combine teams of 3 Sonic characters to work together in a 3-D action adventure environment.   After initial praise, the game petered out sales-wise sadly, as fans were looking for a more pronounced sequel to Sonic Adventure that only involved Sonic.  They would have to wait a little while longer as Sonic would have a new racing game called Sonic Riders, which acted something like a sequel to Sonic R, and then a spin-off title, Shadow the Hedgehog, which followed the story of the main villain of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow, and how he came to rival Sonic.  Both games were not met with great reviews.  It wasn’t until the next console generation that Sonic would receive two new games to the fray, and in turn, two separate game continuities.  On the Nintendo Wii, we saw the game Sonic and the Secret Rings, which acted as a spin-off game for Sonic, as he took part in adventures outside of his own home world.  On the PS3 and Xbox 360, we saw Sonic the Hedgehog.  This game would be the first comprehensive sequel to Sonic Adventure, only this time it was now for a more powerful system and with years of development and notes going into it.  Unfortunately, the game received some of the worst reviews in Sonic game history, citing various problems.  Comparatively, the Wii title received much better reviews and was seen as a better Sonic title, although with a mass of problems.  Upon seeing this, Sega decided to take the path of spin-off titles and then created Sonic Unleashed for all 3 systems.  In this game, Sonic could change into a Were-hog at night, employing a day-night feature.  The response: an outcry of disappointment as Sonic fans saw this to be very uncharacteristic of Sonic.  Sonic   The next game, Sonic and the Black Knight, had Sonic and his friends transported back to the time of King Arthur.  Sonic used a sword to fight and defend Guinevere.  This game was met with even more criticism as Sonic was even more out of place.  A sequel to Sonic Riders was made with the tag, Zero Gravity, and it was a critical failure, as well.  So, in an attempt to return to form, Sega took a page out of Capcom’s book and had a downloadable title for all 3 systems called Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.  This was made in 2.5D, and played very much like the original Sonic titles.  People were ecstatic for this game, but it never made more than one episode.  Hardcore Sonic fans complained that Sonic was too slow and moved poorly.  It seems that Sonic’s character was in question as games seemed to miss the boat here and there.  But, then, something different was brewing at the same time as this. 

For the first time in history, Sonic the Hedgehog was going to star in not one or two, but 4 games…crossing over with Nintendo characters, specifically Mario.  The first most pronounced crossover was Mario and Sonic at the Summer Olympic Games in China.  16 characters from the Mario and Sonic universes, 8 from each respectively, would be taking part in actual Olympic events against each other.  This game was predominantly developed by Sega and published by Nintendo.  Mario, Sonic, and their friends would compete in actual and simulated Olympic games against each other.  They would be masters in strength, skill, speed, or all-around abilities.  It was the ultimate dream match on the most peaceful competitive platform.  And despite Sonic fans’ opinions, the game was a best-seller as a Nintendo exclusive on the Wii and DS systems.  It did so well that 2 sequels were made: one was for the Winter Olympic Games and one was for the Summer Games in London.  All three sold exceptionally well and the reviews were very positive.  Another generally positive game was Sega Superstar Tennis.  This was Sega’s attempt at taking the Virtua Tennis engine and mixing it with the stars of Sega games.  This would sort of be their answer to Mario Power Tennis, which would be ported to the Wii years later.  It was a multi-platform title, but sadly, the sales were not the best.  Sonic wouldn’t just crossover with Mario exclusively, as he was made a character in the third Super Smash Brothers game.  This was done as a means to not just solidify Sega’s third party partnership with Nintendo, but to also appease fans of this series who were fooled by an April Fool’s joke made by EGM (the joke stated that Sonic and Tails were in SSB: Melee and could be unlocked if defeating a set number of enemies in Brutal Melee).  Super Smash Brothers Brawl sold very well and was well-received, although some fans preferred the previous title.  After this resurgence of popularity, Sonic would go on to have two more title released.  First, there was Sonic Colors, for all systems.  The game blended 2.5D and 3-D graphics together mixing the original and newer Sonic games together.  The games were a welcome start to a possible new line of Sonic titles.  The next title was Sonic Generations which played up the possibility that the Sonic of old met the Sonic of today.  However, despite the games being solid to good, fans may have already checked out on the series altogether.

Mega Man and Sonic as you can see have had some tumultuous careers, game-wise.  However, they both have an amazing array of characters, a bevy of great games in the bygone era of video games, and a host of appearances in various games.  Heck, how surprised were gamers to see Mega Man in his first fighting game, Marvel Vs. Capcom?  I bet not half as surprised to see Sonic in the same game as Mario.  Back in their better days, both Mega Man and Sonic were considered key rivals to Mario’s success.  Sonic was more so a competitor to Mario than Mega Man, as Sega took it to task to compete with Nintendo every step of the way.  Sadly, their gaming histories took nasty turns for the worse during the next progression of video games.  Mega Man would suffer due to internal issues within Capcom and with Capcom fans.  Sonic would suffer due to a general lack of creativity towards the franchise, for whatever reason.  One would assume it was due to Sega’s inability to compete with others with hardware.  Now, both act as legends continuing their legacies to the best of their abilities on various systems. How the mighty fall sometimes.

This would probably be my longest entry, but I feel that I wouldn’t be doing the history justice for either of these characters if I left out what I read or knew.  Mega Man and Sonic may find their best days behind them.  However, it’s not too late for either franchise to re-invent.  Sonic has had a solid few games released already with hopefully more on the way.  Mega Man still remains even slightly relevant with the crossovers he does.  Hopefully the Blue Blur and Bomber can find that magic once again.