161 replies to this topic

[Ventus]

Shoot!, I forgot about the writers...Thats who I shall blame for the crappy dialog in Sonic, The voices aren't really to bad...to an extent. except tails his voice actor made me hate tails in this game Something awful. anyway time for me to get off the subject of voice actors..

@TS: and if you don't mind. can I ask, How did Ryan Drummond lose his job? and why does it make you detest sega?

[The Satellite]

In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the US dubbing rights for the anime Sonic X. In the Japanese version of Sonic X, all the video game voice actors (Seiyu) reprised their roles. Instead of using the established US video game voice actors, 4Kids hired their own in-house actors to provide the voice over for Sonic X. After unprofessional and questionable lack of communication, Ryan was then contacted by 4Kids employee Michael Haigney who was the producer of Sonic X. He claimed 4Kids could not use Ryan and the other video game voice actors, because they did not live in New York where 4Kids is headquartered. Ryan replied that he would have gladly relocated to New York at his own expense. Instead, Ryan was replaced by Jason Griffith who voiced Sonic in Sonic X.

Sega never made an official announcement about the replacement. Instead, Drummond had to contact Sega to inquire about the voice over work for Shadow the Hedgehog. After hearing about his firing, Ryan informed fans via e-mail. His e-mail states that Sega of Japan hired the 4Kids voice actors in secret. Former Sega of America (SOA) president Simon Jeffery confirms Sega of Japan controls all voice actors including those in the US.

Adding to the controversy, Griffith's replacement in 2010, Roger Craig Smith, was simply offered the job by Sega while Ryan and Jason auditioned and earned the role of Sonic the Hedgehog. To this day, some fans are still angry about the voice actor change and want Ryan to voice Sonic again. Many fans still prefer Ryan’s more energetic style, as opposed to Jason’s calmer delivery and Roger’s older voice. Some fans, however, still would have preferred Sonic to be mute all along.

This is how, and this is why. Source and an article containing a letter from Ryan confirming this.

[Ventus]

Oh...that makes me sick, How could they do that, Okay I now know how you detest sega. After reading all that, it makes me detest sega too...it seems it was a major sh** move on sega's end. But at least I know what happened now. Thanks TS.

[Russ]

For all people complain about Ryan getting dumped, Jason had it worse. Jason was already voicing Sonic on Sonic X. When the voice actor for Dr. Eggman in the games died, Eggman's voice from the TV series, Polluck, offered to replace him. And Sega decided after that, they might as well just take all the Sonic X cast. Not telling Ryan he was fired was extremely unprofessional, but at least there was a reason behind the replacement. But then, out of the blue, Sega decides to fire everybody except Polluck and replace them. Roger didn't have to audition, and there was no reason for Jason to be replaced, Sega just decided to. And for that matter, why does Sega of Japan control the voices? Should Sega of America be in charge of that?

But on a side note, Jason's my personal favorite voice for Sonic. Drummond was a little too high pitched, Jason got it just right.

[The Satellite]

When the voice actor for Dr. Eggman in the games died, Eggman's voice from the TV series, Polluck, offered to replace him. And Sega decided after that, they might as well just take all the Sonic X cast.

Wrong. Firstly, it's Pollock, secondly, they decided to change the voice cast before Deem Bristow (the original Eggman from the Adventures and Heroes) died. Their reason for keeping Pollock is bogus too; they said it was because no one else who auditioned for Eggman "sounded fit for the role." ... and they think Shadow's and Amy's new actors fit the role?

Drummond was a little too high pitched, Jason got it just right.

Actually Jason was more high-pitched than Drummond was.

[Banjo7J]

So, I just beat Sonic Generations (not fully completed; I still need to beat Time Eater on Hard Mode and get a couple achievements.) and feel like giving it a very unorganized, short and not-very-indepth review.

The gameplay is absolutely superb, couldn't get much better. The level design is mostly pretty great, the only levels I dislike are the Planet Wisp ones, for reasons I'm not entirely sure. However, I absolutely love Modern Chemical Plant, Classic Speed Highway, Modern Crisis City and Modern Rooftop Run. Probably the best four levels, IMO. The graphics were brilliant, and when I got my new graphics card, it looked absolutely amazing. The music is excellent, especially Modern Rooftop Run. Seriously, that song is the soundtrack to Heaven. The choice for unlockable music was also pretty great, only complaint there is lack of E.G.G.M.A.N.. Of my five favourite Sonic songs that have lyrics, it's the only one missing. (For those wondering, 5 is What I'm Made Of, 4 is E.G.G.M.A.N. and His World, Live and Learn and Open Your Heart tie for 1st.) There's tons of replayability for those who love speedrunning things and doing things as fast as they can, like me.

Overall, I'd give this game...9.5/10. Maybe a little higher.

You can probably expect a lot more of my "reviews" for Sonic games, because as soon as I completely finish up Generations, I'm going to start playing through all of the main Sonic games, starting of course with the original. And by main Sonic games, I mean all the ones that got a level or boss in Generations (except Heroes since I played through that last year), as well as maybe Shadow The Hedgehog.

[The Satellite]

E.G.G.M.A.N. is there, in a cutscene and before Egg Dragoon's gate, but yeah, there's a few songs I wish were unlockable. Like the original City Escape. The remixes are good, but the original's just... so much superior. I'd've loved to see what running through the modern stage would be like with that song on. But oh well.

[Banjo7J]

Yeah, I know, but I wish I could've listened to that instead of some of the default music. Hearing it outside Egg Dragoon got my hopes up more than common sense should've allowed it too. Oh well, I can still listen to it whenever the hell I want to, anyway. Like right now, as I'm posting this.

EDIT:Wait...why didn't I just mute the game music and have my E.G.G.M.A.N. .mp3 playing? ...God, I'm such an idiot.

Edited by Banjo7J, 02 February 2012 - 05:12 PM.

[kurt91]

Played through Sonic Generations and absolutely loved it. My favorite levels were the modern versions of Chemical Plant, City Escape, and Rooftop Run. The classic levels weren't bad, but the physics felt too far off to be the nostalgia trip they were meant to be.

I enjoyed the Shadow rival battle as well as Perfect Chaos and Egg Dragoon. Other than that, the boss battles were mostly forgettable.

After playing this one to death, it's kind of hard to play my PS2 Unleashed game now. The differences in things like how boosting works is just too much. I'm really looking forward to when SonicRetro gets the 360 Unleashed levels fully ported over to Generations, just so there're a few more levels to play through.

I actually enjoyed Sonic Adventure more than Adventure 2, just because the first one had the fun Sonic levels and Tails levels. Once you finished the Sonic/Shadow levels in 2, there just wasn't anything all that fun about the game anymore. The Tails/Eggman and Knuckles/Rouge levels just completely sucked.

Out of the classic games, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is my favorite. Mainly it's because of the last major part of the game, Lava Reef through Doomsday, when all the parts of the story finally come together and it's a mad rush to get to the Death Egg and stop Eggman.

[The Satellite]

Played through Sonic Generations and absolutely loved it. My favorite levels were the modern versions of Chemical Plant, City Escape, and Rooftop Run. The classic levels weren't bad, but the physics felt too far off to be the nostalgia trip they were meant to be.

I enjoyed the Shadow rival battle as well as Perfect Chaos and Egg Dragoon. Other than that, the boss battles were mostly forgettable.

Personally, while the physics weren't perfect (in fact the 3DS Classic Sonic physics were closer to the Genesis physics, minus, ya know, the STUPID HOMING ATTACK), I felt like they were more of an update. I enjoyed the classic levels immensely; they were fun, clever, and had something that was missing from almost every Sonic game after S&K: Intelligent design, clever segments, and a bevy of multiple pathways through the level. Even the modern stages had this. It's why I love Generations so much; its stage design is so much superior than nearly every game before it, minus the Genesis ones and SA2's Adventure 2 levels.

I'm really looking forward to when SonicRetro gets the 360 Unleashed levels fully ported over to Generations, just so there're a few more levels to play through.

Wait what. I want. I want now.

[SpikeReynolds]

Blame the writers, it's not the actors' fault.

Well, I dunno. There were some lines that were killed by bad delivery. Quite a few in Heroes, especially by Tails. Shadow and Sonic Adventure 2, on the other hand, had a better job done by the voice cast to cover up sub-par writing.

And on the note of actors, I prefer Tails' voice actor from Shadow than the one from Adventure 2 or Heroes.

[Banjo7J]

Speaking of voice actors, did anyone else think all the voice actors in Generations sound really weird? The only ones I didn't really have a problem with were Sonic and Eggman. (Sonic's voice could be a bit better, but no major complaints.) Everyone else justs sounds really weird to me. Especially Shadow, Espio, Vector and Charmy. I would say Silver too, but I don't know how he sounds in anything else, so I can't really say anything about his Generations voice.

[Russ]

Eggman I love. He's still got the same voice from previous games (every one since Shadow), and I personally think he does a pretty good job at it. Sonic... yeah, a little weird. I mean, he could make it work, but honestly his voice just doesn't naturally sound like Sonic. Drummond and Griffith did. He doesn't. Silver was good, better than in '06. He has the same type of voice, but it doesn't sound as whiny. For comparison: https://www.youtube....h?v=s3pg942o8KM

The Chaotix sounded pretty good to me, definitelybetter than in Heroes, and at least as good as in Shadow. But Shadow... ugh, no. Thornton sounds like a choking pedophile. I don't know what Sega was thinking when they hired him. And Amy.... could they have picked a more annoying voice? But Knuckles is okay, and Tails sounds better than he did before. Still not great though. They've set to find somebody who A. has a voice like Tails and B. knows how to act.

[Banjo7J]

Oh, Eggman is the same voice actor as before? That explains why he didn't sound weird. After listening to Silver's voice from 06, I have to agree with you there, Generations is better, even though '06 sounds more like what I expected. Team Chaotix...I think that's actually a case of the nostalgia goggles, for me, because I'm so used to their Heroes voices, anything else sounds weird to me. However, I will say, Charmy's Heroes voice fits his personality better, IMO. It sounds more...ditzy. And I can't really say anything at all about the Shadow The Hedgehog voices, because God knows how long ago it was I last played that game.

[The Satellite]

At least Amy doesn't sound as bad as she did in Free Riders (haven't played, just heard clips). Really, pretty much all the voice actors in Generations kinda sound better or equal to they did before, with the exceptions of Shadow and Amy. Sonic, his Adventure 2 actor is still my favorite, but all three of his game actors so far I like well enough, so no big deal there. Also, as for Shadow voices, I actually made a video comparing the three voice actors, but Thornton (the current Shadow) only has clips from Free Riders in that. Here's all his lines from Generations. He's improved a bit, but now he sounds like he's trying to imitate Clint Eastwood. I prefer Humphrey and Griffith; no real preference. Sega is just kind of stupid to replace the actors, especially when the last cast was good overall and Griffith as Sonic had finally become awesome. (I didn't mind him before but he got so much better as he progressed.)