Pixel Painting - Friendly Rivals (Sonic & Knuckles)

It was only a matter of time before a Sonic commission came up. To reminisce how big Sega was back in the day is kind of hilarious. They caused so much havoc in the balance of power that no one had been able to do before. That five-year triumph period alone is enough to cement them in video game history. And it was all arguably a fluke, because even when they were on top they were making outrageously stupid decisions.

While they've had some financial success since then, quality-wise they've been all over the board (mostly on the crappy side). Sonic is a video game icon, though, and his image has allowed Sega to continue to root itself in the minds of players everywhere (for better or for worse).

The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge had the "lock-on technology," which I still think is really cool, as well as a huge technical achievement. Knuckles wasn't even supposed to be a very important character, but it was the 90s, and he had attitude, so yeah.

And I love love love Blue Sphere. I have put so many hours into that repetitive, simple, awesome game.

There are a lot of sprites for each character, so I sent the buyer most of them and let him choose which poses he liked best. He chose well. That dark blue on Sonic is such a pain in the ass though. It's so translucent, but attempting to make it more opaque always adjusts the color too far.

Still using that Mega Man-esque background. It still looks good. I am experimenting with others, just because I'm starting to get bored with this one. I had originally thought of doing the white lines crisscrossing on the black background that Sega always used for Genesis/Mega Drive stuff, but it didn't look very good. I'm happy with how they turned out all the same.

Commissions are always welcome. Price varies based on the size and complexity of the sprite/scene. I moderate comments, so feel free to leave one with your contact email and request and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Service Games: The Rise and Fall of SEGA

Enhanced Edition.

This book, written primarily by Sam Pettus, takes a close look from the origins of the company all the way to its "demise." It was written as a love letter to Sega, and it definitely shows. The voice the author uses makes the whole thing very interesting to read, even when he's talking about straight statistics. Think of it as your friend who is so incredibly enthusiastic about Sega, and just wants to talk endlessly about anything and everything related to it. All while never losing that energy and passion about the subject.

This book is chock-full of information. After finishing it, I realized that Sega had made way more dumb decisions than I had initially thought. It's great that the book examines all of the causes as well as the effects. Because most of the time, publications only focus on what happened, not why it happened.

A lot of it really boils down to different factions of the company not communicating, agreeing, and being in the mindset that, "they know better than everyone else." Sega of Japan shot itself in the foot so many times, I'm surprised anything was left below the knee by the end.

Pettus scrutinizes all the angles of the problems and solutions. There aren't any new or exclusive interviews in the book, but snippets of existing ones allow for a very credible retelling of the history.

The only real problem I had with the book was its seemingly random chronology. I would be reading about Sega in 1994, then the next section would jump back to 1991, then it would skip over to 1995. But upon looking at the big picture, I understand why Pettus chose to do it that way.

The extreme highs and lows of the company basically happened in the span of five years. Tons of both hardware and software was being cranked out, developed, and cancelled constantly (in different ways in different parts of the world). It was nuts, and nobody (even Sega's diehard fans) knew exactly what or where to support. Trying to smash all of the information together strictly chronologically would make for the most confusing book ever.

For instance, the 32X was not really supported by Sega of Japan, because they had the Saturn in the pipeline. But they didn't tell Sega of America about it at all. So there's a bunch of information about the development of the 32X in America, but not really anything about it in Japan. There's also nothing about the Saturn development in America because they didn't know it existed. Each region was focusing on a totally different piece of hardware at the same time. All the while, games were being created and ported to both. And both are running into their own hardware and software problems. Oh, and Sega CD stuff was still going on during this period as well. All of the previous points are delved into quite deeply.

Trying to discuss something like the above example in one chunk would be extremely confusing, so I understand and appreciate Pettus' decision to split the book the way he did. I only wish he had put something in the Introduction explaining it. Until I figured out the structure of the whole thing, I kept turning back, sure that I had missed something.

I look at the whole book as a collection of mini-volumes. Pettus chiefly separates each chapter by major hardware. So one "mini-volume" will be all about the Mega Drive, another will be about the Sega CD, another about the 32X, and so on and so forth. Each section examines the origin of the hardware, it's struggles and triumphs, and eventual (often messy) retirement. Key pieces of software are also examined, as well as important people in its development.

And again, the author's voice is very energetic and passionate, but this sometimes leads to a few more subjective viewpoints or guesses than is necessary. Pettus acknowledges that when he originally wrote most of the book, the internet was not nearly as broad as it is today, so he really had to go on some quests for tidbits of information. For not actually being there, he does an insanely impressive job of putting together a very messed up puzzle. It's just that once in a while, he'll have to say, "Who knows why this or that really happened?"

I will point out that this is a stark contrast between Service Games and the more recent book, Console Wars by Blake Harris. The reason I am not even bothering with Console Wars is because the author has "imagined what could have gone on" during that time period. He has made official statements confirming this. For instance, there is documented evidence that a meeting occurred on a certain date. Harris says, "Okay, let me pretend I know what happened and what people said in that meeting. It'll be really dramatic and eventful." Then he'll write it as "truth." It's a Hollywood-style look at what really happened, which is annoying, because people are looking at it as what really, truly happened. I want facts, and if the author doesn't know something, I want them to say, "I don't know this, but here's a possible guess based on evidence" instead of saying, "Ah, I'll just make something up and call it a fact."

If you are looking for lots of photos and pictures, you're out of luck. Service Games is very much a textbook of Sega. There are some images here and there, but just to illustrate a point. Books like Sega Consumer History or Sega Arcade History give a much closer look at each individual piece of software, with pictures galore. Just be aware that those are entirely in Japanese.

It's crazy to think that all the extreme highs and lows basically happened in the span of five short years. Sega seized the torch, but by the wrong end. Parts of the book could be easily related to a sort of fairy tale. With the evil wizard Nakayama ruling the Sega Kingdom with an iron fist, only to be eventually cast down by the brave Okawa, who ended up sacrificing himself for the good of the realm. Part of it, again, is Pettus' unbridled enthusiasm. He loves every piece of Sega, both good and bad, and will defend it all until the end.

I enjoyed the book very much. At 400+ pages, it looks like quite weighty tome, but it went by very fast. Just make sure you pick up the Enhanced Edition, since it corrects small errors in the original printing.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Should have been called "SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed."

So I picked up a Wii U a couple of months ago, and had a list of the games I planned to buy. Rest assured, there were no Sonic titles on that list. The most recent good Sonic game was Sonic Generations, and before that? Let's just say it's been a while. Sonic recently celebrated his 20th Anniversary. But does it really count if there are multiple years where there was nothing but half-assed, poorly planned crap?

Anyway, I kept reading more and more good things about Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Naturally I was skeptical, but most everyone had good things to say about it. I took the risk and picked it up. Turns out those people were right on the money.

Biggest pet peeve? The fact that the word SONIC is the first thing in the title, and he's on the cover five times. A little behind him is Dr. Eggman, and wayyyyyyy off in the distance is a tiny Aiai. This cover is a terrible representation for what the game actually is.

Simply stated, it is a showcase for SEGA's history in the form of an excellent racing game. There are a ton of characters and stages selected from past SEGA titles. They pulled a page right out of Nintendo's book. Someone looked back and said, "Hey, we've been around a long time, right? Why don't we make a potpourri out of what we've got and put it in one game?"

Characters include selections from Golden Axe, Skies of Arcadia, Samba de Amigo, Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Space Channel 5, NiGHTS Into Dreams..., Alex Kidd in Miracle World, and Sonic 1/2/3/CD/Adventure. When you look at it like that, SEGA did pretty damn well in creating original ideas, they just faltered at other steps in the process of getting a finished game out to consumers (many times, I might add). And in newer versions of the game (PC), they keep throwing in more characters. I would be having a blast looking through the SEGA history books and trying to decide who I wanted to include.

Stages also pull from all around SEGA's past. Aside from titles listed above, they also include After Burner, Panzer Dragoon, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, House of the Dead, Burning Rangers, OutRun, and Sonic Heroes. Just seeing things like Burning Rangers pop up makes me laugh, as I still remember playing the hell out of it on my Saturn. SEGA did a nice job.

The tracks themselves are very well designed, and there are a ton of shortcuts to be found, and locating them all (and being able to navigate them effectively) isn't a walk in the park. Most of the courses also change every lap in some way. For example, in the Golden Axe stage, fire rains down and shatters the road during the third lap, causing you to stay as a plane for a part you were previously a car. Or in the House of the Dead stage, monsters break out of their holding containers to wreak havoc, all while the level of slime rises every lap. Or in Burning Rangers, destruction is rampant during every lap, causing pieces of the building to fall around you and flood waters to rush in. It definitely keeps you on your toes, as most laps will not be the same as the one before it.

Another aspect that really sets this game apart is its single player World Tour mode. You have to complete events to earn stars, which in turn unlocks characters. Higher difficulties yield more stars. But it's not just racing. There's Traffic Attack, where you have to make it to a certain number of checkpoints on a track with a crap-ton of neon cars all over the place, and running into them makes you lose all your speed. Another is Drift Challenge, where you have a very limited amount of time to complete a race, and the only way to gain seconds on the clock is to drift on a marked path in specified zones. Or Boost Challenge, where you have five seconds to complete a race, but while you're boosting, the clock doesn't count down, meaning you pretty much have to continually find ways to boost through the entire race. There's quite a few modes, and most of them are on every track, so if you really want later unlockables, you're going to just have to get good at the game.

There are a thousand and one ways to get speed boosts, and you'll need to learn and utilize them if you're going to beat other players or computers on higher difficulty levels. Boosting from the starting line (small, medium, or large), boosting after drifts (small, medium, or large), boosting after doing tricks on jumps (of which there are billions), boosting after evading offensive items, boosting while transforming (car, boat, plane), etc. There is so much more skill involved than in Mario Kart games.

The game is definitely not a poor man's Mario Kart. Far from it. Mario Kart has an easy control scheme that anybody can really pick up and play, which is part of the Nintendo charm. Racing Transformed is not that kind of racing game. There are similarities, like items you can use offensively and defensively, but most of them require strategic planning and placement. The entire game has a much more sensitive feel compared to Mario Kart's more chunky, forgiving, slower-paced gameplay. The mods for characters (each mod affects Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Boost, and All-Star Mode) actually affect the racer quite a bit, whereas in Mario Kart it's pretty much, "Choose your favorite Nintendo character!"

I don't regret buying this game. On the contrary, I'm really glad I picked it up. It's a lot of fun, and presents a good level of challenge for the completist. It has replaced the multiplayer fallback that is Mario Kart when people come over and just want to play something. But I admit it was a difficult sell just to get them to try it. Once we got into it, though, it was smooth sailing.

Sure, there are a couple of bugs/glitches here and there, but it's SEGA, and honestly I was surprised there weren't more. I only wish they didn't shove Sonic and only Sonic in the title and on the cover. The game really celebrates SEGA's colossal history. If the game is good and worth playing, then SEGA shouldn't be worried about anything. Their compulsion to slap Sonic all over the place just to make sure a game sells to somebody has been a lame practice for years, and it needs to stop. Hell, Sonic is the last character I plan on playing as in this game. When you've got a VMU that rides around in a Dreamcast controller, what else can you ask for?