Sonic: Mega Drive

Sonic: Mega Drive
Publication Date: July 2016

2016 saw the 25th anniversary of the entire “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise. It is pretty impressive “Sonic” was still a viable thing two and a half decades after its creation, considering the series never recaptured its early nineties peak popularity. Honestly, it’s nothing short of a miracle that “Sonic” has suffered so many indignities and failures and still survives. (Or refuses to die, depending on how you look at it.) Sega was obviously aware of this and treated the anniversary as a big deal.

Mainly, they commissioned a bunch of “Sonic” fan game programmers to create “Sonic Mania.” This was basically the game long-time “Sonic” fans had been begging Sega to make for years: A continuation of the 2D platformer style seen in the original Genesis games. The announcement of the game in July of 2016, and the accompanying teaser footage, sent ripples of massive excitement through the “Sonic” fandom and the wider video game world. It was the first time Sonic had been perceived as cool and interesting by regular humans since at least 1999, probably earlier. When “Sonic Mania” was finally released the next year, it was hailed as the first unequivocally good “Sonic” game in many, many years. Sega being Sega, they immediately squandered this good will by releasing another mediocre 3D title a few months later. (And some fans still hated “Mania” because the “Sonic” fandom is terrible.)

I suspect Ian Flynn and the other people working on Archie’s “Sonic” comics were aware of “Mania’s” development, or at least the decidedly retro direction Sega was taking the 25th anniversary in. The same month “Mania” was officially announced, they would release “Sonic: Mega Drive.” A one-shot done in the Genesis-era style, it would be drawn by Tyson Hesse, the closest Archie “Sonic” had to a super star artist. It was a fun idea to celebrate the 25th anniversary with. And as a long time comic reader, I got a kick out of Archie publishing another “Giant-Sized 48-Page Special” No. 1 issue. (The previous one was “Sonic Blast,” released exactly twenty years before “Mega Drive.”)

Chronologically, “Mega Drive” places itself after “Sonic & Knuckles” and “Sonic CD,” seemingly taking the place of the much-loathed “Sonic 4” in Archie continuity. After rescuing Tails from a giant crab robot, Sonic learns that Eggman is hunting a new MacGuffin called the Ancient Gears, in service of a new doomsday device called the Mega Drive. The Gears are located on Eastwatch Island. Sonic runs into a new friend on each island, teaming up with them to wreck Eggman’s latest weapons and grab the Gears first.

Flynn pitched “Mega Drive” as if it was an adaptation of a lost classic “Sonic” game. This is a fun idea, conceptually. Flynn certainly gives the reader an exact idea of what this game, that exist only in his imagination, would look like. We begin in the Green Seaside Zone, a classical “Sonic” starter zone but with a heavily-wooded Pacific Northwest look. Next is the Flower Park Zone, a colorful garden zone that seems comparable to bumper heavy acts like “Casino Nights” or “Carnival Nights.” We conclude in the Cascade Temple Zone, which seems similar to the Labyrinth Zone but with more of a mineshaft aesthetic. Flynn includes Badniks, mini-Bosses, and Eggman encounters too. Flower Park has the best ones, with its gardener revamp of ”Sonic & Knuckles’” Hei Hou and Eggman’s giant snake Egg-Mobile.

However, “Mega Drive’s” plot construction is also too beholden to that classic game structure. Things get repetitive almost immediately. The same thing happens three times in this book. Sonic enters a new zone, meets an old friend, and teams up with them to easily defeat Robotnik’s new gimmick. The thin plot, involving Eggman gathering more old and super-powerful plot devices, is hardly inspired. “Mega Drive” would probably be a fun video game to play. But we’re reading a comic book, not playing a video game. This book sometimes feels like someone describing a video game to us, which is considerably less fun than playing one.

The similarly structured “Genesis” didn't have this problem. So what's different about “Mega Drive?” I would argue tone has a lot to do with it. While not without its goofy moments, “Genesis” was a relatively serious story. “Mega Drive,” on the other hand, represents the “Sonic” franchise in one of its aggressively wacky moods. Any time there's any sort of mildly serious moment – Tails gets attacked by a giant crab, a room slowly fills with water – Sonic and the other characters react with a quip. Including an obvious reference to the ancient “Giant enemy crab” meme. Or Sonic bitching about how traveling via bubble is too slow. Eggman is never a threat and is easily defeated by the heroes every time they encounter him, in increasingly goofy manners. The humor just drains the stakes.

Now, I'm not saying the jokes in “Mega Drive” aren't occasionally funny. There's a cute gag where, when trying to explain to Amy they don't need her around, Sonic runs right into a spike and looses some rings. (The book never tries to justify how the game mechanic of Sonic loosing rings when injured fits in with the comic's established lore, where that doesn't usually happen.) By far the best joke in the issue occurs when the gang meets Knuckles. Once again, as in the past, Knux has been fooled by Eggman. The echidna's highly biased memory of the events are depicted through scribbled crayon drawings, a hilarious touch that gives us a peek into Knuckles' slightly childish worldview.

That moment and other little background events, like Tails flailing in pain, heavily recalls Tyson Hesse's popular “Sonic” fan strips. Hesse's artwork is, naturally, excellent. Most of the jokes land strictly because of the artist's strength for goofy facial expressions. Like Sonic bouncing back from a blow, arms crossed sternly, face blank, big goose egg on his head. Hesse's panels are incredibly energetic. All the action scenes feature a lot of moving parts, debris spinning around Sonic as he tears apart his robotic foes. You can tell Hesse really relish the opportunity to draw these characters in the classic Sega style. What an asshole.

Still, for all its pluses, I was disappointed in “Mega Drive” when it was new. This was another moment where I felt really isolated from the rest of the Archie “Sonic” fandom, as this issue received unanimous praise from most readers. It's a fun idea but the script feels like it was written in ten minutes, overly reliant on humor and with a repetitive plot. And despite being advertised as a one-shot, “Mega Drive” ends on a cliffhanger and promises to be followed by a sequel, “Mega Drive – The Next Level,” in the fall. [6/10]