Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.01: Game Guy

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.01: Game Guy
Original Air Date: September 14th, 1994

The “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise was probably at its peak popularity in the early nineties. At least, that's how I remember it anyway. I'm sure some spoil sport is out there, waiting to “well, actually” me about how “Sonic Adventure” or “Sonic X” or something was a bigger deal. But the point is, this was the only time in my childhood when I can remember other kids my age being as interested in “Sonic” as I was. “SatAM” obviously rode this popularity to some degree of success. ABC gave the greenlight to a second season... But not without some changes.

For “Sonic the Hedgehog's” second year, the network would demand some changes. Even though ABC had requested a darker, edgier “Sonic” show during pre-production, apparently “SatAM” gave them too much of what they wanted. Executives would ask for more comic relief in the second season. At the same time, Ben Hurst and Pat Alle would take more control over the series' overall direction. This would result in season two being more serialized than the first, with reoccurring new characters and a few plot points running through the season.

These wouldn't be the only changes. Season two would see some visual changes to “SatAM” as well. Sally would receive her trademark blue vest, the character taking the form I remember so vividly. For unexplained reasons, Rotor would be completely re-designed, becoming squatter and chubbier. Cam Brainard would take over voicing the characters, though his vocal delivery was not horribly different from Mark Ballou in season one. Some new musical cues would be introduced. You can tell that the production team had slightly more money in season two, as character designs would become slightly more detail and the animation a little livelier.

The first episode of the season is “Game Guy,” though it would actually air as another example of the network's needless tinkering. While Sonic, Sally, Antoine, Tails, and Dulcy – more on her in a minute – are out salvaging old Robotnik machinery to build a de-roboticizer, they encounter a new Freedom Fighter on the run from SWATBots. He calls himself Ari and claims that he's the leader of a seperate team. He tells Sonic that Robotnik has captured his Freedom Fighters. Sally is skeptical but Sonic is eager to help. It turns out to be a trap. Ari was telling the truth about Robotnik capturing his Freedom Fighters but he was being blackmailed into leading Sonic into a trap. It's up to Sally and Dulcy to save Sonic before it's too late.

Before we go any further, we need to talk about one of season two's most divisive elements. The season would introduce a previously unseen Freedom Fighter, a child-like dragon named Dulcy. Dulcy is not well liked by fans, widely being considered the Scrappy-Doo of “SatAM.” It's not a totally unfair accusation. Dulcy has a very cute and rotund character design, in addition to being a dragon, a highly marketable creature. (I guess Mobius has both dragons and dinosaurs now.)  She's prone to bouts of goofy comic relief. Throughout this episode, Dulcy hits her head multiple times and makes repeated pleas to an unseen mother. She inflates herself with air and holds it for a while, much to her annoyance and discomfort. She then blows freezing air over Robotnik and Snively, which doesn't seem to slow the villains down any. I had nothing against Dulcy as a child but, admittedly, she is a little annoying in this episode. We'll see how my opinion evolves as I continue my way through season two.

But let's discuss a character that actually affects the plot of “Game Guy.” What do we think of Ari? His design is kind of cool, being a less creepy-looking goat man than Griff. (Though his legs being so wooley they look like sweatpants takes some getting use to.) Unfortunately, Ari's character arc plays a lot like Griff's. He's introduced as a friend, revealed to be a traitor, but gets redeemed at the end. As a character, Ari seems a bit like a blank. He shows up, back-flips out of harms way, and immediately starts glad-handing Sonic. His change of heart happens so quickly, that was don't really have time to see what he thinks or feels about it. He's a cool ~man~ goat of action and has a certain degree of principals but he's still pretty thinly developed.

In general, I wish Ari's eventual betrayal of Sonic was a little less heavily foreshadowed. Sally, who was perfectly friendly to Griff and Baby T, is deeply skeptical of Ari. This instinct, of course, is entirely right. A few minutes after Sally makes that statement, we cut to Robotnik and Snively spying on the conversation, confirming Ari to be a double-agent. It's weird that the episode immediately confirms that instead of waiting a bit, after Ari leads Sonic to an Aztec-style pyramid that turns out to be a Robotnik-shaped fortress. That would've been a better time to dropt hat reveal, I think.

Ben Hurst's guiding principal as a writer, at least as far as “SatAM” is concerned, was always “There must be losses.” No matter how much the Freedom Fighters gain, it must always come at a price. This is true of “Game Guy.” Ari ends up sacrificing himself to rescue Sonic, getting drawn into the inter-dimensional portal meant for the hedgehog. I fully expected Sally and Dulcy to activate the powerful magnet they recovered earlier in the episode and pull Ari out. But, nope, the Ram is trapped inside a particular void, at least for now. Sonic is pretty distraught over it. Even if Ari wasn't a character we were especially attached to, I still like it when “SatAM” would force Sonic to actually feel things, to struggle with failure and mistakes.

So I guess I should talk about why this episode is called “Game Guy.” See, Robotnik's trap for Sonic involves a very specific design. The hedgehog is trapped inside a giant glass sphere and flung around an enormous pinball machine, which Robotnik controls. Every point Robotnik earns grows a giant vortex at the back of the game board.  Every point Sonic earns shrinks the portal. (Robotnik describes the portal as a “Void,” pretty blatantly setting up some events later in the season.) I suspect the pinball premise was chosen to tie in with “Sonic Spinball,” which was still a relatively new game at the time. Sonic being trapped inside a see-through glass ball also, coincidentally, ends up resembling “Super Monkey Ball,” a future Sega franchise.

Though it's a cool idea, the pinball concept is not as interesting in execution. While “Game Guy” is pretty well animated, at least by the standards of this show, the pinball scene does not look so hot. Honestly, the sequences of Sonic getting flung around the arena is rather sluggishly portrayed. You'd think the show would really emphasize the chaos of Sonic bouncing around bumpers and flippers. Instead, he just sort of floats between one and the other. At least the writers had the foresight to have Snively ask Robotnik why he doesn't just kill the hedgehog, since he has him trapped. The tyrant admits he would rather toy with his archenemy, instead of just crushing him. Okay, sure.

There's lot of flirty banter between Sonic and Sally. All of the Freedom Fighters get a scene here. Tails is on look-out duty in the first scene, Rotor helps take apart one of the captured SWATBots, Bunnie is... Just hanging around Rotor's workshop. Antoine attempts to compose a love poem to Sally and nearly gets her crushed to death, because Antoine acting like even more of a buffoon will be a reoccurring theme in season two. Even if not everyone is treated the best – and Sonic and Sally are still clearly the stars of the show – it's nice to see everyone show up. As always, the voice cast is an absolute delight. Jalleel White and Kath Soucie both sound so natural in this parts already.

For whatever reason, “Game Guy” would be referenced throughout other “Sonic” media made around this time. One of the juvenile reader “Sonic” novels put out by Troll would directly adapt this story. Funny enough, the very first issue of Archie's on-going comic would also feature the premise of Robotnik sticking Sonic in a giant pinball machine. Keep in mind, that comic was published in May of 1993. So either the cartoon drew inspiration from the comic or this idea was in development for quite a while. Or maybe making Sonic the center of a pinball game was just too obvious an idea to be resisted. That's probably it.

As for the episode itself... It's fine. It contains some ideas I really like, some I'm indifferent to, but the whole thing probably could've been done a lot better. Yet it's not a bad season debut either, setting up some of the concepts that would be explored more later and still containing a fittingly emotional conclusion. [6/10]