I can see what you mean (and agree with you on the OVA Sonic being the best in character. Can't say the same for Sonic X though. And Shadow's story was just far too lol to be taken seriously). But I was only referring to the graphical style and the atmosphere of the games and the levels, not the story aspects.
Also Sonic Adventure 2's story wasn't that bad. Neither was Sonic 06's. ...well, Silver's and Shadow's at least (except for the various time paradoxes that wouldn't stand the laws of physics probably). That Sonic x Elise romance really felt like reading a bad, bad fanfic though.
I can't take Silver seriously when he looks the way he does. CRAZY CHEST HAIR! CRAZY... WHATEVER THE HELL THAT IS ON HIS FOREHEAD! EYELINER! He's like the Sonic Universe equivalent to a bad David Bowie impersonator.
And Shadow? When handled properly Shadow can be sort of okay maybe a little bit kinda... but Shadow the Hedgehog (the game, that is) completely ruined my ability to take him seriously, too. zomg Shadow was made from the DNA of an alien that sounds like Doctor Claw!
I liked the one concept art where they were suppoed to be locks of hair that laid flat normally, and only stood straight out when Silver was using Psychic powers.
Okay, so I got my PS1 memory card in the mail today and could finally play and beat Pinobee. It was rather short, taking not more than one or two hours on the first try. Though the main point of the game is probably exploration of the huge levels and stuff, so I'll have to play more before I can judge it. It's a bit annoying though that the levels don't have custom background tunes. Instead, the same two or three tracks of music are recycled over and over again. :
ANYWAY, when the credits rolled I was surprised to see Naoto Ohshima was NOT the director of the game! The game only lists him as a Character Designer along with Yasuhisa Nakagawa. As director, only Yutaka Sugane is credited.
I was playing the PS1 version instead of the original GBA one. But would the credits be different between the two...?
Oh, and the art direction is quite colourful and surreal, reminiscent to Sonic CD and NiGHTS. But then the PS1 version uses ugly upscaled GBA graphics, so maybe I should play the original version in VBA before I can really talk.