Otaku dream match has a better grip of Sonic's aesthetics...

[Isuka]

... than Sonic Team/ Sega/ BRB Entertainment: http://climax.sega.jp/


http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/000/795/795915/

Deal with it.

Also blue arms are fucking stupid and wrong and I don't understand why we are discussing them at all.

[G.Silver]

I don't think it counts when all they've done is ripped a bunch of assets out of Sonic Generations.

[Yami CJMErl]

I don't think it counts when all they've done is ripped a bunch of assets out of Sonic Generations.

Yeah...I was kind of thinking the same thing.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

guys you are missing the forest for the trees.

clearly what sonic needs is souless dead-eyed moe.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

ANWAY, during one of my browsing sessions I came across this piece by Tadami Yamada from a collections of '70s-'80s era Japanese futurism:

The brown-tan checkerboard landscape, plus the prominent egg and predominatly blue figure reminded me of the obvious, and I can't shake the feeling that it might have been inspirational to Sonic Team.

Also by Yamada:



influential to the series or not, they feel more in spirit to the games aesthetic than rehashing GHZ verbatim (was the OP critical of Windy Hill Zone for that very reason?).

[Wombatwarlord777]

Okay, that second picture reminds me of Sonic 3's special stage, with the blue spheres and celestial background and all.

But the third picture... Uh, I suppose it's an early Metropolis Zone boss from the Simon Wai prototype or something.

[chriscaffee]

To be fair, SEGA hasn't had a grip on Sonic's aesthetics for about seventeen years.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

But the third picture... Uh, I suppose it's an early Metropolis Zone boss from the Simon Wai prototype or something.

I was merely giving a sense of Yamada's style (he likes eggs, man!) rather than suggesting they are Sonic influencing. They're ones I found in a cursory search. here's a blog of more of his work.




(the first reminds me of Space Harrier. Hmmm...)

[Majestic Joey]

It looks like this artwork inspired a lot of sega's games.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

So I had a "duh" moment and ran his blog through Google translator (sidebar: some of his exhibits are very NSFW, and I apologize if anyone got in trouble for it). I've noticed the copyright date, but I think that's just when he got around to uploading them; the description below says he made 'em in the summer of '78 for an expo in Tehran(!?). The Sonic 3 Special Stage-esque one is from 1981, a German commision.

What's more pertinent here, though, is he himself was inspired by Western artistist and themes (the eggs symbolize, among other things, Leda and the Swan). Whether or not the man had inspired Sega, he invokes a halcyon Sega: Western themes through Japanese sensibilities.

To wit: Makoto Nakamura was heavily influenced by M.C. Escher:


Not evocative of anything Sonic per se, but not at all unfitting for a Zone theme.

And I think this highlights the problem inherent with the aesthetics of video games in general. Older games drew inspiration from art, perhaps 'cause there weren't enough games to define what constitutes "video gamey". Sonic himself set right off as being "not Mario" so there was added inpetus to think outside the mentality of Mario-inspired followers. Of course there came Sonic me-toos, and the whole thing became entrenched and incestuous.

It looks like this artwork inspired a lot of sega's games.

Any in particular that strike you?

[G.Silver]

To wit: Makoto Nakamura was heavily influenced by M.C. Escher:

Not evocative of anything Sonic per se, but not at all unfitting for a Zone theme

Or is it? Sonic 1's Special Stage has that Escher-esque bird-to-fish animation going on in the background. There was never any doubt in my mind that the creators were familiar with his work, or (in this case?) at least someone else who was also very familiar with it.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Poor phrasing on my part (gasp!). I mean not directly, since I think he does some interesting things with Escher's theme. I found Nakamura from an Escher book, which I picked up because I remember thinking of S1 SS (which is less distinct, if not anymore blatant) during high school art class.

[Majestic Joey]

seriously though, all this art is really cool. I'm going to have to research these artists more.