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from Crush 40 , the seemingly on-retainer band who perform most of the 3D games ’ anthems , as well as a dancing guy in a Sonic suit on stage .
A moment which summed up the carnage came when Johnny Gioeli , the lead singer of Crush 40 , decided that midway through their live rendition of the Sonic Heroes theme was the appropriate time to engage in some audience participation .
" There ’ s something inarguably heartwarming about the fans ’ dedication to this series "
All well and good as an idea , except for the woman to whom he handed the mic not knowing the words . Fine , it happens - so another attendee grabbed the mic and began tunelessly howling the words ,
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before a third audience member ran in to degenerate the display into incoherent noise .
Noise and incoherence were the order of the day throughout , in large part thanks to a poor technical setup with numerous problems . Live streaming is difficult enough at the best of times , without having to incorporate multiple acts and a live audience , and some credit must go to the tech crew for keeping that crazy train on its rails . But it ’ s hard not to laugh at some of the comic timing . When a man onstage is beset by feedback and disruption before declaring “ that ’ s the sound of 25 years of Sonic !” for one .
The event was tied into the launch of two new Sonic games - Sonic Mania , a new 2D platformer largely designed by the creators of multiple fan mods , and another 3D platformer which has been all but confirmed as an unofficial
Sonic Generations 2 . For modern Sonic games , these looked reasonably impressive
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( although Sonic 4 taught us to always keep hype tempered ), but were undercut massively by the manner of their presentation on the live stream .
Trailers played twice , and sound was not guaranteed at any point with many instances of silence inflicted on viewers of the live stream .
There ’ s something inarguably heartwarming about the fans ’ dedication to their series . The line for the party stretched around the block , although admittedly being held concurrently with San Diego Comic-Con can ’ t have done it any harm .
Sonic fans come in for a lot of stick , but it ’ s easy to throw stones when we all have our embarrassing fan indulgences .
Perhaps among that crowd were the top developers and
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creators of the future . It seems unlikely , but it ’ s worth saving this issue of Cubed just in case - you never know if it might be prescient .
" We all have our embarassing fan indulgences "
It ’ s just a shame that the celebration of their beloved Sonic devolved so easily into the kind of underwhelming oddity which has come to define the series over recent years . Attendees at the party , of course , would not have realised the problems
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viewers of the live stream saw . Their sound was perfectly consistent , although even the most dedicated fanfic writers might have cringed at that audience participation .
The Sonic 25th anniversary party served to demonstrate that gaming , even at the upper echelons of the industry , can still be cobbledtogether and almost incomprehensible to the interested outsider . It may be a tendency towards a lack of polish which needs to be stamped out to match other outlets of pop culture for mainstream acceptance - but it feels like an attribute we ’ ll miss once it ’ s gone .
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