Media Essays: Sonic Storybook Games: What Could They Have Done?

Written by The Wandering Fox

Teddy: I can smell something good about this essay!

Freddy: Oh yes I can! I don’t see any negativity or cynicism for this! That Cynical Crown isn’t needed!

Jinx: Not when he’s getting help from my creator, the mighty Kiva!

(Teddy and Freddy jumped to see Jinx the Bat was there, smiling as brightly as she always did. The cat and fox blushed as she came up to them and looped her arms over their shoulders.)

Jinx: Boy oh boy it’s nice to meet you guys! It’s about time your creator made some characters for fun like these reviews!

Freddy: Well it took him a while but hey, better late then never.

Teddy: Yeah!

Well I do apologise. But thank you Jinx, if it weren’t for Kiva and his recent works on giving Sonic an ancestry that tied into Black Knight I don’t think I’d have approached him on this idea.

Jinx: Oh he’d love to hear that!

He would, he’s a great guy. Now, I know he can’t make it here but I’m happy to credit him on certain ideas he talked with me about regarding these ideas. I hope I can do right by him.

Well hello everybody, it’s me the Wandering Fox and I’m here to talk about the Sonic Storybook games we could’ve gotten had the games themselves were successful. At the time they didn’t do as well and we went back to more traditional Sonic games, though in years since fans have really shown much more appreciation for those games and they aged a lot better, with many praising the writing of Sonic and the Black Knight as a fine example of how to write Sonic’s character and others praise the ending to the Secret Rings for showing Sonic’s utter ruthlessness towards Erazor Djinn and his compassion towards Shara. The games were a fine experiment in taking Sonic out of the typical universe we see him in and send him in old legends with some interesting results like Tails as Ali Baba or Knuckles as Sin Bad, or Shadow as Sir Lancelot, giving him a unique change of gameplay with Caliburn.

I was chatting to Kiva the other day about how various Sonic media’s like AoSTH included elements of Egyptian and Arthurian legends in the cartoon and it had me thinking “Wouldn’t it be great if those Sonic Storybook Games came back and did Greek or Egyptian or anymore?” I’m not saying SEGA should try it again now, not unless they were so confident it can work, otherwise you risk appealing to only a niche audience who aren’t going to back the game in their numbers. But if they were to try and do it with more confidence, have the right ideas, and made sure Ian Flynn adapt their script rightly it can work. Hence as a bit of fun I thought we’d explore what mythology they could have done with the Storybook games. I’m only going with one otherwise we’d be here all day but I would like it if they had done an Egyptian, Norse, Japanese and the Old West storybook games, they’d have made them really fun to do.

But what would I go with?

Ancient Greece.

I went with that as that was what me and Kiva discussed a lot about. Funnily enough following Sonic and the Black Knight SEGA did hold a fan poll asking fans what they’d like next. The best of the votes was Ancient Greece so it’s only tight I start there. SEGA did confess the poll was simply for fun and they weren’t making another game with the Storybook Games.

The fan poll.

Characters

I was in discussion with Kiva and we both agreed the idea of Cronus returning from Tartarus and trying to overrun the planet with darkness would make for a fine game. With this being a Sonic Storybook game we obviously have to have the characters as certain Greek characters minus Sonic himself, though Kiva and I agreed that like King Arthur Sonic would at least be given a role much like Hermes, as Hermes was the fastest of the Gods. Like Secret Rings and Black Knight we did have Shara and Caliburn as Sonic’s guides so I’m thinking here we can have a Dryad as Sonic’s guide, it’d make for a cute companion to animate and voice. But as for which character can be who, both of us have come to make:

Tails as Hephaestus, as both are creators and he’d be helpful in crafting fine tools for Sonic and the others in fighting Cronus and his minions. That and Tails being the guy to craft Zeus’ lightning bolt is epic. He’d have a donkey with him for that is Hephaestus’s sacred animal. With him having another tail that would be the reason why Hera didn’t want him.

Knuckles as Heracles. Being super strong and of course their tales are epic with Knuckles as the last echidna who guards the Master Emerald alone and goes off alone to complete tasks that require his strength and wit, goes right with Heracles.

Amy as Artemis: wouldn’t be the first time Amy has an arrow in hand and she is a known animal lover which goes well with Artemis in spite of her being the goddess of the hunt. We could have gone with Aphrodite but then that would make Tails and Amy bitter exes XD.

Shadow as Hades. With Hades as stern and distant, he stands quite well up with Shadow’s behaviour in the 2000s while being devoted to protecting the Underworld, Shadow is a hedgehog who is dedicated to his job as a GUN Agent or helping the homeless or the kittens. And hey, Shadow riding on Cerberus would be flipping cool.

Trip as Hebe, the Goddess of Youth. Trip is a freshly introduced Sonic character and has a role like Knuckles, her being young and freshly introduced makes her fine as Hebe. Her being able to shed her tail and grow another is a good example of this.

Dr Robotnik/Eggman as Ares. Oh it’s easy to see, Eggman likes to go and take over places and has a whole robot army, of course he’d be Ares. Ares would be against Cronus for wanting to take over the planet so he’d be willing to help out the heroes as long it helps him in the long run, though Hephaestus would secretly come up with inventions to stab him in the back. That and Eggman would look great in a suit of armour.

The Dryad that would help Sonic would maybe be green haired with leafy themes and wears a green leotard or toga with her helping manipulate the natural landscape to help Sonic, either by making trees clear away for him, help him reach hiding places to hide from monsters, help him find hidden treasures or tools. I’m not sure whether to do a twist with her like Shara and Merlina as that might be a bit hard to best them, so she’s basically good all along or Cronus corrupts her with his powers as with him being the god of agriculture, thus involving nature, with Cronus doing it as a final try at hurting the heroes but obviously he fails. Don’t know what to call her yet.

Ideally I’d have some of these characters playable like Hephaestus battling harpies with a big wrench spear or Heracles battling big monsters with his fists. Though for now we will concentrate on Sonic. In the first few levels you are basically playing Sonic as usually you would though the Dryad offers him protection and gives him a wooden shield to keep himself safe from any blows or swipes, he can counter them with a spin dash or homing blow. Upon meeting Hephaestus you find out that Hermes has been killed and you are given Angel winged shoes and the sceptre of Hermes which lets you open up a map of the land. Hephaestus helps make the snakes on the sceptre which lets you be able to cast out venom blast or venom bite. The winged shoes help Sonic fun in the sky for a period and can even be used to help him fast travel.

In the final battle to go super, Sonic is given Hephaesteus’s spear wrench, Heracles sword, Artemis’s bow, becomes Olympus Sonic, who has a golden aura but has cyan green eyes, is donned in bronze cape and his fur turns a stone like white similar to the many sculptures of the Greeks. Upon defeating the Dryad, Sonic thanks her for helping him through this strange dimension and tells her that though there will be many a day where nature is hurt, others, gods or not, will be there to right the wrongs.

With this game the bosses are based upon Greek monsters like the Hydra or the Gorgon’s or the Minotaur and Cerberus. There’d be others who you would fight like you fight Ares at first as he is quite caught up in the violence of Cronus’s return until you force him to understand he himself is hated by Cronus. With Cerberus you have to help him be unchained of Cronus’s control.

We’re I to have the other characters playable I would have Hephaestus create certain armour for Sonic and the Dryad to help them, he would go out to fight a few monsters and after killing them he takes their stuff back to his workshop to work on them. He can fly and smack and cut up any monsters coming his way.

Heracles would dig to find any treasures or items that would be helpful to Hephaestus while doing battle with a few old enemies of his. He’d fight with his sword and can throw boulders well. He’d be given a key job in retrieving the scales if the Hydra to have Hephaestus craft poison arrows for him to give Artemis in fighting them.

Artemis would ride upon a dog or a stag shooting her bows and arrows at any monster. You go and save certain little animals, some of which will be helpful to the final battle.

There’d be a mission in which you fly in a ship that Hephaestus creates to fly out and battle Cronus on his island and man the catapults and archeries.

With Cronus himself he is a horse as that was an animal he was associated with. There was a lion but that’s Heracles’ so I went with a horse.

The Story

It begins with an animated cutscene of Hades hearing strange rumbling in the Underworld and a hand reaches out through the ground and darts by him, with him seeing Cronus’s shadow as he and other monsters leave and takes Cerberus with him. Hades calls upon Hermes, telling him to tell the Gods Cronus has escaped. We then cut forward to Sonic who is snoozing in Tails’s home but I’d woken up by Hermes, who’s voice is altered and his body is distorted, reaching to Sonic having traversed time and space to get to him, telling him the age of the gods is coming to a close and Ancient Greece needs him now, telling Sonic he’s using the last of his magic to bring him back. Sonic then awakens in a grassy meadow in Ancient Greece where he’s met by the Dryad who tells him that Hermes told her he would come and she is to help him. They find Hermes’ slippers and sceptre but they are useless now as Hermes died using his magic to get Sonic here. The Dryad tells Sonic if he can repair the slippers and sceptre, and master the magic of the Gods, he can go home. Sonic fights a few monsters and they run to find cover. Sonic finds out that the land of Ancient Greece is chaotic now thanks to the return of Cronus. The Dryad tells him they have to get to Hephaestus to repair the slippers and sceptre. They travel and encounter Artemis who sees the Dryad is with him and tells Sonic that if he’s truly to help the gods he must defeat a few monsters in her domain. They travel to a volcano base where they find Hephaestus who reveals the Gods on Mount Olympus have been thrown in disarray by return of Cronus, who sent his Gorgon there and turned a lot of the gods to stone and Ares is now running loose. Hephaestus repairs the slippers, turning them in shoes and then the sceptre, telling Sonic he has to find friends if they are to stop Cronus, telling him that Heracles, Artemis, Ares and Hebe can help.

Sonic finds them, doing certain levels to get to them. He has a fight with Heracles and Ares but convinces them to help and they unite at Hephaestus’s home. They go to the Gates of Tartarus where Hades is struggling to control the flowing souls, they help him close the gate. Hades explains that the reason why Cronus escaped is that the era of the Gods are ending, he can sense it and wanted to restore control over all life. They all go and defeat certain monsters of the Greek legends before they journey to Mount Olympus where Cronus does fight them and in his anger he destroys the petrified gods. Though many are injured, Sonic, Hephaestus and Hebe heal them. Cronus is livid, he hoped by killing most of the pantheon those that were still alive would obey him but they didn’t and have turned against him and are willing to wither and die hence he chooses to corrupt all the grass. They manage to defeat him but Cronus, dying from the many dead gods and loss of faith and the injuries he’s been suffered with, tries to die with pride by corrupting the Dryad to kill Sonic, who becomes Olympus Sonic to fight her. He purifies the Dryad and he kills Cronus by spin-dashing through his heart. Sonic looks to the last of the gods and to the Dryad, he smile as he lets the Dryad know that though it seems the era of gods is over he knows well in millions of years those like her and those who are left still exist and do good. They bid goodbye to Sonic as he then has the shoes of Hermes take him home.

But with that, let’s look at the baddies we have here then.

You have here Cronus, the father of Zeus and the big baddie, Cronus has escaped Tartarus to reclaim the planet and overthrows Zeus and many gods, hoping to control the last Gods in helping him conquer the planet, fearing the end of the age of Gods will go to ruin and wants to rule over the many humans and Mobians. Cronus has control over vegetation and can corrupt others, his scythe can cut through immortal flesh and cast out energy swipes and is very strong, has laser beams he can shoot out from his eyes and has a thunder clap that can throw Sonic back. Cronus is a horse with Cronus turning into a horse in the Greek mythos.

Cronus’s boss battle comes before the battle with the Dryad. He has four phases. The first of which has him send out vines after Sonic who has to quickly knock them back and then home in on Cronus’s face, you repeat this until he loses a significant amount of his health bar. Cronus then switches to shooting his eye beams at Sonic, who must run around the area, climbing up trees or ruins and then homes in on Cronus’s head, you repeat this until Cronus loses another if his health bar. He then whacks Sonic aside with his scythe handle and you then have to run at him avoiding his scythe energy slashes. Cronus gets his scythe caught in the ground and you spin around it to try and wrestle it out of Cronus’s hand. You must repeat this until it’s out of Cronus’s hand. The final phase sees you spinning the scythe up and send it in Cronus’s gut. Cronus is defeated but he then uses enough left if his magic to corrupt the Dryad. Cronus is killed after the final boss with Sonic cutting through his chest and the god transforms into a effigy of dirt and dies.

For the other bosses before him, you have Ares and Heracles who you defeat but get as friends.

With Heracles it’s a matter of Sonic destroying the boulders he’s thrown at him then has knock him back with a spin dash and then you have to dodge Heracles as he burrows under the ground to try and get you. You knock him back. But he then takes his crown off and uses it as a boomerang like weapon which you have to knock back into him. The Dryad you are with can help summon a shield of wood if you are struggling to recover, though don’t stay in one place as the shield will shatter if you stay in that place for too long.

Ares being the god of war can conjure up fiery rocks and thus Sonic has to dodge them all and score a spin dash on him, to which Ares then brings up his shield and you have to get behind him and dash in his back. Ares then summons an effigy of a egg with a head brush of red breathing fire and arrows out at Sonic who must climb up by bouncing on the arrows and tears through the effigy and Ares is sent flying on his back. Each dash on Ares allows the snakes on the sceptre to bite him and help weary him in weakening.

There’d be Greek monsters to fight like the Hydra, Cerberus and the Gorgon.

The Gorgon can only be fought if you help Hades close the doors to Tartarus, upon which he will gift you the Helmet of Invisibility and Hephaestus will craft you a mirror shield, the Helmet and shield will help Sonic to stop himself from being turned to stone. The Gorgon here is a monstrous lizard who has three big snakes upon her scalp which tries to grab or freeze Sonic, hence he has to knock them back then reflect their faces in the mirror, with the snakes cracking and Sonic spin-dashes the Gorgon in a a wall then crushes it with a big concrete block.

Cerberus is a chasing boss, you have to lure him to certain traps that will weaken him and will let you spin dash the control gems on him to have him work for Hades again.

The Hydra is battled with a sword Hephaestus crafting a sword for you. You have to cut off the Hydra’s heads and then run to the mountain and crush it with a Boulder.

The Dryad’s boss fight has Sonic as Olympus Sonic with the area warped into an antigravity like theme with Olympus Sonic able to run through the air and can shoot magical arrows at any rocks or thorn arrows coming at him. With Hephaestus’s wrench melded into Heracles’ sword and Hermes’s sceptre, Olympus Sonic can cast powerful venom bites and lasers. The Dryad has become a huge monster who’s body is like a giant collective of dirt and vines with wooden armour on her.

Freddy: That was good.

Jinx: Yeah, glad he wasn’t cynical about it! And he was right, he had Kiva’s ideas there as well!

Freddy: Yeah. But hey, I have to ask, would you do any other legends for Sonic Storybooks?

If I had the time I would, but I’d do it through drawings.

Freddy: Fair enough.

Jinx: Why don’t we ask everybody to offer up their ideas?

That would be nice. Thank you for coming by Jinx, I really appreciate you being here, tell Kiva I hope he liked it.

Jinx: He’ll tell you in the comments below, buddy, but he will be chuffed!

Thank you. To all of you. I hope you liked it.

Support the blog here on my Patreon page.

Support The Wandering Fox on Patreon.