New Sonic webseries, TailsTube, puts to rest the ‘two worlds’ debate
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase can agree on very little. Which is better? His 2D or 3D incarnation? Moreover, should his ever-changing rotisserie of multicoloured buddies be along for the ride? Should the gameplay style be platformer, beat-em-up, RPG? Should the story have realistic guns, or comedic Hanna-Barbera pratfalls (or both)? And what colour should the hog’s arms be? These feuds rage eternal. I’m not going to let you in on which side of the fence I come down on for each of these; more fun to let you guess. I’d also rather not have tomahawks hurled at me from the comments section.
The Sonic multiverse
However, there is one recent aspect of the franchise’s more-convoluted-than-you’d-expect lore that most fans agree is universally ludicrous. After Sonic Generations tossed the concept of time-travel into the mix, and the poor reception of Sonic 2006 made SEGA iffy about including Earth or humans in the games’ world anymore, longtime producer Takashi Iizuka coined an idea which he believed would reconcile both of these issues. The genius solution? Declare that the Sonic universe is split into two dimensions, a Classic one and a Modern one; and dimensions with multiple worlds, at that. One world for the horrifying photorealistic humans, and one world for the anthropomorphic characters. Running the numbers, that’s now four separate worlds for us to keep track of, across two different time periods/dimensions/whatever the hell the writers feel like at that particular moment. Heaven help us.
That’s right, folks! The Adventure games, 06 and Unleashed etc all took place in the ‘human’ world – and everything else was either on a different planet or in a different dimension, depending on how badly Sonic Team wants you to forget it happened. Alas, in his attempt to extricate the spanner from the works, Iizuka succeeded only in shoving it ever more irretrievably inward. Luckily, it seems that the good folks behind the Sonic social media are aware of how bonkers and ill-defined this ‘multiple worlds’ saving throw is, as they’ve used a new video format of theirs to address it.
Tall Tails
TailsTube, a fresh outing for everybody’s favourite two-tailed yellow fox (a very competitive category, I assure you) Miles Prower, sees him V-tubing his way through a selection of questions. In the first episode, the vulpine savant is posed the query: “your planet strikes me as odd. Care to explain yourself?” Never one to back down from a challenge, except for that character-assassinating moment in Forces where he bent over and prepared to be fondled by Chaos, Tails steps up and tackles this contentious point.
He offers the following explanation: “Folks like us live on islands,” referring to the mammalian core cast, “while people like this live in the bigger countries,” showing an image of a handful of humans. See, now wasn’t that easier, Iizuka? One planet, one world, cohabitation, no fuss. With a simple stroke of their pen, and the employment of Colleen O’Shaughnessey’s golden vocal cords, these unsung heroes have managed to shut down what could have been an evergreen debate.
You heard it from Mr. Prower himself, guys and gals. What sort of things would you like to see him address in future episodes? Perhaps he’ll explain how Eggman scarfed down that entire sandwich in Unleashed? Post your suggestions below!
