Autism and Sonic the Hedgehog

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No way, I thought I was the only one that noticed this! Seriously, do you know how many girls with AS I've seen holding Sonic dolls? Or drawing him in notebooks at autism meetings? Or people with Sonic related avatars that turn out to have AS? It's strange!

Somehow I guess I never really made the connection. I just thought that Sonic was cool after having played Sonic Adventure 2. Have gone back to play the ones before it, as well as after, and while I have enjoyed some like Secret Rings or Unleashed,even found ways to have fun in '06 despite its many flaws, I really can not see myself giving any more of my money to Sega. It seems quite clear that all they're doing now is selling out as well as picking favorite; they find it easier to almost completely forget about the fans who started from the series' roots with a half arsed engine and gameplay. I feel it's lazy and disgraceful.

I totally remember when that series was popular. I never played it though because I had the Genesis and not the Sega CD (I forget what the difference was). I even had a trial comic from it. I'll have to get it now that's it's on a newer system XD.

Sonic Fans get a bad reputation for having weird obsessions about the franchise but I think I know why Sonuc has a large Autistic Audience.

Firstly, he's a fast hedgehog who is obsessed with his speed...being one track minded may appeal to those with Aspergers.

Secondly, being a hedgehog who attacks with his body is pretty cool. Being unique is what everyone desires.

Thirdly, his attitude is probably one many would live to have, confidence, friends who idolise them and having an exciting life.

I reckon Sonic is an ideal Role Model for Autistic Children but as we get older, that fascination doesn't die, although it can be healthy to be a closet fan, some take it to the extreme, which is why Fans get the bad reputation.

I used to be a MAJOR Sonic the Hegehog Fan, ever since I got my hands on Sonic Adventure 2 for the Nintendo Gamecube. That was the game that made me love Sonic like crazy for like 6 years! Sadly, I never had a chance to play any of the previous classic Sonic games. Well, the only Sonic game I ever beforehand was Sonic 3D Blast for the Sega Saturn, but it really sucked so it didn't turn me into a fan at all. Seriously, anyone who has played that game knows what I'm talking about

Anyway, after playing Sonic Adventure I looked forward to every new game that came out! I played Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog (which I now realize sucks), Sonic Rush, Sonic Riders- all of which I really enjoyed, though never as much as Sonic Adventure 2 (Sonic Heroes was close though)

It wasn't until I had played Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 that I realized what I was getting myself into. Oh boy...

Here is an interesting story that you ALL will laugh at: I saved up all my money to buy my PS3, are you ready for this, just to get the 2006 Sonic game. I am not kidding. I was a f*****g moron! The sad part is, I had been warned so many times about the game sucking so badly. I saw the reviews and my friend had told me that it wasn't worth playing. But I refused to listen to them, because from an outside perspective, it looked like the game I had been waiting for- the next Sonic Adventure!! ! It had all sorts of playable characters, a plot that looked nice at first, and levels that were much like Sonic Adventure 2.

But when I actually started playing... OH GOD!! ! At first I was like "Hey this is fun..." but after like a few hours, I kept getting more and more and MORE pissed off. The controls were often floppy and unreliable, the stages were a lot harder than they needed to be (especially when Sonic went into speedup mode), and the moves for the characters were beyond dissapointing. For example: I HATED how Shadow's speed had been reduced so dramatically, and how Silver's psychokenesis was so hard to manage. The storyline I NEVER, EVER got, and I never will. Again, anyone who's played this game knows exactly what I'm talking about.

However, I refused to give up on Sonic altogether. Oh no! I was still waiting for Sega to make up for this mistake and make a much better game. So I got Sonic Unleashed- which looked really decent and playable. My conclusion after playing the game: ABOMINABLE!! ! It wasn't AS BAD as Sonic 2006, but I f*****g HATED the werehog stages. The normal Sonic stages didn't really fare to well either.

It was at that point my fandom had started to fade away. And I mean REALLY fade away. I was caring less and less about each new release. Besides, at that point they weren't releasing anything really that I wanted anyway.

Fortunately, right now I'm starting to remember why I loved Sonic so much. What am I talking about, you may ask? I'm speaking of the best Sonic game in probably 10 years, Sonic Generations. HOLY s**t!! ! When I played it, I couldn't believe how awesome and fun it was. It immediately brought back my inner Sonic fanboy into existence, especially when playing the stages from Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, and Sonic Heroes. Listen, if you haven't already bought the game, DO IT!! ! I guarantee you won't be dissapointed.

Sonic, huh? I've got AS and I grew up playing Sonic. It was one of the first games I ever got--it was a Christmas present along with a Type 2 Sega Genesis, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and Jurassic Park--as a kid. I'd played Final Fantasy, Galaga, Pac-Man, Streets of Rage, etc., earlier, but those were on other people's consoles or in arcades. It helped that one of my dearest friends in grade school was a Sonic fan. He still is today. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I got a Nintendo 64 and Mario the following year, and damn near s**t myself when I got a PlayStation and a few other games for it. (I always wanted a Sega Saturn but never got one, though. Hopefully I can find one cheap enough on eBay or find ports of them for the PC on Steam.)

But Sonic, man. He could do things that Mario and Link couldn't thanks to blast processing. From the 16-bit wars to the 32/64-bit wars, I was always a Sega fanboy. I was a Sega fanboy to the very moment the Dreamcast died out. (THEY NEVER SHOULD HAVE KILLED THAT CONSOLE OFF!) I was also a Nintendo fanboy, but I had the orange loyalty for Sega. If Sega were a woman back then, I'd have done her. I hated the stranglehold Sony had on the console market back then with every fiber of my being, but it didn't stop me from owning a PlayStation. For all the s**t I gave that system, I did admit it had some good games. But Sony really should have realized that 2D games are fun, too, early on. Symphony of the Night is a classic! (Now if I could find a Castlevania mod for Team Fortress 2...)

The Genesis games were pure classics. Everything after Adventure? TOTAL f*****g GARBAGE! Sonic does not translate to 3D and it never will! Sonic jumped the shark when they did the leap to 3D. Dying because you fell off a loop due to that f*****g jittery camera? Changing Dr. Robotnik's name to Dr. Eggman? NO, NO, NO! f**k NO! f**k NO! f**k NO! Why did Sega have to do this to us? We gamers do not have to stand for this! This is why Sonic can only be done in 2D. Mario was done in 3D, too, but Nintendo did it right. Sonic in 3D just does not work as it is now. Sega should have adopted Nintendo's model of doing things like this in games long ago. The Dreamcast would have still been around even with the Xbox, PS2, and GameCube, and today Sega would attempt something like the Wii. But since quality Sega games are available on the PC, Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3, I guess we're not missing much after all. But all that nerd rage aside, I think the reason Sonic attracts autistic people is due to subliminal target marketing. Being obsessed with his own speed? Makes sense when you think of us Aspies as being one-track-minded. He has an attitude that many can want to have. But I've distanced myself from the Sonic fandom in recent years. The furries who make Sonic porn don't help one bit. I feel like they've hijacked the fandom. Furry porn just does not cut it for me, okay? Another reason why I only like the old games! But hopefully Sonic Generations is close to the old games in terms of gameplay. Maybe that'll redeem the franchise. I'm thinking of getting it off of Steam.

my 6yo son who has Aspergers is OBSESSED with Sonic and Mario equally. Funny thing is he could care less about ANY OTHER video games. He only wants to play Sonic and Mario. He loves Tails the best, and Luigi.

Interesting thread!

Well, I did grow up reading the comics by Archie Comics. I stopped reading them around the age of 13, but got back into them a few years ago. It's hard to say what draws me to Sonic. I kind of figured it was a nostalgic thing, since that was one of the reasons I got back into it. But, as for why I liked it to begin with, who knows? A friend of mine in the 3rd grade brought a copy of Sonic issue 47 to school, and the weather outside was terrible, so we spent our lunch hour inside, and that's how I was introduced to the series. I started playing the classic genesis games after that, but for whatever reason, never kept up with the series after that era. Not that I think it's a bad thing. I had no idea at the time that the games weren't based on the comics, so I didn't end up finding out that Sega of Japan had a different continuity till much later. To this day I still don't care much for the Japanese Sonic cannon. Not that I'm interested in subscribing to the comics, or picking up the issues at this point. I have, however, been keeping up with the latest graphic novel reprints.

TAILS IS A GUY!? OMG.

So all those drawings were actually...

Aparently this new dude doing Sonic's voice thinks Sonic fans are nuts.

Are you a troll or something?

wtf? How was I supposed to know Tails is a guy. Doesn't look it.

Oh, I did not know you didn't know. I thought you were using sarcasm and being a troll. It's very commom for people to confuse Tails for a girl. I think it's because of the voice. There was even a rumor circulating around that Sega originaly intended for him to be a girl. It turns out someone just made that up as a way to excuse their "gender bender" fetish of a female Tails. Once I think about it, that pic of him sitting in an ice cream cup does make him seem kinda girly. It was supposed to be a play on the expression, "so cute you could eat them up" and was actualy inspired by someone else's picture of Silver the Hedgehog in an ice cream cup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QPftKlW ... plpp_video
Perhaps I should have drew him sitting in a coffee cup. (there's cursing in this)

I'm not too familiar with the newer versions of Sonic and everyone else. I used to play the older games when I was a kid and Tails always struck me as a female character. I don't think they even had voices at the time. I haven't seen anyone in a cup.

I happen to love Sonic MegaMix. It's kind of like if WayForward made a Sonic game, except it's actually fan-made.

The idea is that Sonic, Mighty, Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles have to go back to South Island to defeat Dr. Eggman. However, it's been almost completely rewritten from the Sonic 1 engine. This brings forth new art, new moves, new layouts, and pretty much new everything.

You should check out at least the unstable Sega CD version to see what I mean.

Maybe there is some truth to the rumor. It was a fan art peice by someone else.

One of the reasons Autistic people may like the newer Sonic is probably because he is rendered with better, more realistic graphics details such as stitching on his gloves and reflections in his eyes. They wish he was real.