The MAdventure Issue

[DragonXVI]

First, for those that never knew (Which was most people), a summary of the (now canned) old MAdventure 2 "Plot", as I remember it

- Tails is captured by Bill Gates. Boss battle with some robot smiley thing.

- A Variety of things happen that leads to Sonic getting on a lift that goes to some Sky Stadium

- On the lift he's attacked by Eggman (Boss) - I can't remembr much about this boss, but I do recall I liked the way it worked...

- At the top he runs into Sonikku, who falls off

- He then takes part in an arena based match against Shadow. I forget what happens next specifically, but there's an explosion

- *Insert unknown part here*

- At Microsoft HQ, Sonic battles through a maze and uncovers a horde of Amy Rose clones (This shot was shown via a faked "Photograph" thing, which was directly aping something Blaze did with TFH )

- You encounter Bill Gates in an "exact" Chrono Trigger Magus BOss Battle recreation (Right down to the fire), except he jumps up into an Xbox shaped aircraft and a boss battle begins.

- *Insert unknown part here. Originally it was going to involve a Panzer Dragoon style minigame*

- You begin your search for the P.I.E (I forget what it stood for), and head to some kind of Temple. After avoiding various traps, you battle Eggman again (I recall there was something nifty about this level, but I forget what it was... Probably box pushing or something lame) and collect the P.I.E. Suddenly things start to rumble...

- Outside an entirely army of Amy Roses marches towards your location. Sonic, Tails, Red and Blaze flee (There was also a Burly Brawl style minigame, similar to the one from Daxter) until eventually Red creates an army of Mr. Ts to combat the Amy Roses.

- In the confusion, Sonic activates the P.I.E. and teleports away to Blaze's Airship

- ON BLaze's Airship, he meets the original Amy Rose (And several other characters, official and SFGHQ, I used most the crackers sprites I was given here), who seems to be "Normal" after the events of MAdventure 1. He does some odd jobs around the place and goes to sleep.

- When he awakes, the Airship has been ruined, bodies and blood everywhere. He follows a trail of blood from Amy Rose's room which leads to the docking bay where none other than Johnny Turbo reveals himself, who has captured Amy Rose for whatever reason (Probably to Lure Sonic, the purest form of everything he stood against, to him)

- You battle Johnny Turbo, who then escapes via some kind of fighter-jet, and you hop in one as well and battle over the rapidly falling, damaged airship.

- When defeated, you return to the airship and help repair it.

- After the repairs, Kulock calls an assembly, Lord of the Rings Style, to determine what to do with the P.I.E.

- *Insert unknown pile of plot here*

- Eventually, Bill Gate's takes the P.I.E. from you and uses it to jump between various famous Dreamcast games - Sonic, Shenmue, Power Stone, Skies of Arcadia - The Boss Battle takes place across all these themes

- Originally Bill Gates' motive was to use the P.I.E to jump between videogames, stealing game characters and ultimately devising the ultimate videogame character, who you would battle, but it was never designed.

- Finally, with Bill defeated, Sonic's about to recover the P.I.E, but in true RedXVI fashion he must then battle Red himself.

- They battle, Matrix style in front of thousands of Amy Rose clones. I assume Sonic destroys the P.I.E and things return to normal...

Secrets included collecting "Cards" of characters which would unlock things in the menu (Hidden levels, a gallery, and a "Secret look at MAdventure 3". Cinossu also required you to gather several hidden items for the true ending, but that was never really explained...

That was then, this is now.

MAdventure as it stood was more or less a completely made up design which worked well for the short, 5 minutes of the original MAdventure, but didn't for the larger scale - It became a series of obscure in-jokes, forth-wall breakage and plot holes that just overgrew itself. To try and continue that line of thinking would just result in another can of spam, so some changes need to take place for the now, technically in progress, "MAdventure X" (Working title, obviously)

- Change the engine, try less to fit a Sonic game into an isometric thing and go for more Zelda style approach (I was even thinking "Swords" or something similar... Although having Sonic run around with a fish hitting badniks has its charm too...)

- Remove the Richard Garriot Self-Insertion Bonanza - Don't get me wrong, I loved having a large catalogue of characters and I'm sure it was nifty for some people of SFGHQ to see your avatar in other games (S:TA rings a bell) - but to get rid of the unnecessary, OTT "Silliness" of MAdventure, this has to go.

- And on that note of silliness: I like humour, but I like "Clever" humour, and playing through MAdventure again made me realise how much it relied on using silly English words, silly music, Amy Rose as some kind of all-powerful Death God and the biggest kick in the teeth of actually "skipping" half the game. Ideally, I like to go to a semi-serious semi-humourous adventure story - The comedy is there but hidden beneath that is an actual semi-decent plot.

Actually when I think about it, what I'm planning here is pretty much a fusion of MAdventure and Thirdscape. Except without the plotholes and horrendous bugs. I may not even keep the name "MAdventure" either, but the style will still be there, and I'd still like to have a degree of absurdity, just not *too* much (There's plenty of things I can do with Angry McAngstGuns the Hedgehog, although granted that's been done to death)

Thoughts? Comments? What's your ideal "MAdventure 2/3"?

[Super Napalm]

As long as it hasn't got an emo storyline stolen off FanFiction.com but does have a lot of humor, it'll kick ass ^^

[USC]

Hey, I still have the old MAdventure 2 demo if you want it Red (it goes to the point where you fight Shadow). Seeing what it would have become is really cool; thanks for posting it.

Out of curiousity, did you ever actually have a Crackers sprite of Johnny Turbo? Because that would be the greatest thing ever...

Anyway, I think it sounds good. I mean, I'll miss the excessive randomness and avator inserts, but I can understand why you're not keen on doing that anymore. Just as long as you don't go too far into the Thirdscape side...XD

[tentril]

Semiserious, but comedy is still a big part of it? Sounds like an Earthbound story to me, and I like that. In fact, if it were a combination of Earthbound and Sonic, it would probably be about my favorite game.

[Guest Shadix]

oh come on Red, you know the twisted, sensless humor was the best part of the original. XD

[Serephim]

You know, i actually wish more fangames had wacked out storylines like the old MAdventure 2 storyline. Today everything is all serious, dark and has everybody getting killed off in really "emotional" cutscenes that dont fit in Sonic whatsoever.

I dont know an orginal fangame in production now that isnt all seriousness and SEGA-ish. Except for Brazsonic's game, which is effing awesome.

I perfer your retarded storyline. It sounds far more epic than a thirdscape fusion to me, in all reality.

[Sockman]

You know, i actually wish more fangames had wacked out storylines like the old MAdventure 2 storyline. Today everything is all serious, dark and has everybody getting killed off in really "emotional" cutscenes that dont fit in Sonic whatsoever.

I dont know an orginal fangame in production now that isnt all seriousness and SEGA-ish. Except for Brazsonic's game, which is effing awesome.

Agreed.

It'd take a certain level of genius to put brightly colored talking critters into dark and serious situations without making everything look just stupid; a genius that 99.9% of of Sonic fangamers, myself included, lack.

[Super Napalm]

USC upload the old Madventure 2 demo if you can, I never got the chance to play it myself

[Guest Shadix]

I mean, if you want to make a serious iso game you could always call it something like...

OmniKaos: The Next Generation or Thirdscape X., or alternatively and probably preferably a new series .

I dunno, MADventure without the retardness ceases to be MADventure for me.

[tentril]

Hence, Earthbound. Its still totally retarded, but somehow maintains a semiserious plot.

[Guest Shadix]

Hence, Earthbound. Its still totally retarded, but somehow maintains a semiserious plot.

Or FLCL? Although sometimes I wonder if FLCL actually ever even had a plot.

[USC]

USC upload the old Madventure 2 demo if you can, I never got the chance to play it myself

Your wish is my command...

[tentril]

Or FLCL? Although sometimes I wonder if FLCL actually ever even had a plot.

It still had enough of a plot. This is exactly what I'm saying.

[DimensionWarped]

Plotwise, FLCL is pretty damn simple. The real kicker is in the theming...

But basically, the plot is this:

Naota, having a naturally conflicted mind, is chosen as the perfect target for Haruko to open an N.O. channel to obtain the powers of Atomsk (basically N.O. power, but coming from a mind previously conflicted now in harmony) so that she alone will become the most powerful being in the universe. Control is initially in the hands of Mamimi. Over the course of the first 5 episodes, Haruko is pulling control over Naota away from Mamimi. In the final episode, Naota takes control of himself for himself and in doing so acquires balance of the mind... thus unleashing the Atomsk power.

Character interactions though are much more complex than that... In fact, thats where the real meat of the story is, because its actually somewhat deep. Tasuku (Naota's brother, also the origin of Mamimi always calling people and things ta-kun... litterally a way of filling the hole) represented a being in total control of himself. He is also at the root of the whole baseball metaphor that is prevalent throughout the anime and especially the fourth series. Both he and Haruko are left handed, meaning they embody a sort of creative nature. Naota and Mamimi are on the opposite track. They are both righties, and less outgoing.

The climax pulls something else interesting on the dominant hand motif.. and thats that Naota uses two guitars, suggesting ambidexterity. Again, its the whole balance concept.

I could go on about FLCL for hours... but really, I just have to say there is a hell of a lot there you could look at.

[DragonXVI]

Didn't manage the whole of Johnny Turbo (For the man was rather large), but had a standing frame of 'im... Maybe it was the thought of animating the git that made me realise when I was doing

I may change the name completely depending on the outcome, but I'd still like it to maintain at least the style of MAdventure.

I appreciate that the random bonkersness of the original has its charm, but I'd actually like to assemble some of that together in a coherant plotline instead of "A series of completely random, unrelated events"

Also, ooh! Demo! *Plays*

[USC]

I would dearly love to see JT if he still exists.

Speaking of which, are there any particular Crackers sprites you need that haven't been made yet? I've been making a few recently, but if I can make something that'll actually be used, that'd be great.

Although I doubt you'd have SatAM characters in there, I've currently a start on Rouge and modern Robotnik.

[BlazeHedgehog]

I am a little sad to see the crazy over-the-top Madventure comedy antics go, but as long as it's entertaining to play it probably doesn't matter.

[Serephim]

Hence, Earthbound. Its still totally retarded, but somehow maintains a semiserious plot.

Exactly. You can even go out and say Metal Gear Solid does it too, but not nearly on the level we're talking about.

4th wall breaking humor and constantly making you laugh while still maintaining a serious feeling to it. That is the work of a true genius to me.

[Hapi-San]

As long as MAdventure does focus at least in some form on humour, then I'll be happy. The main point of MAd (at least in my view, all this time) was that it was to be a comedic game when everyone else's games were SERIOUS BUSINESS. (Case in point at the time, TFH? :x Tails dies~)

So, as long as there's humour of some sort, it'll be good. :3 But more Thirdscape-esque will be bloody good too.

[Serephim]

Tails is going to die or be excluded in every fangame with an original story.

Fact.

[Godmaster]

Tails is going to die or be excluded in every fangame with an original story.

He also became a villian, would be interesting...

Damn, I died and has no save yet >.<

[DimensionWarped]

Tails should just become Dr. Robotnik's lackey sometime.

[DragonXVI]

Why does everybody hate Tails so?

Another "What I would like to do" direction is a Disgaea-esque plot - The characters and situations in Disgaea are hilarious, but the overall storyline is rather epic. I'm not eliminating the humour, just trying to contain it within the Universe instead of having silly, Loony-Toons things like Vending machines falling from the sky on people or random exploding sheep.

I'm surprised the two of 'em never really hit it off, since by now I'd figure Tails an international cyberterrorist who dabbles in arms manufacturing.

I mean really...

Not bad for an 8 year old. He's like a furry version of Atermis Fowl

[DimensionWarped]

Because of his voice and his attitude. AKA - bad writing and bad direction on SEGA's part.

[DragonXVI]

I dunno, I reckon it's any time he tries to do anything cool to fit in

If it weren't for his unbelievably annoying voices and personality he's dumped with, he'd probably be as decent a character as any other. He remains the in the tiny group pf protagonists with an actual name (Amy Rose being one of the few blessed others that isn't lumbered with +"The Something"), which I've always found more appealing to a character when they actually have what could be evidence of a family (Obviously Shadow's whacky past doesn't really allow this, unless you opt for "Shadow Robotnik" or "Shadow Doom") and as such, untouched history and that rarest of things, character development.

The other thing is the dynamic you could have with Knuckles, as they're both polar opposites (McCoy and Spock, to a degree), one with the Brains and one with the Brawn. The prospect that the two would endlessly get on each others nerves if left to their own devices is quite fun

But then this is bordering into Fanfic territory so I'll leave it there