Sonic the Hedgehog

Normally I'd only post related articles pertaining to my own videos on the website, but for the past few hours I've been reminiscing on the tragedy known as Sonic the Hedgehog. This is going to be quite a long post, but it says what has to be said.

When it comes to Sonic the Hedgehog, I'm sure some of you are asking, "why do you say tragedy?" It's simple: as a kid, the first console I ever got was a Sega Genesis. One of the first games I bought and played was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog 3. I'm not one of the truly old school fans who have been hooked with it since its inception, but I think I've been around long enough to truly appreciate the 2-D masterpiece we all know and love.

Nonetheless, as consoles have evolved into the amazing pieces of equipment they are today, so have our games. And so has Sonic, unfortunately. Over the years since the demise of Sega, we've seen Sonic emerge on the newer consoles, and he's definitely shown up in a whole new environment. In addition, he's been the star of several Saturday morning cartoons, among other shows. (By the way, I watched a few episodes of Sonic X not too long ago. How is that still not on television today?)

Now I know there are some who may disagree with this, but I think many agree when I say this:

Sonic the Hedgehog does NOT work in a three-dimensional environment.

While at the local rental store with a friend shortly over a week ago, we were taking advantage of a two game for $10 special going on for all the 6th generation consoles. We decided upon renting Bully, and then were forced to decide between two games: Sonic Riders and Sonic Heroes. Now, I've played Sonic Riders before, and I must say that I absolutely despise racing games. I can't exactly explain why, although the closest reason I can come to is that when I first got my PS2 six years ago, I got a ton of racing games, and I absolutely hated all of them. Since then, I've never shown much love for the genre.

Nonetheless, I had no clue about Sonic Heroes and I had heard mixed reactions about it, so I made the suggestion, and the decision was made. We popped it in as soon as we got back, and from that moment on we regretted that choice.

From the terrible voice acting to finding out that the game was nothing more than a screwed up racing game, we turned it off after a few minutes. We've played it a few times in the following days just to make sure it was as terrible as it was the first time. It was just unbelievable how much Sonic's good name had just been completely destroyed in the past few years.

Not long after, I managed to come across a copy of Sonic Advance for the Game Boy Advance. I turned it on, and played a bit. Somehow, it managed to restore just a bit of hope that maybe one day, the series might be brought back to its old glory days once again. It was just as I had imagined the game as a kid: your classic 2-D platformer (although maybe a bit remastered to reflect the 3-D way of gaming today) where you simply get the rings and plow through the level and the ensuing Dr. Robotnik bosses. Is there a storyline? Well, I didn't play that much of the game to really get a clue, but it seemed like there was a bit more story than the Genesis ones, but not to the point where it was even bad or annoying. I was baffled - how could the most enjoyable Sonic game in years come from a handheld system that practically just went out a year or two ago? My curiosity got the best of me, and as a result, I managed to sample Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS.

Again, like the GBA version of Sonic, I was able to re-live the glory days of Sonic as a kid so long ago. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but show me a series that is. I just couldn't believe how much more enjoyment out of the handheld Sonic game I was getting out than the console version my friend was playing right in front of me at the same time.

What I've come to realize is this. For people like myself and others who grew up playing the classic two-dimensional platform version for the Genesis, Sonic is a classic. It's something that can never be changed. And for kids who are growing up in our current world, the old school Sonic is nothing more than a 5-minute internet game. How they can stomach the crap that is put on to today's consoles and gets the Sonic title slapped on it is beyond me. And that is what makes the Sonic name today, in my eyes, a tragedy.

That's it for this edition. Unfortunately, it seems that the handheld versions of Sonic are the closest that we'll ever see to the old-school platformer some of us once knew and loved. However, they serve as a damn good reminiscence.

Halo CE (not the regular PC version)

It's been a good two months since I updated this and I do feel bad about it, so I figured I'd post a little bit of information regarding one of the newer games I've been playing.

For those of you who are aware, Halo 2 came out for PC just a week ago (approximately) and I'm not one who's willing to upgrade to Vista just so I can play. About a week ago, Danny shed some light on Halo Custom Edition, which I'd heard a fair amount of. All you need is a legit copy of Halo: Combat Evolved (the two CE handles threw me off for a bit) and you're ready to go. There's nothing illegal (that I know of, at least) about it, which makes things even better.

The thing that makes Halo Custom Edition stand out however is the fact that you can play (and create if you're willing to spend a few extra bucks) customized maps. There's maps that actually have some Halo 2 weapons, with the Plasma Sword being one of the most predominant ones I've seen. Obviously it's not going to be the same as Halo 2, but I think for those who are bored with regular Halo for PC, this is a nice free upgrade to boot. Some other maps I've encountered include pretty much anything, ranging from one really long runway where you can literally shoot a rocket and race past it in a warthog or ghost, to a very nice recreation of Peach's castle in Super Mario 64. It's a really fun modification, not to mention there are a ton of sites that feature custom map downloads.

Now I'm not here saying that Halo 2 for PC is horrible and that no one should get it. If you have Vista and you're a Halo fan, then I don't see why you wouldn't want the second installment of the trilogy (unless you have a copy for your XBox). In fact, as soon as I get my copy of Vista sometime soon, I'll be making another purchase for Halo 2. It will probably be one of the future music video series later this year. But until then, Halo Custom Edition is capable of holding those over who are waiting until that right moment to make the upgrade to Vista.

I'll be sure to update this blog more often. Until then, be sure to visit the website and be sure to join the forums if you haven't done so already.

And one other thing - I've been putting off the next installment of Counter-Seal for quite a while now, but there will be a Counter-Seal 4 before June 2007 is done with.

The Beginning

For my first post, I really don't want to go into too much, but I'd like to tell everyone who does not know me that well a little about myself.

My name is Will, or known by the handle of 'Soulz' or 'a baby seal,' and I am the webmaster of Baby Seal Productions, a website featuring all sorts of different things. The main focus is on gaming music videos, featuring gameplay footage from games such as Halo: Combat Evolved, Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source, and many games from the Battlefield 1942 series, among others.

The idea of the website came late last year in 2006, when I was making HMV's (Halo Music Videos) and showing them to friends just for the fun of it. I had started to use the handle 'a baby seal' while playing the game, so one day I decided to take the ever-popular pokemon known as Seel and place his picture at the beginning of one of my videos with a giant 'b.s. productions' over it. After showing it to a very close friend of mine, Danny, he suggested that I start a website featuring all sorts of different things, with emphasis on the music videos. From that point, after months of development, Baby Seal Productions was started and launched in February of 2007 after Danny won a free week of advertising on a popular webcomics site.

After two months, it's been a lot of fun, no doubt about it. I have no intentions of slowing down, either. After creating a series of HMV's, I'm moving on to Counter-Strike: Source, where the first video will be released this May. In regards to what is after that, I'm not entirely sure. However, I have no intentions on slowing down. Out of all the websites that I have worked on in the past, nothing has been as fun as this. With the hell I go through at college each day, B.S. Productions gives me a sense of freedom I've lost since leaving my home last Summer.

This blog isn't going to contain posts about my daily ventures and my outlook on life. That's what my Facebook and Xanga pages are for. I'm not going to post website news here, either. That's what the website itself is for. This is going to contain my thoughts on some of the games that I play, as well as anything else relating to the website. I hope everyone who reads this will enjoy what I have to say about gaming and my experience with it.

I've always thought that you can't truly enjoy life if you're not doing something that you don't like. While this isn't something I plan on doing my whole life, for the time being it serves as an escape from my daily life, which can get hectic at times. Until the next post, thanks for reading!