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Science Says You *Could* Have a Part of Your Brain Dedicated to Recognizing Pokemon. Could???

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IGN – Researchers at Stanford University have discovered that people who played Pokemon as children in the 90s might share a small region of their brain where all of that information is held, according to a new study.

…When shown images of Pokemon from the original GameBoy game mixed in with other stimuli, a specific region of Pokemon players’ brains lit up consistently in response to Pokemon. That means that the information is stored in the same part of the brain across all (or at least most) people who had that similar experience…He compared that to when you look at something like the room around you, which will go across more of your retina. “Because they have different locations on your retina,” Gomez continued, “they have different locations in your brain, and it turns out that the Pokemon region emerges in a part of your brain that responds to information from the center of your retina.”

Umm could? Thats the understatement of the century buddy. I first played Pokemon over 20 years ago and I still vividly remember very specific experiences like when I first caught a Magmar while eating at UNO with the grandparents. Sorry grandma, but theres no time to chat over deep dish pizza, I’m on a mission here. So to say theres a part of my brain that has the original 151 embedded into it is the least surprising thing science has ever taught me. No shit. I put 100+ hours into a game that I played on a cylinder block with a green dimly lit 3 inch screen. My eyes were trained from a very young age to identify which pocket monster had appeared and then doing the on the fly analysis of their type (fire, water, ground etc.) in between Bagel Bites and whether it would help me enough to beat the Elite Four.

But its not just another bullshit waste of time experiment like half the studies we blog about here because it turns out studies like this could actually help improve the way people with various disabilities learn.

While the fact that Pokemon players share some grey matter is amusing, this isn’t all just fun and games. The study makes progress toward actually figuring out how the human brain is wired and why is stores information the way it does, which in turn could be used to help people with visual deficiencies.

Gomez further explained that the “finding suggests that the very way that you look at a visual stimulus, like a Pokemon or words, determines why your brain is organized the way it is. That’s useful going forward because it might suggest that visual deficits like Dyslexia or face-blindness might result simply from the way you look at stimuli, and so it’s a promising future avenue.”

Thats why I’ve always railed against the Mothers Against Video Games or whatever nonsensical group thats been created. Video games aren’t just a time suck; they teach you multi-tasking, problem solving, and how to perform under pressure. Now they might actually help scientists understand how to improve education for people with learning disabilities? Your move, anti-gamers.

So maybe I am a 30 year old man thats overly excited for a movie about Pokemon, but hey it’s not just a game anymore; it’s brain science. Pokemon is basically like Jeopardy one could say.

The 300s Game of Thrones Meme of the Week Award: Episode 4

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Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.

Game of Thrones memes have always been around as they have for any pop culture sensation, but I feel like they have gone into overdrive for Season 8. Every week there seems to be 50 new and hilarious memes for each episode. So I figured it was only right to launch The 300s Game of Thrones Meme of the Week Award.

The winning meme for Episode 4 has to go to the one below because it once again preys upon my simple brain’s love for combining pop culture icons.

Honorable Mentions

The Bruins Are Everything That is Right With Sports, the Celtics Are Everything That is Wrong

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Watching the Bruins and Celtics these past couple of weeks has been like night and day. The Bruins have been tough, relentless, clutch, and generally fun to watch. The Celtics? Not so much.

After an incredible performance in Game 1, Kyrie has been abysmal in Games 2, 3, and 4 with defense that borders on “bad” and “not giving a shit.” After dropping 26 points in Game 1 when he shot 57% and was a +22, he’s gone 9/22%/-9, 26/36%/-7, and 23/31%/-6. So while he’s had three games with 20+ points, his shooting percentage has fallen off a cliff and he’s finished in the negatives in terms of +/- in 3 of the 4 games. Not great.

The Celtics have routinely packed it in this series too when the Bucks go on a run and the game starts to get away. It’s a pretty shitty attitude to just assume you’ll get it back the next game, especially when playing the No. 1 seed and the potential MVP in Giannis. Thats what this team has been all year long though. Kyrie punted on the regular season months ago legitimately saying talk to me when we get to the playoffs. Welp the playoffs are here bud, time to pick it up.

The C’s had one guy after the next playing hero ball and bricking shot after shot. From Kyrie (7/22, 1/7 from 3) to Terry Rozier (1/5, 0/3 from 3) to Al Horford going 3/8 from 3 to Jayson Tatum lacking awareness in key situations last night.

Not to mention Gordon Hayward scoring all of 2 points on 5 shots.

To top it all off, Kyrie came out to the post game presser and basically gave everyone the double freedom rockets despite another poor performance from him.

MEANWHILE, the Bruins had all the history in the world against them heading into Game 6 with an opportunity to close out the series.

They could have very easily fallen victim to recent history especially after having a huge goal taken off the board in the first period.

But unlike the Celtics, this Bruins team has shown huge balls and mental toughness all season long. They’re looking more and more each day like a team that could be raising a trophy soon.

The B’s have battled back all series while Sergei Bobrovsky has been playing out of his mind, they’ve gotten jobbed by the refs, and they nearly collapsed in Game 5 before scoring in the final 90 seconds to secure the W. Mental toughness like you read about. Speaking of mental toughness, shoutout to Tuukka Rask who closed his excellent series out with a 39 save shutout performance. Buffs wings on me, Tuukka.

Oh and the Bruins even have guys laying their bodies on the line in meaningless plays with the game already in hand.

So while the Celtics continue to be the inconsistent, hot and cold, unreliable team they were all year long, the Bruins just keep getting better and look like a team that could make a legit run at a championship.

David Price and His Unique Elbow Placed on the IL With Another Elbow Injury

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ESPN – Boston Red Sox left-hander David Price has been placed on the 10-day injured list because of tendinitis in his pitching elbow. Boston announced the move Monday, a day ahead of Price’s scheduled start at Baltimore.

The 33-year-old Price is 1-2 with a 3.75 ERA in six starts and has allowed three runs or fewer in his last four appearances. The 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner with Tampa Bay, Price was slowed by elbow problems throughout 2017. He did not make his first start for Boston until May 29 due to a strained elbow and did not pitch for the Red Sox between July 22 and Sept. 17 because of elbow inflammation. He was 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA in 11 starts and five relief appearances, then rebounded to go 16-7 with a 3.58 ERA in 30 starts last year as Boston won the World Series. Boston made the roster move retroactive to Friday. The Red Sox selected the contract of 28-year-old right-hander Ryan Weber from Triple-A Pawtucket.

David Price has been more or less our best pitcher to start the year, which says more about the shitshow this rotation has been than it does about Price’s start. He was pitching well as of late though so this is the last thing the Sox needed right now.

I can’t say I’m super optimistic about another elbow injury for a 33-year-old starter coming off his shortest offseason ever after a World Series run. This shouldn’t be a problem though if you remember what Price said about his “very unique elbow” in 2017.

“[They told me] that I have a very unique elbow, and I’ve heard that before but not from guys that have done the surgeries they’ve done and looked at as many elbows as they’ve looked at. So just to hear it from those two guys, it felt good,” said Price, via MLB.com.

Heres to a speedy recovery for Price because love him or hate him we need him to pitch well if this team is to go anywhere.

The 300s Breaks Down Game of Thrones S8E4: “The Last of the Starks”

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Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.

“The Last of the Starks” was an A+ episode for Game of Thrones as the show got back to doing what it does best. Despite the less than glowing reviews of Episode 3 (second lowest rated GOT ep on Rotten Tomatoes), I rewatched it yesterday and actually enjoyed it more the second time. Once you get over the fact that its dark and chaotic and not as many central characters die as expected its actually a pretty good episode. However it has become clear that Thrones (at least the TV show) never intended to have the battle with the White Walkers as the end all be all. In fact in the Ep 3 Inside the Episode, showrunner David Benioff actually describes the dead as “one of the main storylines” of Thrones. The key word there is “one.”

Is that reason enough for Thrones fans to be upset? Sure. Especially because if the White Walkers were never going to be the central storyline of the entire show (its literally the focus of the first scene of the first episode of the first season), then the showrunners were at best creating the longest slow play of all time with the Night King arc or at worst intentionally misleading viewers until they could quickly finish that story in order to move onto the last geopolitical conflict; the final game of thrones. Maybe I’m too big of a Thrones fan to be properly pissed off about that entire scenario, but I have repeatedly said I am going to wait until the season is finished so I can see the whole picture before deciding one way or the other. Thrones is getting alarmingly close to LOST territory though with a whole lot of questions that could remain completely unanswered. We’ll see.

So now that they’ve defeated the White Walkers, Thrones was able to turn its attention back to its biggest strength; the actual game of thrones. The character dialogues, the plotting, the lying, the simmering tensions. This was the best episode we’ve seen all season.

Lets talk about that emotional opening as the survivors mourn the dead from the Battle of Winterfell. It was always going to be a tearjerker when Dany said goodbye to Jorah and we see the dead bodies of characters like Lyanna Mormont, Lord Commander Edd, Theon and the rest, but when the camera pulls back and we see just how many pyres there are being lit, we get a much better understanding of just how many lives were lost. I think its one of the best shots in the show’s history because it conveys so much without a single word.

I thought this was an excellent episode, but I’ve tried to be fair in my assessment each week and this season has been bordering on a Wrap It Up Box situation. After years of slow playing situations and storylines we are now moving at a lightspeed pace, which has me questioning the decision to only shoot 6 episodes for the final season. Granted the showrunners were undoubtedly waiting for George RR Martin to finish the books (which led to extended stays for Dany in Essos and Bran on his way to the Three Eyed Raven) before ultimately deciding to push past the books and finish the show with just some guiding points from Martin.

But this season has been pegging characters into some roles quicker than I would think is realistic. I’m not one of these assholes that is stomping their feet because Dany can get to Kings Landing in a ship in 5 minutes. I’ve played video games since I was a kid; fast travel and respawn points are a good thing guys. However, Dany is turned from savior to nearly becoming the Mad Queen in a span of 4 episodes. Now don’t get me wrong, she has all the character development points necessary to get there with her army being decimated fighting the dead, her role as the rightful heir to the Iron Throne being questioned, and now her best friend Missandei being unnecessarily murdered BUT it all just seems a little quick for a show that has been thoughtful and methodical with its pacing for years.

Remind me not to tell Sansa a secret any time soon because she blew up Jon’s spot about his true lineage in a matter or minutes. For some reason Sansa just does not trust Khaleesi and maybe she sees something that everyone else is blind to because they either love Khaleesi, they admire her, or they fear her. Sansa has none of those emotions towards the Dragon Queen so maybe its more than just being spiteful; maybe she really doesn’t believe she’ll be a good ruler. We’ve all come to agree that Sansa has become one of the best political minds in GOT having been trained by one of the best in Littlefinger, living a hellish life with the likes of Joffrey and Ramsay, and yet has come out on the other side as one of the power players in Westeros. So maybe we need to start treating her disdain for Khaleesi as more than just unnecessary drama. Either way, she confides in her former husband Tyrion saying “What if there were someone better?” and officially rings the bell that cannot be unrung. What if Jon isn’t only the *rightful* heir to the Throne, but what if he’s the best one too? He probably would make a better ruler being a lot more measured, unemotional, and of course loved by the people of the North at least.

However Khaleesi put her ass on the line and decimated her army and her dragons to save the North and probably Westeros as a whole, so you can’t discount that just because she’s come off as increasingly bitter in each episode. Shit, I’d be bitter too. A classic Thrones power struggle continues to grow, made only more interesting with the fact that Jon wants no part of it. As the great Tywinn Lannister once said “Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king.” Maybe we’re seeing shades of that coming into play as Khaleesi tells anyone and everyone that she is their queen, whereas Jon never wanted to be King in the North, yet his role as king literally saved the realm.

Khaleesi actually begs Jon to bury that secret, which is something we’ve never seen her do. She’s been enslaved, beaten, nearly assassinated, raped and endured all kinds of terrible times, but she’s never begged anyone for anything. Is she unraveling or this just her political hail mary because she knows if Jon tells Sansa the truth she’ll never have an iron clad claim to the Iron Throne.

Also, Brandon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, the Three Eyed Raven, and last true born son of Eddard Stark has approximately 160 minutes left to not become the most useless character of all time. Up until now his most important contributions to the show include

  • Getting the Three Eyed Raven Killed
  • Getting Hodor, Jojen, and his direwolf Summer killed
  • Leading the Night King straight to Winterfell
  • Giving Arya the dagger that she needed to kill the Night King
  • Telling everyone about Jon’s true parents

Thats about it for the freshly minted Three Eyed Raven. I never really loved Bran’s storyline, but I figured the writers were building up to something bigger. Well that was a pretty big “nope” after the Battle of Winterfell. Sure I’ll give him partial credit for giving Arya the dagger, but thats considering I’m going out of my way to acknowledge that a dragon glass dagger probably wouldn’t have had the same affect. So here we are Bran. You have two episodes and 160 minutes to prove the dozens of hours devoted to watching you get dragged through the woods was worth it. Prove me wrong.

Bronn of the Blackwater is back! He basically makes a deal with the Lannister brothers that they need to pay the debts they so famously always pay or they’re both dead. It wasn’t exactly the bro reunion many had expected, but somewhere inside that cutthroat there is a heart of gold. It would have been shocking and unfitting for Bronn to just coldly murder his two best friends. Whether they have the pull to guarantee High Garden to Bronn as sufficient payment remains to be seem, but something tells me not all of these characters will be around to see that the debt has been paid.

Jon’s goodbye (or lack thereof) to Ghost was one of the sadder scenes of all time. This dog lost a goddamn ear fighting your war, Jon. Ghost was actually the first POP action figure I ever bought years ago so needless to say I feel like our canine friend deserved better. Now I fully admit I am one of those crazy dog dads, but come on Jon you’re not even going to give him a scratch behind his ear? That direwolf went beyond the wall with you and saved your ass on more than one occasion. Well, the internet was fully behind me and some are even completely off #TeamJon for the Iron Throne because of it.

At least he’ll be safe and in his element in the icy north, but boy was that sad. I guess if I’m going to wrap my own brain into a pretzel it was the right decision because we’ve seen how irresponsible Khaleesi is with her own animals.

Speaking of…holy hell we lost another dragon and I cannot emotionally handle it. Just one week after thinking another of Khaleesi’s dragons bit the big one because of her careless landing spot in a war zone, we were blindly led to its slaughter yet again. And I fucking called it. Probably because I am a Thrones psycho, but after seeing the dragon struggling to fly earlier in the ep and then seeing him back to full strength I knew something was off. Thrones never shows you something by mistake (except for that Starbucks cup). I literally said out loud “oh look the dragon is all better again” IMMEDIATELY followed by “oh no now he’s going to die–ARROW.” Euron Greyjoy ambushed Khaleesi and her fleet and gave us yet another heart wrenching dragon death. Jesus christ Khaleesi can you please keep these dragons a safe distance away from all possible dangers? Especially if the only thing that can kill them apparently are arrows and ice javelins, which have a pretty precise range of fire, and especially if you’re just cruising past the place you intend to destroy. Maybe be on the lookout for danger? Worst dragon owner of all time. She will probably get her last child killed next week too and I want no part of watching that.

I won’t spend too much time on the love circles, but Jaime gets with Brienne, which breaks Tormund’s heart in yet another scene stealing moment, but then Jaime leaves in the middle of the night to return to (kill?) Cersei. I don’t know if Jaime just can’t kick that toxic relationship or if he just feels responsible for her and thinks he needs to kill her himself. Either way I think Jaime will play a prominent role in the death of Cersei. Maybe he dies at the hand of Arya and has his face used to sneak up on Cersei or perhaps he is able to get past the Mountain (who nearly executed him last time he was in Kings Landing) and Euron (who thinks Cersei is carrying his child) to get to Cersei?

Now that the news of Jon’s lineage is spreading, people like Sansa and Tyrion and Varys are starting to wonder who might be the rightful (read: better) ruler of Westeros. Varys seems pretty keen on the idea of switching sides, openly discussing what Tyrion describes as treason. They raise a legitimate question about Khaleesi’s state of mind. She seems to be slipping further into mad king territory and is ready to destroy the very city she seeks to liberate. Is Varys ready to jump sides in the best interest of the realm or was he merely testing Tyrion’s resolve? I don’t know but I do know that Thrones is at its best when characters like Littlefinger (RIP), Tyrion, and Varys are plotting and scheming.

In another shocker, Missandei gets executed in one of the most unnecessary, ruthless and cold blooded moves in Thrones history. Cersei executed someone for the sole purpose of inciting Khaleesi’s fury. Its a move that Tywinn would have been proud of as we all know that emotional decisions are often the worst decisions. Khaleesi looks like she is about to do something reckless to avenge her beloved friend.

We do see that Jon and his army arrive for the next episode, but my god I did not realize just how undermanned the Unsullied army has become. While the show makes it a point to say Cersei and Khaleesi’s armies are now unsettlingly “even” in size it sure doesn’t look that way. Not to mention we have the whole Golden Company army waiting in the wings despite zero character development. I honestly don’t know how she’s going to take the city as her dragons have proven highly susceptible to the scorpion arrows, but Khaleesi is about to burn that bitch to the ground.

We’ve heard time and time again that the citizens of Kings Landing hate Cersei, that the common people don’t care which “high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace,” so its possible that if someone can take out Cersei the rest will welcome Khaleesi with open arms. Probably not if she starts raining fire on the city though.

My god am I jacked up for next week’s episode.

The BIG3 Just Announced Its Team Rosters and Boy Oh Boy They Are STACKED

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The BIG 3 is returning for its third season this summer and it seems to only be growing as it released their team rosters today and they are STACKED.

Just in case you forgot, we are quite fond of the BIG3 here. We even had Mattes go cover a game in person last year. And that was before they stacked the deck with some big time names.

Top names playing in the BIG3 this year include Kendrick Perkins and Greg Oden on the same team to create maybe the biggest “What if these guys never got hurt” duo in basketball history. The Celtics win 2 out 3 NBA titles, the Trailblazers are still one of the best teams in the league, going to war with KD and whatever team he’s playing for at the time.

Mario Chalmers!

Brian Scalabrine returns of course and should probably have equity in this league if he doesn’t already because the White Mamba puts asses in the seats.

Agent Zero himself Gilbert Arenas joins the BIG3 this season and I could not be more excited. Arenas, before all his gunplay problems, practically invented the 28 foot pull up jumper that is so common today. Where you think Damian Lillard learned that move?

Lamar Odom is returning from the grave/the clutches of the Kardashians to play some ball and you gotta think that guy is happy to just be alive at this point. Good for him.

Mike Bibby, Ricky Davis, and Carlos Boozer just seem like a pretty solid, well built team. Plus, if they get into any scuffles Mike Bibby 2.0 will just start beating people up as all he’s done since retiring is lift anything and everything.

Stephen Jackson and Metta World Peace are teaming up to become the bad boys of the league. Coached by the goddamn oak tree himself Charles Oakley no less. Nobody is messing with that team.

The Power will be a trip down elite bench player memory lane for anyone my age with guys like Corey Maggette, Chris Birdman Andersen, Ryan Gomes(!) and Glen Big Baby Davis who somehow avoided going to federal pound me in the ass prison after a drug arrest.

Jason Terry is also playing this year, which raises the question is Jason Terry finally retired orrrr

Nearly spit my drink out when I saw Terry pulling up for 3 in a game for Milwaukee last season.

Former Celtics draft picks Joe Johnson and Big Al Jefferson will be joining forces to be the favorite team of any Celtics fan over the age of 30.

To round it all out we have Jermaine O’Neal, Amar’e Stoudemire and Nate Robinson, but I have to say it is an absolute crime that Ice Cube doesn’t have Nate Robinson and Glen Davis on the same team. Does he not remember the days of Shrek and Donkey??

They even got legit AF names coaching as well with Gary Payton, Rick Barry, Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Kenyon Martin, Lisa Leslie, and Dr. freaking J just to name a few.

How about the BIG3 being the only new sports league to not only avoid going out of business, yet actually thrive? The AAF went out of business before I even needed to refill my car’s tank of gas, the XFL is looking to improve upon its high score of 1 season completed, meanwhile the BIG3 is just adding teams and big time names left and right.

Maybe we’ll send Mattes back out to another BIG3 game this year with a real mic so he can actually get Scal namedropping The 300s Podcast on tape.

Panthers Runningback Christian McCaffrey is Going to Rush for 3,000 Yards This Year

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Curls for girls, baby!! It would seem like Christian took our description of him as a “receiving back” pretty personally. The guy looks like he wants to prove he can run through a literal brick wall like he’s Jerome Bettis or something. Borrowed a few workouts from the ole Mark Wahlberg movie Pain and Gain to do just that.

Now, is adding on oodles of muscles necessarily the best thing for an elusive back that like it or not is a receiving back (he caught 107 balls for 867 yards and 6 touchdowns last year)?

Only time will tell, but hey at least Christian is ready for bikini season.

 

Shoutout to My Guy Tom E. Curran for Having The 300s on Quick Slants

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Okay so maybe *technically* speaking I wasn’t on the show, but I’ll take the exposure however I can get it so shoutout to my guy Tom E. Curran. For anyone thats too lazy to watch the clip Tom says I should zero in on the middle guy there in Ryan Mallet for the most appropriate comparison to Jarrett Stidham and thats not exactly promising.

Although I have to admit I am shocked and offended and hurt that Tom didn’t name drop us on the air. Had me feeling like Walter White, aside from all the blue meth making and money laundering.

But seriously, shoutout to my guy Tom E. Curran.

I’m Not One for Hyperbole But I Think Michael Chavis Might Be Headed for the Hall of Fame

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Listen I’m not one for hyperbole, but I’m pretty sure after watching Red Sox rookie Michael Chavis for 9 games, he’s headed to the Hall of Fame. The dude has come in and immediately started to rake. While its common for rookies to sometimes get off to a fast start before the league puts together the book on you and starts pitching to your weaknesses; its less common for a rookie to immediately look like he *belongs*

Since getting called up Chavis has pretty much been an every day starter, especially after CROAKING a double in his first career at bat, in a clutch situation to boot. As a pinch hitter off the bench no less.

In 9 games Chavis is batting .286 with a .429 BP and an OPS of 1.071! He’s also got 3 homers and 8 RBI in that timespan so the kid can play.

In the interest of full disclosure I was not super optimistic about what Chavis was going to look like after returning from a PED suspension, but as I blogged about when the Sox called him up he’s actually been *better* at least in terms of OPS..

I don’t wanna jump the gun or anything, but do we have enough room in right field for his retired number?

The Sonic the Hedgehog Live Action Movie Trailer Just Dropped and It is…HAUNTING

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WHO IS RUNNING SEGA??

I texted Giorgio about it and he didn’t have a much warmer reaction: “Thats an IP killer. We may never get another Sonic game again.”

I was always a big SEGA guy growing up, more so than the original Playstation (released in 1994) or even Nintendo (1985). The SEGA Genesis came out in 1989 and my next favorite system N64 didn’t come out until 1996. I was even one of the 9 people that owned a SEGA CD system!

So there were some real solid years in there as a young kid with classics like Mortal Kombat 2, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Vector Man. And that doesn’t include the downright impossible to beat games like Echo the Dolphin (fuck that game) and The Lion King.

All of those obviously pale in comparison to the GOAT SEGA game franchise of course; Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 were all great games. Sonic & Knuckles was awesome because it was basically the first DLC expansion pack I’ve ever seen, introducing Knuckles and the power of flight into those old Sonic games. Sonic CD also had some AWESOME moments like the Metal Sonic boss that mimics all your moves, which was quite the mind fuck for a 7 year old.

So long story short I am a Sonic stan. I most recently relapsed into Sonic fandom with Sonic Mania for Nintendo Switch. SEGA has been run so incompetently they haven’t been able to make a successful game with their most popular IP since Sonic Adventures on Dreamcast.

That was 1998. It’s been 20 years guys. SEGA basically sunk their hardware company because of this and are now forced to lease out their IP as they’ve essentially transitioned into a software company that only develops games.

The story around Sonic Mania is actually one of my favorites because it shows just how bad it had gotten for SEGA. There was this one guy Christian Whitehead AKA Taxman who was porting Sonic games and tweaking the levels on his own and then releasing them online for people to play for free. Via his Wikipedia page:

In 2009, Whitehead produced a “proof-of-concept” video of Sonic CD running on an iPhone using his own custom engine, the “Retro Engine”…Whitehead proclaims that he spent “about a year or so” convincing Sega to let him work on the Sonic CD port. In 2009, a video regarding Sonic CD from Whitehead was taken down, leading Eurogamer to report that Whitehead possibly faced a cease and desist letter from Sega, which Whitehead claimed was false. The port was released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPhone and Android in 2011. His port was so successful that he was later commissioned to port Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to mobile devices…In 2017, Whitehead, in collaboration with Headcannon and PagodaWest Games, developed and released their own original title in the Sonic series, titled Sonic Mania.

Now I have to give SEGA some credit here because rather than sue his balls off they ended up just hiring the guy and letting him lead the production of the game that ultimately became Sonic Mania. The game itself is excellent too because just when you get comfortable and start to remember the level structure it completely changes and your thrown into something you’ve never seen, so its way more than a port. Its like playing Sonic on acid.

So for all my love of Sonic it breaks my heart to say this movie looks like the first and probably last Sonic movie we’ll ever see. When I first heard about the idea I said theres no way a live action Sonic movie could ever work, but then I saw the trailers for the live action Pokemon movie and it changed my mind completely. The problem is the CGI in the Pokemon movie is incredible whereas the CGI in the Sonic movie is garbage.

Sonic is legitimately haunting.

How did they get that out of this?

I will say Jim Carrey is probably one of the best choices to play a wacky video game villain (doesn’t mean it’ll be good), but I can’t have skinny Dr. Robotnik, can’t have it.

It looks terrible, but because nostalgia is the most powerful drug not named heroin, I probably will go out for a few beers and wind up seeing it out of morbid curiosity. If you’re a sick person like me, Sonic the Hedgehog comes out on November 8th.