#design changes

Headcanon time

Hahahaha

Guess what my new obsession is-

Fun fact Sonic the Hedgehog is not the only game franchise that has it's design changes of characters being an in universe thing. Several Mario characters have undergone either physical and wardrobe changes due to the passage of time, much of which is confirmed in games.

For example, Super Mario Odyssey confirms Mario, Pauline's, and Cranky Kong's wardrobe change in it's billboards and the Jump Man Costume. There are some games that call attention the fact used to wear a different type of dress among many other things.

Also, in Super Mario Odyssey it is referred to as the Classic Outfit. It's described to be be beloved by long time Mario fans. This is probably referring to in universe Mario fans, because it goes on to say Donkey Kong doesn't like it. Written by Eris the Lorekeeper

We’re gonna look so much better when answering questions now! Hope you’re as excited as I am! ^^

(OOC/ Official art style update✨ plus a few small design changes, hopefully this’ll make the doodles look a bit cleaner, lol)

Adventure-era Sonic characters are actually a different height from Modern-era Sonic characters despite having the same measurements. For example, Tails is 80cm tall, but he is measured up to his ears in his SA1 height chart, while he’s measured up to the top of his head in the Modern height chart:

This makes Modern Tails taller than Adventure Tails, despite both their heights being listed as “80cm”. 

The Modern era tends to measure characters up to the top of their head, ignoring things like ears and spines. So in the case of Sonic, it measures him up to the top of his actual head and ignores the added height from the spines. 

The SA1 sheets tend to measure characters up to their highest point, excluding tufts of hair on the head like Amy’s and Tails’. This means SA1 measures Tails up to the top of his ears and Sonic to the top of his top spine. 

The end result of this is that the SA1 versions of Sonic, Tails and Amy are significantly shorter than the Modern versions. Knuckles remains around the same height due to both Modern and SA1 measuring him the same-ish way. Overall, it has a profound effect on character sizes in relation to each other. 

Observe the hastily edited image below, which has the Modern and Adventure designs side-by-side while lining up the height lines:

The difference in height between the SA1 versions is much greater, and Sonic, Tails and Amy are significantly shorter than their Modern counterparts. SA1 Knuckles isn’t too different in height than Modern Knuckles, but due to the rest of the SA1 characters being significantly shorter, Knuckles stands out more as the tall guy. SA1 Tails on the other hand is really heckin short. 

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There are a lot of other differences between the Modern designs and the designs from games pre-Unleashed. I just found this one really significant because the number measurement never changed, and yet the way the Modern measurements were interpreted significantly changed the heights and height-relationships of the characters when compared to their SA1 counterparts. 

This in turn makes me wonder how other artists determine the height-relationships between these characters. I’m guessing the Modern height-relationships are more commonly used, but maybe there’s something to be gained by referencing older material?