|
A VERITABLE SELECTION OF SONIC BOOK/COMIC/DVD REVIEWS This pleasant little section does exactly what it says on the tin. I will slowly (probably very slowly, considering my terminal laziness) update it with new reviews. Enjoy! Martin Adams Novels: Sonic the Hedgehog in The Fourth Dimension Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors Sonic the Hedgehog in Castle Robotnik Adventure Gamebooks: Zone Rangers Metal City Mayhem Sonic vs. Zonik Sonic Yearbooks: Sonic Yearbook #1 Sonic Yearbook #2 DVDs: "SatAM" Sonic the Hedgehog DVD SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IN ROBOTNIK'S LABORATORY Synopsis The first in the refreshingly humourous Martin Adams series. This books mainly concerns a machine Dr. Robotnik is trying to build which will eventually be able to turn all the animals of Mobius into robots, rather like the Roboticizor in the SatAM cartoon. The book pretty much starts with Sonic and Tails returning home from a holiday in the Spring Yard Zone to find out all their mates have bogged off. After searching some of their houses (whether they broke in or the houses were completely accessable as in most RPG console games, I don't know) they believe the disappearances are suspicious (duh) and decide straight away that it's all Robotnik's doing, though such a judgemental decision might be seen as offensive to ol' Ivo if he didn't really do it. He did, but give the guy a chance, won't you? To begin with, none of the kipnapped animals know what the heck Robotnik wants with them, but through a bit of sleuth work the brainiacs of the group, Sally Acorn and Porker Lewis, find out that Robotnik has decided to use them as guinea pigs for his machine. This machine actually consists of several prototypes called leading up to the production of a large scale model called the FAROUT, which conveiniently stands for Fabulously Advanced Robotnik's Original Universal Transmogriplex. Blimey. Although the ambition was to create a machine to turns animals directly into robots, so far the most it can handle is to turn them into very basic forms of machinary, like ordinary household objects! Doing his fair share of the dirty work is Eggor; Robotnik's pet laboratory robot with a hunch back and a bit a of personality. Later on, poor old Johnny Lightfoot gets turned into a mop (apparently he couldn't get turned into anything decent because he's a Freaking Idiot, according to Robotnik), and the others aren't too happy about it. Robotnik announces his plans to turn all of them into whatever the hell household objects they might possibly resemble (Tux points out that "if he wants the full set", he'll need someone to turn into a brush and another a dustpan. Heh) so that Sonic will never be able to find them, and while he is tiring himself out searching Robotnik's base, our dear sweet Ivo can catch that ruffian and transmogrify him so he'll never threaten his plans for world domination ever again! BWAHAHAHAHA! The only people who escape this treatment are Sally Acorn (who escapes) and Chirps (who Robotnik attests is even more of a Freaking Idiot than Johnny and therefore can't be transmogryfied and a bit too much on the male side to lay eggs, so decides to stick the sod in an oven and make himself some lunch). Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails search for Robotnik's place, initially rather unsuccessfully. After a bit of a doss, and after meeting some seriously bizarre characters, they find the info they need from a computer system. The code they capture from the system is taken to their mate Mickey, an hilarious cockney monkey, who decifers it. He finds a line that says "Sonic the Toaster", which does not mean a lot to them to begin with, but suddenly becomes a heck of a lot more accurate when Sonic is, indeed, turned into a toaster. Yikes. What follows is a serious of humourous and clever sequences where Tails and Sonic (following his being de-toasterfied) are searching for their friends, who have been turned into various bizarre machines. They are working to a deadline, as in a few days the construction of the main transmogryfier will be complete, and Mobius will be populated by nowt but robots and Dr. Robotnik. However, they manage to find their friends, defeat Eggor (who is trying to cling onto his sanity as he finds himself falling deeply in love with Sally!) and eventually blow up Robotnik's machine. The Doc himself is caught in the blast, and turned into a delightfully ironic item... Review While the storyline is incredibly bizarre and some of the characters even more so, I found this to be a seriously entertaining read. The characters are wonderfully portrayed in that they all have unique personalities with positive and negative points. For instance, Sonic is obviously a good guy, but he still acts like a jerk sometimes (especially to the poor little moron chicken Chirps). Etcetera. Whilst the book is primarily humour-driven and the plot rather silly and anarchical, the action scenes are pretty interesting too... especially the Wing Fortress battle. Score: 4.5/5 Eggman Content For every scene with Sonic and Tails in this book, there's a scene with Robotnik. He is the source of much comic relief with his mood swings, fevered ranting and childish demeanor at times. The way he interacts with Eggor is very cute too! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION Synopsis Review This book is widely considered the best of the 'Martin Adams' series.
Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman and all characters and settings related to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise are (c) 2003 Sega Corporation. All rights reserved. Sonic The Hedgehog and their respective logos, are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of Sega of America in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Sega of America and Sega.com expressly disclaims any obligation, responsibility and/or liability with respect to any content or accuracy of information contained on this website. |