Why does Sonic appeal to Chris and others with autism?

[BillRiley]

I think partly it's due to the easily distinguishable characters, and stock personalities. They're all bright, colour coded, and don't require any thought, since they're your basic character archetypes. And it's such a distinctive art style that it's easy to imagine new characters, the only effort being picking an animal and a colour.

Pretty much this^

From what I understand, autistics attach to none human characters better. So Mario, which is human, is less attractive than Sonic, who is not human but has human characteristics. At least, this is what i've heard from some people who were into Sonic and Megaman. They aren't people, so they like them more.

And this^

Add to that Sonic's simplistic game play and frequent rewards for performing extremely repetitive tasks and, at least in retrospect, it would have been amazing if it hadn't immediately appealed to kids with autism.

 

[AtroposHeart]

As an aspie and a non-gamer. I actually hated non-human characters as a kid and was freaked out. Dr.Seuss books scared the hell out of me and I remember someone buying me a gift set of Dr.Seuss and I completely freaked out and my parents had to hide them from me.

So no answers on my part. I actually find Link more intriguing than Sonic, and Zelda is one of the few games I've played

 

[CalmMyTits]

I'm an asspie, and I like Mario, Link, AND Sonic! I loved Sonic 1,2, and 3, and Sonic and Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. I liked the NES and SNES Legend of Zelda games, and Ocarina of Time. As for Mario, I loved all the NES and SNES games, along with MarioKart 64 (but not Mario 64). Currently I have emulators and ROMS for all these games except for the N64 games. I also love the Final Fantasy series and Megaman, in their NES and SNES incarnations and have ROMS for these as well. For me I just enjoy the old school games, I actually like the 2D/platformers and the RPGs better, along with Tetris.

What appealed to me the most about Sonic was the bonus levels, trying to get the Chaos Emeralds. I was actually kind of sad once I got all 7 Emeralds because that meant no more bonus levels when you found the goalposts in Sonic 2 or the large Rings in Sonic 3.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

To me it always felt like it was related to the quality of the Sonic games... inbetween Sonic Adventures 2 (Arguably even earlier) and Sonic Colors the games were so bad that most of the people that still stayed in the fandom were either kids, really dumb or autistic which sorta reflected on the fandom. If there's really a specific quality to the games that attracts people with... mental issues is debatable.

I suffer from Aspergers but i was always a Nintendo kid so it was more Mario and Zelda that shaped my childhood. I remember playing and enjoying the Sonic Adventure games but not nearly as much as, say, Mario Sunshine. If i was to take a wild guess it's the higher focus on characters and the anime clichés that attract autists to Sonic more than to most other franchises. There's just that certain balance between interaction between characters (that are all very broad archetypes without any complexity that would actually challenge people like Chris), "epic" heroic storylines and a general light heartedness that makes it appealing yet nonthreatening and therefore might attract a certain niché looking for escapism.

That whole "autistics like anthropomorphic animal characters" angle is kinda interesting. I myself like some Furry art. You know, some of the stuff that isn't porn. Which probably translates to "I like very little Furry art." but i digress. Not sure if there might be some truth to that theory.

 

[CWCissey]

I doubt the Sonic Protein has anything to do with it either.

Nope, that's limb growth if I remember rightly.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

Sonic is OK, but I guess my ass burgers has been mild enough to pick up on Sonic being fake cool. Like, not only does his coolness come from a load of middle aged executives that are extremely out of touch with today's youth, they also had to include educational morals as well (Sonic Sez).

I think autistics can closely identify with Sonic is because of the fake cool factor. They don't pick up on the fake aspect of it because of how desperately they want to be cool, and hang out with the (genuine) cool kids. Chris, of course, not only sees himself as the definition of (fake) cool, but he wants Sonichu to be a good role model as well.

Damn, I never thought of this. I guess because I'm a normie it was always obvious to me that Sonic was 'manufactured cool' but I guess that's probably not obvious to some people on the autism spectrum, in which case Sonic is taken at face value as being way past cool because he said so. That would explain why he's so damn popular as opposed to Mario who was never pushed as cool. I think it also helps that Sonic spoke a lot more.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Honestly, I think it's more about being childish.

When I was a kid in the 90's, I loved Mario, and I loved Sonic too. Now I'm grown up, I still like Mario but I'm not obsessed like I once was. I think Sonic is a pretty shitty franchise but if someone lends me a game, I'll dink around with it for a bit out of curiosity. But the bottom line is, as I grew up, I found more adult interests to occupy myself with. Spergs and manchildren just wanted to continue living like children.

And honestly, Sonic is more childish than Mario, or Zelda, in terms of pure gameplay. How do you beat a Mario level? You have to run, jump, balance on shit, dodge/beat enemies, find the exit, find the key to the exit, so on. How do you beat a Sonic level? Hold right on the d-pad and occasionally press the jump button. It's the lowest common denominator, so to me it makes sense that spergs would gravitate toward it more than Mario or anything else.

 

[Metagross]

Honestly, I think it's more about being childish.

When I was a kid in the 90's, I loved Mario, and I loved Sonic too. Now I'm grown up, I still like Mario but I'm not obsessed like I once was. I think Sonic is a pretty shitty franchise but if someone lends me a game, I'll dink around with it for a bit out of curiosity. But the bottom line is, as I grew up, I found more adult interests to occupy myself with. Spergs and manchildren just wanted to continue living like children.

This is also my other idea on the subject. I liked sonic as a kid because my mother introduced it to me, and it was rather easy to play. I also played Mario, eventually Legend of Zelda, and a bunch of pokemon. however, once I hit about 9 years old I pretty much completely dropped all interest in sonic and even thought to myself ,"Wow, this is actually a pretty bad game" What appealed to me at the time was how easy and colorful it was. Which I assume may be a big factor as well. It's childish, easy, has bright colors and simplistic plot lines that you don't have to think about. The characters are...sort of like what you'd find on Saturday morning cartoons. The only game that has stuck with me from childhood is pokemon.

Another point somebody else mentioned is all the characters are basic archetypes. Such as, the cool guy, the dark guy, the girly girl ect so which Chris obviously copied into Sonichu because, hey, it's an easy formula.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

How do you beat a Mario level? You have to run, jump, balance on shit, dodge/beat enemies, find the exit, find the key to the exit, so on. How do you beat a Sonic level? Hold right on the d-pad and occasionally press the jump button. It's the lowest common denominator, so to me it makes sense that spergs would gravitate toward it more than Mario or anything else.

Thank you. I've always been a Mario fan but I've never liked Sonic for precisely the reason you listed. I've never understood it when people say how awesome the Sonic games are, especially the 3D ones which are basically on-rails platformers.

 

[LordCustos3]

From what I understand, autistics attach to none human characters better. So Mario, which is human, is less attractive than Sonic, who is not human but has human characteristics. At least, this is what i've heard from some people who were into Sonic and Megaman. They aren't people, so they like them more.

I have aspergers and I have no idea what you're talking about. -.-

That is what separates you from being a full blown autist. Someone with Aspergers isn't as messed up.
A full blown autist has a hard time seeing sentient beings as a different class from inanimate objects.
If you track the eye movements of a neurotypical, they tend to gravitate to looking at the faces of the humans around them; whereas a full-blown autist spends just as much time fixated on light switches, tangles of shoelaces, etc.
Also, shiny objects and brightly colored things are more likely to distract them.

 

[Batman VS Tony Danza]

Sonic seems like it'd be more favored by completionists. The fact that collecting rings was actually connected to Sonic living or dying added importance to it. You get hit? Lose your rings and have to collect more. The game offers the feeling of speed which means it feels like it requires more of your constant attention and make you less prone to getting distracted. Collect things fast or die. I can easily see an autistic kid favoring it over Mario or Zelda. Early Nintendo games used items like that as just points (too abstract) or straight up currency (too long term). Throw in all the factors everyone else pointed out and... yeah.

 

[Holdek]

Mario and Zelda are puzzle games; Zelda much more so obviously but Mario still has some elements of that. But Sonic is just zappin' to the extreme and collecting all those rings BLING BLING BLING! so I can see the appeal to the autistic mind.

 

[qld]

I've never been a game system gamer, only on the PC, and I've been hot and heavy on those, like Colonization, Age of Empires, Combat Flight Simulator, other flight sims and so on. Reality sims has kinda been my thing. But as I understand it, autists like playing the same game the same way over and over. Does Sonic offer that? Is it the same, over and over again, perfected each time? Could this be the reason they like it? I wouldn't know, I don't like fantasy and I never did Nintendo, PS, or x-box.

 

[Batman VS Tony Danza]

I've never been a game system gamer, only on the PC, and I've been hot and heavy on those, like Colonization, Age of Empires, Combat Flight Simulator, other flight sims and so on. Reality sims has kinda been my thing. But as I understand it, autists like playing the same game the same way over and over. Does Sonic offer that? Is it the same, over and over again, perfected each time? Could this be the reason they like it? I wouldn't know, I don't like fantasy and I never did Nintendo, PS, or x-box.

Yup. Platormers from that era relied heavily on memorization. It was easier to maker a tougher and shorter game than actually make more content. Like Alec said Sonic was much simpler in comparison to Mario Bros. Mario 3 introduced costumes with special powers and shortcuts that required deviating from the set path (flutes). Sonic was... jumping, having a spinning attack, and going fast. With checkpoints. It relied more on level design and less on creating synergy between the character's abilities and the obstacles of the level.

I've had quite a bit of vodka so sorry if I got off point.

 

[The Mass Debater]

I wouldn't say Sonic is just more simplistic and easy than Mario, sure theres not as much to the platforming and I've never been a fan of it, but Sonic requires a different type of skill. It's more about reaction times and timing jumps and collecting things, which requires lots of repetition. Lo and behold - you have your autism. Combine that with the other factors people have mentioned and you create the perfect storm, only My Little Pony can even come close.

 

[José Mourinho]

I find the Modern Sonic games appeal more to Chris and spergs compared with the Classic Sonic games.

The classic Sonic games (which I actually like) are based on speed but also require some platforming. Marble Zone in STH1, for example, require some platforming and less on speed considering the obstacles such as activating switches, lava etc.

The modern Sonic games on the other hand, require just speed. Seriously, you can just play any game and all you did is just hold (insert any button here), spin dash/homing attack etc. and that's it. It's that simple. Seriously, I remember playing a boss game in a Sonic game and it's actually possible to beat a boss in 10 seconds.

However, there can be exceptions.

[youtube]scVyF-yInfs[/youtube]

 

[Kosher Dill]

I always thought the asperger bait in Sonic was the characters, not the gameplay.

 

[KatsuKitty]

Belongs in General.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

Is it not maybe more a case of Sonic appealing more to autistic kids of that era. as opposed to autistics in general?

Sega stuff of that generation was very image based, and I imagine this comes from the fact that they were the biggest arcade game company in the world. Arcade games had to have an immediately recognisable image in order to instantly convey what the game was about and convince you to stick your quarters in.

So along comes Sonic the Hedgehog, he's bright blue, fast, spikey, has attitude, and is cool; I don't say that last bit ironically because Sonic was (emphasis on was) bleeding edge cool in the early 90's, he was even bigger than Mickey Mouse let alone Mario back then. But the problem with "cool" things is that they don't stay cool, they fade away and stop being relevant.

So I think it's more an example of Chris still retaining an interest in something that was big in his childhood and this stands out because that thing is no longer relevant and a symbol of a bygone era. For example, Chris was/is also obsessed with Pokemon, but that doesn't seem to stand out because Pokemon's still popular even today.

 

[Fialovy]

Honestly, as someone with autism, even I don't know the answer. I was more of a Pokemon kid, but spergs liking pokemon is easy since the creator has autism