Thursday, December 15, 2016

Rapidly Reviewing Sonic SatAM Episode 15: Game Guy

We open "Game Guy" (holy crap and episode with a non-Sonic title) as a ram is being chased by Robotnik's ships. Meanwhile, Sonic and Sally are rummaging through some broken ships for de-roboticizer parts. They find a magnetic field generator. While that's happening, Tails, Dulcy and Antoine are on lookout patrol (holy crap, they're actually using Tails!). Antoine is still pretty bad at poetry, but maybe he's actually gained some usefulness with his new design.

Nope.


Tails informs Sonic of the ram being chased, and he comes to his aid. He lures the swat bots to the maget, putting a stop to them, and giving them more parts for the de-roboticizer. We learn that the ram is named Ari, who is the leader of his own band of freedom fighters, though Sally doesn't quite believe him. She doesn't quite believe that other freedom fighters are around. This concern is justified as, guess what?

This is all a setup by Robotnik, as expected. 


Despite the concerns of Sally, Sonic goes to aid Air while the others return to Knothole. But not before Dulcy crashes again. With Dulcy knocked out, Sally learns that Sonic is indeed being led into a trap.


And speaking of which, Ari leads Sonic to a temple, where there's robots ready to attack, not to mention mines that will suck up anything that touches it. After dealing with an egg-bot, the duo make their way into the temple. But before Sally can contact him, Ari traps Sonic inside the temple, which reveals itself to be a stronghold for Robotnik. They make it to the supposed freedom fighters, only for Ari to spring the trap. it turns out that Robotnik wants to play a little game with the hedgehog.

Robotnik was Jigsaw before Jigsaw was a thing.


Sally and Dulcy discover Ari making his exit from the stronghold, and give chase. Meanwhile, Sonic is still stuck in Robotnik's game. Snively says the obvious that Robotnik could just kill Sonic now, but this would be more fun for him. And what is Sonic's game?


Pinball of course.  This feels vaguely familiar, but I can't put my finger on...

Oh right. 

Robotnik shows Sonic a dimensional warp he created called the void. Whoever enters will never get out. Instead ot just tossing Sonic in, he plays some pinball with Sonic. The more Sonic bumpers he hits, the better his chance of escape, but the more Robotnik bumpers will lead to entry to the void. Sonic just uses his speed to hit the bumpers, but Robotnik  just smacks him around with some flippers, and freezes him with some ice. This, makes it easier for Robotnik to be tossed into the void.


Ari returns to Robotnik to discover that, surprise surprise, Robotnik roboticized his freedom fighters, and is more than ready to do the same to Ari. Sally and Dulcy arrive to freeze both Robotnik and Snively and save Ari. Despite a literal cold shoulder, Robotnik continues his torture on Sonic. Ari enters the stronghold, using the magnet to save Sonic, giving Sonic enough time to use his power ring to destroy Robotnik's game. Robotnik had a plan for that, as opens the void.


Ari gets sucked into the void. Before he gets trapped, he apologizes to Sonic and tells him of King Acorn's list of freedom fighters. Sonic escapes the stronghold as it gets sucked through the void. Sonic laments the loss of Ari as he tells Sally about her father's list. But we end with some good old sarcasm tennis.

Game Guy is another excellent episode of the show. Though I do feel that we've already had the whole double cross story with Griff back in Sub-Sonic, this one does a better job with more believable reasoning for Ari's turn. The pinball battle was also a good concept, though pinball has always been a Sonic staple. We continue building this season's continuity as the de-roboticizer is still being worked on, we learn of more freedom fighters and get our first glimpse at the void, which will come into play a few more times this season. Overall, a great episode that continues moving the story forward. Though too bad the next episode is a stock amnesia plot.