English 101: Sonic Unleashed teaches you “foreshadowing”
For those that fell asleep during the entirety of eighth grade English, didn’t pay attention during High School, and couldn’t possibly care any less about the humanities right now: here is one of the few situations where some knowledge of the English language can come in handy. Today’s lesson is on foreshadowing, a literary device that allows the author to hint future plot developments early in a story. For example, here is what I said about Sonic Unleashed a few weeks ago:
Suffice to say, things [are] looking really good. Of course, if you’re a Sega fan, you’ve probably learned by now to temper any excitement you feel when the company announces something; there is usually always a rub.
… see the topmost image above? The one with Sonic and some thing standing behind him? Well, that thing standing behind Sonic the Hedgehog is apparently Sonic the Hedgehog. Yes, too scared to just release a normal Sonic game with typical Sonic mechanics, Sega has yet again added a special gimmick for this outing: Sonic transforms into a werewolf! To perform melee attacks, no less!
Bravo Sega. You’re like the psycho ex-girlfriend you try and keep a friendly relationship with. For the most part, everything goes well and you can have fun together. But every once and a while they quickly and abruptly remind you why you decided to stop dating them in the first place.
Now, what I was doing there was setting up the premise that, despite looking good right now, Sonic Unleashed will most likely disappoint. Why will it disappoint? The Werewolf mechanic, right, you’re catching on. Now, watch the Sonic Unleashed debut trailer:
Do you see what I’m getting at? This example is great because not only do my previous comments, coupled with the video, serve as a form of foreshadowing, but the video itself is a form of foreshadowing! That werwolf’d Sonic claw trying to smash the golden ring establishes, early on in “the story,” that the melee-combat game mechanic will be trying to further destroy the Sonic series.
Thanks Sega, you’ve reaffirmed my faith in English studies.
via Joystiq
- Rob O’Reilly
