Our objectives:
- Create a unique video to promote Sonic Mania, a new 2D 16 bit Sonic game
- Create a unique video to celebrate Sonic's 25th anniversary.
- Target core Sonic fans, and give them an oh so sweet shot of nostalgia.
- Make something really, really cool.
For the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog, we sketched our very own Sonic level across a gigantic whiteboard. We then went to work creating the ultimate stop motion adventure, which we rolled out across social media, targeting both core Sonic Fans and a broader video game fan-base, who we knew would appreciate such an original concept.
How'd we do it? After carefully drawing out the entire level by hand, we printed and cut out Sonic's new sprites; created for his new game. The level starts Sonic off as 'Sonic the Sketchhog,' (inspired by a video the brand put out for the 20th anniversary), who transforms into his normal self after jumping on a power-up box.
We painstakingly choreographed Sonic's travels across the level; clearing obstacles and attacking enemies by slowly moving various cut-outs of Sonic across the board. We made sure to hand-draw little details like Sonic's smoke when he spin dashes, enemy explosions, and the destruction of item boxes (check out the links section on the right for a full behind-the-scenes of this).
As Sonic reaches the end, he faces off against the ultimate boss battle: Eraser Djinn, who is literally a whiteboard eraser. The name is a pun of Erazor Djinn, who is the antagonist in 2007's Sonic and the Secret Rings (Fans loved this reference). Sonic must stop Eraser Djinn from erasing the entire whiteboard level and ultimately he succeeds.
Hundreds and hundreds of pictures later, our stop motion adventure was finally complete. Level cleared!
Facebook:
- 155k Views
- 1.3k Shares
- 8.5k Reactions
*All with 0 Paid Media*
Some fan comments:
- "Whoever runs the sonic and arby's page deserves a huge pay raise. Quality posts everyday" – Munny Xiong
- "Wow, still better than all the new Sonic games that have come out the last ten years or so." – Kai Kristoffersen
- "Oh my god, the eraser's called Erasor Djinn! That's so awesome! XD" – Christopher Pine
"Sega, you guys are killing it on social media." – Greg Baker
