Metal Sonic

This one was submitted along with Metal Shadow, not sure why it wasn't up sooner, but eh, we're human. Mistakes will be made. You have our sincerest apologies, Xer0392.

Anyway, while the other - Metal Shadow - was a non-canon version of Metal Sonic (sporting Shadow The Hedgehog's red and black color scheme), this time we have the cool blue dude's metal nemesis, appearing in Sonic CD as Eggman's loyal servant, and in Sonic Heroes as the main antagonist, as well as Sonic Rivals 2 as a hero and partner to Shadow The Hedgehog.

While Metal Sonic does appear to be insane - his mission is to become the "true" Sonic by defeating Sonic The Hedgehog, and thus taking his place - it's shown that he does have some logical mental capacity and the capability for open thought, as following his final defeat at Sonic's hands, he remarks that perhaps his mission was misguided and he must now find a new purpose. Metal Sonic later does so by teaming up with Shadow to save the world.

'kay, history lesson over, let's get back to the present.

Obviously, being a first model, this lacks advanced techniques. That's both good and bad. Bad because it's not really a super-duper high-poly masterpiece that you'd show in a gaming museum, but good because less is sometimes more, and simplicity can often look better than complexity.

In this case, more detail would have detracted from the essence of the source material, Sega's designs for Metal Sonic. All these fancy bevels and extrusions and such that people usually associate with robots... well, they would have been wrong. Metal Sonic is Metal Sonic, and Metal Sonic is a good place for beginner modellers to start precisely because he's so simple, even in his official designs. Basically, a wise choice for a first project.

So as basic as the model itself is, it's accurate. It's good that some artistic liberty has been taken, and Xer0392 has put in some custom elements to the design - the guy looks like seven shades of badass. The model could of course use a bit more work; I can see quite a few seams in the mesh just from the screenshot, some elements are a little too blatant (the spikes on the waistline, for a start, could be a little less extruded and look as good), and certain parts look disjointed. Not such a bad thing, there's always room for improvement, and if we had nothing left to learn then we'd basically be dead already.

Texture-wise, the model could also use more work. Honestly, it appears to be flat colors. While that isn't so bad for Sonic games - let's face it, a supersonic blue hedgehog is just cartoony anyway - it seems a little more work could have been done for UT3 purposes. Now, I'm not saying there's no *actual* texture there - just that if there is, it's not noticeable. Tweaking the texture, making it look a little more reflective, maybe add some decals such as nicks and scratches. A little detail can go a long way.

Well, there's a mouthful. Bottom line is, for a first model, Xer0392 did a good job here. I've seen better first models, sure. I've also seen many, many first models that are far worse. What I would like to see is for Xer0392 come back to Metal Sonic and Metal Shadow and update them as his technique improves. Variation is good, UT3 could definitely use some, and it's always nice to see good work done even better as the modder's technique becomes more refined.

If you liked Metal Shadow, you'll like this too. If you like robots, you'll like 'em both. If you just want some variety in your UT3 characters and bots, grab 'em. They're good additions to your mod folder.

The team colors bug is still present, though. If anyone can offer any assistance to Xer0392 in fixing that, fire off an email. Help a newbie out. ;)

~Kouen