With the furor surrounding Sonic’s new look for Sega’s newly announced Sonic Boom game, it’s reminded us of many other makeovers popular video game series have undergone in the past, many of which have attracted no small degree of controversy.
If you think that the reaction to ‘roided up Knuckles was negative, then you were clearly living under a rock when the following games were revealed. Here are the 5 most controversial video game makeovers ever.
5 Most Controversial Video Game Makeovers
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Bionic Commando
Bionic Commando protagonist Nathan "Rad" Spencer has received many makeovers through the years. In the Arcade and Game Boy iterations in the series he sported wild, blue hair, in Bionic Commando Rearmed his look was reminiscent of Duke Nukem, and in Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 he was given a particularly manly moustache.
However, in the 2009 3D reimagining of the series, Spencer was given dreadlocks and an awful backstory for his bionic arm that revealed it was actually his deceased wife. Needless to say, fans of the series weren't happy.
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Bomberman: Act Zero
Bomberman: Act Zero tried to make the Bomberman series relevant in the 21st century by making it bland-looking and painfully dull. The charming Bomberman mascot was replaced by "realistic" looking robots and it was all set in a dark, dystopian future, because god knows we don't have enough games that take place in that setting.
Needless to say, Bomberman: Act Zero was universally panned, a and it's highly unlikely we'll ever see an "edgy" Bomberman game again.
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DmC: Devil May Cry
DmC: Devil May Cry divided opinion. Some happily adapted to Dante's new look and the game's simplified combat style, while others hated the new direction their beloved series was heading in.
Oddly, despite old fans of the series having good reason to criticise developer Ninja Theory's tweaks to DmC's gameplay, the most hate-filled vitriol was directed at Dante's new haircut. A cutscene which showed "new" Dante wearing a wig closely resembling "old" Dante's hair, before disregarding the style by looking smugly in a mirror and saying "Not in a million years", raised the most ire among the series' already furious fanbase.
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Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't an iteration in the core Sonic series, but rather a spin-off featuring everyone's least favourite anti-hero. With that being said, it was still a rather huge step away from everything we know and love(d) about the Sonic universe, bringing guns, explosions and motorcycles into the mix to appeal to a more "mature" audience.
Fortunately, Sonic's world returned to its old, colourful, harmless self after Shadow the Hedgehog, largely because the game was rubbish.
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Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider was a great game and there was a lot of positive feedback when Lara Croft's more realistic look was revealed, but when further information was revealed no small amount of controversy ensued.
From initial previews and trailers of the game, many were led to believe that the Tomb Raider reboot would take away Lara Croft's strong personality, as the infamous alleged "rape" scene and executive producer Ron Rosenberg's comment that this would make the player want to "protect" Lara seemed to suggest.
Prior to its release, many were worried that the new Tomb Raider would take the series down an uncomfortably dark route and that Lara Croft would be portrayed as a "damsel in distress" character, albeit one that you controller. Fortunately, after we all had a chance to spend a good amount of time with it, we learnt that was not the case and instead it was one of the best games of 2013.
