Edit: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE FEATURE! This was a month's long worth of hard work!

The concept of morphing into other things has always fascinated me - shows like Wild Kratts and characters like Beast Boy from Teen Titans are what hooked me into the whole idea - heck, even Mystique from X-Men has an interesting mutant power! But Animorphs is what sold the idea for me. Animorphs is a 54+ book series about five kids who gained the ability to morph into any animal they touch as a gift from an Andalite - which are essentially an alien centaurs - who warned them that they must save humanity from the invasion of alien parasitic slugs known as Yeerks.

Andalite

Yeerk

And being that the Sonic franchise revolves around anthropomorphic animals, I thought putting our favorite Mobians in a similar setting where morphing is the primary focal point would be a neat idea for a storybook game. I’m pretty certain this has never been thought of (as in there are no crossovers of Animorphs and Sonic on fanfic.net) so yay for original ideas and creativity on my part! Because I love the idea so much, I began thinking about what it would be like if Mobians were able to morph into their real life counterparts and thus, Mobimorphs was born - and just in time for #StorybookSeptember, too!

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THE ANIMORPHS STORY

Expect the writing to be a healthy mix of Boom’s humor, the drama of certain Modern Sonic games (i.e. SA1, SA2, Unleashed, etc) and a dash of SHtH’s edginess. At first you might be thinking, “WTF?! How can you mix extreme silly and serious like that?! It’s impossible!” But see, here’s the thing… Every medium has this mix of silly and serious, you just don’t think about it. Things like Smallville come to mind, as it has some heart-wrenching moments and others are hilarious. But I think the best example of them all is the Addam’s Family.

Sure, it’s a 1960’s sitcom about a wealthy and close-knit extended family who clashes culturally with everyone around them but the dark in the “dark comedy” stems from their decidedly macabre interests and supernatural abilities. The entire show can be described with one word: An oddity. But it’s an endearing oddity nonetheless. With that in mind, I believe it to be entirely possible to maintain a balance of Animorph’s horrific surreality and Boom’s laidback comedy.

The beginning of the game’s story is nearly identical to that of the first book “The Invasion” (and some parts of the second book, “The Visitor” sprinkled in) with some of its aspects omitted from the original story and others added to it to give it some character, as opposed to being a cut-and-dry carbon copy of the book. So if you are a fan of Animorphs, you will know what was changed and what was left unchanged. And if you’ve never even heard of the series, let alone read any of the books, you can rectify that mistake to know the differences. But even if you have no desire to read them, you can at least appreciate this crossover-type story I’ve created especially for this month’s challenge! Although, you might want to at least read the first book - it’s only 99 pages so it can be read fairly quickly (it may sound like alot but honestly, if you get sucked into the story like I did, you won’t want to put it down) - because I am assigning the Boom characters to each of the Animorphs characters and if you do not know them, this might be a little confusing so allow me to explain the characters in the series with some help by the Animorphs wiki:

CHARACTERS

Jake

Few would disagree that he is naturally fit for the job, as he is brave, responsible, cool under pressure, and able to take charge during a crisis. He is described by his cousin Rachel as a person who can give orders without sounding overly bossy. At first, Jake doesn't view himself as a leader, and thus isn't willing to accept the role, but when he learns that his older brother Tom is a Controller, his desire to save his brother serves as the fuel to his unyielding determination in his fight against the Yeerks.

In the first book, Jake is the only character with pre-existing ties to each of the other Animorphs; Rachelis his cousin; there was a mutual attraction between him and Cassie; Marco is his best friend; Tobias was rescued by him from bullies sometime before the series began and had a mild case of hero-worship towards Jake.

Tobias

Before the war, Tobias was a shy dreamer somewhat detached from the world. He was kind and gentle, and very unpopular at school and a bully magnet. Not very happy with his life, Tobias found meaning in the war. For the first time he felt like he had something worth fighting for, and he was particularly motivated by Elfangor's death. Tobias also found freedom in the power to morph. He became enraptured with the hawk morph, where he could just fly away from his human problems.The other Animorphs recognized Tobias' attachment to the hawk morph, and Jake warned him of the time limit. However, during their first mission to the Yeerk Pool at the end of The Invasion Tobias stays in hawk morph for over two hours, trapping him permanently. The other Animorphs sometimes speculate if Tobias trapped himself on purpose, as an excuse to escape his terrible life as a human.

Marco

Throughout the war, Marco always maintains a sense of humor because he believes you have to decide whether you think life is tragedy or comedy, and he chooses to look for the joke in life. Because of this, Marco is able to crack jokes and make sarcastic remarks in the midst of battle just as easily as when he is chilling in the barn with his best friend Jake and the others. Marco is also very clever, and is good at thinking strategically. He was also the one who came up with the name "Animorphs" in the first book.

Marco is forever the cautious one, and at the start of the series he was the most reluctant to fight in the war.

Rachel

Rachel was the most violent member of the Animorphs. She is Jake's cousin on her father's side, and was in love with Tobias. Before the war, she trained in gymnastics. Rachel was the character that changed the most during the war. Before the war, she was characterized by her involvement in gymnastics, her friendship with Melissa Chapman (daughter of Principal Chapman, one of the Animorphs' enemies), and her incurable mall-crawling and shopping addiction. An attractive girl, she was also smart, confident and bold. She was also known to have a temper. After the groups' meeting with Elfangor, her relationship with Melissa faded, and her obsession with the war took the place of her older shopping hobby. Out of all the Animorphs, Rachel was the only one that seemed to enjoy the war, always eager to jump into a crazy mission. Her catchphrase was "Let's do it!" Soon her daring and love of action grew to a dark, almost sadistic love of fighting and aggression.

Cassie

Cassie is the most compassionate member of the Animorphs, Rachel's best friend, and was Jake's girlfriend. She is very kind and empathetic, often acting as the mediator of the group. Her perceptive and caring nature allows her to sense people's inner feelings and insecurities, leading her to act as team therapist at times. Though she is openly against most violence, Cassie's empathetic ability to read people means that she can be ruthless when she has to be. For instance, she came up with the plan to trap David in morph by playing to his ego. Cassie has the reputation of being a "tree-hugger," due to her love for animals and lack of style.

About My Choices

I realize that the characters may not match up entirely personality-wise but I tried very hard. Sonic had to be Jake because of their shared leadership. I fully believe that Tails is an INFP and since both he and Tobias are meek dreamers, this connection made since to me. Boom Knuckles may be dumb and not anywhere near as hot-tempered as his original counterpart, but both he and Marco are comedy relief so I think it fits. I think I should have switched Rachel and Cassie's roles but I just couldn't get over the fact that Jake has a mutual attraction with Cassie, which falls in line with the Sonamy bit so... yeh. But despite Rachel's crush on Tobias - which wouldn't fit Sticks or Tails since the former isn't interested in love and the latter has a crush on Zooey, I think Rachel's aggression fits Sticks well. But it could have fit Amy too but Cassie's kindness is what Amy makes herself out to be so I thought I'd cut her a break.

THE GAME'S STORY

Mobimorphs begins much like any Sonic Boom episode - with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks (shortened to the Boom Team for future reference) just chilling out until a new adventure breaks down their door… unless it’s Sonic’s shack, in which case, adventure will literally just walk in unannounced but that’s less exciting…

Anywho, let’s say they are playing a stealth/combat game about a shapeshifter (because that bit has NEVER been done in the show…) when an Andalite ship crashes in the area on Bygone island that the five live. Since this is based on Sonic Boom, obviously, Sticks HAS to be the one who freaks out and shouting “I TOLD YA SO! I told you there’d be aliens but NOOO, you didn’t listen to the paranoid badger!” while Tails approaches cautiously. Tails makes contact with the Andalite - who is named Elfangor, is injured, has no mouth and speaks telepathically - while Knuckles jumps into Sonic’s arms in terror and Amy has to hold back Sticks from completely blowing everything up.

Seeing how bad his injuries are, Tails desperately pleads the Andalite to let them help him, as the Fox assures Elfangor that he can repair his ship and have Amy tend to his wounds in no time, but Tails’ offer was kindly refused. As the Andalite is dying, he explains that all Mobian life is going to perish by the hands of the Yeerks unless someone fights them. Of course, together, the Boom Team can take on anything - except the Yeerks. So the Andalite tells them they need Morphing powers, the rules concerning morphing, then asks Sonic to retrieve the Morphing Cube from his ship.

Sticks completely disapproves of the whole idea and Knuckles agrees since he’s acting like a total fraidy cat so Tails and Amy respectively have to deal with them both while Sonic has to help them decide. Eventually they all agree and once they and the Andalite touch the Cube, they’ve absorbed his power.

Soon afterwards, the Yeerks arrive and the five have to hide. Tails is reluctant to leave Elfangor but is eventually persuaded to do so. Along with the Yeerks come other alien species but most importantly, the only known Yeerk capable of morphing - Visser Three. He speaks to Elfangor of his search for the one he calls The Deviled Egg (Sorry not sorry for the pun), as his brilliance and craftsmanship would aid him in furthering his army, and taunts the dying Andalite before stabbing him with his tail and departing the scene.

The Boom Team then decide that with their newfound powers to not only partake in the war of the Yeerk Invasion but also warn their nemesis save Eggman from becoming a Controller - which they have to adapt to using before heading off. The only thing is though, they no longer have access to their regular powers and abilities unless they morph but they can only morph into their real-life counterparts for unknown reasons so making it there in time is next to impossible.

By the time they get there, Eggman has already been captured by Visser Three and his army with none other than the Doc’s interdimensional "brother", Morpho.

Of course, this alliance is short-lived as most of his power was acquired by Visser Three (the “how” in that situation is still unclear to me at the moment), meaning he no longer needs to touch something to acquire DNA, he just needs to look at it. And now he can morph into whatever he desires, be it inanimate or otherwise. All but Tails morph back to watch the situation at Eggman’s base unfold. Amy tries to reason with him but the Fox is uncharacteristically upset and stubborn.

While Tails remains in the shadows, observing the goins-on, the other four charge at Visser Three and the other aliens (and some robots, much to Eggman’s dismay) to rescue Eggman, and consequently Morpho, before he was completely drained of his morphing powers. Fortunately, when they did interfere, Visser Three did not acquire the data necessary to morph into the Boom Team nor could he have access to their DNA at all but unfortunately, he had access to the likes of the powerful Shadow, the sleuthful Vector, and even Metal Sonic.

After the Visser Three throws some threats at the group (he believes that they are Andalite warriors, which is in their advantage as long as he doesn’t know the truth), he then retreats into the village to covertly terrorise the populous and with Eggman released, the five make sure Morpho is okay after all the ruckus. Sonic noticed Tails was still in the fox morph and told him that it was safe to morph back but solemnly, he told the Hedgehog that he exceeded the two hour limit and was permanently stuck as he was.

Meanwhile, Knuckles told Steve how he’d be a perfect - but temporary - addition to the team due to his natural programmed ability to morph. Initially, he declined the offer but Amy told him that he had no choice to because unless everyone pitches in to stop Visser Three and his armada from invading Mobius, they were all going to become mindless slaves. Steve tried to weasel his way out by telling her that he and the other robots would remain unaffected but then remembered how Eggman and Mombot were the only family to him and agreed to helping out and apologized to his “brother” for betraying him (to which Eggman replied: “Apology accepted. But if you ever do anything like that again, you’re scrapmetal!”). With that, the heroes and temporary not-villains joined forces to save Mobius - starting with Hedgehog Village, of course.

They have to be careful, however, as the group cannot allow themselves to be seen by Visser Three or anyone else really, as anyone could be an Mobian-Controller. And I do mean anyone - and they’ll never know who to look out for, as it is as difficult as discerning, say, cancer in any ordinary person. Some examples are (usually) those of importance: Mayor Fink, Fastidious Beaver, Lady Beaver, T.W Barker, all of the Lightning Bolt Society - including Dave the Intern, Zooey, the Gogoba Chief, Comedy Chimp, Soar Eagle, Mark the Tapir, Tommy Thunder, Shadow the Hedgehog, D.B Platypus, Justin Beaver, Og, and Lord Eggman. Some, of which, become bosses in the game. Since I’m pretty sure that Yeerks cannot affect non-living organisms, all robots are safe. Of course, I could always alter this and make the stakes higher...

So far, that’s all I’ve got since I have yet to read all of the books. But as I read them, perhaps I’ll add more to this idea and flesh it out. Last thing to know is that the story is episodic in accordance to the books: One book equates to one episode with, say, seven chapters in each episode.

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CUTSCENES

I’m not sure if the storybook-style of the cutscenes from the previous storybook games are required to be a sequel to the series - seeing as how both games have them and seem to go hand-in-hand with being storybook, I assume they are but regardless, it will be done a little bit differently this time around. Animorphs has a remarkable knack for not only creating the illusion that the events that take place are real (as in they could be happening to your neighbor) but also pulling the reader into the narrator character’s perspective - moreso than other first person books I’ve read. That and it’s language is quite unique (but that might be the product of being a 90s book series).

So with that said, as much as I know it’d annoy people, I’d prefer the cutscenes to be narrated in this manner. What this means is you get to unlock several different perspectives to the same story. You’ll start out with Sonic, of course. Then you’ll unlock the other four. As an extra unlockable character, Morpho’s perspective can be seen and played after playing each of the members of the Boom Team. Along with these perspectives, every action will be narrated by the chosen character and the events and dialogue all vary. Of course, they will vary depending on the character’s personality (See the 43rd Boom episode titled Fire in a Crowded Workshop to get a basic understanding of what I mean). The cutscenes will not be repeated five times like the stages were in Heroes; the events will feel different with every new character chosen but all will be pieced together and flow well.

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GAMEPLAY

There are six total playable characters but Morpho’s gameplay is a bit different than the others. The Boom Team, as I mentioned in the story section, are only able to use their respective powers when in morph and can only morph into their real-life counterparts (hopefully by now you understand why I did this). So in other words, you’ll only have speed while playing as Sonic, strength with Knuckles, flight as Tails, and so on.

Morpho, on the other hand, is where you can morph into the Mobian versions of each of the five characters at any point to progress through the stages. As such, that means you have five paths to choose from to progress any given stage in Morpho’s gameplay. No two players will have the same experience (at least that’s the idea, anyway). Additionally, the gameplay will be broken up into two parts; exploration and platforming. Basically, what Rise of Lyric should have been.

All characters will have two minutes to use their power and a Morph Meter to keep track of so it must be timed and used wisely. I haven’t thought about the cool down time for the player to be able to morph again but of course, there is one. I have yet to work out the details for the Boom Team but that was no issue is in Morpho’s case. In Easy difficulty, there will be no consequence to the player if the Morph Meter runs dry, as they will just revert back to Steve’s regular form and just have to wait a bit before morphing again.

In Normal difficulty, the player must press the action button to morph back before the Morph Meter run out, lest they remain in that form permanently, which will result in becoming ill-suited for whatever situation they encounter (i.e., not strong enough to face certain foes, can’t reach high areas, isn’t fast enough to reach a certain goal, isn’t resilient enough to withstand certain obstacles, etc).

Since morphing requires concentration, in Hard difficulty, success in morphing is less frequent but an interesting though albeit disturbing/hilarious consequence of failure is Accidental Hybrid Morphing where Morpho will Morph into at least two characters at once, resulting in bizarre combinations of body parts that rarely flow together very well and will most assuredly provide some minor annoyance and challenge to the player trying to progress through a stage (This last one might be taken out if readers believe it to be superfluous).

I know quick-time events are generally frowned upon but I think for the sake of morphing, it might prove interesting and appropriate. I’ll illustrate by saying that first-time morphers in the series have little to no control over their power - which makes sense, right? Well, as the player levels up, the QTEs could be lengthened, making it easier to morph successfully and giving the player a sense of progress over the power. Fun tidbit: Morphers who are naturally talented at morphing are known as Estreens in the books.

VISUALS

Being primarily a Boom-based game, the colors will be lively during most of the comedic and fun scenes but will darken when the scene calls for drama. Basically mix the vibrancy of the majority of the stages in Heroes and contrast it the listlessness with Hang Castle/Mystic Mansion. I’ll add more to this section when ideas come to mind.

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MUSIC

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, the music also depends largely on the tone of the scenes. The dramatic segments will have thrilling music and the comedic segments will have lighthearted music. Here’s examples of each respectively:

Strain - Sonic Adventure [OST]

Knave the Hedgehog and an Oversized Letter Opener - Sonic and the Black Knight [OST]

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what the theme song might be like but it would DEFINITELY have an epic theme like Open Your Heart or something from Ted Poley and Tony Harnell. Or both! I like both alot so I’d be down for that. OR EVEN BETTER - It’d be a collaboration between Crush 40 and Ted & Tony, YES! Not sure how that’d work but I DON’T CARE, I’m totally fangirling right now lol (I can’t believe this didn’t come to mind when I wrote my Ideal Game blog).

As for the menu music, I’d definitely take a hint from the PC Animorphs game Shattered Reality:

Animorphs Shattered Reality PS1 - Main Menu OST

Also, the game NEEDS music like this:

Animorphs: Shattered Reality~ The Swamp

VOICE ACTORS

Since this is Boom, it’s only natural that their VAs return.

Sonic: Roger Craig Smith

Tails: Colleen Villard

Knuckles: Travis Willingham

Amy: Cindy Robinson

Sticks: Nika Futterman

Eggman: Mike Pollock

Morpho/Steve: Roger Craig Smith

Visser Three: Robert Reiss

And so on with any other characters.

BONUS CONTENT

I haven’t been able to come up with any bonus content yet, unfortunately. I feel like the game is as developed as it’s gonna get until I read more books to possibly flesh it out.

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So, what do you guys think?

#blogreview

#NewStories