In the past Sonic Mania Adventures, Metal suffered the humiliation of being blown away in one hit by Knuckles while trying to use the power of the Master Emerald. Knuckles was of course very angry, and it was an unexpected surprise attack, plus Knuckles had already dealt with Mecha Sonic mk2 using the exact same method, so it is understandable, but I think it contributed to underestimating Metal Sonic's power to some extent. (It felt even more so especially because before that, despite absorbing 7 Chaos Emeralds, he was somewhat pushed back by Sonic's crew.)

So when I first saw this one, I thought it was funny that Metal Sonic specifically targeted only Knuckles, but come to think of it, the location looked very similar to that time. Also, the fact that he fought without any power-ups despite facing more enemies than before, and that he blew Knuckles away this time, made me realize how much of a contrast Metal Sonic shows when compared to Mania Adventures.

It felt as if they were doing it on purpose to wash away the humiliation he had suffered. Especially since he is the main villain of the movie; while Metal Sonic has definitely had many high points, looking at what has been shown so far, there are also many moments that might lead the public to judge his power as somewhat mediocre. Because this is a very important time to build up his image, I think they intentionally drew a scene similar to Mania Adventures—where he was most prone to being underestimated—but had him maintain the upper hand this time to strongly showcase his strength.

Beyond simply being a Metal series of DC villains, I think they are truly monumental robots in that they are the first human-based Metal series.

They really cooked with the designs. Black Manta feels like they just substituted Metal Sonic's body into his original appearance, but it is still quite effective, and it was really cool to see the rest of the members' DC villain appearances interpreted in Eggman's style.

Sinestro has the most human-like appearance, but his simplified face painted white is charming. Gizmo has a design furthest from the original, and I liked his design that looks like another Badnik combining a Flapper and a Spinner. Cheetah is just incredibly cool, no explanation needed. Captain Cold felt like a V1 design interpreted by Sega; I liked him the most thanks to the compressed hood design, the skating blades for feet, the body connected by steel spheres, and the flexible fingers unlike the regular Metal series.

They even played a very important role in highlighting Eggman's abilities as he instantly cloned the DC villains and overwhelmed them. Overall, they have cool designs, and the fact that they are based on DC villains but still fit well with the Sonic series seems to make them even cooler.

By the way, I wonder what happened to Metal Sonic at this point. In my opinion, considering the movie is coming out next year and they hyped him up in the recently released 35th anniversary animation, I think Metal Sonic might be left out of this Metal Legion saga and lead a part as the main villain from Part 3 onwards as Neo Metal Sonic, just like in the early IDW run.

https://youtu.be/ZOdpBJdeOhI?si=N_ifT9DBtUWuIR2P

Metal Sonic gaining the upper hand in a 6-on-1 fight is really amazing!

At first, I thought this feature was just a fun little experiment to test the USB camera, so I assumed only the Star Fox crew would be included, but it was quite surprising to see every character, even boss monsters that do not even have dialogue.

It is a pretty fun virtual feature, and it also serves as a way to look closely at the character models, so if a next game comes out, all the bosses will be new characters, and it would be fun if avatars could be applied to those characters as well.

DC X Sonic the Hedgehog

(The picture quality was so bad that it got deleted, so I am reposting it.)

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I first saw the cover art.

It consists of metal versions of Black Manta, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Gizmo, and Sinestro, and except for Black Manta, I really like how they were each given a unique look that does not just follow Metal Sonic's appearance nor strictly adhere to the exact proportions of the base villains.

Especially Metal Captain Cold looked very cool despite his simple appearance, and I liked that Gizmo took on a clunky form that is not even humanoid at all.

Personally, this was what I wanted to see the most when I first heard the news about the Sonic and DC crossover, so I am really glad the designs came out so well.

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Past TV animated series are an exception since Metal Sonic did not appear in them, but in other comics and Prime where Metal Sonic does exist, I feel it is such a shame that they missed the opportunity for him to interact with various other unique Sonic robots.

There are definitely many strange and eccentric ones, so it would have created a lot of contrast with Metal Sonic while allowing for a deeper exploration of his character (for example, how he would contrast with them when he is with Badnik Sonic or Chaos Sonic, or what he would think when Robotnik uses Mecha Sonic, which is a mechanized version of Sonic).

It seems like something that could have happened at least once, so it is really a shame that they never attempted such a thing.

I think the Black Shield has one of the weirdest cases among the moves in the Sonic series. After appearing in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as a move that could be used by an alternate character for Sonic, it has never appeared in a mainline game ever again, yet at the same time, it is the Metal Sonic move most frequently seen in the comics.

First of all, I did not understand why they created a completely new move to replace the Spin Dash. I mean, the Overdrive Attack is right there. At least thanks to that, unlike the previous game where he was just a skin for Sonic, he was able to have a different playstyle. And because of that, it can often be seen in the comics as Metal Sonic's defensive move, but I think it has probably never been used as a Spin Dash since then.

Visually, I really liked those dark outlines. Its appearance in the comics came out quite cool, but personally, the completely blue, crystal-like look without the dark colors like the original is pretty, but it feels too out of place with the name Black Shield, so I did not like it as much.

Honestly, I wish they would use it once in the actual mainline games. They could use it in boss fights by putting up a shield for a moment to create a brief window of invincibility. In a way, it is a move that acts as both self-defense and an attack at the same time, so it feels like a slightly underrated move.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I think The Imprisoned has a really cool and interesting design where its lore and appearance intertwine well. Even though it is the sealed form of Demise, it is much larger and more intimidating. However, coupled with its ridiculous appearance of having only legs and a mouth, it feels like it is heavily restricted despite its massive size. At the same time, I think it still maintains a mysterious vibe because of its unique scales and the black smoke trailing behind it.

However, I do not like it because it feels like all of that was ruined when they attached arms to it later. Because of the excessively thin and elongated arms, it now feels like an awkward doll. The attached arms look so awkward that it feels like body parts were just forcibly added, similar to the game Spore. So as a result, I felt that the threatening presence disappeared, and only the silliness remained.

Maybe I am feeling too strongly about it, but seeing how Hyrule Warriors only featured its first form as a boss, I think they definitely also thought the first form looked the best.

The D-Brigade line is one of my favorite Digimon design series. So when I first saw its design on a card, I thought it was so cool, but I remember the reactions being quite mixed. When I saw the base image myself, I also had various feelings.

First of all, what I like is that I think it is cool how they attached a machine head instead of just a simple helmet or a combat helmet. The Wargreymon weapon on one side is blunt rather than pointy, making it look destructive, and I think the wing parts are quite cool too.

The downside is that even among the D-Brigade Digimon line, it feels way too much like a toy. It is partly because of the colors, but (even considering it is an improved version of Darkdramon) the various guns and wings are too simple and round, so it feels like the characteristics of a military Digimon, which is the charm of other D-Brigade Digimon, are not highlighted much. I wonder how it would have been if they had put a little more detail into the guns or wings.

Nevertheless, out of all the Wargreymon variations, I liked this one the best. The card illustration expressed its deserved coolness very well, and it was impressive that it gave off a completely different vibe without deviating too much from the Wargreymon design. I hope it appears in the anime someday and gets its chance.

It is surprising how much they have developed when not much time has passed since the clones first appeared. In a way, it shows the process of that development, and unfolding the story through a conflict using the clones is a pretty great idea, but I also have somewhat mixed feelings.

The appearance of the initial clones was so unique, and since a Metal Sonic version also came out, I wanted to see more of various characters in the form of these clones. So, while it seems like a good development, it is a bit of a shame, but I still think it is quite cool that unnatural lines and shadows remain even on the improved clones.

Maybe they look pretty fine right now, but it would also be cool if they get twisted later and revert to their original clone forms.

Originally, he was a character drawn together with Prick, conceived as a Wario and Waluigi counterpart to Sonic and Tails, but the artist expanded him further by connecting him to the Battle Kukku Empire, the antagonists that appeared in Tails Adventure, making him a more developed character.

The chubby body compared to the sleek face is very charming, and I really like that dark blue body and the postman hat. In particular, even though it is a bit closer to an animal appearance compared to other characters, it still fits so well with the classic Sonic character design. I think it looks really cool.

(I wrote the name wrong, so I am uploading it again.)

Rather than just a simple personification, it can actually be considered their own Kirby AU design, and I like how they depicted him as an unstable, cursed boy melting away.

The clothes featuring the Dark Matter design are also pretty, and I think the simply silly, cute face and the bizarrely twisted face create a pretty cool contrast.

In Smash Bros fan games or fighting game mods, they mostly use Moskitoes for the ultimate move, and they all use the classic design. Looking back, when I first saw him in Legends, I do not think I grew attached to him because of his appearance. Do you guys prefer the old one too?

Sergeant Keroro 

This is the first combining robot in the series, and it goes beyond just having a bad design to truly taking the form of the worst-looking combining robot.

To be fair, in terms of the story development, it was the result of forcibly combining things that were not meant to be a combining robot, and because of that, the result was very bad.

However, the problem is that it did not simply end as a one-off gag; considering that the robot actively appeared quite often and even had merchandise sold, it was very terrible. It eventually got replaced by a different robot later, which made things better, but it is still a really ugly combining robot.

By reflecting the limbless form of most characters in the early Rayman style, they created a truly unique design. I think it highlights the features from the original Origins more, making each theme stand out better.

It is not that I dislike the original Origins designs, but aside from Big Mama, most of them looked identical and felt like only their clothes and skin colors were changed, so I think it is really cool that they were redesigned to bring out each of their individual personalities.

Phantom Ganons captivated me with their concepts and designs, and their designs are unique and charming in every version.

OoT: It is just Ganon wearing a skull mask, but that skull mask is incredibly hardcore. With horns, sharp teeth, and a jewel attached to the skull, he has a really cool appearance. Besides that, the magic wand-like spear is also unique, and the black horse he rides is extremely cool. I think he gets extra design points because the Phantom version is the only one that fights while riding this black horse.

TWW: Personally, I think it is the most powerful-looking version. The simplified appearance unique to TWW actually creates an intense impression, and with its shadow-like figure, the swirling pattern on its sword, the torn-looking cloak, and the blue light, it gives off the vibe of a mysterious magic swordsman in many ways.

TotK: It is essentially just Ganon with a red effect added. However, the story changes if that Ganon is so emaciated that he looks like he could die at any moment. Since the skinny Ganon cannot ultimately fight in the final battle, you get to see him fight in that form during the Phantom Ganon encounters, and I think it is effective because the emaciated Ganon has a different, intense vibe compared to the original Ganon. Furthermore, because of the red glow and his eyes, he leaves an incredibly intense impression in certain scenes, making him the most threatening-looking among all the Phantom Ganons.

In this way, each Phantom Ganon is very different, but I like them because they each deliver an intense feeling in their own unique way.

Nightmare is iconic as the final boss of the second game in the Kirby series, but compared to other final bosses, he has a very unusual design.

He has a human-like appearance with a prominent chin, wears sunglasses, and is a wizard. It is certainly a strange combination, but his defining trait is that he looks incredibly cool.

You can see his design evolving over time. At first, aside from his pixel sprite, his 2D artwork showed him as just a very simple wizard. However, in the remake, bone-like horns and hands were added, along with ornaments on his shoulders and crown, making him look much more impressive. I think his design reached its peak when elements from his parallel variation design were incorporated, changing the red jewel on his necklace to a crescent moon shape.

Other than that, his true form, an unknown glitchy body, is very unique. It was unique even during the pixel era, but the 3D appearances perfectly implemented this effect, creating a truly distinct visual.

He does not have the divine or terrifying vibe of the Kirby series final bosses that came after him, but he stands out among other final bosses in his own right, and thanks to his appearance and sunglasses, it is also a fun design.

His mechanical appearance while still looking like a samurai is really cool. I also like the giant yet different weapons he is holding in each hand, and I liked that he strikes various comical poses, contrary to his looks.