Dr. Robotnik is a man of science, and he relies on his many, many different kinds of robots to accomplish any task he needs done. But as we've seen before, his robots are not very reliable, or intelligent. We know he doesn't usually rely on help from living organisms, but what if there some kind of project so important and so precious that he required living beings to create it? Well, it seems like such a task has come to fruition, as Robotnik is recruiting a bunch of sheep to help him build something. How does he manage that, you ask? Well, sir, Botsy has sunk to a new low, as if that were possible. He's recruiting these sheep by way of breaking them in fixed games, allowing them to gamble in exchange for years of slavery. Sounds pretty despicable if you ask me. He's accomplishing this by way of his pal, Smiley, an anthropomorphic shark with feet, who drives a shark-shaped bus with a tongue from town to town to gyp dozens of innocent sheep. That's a sentence I just said. Fortunately, Sonic shows up and beats the robot dealer at his own game. Good, so that flock of dumb sheep narrowly avoided becoming indebted to Dr. Robotnik. What's he building, you may wonder? A monument in the desert, essentially the Sphinx with his face on it. How original. Oh, and I hope you can stomach the image of a morbidly obese man practically naked, because Botsy is really flaunting his stuff in this one. Well, Sonic may have foiled Smiley and his crooked street corner games this time, but they're not going to give up so easily. For you see, Dr. Robotnik is preparing to open his brand new Casino Night Zone, named after the iconic level in Sonic 2, but nowhere near as creative. To ensure guests, Smiley drives by and cordially invites all the sheep to partake of the new casino, and this is coming just moments after they said they would never let themselves get suckered again, and those wooly morons take off like a moth to a flame. I say let them get suckered, Sonic. If they're this stupid, they deserve to be building pyramids for Robotnik. Venturing to the new Zone, Sonic and Tails are just in time to witness those sheep lose their coats. Good, maybe Robotnik can finally make himself some new clothes. I don't know, it seems like he's going to an awful lot of trouble. Why can't Robotnik just build himself some robots to build the monument? Why is he wasting so much time and money robbing a bunch of poor sheep and then tricking them into becoming his slaves? I guess he hasn't filled his evilness quota for the week, and this is pretty evil. Sonic discovers that all the games in Casino Night Zone are rigged, so the first thing to do is even the odds. He disguises himself (poorly) as a repairman come to read the meter, and of course Scratch and Grounder don't recognize him and tell him right where the power box is. They even tell him where to find the box that rigs the games when he outright asks. My lord, I can't believe how STUPID everyone is here, except of course for Sonic, our favorite blue Mary Sue. So after re-fixing the games, the sheep win and the robots realize they've been had. Now, what happens next is a really infuriating scene, something that really turned me off of this episode. It's been pretty mindless up to this point, but here is where things really start to fall apart. Deciding to show off and mess around with Scratch and Grounder, Sonic leaves Tails at the casino nursery, complete with ball pit and a babysitter on duty. What's wrong with this picture? Well, for starters, has Sonic forgotten that this casino is owned by Dr. Robotnik? Does he really think Tails will be safe here? Also, why does he need to waste time with the robots? Just go and force Smiley to tell him where Robotnik and the other sheep are and go deal with them. We're already super light on plot, so not having this next two-minute scene of filler wouldn't make much difference.
Sonic leads the robots to a dam where he erects a giant slot machine that washes away Scratch and Grounder. This scene was so necessary, wasn't it? But all this needed to happen so that our plot wouldn't come crashing down under its own weight. Back at the casino nursery, the crooked babysitter tries to make Tails pay one million Mobians... say that in Dr. Evil's voice, it sounds funnier. That's when Tails realizes what we all guessed several minutes ago: this is a trap. He's dropped down a chute and locked in a bird cage. Ha, Robotnik could have done this to the sheep all along. Oh, and by the way, Tails can fly! Why is it he keeps letting himself be dropped down pits or the like when he has the ability to fly? Stupid! Robotnik has formulated a new plan, one that will see Sonic defeated and him recruiting even more sheep to build his monument. You see, Sonic has to lose a race. Man, hitting him where it hurts, eh, Doc? It's Sonic vs. Grounder in a race to retrieve the flag at Mount Robotnik. If Sonic loses, the sheep become slaves, but if he wins, they go free, but Tails is doomed. As a result, Grounder gets a big lead in the race, while Sonic struggles to stay far behind. I like how as he's walking, one of the sheep says to him, "say it ain't so, Sonic." Hey, if it weren't for you, he wouldn't be in this mess, you idiot. I hope someone turns you all into lamb chops. Well, it seems as though Robotnik might actually win. I mean, Tails' life is hanging in the balance and he's going to get himself a flock of slaves to build that monument. I mean, he would have won if Grounder weren't so stupid and ended up revealing where Tails was being held prisoner. Faith restored, Sonic races back to the stadium where he manages to find Tails and free him, and get to the finish line ahead of Grounder. Unfortunately, he was too late. Old impatient Robotnik gathered up the sheep and took them away anyway. Well, he's evil, he doesn't have to play fair. Undaunted, Sonic races to the desert to rescue the sheep and foil Robotnik's plan, like he could have done LONG ago! He even gives the Robotnik Sphinx a facelift, putting his own up there. Robotnik throws a temper tantrum, some bad puns are exchanged, and we come to the end. Our Sonic Says opens with Scratch and Grounder racing across a railway bridge. I would say these two are Darwin Award winners, but they're robots. They get predictably flattened by a train, and Sonic tells us not accept stupid dares. A good lesson, in my opinion.
So that was High Stakes Sonic, and while it did have a good lesson about the dangers of gambling and betting more than you can afford, the story and plot are where it suffers, not to mention the very off-model characters and animation. As I said earlier, the scene where Tails gets captured in the casino nursery was really stupid, as they should have known all along it would be a trap. Again, this place is owned by Robotnik. He was pretty evil in this one, almost on par with the Saturday morning version of his character, though that one would have just kidnapped the sheep from the get-go. Casino Night Zone is the fourth level in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and it's a shame we don't get any familiar music cues or Easter eggs relating to that level here in the episode. In fact, we don't see much of the place at all. Maybe more elaborate traps or rigged games would have been nice. But anyway, it's extremely thin on plot, story, and logic, High Stakes Sonic isn't a terrible episode, it's just not very enjoyable or funny. You're better off just putting on Sonic 2 and playing your way through that level, and the many other colorful, creative levels that game has to offer, or any of the old school Sonic games. Do I recommend High Stakes Sonic? Sure, why not? Show it to any gambling addicts you know as it shows just how dangerous literally gambling with your life can be.
Sonic leads the robots to a dam where he erects a giant slot machine that washes away Scratch and Grounder. This scene was so necessary, wasn't it? But all this needed to happen so that our plot wouldn't come crashing down under its own weight. Back at the casino nursery, the crooked babysitter tries to make Tails pay one million Mobians... say that in Dr. Evil's voice, it sounds funnier. That's when Tails realizes what we all guessed several minutes ago: this is a trap. He's dropped down a chute and locked in a bird cage. Ha, Robotnik could have done this to the sheep all along. Oh, and by the way, Tails can fly! Why is it he keeps letting himself be dropped down pits or the like when he has the ability to fly? Stupid! Robotnik has formulated a new plan, one that will see Sonic defeated and him recruiting even more sheep to build his monument. You see, Sonic has to lose a race. Man, hitting him where it hurts, eh, Doc? It's Sonic vs. Grounder in a race to retrieve the flag at Mount Robotnik. If Sonic loses, the sheep become slaves, but if he wins, they go free, but Tails is doomed. As a result, Grounder gets a big lead in the race, while Sonic struggles to stay far behind. I like how as he's walking, one of the sheep says to him, "say it ain't so, Sonic." Hey, if it weren't for you, he wouldn't be in this mess, you idiot. I hope someone turns you all into lamb chops. Well, it seems as though Robotnik might actually win. I mean, Tails' life is hanging in the balance and he's going to get himself a flock of slaves to build that monument. I mean, he would have won if Grounder weren't so stupid and ended up revealing where Tails was being held prisoner. Faith restored, Sonic races back to the stadium where he manages to find Tails and free him, and get to the finish line ahead of Grounder. Unfortunately, he was too late. Old impatient Robotnik gathered up the sheep and took them away anyway. Well, he's evil, he doesn't have to play fair. Undaunted, Sonic races to the desert to rescue the sheep and foil Robotnik's plan, like he could have done LONG ago! He even gives the Robotnik Sphinx a facelift, putting his own up there. Robotnik throws a temper tantrum, some bad puns are exchanged, and we come to the end. Our Sonic Says opens with Scratch and Grounder racing across a railway bridge. I would say these two are Darwin Award winners, but they're robots. They get predictably flattened by a train, and Sonic tells us not accept stupid dares. A good lesson, in my opinion.
So that was High Stakes Sonic, and while it did have a good lesson about the dangers of gambling and betting more than you can afford, the story and plot are where it suffers, not to mention the very off-model characters and animation. As I said earlier, the scene where Tails gets captured in the casino nursery was really stupid, as they should have known all along it would be a trap. Again, this place is owned by Robotnik. He was pretty evil in this one, almost on par with the Saturday morning version of his character, though that one would have just kidnapped the sheep from the get-go. Casino Night Zone is the fourth level in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and it's a shame we don't get any familiar music cues or Easter eggs relating to that level here in the episode. In fact, we don't see much of the place at all. Maybe more elaborate traps or rigged games would have been nice. But anyway, it's extremely thin on plot, story, and logic, High Stakes Sonic isn't a terrible episode, it's just not very enjoyable or funny. You're better off just putting on Sonic 2 and playing your way through that level, and the many other colorful, creative levels that game has to offer, or any of the old school Sonic games. Do I recommend High Stakes Sonic? Sure, why not? Show it to any gambling addicts you know as it shows just how dangerous literally gambling with your life can be.
