ITT: Sonic Games

[UHMEEEEBA]

They'll find a way to fuck it up, don't worry.

[Fusion]

They'll find a way to fuck it up, don't worry.

I already said that.  Even if they don't, the fanbase is gonna bitch about something.


One of the many things I've noticed that fans seem to ignore is that the Genesis titles weren't always about the speed.  Getting through the level as fast as you could was a good incentive, but there were often instances where just rushing through at the fastest pace possible was the worst thing you could do for your survival.

Sonic Advance was the closest thing we got, but it devolved into "Jump occasionally, while holding right" at it's very basic core.  See, that is what the fanbase thinks Sonic is supposed to be: Just running and occasionally jumping.  Where's the difficulty in that?  Where's the fun?  Mindlessly moving fast and making twitch-level moves sounds more like F-Zero than Sonic to me.

But regardless, not only do the "real fans" want just Sonic running fast in a straight line, they also want very few characters to appear at all.  Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles at the max for playables, and Eggman, ONLY EGGMAN for villain.

This situation has resulted in Sega being faced with one hell of a dilemma: Just who do they cater to?  How do they cater to both sides while trying to be unique with each title?  It's this indecisiveness that has Sonic Team tired of making Sonic games because Sega repeatedly wants to pick up the ball and find out just what is right for the series.

They could've avoided all this if they'd let Sonic Xtreme be finished and released, though.

[Claws]

To back Fusion up on this, direct design notations of what needs to be done without resorting to the regular criticisms:

• learn from this:
  
• have enough faith in design and in people knowing how to play a basic platformer to change from "long-winded tutorial levels that ask if you want to keep playing at the end" to "first level that teaches players without saying anything outright, or hand holding, simply through decent mechanic introduction".
• make a stage feel like a world, atleast a functional one; also, remember to have atleast some damn reward incentive even in moments of running straight forward
• not throw in any unneeded gimmicks that fundamentally, entirely change gameplay to slow it down or make it more difficult
• keep a camera like a platformer instead of bad for gameplay cinematic sweeps, and zoom out it out so threats can be avoided more easily without resorting to Sonic Rush's "run through enemies with enough speed" always hold right idiocy
• put less thought into story, forget about characters at all and pay attention to this:

  Doctor Robotnik loves technology. He loves it so much he wants to force it on to the entire world. He transmogrifies the zones and sticks all the animals inside robots, brainwashed to do his will, as if the very life force of the animals drives the robots. In this world, there are strange anomalies called Chaos Emeralds that hold vast, untapped power. If the Doctor gets his hands on them, he will be unstoppable. Sonic the Hedgehog, a classic rebel without a cause, decides to stop the Doctor's plans because hey, he can't enjoy a good beach or a nice run through his favourite zones if everything is made of metal, can he? Sonic's no hero, he just doesn't like what's going on, so off he goes to get the emeralds, free all his furry pals and stop the megalomaniac.
  
  That's basically the original Sonic story. That's all it needed. Is there anything wrong with it? Quite honestly I'd like to see a modern game try to go with a story like that and not fuck it up.
  

Let's see if the developers behind this have that much design savvy and sense!

GS: Looking back now, what do you think the biggest challenges have been in updating Sonic?

KB: When you break it down to the fundamentals, Sonic games stand for high-speed action with an edgy attitude.

fgdfds.

[Fusion]

Well, everybody's calling that all-stars game a Sonic game, so...

Does this make it any better?

[UHMEEEEBA]

No.

[UHMEEEEBA]

That's amazing they managed to put in two has been platforming stars from different franchises, that are both furries. Now all it needs is Bubsy the bobcat.

[Tyrannosaurus Reich]

Oh god

Youchew is either going to jizz or rage

[Jesuszilla]

What the.... I don't know if that's awesome or just horrible.

[UHMEEEEBA]

This so bad looking.

Also it has Shadow the Hedgehog in it, riding a motorcycle. If that doesn't make it fail hard I don't know what to tell you people.

[Jesuszilla]

ugh, generic advertisement, generic game


Is this even worth discussing anymore? Why must we do this? It's Christmas. We shouldn't ruin the holidays.

[UHMEEEEBA]

But ruining holidays is fun.

That and Christmas isn't for eight days.

[Jesuszilla]

THEN I RUIN FESTIVUS

[UHMEEEEBA]

Festivus really doesn't have any rules set in stone, and quite frankly people who celebrate it wouldn't care if you tried to ruin it, it is the anti-holiday after all.

I mean unless you bagles or something.

[UHMEEEEBA]

It's rather funny you said we should not talk about the game because it would ruin Christmas, as they just made a Christmas trailer for it.

Happy Festivus.

[Jesuszilla]

SEGA, you're a bunch of monsters.