Whatever Happened to Sonic

[Pineapple]

I think (hope?) music games are a fad...

Why? What's wrong with music games?

[Yoshi]

Nothing individually, but they have gotten out of control. It's similar to consoles. I wish there was a dominant music game that had every sing I wanted to play. And, frankly, I wish a company other than EA or Activision made it.

[Low]

Sonic is due for reinvention. The Adventure games were suitable at the time but they definitely shouldn't serve as the departure point for every console outing since. I wasn't a fan of Dark Chronicles but it was a thoughtful take on new designs and backdrops instead OK this time we'll do a Arabian sonic, Knight sonic, Werewolf Sonic, Anti-hero Shadow, and so on.

[rama]

are there no fans of the gba sonics here? i enjoyed advance 3. i still need to give 1 and 2 a shot. i'm glad we have portable around to keep things simple with a lot of these games.

now that i say that...i wonder how gaming would have evolved without portable systems? since they could only handle 2D graphics for so long it seems to have kept a lot of older series alive in that way while consoles focused on 3D. maybe all these rebirth games would be more meaningful now if portables were never around.

[Rumpy]

Now I have the incredible urge to play a sonic game.

[Yoshi]

if portables were never around.

Don't tease.

[A Robot Bit Me]

All four Genesis Sonics would've been great, but every one of them had way too many moments where Sega figured we were getting bored of the reason we were playing -- that we were bored of the reason we weren't bored -- and threw a slow-as-molasses water level or something equally pace-breaking like Sandopolis at us. There were little things too, like the horizontally aligned fans in Sonic 2's Oil Ocean. In a game about speed and momentum, here are these riskless, unavoidable obstacles whose only purpose is to break the purpose of the entire game for a few seconds.

Shit like that is all over every Sonic game. They are baffling and self-defeating decisions of design. Come to think of it, they are a perfectly fitting representation of contemporary Sega. The Oil Ocean Fan should adorn the "SEGA" intro screen of every Sonic Chronicles, Golden Axe 360 and Shining Force Neo from now on.

[Fe 26]

I can't fault them for trying to change the pace up.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Then do it through some methodical platforming or something. Don't just stick a fucking fan in my face and tell me I can't play your videogame for a little while.

[rama]

In a game about speed and momentum, here are these riskless, unavoidable obstacles whose only purpose is to break the purpose of the entire game for a few seconds.

i feel like this was just the way sonic stages progress. you have your easier running stages early on and then you just have to be a little more careful on the later stages and think about how fast you're going.

the sonic rush games seem to do a nice job of mixing speed with obsticles that are avoidable (once you learn the stages) so you can just speed through the whole stage. i kind of miss the exploration in those games, though. also, in older sonic games it used to mean something if you got all the rings on the stage. now your score is based on how fast you can get through the stage.