Colors is the odd one there, sure, but it shares a lot with the other two. Sonic has basically the same moves, except for double jump replacing jump dash, and the odd fact of quick-step and drift being time gated because of Wii Remote. Lost World has many more differences (although it is closer to these games than, say, 2k6).
Considering how all the 3D Sonic games play, you could argue that there's really 3-4 types of gameplay :
sonic adv-adv2-shadow-06
sonic heroes
secret rings- black knight
unleashed-colours-generation-lost world
In the same way that Mario 3DL and 3DW are really the continuation of the designs of the Galaxy games (answering the question where does Mario go after going to space).
There's minor changes to how Mario controls between Mario 64 to 3DW but it's really still the same thing superficially.
I think it's really the same for the 4 games we're talking here (and what I played of the game certainly point that way, still the same slide, jump and homing jump).
on top of that Lost World really, really, really look like an HD Colors.
Well, the boosting mechanic is gone from Lost World (hence "Boost Trilogy"), and there's all the added parkour. Then there's the run/jog button toggle, and the mentioned gravity alterations. I can see how Lost World can be considered a progression from Colors, but I don't think the end result is a very similar game at all, whereas I could probably see a few moments of Colors running through Dolphin, and assume I was looking at Sonic Generations during the modern era.
Mario galaxy add gravity mechanics but it still is the natural progression from sunshine.
SMG changes a lot from Sunshine but it's really the continuation from the franchise in the same way Mario World is the sequel to Mario 3.
I don't even think Sega ever hinted at Lost world being anything than more Colours in HD with gravity mechanics.
I actually didn't know about the Colors levels in Generations PC either. I was going to ask you to just imagine it, then decided to do a quick Google search before assuming it didn't exist. You can tell it's not like Unleashed where it's the same engine, as there's a lot of graphical differences (especially textures and lighting)... but the stage layouts work, and appear to be generally playable, as Sonic himself obeys pretty much all the physics laws of Sonic Colors still.
Well at least they didn't break anything between the 3 games...And that also point to Colours not using the hedgehog engine (while yes Lost World use it).
Also, as you probably missed my edit before. Here it is again.
EDIT: Another comparison I just thought of actually is Call of Duty. Modern Warfare was done by Infinity Ward, who previously created CoD2. Does that make CoD2 more comparable to Modern Warfare than the Treyarch developed Black Ops?
I have no idea I never played CoD2.
There's no mistaking that Treyarch work is closer to MW than anything the shell of IW still does though.
I usually don't expect most people to agree about Unleashed, and it's understandable due to the Werehog itself. One of the reasons I include it when speaking of the Boost games is because despite the end result it still set the foundation for future games, and itself was a sign of progress. While things like the Werehog was kinda basic. Imagine if they really phoned it in. To an extent I actually feel like they took some thought and care into it. Which is kinda nice considering for what it was: filler. Also it was a sign that they understood the importance of design and execution imo, this was shown in later games. Even Lost World, which in my opinion is pretty average, is well designed in terms of controls and detail. Which for most arcade focused platformers like Sonic would demand some good levels of response.
On the one hand, the werehog part are clearly the focus of the game and is actually fully realised. If they scrapped the day part and repurposed it as the grand return of Ristar I don't think anyone would have complained.
I actually preffer the night level as they're really more interesting as the day part felt kinda like in the Dimps games where it's really only about speed and less about platforming like old Sonic games.
Lost world I'll really have to check out one day (I chose WiiPartyU for the MK8 promo)
I'd say that all of those games themselves have an identity, in the case of Zelda, the top down playstyle and the 3-D Z-Targeting were great cores that was used to established the design of the games. Same with the base concepts of NSMB which were like a unique mixture of the 2D base concepts with the added 3D concepts (Wall Jumping, Triple Jump, etc) Sadly I missed out on Galaxy and 2, since I have a Wii U, I plan to pick them up eventually. But I think the best example would be with Sonic. Back in 2003-2006 I liked the Sonic franchise, and the Universe, but each game was like a burn, no matter how much of the
IDK, the Sonic of the Genesis era is really why we're all here.
i mean they're good game enough that we can suffer 1 decade of shit and still be there wondering if the next one will be any good.
I mean there's not many franchise using a simple concept that can last that long.
lol That's because Unleashed had to happen. While isn't wasn't perfect, it helped build a format for later entries to improve. One of the few times Sonic Team focused on refinement instead of starting over.
I feel like they really phoned the day part and spent most of the time trying to make the were part work. There's more potential in Ristar 3D than in Sonic 3D if you ask me, the biggest issue with Sonic is that in 3D he moves way too fast and the camera is usually shit.
for a 3D Ristar you only need to handle the camera and the rest can be more easily refined. Similarly Secret Rings had something going for it in that department, it looked more like something you'd expect from an arcade game but t wasn't bad.
BK on the other hand...
lol back when I was a younger and Shadow was coming out. I wanted to believe so much. The cliffhanger of the Heroes storyline had me so hype back then. So many lessons. Metroid Prime is definitely a great adventure game. Which also have become rare to find nowadays.
i barely could finish Heroes and while it wasn't bad, it showed that they didn't really know what to do, Shadow proved it to us.
Everything about Shadow is leading to Sonic 06 I think, even the general horribleness and the bugginess of it all.
What was nice though is it showed a more expansive game than we were used to in Sonic games (making meandering mess of the game).
the good/bad system was hilariously badly implemented all in all a very fun game for all the wrong reason.
and by god is it boring.
I picked up my GC with Prime and picked every other metroid games on release so I had no problem finding them
The prime games are awesome.
Despite the fact I knew it was going to be average, still gonna pick up Lost World to temporarily scratch that itch. I guess its easier since I had low expectations.
That's pretty how and why I picked up Colours, it scratched that itch and while it's certainly not horrible I can't say it was the most fun I had with Sonic in years.
Really they had something with Secret Rings that they totally squandered afterwards.
As an aside Sega is actually one of the few technically competent studio able to use the Wii more than just a souped up GC, pretty surprising to see how all they did looked actually more than decent (seriously even the outrageous BK is way nice looking).
Reminds me when I visited a SEGA Forum and they were actually trying to place 06 in the timeline, and then you had the bigger mindfuck from the fact that in Generations he knew Silver and even recalled the events from Solara. Plotholes OP.
Don't ever try to make sense of this, heck Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure somehow don't make sense either even if you factor in Sonic 06 (or perhaps because).
Yeah plot and Sonic doesn't go well and if they're serious about it FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BE CONSISTENT
