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[Dark Schala]

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to put for those.

And now that I think about it, I don't think a lot of people have played them. But they were in a bit of a spot where Sega was experimenting with different styles of play which weren't too successful.

Black Knight had a system where the player's actions were judged at the end of a stage and Sonic fighting with a sword for some random reason. Secret Rings had a skill system that felt limiting to the player and messed with the flow of the game. For those reasons, I don't think people would be receptive to them, and indeed, Sega delisted Black Knight, didn't they?

In terms of the recent games, most of the recent games have silly stories, the characters sound childish, the music sounds like cheesy Christian rock, and it isn't as fast nor addictive.

The in-game BGMs as of late are not the cheesy rock heard in the Adventure games or Storybook games. The OP/ED perhaps, but not the BGMs in general. Edit: damn it, OGB. :lol

Sonic 2006
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Colours
Sonic Generations

Ohtani, Tokoi, Eguchi, etc. have had a little more pull with regards to the music direction of the games lately.

 

[ffdgh]

No chao gardens....

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Have you played Generations? It will meet those expectations and then some

I've actually been meaning to.

That has changed since Sonic Unleashed. And they've stopped using "serious" tones in the series since 2006.

Well, that's definitely a step in the right direction.

 

[Jinfash]

The games have sold from that point well. Sonic Generations sold less, but the games before it still raked in a lot. Sonic Unleashed surely did.

From what I remember they continued selling less with each iteration, with shittier 3D games being the ceiling for the franchise this gen (either 2006 or Rings of Fire, iirc). Also, classic Sonic was a never a threat to classic Mario sales-wise.

 

[disappeared]

Is Sonic Generations actually good? It's on PSN now, and I may consider it at some point.

 

[IrishNinja]

good OP. to answer:

Did you play Sonic Generations 360/PS3/PC? yes, double dipped as well.
Did you enjoy Sonic Generations? yup, very much so! they couldve chosen some better levels from Colors, but most choices were great, enjoyed both 2 and 3D sections. last boss was indeed lacking though.

Did you play Sonic Colors Wii? yes, very much so as well.
Did you enjoy Sonic Colors? i did! step in the right direction - some good new power-ups, level design, overall felt like a step in the right direction and id buy a sequel.

to answer the other stuff: i don't mind the friends if they dont take a lotta my time (some of them in adventures were alright, i liked Knuckles' mini-game stuff in 2 but some like big the cat just dragged on needlessly), i dont mind trying new gimmicks when they work, but i do see some of the 3d complaint: sonic used to be more about platforming than just speed/hold forward and hope for the best, but i feel like they're starting to realize that a bit. hell, Unleashed was a mess for me (specifically the locking of levels/miniquest bullshit, ugh) but sometime around then, daytime levels started to show me some lessons they were learning, albeit slowly.

they just need to keep at it and do more stuff like Colors. Generations was great, and id go for another throwback/mixup like that, but my concern is that the fanbase is so angry and fragmented/disillusioned that the team seems a bit afraid to get too far away from stuff most of us loved well almost 2 decades ago at this point.

Just let Sonic go, let it go. I don't see how Sega can't come up with something new or backtrack to another old series and renew, do we really need more Sonic? Is it an importance to mankind that Sega endlessly feeds us Sonic titles?

Let it go.

do not listen to this person. not every series is for everyone, and with rumors of the next sonic being open-world/skylanders like, im glad there's room on the market to appease me with stuff like generations & colors where 4 didn't so far.

 

[Dark Schala]

Well, that's definitely a step in the right direction.

I really disliked the storytelling in the games up until Unleashed/Colours concentrating on grimdark themes and whatnot. That was never what I came to Sonic for. It was just light story to act as glue to string the stages together, and let me get to the damn game already to beat up Robotnik and his robots.

Imagine my genuine surprise when Sonic Colours didn't open with a cutscene. Of course, some don't like the direction the current storytelling has gone either, because it feels like a Saturday morning cartoon (not me, though; I think it's refreshing after what we had previously gotten).

 

[Bgamer90]

This made me laugh out loud; I was almost offended until I realized you were talking about the vocal themes.

Haha... yeah I don't mean to offend, but that's what it reminds me of. I remember playing a Sonic game from the last decade that had a song with a guy saying something like, "You have to believe in yourself! You can make it through!!!" and I was like "Man... what happened to the sweet catchy beats in the 2D games?"

So yeah, now my question to throw in is this: Is Sonic just one of those things that was cool as fuck in the 90s because we were young and now that we've grown up it's embarrassing?

When going back to play the Sonic games again, you can definitely feel the "90s radical!" vibe it was trying to give off, but the games aren't cheesy at all IMO. A lot of the music still sounds great (at least to me), and the games are just fun to play.

Also, moving forward, would the 3D games be better without boosting? I think it'd be interesting for them to take it out of the formula and see what happens, maybe relegating it back to just the Rush series (if that isn't dead).

Maybe.

I wish they would just make a new full 2D game with modern graphics that's as enjoyable to play as the genesis Sonics were.

 

[RawkHawk2010]

I can't think of any instance where I would ever want to play the classic Sonic games over Sonic Generations.

 

[bhlaab]

Generations was one of the best games I played last year. They finally nailed the formula for 3D Sonic.

My only issue with it was that the physics for classic Sonic weren't quite so classic, but they worked within what the game actually was

 

[IrishNinja]

I really disliked the storytelling in the games up until Unleashed/Colours concentrating on grimdark themes and whatnot. That was never what I came to Sonic for. It was just light story to act as glue to string the stages together, and let me get to the damn game already to beat up Robotnik and his robots.

Imagine my genuine surprise when Sonic Colours didn't open with a cutscene. Of course, some don't like the direction the current storytelling has gone either, because it feels like a Saturday morning cartoon (not me, though; I think it's refreshing after what we had previously gotten).

also, this. i feel like the archie comics/etc crowd should have a heavy cutscene story in said open world/skylanders type game, and give them silver and shadow and whoever else they like. ideally, Sonic 4 wouldve appeased the rest of us who want the game to start with a few seconds of robotnik getting all the emeralds again or something real quick, then hit the ground running (see what i did there!?) and collecting rings, jumping over stuff and, like schala said, breaking robots into furry woodland creatures.

 

[Drago]

Was there a specific team that did the 2D stages for Generations or was it just Sonic Team as a whole?

Because whoever they were, they need to make more 2D Sonic stuff. Dimps isn't cutting it.

 

[Dark Schala]

Is Sonic Generations actually good? It's on PSN now, and I may consider it at some point.

Yes. Do not judge it based on the GHZ demo because it's a poor level to show off the various aspects of play.

Chemical Plant gameplay
Rooftop Run gameplay
Classic bosses gameplay

My only issue with it was that the physics for classic Sonic weren't quite so classic, but they worked within what the game actually was

Generations 3DS was kind of better with regards to the classic movement, surprisingly. Not perfect, but better.

 

[Kokonoe]

From what I remember they continued selling less with each iteration, with shittier 3D games being the ceiling for the franchise this gen (either 2006 or Rings of Fire, iirc). Also, classic Sonic was a never a threat to classic Mario sales-wise.

Well it's hard to compare sells for Sonic games cause some are only on the Wii and DS, while some are on the PS3, 360, Wii, PC, etc. I just know Unleashed sold at least 2-3 mil or more.
Sonic Colors sold 2 mil only on Wii and DS. Generations sold 1 Milish in 3-4 months.

Sonic was Mario's rival regardless. If you look at Genesis sales and compare them to SNES sales, Genesis came pretty close. SNES may have more sales due to the fact it was still being sold much much later while Genesis ceased.

Is Sonic Generations actually good? It's on PSN now, and I may consider it at some point.

Quite good. I was surprised myself at how much I enjoyed a Sonic game again when I played it. Definitely worth it.

 

[Tyeforce]

I'm exactly the opposite of most Sonic fans. I got into Sonic with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and it's still my favorite Sonic game to this day. I thoroughly enjoyed it, along with Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog (I disliked the guns, swearing, and other crap that they added to make the game more "edgy", but I still liked the game).

On the flip side, I dislike the classic Sonic games. They're just not my thing, I guess. I like the more recent 2D games better, including the Advance and Rush games, and even Sonic 4, but I prefer the 3D games over any of the 2D games. I really liked Unleashed, Colors, and Generations, but not quite as much as the Adventure games, Heroes, and Shadow.

And I like all of the various Sonic characters. One of the things I loved so much about the Adventure games and Heroes was that you could play as so many different characters! I really hope we get a Sonic Adventure 3 that brings back multi-character play. And Chao! Chao are the whole reason why I got into Sonic in the first place (a friend new I liked Pokémon and suggested that I tried SA2:B because the Chao were similar-ish to Pokémon).

 

[Bgamer90]

The in-game BGMs as of late are not the cheesy rock heard in the Adventure games or Storybook games. The OP/ED perhaps, but not the BGMs in general. Edit: damn it, OGB. :lol

Sonic 2006
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Colours
Sonic Generations

Ohtani, Tokoi, Eguchi, etc. have had a little more pull with regards to the music direction of the games lately.

The music has gotten better over the years.

I guess I just miss the catchy hip-hop/new jack swing beats that the 16 bit Sonics had.

 

[Foffy]

A big issue I had with Sonic had to do with the approach in most of the other titles with a lack of focus on Sonic, and particularly speed-based platforming. The Sonic Adventure games are good examples on how this goes wrong; Sonic, and thus the 'traditional' Sonic experience is just a fraction of all of the gameplay options in the game. Variety is cool, but when it comes to sacrificing polish and content for the main meat and potatoes one should be expecting the core game to focus on, it's a problem. I didn't want fishing as a core feature of Sonic Adventure, not treasure hunting, to name some examples.

Sonic Heroes, and to lesser extents Sonic and the Black Knight and Shadow the Hedgehog have issues primarily with a stop-and-go feeling the games have. In all three of those games, there are parts where you have to stop speeding and platforming and either do a particular objective in the game world or have to combat waves of enemies in order to progress. As a result, it enters a tug of war of sorts, balancing a difficult act of platforming and speed to drawn out tasks and combating waves of enemies. I thought Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic Unleashed were steps in the right direction, but they too fell apart with focuses on other gimmicks: Unleashed focuses waaaay too much on slow beat em up sections, and Secret Rings teeters off considering there are about nine regular levels with every other level in the game being a mini-mission.

Sonic Colors was the first perfect step for Sonic for being competent, fast, and focusing on platforming in 3D, and there's not a whole lot I can think of being changed or needed to be heavily improved upon, and Sonic Generations is a shorter, lighter take on that formula, with a gimmick that tends to work more naturally than previous ones with Classic Sonic. Generations seems like Colors Lite: Now with Lil' Sanic.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I used to love Sonic. I used to go to Sears every night to play on the Genesis they had set up.

I couldn't afford a Genesis until the 32 bit era had arrived, so I missed out on all of the games until I got a Dreamcast. One day I found out about what much of Sonic fandom had become in my time away.

As ridiculous as it may be, I have been unable to see past the worst of the fans ever since. I have tried, and it only succeeds in depressing the heck out of me.

 

[Doctor Decimate]

1) i don't have a problem with this.

2) the Adventure games are at least decent for the Sonic sections, barring the overuse of loops and crap like that. but then you have stuff like Big the Cat, the Knuckles treasure hunts, and Tails in his robot plane. they also have some really awful camera.

3) annoying characters are annoying characters, no matter who they are

4) the 3-D games seem to equate "going fast" with "give no control to the player"

 

[DICKS AHOY]

Generations was one of the best games I played last year. They finally nailed the formula for 3D Sonic.

My only issue with it was that the physics for classic Sonic weren't quite so classic, but they worked within what the game actually was

Yeah, it's funny seeing some of the broad generalizations I see about people who hate Sonic 4 being too caught up in PHYSICS to have fun when like... Generations was also way off, yet still a shit ton of fun because unlike Episode 1 and to a lesser extent Episode 2 it didn't feel like it was thrown together in a couple months.

 

[MrCunningham]

Was referring to those fans, not all fans. There are loads of Sonic fans who do not feel the need to create creepy self-insertion character art or nightmare fuel fan-fiction.

yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Those fans that are on a whole other astral plane from your typical sonic fan. Those fans that create creepy sonic-ized persona's and write fan fiction that imposes themselves and their problems into the Sonic universe. They plague sites like DA .

To be honest... I did play Sonic Colors. It isn't that bad. I was expecting worse. Colors tries to go back to a more innocent light hearted Sonic style adventure, and it becomes a decent game because of that. I never played generations. I can't comment. Sonic 4 tried to go back to the original series... but it feels off with wonky physics and control. Graphically it looks a bit to much like a fan made title at times too...

If it didn't have the Sonic name attached to it, it would just be regarded as a mediocre platformer and not some "see, It's as good as the originals" kind of title.

The Sonic series went through some rough periods. Sega realized that and tried to right some wrongs. But there efforts don't seem to be inconsistent to me and not totally stellar.

I was really happy with their re-release of Sonic CD, mind you. It was a great port.

 

[TheCongressman1]

Sonic Colors was the first perfect step for Sonic for being competent, fast, and focusing on platforming in 3D, and there's not a whole lot I can think of being changed or needed to be heavily improved upon, and Sonic Generations is a shorter, lighter take on that formula, with a gimmick that tends to work more naturally than previous ones with Classic Sonic. Generations seems like Colors Lite: Now with Lil' Sanic.

Colors did include more platforming. The problem is it was just straight up platforming, completely disconnected with the speed aspect. The whole idea of the original games was that the platforming tied into gaining momentum. Without that connection, it's just half a racing game and half platformer.

 

[DICKS AHOY]

I'm exactly the opposite of most Sonic fans. I got into Sonic with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and it's still my favorite Sonic game to this day. I thoroughly enjoyed it, along with Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog (I disliked the guns, swearing, and other crap that they added to make the game more "edgy", but I still liked the game).

On the flip side, I dislike the classic Sonic games. They're just not my thing, I guess. I like the more recent 2D games better, including the Advance and Rush games, and even Sonic 4, but I prefer the 3D games over any of the 2D games. I really liked Unleashed, Colors, and Generations, but not quite as much as the Adventure games, Heroes, and Shadow.

And I like all of the various Sonic characters. One of the things I loved so much about the Adventure games and Heroes was that you could play as so many different characters! I really hope we get a Sonic Adventure 3 that brings back multi-character play. And Chao! Chao are the whole reason why I got into Sonic in the first place (a friend new I liked Pokémon and suggested that I tried SA2:B because the Chao were similar-ish to Pokémon).

I can understand (though I'm definitely on the opposite side of the fence) preferring most of the modern games to the classic ones, but erm... What exactly was it about Heroes and Shadow you liked? There's seriously next to nothing salvageable in both those games IMO. Not trying to come across as condescending, just genuinely curious.

 

[Bgamer90]

This

is

what

I'm

talking

about!


Bring back the catchy beats!

 

[IrishNinja]

Yeah, it's funny seeing some of the broad generalizations I see about people who hate Sonic 4 being too caught up in PHYSICS to have fun when like... Generations was also way off, yet still a shit ton of fun because unlike Episode 1 and to a lesser extent Episode 2 it didn't feel like it was thrown together in a couple months.

to be fair, i get that Generations wasn't perfect but it felt "close enough". 4, even playing it way after the hype & subsequent internet hate...the physics had many moments where they felt like they were actively trying to prevent me from having a good time, or at the very least, distort the experience to feel like a bad knockoff. the level design in several places certainly didn't aid this for me either.

 

[Jawmuncher]

I just find his characters and just about everything else uninteresting.
Don't be mad though I feel the same way about mario.

However with that said I do enjoy mario platforming way more than sonic platforming.

 

[BadAss2961]

Ultimately, I just don't think you can do Sonic in 3D. Or, they haven't figured it out yet. I'm a fan of the Sonic Adventure 2 Sonic/Shadow stages, but by no means would I call the Adventure games great. The Classic Sonic segments of Sonic Generations were incredible, and put New Super Mario Bros to shame. More of that please.

I thought the 3D was on point in Generations. City Escape and Rooftop Run being a couple of the best levels... Like a racer, its all about knowing the levels. The guy in the first video kinda sucked, but the one at Rooftop Run was good.

Really, anyone that's ever liked Sonic should enjoy Generations.

 

[Kokonoe]

Sonic Generations isn't a complete emulation of the 2D engine, but it doesn't need to be. Kinda like how NSMB doesn't need to be. Although, it's pretty good. Definitely a lot better than Sonic 4.

 

[DICKS AHOY]

to be fair, i get that Generations wasn't perfect but it felt "close enough". 4, even playing it way after the hype & subsequent internet hate...the physics had many moments where they felt like they were actively trying to prevent me from having a good time, or at the very least, distort the experience to feel like a bad knockoff. the level design in several places certainly didn't aid this for me either.

I would say Episode 2 felt closer to the classic physics than Generations did but I still felt the latter was much better designed. As you said, the level design in the episodes doesn't seem to gel with the Rush physics they used at all and just further adds to the impression Sonic 4 was very quickly thrown together.

Also helps Generations was never billed as the sequel to anything, just a remix of old games which gave them some leeway to mess about with the technical side of things.

 

[Ban Puncher]

I was really happy with their re-release of Sonic CD, mind you. It was a great port.

Indeed, the recent Sonic CD re-release was fantastic.

 

[Nert]

As ridiculous as it may be, I have been unable to see past the worst of the fans ever since. I have tried, and it only succeeds in depressing the heck out of me.

Well... at the risk of being rude, that is ridiculous. I can guarantee that you can find, say, horrifying fan art for just about any piece of media in existence, so it would be hard to enjoy almost anything with those standards.

Where would you even encounter fans that are so annoying to you that they degrade the quality of the games themselves?

 

[Kokonoe]

Sonic CD was actually rewritten by Taxman, it's a completely different engine. (which is why there was widescreen support and Tails)

If they wanted, they could use that engine more as well.

 

[Game Guru]

The issues I had with Sonic generally were solved in Colors.

Basically, Heroes, Shadow, and Sonic 06 just sucked. They were messes of games that generally felt like Sega didn't know what they were doing. Unleashed showed signs of Sonic Team starting to understand how to make a good Sonic game again, but Colors showed that Sega could do it awesomely.

Sonic Adventure 1 & 2's problems come mostly from being dated, but save for Big's sections, they weren't that bad of a game for their time. Of course, the Genesis Trilogy are classics, so there is no need to mention them.

Story, characters, extras, etc should come after getting the gameplay right. I don't care if the next Sonic game has Shadow return and be his usual self just so long as the game plays as good as Sonic Colors.

 

[Dark Schala]

Tyeforce's post brings up a pretty good point--there is a division between fans. Not just one, but several. You have people who grew up with the older Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System/Game Gear titles who may or may not like the series anymore, people who just started with the Adventure titles, people who just started with the Adventure titles on the GameCube, and people who just started with the series now whether with the storybook games, very recent games or at the beginning of the generation.

That's a hell of a lot of people to try to cater to, especially because people joined in at different times when Sega was modifying how each game played.

Was there a specific team that did the 2D stages for Generations or was it just Sonic Team as a whole?

I think it was just Sonic Team in general. Don't quote me, though. Someone else might have a better for that.

I guess I just miss the catchy hip-hop/new jack swing beats that the 16 bit Sonics had.

Something I've always noticed with Sonic soundtracks is that they tend to try to utilize the music that's popular at the time period in which the game is being developed. That happened in the past, and it's still happening now.

 

[Doctor Decimate]

the problem with Sonic Generations is that they wanted an even division between the levels instead of just paying tribute to all the best ones. so we ended up being reminded that Sonic 06 exists and didn't really get a ton of classic levels

 

[Ban Puncher]

Sonic CD was actually rewritten by Taxman, it's a completely different engine. (which is why there was widescreen support and Tails)

If they wanted, they could use that engine more as well.

It's kind of funny how a fan can take what essentially started out as a labor-of-love tribute and remake a classic Sonic game better than Sega themselves.

Well, not 'ha-ha' funny.

 

[TheCongressman1]

Sonic Generations isn't a complete emulation of the 2D engine, but it doesn't need to be.

It kind of does need to be. The whole idea was that Classic Sonic was to be classic styled gameplay, but in reality you are forbidden to pull off even the simplest of classic maneuvers correctly. Sure, it looks like classic Sonic gameplay, but gaining and keeping momentum is impossible, how is this not a problem? Why say looking like the originals is just good enough?

That brings me to this question. Would anyone actually be mad if classic Generations was spot on with the classic physics?

Why not just get it right and make everyone happy?

 

[IrishNinja]

I would say Episode 2 felt closer to the classic physics than Generations did but I still felt the latter was much better designed.

see, this makes me pretty happy. im just waiting for a better deal to jump on ep 2 and give it a go based on impressions like this - current amazon pack is okay but ive got the other titles. prolly later this year im guessing - i paid half on ep 1 and still felt gypped...as a sonic fan, that stung. ive never quit on a 2D sonic like that before.

 

[Finn of Ooo]

The severe lack of chao breeding post- sonic adventure 2, was I the only one who loved that shit? Still remember my first chaos chao.

 

[Foffy]

Tyeforce's post brings up a pretty good point--there is a division between fans. Not just one, but several. You have people who grew up with the older Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System/Game Gear titles who may or may not like the series anymore, people who just started with the Adventure titles, people who just started with the Adventure titles on the GameCube, and people who just started with the series now.

That's a hell of a lot of people to try to cater to.

Other franchises don't nearly have this much difficulty with it. Take Mario for example. People could have gotten into the games on the NES/Game Boy, people who started with the N64 entries, or even started with a non-Mario platformer. But Nintendo is simply able to consistently deliver quality games that are good for what they are and keep the bar of quality for the series still on the same pedestal it was on previously. I don't think this catering aspect has anything to do with it, as it's Sonic Teams own decisions for variety and spice that have been poisoning the meals we were consuming over the years.

Perhaps they thought fishing and treasure hunting is what people would want in a new Sonic game, following popular platformers on the N64. Perhaps they thought having lots of objectives to do is something they might assume others want too, following objective-based platformers like Jak and Daxter. I think the spine for the series has always been the same; about speed, about platforming, it's just that Sega has been assembling extra limbs to the thing, and usually ending up as an extra component that stands out as jarring. It's not hard to make the core of Sonic appealing, it's all of the extra fluff they're adding on top of that that's getting in the way.

 

[Kokonoe]

It kind of does need to be. The whole idea was that Classic Sonic was to be classic styled gameplay, but in reality you are forbidden to pull off even the simplest of classic maneuvers correctly. Sure, it looks like classic Sonic gameplay, but gaining and keeping momentum is impossible, how is this not a problem? Why say looking like the originals is just good enough?

That brings me to this question. Would anyone actually be mad if classic Generations was spot on with the classic physics?

Why not just get it right and make everyone happy?

I think the gameplay from Classic in Generations is decent. I know it is based on Classic, but I don't think it needs to be an exact replication for people to be able to enjoy it. I mean, NSMB has it's fans.

Now that's not to say I wouldn't like an exact replica of Sonic3/Knuckles's engine, but the fact that Sonic Team actually made something solid and classicish in the 2D department still was nice to see. And Generations 3DS improves on it more in that aspect.

In the next game if they do something like this, then I'd expect it to be spot on more. But I personally just don't have any real issues with it in Generations.

 

[TheCongressman1]

I think the spine for the series has always been the same; about speed, about platforming, it's just that Sega has been assembling extra limbs to the thing, and usually ending up as an extra component that stands out as jarring. It's not hard to make the core of Sonic appealing, it's all of the extra fluff they're adding on top of that that's getting in the way.

I completely agree. There is no reason they can't deliver a game that every fan can enjoy.

Also, just throwing this out there, the group of fans that enjoys Warehogs, Shadow, etc, seem to take anything they can get. I really don't think they are going to care if the mechanics make sense or not, just as long as it's Sonic. Why cater directly to them then?

 

[LaserBuddha]

Sonic's friends get a backlash for a few reasons usually. They are incorperated with gameplay styles that people feel aren't as good as Sonic's. They also bring more story elements into the series which apparently people don't like in Sonic.
Do you have a specific reason why you dislike Sonic's friends? State why.

I have a weird feeling that this is the true agenda of this thread.

Do we not like Sonic's friends because we don't like having a story, or because it's a bunch of intellectually-insulting furry bait?

 

[MrCunningham]

This applies to every popular franchise, though.

This may be true. But those types of fans in the Sonic fanbase are generally much more noticeable and exist in larger numbers, for some unexplainable reason.

Sonic CD was actually rewritten by Taxman, it's a completely different engine. (which is why there was widescreen support and Tails)

If they wanted, they could use that engine more as well.

Oh yeah. I'm well aware that it was a fan made engine they used. But it was a well designed one. Taxman really did his homework on making it as accurate as possible. Though I think I did notice a few very minor differences while playing through the Taxman version (differences I can't remember, because that was over 5 months ago when I played the game), but nothing game breaking.

This

is

what

I'm

talking

about!


Bring back the catchy beats!

Not to turn this into a Sonic music love in thread. But I always thought that Sonic 3D Blast (or Flickies Island) on the Genesis had some really strong tracks in the series too.

 

[DICKS AHOY]

see, this makes me pretty happy. im just waiting for a better deal to jump on ep 2 and give it a go based on impressions like this - current amazon pack is okay but ive got the other titles. prolly later this year im guessing - i paid half on ep 1 and still felt gypped...as a sonic fan, that stung. ive never quit on a 2D sonic like that before.

I'd recommend the demo since you might disagree with my assessment, but the fact that the 'stickiness' is largely gone, rolling actually works now and other fixes to the physics is instantly noticeable. Also worth keeping in mind the tag-team system with Tails which the game does force on you does mix things up a lot. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's a bigger part of the game than you'd think from the marketing.

It's by no means a proper Sonic 4 but I think by itself it's a good enough Sonic platformer with some surprisingly clever game design decisions here and there, with the main thing letting it down being a mediocre soundtrack and the bosses while original being way too long. This is coming from someone who absolutely hated Episode 1 (due in part to PR promising way more than the game could ever hope to deliver) by the by. I mean, at least Episode 2 makes some proper attempt to be good. Most of the time anyway.

 

[Tyeforce]

I can understand (though I'm definitely on the opposite side of the fence) preferring most of the modern games to the classic ones, but erm... What exactly was it about Heroes and Shadow you liked? There's seriously next to nothing salvageable in both those games IMO. Not trying to come across as condescending, just genuinely curious.

They were fun? At least to me. Doesn't mean they were to you. Fun is subjective, after all. I genuinely liked playing as three character teams in Heroes. I thought the whole power/speed/flight mechanic was really neat. And in Shadow, the gameplay was similar to the Adventure games or Heroes with just one character, which I also liked. Yeah, the weapons felt really out of place, but I'm not gonna lie and say that I didn't have fun shooting enemies with an Omochao gun and such, lol. And I really enjoyed the story in Shadow the Hedgehog. I loved the whole Shadow story arc between Adventure 2, Heroes, Sonic Battle, and Shadow the Hedgehog.

It's just what I like. And it's certainly not all I like, as I like a very wide range of video games. But I like it nonetheless, regardless of what others think.

I don't really understand how some people find enjoyment out of many games that don't interest me, but I don't question it because I know everyone has different tastes.

 

[Videoneon]

The severe lack of chao breeding post- sonic adventure 2, was I the only one who loved that shit? Still remember my first chaos chao.

I was a big fan of the Chao Gardens. I'd like to see more of those. I had a godlike Hero Chao in SA2, won all sorts of awesome stuff, did competitions, bought uber-fruit and hung out at the black market, and took him to school. Though in Sonic Adventure 1 I screwed around with them at first and they kept dying because I was scum. =(

I was a fan of the Adventure games--Heroes was passable, and Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't playable after the first playthrough. I plan to get either of Sonic Generations or Colors soon; I hear plenty good things. I haven't been on this major Sonic loathing/cynicism binge but just was uninterested in and then heard bad things about 2006. I didn't spend much time on my uncle's copy of Sonic the Werehog either.

 

[Phoenix Fang]

Just let Sonic go, let it go. I don't see how Sega can't come up with something new or backtrack to another old series and renew, do we really need more Sonic? Is it an importance to mankind that Sega endlessly feeds us Sonic titles?

Let it go.

The same can be said about Mario.

 

[Kokonoe]

Well, Sonic Adventure 2 HD rerelease is going to be out in October. It's 360/PS3 and maybe Steam(hopefully). So, that's one form of Chao entertainment.

 

[Doctor Decimate]

I don't really understand how some people find enjoyment out of many games that don't interest me, but I don't question it because I know everyone has different tastes.

that argument doesn't fly when the other person's taste appears downright bizarre