Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I dunno if I'd even go out for chicken if KFC was the only fast-food chicken place around here. Better to cook chicken yourself.
KFC is nasty-terrible.
KFC is nasty-terrible.
-
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Sonic the Hedgehog Community Thread |OT3 & Knuckles|
- Thread starter Professor Beef
- Start date
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
I played a demo of Mario Kart 8 and felt that ask the characters controlled too sluggishly and the drifting was weird.
And yes, (with the exception of those chicken strip bowls with mashed potatoes and corn) KFC is disgusting.
And yes, (with the exception of those chicken strip bowls with mashed potatoes and corn) KFC is disgusting.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
the chicken strips >>>>>> all the other chicken at KFC
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yeah, the chicken strips aren't that bad. Had it once and it was way better than any chicken KFC had.
Wish they'd add those demos to the eShop.
Beef died after eating Popeyes and got resurrected three hours later.
(Real answer: Beef had an allergic reaction to Popeyes, broke out into hives, paramedics called, had to go to the hospital and now has a doctor's note to never eat Popeyes again. 
.)
.)Nocturnowl
Member
In the strange land I come from KFC pretty much is the only main fast food chicken outlet.
I can't even pretend to understand your chicken wars.
edit: Beef jobbed to chicken? damn, sounds rather horrid.
I can't even pretend to understand your chicken wars.
edit: Beef jobbed to chicken? damn, sounds rather horrid.
Hot Coldman
Banned
Gonna be looking at setting up a Skype group chat for the E3 press conferences. Probably about 6 people max at a time, so if anyone's interested just PM me here or DM me on Twitter with your info and I'll add you.
I'll probably be recording it too, but you're not expected to stick around for the entire 12 hours or so, of course.
I'll probably be recording it too, but you're not expected to stick around for the entire 12 hours or so, of course.
Professor Beef
Banned
The doctor's note I was given SPECIFICALLY says "Don't eat Popeye's chicken." It's so damn funny looking at it now. :lol
Here's the post where I go into detail about the whole ordeal: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=114243904&postcount=18027
Here's the post where I go into detail about the whole ordeal: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=114243904&postcount=18027
Hot Coldman
Banned
Did he have a white moustache, your doctor?
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
Shit, I'm in, at least for the SONY and Nintendo pressers.
I did get a ticket to see the SONY conference in theatres, but I doubt I'm going to go now.
EDIT: Damn, Beef went to the hospital? Wow. I was just at the ER last week due to breathing problems. I'm better now, though. Hope he's ok.
Professor Beef
Banned
No. I also did not smell any herbs and/or spices.
Yeah, shit sucks.
Seven Force
Banned
Damn, Beef, glad you're okay. Sucks about not being able to eat Popeye's, though.
Real talk.
Depending on what day this is going down, I might be able to join in on this!
Real talk.
Depending on what day this is going down, I might be able to join in on this!
Hot Coldman
Banned
Monday the 9th most of the day, and Tuesday the 10th for the Nintendo show, probably. Just send me your deets and you can hop in whenever you want.
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Yeah, same here. I don't mind it but I don't eat fast food much so whatever.
American chicken culture is as foreign to me as American gun culture.
A little hesitant to hop on Skype since one particular moron from the Sonic fandom (who I shall not name) who I had on my contact list saw it fit to invite like 80 random people into the same room, which is totally not kosher considering Skype doesn't mask IPs and all the confidential shit I have on my boxes.
Will try to set up something to go through my non-main ISP connection!
edit:
Back in Malaysia KFC was predominant, other than Nando's which was more restaurant than fast food.
Then a Popeye's set up shop and all hell broke loose.
Will try to set up something to go through my non-main ISP connection!
edit:
Back in Malaysia KFC was predominant, other than Nando's which was more restaurant than fast food.
Then a Popeye's set up shop and all hell broke loose.
Hot Coldman
Banned
That sucks. Obviously I'll keep this pretty tight if I do it, but either way it'll be great to have you on board!
Shadow Hog
Member
I could probably join for Sony's conference, but I'm all-but-guaranteed to be at work for the others.
Also, having had chicken strips at both Popeye's and KFC, I... don't really notice the difference. I'm guessing the differences are beyond the strips and biscuits, because those taste nigh identical.
Also, having had chicken strips at both Popeye's and KFC, I... don't really notice the difference. I'm guessing the differences are beyond the strips and biscuits, because those taste nigh identical.
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
If the games are seriously doing anything right, it's making me anticipate the show even more; the dialogue is hilarious.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Saw this on my phone during my shift at the hospital and had to stop myself from chuckling.
Shadow Hog
Member
I thought the Wii U game looked like a competent Sony platformer, in all honesty - and given the pedigree, that's to be expected.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Pietepiet gonna come in here and be all like, "naw, so slow"
The Sonic Boom games look good. Not typical Sonic games, but that's not a bad thing at all.
And that's not a bad thing. Sonic games in the past screwed themselves a lot keeping this as a top rule.
And that's not a bad thing. Sonic games in the past screwed themselves a lot keeping this as a top rule.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
The Wii U version doesn't jive with me at all. It looks like Unwiished again combined with Sonic Heroes which I dislike a lot. So no thanks.
3DS version seems more interesting that the Wii U version, but it needs to be sped up a bit. Some of the platforming doesn't seem to flow seamlessly and quickly/fluidly very well.
It looks like Sonic's stuck with Mario's speed and that's really weird to me. I dunno.
3DS version seems more interesting that the Wii U version, but it needs to be sped up a bit. Some of the platforming doesn't seem to flow seamlessly and quickly/fluidly very well.
It looks like Sonic's stuck with Mario's speed and that's really weird to me. I dunno.
That speed section literally looked like Unwiished, up to the bland visuals and the huge and empty design of the levels.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yeah. Really odd, because both platforms have done detailed level elements before, even in Lost World.
Eh, game's not for me. If I'm getting it for my brother to watch me play, that's ok.
Eh, game's not for me. If I'm getting it for my brother to watch me play, that's ok.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
did you decide to flex your muscles instead?
Suddenly, Schala going to the gym a lot these days makes sense....
EDIT: Actually, might be best not to. PMing you.
Or you could quote this post
Also, I put all of the new screenshots, concept art and previews here for those who want them: http://www.sonicretro.org/2014/06/sega-lets-out-a-sonic-boom-of-gameplay-screenshots-art-and-info/
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
Hey, there's things inside of these things!
I'm so disappointed
I get that it looks like an okay PS2-era platformer, but it's completely ignoring the most interesting thing about Sonic as a character: his speed. I really don't get why people want slower paced platforming/brawling Sonic games. It is beyond me.
Also, honestly, the brawler parts look like Werehog but dull and visually uninteresting.
I'm a grumpy grump
Shadow Hog
Member
Okay, 140 characters was getting too cramped to let my comments breathe, so I wanted to throw out a bit more on the whole "identity of Sonic" thing.
Although I still loathe the redesign for Sonic himself, I'm actually kind of cool with what I've seen of the Sonic Boom games so far. Both versions look like a PS2-era Sony platformer, which makes sense, since Red Button is former Naughty Dog devs (Crash, or everyone's favorite game, Jak 2) and Sanzaru worked on the upports of the Sly Cooper games, as well as the all-new fourth one for the PS3/Vita. As Sega1991 pointed out to others, it looks like a Ratchet and Clank game, but without the guns.
However, I've noticed a lot of you are not cool with this, and I can empathize. After all, Unleashed, Colors and Generations are all generally considered high-quality titles (Werehog portions notwithstanding), and for Sonic Team to have dropped that for the thoroughly-mediocre Lost World was a crying shame - and now, it's being compounded by two more games not using the same formula - in fact, using a formula entirely foreign to the Sonic franchise as a whole. And, well, that's okay! I don't blame you!
The thing is, this franchise has a serious identity crisis as it is. It started really early on, in fact; you had the games, which were generally consistent in quality and format, but then you had AoStH, which was heavy slapstick; SatAM, which was serious to a fault (and was really more The Princess Sally Show featuring Sonic the Hedgehog, by some accounts); Archie's comics, which were based on SatAM but had the slapstick of AoStH for a while; Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, which were based on an old Kintobor story, but similarly dark in their own way (I mean, Robotnik looks like his AoStH self, but rules the world like SatAM Robotnik, and has an army of skull-faced, Stormtrooper-esque robots? Yeesh!). So, naturally, you're attracting a lot of different people who like the franchise for entirely different reasons. I got into it because of how great and unique the pinball physics platforming was, but I'd imagine some people got into it because they liked either cartoon or comic series.
Of course, that thing I said about the games being consistent in quality? Yeah, well, that kinda started changing as early as Sonic 3D Blast (maybe earlier, with the Master System/Game Gear games or Sonic CD, if you want to split hairs, but here's where it's not just spin-offs). Suddenly, instead of fast-paced platforming down vaguely-linear stages (generally still "from point A to point B", but with multiple paths layered atop one another, zig-zagging every which way, and with tons of secret alcoves hidden around for the curious) turned into a fairly slow-paced, open-ended isometric adventure, forcing Sonic to bop five robots and drop the resulting animals into a designated spot - it plays more like an isometric Flicky game than it does anything Sonic. This is a very divisive game, and a lot of people outright can't stand it.
Thing is, I... actually like Sonic 3D Blast. Like, a lot. It's not really Sonic, no, but I still managed to get fun out of it, and I still generally don't find anything offensive when I come back to it, years after the fact. Granted, my first tastes were the vastly-superior (IMO) PC and Saturn versions of the game and not the Genesis version that Sega's all-too-keen to push everywhere and anywhere, but it's still the same basic game in the end.
Same goes for Sonic R. By most accounts, a terrible racing game that controls really sloppily and has horrendous music. By my account, a decent racing game that... well, okay, let's not beat around the bush, it controls really sloppily and the lyrics aren't going to win Grammy awards anytime soon (although you can - and I often do - turn the lyrics off, letting me appreciate Richard Jacques's backing music instead, because that stuff's actually pretty darn good), but still a fun time, even when I come back to it on the Saturn or Gamecube years later (owned the PC version first).
Then you've got the Adventure series. At last, Sonic Team has returned to take the reins from those Traveller's Tales fiends who ruined the series! Except they similarly aren't sure how to take the series into the third dimension, giving us no less than six different playstyles in one game. Fan response helped them pare it down to three for the sequel, which is a lot tighter in most respects anyway (although the plot is way too serious for its own good, with death rays and stellar objects exploding and angsty black Super Sonic recolors and blah), but there's still a lot of people arguing that Sonic's gameplay was the only good one of all six. Personally, I actually really liked 'em all (well, except Big - love the character, hate the fishing), so I disagree with the complaints there, too.
However, Heroes is where I start to draw the line. I was hyped as hell for this game when it first came out (12 characters? Colorful seaside landscapes? They're bringing Metal Sonic and the Chaotix back? Why didn't I pre-order this game?), but the end result had way too many flaws to work very well (annoyance at having to constantly change formations, constant confusion as to how to quickly get into the formation I needed to be in, stages that run too long, characters that won't shut the hell up, inane, ungrammatical dialog like "Look at all those Eggman's robots!"). I only rented that one, but did write Sonic Team a lengthy essay on what I thought was right and wrong with the game (the first time I'd done such a thing, since I thought it was important to do - and the last time I'd do such a thing, since I realized I was kind of wasting my time), hopeful that they'd rectify it for the next game.
Instead we got Sonic with guns, aka Shadow the Hedgehog. I felt pretty safe in skipping that one, although it was the first (and only) game I borrowed from GameStop during my one-month employment there. It sucked. By this point I'd grown accustomed to Nintendo's quality 3D platforming mechanics, so Shadow was a slippery mess. The side-missions (including chasing after a moving target that can go over gaps with ease and takes far too many hits to destroy; or finding all Artificial Chaoses, including the ones in hidden areas that aren't very well marked in the game and force you to run through the stage over and over for over an hour in a vain attempt to locate the very last one) didn't do anything for me either. Not to mention, the writing hadn't gotten any better, and you had to put up with all-new voices from the 4Kids group.
So we'd gone from consistent titles on the Genesis to a franchise whose developers had no clue what to do with it. Really, they were completely clueless to the idea of sticking with what works, but very eager to innovate for innovation's sake, throwing every vaguely-interesting idea at a wall to see what stuck. As a result, they started to lose whatever talent they'd even had in making something basic, so when 2K6 rolls around and they're just trying to make Adventure again, they're so utterly incompetent at it that they produce one of the worst games in existence. This is roughly where I stopped hoping for anything good from this series.
Not like the handhelds were doing much better. I've said in the past that I really like the first Sonic Advance, as it basically nailed the physics, although its level designs rarely had unique gimmicks per stage (every stage was more of a skin for one another than presenting much unique in and of itself, barring the final stages). However, Advance 2 took the "gotta go fast" mentality the press was insisting upon far too closely to heart, and so we have a 2D platformer where you're expected to react to jumps and spike walls right in front of you while hurtling so fast that said pits/walls don't even have enough time to show up on the screen to let you react until you've already hit them. I'm not really a fan. Advance 3 was better about this, but fell prey to Sonic Team's desire to innovate for the sake of it, with its "team" mechanic making characters with established playstyles suddenly not play like they had before, dividing up their key abilities between other characters or only making them available if you use them as a partner instead of playing as them proper (I might be misremembering, it's been a while since I've played it), so it still wasn't as good as Advance [1] was.
I suppose I should mention what'd been happening outside of the games, because it wasn't helping Sonic's identity crisis. Sonic the Comic ended around the Adventure arc, doing fairly well for a fortnightly comic such as itself. Archie was still going strong, but was trying to reconcile its SatAM-based universe with the Adventure games openly declaring they take place on Earth now, having to explain why an entire human civilization could be missed when Sonic went globe-trotting that one time (Station Square is actually inside a mountain! Despite being an ocean-side city with an open view of the sky! I'm somehow not making this up!) or how Robotnik could still be around despite him, y'know, dying back in issue #50 (it's okay! Eggman's actually Robo-Robotnik, from an alternate universe where he killed the Freedom Fighters and took over Mobius, but then got bored, noticed the power-vaccuum in the universe the comic focuses on, and came in to fill the gap!) - all of which isn't helped by some authors' pets sneaking into the plotline (I didn't mind Nate Morgan as much as most, but did anyone actually like Tommy the Turtle?). Underground was a thing.
But most importantly, Sonic X happened. Despite a very impressive initial showing during its promo (famously ending with a miscolored, bluish-white Super Sonic, one that fans have since taken to calling "Nazo", based on the filename of the image depicting it on Sega Japan's website - "nazo" (謎 literally meaning just "mystery"), the end result was about as divisive as anything else. The inordinate focus on the audience surrogate, Chris Thorndyke, certainly wasn't helping matters - he even wound up replacing Amy in a pivotal moment during the show's Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation arc, which surely didn't earn him any fans. Worse yet, it was picked up for licensing by 4Kids, who were well known for making complete macekres of the shows they did dubs for, and X was no exception. The original soundtrack for the show was actually pretty kickass, but it was replaced with the same incidental tripe every non-Pokémon 4Kids dub had for backing music (including a usage of "Live and Learn" during the SA2 arc, a song they surely should've had the rights to, given Sega wholly owned it). "Chaos Control" went from a teleportation technique to the name of Eggman's base (which would be a clever name if it hadn't already been established years prior). Signs were completely wiped clean instead of properly translated. Obvious guns, owned by the military, suddenly made laser noises. It was never a very good show to begin with, but the dub was an utter mess.
However, the important thing here is, Sonic X heralded something of a resurgence in popularity for the blue blur. 4Kids' FoxBox block was pretty damn popular, so it was the first place a lot of kids got to learn of the guy. Sega seemed all-too-aware of this, and in a case of the tail wagging the dog, made changes to the games to line up more with the show (changing Sonic's eyelid color from fleshy to blue being the first, more innocuous change; firing all the existing actors and replacing them with the 4Kids ones circa Shadow the Hedgehog being less so). Yes, Sega was so eager to focus their marketing efforts, they made the games reflect the show, instead of making sure the show reflected the games.
At least there's some good at the tail end of this identity crisis. In between Shadow and 2K6, Sonic Team made a little Nintendo DS game called Sonic Rush, which introduced a "Boost" move. Said move generally rendered the core spinning mechanic completely irrelevant, losing that part of Sonic's identity almost entirely (he still curls into a ball when jumping, so there's that I suppose). The thing is? People actually kinda liked the resulting gameplay; it's a pretty good balance between risk and reward - the risk being running out of boost and thus not being able to do so when you need it most, but the reward being blasting through the stages at blistering speeds - nothing could possibly stand in your way (except a few forced "beat these enemies!" or "ride this platform!" segments, anyway).
Sonic Team finally grew a brain after 2K6 and clued into this, and after one more DS game with the formula, tried adopting it to 3D with Unleashed. Unfortunately, Sonic moved so fast with this system, the stages took an inordinate amount of time to design (somebody once pointed out that the stages are so large, that they basically could be compared to Elder Scrolls worlds in size - that seems exaggerated to me, but the point that they're damn big gets across well enough), and have had to figure out some means of making that gameplay economically viable. Unleashed tried by balancing it with the werehog, which most people hated (stages went on for far too long being one of the bigger gripes). Colors used the Wisps, inviting players to revisit the stages they blew by in a single minute with abilities unlocked later on in the game, to see if they could find all of the red rings or max out their rankings. Generations dedicated an entire half of the game to more traditional Genesis-era Sonic gameplay instead. It's debatable which one of these approaches was best.
Unfortunately, probably because the Unleashed style of gameplay is too expensive to make large games out of, they're back in the rut they were in - trying to figure out how to make a decent game without having to create and detail gargantuan maps that are blown through in a mere ten minutes. Lost World was their attempt at that, but it was implemented incredibly clumsily - the run button was an okay idea in theory, but the walking speed was too slow, the run button was tied to a parkour system that wasn't always what you wanted to have on you, and you couldn't change speeds in mid-air, leading to a lot of jumps that were more difficult than they had any right to be.
So that's where we are now. Sonic had an identity once, but started wearing away at that almost immediately with two disparate takes on his universe in cartoon form, in addition to two more disparate takes in comic form. Then the games started to lose focus on what it was they wanted to be, and the only way they found one again was by throwing away part of what made the series in the first place - and then winding up with something that costs too much to make a full game out of, leading them back to the soul-searching phase. Lord knows where we go from here.
tl;dr: I suppose the point I've been trying to make this entire time (but meandering with the history of the entire series instead) is that I've seen the Sonic series go through so much random shit, trying to find its identity, that I'm not really fazed by this anymore. Sonic has been so many things; I'll settle for something good, at the very least. I suppose that could be the Unleashed style of obscene speeds, but in all honesty, I grew up loving the franchise because of its slower-paced exploration, with speed used as a tool to help you reach certain areas and not the focus in and of itself (regardless of what the marketing would have you believe). I actually wound up disliking Rush and Unleashed at the time; I didn't warm up to the formula until Generations, and I'm not entirely sure what it did differently to make me change my tune. So, given I actually preferred playing the games slower to begin with, I'm okay with them trying to figure out how to best recreate that, as long as the end results we get in the interim are quality enough.
Now, granted, I thought Lost World looked amazing initially and really soured on it once I'd played it. I expect Boom might have similar issues. But I'm definitely okay with getting a competent PS2-ish platformer in lieu of what's basically not much more than a racing game claiming to be a platformer, provided it actually is competent. I can totally understand if you aren't, since the Boom games look to have even less to do with the Sonic game series's original identity than even the Unleashed formula did, but at this point I'm not sure I can care anymore, as long as the game's a genuinely fun experience. (I suppose you could put it like such: Genesis Sonic style > highly competent platformer with a Sonic skin > Unleashed racing-game style > Lost World style > most of the shit we've put up with.)
Although I still loathe the redesign for Sonic himself, I'm actually kind of cool with what I've seen of the Sonic Boom games so far. Both versions look like a PS2-era Sony platformer, which makes sense, since Red Button is former Naughty Dog devs (Crash, or everyone's favorite game, Jak 2) and Sanzaru worked on the upports of the Sly Cooper games, as well as the all-new fourth one for the PS3/Vita. As Sega1991 pointed out to others, it looks like a Ratchet and Clank game, but without the guns.
However, I've noticed a lot of you are not cool with this, and I can empathize. After all, Unleashed, Colors and Generations are all generally considered high-quality titles (Werehog portions notwithstanding), and for Sonic Team to have dropped that for the thoroughly-mediocre Lost World was a crying shame - and now, it's being compounded by two more games not using the same formula - in fact, using a formula entirely foreign to the Sonic franchise as a whole. And, well, that's okay! I don't blame you!
The thing is, this franchise has a serious identity crisis as it is. It started really early on, in fact; you had the games, which were generally consistent in quality and format, but then you had AoStH, which was heavy slapstick; SatAM, which was serious to a fault (and was really more The Princess Sally Show featuring Sonic the Hedgehog, by some accounts); Archie's comics, which were based on SatAM but had the slapstick of AoStH for a while; Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, which were based on an old Kintobor story, but similarly dark in their own way (I mean, Robotnik looks like his AoStH self, but rules the world like SatAM Robotnik, and has an army of skull-faced, Stormtrooper-esque robots? Yeesh!). So, naturally, you're attracting a lot of different people who like the franchise for entirely different reasons. I got into it because of how great and unique the pinball physics platforming was, but I'd imagine some people got into it because they liked either cartoon or comic series.
Of course, that thing I said about the games being consistent in quality? Yeah, well, that kinda started changing as early as Sonic 3D Blast (maybe earlier, with the Master System/Game Gear games or Sonic CD, if you want to split hairs, but here's where it's not just spin-offs). Suddenly, instead of fast-paced platforming down vaguely-linear stages (generally still "from point A to point B", but with multiple paths layered atop one another, zig-zagging every which way, and with tons of secret alcoves hidden around for the curious) turned into a fairly slow-paced, open-ended isometric adventure, forcing Sonic to bop five robots and drop the resulting animals into a designated spot - it plays more like an isometric Flicky game than it does anything Sonic. This is a very divisive game, and a lot of people outright can't stand it.
Thing is, I... actually like Sonic 3D Blast. Like, a lot. It's not really Sonic, no, but I still managed to get fun out of it, and I still generally don't find anything offensive when I come back to it, years after the fact. Granted, my first tastes were the vastly-superior (IMO) PC and Saturn versions of the game and not the Genesis version that Sega's all-too-keen to push everywhere and anywhere, but it's still the same basic game in the end.
Same goes for Sonic R. By most accounts, a terrible racing game that controls really sloppily and has horrendous music. By my account, a decent racing game that... well, okay, let's not beat around the bush, it controls really sloppily and the lyrics aren't going to win Grammy awards anytime soon (although you can - and I often do - turn the lyrics off, letting me appreciate Richard Jacques's backing music instead, because that stuff's actually pretty darn good), but still a fun time, even when I come back to it on the Saturn or Gamecube years later (owned the PC version first).
Then you've got the Adventure series. At last, Sonic Team has returned to take the reins from those Traveller's Tales fiends who ruined the series! Except they similarly aren't sure how to take the series into the third dimension, giving us no less than six different playstyles in one game. Fan response helped them pare it down to three for the sequel, which is a lot tighter in most respects anyway (although the plot is way too serious for its own good, with death rays and stellar objects exploding and angsty black Super Sonic recolors and blah), but there's still a lot of people arguing that Sonic's gameplay was the only good one of all six. Personally, I actually really liked 'em all (well, except Big - love the character, hate the fishing), so I disagree with the complaints there, too.
However, Heroes is where I start to draw the line. I was hyped as hell for this game when it first came out (12 characters? Colorful seaside landscapes? They're bringing Metal Sonic and the Chaotix back? Why didn't I pre-order this game?), but the end result had way too many flaws to work very well (annoyance at having to constantly change formations, constant confusion as to how to quickly get into the formation I needed to be in, stages that run too long, characters that won't shut the hell up, inane, ungrammatical dialog like "Look at all those Eggman's robots!"). I only rented that one, but did write Sonic Team a lengthy essay on what I thought was right and wrong with the game (the first time I'd done such a thing, since I thought it was important to do - and the last time I'd do such a thing, since I realized I was kind of wasting my time), hopeful that they'd rectify it for the next game.
Instead we got Sonic with guns, aka Shadow the Hedgehog. I felt pretty safe in skipping that one, although it was the first (and only) game I borrowed from GameStop during my one-month employment there. It sucked. By this point I'd grown accustomed to Nintendo's quality 3D platforming mechanics, so Shadow was a slippery mess. The side-missions (including chasing after a moving target that can go over gaps with ease and takes far too many hits to destroy; or finding all Artificial Chaoses, including the ones in hidden areas that aren't very well marked in the game and force you to run through the stage over and over for over an hour in a vain attempt to locate the very last one) didn't do anything for me either. Not to mention, the writing hadn't gotten any better, and you had to put up with all-new voices from the 4Kids group.
So we'd gone from consistent titles on the Genesis to a franchise whose developers had no clue what to do with it. Really, they were completely clueless to the idea of sticking with what works, but very eager to innovate for innovation's sake, throwing every vaguely-interesting idea at a wall to see what stuck. As a result, they started to lose whatever talent they'd even had in making something basic, so when 2K6 rolls around and they're just trying to make Adventure again, they're so utterly incompetent at it that they produce one of the worst games in existence. This is roughly where I stopped hoping for anything good from this series.
Not like the handhelds were doing much better. I've said in the past that I really like the first Sonic Advance, as it basically nailed the physics, although its level designs rarely had unique gimmicks per stage (every stage was more of a skin for one another than presenting much unique in and of itself, barring the final stages). However, Advance 2 took the "gotta go fast" mentality the press was insisting upon far too closely to heart, and so we have a 2D platformer where you're expected to react to jumps and spike walls right in front of you while hurtling so fast that said pits/walls don't even have enough time to show up on the screen to let you react until you've already hit them. I'm not really a fan. Advance 3 was better about this, but fell prey to Sonic Team's desire to innovate for the sake of it, with its "team" mechanic making characters with established playstyles suddenly not play like they had before, dividing up their key abilities between other characters or only making them available if you use them as a partner instead of playing as them proper (I might be misremembering, it's been a while since I've played it), so it still wasn't as good as Advance [1] was.
I suppose I should mention what'd been happening outside of the games, because it wasn't helping Sonic's identity crisis. Sonic the Comic ended around the Adventure arc, doing fairly well for a fortnightly comic such as itself. Archie was still going strong, but was trying to reconcile its SatAM-based universe with the Adventure games openly declaring they take place on Earth now, having to explain why an entire human civilization could be missed when Sonic went globe-trotting that one time (Station Square is actually inside a mountain! Despite being an ocean-side city with an open view of the sky! I'm somehow not making this up!) or how Robotnik could still be around despite him, y'know, dying back in issue #50 (it's okay! Eggman's actually Robo-Robotnik, from an alternate universe where he killed the Freedom Fighters and took over Mobius, but then got bored, noticed the power-vaccuum in the universe the comic focuses on, and came in to fill the gap!) - all of which isn't helped by some authors' pets sneaking into the plotline (I didn't mind Nate Morgan as much as most, but did anyone actually like Tommy the Turtle?). Underground was a thing.
But most importantly, Sonic X happened. Despite a very impressive initial showing during its promo (famously ending with a miscolored, bluish-white Super Sonic, one that fans have since taken to calling "Nazo", based on the filename of the image depicting it on Sega Japan's website - "nazo" (謎
literally meaning just "mystery"), the end result was about as divisive as anything else. The inordinate focus on the audience surrogate, Chris Thorndyke, certainly wasn't helping matters - he even wound up replacing Amy in a pivotal moment during the show's Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation arc, which surely didn't earn him any fans. Worse yet, it was picked up for licensing by 4Kids, who were well known for making complete macekres of the shows they did dubs for, and X was no exception. The original soundtrack for the show was actually pretty kickass, but it was replaced with the same incidental tripe every non-Pokémon 4Kids dub had for backing music (including a usage of "Live and Learn" during the SA2 arc, a song they surely should've had the rights to, given Sega wholly owned it). "Chaos Control" went from a teleportation technique to the name of Eggman's base (which would be a clever name if it hadn't already been established years prior). Signs were completely wiped clean instead of properly translated. Obvious guns, owned by the military, suddenly made laser noises. It was never a very good show to begin with, but the dub was an utter mess.However, the important thing here is, Sonic X heralded something of a resurgence in popularity for the blue blur. 4Kids' FoxBox block was pretty damn popular, so it was the first place a lot of kids got to learn of the guy. Sega seemed all-too-aware of this, and in a case of the tail wagging the dog, made changes to the games to line up more with the show (changing Sonic's eyelid color from fleshy to blue being the first, more innocuous change; firing all the existing actors and replacing them with the 4Kids ones circa Shadow the Hedgehog being less so). Yes, Sega was so eager to focus their marketing efforts, they made the games reflect the show, instead of making sure the show reflected the games.
At least there's some good at the tail end of this identity crisis. In between Shadow and 2K6, Sonic Team made a little Nintendo DS game called Sonic Rush, which introduced a "Boost" move. Said move generally rendered the core spinning mechanic completely irrelevant, losing that part of Sonic's identity almost entirely (he still curls into a ball when jumping, so there's that I suppose). The thing is? People actually kinda liked the resulting gameplay; it's a pretty good balance between risk and reward - the risk being running out of boost and thus not being able to do so when you need it most, but the reward being blasting through the stages at blistering speeds - nothing could possibly stand in your way (except a few forced "beat these enemies!" or "ride this platform!" segments, anyway).
Sonic Team finally grew a brain after 2K6 and clued into this, and after one more DS game with the formula, tried adopting it to 3D with Unleashed. Unfortunately, Sonic moved so fast with this system, the stages took an inordinate amount of time to design (somebody once pointed out that the stages are so large, that they basically could be compared to Elder Scrolls worlds in size - that seems exaggerated to me, but the point that they're damn big gets across well enough), and have had to figure out some means of making that gameplay economically viable. Unleashed tried by balancing it with the werehog, which most people hated (stages went on for far too long being one of the bigger gripes). Colors used the Wisps, inviting players to revisit the stages they blew by in a single minute with abilities unlocked later on in the game, to see if they could find all of the red rings or max out their rankings. Generations dedicated an entire half of the game to more traditional Genesis-era Sonic gameplay instead. It's debatable which one of these approaches was best.
Unfortunately, probably because the Unleashed style of gameplay is too expensive to make large games out of, they're back in the rut they were in - trying to figure out how to make a decent game without having to create and detail gargantuan maps that are blown through in a mere ten minutes. Lost World was their attempt at that, but it was implemented incredibly clumsily - the run button was an okay idea in theory, but the walking speed was too slow, the run button was tied to a parkour system that wasn't always what you wanted to have on you, and you couldn't change speeds in mid-air, leading to a lot of jumps that were more difficult than they had any right to be.
So that's where we are now. Sonic had an identity once, but started wearing away at that almost immediately with two disparate takes on his universe in cartoon form, in addition to two more disparate takes in comic form. Then the games started to lose focus on what it was they wanted to be, and the only way they found one again was by throwing away part of what made the series in the first place - and then winding up with something that costs too much to make a full game out of, leading them back to the soul-searching phase. Lord knows where we go from here.
tl;dr: I suppose the point I've been trying to make this entire time (but meandering with the history of the entire series instead) is that I've seen the Sonic series go through so much random shit, trying to find its identity, that I'm not really fazed by this anymore. Sonic has been so many things; I'll settle for something good, at the very least. I suppose that could be the Unleashed style of obscene speeds, but in all honesty, I grew up loving the franchise because of its slower-paced exploration, with speed used as a tool to help you reach certain areas and not the focus in and of itself (regardless of what the marketing would have you believe). I actually wound up disliking Rush and Unleashed at the time; I didn't warm up to the formula until Generations, and I'm not entirely sure what it did differently to make me change my tune. So, given I actually preferred playing the games slower to begin with, I'm okay with them trying to figure out how to best recreate that, as long as the end results we get in the interim are quality enough.
Now, granted, I thought Lost World looked amazing initially and really soured on it once I'd played it. I expect Boom might have similar issues. But I'm definitely okay with getting a competent PS2-ish platformer in lieu of what's basically not much more than a racing game claiming to be a platformer, provided it actually is competent. I can totally understand if you aren't, since the Boom games look to have even less to do with the Sonic game series's original identity than even the Unleashed formula did, but at this point I'm not sure I can care anymore, as long as the game's a genuinely fun experience. (I suppose you could put it like such: Genesis Sonic style > highly competent platformer with a Sonic skin > Unleashed racing-game style > Lost World style > most of the shit we've put up with.)
I have no idea how Schala can write these things and stay focused. I'm pretty sure I lost my train of thought somewhere since I started writing this post two hours ago.
That's a great write-up, Shadow Hog.
My biggest problem with the series is that it seems to be too occupied with style, presentation and gameplay, than to ever perfect its elements.
Or something. It's past midnight and I can't seem to express my thoughts, so I guess I'll leave it at that.
My biggest problem with the series is that it seems to be too occupied with style, presentation and gameplay, than to ever perfect its elements.
Or something. It's past midnight and I can't seem to express my thoughts, so I guess I'll leave it at that.
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
I'll chime in and say that I actually appreciate them slowing it strewn a bit, but only to the point that I don't feel like I'm getting a sense of any actual speed, such as in the Wii U version of Boom (though the 3DS version could definitely be faster, it still looks rather good).
To be honest, the only 3D game that I think handles that well is the first Adventure. Sonic moves fast enough that I get a sense of speed from him, but slow enough that I have enough control over him. Adventure 2 kinda mucked that up due to making Sonic heavier, along with the more linear stage design. It's fluctuated between too fast and to slow since then, with Generations being the closest to trying to recapture that essence. Then Lost World happened and screwed it up again, and now we have Boom.
To be honest, the only 3D game that I think handles that well is the first Adventure. Sonic moves fast enough that I get a sense of speed from him, but slow enough that I have enough control over him. Adventure 2 kinda mucked that up due to making Sonic heavier, along with the more linear stage design. It's fluctuated between too fast and to slow since then, with Generations being the closest to trying to recapture that essence. Then Lost World happened and screwed it up again, and now we have Boom.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Take care and be careful, Beef.
Just watched the latest Sonic Boom Wii U footage and... eh? On one hand, I'm always up for something new but on the other every single time a Sonic game has focused on combat, it hasn't gone well. Heroes got annoying because of it; Shadow was bleh (for numerous reasons, but that was one of them); 06 was a trainwreck to begin with but Shadow's combat focus got mindnumbing; and Unleashed's Werehog sections were also bleh. It's just not what I'm looking for in a Sonic game.
Just watched the latest Sonic Boom Wii U footage and... eh? On one hand, I'm always up for something new but on the other every single time a Sonic game has focused on combat, it hasn't gone well. Heroes got annoying because of it; Shadow was bleh (for numerous reasons, but that was one of them); 06 was a trainwreck to begin with but Shadow's combat focus got mindnumbing; and Unleashed's Werehog sections were also bleh. It's just not what I'm looking for in a Sonic game.
Nocturnowl
Member
Losing your train of thought is part of the fun Shadow Hog.
I already said my piece about Boom in the other thread, it ain't doing much for me but otherwise I'm simply indifferent to it as opposed to outright disliking it, after all maybe this will give Sonic Team time to not rush a game for a change with these games filling the gap in the meantime.
I already said my piece about Boom in the other thread, it ain't doing much for me but otherwise I'm simply indifferent to it as opposed to outright disliking it, after all maybe this will give Sonic Team time to not rush a game for a change with these games filling the gap in the meantime.
Hot Coldman
Banned
I haven't even watched any of the Boom videos. I just don't care. I know it's not for me, so why bother?
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Hm... I think that post was kinda meandering in Sonic's history, but I get your point. Here's mine.
I think I said this before, but I was one of the folks who outright dropped the series for the most part starting with the Saturn games and not necessarily Adventure, and that's more of a case of nausea and disliking how the games were more designed around a story as opposed to platforming with finesse and speed.
I didn't like Sonic 3D Blast because the games made me nauseous and I didn't like the collectathoning to open up levels. Sonic Blast was, and still is, garbage, and some of us saw that when qq more streamed the game once. I didn't have a Saturn to myself back then because that shit was expensive and I was still getting hand-me-down consoles and handhelds at the time. So Sonic R made me dizzy but I loved the soundtrack. Sonic Adventure wasn't what I wanted out of Sonic, but it controlled much better than SA2.
But hey, if other people like them, that's fine. But I don't. There are a lot of people who don't, and there are a lot of people who do like them.
Just because the games are inconsistent in quality doesn't really justify me giving them a free pass. Every time this series has tried to experiment in a super-odd way, I get turned off from playing them at launch and having to play them much later on my own accord. Sometimes just giving up after a point and picking them up again years later. That happened to Heroes, especially. It makes me nauseous, I don't like the gameplay (not even Team Sonic's very much, and the other teams can die in a fire), and I hate the art direction in that game entirely. Sonic Heroes is a decent definition of a game that can actively waste a player's time.
Shadow, the Storybook games, Sonic 06, yeah, we've been there, discussed them before. We've discussedDimps Dumps's take on the series. You can talk about the comics and TV shows, but outside of Mean Bean Machine, they don't really have that much of a huge impact on directing the flow of the games, especially if they were developed by SoJ. Not to say that SoJ was perfect either, because we all know that they weren't.
But just because the series has been in dire straits before should probably mean that... they've learned, right? They've been demonstrating that they've learned since Unleashed, so I'm not sure why concepts were being shelved for the past two years, and almost demonstrating that they haven't learned. It isn't about becoming stale. I hate to use Mario as a comparison, but here. Nintendo ends up doing a lot of different and neat things with Mario without changing Mario up too much and redefining his character (and that includes his gameplay). All of the Mario games, even spinoffs, still manage to feel like Mario games. Meanwhile Sonic Team and SoJ and SoA keep trying to redefine Sonic like a kid in American middle or high school constantly trying to reinvent himself to hang out with the cool kids only to realize that the cool kids have moved on to the next big thing, or some of them are just being themselves with a little charisma attached. It's that sort of insecurity that's a huge turn-off. Sonic Boom itself feels like it's missing the point whereas other games that venture into spinoff land like Mario and Crash and Final Fantasy retain some semblance of identity where I know that's still a game in the series even if it's a spinoff.
My fear is that if Sonic Boom does incredibly well (and if they market it appropriately alongside the toys, it more than likely will do well), then some of that might trickle into Sonic Team's games. We've discussed the likelihood of that occurring before, and we'd said that it wouldn't be surprising if that did happen. Sonic Boom is not what I want for Sonic. The last thing I want is Unwiished combined with a Sonic game that I have zero patience for.
I don't necessarily want boostboostboost speeeeed because that's what the Rush games were for. And the Rush games weren't perfect. I want momentum and speed by level design that sometimes facilitate that and some levels spaced out between slow and fast in order to make the player accommodate to that. And I felt like they were finally getting somewhere with Generations' level design, while Colours made you regulate how much you could go. They had a playstyle, they didn't nail it yet, but it worked. Now it was time to perfect it.
Sonic Lost World wasn't that. Sonic Lost World was Sonic's foray into an identity crisis when we kinda, after finagling around with Advance, Rush, and Unleashed kinda came up with an identity for Sonic. Sonic Lost World's level design was here and there, on and off, and went into gimmick levels that didn't facilitate Sonic as a character moving about very well. The 3DS version is a near-testament to that. Even with the Wii U version's patch, it didn't fix that Lost World needed to fix: its level design to facilitate Sonic well enough through boxy levels versus slopes. I don't come to Sonic for what Lost World represents. I never did. I went to Mario for Mario, Crash for Crash, Jak & Daxter for Jak & Daxter, Sonic for Sonic, This "me too"/weird hybridization guide is just weird to me as a concept. It works for RPGs because the gameplay isn't irrevocably linked to the characters of the game. Meanwhile in platformers, the characters themselves are the gameplay. They help facilitate it, hence "character/mascot platformer". That's what they are, and can be defined as a subgenre. Changing that up so much and so dramatically takes away from the character himself, which is what Pietepiet has been trying to say for a while and I'd agree with him on that front. Sonic's been stuck in identity crisis limbo for so long that when he finally actually has an identity carved out, it's shelved again to needlessly reinvent the wheel, even if it's a spinoff. A lot of the Sonic spinoffs haven't been very good, so you can't fault me for worrying about Sonic Boom just a little.
I am so so so tired of playing video games that don't know what the hell they want to be. Final Fantasy's been doing it for five games now. Watch Dogs is kinda doing it. Sonic Lost World did it, and it seems to be the case for the series here on out unless SoJ's Sonic Team decides to improve on the formula that made Sonic actually have an identity again. And that's why I have a problem with it. Sonic Boom will probably be an action-platformer that's just like Jak & Daxter, but it won't necessarily be a Sonic game in terms of feel.
Basically: man, this game ain't for me, but I'm afraid that if Sonic Boom does better than Sonic Team Sonic games, then it could have some effect on the series. At the same time, I dislike that Sonic's probably being pushed into yet another identity crisis with respect to character platforming.
(In all honesty, my longer posts take an hour+ to write because I don't sit for the whole time writing them. I kinda take breaks. My impressions usually take a few days to write if I'm not on a roll, but they're written in 1.5-2 hour chunks. I can't sit for that long.)
For what it's worth, if they sped the 3DS version up by a bit, I think it'd function neatly. It has interesting ideas, but I hope it isn't as linear as it looks (ie: I hope it has Sonic 3-esque path branch design). Hearing that it's a Metroidvania sounds ok. SoA usually listens to people, so maybe people could say "hey, 3DS version looks a little slow, but it looks more interesting than the Wii U version". Unless the 3DS version turns out being like another Sonic Rivals, I dunno. That's how the rival races looked anyway.
Wii U version, though... ehhhhhhhhh.
In all honesty, I was humbled on the weekend when I went to do my weights, and saw another woman lifting 180 lbs for 2x 15 reps. The machine, as I was setting up and as I saw how much weight she was lifting, basically communicated to me: gurl, do you even lift?
Shit, I felt like that when I did one of those crazy cardio/resistance classes where you do cardio for 3 mins/resistance for 2/rest for 1 for 45 minutes straight without stopping. It was like that one episode of Fresh Prince where Aunt Viv took that dance class and died at the end of her first class.
I think I said this before, but I was one of the folks who outright dropped the series for the most part starting with the Saturn games and not necessarily Adventure, and that's more of a case of nausea and disliking how the games were more designed around a story as opposed to platforming with finesse and speed.
I didn't like Sonic 3D Blast because the games made me nauseous and I didn't like the collectathoning to open up levels. Sonic Blast was, and still is, garbage, and some of us saw that when qq more streamed the game once. I didn't have a Saturn to myself back then because that shit was expensive and I was still getting hand-me-down consoles and handhelds at the time. So Sonic R made me dizzy but I loved the soundtrack. Sonic Adventure wasn't what I wanted out of Sonic, but it controlled much better than SA2.
But hey, if other people like them, that's fine. But I don't. There are a lot of people who don't, and there are a lot of people who do like them.
Just because the games are inconsistent in quality doesn't really justify me giving them a free pass. Every time this series has tried to experiment in a super-odd way, I get turned off from playing them at launch and having to play them much later on my own accord. Sometimes just giving up after a point and picking them up again years later. That happened to Heroes, especially. It makes me nauseous, I don't like the gameplay (not even Team Sonic's very much, and the other teams can die in a fire), and I hate the art direction in that game entirely. Sonic Heroes is a decent definition of a game that can actively waste a player's time.
Shadow, the Storybook games, Sonic 06, yeah, we've been there, discussed them before. We've discussed
But just because the series has been in dire straits before should probably mean that... they've learned, right? They've been demonstrating that they've learned since Unleashed, so I'm not sure why concepts were being shelved for the past two years, and almost demonstrating that they haven't learned. It isn't about becoming stale. I hate to use Mario as a comparison, but here. Nintendo ends up doing a lot of different and neat things with Mario without changing Mario up too much and redefining his character (and that includes his gameplay). All of the Mario games, even spinoffs, still manage to feel like Mario games. Meanwhile Sonic Team and SoJ and SoA keep trying to redefine Sonic like a kid in American middle or high school constantly trying to reinvent himself to hang out with the cool kids only to realize that the cool kids have moved on to the next big thing, or some of them are just being themselves with a little charisma attached. It's that sort of insecurity that's a huge turn-off. Sonic Boom itself feels like it's missing the point whereas other games that venture into spinoff land like Mario and Crash and Final Fantasy retain some semblance of identity where I know that's still a game in the series even if it's a spinoff.
My fear is that if Sonic Boom does incredibly well (and if they market it appropriately alongside the toys, it more than likely will do well), then some of that might trickle into Sonic Team's games. We've discussed the likelihood of that occurring before, and we'd said that it wouldn't be surprising if that did happen. Sonic Boom is not what I want for Sonic. The last thing I want is Unwiished combined with a Sonic game that I have zero patience for.
I don't necessarily want boostboostboost speeeeed because that's what the Rush games were for. And the Rush games weren't perfect. I want momentum and speed by level design that sometimes facilitate that and some levels spaced out between slow and fast in order to make the player accommodate to that. And I felt like they were finally getting somewhere with Generations' level design, while Colours made you regulate how much you could go. They had a playstyle, they didn't nail it yet, but it worked. Now it was time to perfect it.
Sonic Lost World wasn't that. Sonic Lost World was Sonic's foray into an identity crisis when we kinda, after finagling around with Advance, Rush, and Unleashed kinda came up with an identity for Sonic. Sonic Lost World's level design was here and there, on and off, and went into gimmick levels that didn't facilitate Sonic as a character moving about very well. The 3DS version is a near-testament to that. Even with the Wii U version's patch, it didn't fix that Lost World needed to fix: its level design to facilitate Sonic well enough through boxy levels versus slopes. I don't come to Sonic for what Lost World represents. I never did. I went to Mario for Mario, Crash for Crash, Jak & Daxter for Jak & Daxter, Sonic for Sonic, This "me too"/weird hybridization guide is just weird to me as a concept. It works for RPGs because the gameplay isn't irrevocably linked to the characters of the game. Meanwhile in platformers, the characters themselves are the gameplay. They help facilitate it, hence "character/mascot platformer". That's what they are, and can be defined as a subgenre. Changing that up so much and so dramatically takes away from the character himself, which is what Pietepiet has been trying to say for a while and I'd agree with him on that front. Sonic's been stuck in identity crisis limbo for so long that when he finally actually has an identity carved out, it's shelved again to needlessly reinvent the wheel, even if it's a spinoff. A lot of the Sonic spinoffs haven't been very good, so you can't fault me for worrying about Sonic Boom just a little.
I am so so so tired of playing video games that don't know what the hell they want to be. Final Fantasy's been doing it for five games now. Watch Dogs is kinda doing it. Sonic Lost World did it, and it seems to be the case for the series here on out unless SoJ's Sonic Team decides to improve on the formula that made Sonic actually have an identity again. And that's why I have a problem with it. Sonic Boom will probably be an action-platformer that's just like Jak & Daxter, but it won't necessarily be a Sonic game in terms of feel.
Basically: man, this game ain't for me, but I'm afraid that if Sonic Boom does better than Sonic Team Sonic games, then it could have some effect on the series. At the same time, I dislike that Sonic's probably being pushed into yet another identity crisis with respect to character platforming.
(In all honesty, my longer posts take an hour+ to write because I don't sit for the whole time writing them. I kinda take breaks. My impressions usually take a few days to write if I'm not on a roll, but they're written in 1.5-2 hour chunks. I can't sit for that long.)
For what it's worth, if they sped the 3DS version up by a bit, I think it'd function neatly. It has interesting ideas, but I hope it isn't as linear as it looks (ie: I hope it has Sonic 3-esque path branch design). Hearing that it's a Metroidvania sounds ok. SoA usually listens to people, so maybe people could say "hey, 3DS version looks a little slow, but it looks more interesting than the Wii U version". Unless the 3DS version turns out being like another Sonic Rivals, I dunno. That's how the rival races looked anyway.
Wii U version, though... ehhhhhhhhh.
Ya, and unlike him, I didn't skip leg day.
In all honesty, I was humbled on the weekend when I went to do my weights, and saw another woman lifting 180 lbs for 2x 15 reps. The machine, as I was setting up and as I saw how much weight she was lifting, basically communicated to me: gurl, do you even lift?
Shit, I felt like that when I did one of those crazy cardio/resistance classes where you do cardio for 3 mins/resistance for 2/rest for 1 for 45 minutes straight without stopping. It was like that one episode of Fresh Prince where Aunt Viv took that dance class and died at the end of her first class.
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
Because it's success might have some effect on how Sonic Team goes about making future Sonic games? I dunno.
Shadow Hog
Member
I was definitely meandering, yes. I think I started to realize it when I hit the Heroes paragraph, but wasn't sure if I should keep going and try to illustrate how much his identity's been sent every which way, or chuck it out and try for something more succinct. I don't think I've ever really been that good at writing essays.
I'm not entirely sure I'm calling it giving them a free pass, so much as resigning myself to "well, they clearly aren't going to make what I want anymore - I'm not even sure they can, given Sonic 4 - I might as well just go with the flow for now, hope it's okay". If the game ends up shit, make no mistake, I'll be giving them hell for it.
I suppose the brawling might be a bit of an issue, though; it'd be better if enemies took a hit or two each and you moved on. That'd speed up the pace significantly.
I'm not entirely sure I'm calling it giving them a free pass, so much as resigning myself to "well, they clearly aren't going to make what I want anymore - I'm not even sure they can, given Sonic 4 - I might as well just go with the flow for now, hope it's okay". If the game ends up shit, make no mistake, I'll be giving them hell for it.
I suppose the brawling might be a bit of an issue, though; it'd be better if enemies took a hit or two each and you moved on. That'd speed up the pace significantly.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yeah, it was giving me flashbacks to how stupid the fights in Unleashed can get because everything had larger HP bars than they should.
Especially the bees.
I'm moreso disappointed because Sega appeared to be learning, and can perfect a formula that had its faults because they had good ideas to fit into a paradigm, but eh... I'm disappointed with Sonic Team / Dimps over Lost World, and disappointed with SoA/BRB's handling of the IP. Blaze had a tumblr entry that he put up a bit ago detailing what he thought needed changes the most, and while one of them was "blue arms", some of the other things in there seemed alright.
fwiw, I'm not good at writing essays either. English wasn't my forte because outside of my 9th/10th English teachers, the other English teachers hated my style; and I'd never taken a post-secondary English course before. Science/social science/humanities are more along my lines of writing because the writing styles aren't as stupid-strict, and the citations are much easier to handle. I've written so many papers in those types of disciplines by now that I guess it's leaked into my posting style.