Can Sonic be saved?

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fletch_talon

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Nov 6, 2008
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Personally not fond of the standard race to the finish style of the original Sonics.
However I've always been in love with the concept of Sonic, speed instead of brute strength being the name of the game.

Sonic and the Black Knight excited me in concept, but from what I hear it failed. I would like to see a Sonic game with more freedom and emphasis on fast combat. I'm imagining a linear but not limited (kinda like the werehog levels) level design where you fight off enemies as they appear with high speed kicks and jumps and the like. I spose In some ways I want an experience like playing Sonic in Smash Bros, except even faster (perhaps your speed could be raised as you progress in the game/collect chaos emeralds).

Boss battles could be similar to the original Sonic games, but I'd also like to see some similarities to certain Mario Galaxy Bosses where you battle on the boss itself, after all Eggman/Robotnik is generally known for his giant robots isn't he?

And if they could get this gameplay right, then they should have the traditional level styling as well, 2 1/2D because everytime discussion like this comes up everyone is begging for the 2D Sonic over the 3D. I say keep the graphics but make the levels straight forward. When you're moving that fast and you have to make snap decisions, adding a 3rd dimension is over complicating it a bit.

Either way, whatever they do with sonic needs to be complete. No matter what the game, all it takes to ruin it is neglecting one aspect of gameplay, making it feel tacked on and generally crappy.
 

WolfmanNougat

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May 14, 2009
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I think anything can potentially be saved, but given Sonic's situation, it doesn't look likely. The next two games he's in are a car racing game (the redundancy is obvious) and another trip to the Olympics with Mario (who is also standing precariously at the edge of a cliff). I'll admit I didn't think Unleashed was as bad as some people make it out to be, and could indeed be worth a few minutes of fun once gotten used to, but it certainly wasn't a lifesaver.
If anything, we need less of Sonic for the time being. This influx of crap is just getting ridiculous.
 

Mullahgrrl

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Apr 20, 2008
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I would say go with the satam.

(margarine, anyone?)

Hey, I googled it, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnsn0_w6K9Q&feature=related
 

Vrex360

Badass Alien
Mar 2, 2009
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......Okay I'll be a little less grim. I think the way things are going now Sonic has such a bad reputation that even if he DID suddenly return to form no one would care anymore. That said I respect people who believe that he can but truthfully I first entered the gaming world while Sonic the Hedgehog was going downhill and therefore never witnessed his glory days.
For me I think he really is done, I mean so is Mario, there hasn't been a cute cuddly game for a while now I think Sonic and Mario are legacies of a bygone age and really we need to push forward as an industry. I think we need to let Sonic die and only remember the good times, he would have wanted it that way.

P.S My apoligies to anyone who found the image offensive.
 

Beefcakes

Pants Lord of Vodka
Aug 11, 2008
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MaxTheReaper said:
There's nothing we can do.
Its his heart, he's got the will to survive, but, he just wouldn't be the same person
I'm sorry Nintendo...
We did everything we could...

Please sign here to waver all responsibility of the hospital
Time of Death: When ever they stopped being 2-D...
 

Sixties Spidey

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Jan 24, 2008
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BrotherhoodOfSteel said:
(Gah, sorry for the length...)

Personnaly, despite Sega destroying this childhood logo, I believe that there is enough material to give him one last gambit, the gaming market. Here are two plans of options Sega has to help their troubled franchise:

Version 1(Not likely, but simple): The shorter version is to make a call back to the 16-bit games with a "Sonic The Hedgehog 4." It would be completely 2-D, without any 3-D buggery and will be what Sonic always has been. Speed, speed, speed. May sound stupid, but look at MegaMan 9!

Version 2(Even Less Likely, harder, but sounds better than what Sega is doing, on paper...): Seeing that Sega hasn't had a good game since 1999 that was 3-D, they should get those designers back and fire everyone else. As for the story, pick it up from the, (not going to believe this) Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic. Sounds utterly stupid on paper, but I'm not going to lie when I say that the Sonic comic has very good writers. They're no Frank Miller, but they did a very good job. All of the characters have a personality, Robotnik isn't relied on to be the antagonist all the time, and they've added plenty of characters of their own, including a reborn United Nations Faction populated entirley with humans, A mercenary faction, A warring echidna faction, fighting a never ending religous war, and the list goes on, all set in a version of Earth destroyed by an alien attack 10,000 years before the story.

To turn this into a game I'd honestly go to the RPG route, turn-based, no random encounters. In game battle would be like V.A.T.S targeting system where you decide which point you want to attack and can attack as many times as you can. But then again this idea probably won't work, and the next Sonic game, will end up being bad. These ideas could feasably work, just a lot of effort would go into it, but isn't that what makes games great? Effort? They're probably not going to ask me to help design a game anytime soon, but after a decade they could at least remember to make something good again.

That's my two cents though. Fellow Escapists? What's yours?

One last note: I know any idea to save Sonic will probably never be done but, Sigh... just the nostalgia factor is too strong for me to say he's 100% finished. mabye in a year or two...
As long as Sonic Team exists, yeah, Sonic is pretty much nailed shut in a coffin.

To be fair though, Sonic the black knight was starlingly good. It's not the best, but I'd go as far as saying there's hope in him.

They're slowly but surely getting there.
 

ChromeAlchemist

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Aug 21, 2008
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BrotherhoodOfSteel said:
GameOverthinker seems to think so. Here is a thread concerning his video on the matter here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.115047#2115940
 

Ashbax

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Jan 7, 2009
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To anwser the title question:

In short, No.

In long: NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Thank you for your time.

Seriously though: Most people stopped caring around the first 3D sonic game in 1999.
 

ChromeAlchemist

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Aug 21, 2008
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Mullahgrrl said:
I would say go with the satam.

(margarine, anyone?)

Hey, I googled it, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnsn0_w6K9Q&feature=related
How did that game not see the light of day? It looks great (minus the ring throwing).
 

Parsley

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Aug 21, 2008
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Sonic can be saved if it goes back to 2D, kills off alot of the other characters and no one actually talks, basically like the old ones but in HD. Probably would make more money on xbox live and psn if it were like that than if it was on a disc.
 

AndyVale

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Mar 18, 2009
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Tag Team!

Mario for the 3D, Sonic for the 2D. I know it's sort of been done before (with just Mario.) But in my eyes this is how the two of them play best. Instead of having them playing silly mini-games against each other, why not try make a proper game utilising their best bits?
 

imburke

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May 28, 2009
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sonic isn't as easily reinvented as mario is, amazingly they can give mario a little depth, whether constantly working towards getting under peach's dress or fighting a stupid ape in a stupid tie, or even a giant turtle creature, theres more levels and theyve been doing it since the begining of the franchise. with sonic hes too one dimensional. theyve been more focused on adding friends to sonics life than enemies, and too focused on changeing the one enemies name, eggmean, dr. robotnik, etc.. and sonics only power is really to run fast ( that why the flash from dc has a limited appel to most as well). so in attempting to add enemies and change gameplay, theyve turned their backs on what sonic was, straightforward. he should stick to the ds and psp because he can return to his roots, or sega needs to cut all the other characters, even tails, and restart the franchise, with just sonic and robotnik.
 

VoltySquirrel

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Feb 5, 2009
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ChromeAlchemist said:
BrotherhoodOfSteel said:
GameOverthinker seems to think so. Here is a thread concerning his video on the matter here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.115047#2115940
Yea I was about to say that his suggestion was alot like Moviebob/GameOverthinker's.
 

TiteAce

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Jan 14, 2009
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Sonic has BEEN dead, they just dress his lifeless body in idiotic costumes and parade the corpse around. The Dreamcast was Sonics last great stand.
 

Slash Dementia

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Apr 6, 2009
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Sonic wasn't ready (or made) for 3D.
When they made that change from 2D to 3D, it was like taking away a paralytic's wheel chair and making him climb a mountain.
I agree with you on the RPG part, hopefully they can cure Sonic, but still he's unappealing to most people these days and even a "good" Sonic game will fail to sell good.

Mullahgrrl said:
I would say go with the satam.

(margarine, anyone?)

Hey, I googled it, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnsn0_w6K9Q&feature=related
I overlooked this post. I think they should make Sonic games like this for handhelds, Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network.