Sega: Sonic Games Don't Suck, You Just Don't Understand Them

[Altar]

So... to those that say 3D Sonic games suck and apparently don't have any fans... er... perhaps you should tell that to... well the 3D Sonic fans because I guess they didn't know that. Anyways, people whinging about stuff that they'll never like is nothing new, perhaps I should start going into threads about Half-life 2 and Portal and whine about how much they suck... Oh what's that?! I don't have to and can just ignore something I don't like damn, didn't know that... Anyways like I mentioned before, I would be willing to bet that the same people whining about Sonic changing would be the same people whining about Sonic not changing if the games stayed like the originals...

P.S What's with the title? It's odd...

 

[poiuppx]

Wow. I... wow.

Look... Sega. I like you. I picked the Genesis over the SNES. I admired your strides forward in realms such as cd-based gaming for home consoles. But... this is pathetic.

Sega, trust us. The money you waste on 3D Sonic games could go to much better properties. The current environment would be PERFECT for a new Shenmue, or Streets of Rage, or hell, even Vectorman. But no. You remain fixedly convinced that if you throw Sonic at the audience enough times, somehow it'll work out.

He's not Mario. I'm sorry, that ship has sailed. He can't survive THIS many low quality games. He's just not THAT beloved or iconic. Give him a rest for a while before you kill the franchise's value totally.

Cripes, and the Japanese game companies wonder why they're having trouble in the West with attitudes like this...

 

[Gincairn]

Most of the 3D sonic games suck, I say most because I actually enjoyed Sonic Adventure DX on the PC, but aside from that I don't think we've had a good sonic game since sonic 2, I wasn't impressed with 3 or & Knuckles and Sonic CD felt lacking as well.

I might get the new Sonic 4 thingy but I'll wait for some words from friends first i think

 

[BNguyen]

And knock it off with the humans other than Robotnik

just to be an annoying prick, im gonna point out that robotnic, like sonic, is from mobius so he isnt human

actually, according to the comics, Mobius is actually a future earth, so it's only natural that there would be humans, Sonic and the other furries are simply radically evolved animals

 

[BNguyen]

Wow. I... wow.

Look... Sega. I like you. I picked the Genesis over the SNES. I admired your strides forward in realms such as cd-based gaming for home consoles. But... this is pathetic.

Sega, trust us. The money you waste on 3D Sonic games could go to much better properties. The current environment would be PERFECT for a new Shenmue, or Streets of Rage, or hell, even Vectorman. But no. You remain fixedly convinced that if you throw Sonic at the audience enough times, somehow it'll work out.

He's not Mario. I'm sorry, that ship has sailed. He can't survive THIS many low quality games. He's just not THAT beloved or iconic. Give him a rest for a while before you kill the franchise's value totally.

Cripes, and the Japanese game companies wonder why they're having trouble in the West with attitudes like this...

It isn't wasted money if people continue to purchase the games
I know because I buy them. I buy them because even if they are difficult in terms of quality, camera or controls, I give them the chance they deserve and find that I like the challenge they represent.

 

[Becoming Insane]

I just think that Sonic '06 was to terrible that no one isfew people are willing to give them a second chance. I mean, the first Sonic game I played was SA2B, and that was a good game. I don't think it's a matter of lowering your expectations, it's that 3D Sonic games will inherently be different from 2D Sonic games, much like how 2D and 3D Mario games are different.

 

[Gindil]

Wow. I... wow.

Look... Sega. I like you. I picked the Genesis over the SNES. I admired your strides forward in realms such as cd-based gaming for home consoles. But... this is pathetic.

Sega, trust us. The money you waste on 3D Sonic games could go to much better properties. The current environment would be PERFECT for a new Shenmue, or Streets of Rage, or hell, even Vectorman. But no. You remain fixedly convinced that if you throw Sonic at the audience enough times, somehow it'll work out.

He's not Mario. I'm sorry, that ship has sailed. He can't survive THIS many low quality games. He's just not THAT beloved or iconic. Give him a rest for a while before you kill the franchise's value totally.

Cripes, and the Japanese game companies wonder why they're having trouble in the West with attitudes like this...

I think it's time that you and Sega see other people. Sega just isn't treating you right.

 

[MrBrightside919]

Nah, SEGA...I think your games just suck

 

[iamnotincompliance]

Oh, SEGA, the crazy bullshit you say sometimes.

Look, some franchises made the transition to 3D no problem: Mario, Zelda, etc. Other franchises... not so much: Mortal Kombat, Worms, etc, they tried 3D, they failed. Hard. Now, we know you had to try. If you didn't attempt 3D, the series would have been accused of stagnation and killed off long ago. You tried it. It hasn't worked. Take a fucking hint, would you? Mortal Kombat is back in 2D, fans seem ecstatic. Worms has a new 2D release coming soon, I've already pre-ordered. Mega Man 9 and 10 look to be full-on retro 8 bit awesome.

Maybe it's just me and the games I've been playing, but 3D platforming seems inherently slower than 2D platforming. A character like Sonic, based almost purely on speed, seems like a doomed concept from the get-go.

Tell you what, SEGA. If Sonic 4 is the raging success you've been looking for since 1994, GO WITH THAT! Drop the 3D platforming shenanigans you've been trying to force on us for 11 years, and go back to what works.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

Rocket knight( sparkster) is a 2D game side scroller platformer that has been recently revamped to that odd mix of 2D/3D. This games is pretty good because it sticks to it's roots.

When megaman went toward 2.5D versions of games... they were good. They used what was successful before and applied to a new medium. That dev team even went backwards to 2D and their fans loved them for it.

There is more than just these games that have progressed from the 2D stage. Many of those games were a success because they didn't stride too far from their roots. Sonic Team just went too far. Their games aren't even in Sonic's playing field anymore. Sonic levels were a combination of speed & platforming. the new games tended to separate the the combination while adding things that would slow down gameplay.

Bionic commando had the same problem. Their 2.5D game which was just a revamp of their older 2D game was the right path to go. Their 3D game added too many new stupid things without really going into a wide open 3D world. And an overly dramatic storyline.

 

[Decabo]

While there's no doubt that Sonic games have declined greatly in quality, I will say that I think reviewers were a bit overly-critical on Sonic Unleashed. The fact that Gamespot gave it the same score as Vampire Rain is just ridiculous. (3.5 out of 10) They also gave it a lower score than Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and Shadow the Hedgehog, which were both clearly lower quality. The werehog was a stupid idea, but the daytime stages were fantastic, especially Spagonia.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

*Sigh* I'm sorry, Sega. Maybe Suda51 could get away with a statement like that, maybe (except he wouldn't have to because people actually like his games), but you aren't nearly "artsy" enough to claim that we don't understand this grand vision of what makes the 3D Sonic games good. And no, releasing half-assed games like Madworld doesn't qualify you as being an artsy development studio, it just makes it look like you forgot to color everything.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Sega wouldn't be Sega without this:

They took two years to localize Yakuza 2, never made another Shenmue game after the second one, continue to pump out horrible Sonic games and rarely give their good IPs the attention they deserve (where is my next-gen Shinobi sequel?)

Hey, their next-gen Golden Axe was pretty bad...I'd love if Shinobi actually got a good sequel, but knowing that it probably won't, I'll let them slide for that one, lol.

Yeah, but the team that made the PS2 Shinobi did a great job. Too bad they didn't roll with that same team for the sequel and keep going. One of the biggest flaws of the original Shinobi was cosmetic: It looks like crap. It looked crap when it first came out (some fancy texture work helped hide this, but blocky N64 enemies and levels abound.) The sequel, Nightshade, was the same, minus the fancy texture work, with basically untextured walls and surfaces. So both games look REALLY crap today, compared with even other last-gen titles. Visually, Hotsuma and his cape are about the only thing that's held up well.

Shame, because the controls are spot-on, soundtrack rocks and the gameplay is awesome. All Shinobi really needs is a few camera tweaks and a graphical upgrade. It's running on PS2 hardware, so it probably wouldn't be too hard to update, fix and port the title to the PS3.

 

[mjc0961]

If I can pick out the ones I feel are the worst of the bunch...

Sonic Adventure: Not the whole game... Just Amy, who was a slower version of Sonic and completely unnecessary as a playable character, and Big. Holy fucking shit Big. Thankfully you haven't done that again, but it still needs to be pointed out as one of the worst things you've ever done. The rest of this was actually working, too bad you pretty much forgot everything good you did here.

Shadow, if you count it (close enough to the regular Sonic gameplay so I do), was just laughably bad. The guns, the vehicles, the damn overuse of the damn word damn... Just plain bad all around.

Sonic 2006 was a buggy mess and had load times out the ass along with a stupid storyline.

Sonic Unleashed actually did manage to keep in time with SEGA's new vision of what the 2D games are, which is going way too fucking fast and needing clairvoyance to know what's up ahead so you don't fall into one of the numerous death pits. It was bad level design in Sonic Advance 2. It was bad level design in Sonic Rush. It's still bad level design in 3D. And, of course, we have the stupid hack'n'slash style gameplay [NOTE: stupid for a Sonic game, not stupid as a genre] afforded to us by the "werehog" stages. And of course we took the stupid and overly complicated "overworld" thing from Sonic Advance 3 (and maybe 2006, I mostly just remember loading) and tacked that on too.

But, you know what? You're right SEGA. I just don't understand the games, my expectations are too high. Maybe if I eat a few bags of lead paint chips and beat myself about the head with a hammer for a few hours, I'll be of the right mindset to enjoy both your awful new interpretations of 2D and 3D Sonic. Pwetty colors zoom zoom yaaaaaaaay!

Oh, one more thing SEGA. The man's name is "Dr. Ivo Robotnik", not Eggman. Put it back already.

EDIT: I lied, I thought of another thing that irks me. Lay off the grind rails already. A few here and there are fine but you always shove way too many down our throats during the final stages.

 

[Choppaduel]

wait... there are 3D sonic fans? wut?

 

[mjc0961]

Well, I noticed that the sonic games started getting bad once they renamed "Dr. Robotnik" to "Eggman." So maybe Sega should go ahead and rectify that first. =D

To be argumentative "Eggman" was his original name. For some reason when the series was brought over to America they saw fit to change the name to "Robotnik". It wasn't until, what SA2 that they found a way to fix that discrepancy.

Eh, even so, he was Robotnik over here and the change feels pretty stupid to most of us now. It'd be like if Capcom all of a sudden decided to change Mega Man's name to Rock Man so it matches the Japanese name. Fuck that, Mega Man is Mega Man over here, and "Eggman" is Robotnik.

 

[Super Jamz]

I'll be honest here, if my expecatations are changed due to game reviews, and then i actually play said game and it's as rubbish as they claimed, then it's not entirely my fault i'm not looking forward to the next game is it?

 

[Glamorgan]

"Those fans are not positive towards the recent 3D Sonic games because we've been releasing only 3D Sonic games in the past couple of years. It's hard to please both 2D and 3D fans at the same time, in the same title for instance."
So wait... There are fans of the 3D levels? I mean... Really?
I mean, sure, there must be one of two, but I just assumed that they had escaped from their padded cells. Okay, maybe I'm being harsh, but I don't know anyone who thought they were even remotely average.
And Sega, don't blame things on your fanbase's incompetence. That's just low.