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

[sketch_zeppelin]

Ok sega, if your reading...the reason that i don't like 3-D sonic games is that controls have gotten worse and worse since Sonic Adventure. The story is batshit retarded. The voice acting is horrid. And for a game thats all about speed, why do i have to go through all this random bullshit to get to the next level? (like having to run around time and talk to boring people in order to unlock the next stage)

 

[lee1287]

HAHA. Oh i do love Sega. I personally dont think Sonic can go wrong, but im easy to please.

 

[maxben]

Oh, c'mon, even Sega should say that Sonic:Unleashed sucked. The next two do look promising, but I have to admit I'm still sceptical.

God, that's how they suck you back in. Everything they try "looks promising" but comes out broken.

To tell the truth, I absolutely LOVED Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for Gamecube and looking at Gamespot it seemed to get a 6.7 review and 8.4 for users which stands to show that critics and gamers sometime differ so we'll average that out to 7.5 which is a good score.
So it's not like 3D Sonic games HAVE to be bad, its just that they've been dropping in quality lately.
So yeah, I'm crossing my fingers too.

 

[The Bandit]

If this is true, why is it that I liked Sonic Adventure, but hated all the other 3D games? Why did Sonic Adventure 1&2 get positive reviews? Why the hell did you decide to abandon ship on the Adventure franchise when it was going pretty sweet, and decide to make that shitty Sonic Heroes game that made me play the same game four times?

Fuck you, Sega.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

Yea this title is pretty misleading. The article comes off as much ore reasonable. They are simply saying that people keep expecting the same old 2D and that's not what they are trying to produce. Several people seem to be reading the title and the first 2 sentences.

Side note I actually enjoy Sonic Unleashed. The night levels are no where near as bad as some make it out to be. Granted the day ones are the better stages, but it still gets a bad reputation.

 

[Teh Ty]

Oh, c'mon, even Sega should say that Sonic:Unleashed sucked. The next two do look promising, but I have to admit I'm still sceptical.

God, that's how they suck you back in. Everything they try "looks promising" but comes out broken.

To tell the truth, I absolutely LOVED Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for Gamecube and looking at Gamespot it seemed to get a 6.7 review and 8.4 for users which stands to show that critics and gamers sometime differ so we'll average that out to 7.5 which is a good score.
So it's not like 3D Sonic games HAVE to be bad, its just that they've been dropping in quality lately.
So yeah, I'm crossing my fingers too.

I have to admit though, I did like the first two sonic adventures, for both Dreamcast and Gamecube. Mainly for level design, and the fact that seeing that good 3D at the time where I was about 8. But, after that, they have all just kinda sucked.

 

[Lexodus]

If Sonic Colours is exactly as it says, i.e, the day stages from Unleashed, that might actually be the first good Sonic game since Heroes, which was okay, and Adventure 2 Battle before that.

 

[Zeroresistence]

No Sega, its not our fault because we expect them to be good its yours for not making them good

 

[Booze Zombie]

And yet Mario went to 3D just fine?
Fuck, their logic is amazing!

 

[ActionDan]

The ONLY 3D sonic game that was pretty good was Sonic Adventure 1. And it's not the gameplay that sucked, it's the stories. Truly horrible stories.

 

[Kanima423]

Someone mail Segac and remind them that denying the truth doesn't make it go away!

 

[Stormz]

I enjoyed a few 3D sonic games. I loved Sonic adventure and sonic adventure 2 battle and even enjoyed Sonic heroes a little, but really, the newer sonic games really aren't that good.

 

[interspark]

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

well that actually makes a lot of sense... THERES A COMIC?!?!

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Look, besides the fact he's dodging the obvious flaws, he isn't really saying we don't understand them. The title makes him look like he's being a total emo.

Topicwise, The Sonic games just need better controls, and less bugs. The last time I played a demo of a Sonic game, in three minutes, I had jumped off an edge 15 times because Sonic handles like an automobile with reins instead of a steering wheel, and a Filipino midget instead of an engine.

 

[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...

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.

So, in spite of admitting the quality, camera, and controls tend to be sub-par... you continue to spend money on these games. Why? I honestly don't get that. No system right now is so starved for good games that the recent quality of 3D Sonic games should suffice. What, exactly, has this series done right as of late that makes them worth coming back to, other than having 'difficult quality' which you view as a challenge to overcome, rather than as, well, failure on the part of the team that made the games?

 

[AdamRBi]

Sigh... alright, Sega? Meet me at camera 3.

Look, it's not that we don't understand the games and it's not that we prefer 2D over 3D. The problem is you're lowering your standards to meet a market you think is profitable instead of making a good game. You're to Nintendo what Dreamworks is to Pixar, if anyone doesn't understand what's going on it's you.

Sonic used to be a fantastic Platformer with a silent protagonist who didn't have to talk cool to be cool, he was just designed that way. It was fast paced, had stunning visuals, and interesting characters. Every Zone there was a new batch of unique robots to smash, new obstacles to overcome; each which would lead us to a different path through unique locations; and Music that was upbeat and matched the game, despite the limitations of the consoles sound card.

Compare that to what we have now, not in the sense that one is 2D and the other 3D, but the overall design of the titles. Let's face it, the Sonic you're making not is NOT a Platformer. It gave up that title when you sacrificed level design for speed and got worse when you decided to put Sonic on rails. The storylines of your games feel forced, or planned out for a target demographic. Knowing your audience is great... for the marketing team. Storytellers however shouldn't have to deal with this stuff. If you let your writers write unchained you can get some really high quality stuff, just hand it to the editor to fix anything that's confusing or not safe for the general public.

Finally SEGA, you've gotten lazy. With your new Rail-Runner gameplay I know baddies don't get a lot of screen time before they're brushed off easier then a mosquito on the highway but add some variety to your enemies. Fighting cookie cutter enemies isn't as fun as beating different baddies on every stage.

So it's not that we don't get your games SEGA, it's just you don't know how to make a good game. Take some time off, think it over, and spend at least 2 years or so on the next Sonic title. Meet me back here at camera 3 when you're done and we'll check your progress, trust me you'll come out better for it in the long run.

 

[AdamRBi]

Whoops, sorry for the Double Post.

 

[snave]

So yeah, most 3d Sonics sucked balls. Buuuuuuut... I actually really enjoyed Sonic and the Secret Rings on the Wii. No, seriously.

Yeah, the music was embarrasingly questionable, and the voice acting was atrocious (thankfully, you could replace the grating over-acted English with childish but less infuriating Japanese plus subtitles). And oh god, the menu system. Die. In. A. Fire. And the "story" (WHY?) was more of a mess than the first Mission:Impossible film. Sadly, these negatives were what the critics focussed on.

But apart from that it was a really good game. Getting all the bonuses was challenging but challenging in a way that was fun to play - you wanted to conquer that stage by improving your skill, not just for the sake of some crappy reward badge or achievement or whatnot. It had cheap shots, yeah, like the blind spot "killed by cactus" moment about an hour in that had a room full of SOBER people rolling on the floor laughing. But all these tropes were completely retro and keeping in theme with the original Sonic 2d games. Anyone who complained about these points yet defended the original games as still relevant today I feel is a hypocrite.

Most importantly, it had the speed from previous games -- plus some more once you got sufficiently into the game -- tight controls (backpedalling was weird but at least consistently so so you could learn it) and utterly fantastic graphics for the Wii, on par with Nintendo's 1st party titles, including rather unique art direction. No framerate probs whatsoever. Utilised the motion controls in an intuitive and constructive manner (sideways remote like a NES controller, tilt to sidestep, thrust forward to jump forward), whilst avoiding the mysterious uber-rapid battery drain that titles like Zelda suffered from. It was actually one of my favourite games for the Wii despite initially being an impulsive "I bet this'll be good for a laugh" purchase.

Even the multiplayer mode was incredibly enjoyable as it was basically Mario Party for griefers - the poor design and controls of half of the minigames was actually what made it great. In stark contrast, the other half tended to be superior to their Mario party equivalents. Go figure. Lots of fun if you're with the right group of mates who don't take shit seriously.

If you've got a Wii, and yearn for the oldschool style Sonics being faithfully reproduced in 3d, try to rent or borrow a copy of it. It (surprisingly!) may not disappoint.

 

[captain underpants]

I've never played a Sonic* game, and after a bullshit comment from Sega like that, I never will, nor any other Sega game. I call BOYCOTT! How dare they suggest that we can't pick a shitty game when we see one.


* Well I did try a few levels on Sonic Rush Adventure on DS, and found it kinda wanting, and I did buy that Sonic Racer one for PC for my kids, but had to return it because it was the laziest port I'd ever seen. I mean bad to the point of being non-functional. It couldn't even recognise, let alone configure the controllers.

 

[OceanRunner]

DONT TELL US WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT SEGA!